Chapter 35: Farmer’s Intuition
Tulland’s leg slipped forward as silently as he could, landing just inside the queen’s throne room with no more noise than a mouse. It might have mattered had the queen really been unaware of his presence. She was not. She knew he was there, something that became incredibly apparent as she turned her massive body on a dime towards him and started moving forward, mandibles clacking.
Both of Tulland’s hands flashed as he threw flowers out at the queen. His agility stat might not have been linked up to any combat skills, but it also wasn’t anything to scoff at anymore. He had just spent an entire week practicing throwing things too, something that really helped as he now chucked two mud-weighted flowers at the queen’s antennae stalks. They both pounded their targets with precision, putting a cloud of yellow dust directly into the tools the queen needed to see him.
That may have blinded her, but it definitely did not disable the tough old girl. She was a fast and angry animal, one with massive grasping jaws moving through the room methodically trying to get their target by either luck or brute force searching. Tulland gulped down the bile rising in his throat as he heard ants coming down the tunnels behind him and surged forward, chucking flowers as fast as he could get them into action.
His plan was to go under the queen, something that was possible given how wildly she was swinging her head. But it was a close thing. There were opportunities that disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. He moved into the range he would need to slide under her before his body told him there was no way that was happening. The sheer fear of that maneuver was enough for his legs just to deliver a strong, flat-out no and refuse to take another step.
He pulled back. His spirit might have been willing, but his flesh was weak. He wasn’t going to get past the ant without a better plan. Unfortunately, he had none. He was just going to have to try a Hail Mary. He dodged a few more swings from the jaws of the ant, then rushed it again. This time, though, he flung one of his arms forwards at the same time he told the briar on that arm it was okay to strike. It sailed through the air, landing where the ant's shoulder blades would be if it had them.
Of course, there was no chance the briars would actually hurt the behemoth. But they did distract her. Now that something was crawling all over her back, she had a target. Her head immediately arced up and back in a vain attempt to reach the vine, which gave just enough guaranteed room for a moment that Tulland was finally able to convince himself to move forward.
The head came down as he was moving through, but not quite fast enough. It hit him, sending him tumbling hard across the dirt and into one of the ant’s legs, but failed to crush him or cut him like it should have. The hit was shallow enough that despite the overall banged-up-and-bruised damage it caused, he could still function.
Tulland sprung to his feet, steadied himself, and stabbed down at the lowest joint of one of the legs. It hit and sunk in, causing a reflexive attack from the queen in revenge. He was already gone, stabbing into a foot on the other side of the body, moving, and stabbing another.
He’d never kill the ant, but he also wouldn’t get away if it got so much as an inkling of where he was while still able to move around at full speed. But if there was one thing he knew, it was that this ant was specialized specifically for being a ruler, for being big enough, strong enough, and wreathed enough in glory as ants went, that its rule wouldn’t ever be questioned.