Chapter 231: The Original Queen
Every step forward caused Da’kea to get more and more frustrated. He desperately needed to take out the queen that had been housed on his female offspring, but he couldn’t find her.
He could sense Ye’tab walking behind him, his presence more comforting than the Elder had originally thought that would have been. Looking up at the place where the ceiling met the wall, he could make out the heat signature of Tha’juen from where he crawled across the seam, waiting to take down their prey from up high.
They were all ready to strike.
But no queen.
He took in a deep breath and refocused his attention. Sometimes, it would take months for his prey to cross his path. He prided himself on his patience, so what had changed?
The answer was simple. He now had a mate that was vulnerable, making him impatient to eliminate any threats to her well being. And having her, defenseless, on the same ship as an Istar queen was like having his internal organs clawed out.
There was a scream from somewhere behind him, causing him to spin around and drop down into a crouch. Ye’tab mirrored his actions, letting out a low hiss of annoyance. "I know she has the other two, but that doesn’t make me happy," clicked the latter, the claws of his right hand clenching and releasing with agitation.
"I say we turn around," admitted Tha’juen. "It is making my skin crawl being so far away from her."
"Agreed," grunted Da’kea. Tha’juen dropped to the floor, and the three males took off down the corridor toward their mate, only to be brought up short by a large Istar queen stepping out of the shadows of an opened hatch.
Da’kea and the others slid to a stop, Tha’juen having to duck down low to avoid the swinging of a clawed hand from taking off his head.
"It’s her," snarled Da’kea, looking at the one-eyed queen. She was the original one, the one that had kidnapped their mate and tried to feed her to the bunnies. Even in the lit hallway, the queen seemed like nothing more than a shadow with a bright, ruby red eye cutting through the inky darkness.
Da’kea shifted his grip on the spear in his hand and clicked a hidden button along the shaft. The tip started to spin quickly, the tip acting like a drill bit, ready to dig into the flesh of the creature in front of him.
Knowing instinctively that Tha’juen would go high, just like Ye’tab would go low, Da’kea concentrated all of his attacks on the queen’s torso.
Without a word spoken between the three of them, they all of a sudden attacked. Tha’juen bolted toward the wall, and using his momentum, he ran up the wall almost all the way to the ceiling before flipping over the queen’s head, trusting his spear downward at the same time.
At the same time, Ye’tab dropped to his knees, sliding across the dampened floor. He spun suddenly, slashing out with his chakrams at the back of the Istar’s knees. His speed allowed him to rotate 180 degrees around the queen, digging the sharpened weapons into her flesh as hard as he could.
Da’kea sprinted forward, trying to force the queen to focus on him and him alone. That would give the other two males the best advantage possible to strike a killing blow.
Pulling his arm back, he thrust his spear forward toward the queen’s vulnerable stomach. Millimeters away from being able to stick the weapon into her flesh, the queen caught the shaft just under the spinning head, halting the attack.
Tilting her head to the side, Tha’juen’s spear missed the crown of her head and instead hit the tough skin of her shoulder. The Saalistaja male completed his flip, landing on the other side of the creature, and narrowed his red eyes.
Even the strike to the back of her knees did nothing, the chakrams doing nothing more than simply tickling the spot.
Ye’tab rose to his feet quickly, adjusting his grip on his weapons.
None of the males were breathing rapidly, but their stamina didn’t help in this fight at all. Without even looking at each other, the three of them once again launched an attack, this time Ye’tab going high. At the same time, Tha’juen and Da’kea took the middle and lower legs of the queen, respectively.
Raising her hand, the queen swiped at Ye’tab, leaving four long cuts across his chest. His armor prevented any penetration, but it would take time for the nanos to repair it enough that the scars would disappear.
Knocked off balance, Ye’tab was flung into the wall, leaving an indentation where his body had struck it.
Lifting one of her hind legs, the queen kicked Da’kea, effectively sending him flying as well. However, because she was distracted by the other two, Tha’juen managed to get in a lucky strike, piercing her neck with his spear.
Acid blood sprayed out of the wound, and Tha’juen was forced to let go of his weapon in order to get away from the liquid. The queen reached for the spear’s shaft and ripped it out of her neck, causing even more blood to escape.
Letting out a hiss, she leaps forward, crushing Tha’juen underneath her. Unprepared for her attack, the Saalistaja male fell back hard but managed to grip her head in his two hands. Her blood dripped onto his chest plate, causing smoke to rise up. However, as fast as the acid could eat through the nanos, more took their place, repairing his suit as soon as it was damaged.
Holding her body still overtop of his, he looked over her shoulder and nodded at Da’kea, who was looming up behind her.
Bracing himself, Tha’juen wrestled with the Istar’s head, preventing her from realizing the danger coming up behind her.
Da’kea raised his right arm, his two wrist blades shining brightly in the light; he brought them down on the back of the queen’s neck, detaching her spinal cord from her skull.
Tha’juen quickly flung the corpse of the original queen away from him, preventing any more blood from damaging his armor. Coming to his feet, he was about to congratulate Da’kea on his kill just as an enraged scream came from over top of them.
