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Seeing the patch of exposed skin, the queen wildly launched another thrust to Zaran's shoulder.

Right at this moment, Zaran grit his teeth and was just barely able to make his sword unleash 'intent'. Platinum coloured ki burst forth from the tip of his blade and clashed against the mosquito queen, sending her flying through the air as well as creating a scar across her entire face, out of which colourless blood dripped down.

Ignoring the damage to herself, the queen attack again out of the rage she felt. Dare to touch my children? Die! Die... die... DIE!!! Her rage was beyond her control and made her attack aggressively, without a care for her own health.

A cold smile appeared on Zaran's face. It was for this reason that he had chose to fight the queen first before facing the king. The rage caused by her children's deaths would surely make her attack without a second thought and would not allow her to think her actions through.

Killing the few mosquitoes in the pond actually had not been necessary, as he was already soaked in the blood of the myriad of mosquitoes he had killed before. No, Zaran just did it to aggravate the queen even more. As long as she went insane from rage, she would be far easier to deal with than when she was fighting without the rage. He made this assumption based on the care she showed every single one of her children.

On top of that... which mother would not go insane from rage one of her children was killed in front of her eyes? Even if Zaran had not been soaked in the blood of her children prior to killing them, just killing one in front of her eyes was enough to drive her insane.

However unlike Zaran suspected, killing one was not what he needed to do... even coming close to one would've made the mosquito queen attack him in fury. If it were not for the king... she wouldn't have her children fight the skull ants at all. She wouldn't have even expanded their territory by as much as they did. No, this little queen would've content if they had continued just like they had all this time.

Alas, her mate had started transforming into a more humanoid species and she followed soon after. With the transformation came sentience and a lust for power and thus a lust to increase their territory as to gain more resources.

With her tumbling through the air because of Zaran's counter strike, the madness with her grew even stronger. Not only did that hateful guy in front of her kill her children, she couldn't even harm him... His recovery from her special skill was extraordinarily fast too.

Another brighter and bigger flash of platinum ki left the greatsword and pursued after the mosquito queen, targeting the queen's fragile wings. With the ki rapidly catching up to her, the queen had very little time to recover from the previous blow and evade the blast. Finally, moments before the ki impacted upon her, she was able to recover!

Boom! The ki violently exploded and the dust that was kicked up by the explosion concealed the queen from Zaran's vision. Even though he was not sure if he had hit her or not, Zaran kicked forward and speedily chased after her.

When the dust cleared, Zaran noticed that the queen was lying on the ground and blood ceaselessly ran out from her back. One of her wings had ripped from her body due the explosion and lied a bit further from her.

With anger, sadness and regret mixed in her eyes the queen looked at the approaching Zaran. She could get up and fight but what was the use... She couldn't put up a fight against him any longer. Solely the speed at which he had traveled after her had told her that.

Seeing the queen lie there with the mixed emotions in her eyes, Zaran frowned and stopped right in front of her. Instead of killing her he just stood there and looked at her, a pensive look on his face. Suddenly he raised his sword and stabbed forward with his sword.

The queen shivered as her life flashed before her and closed her eyes, waiting for her life to be severed. But... the ending blow did not come. Why did it not come? After waiting for a few more seconds the queen opened her eyes and saw that Zaran's blade had penetrated the ground next to her face. Zaran was slightly bent over so she could easily see his face.

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"I am sorry. If it were not for your mate, you and your children would not have to die like this. But you see, your mate has caused no small deal of trouble to beast men and humanoids alike and I have been tasked to stop him. However, it is possible for your children to remain alive. I can also allow you to live, but only if you become my servant, there is no other way to do so. At least like that you will be able to see your children and offer them a small form of protection. If you wish to remain among the living... Nod like this." Zaran asked, while nodding.

Confused, the queen blankly stared at Zaran. Her anger for Zaran was quickly exchanged for a tremendous hatred for her mate. As she had thought earlier, increasing their territory as they did would not remain unanswered. If not for him and his stupid ideals, it would not have turned out this way! The man before her was not without fault and yet remained the killer of countless her children but if it were not for that hateful man!

She was hesitant to become the servant of a man who had killed so many of her children without remorse. Even though he had said sorry, she knew it was far from a heartfelt apology and was more likely used to win her over.

Yet, if she could keep her life... would she be able to give her children some form of protection as this man before her said? She thought about what would happen if she did not accept. Would her whole progeny get killed for no reason by this man? Suddenly she realized why he had said some small form of protection. If she and king the were gone all of the territory that they had conquered would be lost soon after and the species they had driven away were sure to retaliate and not a single of her kin might survive. 

Half a minute passed and the queen finally nodded ever so slightly. If she was able to keep at least part of her kin safe, she would be fine with sacrificing herself for that cause. 

"Good." Zaran said with a slight smirk on his face as a blood contract appeared in his hands. As the queen was already evolving to become more humanoid he could no longer contract her as a beast. He had tried contracting one of the nayeran commanders who had join him with his beast master skill but he had not been able to do so. Normally his beast master skill gave him some sort of a connection with any animal he was close with and in that and this case he did not feel that connection. However with the nayeran commander a blood contract was able to do the job, so he was going to do the same thing this time. 

After cutting his thumb open against his sword, Zaran put his fingerprint down on the contractor's signature block. "Here, dip your finger in your own blood and press it against this square." Zaran said as he pointed to the servant's signature block. 

The queen dipped one of her finger in some of her blood and pressed her finger down against the signature block.

Voom!

A bloody glow appeared around the contract as it disintegrated and a burning sensation washed over the hearts of both of them. Zaran had become used to it by now, but the queen cried out in pain as she grabbed her chest. 

"Ah sorry I forgot to mention that it hurts like hell. I totally forgot about it..."

The queen grimaced as she slowly recovered from the pain and looked at Zaran with a hateful expression. 

Zaran sighed and took out a potion and handed it to the queen. "Drink this, it should help you recover."

With the contract completed he could feel a connection to her and he knew how much pain she really was in. As the wing was ripped out of her body, a lot of blood had been continuously flowing from her back and she was very close to no longer having any blood at all. That was a very humongous  weak spot... It was very useful information for his coming fight against the king.

As for the servant he had gained, he was sure she would turn around sometime... or maybe not, but at least she would not cause any harm while under his service and her progeny would most likely not die out as long as she showed herself to her species' enemies every so often. They would have surrender most of the territory they regained but at least they had a shot at remaining alive this way.

Picking up his sword, Zaran headed back to the clearing...