Like a Cockroach

Lan Xiang and Xie Jian ascended the stairway.

"Let's go!"

He started running, while Xie Jian followed after him, hand in hand.

Lan Xiang knew these stairs like the back of his hand, of course, because the principal's office was on the highest floor...

It only took an extra flight of stairs to get to the rooftop.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop...

The Spider Queen was observing the situation through the spider ghosts' vision. In a sense, she had over 100 eyes throughout the building.

"Whew, good thing that spider escaped from those pesky humans. Rather, what was it doing attacking them in the first place...? I guess it was too much to ask for intelligent henchmen."

Right now, she was full of relief, because if that spider had been exorcised, she would've been in a world of hurt. All of the spiders were part of her, after all.

As she continued to watch the rest of the spiders hunting down and eating the few remaining ghosts in the building... she saw two humans at the end of the hallway, running up the stairs at a rapid pace.

"...! They're coming for me? How did they find out?" The Spider Queen bit her lip. "No matter. They seemed to struggle against my baby spiders, ha! And they think they can take me?"

She got a bit more confident after recalling how beaten up and downtrodden they were after killing just one of her baby spiders.

With a 'hmph', she sent a command to all of her spiders. "All of you, come back to me! Except you. Yes, you. Just keep eating ghosts. Everyone else, come back! ...no, not you! You stay there and keep eating the ghosts. Wait, why did all of you stop moving? Only one gets to stay! You? You wanna stay? Too bad! Just, ugh..."

.....

Lan Xiang and Xie Jian encountered a ghost hiding in the stairway, but it didn't seem to bother scaring them anymore. Instead, it seemed to be terrified of something else.

"It must be the Spirit. He should be controlling the spiders to eat every ghost in sight! Let's go quicker!" Lan Xiang realized the urgency of the situation. They needed to get there before the Spirit retrieved all of the negative emotions accumulated by his spider ghosts!

They went up the stairs as fast as they could.

Soon enough, they arrived at the door to the rooftop.

"Tsk, it's locked!"

"Let me try." Xie Jian pushed Lan Xiang away as she conjured a very thin layer of water.

"[Blade of Water]!"

The liquid went through the gap between the two doors and cut down the lock. She pushed the doors open easily.

Lan Xiang examined the surroundings. A dome of darkness surrounded the entire school building, disallowing him to see the sun from here.

He saw a faint figure in the middle of the rooftop.

"There! It's... a female spider??" Lan Xiang examined the Spirit.

Its bottom half was of a spider, having six legs as a result, while its top half was of a human, a woman, to be precise.

Xie Jian elbowed Lan Xiang. "Hey! Focus on the situation at hand, stop staring at her boobs! Although, they are rather large..."

She looked down on her own. 'They're moderate. This is what Xiang prefers, right?'

"Ah, humans. You're here. I've expected your arrival for quite some time now. It seems you took your sweet time coming here, hee hee."

Xie Jian and Lan Xiang nodded towards each other.

The Spider Queen continued. "Ah, I can recall when I was a sweet young spider, crawling around the crevices--"

"Now!"

Xie Jian ran towards the Spider Queen while Lan Xiang stayed back as he charged the Touch of Life.

She formed two blades of ice in her hands, and one she threw towards the Spider Queen.

"B, but, I barely started my monologue!" The Spider Queen looked genuinely wronged as she easily deflected the ice blade.

Xie Jian sliced down her ice blade as she formed another one in her free hand. "Shut up! Seductress!"

She sliced her ice blades towards the Spider Queen continuously, leaving the latter no choice but to defend.

"Wh, why are you calling me a seductress??" The Spider Queen was agitated. She had never even tried seducing anyone, what the f*ck was this girl talking about?

Cling, clang!

"Tsk, you're agile, aren't you?" Xie Jian elongated the ice blades in her hand while simultaneously stomping her foot down on the floor.

She continued her assault towards the Spider Queen.

"Pesky human! Stop this instant!" The Spider Queen threw a kick towards Xie Jian with one of her many legs.

She blocked it with her ice blade, which ended up shattering. Of course, she easily replaced it with another one.

'Slowly but surely, my attacks are getting through to you!' Xie Jian could see small wounds popping up on the Spider Queen's skin here and there.

All of a sudden, the Spider Queen shot web!

Xie Jian barely dodged the large net, her foot ending up ensnared onto the floor. She cut the web off with her blade, but this gave the Spider Queen enough time to throw a few more kicks!

She blocked two of them with both her blades, the rest she dodged by a hair's breadth, all while simultaneously forming two new blades of ice in her hands.

Xie Jian found herself under the Spider Queen's body. She pierced both of the blades through her lower half and bailed!

"Aaaahhh! That hurts!"

The ice blades quickly melted away, turning into puddles on the floor before evaporating back into qi.

