Chapter 15: “The Site of the Former Queen’s Future Queendom”
The chamber they arrived at was about as big as all the previous ones, but the ceiling was much higher. And all the way in the back, there was a single ant, but far larger than any they had seen thus far. It had wings too. That must be the queen. Since she had wings, she must have only begun building this nest rather recently. Either that or it was just a feature of that type of ant.
“GICHIGICHIGICHI…”
She was trying to say something… or so Rare thought, but unfortunately she had no idea what it might want to say. Either way, she wouldn’t give her opponent the initiative to attack. Since there was only a single enemy, she would start things off with [Stupefy].
“[Stupefy]! …Ohh, it worked. I thought she’d be immune since she’s a boss. All right then, [Charm]! …Arg, so she can resist that!”
Given Rare’s build, she wanted to lead off with [Stupefy] for the debuff followed by [Charm], which would have its success rate increased by Stupefy. That didn’t work, so maybe the queen had some kind of special resistance. Or because they were the same sex, the charm wasn’t as effective. And because the queen resisted [Charm], she also recovered from the Stupefy debuff. [Mental Magic] was inextricably linked to its debuffs; if even a single spell was resisted, the chain would break and the target’s mental state would return to normal. That was how this style of magic worked.
“Marion! Use [Freeze]! Everyone else, keep it in check from a distance! I need you to buy me a little time until my [Stupefy] cools down!”
“Roger! [Freeze]!”
Having come back from being Stupefied, the queen tried to charge at Rare. Aiming at her initial movements, Remy and Riley let loose arrows that hit the queen’s front legs, causing her to fall to the ground. The Freeze spell had an immediate effect, so even though she quickly tried to stand back up, her movements were sluggish—and she was immediately struck in the head by the sword that Kerry had thrown. The sword bounced off harmlessly with a metallic clang, but it did seem to stun the queen.
In that time, Marion’s Freeze had lowered the temperature even more, causing the queen’s movements to slow even more. While she continued trying to get back up, Riley and Remi both threw their own melee weapons, trying to keep her down. Kerry then picked up someone’s thrown weapon and once again aimed at the queen’s head, this time attacking her directly. By that time, the queen’s body temperature had dropped low enough that she could barely throw a proper attack, but it was still one that Kerry couldn’t avoid.