HP: 195,000/200,000

MP: 300,000/300,000

Not only did the queen's appearance change, but also her stats. Her HP increased from 150,000 to 200,000 while her MP gained a substantial boost of 100k.

"Let me make the playing field fair first." s.h.i.+ro said as mana gathered in her palms.

Using her pa.s.sive cold aura, she enhanced the freezing power of cold aura with her tier 2 ice magic.

*CRRRRR

The entire ruin started to freeze over as s.h.i.+ro was now able to attack the ant queen wherever the ice was present.

The queen's eyes glowed slightly when she saw the ice.

s.h.i.+ro felt her body s.h.i.+ver for a moment as she recognised an incoming danger.

Quickly rolling to her left, she turned a portion of her body into snow.

*BOOM!!!!

The spot she was in exploded as s.h.i.+ro quickly turned to the spot and saw a fire javelin.

"You've got to be kidding." s.h.i.+ro muttered seeing the queen s.h.i.+ft to the fire element.

The armour was tinted red showing the element as s.h.i.+ro realised the queen could probably use all of the basic elements.

Not staying still in the same spot, s.h.i.+ro pivoted around her hand before flipping once more. Flicking her wrist, 3 ice spears shot out from the ground towards the queen.

A semi-translucent orb appeared around the queen as the ice spears shattered on impact.

"A G.o.d d.a.m.n mana barrier powered by 300K MP, you've got to be kidding me." s.h.i.+ro said annoyed.

She didn't mind fighting against the queen, but for her to drain 300k worth of mana along with the 200k worth of health was an insane task.

Narrowing her eyes, s.h.i.+ro had an idea.

'I just need to force her to waste all of her mana.'

Using her snow magic along with her ice magic, s.h.i.+ro changed the weather of the boss room.

Crouching down, s.h.i.+ro made a ramp towards the boss.

*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

The boss sent several fire spears towards s.h.i.+ro as she countered with her own ice spear.

Jumping off the ramp, s.h.i.+ro made two daggers in her hands and slice towards the queen.

*PON PON PON PON PON!

Several hollow echo's rang out as s.h.i.+ro sliced away at the s.h.i.+eld.

Swinging her hand downwards, s.h.i.+ro created another ramp of ice as she dodged a breath of lightning.

Pressing both daggers together. s.h.i.+ro made a Nano Craft Sword and sliced upwards.

The queen flew backwards, dodging the strike.

s.h.i.+ro landed hard on the ground and quickly looked towards the queen.

Quickly flipping backwards, s.h.i.+ro dodged a blade strike from the queen. Mid-flip, s.h.i.+ro created a dagger and threw it towards the queen.

*BOOMMM!!!

Detonating the dagger, s.h.i.+ro saw ripples spread out on the mana barrier.

[MP: 250,000/300,000]

"Che, only 50k MP was used so far." s.h.i.+ro muttered as she slammed her palms onto the ground.

An ice pillar shot out the ground as it aimed for the queen.

Opening the mandibles on her mouth, s.h.i.+ro could see the queen use fire breath to melt the pillar.

Flicking her wrist, s.h.i.+ro caused a giant ice clamp to close in on the queen.

*BOOM!

The clamp caused a huge ripple in the mana barrier as the queen was jammed between the two clamps.

The queen's eyes glistened as she slammed her arms outwards and destroyed the clamp. Pus.h.i.+ng more mana into her wings, the queen dashed towards s.h.i.+ro.

Stomping down hard, s.h.i.+ro caused a giant wave of ice to shoot towards the queen but she sliced it in half easily.

What greeted the queen, however, was a giant blizzard.

Snow obscured her sights as she tried to sense s.h.i.+ro but failed.

*BOOM!

A sudden explosion of ice surprised the queen as the attack hit behind her.

Flicking her bladed hands, the queen sent several wind blades over to try cut s.h.i.+ro.

Unknown to her, a pair of azure eyes were tracking her.

[MP: 225,000/300,000]

s.h.i.+ro sighed softly seeing the mana she managed to take off. However, she had already used around 7000 of her total mana leaving her with just 4000.

Making a few tiny ice bullets in her hand, s.h.i.+ro decided to try increase the queen's rage so that she would fire off large scale attacks and drain her mana faster.

*Don don don don

The bullets tapped at the mana s.h.i.+eld as the queen looked around but became furious when she couldn't find s.h.i.+ro.

'That's it, keep going.' s.h.i.+ro thought.

The queen's body became a mix of red and yellow as it flew upwards.

s.h.i.+ro dashed towards a pillar and used it as cover.

Lightning and fire gathered around the queen's mouth as s.h.i.+ro understood the queen wanting to wipe the area with a single attack.

Pinching three fingers together, s.h.i.+ro made a thin dagger.

Her goal was for the dagger to interrupt the queen when she's still charging her attack. However, she needed to time it correctly as interrupting too early wouldn't drain as much mana and interrupt too late means the queen firing the death beam off.

She eyed the attack as pressure was at an all-time high.

'Now!' She thought, throwing the dagger with her full strength.

The timing was a little early as the attack was around 75% charged. However, any further would be dangerous territory.

Clenching her fist, she caused the dagger to explode.

*BOOOMMMM!!!

This caused a chain reaction as the breath attack was forcefully stopped. Since it wasn't fully ready, the attack exploded in the queen's face.

[MP: 130,000/300,000]

'Not bad.' s.h.i.+ro thought since the failed attack managed to wipe out almost 100k worth of mana.

Naturally, this included the charge up and the explosion the barrier absorbed.

However, she too was left with just 2500 MP.

'I should take it down from the skies.' She thought as having the queen fly around was going to increase the duration of this fight.

'Actually…' s.h.i.+ro grinned as she had an epiphany.