The Spider Queen's wounds rapidly healed as she grit her teeth. "You...! I was just messing around, but now I'm getting serious!"

The floor around her started cracking.

"Xiang, are you ready?" Xie Jian wiped the beads of sweat on her forehead.

"Not yet, a few more minutes!" Lan Xiang was charging the Touch of Life as much as he could. It was surely not enough to use the same amount he did on the spider ghosts earlier. This was their boss, she must be much stronger!

"Grr, ahhh!" His right arm started burning once more, his veins glowing a bright green.

Crack. The floor below the Spider Queen collapsed, spiders crawling through the holes that formed!

"Oh, sh*t!" Xie Jian threw multiple ice blades towards the direction of the spiders!

"Oh no, you don't!" The Spider Queen deflected each and every one of the blades.

The spiders shrunk down as they crawled up towards the Spider Queen's mouth.

'Eugh, yuck...' Xie Jian couldn't bear to watch the scene. "You think you're the only one that has reinforcements? Huh??"

She raised her palm, exerting herself. "Argh...!"

Water slowly rose from inside the building, pouring through the door, the vents, the holes that the Spider Queen made... in short, the rooftop was being flooded.

Lan Xiang did not get wet as Xie Jian carefully controlled the water to go around him.

Gulp. The Spider Queen finished consuming all of the spiders. "Hah, measly water..."

Xie Jian moaned as veins popped up on her forehead. It was hard even for her to control this much water at once, not to mention that it wasn't water made from her qi, meaning she couldn't exert control as easily.

"Grr, aaghh!"

The Spider Queen watched as all of the water around the rooftop turned into ice spikes...

"Holy, what the f*ck is this..."

"[Hail]!" Xie Jian sent all of the ice spikes towards the Spider Queen!

At the same time, she formed another two blades of ice and rushed as well!

The Spider Queen had no choice... She needed to tank some of the damage. She couldn't possibly block all of them. And so, with her eight limbs, she rapidly struck down as much of the ice spikes as she could!

While Lan Xiang watched from the side, he thought, "This Spirit would be great at Osu..."

Xie Jian arrived in front of the barely defending Spider Queen, stabbing two of her legs with the ice spikes in her hand.

With two limbs immobile, the Spider Queen became more vulnerable to the ice spikes.

"Ahh!" A spike penetrated through her human half, lodging itself on the floor.

More and more spikes pierced the Spider Queen, so much so that she couldn't even bother defending. Soon, she collapsed on the floor as the spikes pinned her down.

As she struggled to get up, she felt a foot stepping on her.

"Don't even try." Xie Jian panted heavily as she barely held the Spider Queen in place.

"Xiang, hurry! I can't hold for longer, the ice spikes will lose their form!"

Lan Xiang bit his lip. He didn't think that the amount of power he had prepared was enough yet, but seeing Xie Jian's exhausted face made him compromise. "This should be enough..."

He slowly walked towards the Spider Queen, who was still twitching all of her limbs, trying to get up.

'Rather than a spider, she looks more like a sea urchin right now...' Lan Xiang examined the sorry state the Spider Queen was in.

"Say goodbye, Spirit...!"

Lan Xiang's fingers were about to pierce the Spider Queen's chest. "Wa, wait! Wait!!"

Lan Xiang ignored the Spider Queen's pleading as he felt his fingers digging through human skin.

The wooden qi cultivated by the Touch of Life started pouring from Lan Xiang's arm, through his fingers, and into the Spider Queen's body. It spread throughout her insides.

"Ahhh! No...!" The Spider Queen felt like her insides were burning, something she never thought she would feel. Her qi corroded as they came into contact with Lan Xiang's qi, evaporating into the air.

Lan Xiang took his fingers out of the Spider Queen and sat down at a near distance. He gently massaged his right arm, which was entirely sore and pulsating.

Xie Jian watched as a green light came out of the Spider Queen's eyes and mouth, the rest of her body slowly fading away...

She released her control of the ice spikes, turning into water immediately. The Spider Queen's body was deteriorating, so she didn't feel the need to pin her down anymore.

Xie Jian walked to Lan Xiang's side and sat down as well, breathing in and out as she recuperated her qi. She had never exhausted her qi supply her entire life, and she never thought she would experience it on such an innocuous day like today.

As she leaned on Lan Xiang's shoulders, she was reeling in from the shock of almost running out of qi.

The two watched as the Spider Queen turned back into qi...

...or not.

Lan Xiang felt that all of the qi he injected into the Spider Queen ran out. He quickly observed the Spirit's state.

Both of their eyes widened as they saw the soon-to-be formless qi steadily shaping itself back into a smaller version of the Spider Queen.

Lan Xiang and Xie Jian stood up and ran towards the Spider Queen.

The latter, completely formed, breathed a sigh of relief. She faced the two hastily making their way towards her and flashed a grin, before jumping into the dark building below.