251 Chapter 197: Three Way Battle Part 2

Joshua wasn't wrong in his assumption since the two beast seemed to be a little more intelligent then he initially gave them credit for. The spider was starting to strike at Joshua more and more often while occasionally throwing strikes over him trying to get to the rest of the group. Of course the Carsen brothers were there for back up and would work together to block off these strikes. For now none of them were trying to injure the spider with counter strikes although Joshua thought that might be impossible with how fast the attacks were.

On the other hand the snake had started trying to sneak its tail around Jayce's defenses, but Abigail would step in and hit it with a stunning strike to get it to freeze up for a moment and that was more than long enough for Jayce to recover his positioning. Both creatures were starting to get angered by Joshua's group being the only participants in the three way battle that weren't getting injured. The snake had managed to break one of the spider's legs and leave a long gash along its back while the spider had left several gashes along the snake's body along with having torn into one of its eyes. Both creatures were realizing the situation and Joshua knew it was about time to switch up tactics.

"Alright Guys when the creatures start to gang up on us, which will happen very soon, it will be time to go on the offensive. Melee fighters try to get in as much damage on that spider as possible. All of its attacks force it to come into close range so take that as a chance to get in a good attack. Range fighters and mages focus on damaging the body of the snake since it is far bigger and easier to hit." Joshua explained before blocking another one of the spider's blows. This time around the spider had leapt back when its attack was blocked instead of continuing to go after the snake. The snake also seemed to disengage as it turned its one good eye towards Joshua's group and started to hiss as its head rose up preparing to strike out at them.

That's when Joshua knew that the fight was officially taking a shift. Both of the creatures had decided to team up and take on the annoying humans that had been constantly avoiding their more casual attacks. Now they'd be going all out against Joshua and he was prepared for it. "Go on the assault guys!" He shouted before flaring his aura and preparing to take on the charge of both of the creatures. Madalyn was the first one to react as she tossed out two canisters towards the creatures and a dark green gas began to pour out at a quick pace. It didn't take long for the gas to surround the spider and the head of the snake as both creatures seemed to have trouble breathing after a moment.

The spider jumped out of the poisonous gas and latched on to the side of the canyon while the snake started to rise up above the gas and glare down at the group. Madalyn seemed to smile even more when she noticed that the snake hadn't left the gas completely and looked towards Laura who got the meaning of the gaze and sent a powerful fireball into the green gas causing it to ignite into a bright flame. The spider was able to avoid the explosion for the most part, but the snake shrieked in pain as a large part of its body had gotten caught up in the fire. When both of the beast started looking past Joshua to the rest of the group in anger he immediately used his heroic shout to regain their attention before sending out an energy slash to cut into the snakes body a bit and get it even angrier.

Joshua was surprised when the snake wasn't actually the first one of the creatures to strike back at him as the spider leaped off of the wall towards Joshua and tried to smash him with its two front legs. Joshua blocked the blows and was pushed back a bit from the force of the strikes, but he wasn't able to counter attack in time as the spider leaped back into the air while the snake came striking just after. Joshua used a sword smash to knock the snakes giant head back a bit just as it was about to try and swallow him whole. The brief moment where the snakes head was knocked up in the air was long enough for it to get hit by another large fireball that burnt off some of its scales while Aito started shooting its body with heavy rounds that would break even more of its scales.

While this was happening Lilly summoned both Cinder and Tank while putting away Mr. Hoppy and Jade. The sight of two new giant creatures seemed to surprise both of the injured beast as Cinder let out a shriek towards the other spider while Tank let out a deep rumble towards the snake. Cinder leaped towards the other spider while Ice started forming around her body and the cold air grew even colder as she sent out a cold fog towards the spider. Before it could jump out of the way it was surprised to find its legs wrapped in vines which caused it to stumble and give Cinder enough time to smash into its side. The spider was bigger than Cinder, but she had more weight behind her and she was putting it to use.

The melee fighters in the group rushed over towards the spider and took the opportunity where Cinder had grabbed its attention to go all in on the large spider. Tank on the other hand had made his way over to the snake that was now hissing at him. It tried to intimidate Tank by raising its body up into the air and looking down on Tank, but it didn't seem to work as Tank started gathering moisture in the air and even used his most recent skill to create more moisture. This made it so that the snake's body was getting chilled rather quickly with the combination of the heavy moisture along with the strong cold chill. This wasn't exactly a good thing for a severely injured cold blooded animal.

