Chapter 176: Hulkish Spider
The spider rushed at Ren, eager to take him down now that he had hurled him through a wall, but Ren did not stay down. He propped himself up and attacked with a powerful breath of compressed flames. The spider crossed its arms and tried to block the attack. The flames slammed into it and threw it back, slamming the spider into the wall.
It collapsed to the ground and then rose to its feet again, eyes locked on Ren. It slowly brandished its sharp limbs against each other, and sparks flew. More lightning began to gather around it.
"You really are strong, but not enough to stop me," the spider declared and then slashed with nine hands, creating a web of lightning that rushed ahead. Ren flew into the air fast and then propelled himself forward, evading the attack cleanly while already slashing, his Soul Eater extending as it cut through the air.
Clang!
The spider blocked the attack and was pushed a few feet to the side. It planted its legs hard and unleashed a barrage of slashes, and Ren met it with his own counter of slashes, each one landing fast and explosive, the room around them getting covered in deep gashes and the wall barely holding together.
Seeing that Ren was unyielding, the spider tried to back away and recuperate, but Ren gave chase fast and continued the attack. They moved around the room extremely fast, their attacks completely destroying the room from inside, until finally Ren sighted an opening. He moved fast for it, thrusting a free hand right at the point and unleashing a gravity attack.
BAM
The force hurled the spider down and slammed it hard into the ground, cracking its thick exoskeleton.
Ren landed on the ground as well and watched the spider.
The spider got on its feet. It looked at Ren with dead eyes and full concentration. Lightning began gathering around the blade and striking into the ground, each blast digging into the marble more and more.
Ren watched him closely and then shifted his stance, and for the first time since their fight had started, he lowered his wings as if he did not plan to fight at all. He held his sword over his head with both hands.
The both of them stood without moving for a full thirty seconds, and then finally they launched. The spider leaped into the air, a trail of lightning following behind in a large, spread-out arc that connected to the back of the spider.
Ren looked up. He planted his foot into the ground and blocked the attack.
Boom
Lightning exploded all around. Ren gritted his teeth and kept pushing.
"Seems you are not all talk," Ren said and then pushed one more time, forcing the spider back.
"But you are far too weak to be my opponent." He added that part, and before the spider could understand what he meant, Ren had already crossed the distance between them. He spun and slashed. The spider followed the attack at the last moment and blocked, only for the attack to not connect and for Ren to make a fast spin to attack from the other side.
Desperate to not fall for the bait, the spider tried to block the attack with one hand. Ren blasted the hand back with gravity manipulation and cleared the path to the chest, where he slashed down hard. The blade dug through the exoskeleton and blood gushed out.
The spider staggered back as it bled. It looked at the wound and then looked up at Ren. Ren was already attacking again, using his dragon breath at close range. The flames slammed into the spider and hurled it back until it slammed into the wall.
Ren stood, figuring it would be hard for the spider to get up from such a string of attacks. But then a black fume began to come out of the spider, and its host began growing in size. It rose to its feet, standing at over eight feet, all like some Hulk spider. It looked humanoid yet a complete monster.
"Seems you don’t go down easy, insect."
"I’ll tease you, it appears," the spider roared in a heavy, distorted voice. It launched forward, moving extremely fast as it covered the distance in an instant and thrust its arm toward Ren’s guts. Ren watched the attack and moved to the side fast. He managed to evade the attack and then attacked with a rendering claw right there. The claws dug into the exoskeleton and pushed the spider back.
Ren followed up with a blast of lightning from his palm, hitting the spider hard and throwing it back, but even then, it did not seem like it was going to give up. It suddenly hunched over, and gaps in its exoskeleton showed. Webs sprayed out of them rapidly and webbed the entire room around Ren every three feet.
"You’ve got to be joking," Ren said in an exhausted voice.
"Now dodge this," the spider said and attacked with a lightning slash. The surge of massive lightning ripped through the air. Ren activated Iron Scale and covered himself with his wings. The lightning slammed into him, and he hit the wall hard and broke right through it, leaving Ren outside the room.
Ren stood there, waiting for the dust to calm down. He knew that the insect would attack through it, and he was getting ready for him.
He transformed into a dragonnewt-like state where he was above seven feet and looked like a very powerful lizard man. He opened his mouth and began gathering his flames in his mouth. The flames gathered until the spider burst through viciously. It spotted Ren standing there and knew that Ren was ambushing it, so it tried to bank right hard and evade whatever was to come.
Ren unleashed a widespread stream of concentrated flames that the spider could not dodge. The flames engulfed its arms before it managed to fully dodge.
It hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop, half of its body burned badly.