Elius stood over the collapsed body of the Hive Queen, her mountainous corpse twitching slightly as the last remnants of life ebbed from her broken shell.
Steam still rose from the deep cracks that lined her carapace, and her wings, once buzzing like chainsaws, now hung limp and torn, dragging across the dust in ragged folds.
He breathed slowly.
His chest rose and fell, but the fatigue hadn't reached him yet.
Not truly.
It was too soon for exhaustion.
His mind still raced, and his heart still hummed with the aftershocks of battle.
As he stared at the Queen's corpse, one thought echoed again and again in his head:
That's it?
He didn't expect a monster this big to fall due to exhaustion. But he could feel it. Her energy had begun draining ever since she swallowed the mummy.
Her rhythm had slowed. Her strikes had lost precision.
When they finally broke through her armor, it wasn't just their power—it was her weakness that allowed it.
