Usually, Ackster and the ant general either sparred until Ackster reached the insight he sought or until the general had given Ackster a decent pummeling, which only happened when Ackster let it. He had realized early on that he would need to hold back since he didn’t want to tell the queen and her general about his true strength.

The ant general looking down on him naturally helped Ackster give a false impression. Well, at first, he hadn’t much choice. He could go all-out and blow his later chances, or he could let the general beat him.

Then, when he had improved, he had slowly let those improvements rise to the surface while keeping the majority of his progress hidden.

But now, Ackster didn’t back down as easily as before. Fewer and fewer of the ant general’s punches landed on his body. They either missed completely or were intercepted by Ackster before they could arrive. Not only that, Ackster used every opening he saw to launch counterattacks and strike back.

If the cuts he made to feed the ant queen healed in tens of minutes, the bruises and scrapes he got from the ant general’s fists and legs would heal before the fight ended.

Since he wouldn’t be safe, even with the general’s death, Ackster didn’t sacrifice entire limbs or ribs to land weak punches on the harder-than-rock chitin exoskeleton. That would be wasteful. But when the injuries incurred were practically unnoticeable, Ackster didn’t mind trading blows, even if they didn’t do much damage.

As long as they fought one-on-one, Ackster was confident he would win. Maybe he wouldn’t even need to use Limit Breaker for this fight.

Eventually, the ant general realized something was up. It wasn’t sure, but its sparring partner had suddenly elevated his skills and taken the spar up a couple of notches. Ackster was also fighting with a vigor the ant general hadn’t seen before, which was suspicious.

But before the ant general could do anything or think further, Ackster exploded forward with incredible speed as the general had tried to lead the spar into a lull so he could think a little.

The ant general had tried to distance himself after Ackster blocked all of his four sequenced punches with only his two hands. That was when Ackster grabbed the opportunity. It could barely be called an opening since the ant general was willingly stepping back to get some leeway.

If the ant general had been ready for it, anticipated Ackster further stepping up his game, Ackster wouldn’t have had such an easy time closing the distance. But he wasn’t since he didn’t know what Ackster was truly capable of. The ant general had also gotten a false sense of superiority after repeatedly beating Ackster in their spars.

So, when Ackster blasted his fist into the ant general’s chest with enough force to crack it and send the general flying into the wall, the general only reacted when he felt the second impact against the stone. With its wings, it would have ordinarily been able to stop its travel before it smashed into the wall.

But the strength behind Ackster’s fist and the speed behind his feet took the general by enough surprise.

Ackster grinned slightly at seeing the ant general’s stunned reaction as it stood up and looked at the snowflake-like cracks on its chest plate. Just because he might not need Limit Breaker to win the fight didn’t mean he wasn’t going to use it.

After all, his objective wasn’t merely to win against the ant general in a fair one vs. one battle. It was to win before the ant queen woke up again and ordered the innumerable ants in the nest to swarm him so that he couldn’t kill the general and so that she could eat him.

Even if it strained his body, going all-out and killing the general before the queen’s awakening was more than worth it. So, Ackster unleashed the power hidden under lock and chain within his body without hesitation.

And while seeing the ant general’s shock was nice, now was no time to gloat. Ackster dashed forward again, making full use of all of his skills and Limit Breaker’s boost to his physicality.

He had turned the ant general’s mistake into an even larger opening. He would be a fool if he let it slip away because he was busy indulging in nonsensical feelings of the same kind that founded the ant general’s mistake. Things like that—feelings like that—had no place if he was fighting for his survival, whether it be now or in ten year’s time.

Ackster aimed right for the center of the ant general’s chest with his fist. Now that he had created a weak spot using the surprise attack, he should make the most of it.

However, the ant general raised its four arms to create two overlapping Xes that walled Ackster off. His fist still landed, and the force behind it, thanks to the momentum he gained from the short dash, was enough to make the general stumble backward.

But it wasn’t enough to do more than send a hair-fine crack into one of the ant’s reinforced arms. It was just so that Ackster noticed it with his Keen Senses on beyond full blast, thanks to Limit Breaker.

It was another structural weakness in the ant general’s armor. But it was too little for him to take advantage of, so he launched another fist, curving it from his hips to try and finesse his way under the general’s arms.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The general reacted and lowered its lower arms to block while using its upper two to launch a counterattack and make the most of Ackster dedicating himself to the low-blow uppercut. The ant general aimed for Ackster’s head with both fists without hesitation. The two glossy, smooth, chitin fists pierced through the air toward either side of Ackster’s face.

Ackster saw with Battlesight as the fists smashed into his face and blew it backward so he could dodge or block.

But in using both upper arms to attack and its two lower ones to defend from a blow coming from below, the ant general had left its chest exposed. Even at the cost of his face, Ackster took the chance.

