Ragnar sat on his throne, munching on some Drone meat, much more supple and delicious as compared to the Workers.

He couldn’t find anything to burn in this cave so he was forced to continue raw.

He had of course considered leaving the network to look for better food or just something to burn. But even after searching for around 2 hours, he couldn’t find a way out. He had tried using echolocation and even his senses from his Shifted form. Even though the scents told him which way would lead him out, they could not tell how far that will be.

Wasting too much time on this would allow the Queen to stock up on more resources for the Colony. Hence, he decided to turn back around after travelling for that long.

He could also try to travel out directly in his Ethereal form but it had its own challenges. There was no way to tell whether he would be able to reach an open surface within the 5 seconds that his form gave him. And getting buried under Earth was not something he wanted to experience again.

Hence, he gave up on leaving the Network for now.

He could not let conditions improve for the Queen, even slightly.

He had completely shut down all attempts from her to gather resources for the Nest. After dealing with the first group of a Drone and 3 Soldiers, he went on to deal with more than 30 of such groups. Once he could not locate any more groups while roaming or with his Echolocation, he started patrolling around the Dome. He circled the caves leading to the Dome all day long and didn’t allow even a single group to get back.

Ragnar had made a path for himself using his Shockwaves with which he could travel through the caves near the Dome. Even though he did all that, he made sure not to get too close, because he was not sure how far the Queen’s abilities could reach.

He guessed the Queen will change her tactics today.

Ragnar was back for a quick nap. He had slept for a few hours which was already something that left him dissatisfied. He wanted to be out there slaughtering every single Quaraxi that came out of the Dome, but these few hours would have allowed the Queen some leeway.

He couldn’t help it because even though he had abundance of Essence, his body still got tired and needed to rest. He needed to be in his peak form at all times.

Ragnar could only hope that the new wave was sent as late as possible, so they would not have gotten back yet. Now he was ready for another round of Annihilation.

***

He finished his meal and moved out, heading straight down towards the deepest regions of the Nest. But before he could reach anywhere near the Dome, he found his first targets for the day with his echolocation.

There were 16 of them. Led by 2 Drones, were 4 soldiers and 10 workers. Did she really think this much would be enough?

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Ragnar took his position as he hid behind a turn with his Mandible in hand. He will have to deal with the Drones first, as always. He was sure of finishing one of them in one strike, but the second one could threaten him if he had a strong ability.

Well, it didn’t seem like he was about to die here, but he could get injured if he didn’t think this through.

In the end, he decided to just go for it. He had to take such challenges if he was to improve.

When the group reached near the turn, Ragnar shot forward with practiced movement. His legs released shockwaves and soundwaves at once with full throttle shooting him forward at maximum speed.

His Mandible phased through a Drone from its head to stinger, slicing the Ant in perfect symmetry, followed by the voice in his head.

“You have disposed of a Shifted Menace of the Arcane Rank, Quaraxi Drone.”

He came to a stop at quite a distance from the group since he lacked any solid breaking mechanism. He was preparing to shoot off again towards the remaining Drone but that didn’t seem plausible in the current situation.

The Soldiers and the Workers formed a barrier in front of the remaining Drone, blocking Ragnar from directly dealing with him.

Before Ragnar could think of his next actions, he was assaulted by a hail of bullets that made him dodge with a boost from his waves.

He looked at the bullets that had lodged themselves into the ground, they were small spikes of Earth. This must be the Drone’s ability. He turned his head to look at the Drone, he looked haughty, standing behind a shield of his subordinates.

Ragnar didn’t like the look in its eyes. But another hail of bullets followed up before Ragnar could do something about it, also accompanied by Earth lances and arrows, the abilities of the Soldiers, if Ragnar had to guess.

He could not dodge all of them so he used another tactic. Raising his hand, he fired a blast of waves through air at the upcoming attacks. The blast completely ruptured all the Earth mid-air, preventing any of it from reaching him. It also went a step further to disrupt the senses of the weaker Quaraxis.

Ragnar finally moved from his spot; he had let this act go on for long enough. He zoomed forward with a deafening boom, dodging most of the incoming attacks and deflecting the rest using a blast of waves. But he couldn’t dodge them all.

A few bullets managed to get past the waves, embedding themselves into his skin. But they did nothing to slow him down.

Reaching the group, he slammed the head of a Worker into the abdomen of the nearest Soldier, blasting them both with a surge of waves. The voice came along but it was ignored.

The other Workers and Soldiers standing nearby tried to attack him but suddenly they came to a stop. Because their target had disappeared. He had turned invisible. Ragnar appeared behind the Drone, who became alert as soon as he appeared and tried to turn his head.

But it was too late. A mandible that looked similar to its own, passed through its bluish-black exoskeleton. Its lower abdomen separated from the rest of its body. It fell on the ground with a thud, not dead yet. Ragnar kept his hand on the head of the Drone, and shot a blast, creating a whole in the floor of the cave. The rest of the body soon followed into that hole. Then a voice was heard in his head.

“You have disposed of a Shifted Menace of the Arcane Rank, Quaraxi Drone.”

Ragnar turned to face the scrambling group. The rest of them were a piece of cake. He dealt with them in less than a minute, without taking any more damage. The last one was also sent into a hole in the wall created from his waves as another kill was announced in his head.

“You have Disposed of a Shifted Rogue of the Arcane Rank, Quaraxi Soldier.”

Ragnar evaluated the damage he suffered and it was not good. His shoulder was pierced by two of them Earth bullets.

He didn’t show any hint of pain as he pulled them out, rather a dastardly grin seemed to be ever present on his face. As if each kill brought him closer and closer to his target, the Queen.

He will have to do something about this damage though. Even though it was not severe, he will be dealing with dozens of similar groups today in the very least.

So, he couldn’t allow himself to get damaged so easily