The snake tried to go in for an attack on Tank by wrapping around his shell, but he simply bit into its long body creating even more damage while ignoring the snake's attempts to crack his shell by the force of its squeezing. The snake was powerful, but Tanks shell wasn't something that could be cracked with just a little pressure. Especially with the change in its shape that made it hard for the snaked muscles to get any good grip on the shell. The long range members of the group got to work blasting the parts of the snake that weren't currently wrapped around Tank and they could hear it hiss loudly in pain before Tank took the opportunity to coat its mouth in aura and tear into its thick skin even more with its mouth.

The large spider wasn't having a good time either as Cinder had knocked it over and ripped off one of its legs since Joshua had last looked in that direction. It was bleeding a lot from the torn off leg, but it was still a powerful creature that wasn't going to just sit back and do nothing while it was getting torn apart. The spider knocked Cinder back with a pair of its powerful legs. It was about to try to leap up and pin Cinder beneath it, but a blast of venom to the face had cause it to leap back in pain. Unfortunately for it Cinder wasn't the only one their fighting it as Amy slammed her fist into its back with her knock back ability. The force of the blow forced it into the ground where everyone else was waiting for it.

Adam had his shadow come out as he dived in with his large pair of short blades that were heavy set allowing him to use his boost in strength to the best of his abilities. He started focusing on one of the spider's front legs and soon he had decimated it to the point where it was nothing more than a mangled mess. The three Carsen brother had rushed over and started acting like lumberjacks as they each walked up to one leg and started hacking way. Adrian on the other hand was smoothly gliding underneath the spider with his shadow steps and was hitting weak points all along the way. By the end of it he had cut off its two back legs. Leaving the spider to fall over in a heap on to the ground.

Before the spider could do anything else Allen had used his spear along with his energy to create a longer reach to slash across the spiders eyes blinding it and making it nothing more than a struggling hopeless insect at this point that was being wrapped up in Cinder's webs. She didn't let it live long as she ripped into its head with her legs and put it out of its misery. The entire group could feel the surge in experience flooding them. The snake seemed surprise that the little group of humans was able to take down such a powerful adversary and was starting to wonder if it should try to break away from the fight and run away. Both the spider and the snake were used to taking on weaker creatures and not actually having to struggle in a fight.

It would have tried to run, but it was impossible with the way Tank had bit into it and was holding it in place. The snake could only struggle and try to break free as the rest of its body was bombarded with a combination of fire spells, bombs, bullets, and arrows. It was starting to bleed to much as the chill was effecting its strength. The poison cloud that Madalyn had created earlier was also taking effect making the snake more sluggish as its muscles were no longer able to strongly grip on to Tank's shell making its struggle seem even more pointless.

It tried to unwrap itself, but pain once again shot through its body as an arrow seemed to curve in the air before piercing through its one good eye. Natalie had added more force to the arrow with her telekinesis causing the snake to rear up in pain and that was all the opportunity that Joshua needed. He leaped up on to Tank's shell and coated his scale blade in aura. He stabbed deep into the snake's lower mouth before leaping and cutting up. The momentum cut the snakes bottom jaw open as Joshua flipped over its mouth and hovered over the top of the blinded snake's head before stabbing his scale blade straight through its skull. The giant snake's entire body went limp after a few seconds before it fell over and crashed into the ground.

Everyone in the group could feel a huge surge of experience and Joshua even gained a level which meant Lilly probably did as well since their levels were so close to each other. Cinder seemed to be excitedly jumping at the fact that she had proven that she was strong enough to take on a fellow spider while Tank seemed to be busy shrugging off the dead body of the snake. Joshua looked over to it and realized that the body probably could be used to make some decent equipment, but nothing he was terribly interested in.

"Well that was quite the battle, although I doubt it would have went so well if they weren't fighting each other in the first place." Madalyn said with a sigh as she looked over the dead snake. She seemed to shake her head as if she was disappointed with something before walking away. "A snake with no poison is such a waste."

Joshua just shrugged at the comment before putting the giant body of the snake in his inventory so that Nathan and Naomi could see if they could make any good equipment out of the materials from the powerful snake. The spider however didn't really have a tough exoskeleton by the way everyone in the group was able to tear through it so easily. It wouldn't make for any good equipment so he just let Cinder cocoon the body to try to eat later. It was weird seeing a cocoon that was actually bigger than Cinder for a change. Joshua just let out a sigh before smiling with a bit of excitement at what the dungeon probably had in store with such powerful creatures showing up before they even reached the place.