Alexander watched the aardvark ahead through the drone's eyes. It was a very large animal, nearly two and a half meters long. At least, compared to the ones he had seen in zoos back on Earth, it was. But he soon noticed that the sensations reaching him felt blurred. The drone was far away, and the flow of information coming from it was weak. Alexander ordered his eighth drone to remain where it was and to follow the aardvark if it decided to leave. Then he released the unstable connection between his mind and the drone.
Trying to keep full control over both the drone and his own body at the same time was difficult for him. It was clear that his brain did not yet have the capacity to handle two tasks simultaneously, and he was still thinking about how to solve this problem. When designing the system, he had never considered how queens might overcome such a limitation, but now he needed to find a solution. He knew that his inability to manage multiple processes at once was a serious weakness, especially for a hive-mind species.
Still, for the moment, he pushed those thoughts aside and focused on his target. He ordered his drones to follow him and began moving forward at a quiet but steady pace. It took him two minutes to reach the scout drone hiding behind a large tree. Now he could finally see the prey with his own eyes. He studied the animal carefully, weighing its features in his mind. With its enormous shovel-like claws, it had dug into the anthill. At first glance, he understood that it could dig tunnels like the badger, and he did not want to end up in the same situation as before. Then he examined its hind legs. They were clearly more muscular than its front ones. Its claws were not as long as the front claws, but they still looked dangerous.
Carefully, and using the viewpoints of his smaller drones as well, he continued observing and analyzing the animal. He noticed that at certain moments the aardvark pushed its long snout completely into the soil to catch ants more efficiently, and just before doing so it could completely close its nostrils. With that realization, a plan began to form in his mind.
The distance between him and the aardvark was roughly forty meters. He calculated that if he tried to approach by running from that distance, the animal would notice him too early. Silently, he began climbing the tree he was hiding behind. Fortunately, the tree had low branches, so climbing it was not difficult.
He climbed up to a higher branch facing the aardvark and tried to feel the direction of the wind.
The wind was blowing gently from the front toward him. A satisfied expression appeared on his face. He knew that most animals had a strong sense of smell. That was why he had paid attention to the direction of the wind. He did not want his prey to detect him by scent before he could reach it.
So he waited a little longer for the aardvark to bury that long snout of its into the soil again. At last, the movement he had been waiting for came. At that exact moment, Alexander leapt forward from the tree with all his strength. He covered several meters in the air before landing on the ground. With that jump alone, he had already closed six or seven meters of the distance between them. Now all he had to do was run with everything he had. And he did.
From the moment he began running, his speed increased rapidly, and within seconds he reached his maximum pace. Months of feeding on plants had already helped him lose excess weight and improve his endurance significantly.
As the wind struck his face while he ran, he felt so fast that he thought it might even be difficult to stop. The first ten meters took him three seconds to cross. The next ten took less than one.
The aardvark's enormous ears, huge compared to its body, suddenly stood upright like a rabbit's, moving independently of each other. Its sensitive hearing quickly detected the vibrations in both the air and the ground. It did not even feel the need to turn around. Its shovel-like front claws instinctively began digging into the soil with all their strength, this time not for food but for survival.
It dug so quickly that within seconds it created a hole large enough to fit inside. It immediately dove in and tried to move forward through the tunnel. With powerful hind legs, it kicked the loosened soil backward behind it.
But before the aardvark could advance any deeper into the tunnel, Alexander thrust his head into the opening. The impact of the soil forced him to close his eyes, but he did not care. He did not need to see anyway. His prey's thick, long tail was right in front of his jaws. His sharp teeth sank into the heavy tail.
Alexander clamped his jaws shut with all his strength and broke the aardvark's tailbone. Now, while the animal tried to kick at his face with the sharp claws of its hind legs, he pulled the large prey back out of the tunnel with all his strength.
He worried that the blows might strike his eyes and blind him, so he lifted his head as much as he could to protect them. But this time the strikes landed on his neck instead, drawing blood.
Still, Alexander endured and kept pulling. Finally, he succeeded. He dragged the animal completely out of the tunnel and swung it by the tail before throwing it aside.
The animal let out an angry shriek and quickly got back on its feet and started running. Alexander immediately chased after it. Of course, the aardvark had no chance of outrunning a Nuxali, and it seemed to know that as well. Just as the predator was about to catch it, the aardvark suddenly rolled sideways and changed direction.
But it failed to surprise him. Alexander had not been running at full speed. He had already anticipated such a move and pretended to lunge straight at it, baiting the reaction. As soon as the aardvark rolled away, he stopped at once and lunged diagonally, landing directly on his opponent.
The moment the predator came down on top of it, the aardvark's instinctive choice between fight and flight shifted completely. The urge to flee vanished, replaced by the urge to fight. Fear was suppressed as adrenaline and other hormones surged through its body, and it threw itself onto its back.
It raised all four of its clawed limbs toward the predator, trying to keep him from getting closer.
Alexander made several attempts to seize the animal's throat, but each time the aardvark threatened to rake his face with its claws. Its neck and face were areas not protected by the osteoderm layer, or only barely covered in some places. They were his weak points, and he did not want to take that risk.
Instead, he chose to rely on the armored protection of his back and chest. He leapt forward at an angle where he believed the aardvark's claws would not reach the vulnerable gaps between his plates. After that, everything became chaos.
The aardvark tried to tear the predator apart with its claws, but its strikes did little more than rip at the scaled skin. Its claws were not strong enough to penetrate the osteoderm layer.
Alexander, in turn, began slashing at the animal beneath him with his own claws, but its hide was extremely thick. He was dealing more damage than his opponent, of course, yet his claws did not always reach flesh. The aardvark still retained much of its ability to fight.
The real struggle happened above.
Alexander lunged repeatedly, trying to tear open his prey's throat with his teeth, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not secure a grip on its neck in the middle of that violent struggle. Each time the animal realized he was aiming for its throat, it threatened to bite his face. Seeing this, Alexander changed tactics.
He feinted another attack toward the neck, tricking his opponent, and this time drove his teeth into the aardvark's long snout and lower jaw instead.
For a brief moment, he could hear the animal's cries echoing in his mind, but he did not release his grip. Instead, he applied even more force.
Crack.
The sound echoed inside his skull. The animal's fragile jawbones shattered. Alexander did not know the exact details, but the aardvark's snout was highly specialized for underground hunting and digging, filled with dense nerve structures.
Under these conditions, the animal's airways were immediately blocked. Then the rupture of the delicate blood vessels in its snout followed. The aardvark suddenly began bleeding internally and externally, and Alexander's mouth filled with blood as well.
With those structures destroyed so suddenly, the animal's pain threshold was exceeded. The aardvark suffered severe brain trauma, and its nervous system entered a state of shock. It began to feel less pain, but at the same time, it also lost its ability to respond.