She started to sprint towards the queen without cover whilst launching small ice bullets to gain its attention.

The queen glared at her hatefully as four of her blade legs opened up. Flying towards s.h.i.+ro, the queen slashed her legs at s.h.i.+ro's body.

Twisting her body to avoid the blades, s.h.i.+ro grabbed one of the queen's armour plates.

The force felt like it could tear her arms off as she gritted her teeth.

The queen thrashed her legs around as she tried to kick s.h.i.+ro off her back.

Using Faded Snow Movement, s.h.i.+ro avoided the blades as she pulled herself on the queens back with some difficulty.

Pressing her palms on the gap between the 2 pairs of wings, s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes.

'Mana Extractor, Transfer Vent.' s.h.i.+ro thought as she couldn't make anything more with the remainder of her MP.

A device was being created in her palms as it ate into the queen's sh.e.l.l causing her to scream.

The nano bots were ruthless as they ate away at anything blocking their path so they could make the device.

The device had its own limits as s.h.i.+ro was borrowing from the queen's mana pool to make up for what she lacks.

The Mana Extractor was used to take the mana that was being fuelled into the wings and the Transfer Vent was used to give s.h.i.+ro some of the mana.

Sweat was dripping from her head as she was pus.h.i.+ng her creation a little. What she had unlocked right now was Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1. Both the Mana Extractor and the Transfer Vent were something she should have made when she was Tier 3.

The cost was low, but the physical burden was huge.

Blood started to drip from her hands as the nano bots continued to be produced trying to form the device.

When the device was finished, there was a pool of blood dripping from her fingers as s.h.i.+ro had to endure the pain.

Her HP was also dropping little by little as she tried to create something out of her league.

Naturally, the queen wasn't letting s.h.i.+ro stay on her back. But no matter how she tried to shake s.h.i.+ro off, she kept an iron grip stopping herself from falling.

[c.r.a.ppy Mana Extractor Prototype]

-93% efficiency

'I know it's c.r.a.p but did you have to t.i.tle it c.r.a.ppy Mana Extractor?'

Activating the c.r.a.ppy Mana Extractor, s.h.i.+ro let a minuscule amount of MP enter her as the wings of the queen s.h.i.+mmered. The amount of mana that was being absorbed compared to the amount being transferred to her was very inefficient.

However, the main goal of the Mana Extractor was to drain the Mana from the queen.

[MP: 0/300,000]

When the MP was completely drained, the queen plummeted towards the ground as s.h.i.+ro kicked off the back and landed on her feet.

She flinched when she felt the pain emanating from her right arm.

[Nano Tech Corrosion - Right Arm - 9 days 23h]

'Figures…' s.h.i.+ro thought as this was to be expected. Forcing her body to produce something of a much higher tier had dire consequences. If she tried to make the items 5 tiers higher than her, the backlash would be permanent.

However, the silver lining was that the queen had lost her entire s.h.i.+eld.

[HP: 189,000/200,000]

[MP: 0/300,000]

On the other hand, her MP was full and it was just a matter of time before she drained the queen of her health.

s.h.i.+ro was about to dash forward but stopped when she felt a shocking pain tense up her nerves.

*SSSSS!!!

Sucking in a breath of cold air, s.h.i.+ro forgot how much Nano Tech Corrosion truly hurt.

Reaching her left hand towards her right hand, s.h.i.+ro made a frozen brace as it would hold her arm in place whilst she fought.

The pain was still there, but it wasn't as bad.

Flicking her left hand, she created several ice walls as she blocked a slash from the queen. In the time she recovered from the pain, the queen recovered as well.

'Such a waste…' s.h.i.+ro thought as she could have dealt the queen so much damage.

Since her right hand was busted right now, s.h.i.+ro opted to reduce the queen's health with bombs and long ranged attacks.

Making a dagger in her left hand, s.h.i.+ro braced herself.

Das.h.i.+ng towards her, the queen opened all four bladed arms and cut towards s.h.i.+ro.

An ice pillar erupted under her as s.h.i.+ro dodged the strike.

She gritted her teeth as she endured the pain from her arm.

Stabbing her dagger into the ice pillar, she twisted it and a myriad of ice spikes shot out from the pillar.

Due to the close proximity of the queen and the pillar, she wasn't able to block it and was struck several times.

Letting go of the dagger, s.h.i.+ro controlled the ice to make a gap and launched the dagger into the queen's face.

*BOOMMM!!!!!

The dagger exploded into a cl.u.s.ter of sharps dealing more damage to the queen.

Enraged, the queen twisted her body and became a cyclone of relentless blades.

s.h.i.+ro hopped off the pillar lightly as she made a ramp to cus.h.i.+on her fall.

Flicking her finger upwards, a spear shot up from below the queen's legs and stabbed into her torso.

Unfortunately, it wasn't able to pierce her torso causing s.h.i.+ro to frown.

Making sure she kept her distance, she whittled the queen's health little by little.

[Flying Frag Ant Queen]

HP: 1/200,000

MP: 0/300,000

Here was the biggest problem. Unless one can deal a fatal blow, a monster will stay at 1 HP.

Though the monster will still have a hard time on 1 HP as its armour would be weakened by a large margin allowing for adventurer's to have an easier time to deal a fatal blow.

s.h.i.+ro was drenched with sweat as she had been fighting continuously for around 2 hours whilst also enduring the pain from her arm.

Creating a Nano Craft Sword, s.h.i.+ro threw it towards the queen and it fell just below her feet.

Swiping her left arm, an ice pillar propelled the sword into the body of the queen. Killing it for good.

"Finally…" s.h.i.+ro muttered as she sat down with fatigue.

Laying her body next to the queen's corpse, she closed her eyes and waited for her stamina to recover.