"That's the queen." I pointed at the one in the middle. As if understanding everything happening here, the snarly look on its face contorted into a twisted, ugly smirk. The sail vibrated once more and the left flank started to move in a straight line.

"Beehive."

"Beehive?" Michael raised a brow, his Arcanum flaring as he coated his body.

"I want to test something." I replied, and without waiting for him to talk, I extended my hand to the side.

'Thunderbolt.' I chanted internally.

Lighting crackled between my fingertips. The lightning branched and an azure light started to fill the entire platform, before spilling like water over the edge.

It started to take shape in my grasp taking a much more symmetrical, multi-pronged, zigzagging shape.

The centre shaft remained in my grip while it extended to both sides with jagged, branching extensions resembling the forks of a lightning bolt.

As soon as it was completed, I heard nothing else other than the crackle of the 'Thunderbolt,' roaring to be released.

Pivoting my body in the right direction, I imbued more Arcanum into my arms before launching it like a missile.

The Thunderbolt zipped through the air and before I could even blink, it was a few centimetres away from the Queen's head.

However, just as it could make an impact, shields stacked on one another.

It was as I had guessed.

There is no queen without her royal guards.

As the thunderbolt pierced through shields, flesh and hardened steel-like bones alike, renting it apart and spilling the royal guard's guts in every direction, several more of them had already started to gather in every direction of the queen, forming literal meat shields.

As 'The Thunderbolt's' rage finally quelled, around 5 of them were already dead.

Ignoring the incoming wave of normal soldiers from the side, I looked back at the Queen who had a snarling expression once again before she was hidden behind the ring of her royal guards.

"They work in a Beehive. The others don't have intelligence." I started to explain. It all made sense now. "If we can take out the queen, I am pretty sure the others will stop functioning altogether."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Like that Chinese movie?"

I turned around to look at Michael. "I haven't watched what you are referring to, but if that helps you with it, yes. Exactly like that one Chinese movie." I paused as he nodded. "We just need to get rid of those guards."

"Alright." Michael stretched his arms. "Leave that to me."

"No." I stopped him. "You stay here with Astrid."

"HAH?! I don't wanna babysit this rat."

"No, it's not about babysitting." I took a deep breath. "We haven't seen a single soldier from the Keep. It's obvious they led these Wujins here."

"Aaaaannnddd?????"

Do I really have to spoon feed this guy everything? How did he even become an heir? "Can't tell exactly, but I am sure they will attack once we are weakened. Or maybe all of this is a distraction and they have some other agenda."

"Well, fuck! We are proper fucked, aren't we?"

"Not exactly." The words felt out of place. "Only somewhat."

As the left flank reached our left side, a couple hundred feet away from the ravine, they started to pile up on each other and began climbing the mountain using each other as footholds.

"Now that's some zombie apocalypse level shit." Michael snorted.

There was quite some time before they reached the ravine.

Pointing my index finger downward, a metallic bar flew from beyond the saffron hued clouds which appeared as a black blur against the rising silhouette of the sun.

The Wujin queen was a really smart creature. And the biggest strength of her was the viciousness and quantity of her puppets. It was like using magnetic fields as strings. She was a marionette. All I had to do was find the right frequency to start interrupting orders from her.

I had done it once in Seoul while I was experimenting on it. But it was already faint due to its existence in different dimensions. It was stronger as of now, but given enough time, I could decipher it.

I am confident about it.

As the lightning rod lodged itself in front of the queen, her royal guards gathered in front of her.

These twenty or so guards were about the size of an elephant and had the appearance akin to a gorilla, with eyes located on their faces.

They as well possessed the receiver retractable frills on their shoulders and had small, flat-faced heads.

They lacked any tails and their physiology was mostly similar to monkeys.

From one look, I could tell their main weapon was the unfolding heavy armoured frills that served the purpose of shields for their queen.

"Fuu…" I let out a long breath.

As if realising what I was about to do, Michael took a step back.

"Take a few steps back as well." He prompted Astrid, but their voices faded as I focused on my spell.

Dark clouds started to swirl overhead in a cyclone like shape and azure lightning coursed through it. The rising lens shaped sun began to get muddled by the black clouds as the entire place crackled with a thundering boom.

"Open."

I muttered under my breath as a huge column of lightning fell directly on the lightning rod I had lodged right in front of the middle and right flank.

As lightning coursed through the battlefield, I lowered my stance and extended my hand to the side as a sword flew into my grip.

I had only started the first step of this but I could already feel my body scream in protest. Like pulling itself apart.

I grit my teeth and the adrenaline soaked up any lingering pain in my body.

My vision stretched infinitely as I chanted with a harried* gasp.

[Phase 2: Slipstream]

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*harried 1 of 2 (adjective)

Definition of harried: "as in frustrated," bothered by many problems or worries; very worried or anxious