chapter 57- Fear within

"Hide, nobody make a sound."

We tiptoed to a large rock, using it as shelter. We haven't even seen the full body length yet, but from our guess, it seemed to be no larger than an elephant. We didn't dare to look, but we could hear the sound of something large walking.

The giant spider, black body, hair with a red back spot on its back. It stopped crawling with its legs on the ground and with a sudden motion, quickly sprung up onto the webs that were in the center of the cave. My heart beat faster; it seemed to know something was here, but it hasn't seen us just yet. Then I heard a splashing sound of water; it found the water.

If I learned anything about these monsters and beasts, it's that they weren't dumb but actually smart. They almost outwitted us on the last floor. So that means the spider probably knew that intruders came and are hiding among them.

With a sudden loud thump behind us, I knew its direction was the spot where we were. Shit, did it know our position? Closer and closer, louder and louder, its legs stalked us like a predator, and we were the prey. I noticed long legs from the spider latch onto the very tops of the rock where we were, then another pair of legs. It was going to peek over and see us.

As the spider, with a quick motion, peeked over the boulder, its eights eyes staring at my location, yet it saw nothing. It was empty, the place where it tried to locate us was devoid of any life form. Blinking its eyes, it seemed confused and angry that its dinner was gone. Its chelicerae shook and vibrated, like it was clicking its mouth. Then with slow movement, it walked toward another direction.

were under the cloak, which turned invisible. Our bodies were shaking, looking into the eyes of that thing, giving us serious trauma. Being shot by lasers or being chopped at by ghost knights sounded scary, but at least they didn't want to eat us alive. We kept watching the spider walk around the cave searching, yet it seemed frustrated, scouting. We didn't dare to breathe or move an inch; our bodies were so still that we would be accused of being statues.

After a while of not getting its fill for the day, it moved back to where it came from. And from that moment, we let our breaths out. Our lungs seemed to almost burst. I undid the spell that made us invisible as the cloak started to shrink and become normal, but we all stayed in that one spot. I looked at my hands that were shaking. Will we ever have just one moment where we won't have a traumatic experience?

But then, the feeling of that sensation of being looked down upon like prey happened. I looked up, only to see the chelicerae wide open, ready to chew my head off. The eight eyes were staring at us like it had found its food. No, this one was different; maybe there was more than one. I ducked my head, then I leaped sideways from the attack, evading in time. The others dodged as well.

I was truly understanding the natives of this realm. The tactic they used was to make the others believe that only one predator was stalking them, but in truth, it was a diversion as the real stalker would never be seen, and the prey would let their guard down. Maybe it was a tactic they used, or maybe it was just our bad luck playing out right now.

It jumped with its eight legs into the air, witnessing a spine-crawling abomination trying to jump me. I dodged out of the way again this time. But with any more delay or wasting time, it leaped, darting towards me, ready to chew my head off this time for real.

Equipping my daggers in both hands, I aimed for where every monster's weakness is – their eyes. As I stabbed its head, piercing its two eyes, that didn't stop its head from going forward, as I kept my ground, my legs sinking underneath the ground. I was being pushed back; its strength outmatched my own. My face was soaked with the liquid from its burst skull. With quick timing, I changed the angle of my feet to go at a seventy-degree angle towards the monster this time. And I jumped forward and higher than the beast, letting go of my daggers as its mouth chewed right past my body as I flew above. Summoning a second pair of daggers, I aimed at its back rear end. Impaling my weapons in the back, I slashed open a wide arc; air and flesh were being sliced open. I was lucky it wasn't a pregnant female.

It screeched in pain, letting out a scream echoing within the whole cave. Tommy quickly chopped its head off as it fell to the ground, its legs curling up, notifying us that it had been officially dead.

 [You have slain the Red Back Spider, gained 400 gold coins.]

A webbed string from one of the caves shot out, reaching Max, attaching itself to his back as it dragged him across the ground towards the hole. I chased after, reaching him and slashing the attached web, pulling Max up as we escaped, a scream from that same very hole sounding. It then reached its opening, another spider emerging. The fighting and calling for help seemed to awaken the whole nest as spiders crawled out of each and every hole.

One tried to ambush the both of us, while I escaped its mouth, and Max slid on his knees. Reaching his hand out, he summoned his spear, piercing the bottom of the spider, while I did the same trick as before, slicing the back of it open. It fell dead. [You have slain a Red Back Spider, gained 400 gold coins]

I pulled Max up and tried to find a place that was better than here. Three more approached us. I hid Max and myself underneath the cloak. The spiders seemed to not know where we vanished to. Their eyes searched every detail of the place. 

But then with a poke, a spear stabbed into one on the left, its vision quickly turning white. It had been blinded, attacking anything near it, even its own allies. The spiders of caused fought back. The only one left seemed to be the only one still searching, then it noticed a distortion in the air and leaped towards where we were. But I quickly threw three daggers at high speed towards its head, stabbing each eye. It fell, crashing to the ground while it was in pain. I took that chance to run with Max still underneath the cloak.

"Do you have enough mystic units to keep holding out?"

"Yeah, barely even used any since we entered the cave. It's best that we keep ambushing them instead."

"Good idea, you strike first so you can cause a commotion, while I deal with the ones that try to get too close," I said.

We snuck through the open field, dodging what we could and creating chaos where we could. We were stacking gold coins lately.

Tommy, on the other hand, was dashing on the boulders and jumping with a mace in his hand, facing off against a spider that was on its back legs while its front legs seemed to want to catch Tommy. While mid-air, his mace quickly transformed, melting into a giant two-handed axe. As he chopped down, his reach, no longer than what the spider expected, caught it off guard. And quickly, it was slain.