Chapter 259: Spider’s Lair [II / Bonus - ]
Meanwhile, up on the frontline, Vespera was carving a path of total destruction directly toward the Spider Queen.
SWISH! CRUNCH!
Vespera executed a single-handed diagonal slash, cleanly bisecting two Rank 2 spiders that tried to jump her from the left flank.
"Heh..."
She didn’t slow her momentum for a single millisecond, charging straight down the central lane toward the towering thirty-foot Boss monster.
’It looks quite terrifying, I guess I really don’t like spiders.’
Seeing the terrifying single-armed female human charging straight toward her, the Spider Queen’s compound eyes shrank in alarm.
"KREE?!"
Vespera raised her longsword, channeling her Gold Core’s wind mana into a sixty-foot razor blade.
’Gale Guillotine!’ Vespera thought.
BOOM!
Vespera unleashed the massive wave of emerald wind blades straight at the Spider Queen’s head. The spell cleaved through the damp air, clearing a wide empty corridor through the remaining spiders.
The Spider Queen’s compound eyes darted behind her body.
Her ten precious, newly laid eggs were resting directly behind her abdomen... If she dodged Vespera’s incoming wind blade, the sixty-foot spell would slam flush into her egg clutch and obliterate her unborn children instantly!
"SCREEEE!"
The Spider Queen chose to protect her nest.
She lurched her massive, thirty-foot body forward, throwing her heavily armored thorax directly into the path of the incoming wind blade to tank the strike.
Or... at least... that was what Vespera originally assumed the monster was doing.
In reality—
FLASH!
The second before the [Gale Guillotine] could touch the monster’s hide, the Spider Queen opened her gaping mandibles and unleashed a blinding high-frequency spray of invisible dense silk threads!
The silk threads were completely transparent to the naked eye up until the exact moment of impact.
They condensed into an intricate inter-locking woven shield floating three feet in front of the monster’s chest!
CLANG... KRA-THOOM!
Vespera’s powerful wind blade slammed flush into the invisible silk shield.
The force of the spell shattered the outer layer of the web armor, penetrating through like a heavy spear and carving a three-inch-deep, bleeding wound into the Spider Queen’s chest carapace but it completely failed to slice deep enough to reach her vital organs!
The Spider Queen let out a painful hiss, stepping back, but her body remained entirely functional.
Vespera pulled her longsword back, her deep purple eyes widening in genuine surprise.
’Are those silk webs really that insanely durable?!’ Silas thought in shock behind his female disguise. ’A point-blank Gale Guillotine infused with my Gold Core mana only carved a shallow three-inch wound through those threads?!’
A sudden economic idea flared inside Silas’s mind.
’If these spider webs possess that level of hyper-dense and spell-repelling durability...’ Silas realized with excitement, ’then I wouldn’t mind at all if those silk threads were brought back to the Keep! Our territory’s Tailor and Thora could use that material to craft legendary spell-resistant robes and lightweight armor sets for all the girls!’
However, there was an obvious logistical problem: a thirty-foot hostile Spider Queen was obviously not going to hand over her priceless silk threads willingly.
Vespera shifted her violet gaze, looking past the wounded Spider Queen to the pile of ten pulsating translucent white eggs resting in the back corner of the cavern.
A plan quickly began forming in Silas’s mind.
’Wait a minute...’ Silas analyzed carefully. ’Are those ten eggs specifically her royal bloodline? The lower-tier worker spiders in this nest don’t seem to possess higher intelligence... they just follow her hive command but her direct egg offspring might hatch into intelligent high-tier spider mounts or web-producers! If I capture those ten eggs alive and take them back to the Blessed Land, Reina could tame them! We could establish an endless internal supply of indestructible silk right inside our own place!’
Silas’s eyes shone with determination.
He was fully prepared to maneuver the fight, subdue the Spider Queen without destroying her nest, and secure those ten eggs as territorial loot.
However... fate had other plans.
At that exact moment, over on the right flank of the chamber—
Hiro, the blindfolded Hero, was currently surrounded by three massive Rank 2 armored spiders.
The beasts were firing continuous streams of sticky webbing and snapping their venomous mandibles at his throat.
Hiro dodged three incoming web sprays with precise, elegant sidesteps with his blindfolded face twisting into an annoyed arrogant scowl.