He used his other hand and shot it forward. Due to the tense and hot situation and the awkward position with his first fist, Ackster couldn’t put as much leverage or torque into his straight punch as he would have wanted.

But Strike, Superficial Martial Arts, and Iron Fists would have to be enough.

Just as Battlesight had shown Ackster, the ant general’s two upper fists smashed into his head and knocked it back until the back of it was parallel to the ground. Ackster was pretty sure he heard and felt his neck crack in ways even a chiropractor wouldn’t manage to fish out of him.

But that wasn’t the only thing he felt.

Ackster felt his fist punch through the cracked chest plate shielding the ant general’s insides.

After eating so many soldier ants, Ackster had managed to identify several important organs. Of course, the general was a more advanced and far superior version, but if the outer appearance was any clue, it was still based on the same base model, just made with better materials.

That meant its composition of organs should be about the same, even if it were more humanoid than the soldier ants since it had one set of legs instead of two and two sets of arms instead of one.

The soldier ants had one heart in their humanoid chests and one in their ant halves. But the general didn’t have an ant-like lower body. It had vaguely human-like legs. And while there might be place for a heart there, Ackster wasn’t so sure it would be efficient.

But even after smashing his fist into the general’s chest and caving it in, Ackster only found one heart right in the center. He unhesitatingly crushed it as he ripped it out and hastily threw it in his mouth as soon as he stepped back.

Ackster’s neck stung with pain. It was nothing compared to the secret technique. But damage to his neck wasn’t necessarily something he could just endure since he would be physically incapable of moving if his spine or spinal cord snapped. He didn’t think even Limit Breaker would be capable of breaking through that physiological limit of his, at least not at the skill’s current rank.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be that bad. Ackster’s balance was a little askew. But he had experienced worse vertigo when he ate poison during his Poison Resistance training. This much was nothing, especially since it had won him the trade. A little instability in exchange for destroying and eating the ant general’s heart was undeniably an exchange in Ackster’s favor.

While savoring the tube that was the ant’s heart, Ackster looked at the general. Since it had been so different from human hearts, he wasn’t sure it was a heart at first. But after conducting countless dissections over the last couple of weeks, he had indeed confirmed some of the organs, one of which was the heart.

So, he was sure he had pulled out the ant general’s heart.

However, the ant general was still standing. It was clutching its broken and leaking chest. The red, grey, and green bodily fluids flowed out in a slow but steady stream. The wound was severe, possibly too severe for the ant general to live much longer. But it still didn’t fall and instead looked at Ackster with a primal fury.

“I guess you have another then.”

The ant general tilted its head back and unleashed a screeching roar, accompanied by a string of clicks, before looking at Ackster again.

Ackster didn’t know if it was a simple warcry or something else, but it was loud, especially in the enclosed underground cavern.

‘Shit.’

Even if the ant queen slept soundly, there was no way she would stay slumbering when the ant general cried out loudly enough to wake even the dead.

Ackster had no idea where the ant general’s second heart might be located. But there was no time or no need to target just its heart. Now that it had lost one and incurred a mortal wound, Ackster just needed a little more to finish off the ant general.

So, before the general’s roar could wake up the queen or attract all the other ants stationed within and outside the queen’s room, Ackster dashed forward at full speed using Limit Breaker and Sprint.

Since he couldn’t rummage through the ant general’s body in search of its second heart, keeping it alive, Ackster decided to take revenge for the general almost blowing his head off. He aimed for the ant general’s head. With a heart and a head gone, the ant general would be doomed, even if it still had a heart left.

Ackster's fist snaked through the general’s arms, raised feebly in defense. After losing its heart, the meager defense the ant general could put up wasn’t enough to defend against the pumped-up Ackster. But the ant general, despite its intact wings, didn’t even try to flee. It embraced its fate, satisfied at having let out its call before succumbing to a greater foe than itself.

It was a shame it hadn’t been able to kill this sustenance for its queen. But his sacrifice would allow the queen to grow stronger using Ackster. In the first place, the ant general lived and died for the queen, just like any other of her soldiers.

The ant general used all its arms to grab hold of Ackster’s hand, arm, and body in exchange for getting hit in the face. The ant general’s arms locked down Ackster, even in death.

Ackster fist hit and smashed the ant general’s fist without much trouble. But after that, it didn’t move. The ant general dug its clawed feet into the ground and leveraged a weight Ackster hadn’t noticed these last few weeks due to the general’s agility.

‘Shit.’

Ackster barely had time to notice just how dire his situation was before one of the ant queen’s forelegs torpedoed him into the wall with enough force to send cracks all the way to the ceiling and set off a small shower of rubble.

The ant queen had woken up, immediately assessed the situation, and attacked Ackster with all her might. And, thanks to her general, she had landed a devastating blow.

It wasn’t for naught since the general was gone. But even without knowing exactly how injured he was, Ackster could tell that he was going to be in for a tough battle now that the queen had awoken.