Not the Hunter, But the Prey (1)

"Ha… Ha…" I panted heavily while holding my spear in both hands.

In front of me, the giant spider was twitching violently as the lightning on my spear invaded its body.

But to my surprise, it did not die.

It slowly turned in my direction, using its remaining six eyes to stare at me.

I smiled bitterly.

"You must be joking…"

Before I could finish talking, one of the spider's legs pierced towards my abdomen.

"Fuck!" I barely managed to pull my spear out and use it to block the attack, but the strength of the spider flung me away.

My vision became dark. I felt as though my arms had been broken, and all the air left my lungs.

Coughing, I raised my head, only to see the spider rushing towards me.

It seemed like it would not rest before killing me.

But just then, one of the nearby Awakened attacked it.

"Just die!" The Awakened hit its head, making the spider dizzy.

Before it could react, another Awakened attacked one of its legs, cutting a section of it.

Andrew followed with another attack, piercing its abdomen from a different direction as Karime and Jessica used ice and fire to harass it.

Seeing that, I thrust my spear forward, piercing one of its eyes and pushing my spear deep into its head.

The spider, who was already about to die, finally succumbed to its injuries.

I sighed in relief. Damn, that was hard…

So that is a tier-five monster, huh.

I don't want to fight something like that again… At least, for the time being…

At that moment, I heard Andrew's voice.

"Jane! Are you alright!?" He shouted while using his metallic pipe to swat a spider away.

I smiled bitterly and nodded. Then, I forced my heavy body to stand up.

But all of sudden, an intense sense of danger invaded my body.

My pupils constricted, my entire body tensed up, and my senses sharpened.

The feeling of death made me feel suffocated.

[Boy! Behind you!] The demon shouted.

I reacted immediately.

My body felt strangely light, and time seemed to run slower. It was as though my entire being was exploding with every ounce of potential to escape this danger.

When I turned around, I finally saw the source of the danger.

A pointy piece of metal as big as an apple.

It was flying towards me at great speed, almost as fast as a bullet. Even in my slowed perception of time, I could barely follow it with my eyes.

In an instant, I realized that if I did nothing, this piece of metal would pierce my heart.

My first reaction was to avoid it, but I quickly discarded it. With the size of that piece of metal, it only needed to graze my body to tear out a chunk of it.

Then, I could only stop it.

"AAARGH!"

Roaring, I forced my body to move beyond the limits and put my spear in front of my chest.

Mana was directed to the spear to make it as tough as possible. At the same time, I sent the rest of my mana to the rest of my body to help it to endure the impact.

Then–

*Boom!*

With an explosive sound, the metallic piece hit my body.

The power behind it threw my body hundreds of meters away. It bounced several times on the ground before stopping

"Jane!"

"Brother-in-law!"

"Jane!"

I heard the voices of my friends with my fuzzy consciousness, but I could not pay attention to them. I could not even string my thoughts together.

I was dying.

But at that moment, I felt something cool running through my body.

[Wake up, boy. He is here.]

The voice of the demon brought me back to reality.

I gasped and grabbed my chest, gritting my teeth to endure the pain.

'… What happened?'

[He is here.] The demon said. [Get ready. It's time to see if you can kill him or not.]

My mind immediately became clear. Following the demon's words, I looked in the distance.

There, I saw a man glaring in my direction with a murderous expression.

'The leader of the robbers.' My gaze sharpened as my thoughts were filled with rage.

This bastard…!

He almost kills me!

[Calm down. Remember my teachings. Rage can be your worst enemy. It blinds your senses and clouds your judgment.]

'I know.' I took a deep breath and suppressed my rage, replacing it with cold rationality.

Then, I stood up and stared in the direction of the man.

The man seemed surprised that I seemed alright. He was confident that his last attack could injure me gravely or kill me outright.

He could not understand how I survived.

In fact, that attack would have killed me. But at the last second, I felt my mana moving in a strange way, killing a lot of the projectile's momentum.

I'm sure it was something the demon did.

Even so, I was gravely injured. Without the demon healing me, I would be unable to move.

At that moment, I saw Andrew, Karime, and Mary rushing towards me in a panic.

But the force of the projectile had thrown me hundreds of meters away from them, and there were several spiders between us. They would need around one minute to reach my location.

Right now, the wisest choice was to gather with them. The leader of the robbers won't dare to attack me if I'm with them.

However, this was the perfect opportunity to start my plan.

"Demon, do it," I murmured under my breath.

[Good luck, boy.] The demon smirked with an amused voice.

Next, a part of my mana left my body.

The mana gathered around me, amplifying something stuck on my body.

The spiders' pheromones.

Almost instantly, countless spiders looked in my direction.

Their blood-red eyes stared at me as though I was their worst enemy.

Then, as though they were crazy, they rushed towards me.

"Perfect." I nodded. Then, feigning a frightened expression, I ran away in the opposite direction of the Awakened.

"Jane! Stay there!" Mary shouted, but I did not listen to her.

Now I'm the bait, and a fish only bites when the bait is attractive enough.

Just like now.

Am I right, Mr. Robber?

I'm alone and injured. This is the perfect time to kill me.

Then, come and chase after me.

Yes, just like that.

However, I'm afraid that you are not the hunter, but the prey.

...

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