’This is getting utterly tedious...’ Hiro thought bitterly in his mind, his pride chafing at taking so long to clear lower-tier monsters on live stream. ’I refuse to waste any more time messing around with these worthless bugs while Lord Sky and that woman are watching!’
Hiro drew his broadsword back, channeling his specialized steel mana into an advanced, high-speed execution skill.
’Invisible Blade!’ Hiro thought!
SWISH-SWISH!
Hiro executed two instantaneous microscopic slashes.
Two dense invisible blades of pressurized steel mana shot out, cleanly decapitating the first two Rank 2 spiders before they could even react!
Without pausing for a breath, Hiro whirled around to face the third charging Rank 2 spider... He didn’t use his sword.
Instead, he channeled every ounce of his physical muscle strength into his left boot and delivered a brutal physical kick straight into the spider’s head.
BOOM!
The force was catastrophic as the third Rank 2 spider’s skull was shattered instantly, killing it on impact.
However... Hiro had kicked the spider carcass with far too much un-calculated force.
FWOOSH!
The massive dead spider carcass shot through the air like a heavy cannonball! It flew straight past the wounded Spider Queen, completely overshooting her position, and hurtled straight toward the back corner of the cavern.
CRUNCH! SPLAT! SQUELCH!
The multi-ton dead spider landed with a sickening crushing thud... directly flat on top of the pile of ten precious spider eggs!
All ten translucent white eggs were instantly crushed into pulverized oblivion!
A massive disgusting wave of thick, yellow unborn egg yolk and shattered eggshells erupted violently across the stone floor, filling the entire cavern with the pungent sweet scent of destroyed life.
"..."
Inside her disguise, Silas went completely frozen.
’Fucking hell...!’ Silas screamed internally, his face turning pale as he watched millions of credits worth of indestructible silk production get turned into an omelet in a single second!
For one long suffocating heartbeat, total silence gripped the subterranean chamber.
The Spider Queen slowly rotated her massive iron-black head.
Her eight glowing purple compound eyes stared at the crushed remains of her nest... at the thick pool of yellow yolk rapidly spreading across the dirt where her ten unborn children had rested just seconds ago.
Her entire body began to violently tremble.
She turned her compound eyes away from the yolk, her gaze locking directly onto Hiro... who was casually dusting off his leather boot and spitting on the ground without a single care in the world.
The Spider Queen’s mind completely shattered into pure, unadulterated, motherly grief and psychotic, apocalyptic rage!
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"
The Spider Queen unleashed a shrill and catastrophic scream of pure agony that was so insanely loud it physically cracked the stone bedrock beneath their boots, blowing a massive shockwave across the entire cavern.
A visible shockwave of sound and dark mana erupted from her gaping mandibles, blowing away the surrounding white silk webbing and sending rock dust raining down from the ceiling.
Her eight glowing purple compound eyes, previously filled with cold predatory instinct, were now burning with pure psychotic hatred.
She didn’t look at Vespera, she didn’t look at Lord Sky, and she didn’t look at Aeli.
Her entire mind was fixated on one single individual... the blindfolded swordsman who had just casually crushed her entire clutch of ten unborn children into a puddle of thick yellow yolk...
BOOM!
The thirty-foot monster lunged forward, her eight hairy iron-armored legs tearing up deep trenches in the stone floor.
She charged straight at Hiro with suicidal reckless speed, completely ignoring her own bleeding chest wound.
Up on the floating camera drones, the live stream chat erupted into a wave of panicked messages...
[@GamerGod99: HOLY SHIT SHE’S GOING CRAZY FOR HIRO!]
[@SovereignWatcher: WATCH OUT HIRO!]
[@NoobMaster69: SHE IS PISSED BRO!]
[@PVP_Legend: Hiro dodge that!]
[@ValoriaFan: Hiro look out!]
Hiro stood his ground, cursing under his breath as the massive shadow of the enraged mother boss enveloped his frame.
"Tch... annoying pest," Hiro muttered bitterly.
Because he wore a thick cloth blindfold over his eyes, Hiro couldn’t visually see the incoming thirty-foot spider.
