Nyx yanked Aria out of the air with a spatial pull as a mandible scythed through the space she'd occupied a half-second prior. Bastet, for once, gave respect to her opponent, stepping further back before an attack even came for her.
The fight ground on.
Luna and Kaiden opened joints. Aria deepened them. Bastet cooked the chitin. Nyx battered weakened sections with rocks. Alice pulsed healing energy whenever someone took a hit.
Calypso took everything else.
Every stray mandible swing. Every thrashing segment. Every counterattack that came too fast for the others to dodge.
She was bleeding from four different places and hadn't stopped grinning once.
Three minutes in, the Queen was still fighting. Three of its segment joints were compromised, and its movement was slower, but its attacks hit just as hard as the first. A level seventy-nine's stamina pool was enormous. It could fight at this intensity for an hour.
Kaiden's team couldn't.
