The spider and mantis began to retreat slowly toward the darkness, their black figures getting concealed by the forest’s shadows, as if responding to a command.
A shadow shifted at the far end of the clearing—massive, long, crawling on too many legs. Faint golden eyes glowed from within, watching them through the dark.
The ground still shook with constant footsteps as the new addition made an appearance.
A giant centipede with the characteristic black chitin and glowing gold eyes of an abyssal. Behind it also ca a few other turned spiritual creatures with eyes at varying degrees of red to gold, the next strongest of which seed to be a board with red and gold eyes. Kain could sense that it was proably around green-grade before it was turned.
anwhile, the spider that Kain and Abe were initially targeting, and its mantis ally at the edge of the shadows, as if waiting for sothing—perhaps the tremor had been a signal. The faint gleam of their golden eyes reflected off Aegis’s tal plating.
Kain’s voice dropped. "They’re stalling."
Before Abe could respond, the mantis shrieked—a tallic rasp that made the trees vibrate—and lunged again. Its claws t Aegis’s shield, sending sparks and fragnts of black mist scattering across the clearing.
The corrupted boar bellowed next, its tusks wreathed in faint spiritual fire, and charged straight at Vauleth’s flank.
anwhile, the centipede headed toward Queen, although it was quickly repelled by her many guards.
All the while, Bea was trying to take control of their bodies. But strangely these abyssals seed more intelligent, coordinated, and difficult to control than typical Abyssals. So far she’d been unsuccessful at controlling any but the weakest cannon fodder and the spider, mantis, centipede and boar were still strongly resisting her intrusion.
"Move!" Kain called at seeing the Mantis heading toward himself and Abe, and Aegis retaliated. The shield glowed as his spiritual circuits flaring to life. The condensed spiritual pressure surged outward, and Aegis hurled the shield like a cannonball while Vauleth attached flas to it.
The resulting shockwave from the combo move exploded through the clearing, cracking several trees and vaporizing part of the mantis’s left arm, the boar, and half of the centipede, although most of them managed to dodge the center of the attack. Considering that all three had extrely high defences, with Abe’s cuts barely making a scratch, one could only imagine how powerful the attack had been.
Even Abe froze mid-swing, his pupils constricting as the wave of power rippled past him.
"That—" Abe’s voice caught after almost being hit by the flas. "Is it really okay to use such widespread attacks?!"
Kain’s expression didn’t change. "Don’t get distracted." He gestured for a Vespid guard to intercept an attack coming toward Abe. "Aegis and Vauleth won’t hurt allies. Not to ntion even if you’re hit, my Queen would be able to nurse you back to perfect health in seconds."
Still, Abe’s knuckles were white on his hilt. The sheer destructive control he’d just witnessed was far beyond what a normal beast tar at Kain’s level should be able to wield.
The clearing went deathly quiet again. But through the Threads of Destiny flickering in Kain’s vision, he saw movent—multiple shadows converging from the edges of the forest. The corrupted spider, after fleeing into the shadows, had brought even reinforcents.
From between the trees crawled smaller abyssal creatures: warped beetles, chitinous serpents, and malford fox-like beasts. Stronger than the previous underlings used by the spider. Their red and golden eyes flickered as they encircled the two n.
"Sigh...and they just keep on coming," Kain murmured. He hoped that Serena had heard the commotion and was on her way here.
But, unfortunately, it didn’t seem the next arrival to the clearing would be her. A distortion occurred in the shadows around Kain and the spider vanished from its current location several ters away. The mont it disappeared, the air behind Kain split open as if the spider was shuttling through shadows.
Bea’s voice echoed in his mind. ’Behind you’. But Kain already knew the attack was coming without her warning. The Thread of Destiny had warned him.
The spider erupted from the shadows behind him, fangs glistening with venom. But Kain was already turning—Aegis also summoned a column of stone behind Kain, deflecting the fangs inches from his neck.
"Predictable," Kain muttered.
He shifted his focus to counterstrike, raising his hand that contained Chewy. The small spore had been continuously absorbing energy and was now ready to blow this spider into the afterlife. This was his chance to finally get rid of the giant ’pest’.
Then a streak of silver cut across his vision. Abe blurred past him, his blade glinting in the light. The sword smashed into the spider’s head, knocking it sideways into a tree.
"Got it!" Abe barked triumphantly. "You okay?"
Kain blinked, lowering his hand. "I am fine."
In fact, he was a little upset about Ab’s interference. he’d wanted to use the opportunity to kill the spider once and for all. But he knew that Abe’s intentions were to ’help’ him, so he still gave a small nod so as to not seem ungrateful. "Thanks."
The spider’s massive body twitched near the tree line, its limbs curling. Kain approached it slowly, eyes narrowed, preparing to end it for good this ti.
And after two steps out, Kain stopped his movents involuntarily.
Abe should be standing behind him at this mont, and his shadow was projected in front of Kain by the sunlight behind them. But the arm of the human shadow on the ground has changed shape at so point, looking like a pair of long blades.
Kain turned around reflexively.
However, before he could bring the other party into the field of vision, the sky and the earth suddenly rotated.
Kain’s vision fell to the ground, and then a familiar and strange headless body fell in front of his eyes.
Kain’s head struggled to look up and wanted to see the person who attacked him.
Then, a powerful slash rcilessly cut into his eyes, and even smashed his brain...
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