Instead, his spatial perception relied on atmospheric displacement, sound frequency, and the subtle shifting of air currents caused by movement.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
The Spider Queen lashed out with her front two multi-ton razor limbs, while simultaneously spraying a barrage of high-pressure, sticky white webbing from her spinnerets.
Hiro was instantly forced onto the defensive.
He executed rapid precise sidesteps across the silk-covered ground, his leather boots blurring as he deflected the incoming multi-ton leg stabs with the flat of his broadsword.
CLANG! CLANG! BANG!
Sparks exploded into the damp air with every collision.
Hiro’s teeth were gritted tightly as he felt the force behind the monster’s grief-fueled frenzy.
’She’s moving faster than before,’ Hiro thought, his brow furrowing as he ducked beneath a sweeping web spray that hissed corrosively against the stone wall behind him. ’And against a Tier 3 Boss monster, simple physical deflections aren’t going to create an opening...’
Hiro knew he possessed high-tier wide-area execution techniques capable of cleaving the thirty-foot beast in half instantly.
However, doing so on a live stream would mean exposing yet another one of his hidden trump cards to the global audience and more importantly, to Lord Vespera, who was standing just thirty paces away watching his every move.
Deciding to play it safe for the broadcast, Hiro pushed off his back foot, executing a high-speed backward dash.
ZIP!
While airborne, he channeled his blue steel mana, unleashing a volley of invisible ranged slashes from his blade.
’Invisible Slash!’ Hiro thought.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Multiple compressed waves of steel mana whirred through the air, striking the Spider Queen’s advancing thorax.
CLANG! CLANG!
Against ordinary monsters, those slashes would have sliced through flesh like butter. But against a Tier 3 Boss monster driving forward with maximum mana reinforcement, the invisible blades merely bounced off her thick black carapace plates, leaving shallow white scratches across her armor.
"SCREEE!"
The monster didn’t even slow down, leaping into the air with her mandibles open wide to crush Hiro’s upper body.
"Hiro!" Lord Sky roared from the left flank.
Sky didn’t stand by and watch his main Hero get overwhelmed.
He stepped forward, thrusting his gauntleted hand toward the airborne Spider Queen while channeling his primary elemental affinity.
’Hydraulic Surge!’ Sky thought.
BOOM!
A massive hundred-gallon torrent of pressurized blue water erupted directly from Sky’s open palm.
The heavy wave of water struck the thirty-foot spider flush in her exposed underbelly mid-leap.
The hydraulic impact was immense.
"GURGHHHH!"
The thirty-foot monster let out a startled shriek as the roaring water current completely canceled her forward momentum, sending her massive multi-ton body tumbling backward through the air until she crashed heavily onto the stone floor, landing completely upside down on her back with her eight hairy legs flailing helplessly.
CRASH!
Standing near the edge of the cavern, Vespera watched the entire exchange with a calm expression on her face.
Inside her female disguise, Silas Graves was studying Hiro with keen interest.
’He’s never used this level of sword control on his regular stream broadcasts before,’ Silas analyzed silently. ’He’s holding back his true output because of the cameras, but his base is remarkably clean.’
Up in the air, Hiro took full advantage of the opportunity Sky had created.
STOMP!
Hiro vaulted off a stone pillar, launching himself high into the cavern rafters directly above the upside-down Spider Queen.
While suspended mid-air, Hiro brought his double-edged broadsword across his chest, the steel blade igniting with an intense sapphire light.
His blindfolded face hardened into a scowl as he channeled his blue mana to its physical compression limit.
’Invisible Slash: Maximum Cuts!’ Hiro thought.
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!
Hiro didn’t just swing his sword once or twice... he executed over fifty microscopic stroke variations in less than a tenth of a second.
The ambient air inside the chamber collapsed.
SLICK! SLICK! CRUNCH!
Even though no visible energy beams left his sword, dozens of deep horrifying slash marks violently manifested across the Spider Queen’s exposed underbelly simultaneously.
The hyper-dense wind-and-steel compression carved deeper and deeper through her carapace plates, ripping through muscle tissue and severing internal organs.
Vespera’s deep purple eyes glowed with a faint golden-tinged light as Silas activated his Gold Core sensory perception to break down the technique.
’I see...’ Silas thought with a revelation flashing through his mind. ’I see how the technique actually works.’