Truly foolish.
To think I almost let myself get fooled by a bunch of failures like these.
Ella strolled through the ship’s cabin, now thick with black smoke.
Her right index finger occasionally tapped against the surrounding walls.
The explosions had already ended.
Only the crackling of flames and the faint splintering of charred wood remained in the air.
The sound she made—tap, tap, tap—echoed through the narrow corridor, becoming almost the only sound left.
She actually felt grateful to these pirates.
Thanks to the ambush they had caused, she had seen everything clearly once more.
Failures who couldn’t even handle trash like this—there was no reason for her to listen to a single word they said.
It was all nonsense.
They actually dared to dream of dragging her off the throne.
How utterly audacious.
She was the one. She was the only Insect Mother, the sole will of the Insect Nest.
She always had been, and she always would be.
“Yo? Look what I’ve found?”
A rough voice came from around the corner of the corridor, laced with the excitement of spotting prey.
“A lonely silver-haired girl walking all by herself on the ship?”
Footsteps approached through the smoke. A
massive werewolf stepped out from the shadows.
His body nearly filled the entire corridor.
The fur on both shoulders brushed against the walls, producing a soft rustling sound.
Ella recognized these guys. The Werewolf class wasn’t rare, but it wasn’t common either.
Their biggest special ability was the power to transform into werewolves.
The one before her remained in a half-wolf, half-human form—sturdy limbs, sharp claws, protruding muzzle, yet still retaining a roughly human silhouette.
“Instead of running to the lifeboats to escape, you came back here?”
The werewolf’s voice dripped with condescending amusement, like a cat toying with a mouse.
“Guess you really are as young and stupid as you look.”
He didn’t take Ella seriously at all. He didn’t even see her as an opponent worth bothering with.
He simply stood there like a talking wall of meat, staring down at her with those yellow beastly eyes.
As he spoke, he gradually reverted to human form.
Muscles contracted, fur receded, muzzle shrank back.
In just a few seconds, a tall, bearded man stood before Ella.
Even in human form, he towered over her. She had to tilt her head up to see his face.
“What the hell are you knocking on?”
The man’s brows furrowed, his tone thick with impatience.
“My hearing is excellent. This is really pissing me off.”
He took a step closer to Ella. His boots crunched on the broken planks with a sharp crunch.
“Stop it right now.”
His attitude was that of a master ordering a servant.
Hands shoved in his pockets, body leaning slightly back, he didn’t even lower his head—just shifted his gaze downward.
Tap, tap, tap.
Ella didn’t stop.
Her finger kept tapping the wall at the same rhythm and force.
Her expression remained unchanged. Those crimson pupils stayed calm as still water, reflecting the man’s impatient face.
More footsteps emerged from the smoke.
One, two, three—more werewolves appeared from both sides of the corridor.
Some stayed in werewolf form, others had reverted to human.
They closed in like sharks drawn by the scent of blood.
One of them still had blood on his claws.
Dark red, half-dried, gleaming eerily in the firelight.
Probably the one who had ambushed Dieyi.
“What kind of godforsaken place is this?”
The bloodstained werewolf spat out a rough breath, his voice heavy with dissatisfaction and irritation.
He looked around, gaze sweeping over the bombed-out corridor, the still-smoking walls, the scattered broken planks and nails on the floor.
“This has got to be the poorest ship I’ve ever seen. Damn it, have you players even been trying to work at all?”
He walked straight up to Ella and shoved the man with his hands in his pockets aside.
The shoved man stumbled back two steps, hit the wall, but said nothing—just silently stepped aside.
“Have you lot been slacking off?”
The bloodstained werewolf lowered his head, yellow pupils boring into Ella.
“Leaving me with only this pile of garbage to loot.”
His build was even larger than the previous one. Standing in front of Ella, he loomed like a small mountain.
His shadow completely swallowed her, dyeing her silver hair and white sleepwear a deep gray.
Ella slightly raised her head and met his gaze.
Her expression showed no change—no fear, no panic.
She simply stood there, head tilted up, looking at the man who was more than twice her size with those crimson eyes.
“Yo.”
The werewolf leader’s lips split into a somewhat surprised grin.
“Not scared of me, huh?”
He turned his head to look at his subordinates behind him.
“This is pretty rare. Right, guys?”
“Yeah, Boss!”
A tall, skinny werewolf poked his head out from the crowd, a flattering smile plastered on his face.
“This girl’s got guts. Some people like that kind. Tie her up and we can definitely make a good profit.”
“Right, right, you’re spot on.”
Another voice came from the smoke, oily and uncomfortably excited.
“Look at that little face~”
The werewolf took two steps closer, his gaze roaming over Ella’s face.
“Look at that little mouth~”
His eyes slid downward, from her lips to her neck, from her neck to her collarbone.
“She’s a real beauty~”
The surrounding werewolves let out a low, rough burst of laughter.
The sound echoed in the narrow corridor, mixing with the crackling flames into a skin-crawling noise.
Ella looked at them.
She looked at these beasts laughing brazenly in front of her, not treating her as an enemy or opponent at all, appraising her like a piece of merchandise.
The crimson in her eyes grew even deeper.
“A bunch of inferior creatures.”
Her voice was soft, almost drowned out by the crackling flames.
“Disgusting.”
Those three words instantly silenced the werewolves’ mocking laughter.
“What did you say?!”
His smile froze. His yellow beastly pupils contracted sharply.
The corners of his mouth turned downward as his expression shifted from casual to ferocious.
His right hand rose.
Five fingers spread open. His nails visibly lengthened and sharpened into claws.
But Ella’s action was faster than his words.
The tentacle behind her moved.
The one that had been bitten off the day before, leaving only a stump, had now sprouted a new, thinner, sharper tip at the break.
This new section was no longer rounded and soft like before; it had been compressed into a needle-like shape—sharp, hard, like a surgical injection needle.
The tentacle shot out from behind her, curving around her waist from below and thrusting upward.
It pierced precisely and without hesitation into the werewolf leader’s abdomen.
The werewolf leader’s body froze.
His eyes widened enormously.
His yellow beastly pupils dilated into nearly round black dots.
His mouth opened as if to say something, but only a muffled, choked gurgle escaped.
He looked down at his abdomen.
There, a silver-gray tentacle glistening with moisture protruded from his body.
A drop of dark red, warm blood hung from the tip.
The blood slowly slid down the surface of the tentacle and dripped onto the floor with a faint plop.
The corridor fell silent.
Utter silence.
Even the crackling of the flames seemed to vanish in that moment.
All the werewolves stood frozen in place, staring at their boss with a tentacle stabbed into his abdomen.
They were all puzzled. By all rights, an attack like this shouldn’t have been a serious injury to their bodies.
The next scene should have been their furious boss tearing the silver-haired girl apart with one swipe.
Ella lifted her head and looked at the giant beast before her, who was more than twice her height.
The corners of her mouth curved into a smile—cruel and sinister.