Ragnar turned into his Shifted form as his human body morphed into a Black Panther. The crystals seem to lose their lustre in his presence as the cave dimmed ever so slightly.

He moved deeper into the Nest. The wound had already stopped bleeding and was beginning to heal. It should be back to normal within 10 mins. The recovery ability of his Shifted form was really nothing to scoff at.

He found several more groups as he ventured down. All of them were heading out, not even one of them going back towards the Dome. This was good news for Ragnar, since it meant that it hadn’t been long since the Queen started sending out this wave.

Ragnar dealt with these groups with little difficulty this time. He used his Shifted form to deal with the Drones, with them being none the wiser. Then he finished off the rest after turning back into Human.

He did not spend even one second more than necessary in his Shifted form since it still irked him. He was left with a bad taste in his mouth every time he thought about doing something that the Realm expected off him.

Well, the Realm definitely would not have expected him to clear out the Nest completely so he was fine in this matter.

This strategy from the Queen was also destined to not give any results. Ragnar will make sure that it didn’t.

After reaching the lowest section of the Nest, he started his patrol, roaming around the Dome in the routes that he had created. They connected all the caves that served as an entrance into the Dome, completely cutting off all efforts from the army.

He stayed there for the whole day, roaming and killing everything he met. At the same time, decimating the Nest, burying each of her minion within its walls. He would have really liked to see the Queen’s expression throughout the day as not even a Single group returned.

But he couldn’t risk it.

He had dealt with more than 10 groups today, killing more than 200 Quaraxis. He made sure that not even one Quaraxi made it back to the Dome.

Now it was time to head back. He was tired and exhausted from all the battles. His Essence running low. He hoped the Queen would take some time to send out the next wave.

But he was not lucky this time. He sensed another group leaving the Dome.

The Strongest one he had faced yet. Ragnar was exhausted to the bone right now. However, no way in hell he would just let them pass.

Wait, was the Queen counting on that.

Because this group consisted of 5 Drones and 10 Soldiers. They clearly weren’t out to collect resources. They were out to kill.

The smirk had still not left his face. Sure, he was exhausted. Sure, he ran low on essence. But that was the case for his Human form.

His body started morphing as a Black Panther replaced the human figure. In this form, that much Essence should be enough to deal with 10 such groups.

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The beast’s face still had a wide grin that now showed its dagger-like Ivory teeth. A low growl escaped from between the teeth as Ragnar dashed towards the new targets.

They were very close to the spot he was at, that was why he could sense them through his Echolocation.

Getting near them, he turned invisible, it should last for another minute at most. And that time will decrease the more he uses his Ethereal Form.

Ragnar had yet not used this form to brawl with any target, he had only used the ability to directly damage the core.

Guess there was a first for everything.

With this thought, Ragnar lunged at the leading Drone, coming out from the other side. He had performed this so skilfully that the moment when his body lost the invisibility and he reactivated it happened inside the Drone. So, he should have another 1 second to deal with another creature before they notice something off. Ragnar was ready to capitalize on it as his body shot towards another Drone without losing any momentum.

He couldn’t turn Ethereal again so soon. Hence, he had to switch to more physical methods. He used his claw to swipe at the creature’s thorax. Separating the head from its body in one strike.

Two messages were heard in his head that repeated the same thing but he was already on the move.

The Quaraxis had finally noticed the disturbance and were getting ready to use their abilities but a 2nd head fell before they had even moved.

Ragnar heard another message in his head which again repeated the same thing.

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

Before the group had even noticed his presence, 3 of their drones were already down.

However, Ragnar wasn’t done yet. He was still invisible. The Drones and Soldiers were hopelessly using their abilities, trying to guess at their enemy’s location.

But it had already been 3 seconds. So, Ragnar leaped again at the Drone that had erected an Earth shield in front of it. Ragnar’s body passed through the shield and then through the Drone, appearing beside the final Drone of the group.

The group was still using their offences near the 3 Drones that he had killed before but he currently stood in their middle.

He looked at the last Drone, completely oblivious to his presence, shooting an Earth Lance continuously towards the 3 dead Drones. But he was never going to hit him.

He swiped at its thorax, also separating its head from the body.

The 5 Drones were dead. Before they had any chance to resist, 5 Arcane Menaces had died at his hands in a span of 5 seconds. The horror that his Shifted body was, caused even Ragnar to flinch when he took things into perspective.

He was still a Mutant, by the way.

The remaining enemies were not really a threat. However, he still didn’t turn into his Human form because he was really exhausted. And messing up in this situation would not be ideal.

He still had around 30 seconds left of his invisibility. He took care of the 10 soldiers without any trouble. They were mindlessly aiming for an invisible target. He ripped apart a few with his claws and tore others into half with his tail. He did not use his mouth to attack even though that should be the sharpest weapon in his body since that seemed beneath him.

After dealing with the last Soldier, Ragnar’s body leaned against the wall, taking in tired breaths.

Yeah, when he said that he could deal with 10 such groups, he actually meant 1 group with 10 members. So, he had already done more than that since he just killed 15 of them.

Ragnar could finally go rest.

He was sure that the Queen will not be sending anymore for some time. He had used his Wave Surge ability in almost every battle until now to cause the highest amount of destruction possible and also to let the Queen be aware of the fact that he was decimating her army.

So now that he had used such a silent method to deal with this group, he was sure the Queen would think that they would have made past him or maybe he had already gone to rest.

So, she will be waiting for them to return with some news before she sends more. That should allow Ragnar a moment of reprieve so he could finally get some sleep in.

He left this cave and made his way to his hideout. Once there, he morphed into human and dropped on the hard exoskeleton bed like a dead man. The scent of rotten corpses lulled him to sleep.

***