VS the Ant King

Nearby in the tunnel, Ben was now walking with one of the Krell scouts. His plan was to act as another faction that wanted to cooperate with the ant queen to attack Elvira. 

Of course, saying it outright would be weird. That was why they cooked up a plan: Ben would come close to the nest and get attacked by Elvira. She would then escape, leaving Ben to negotiate with the ant queen. 

Afterward, Alex would try to pull some of her army into the trap they had made. But things were completely different. The moment he reached the ant queen's territory, the dozen ant soldiers there just watched him in silence. 

They did not make a move; they just stood like statues. 'Am I in the right place? This should be near the entrance.' 

Ben motioned the knell scout to approach closer. But even when the scout inched away, the ant still didn't make any move. They should have attacked, and they proceeded to the next step. Curious, Ben threw a stone block on top of the ant.

BAM! It fell down, squishing the ant's head.

[You get 10x biomass]

'They're still not moving even after all this?' Ben was curious, but there was no way he'd let go of this opportunity. He looked around. '1, 2, 3, 26 ants.'

Twenty-six blocks of stone appeared on top of them. Pulled by gravity, they turned into swords of Damocles. Ben's lips curled into a grin; with this much, he should have gathered enough biomass to create a few more scouts. But his smile didn't last long.

From the kreel sense, he could tell something dangerous was coming. A projectile moved at supersonic speed, even faster than a bullet in Ben's old world.

BAM!

It shot through a hole in Ben's chest. A sharp pain spread out from the wound, but Ben paid no mind to it. The flesh had already begun to move, closing up the wound and healing it at a speed visible to the naked eye. Ben kicked the ground, leaping to the side.

A few more projectiles passed by, hitting the cavern. Ben squinted his eyes. He could see the projectile was chitin. 'That looks like it's been torn away from the ant.'

Unfortunately, before he could learn more, the ground started to shake. From the tunnel entrance, a group of ants started coming out. Ben quickly turned around. With a pickaxe in hand, he created a new tunnel. With his enhanced strength, he could swing it quickly, allowing him to stay ahead of the ants.

While he ran, Ben's mind quickly churned. 'Should I bring them to the trap? Or do something else? But what can I do?'

Meanwhile, Elvira had learned everything that had happened. The other kreel scout was with her. "This is troublesome. With that kind of power, it's probably the king."

Based on her knowledge, the king's next step would be to take over the nest and eat the rest of the ants to finish its evolution. He would then choose four princesses to turn into his new queens.

Afterward, a new breeding round would start. The king would provide the nutrients, giving birth to ant generals. These generals would then be sent out to hunt for more nutrients, while the ant queens would start breeding ant soldiers nonstop.

The colony would then start expanding aggressively. 'Seems I have no choice, just in case.'

With that thought, her finger started glowing blue. She then made a few gestures, activating some kind of spell. Back to Ben, his luck had turned worse. Instead of digging a tunnel far away from his enemy, he had fallen into the queen's chamber.

In front of him stood the ant king. His appearance reminded Ben of Elvira. His upper body was humanoid, while his lower body was completely ant. But despite having a humanoid form with two arms, he still looked like an insect. His jaw was still chewing on some flesh, while his hand held some kind of sharp object. With a closer look, Ben recognized it as chitin armor torn from one of the ants.

Swoosh!!!

The king threw it again. But this time, Ben tilted his head, avoiding the attack. While doing this, his senses turned sharp, detecting all enemies in the chamber. 'Three ant princesses, one of this monstrous ant, probably the ant king. No soldiers. That half-eaten big corpse is probably the ant queen, but she's dead.'

His eyes turned toward the entrance and the hole on top of the dome. 'Kreel scout, buy me time.'

With his order, the kreel leaped toward the ant king. His hand clenched into a fist, punching toward the king's head. The ant king looked at it with interest; he didn't even move. The punch hit his face, creating a loud boom.

The kreel scout used his leg to throw another kick, then used the momentum to distance himself from the ant king. Meanwhile, Ben jumped upward. He took out a stone wall, but this one had the other side filled with spikes. 

'Build a spiked stone wall!' With his order, the wall materialized, blocking the opening. He proceeded to create a few more layers. Looking down, Ben took out another spiked stone wall with sharp angles pointing toward the ant king. He took out many, filling almost the entire room. 

'Chitinous shield! Metamorphosis!' After activating these two skills, Ben's body started to change. Jet-black chitin armor covered his entire body. One of his hands transformed into an ant claw, while the other took out a weapon he had made. It was a bronze spear. He then threw it toward the kreel scout. Before they had escaped, Ben had put it in his inventory since it wasn't effective to wield one in narrow tunnels while escaping.

The ant king looked upward at the falling wall. His jaw opened, and then a very loud scream came from it. If Ben were still human, he would've already died from the shock. His eardrums would have exploded. Thankfully, with his metamorphosis ability, Ben could quickly transform his body. He removed his hearing.

All the walls cracked under that one attack, turning into small debris. The kreel, who was too close to the ant king, was also stunned. Its chitin armor cracked. The spear fell down, landing beside the kreel, followed by the rain of rocks. Ben used them as a kind of platform, jumping toward the ant king.