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Chapter 195: The Huntress

The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Planet Sinetera)

(Sector R-098 – Island 020)

It was a beautiful day.

The two yellow suns high above in the sky were illuminating the crystal-clear waters of a large lake.

Skeletal bird-like creatures soared above the cool waters while aquatic lizards cheerfully chased after microorganisms hiding in the sand.

The deeper parts of the lake contained larger beasts in all manner of shapes and sizes.

Their razor-sharp teeth, massive bodies and strange appendages would be enough to strike fear in anyone foolish enough to be caught in their grasp.

And yet all of these terrifying monsters were currently hiding deep within their burrows and praying desperately that the true King of the lake would not notice them.

Luckily for them it seemed that the King was occupied with a new type of prey.

A hybrid girl with four blade-like appendages was currently trapped inside a massive array of green plant-like tendrils.

She was being held underwater and bubbles would exit her mouth whenever she released some air.

Strangely enough, there was no expression of terror or confusion on the girl's face as she peacefully closed her eyes as if sleeping.

Red flowers bloomed near her face and every few seconds an explosion of orange liquid with small grainy particles inside would occur from the center of these flowers.

This orange liquid entered the facial orifices of the hybrid girl and she seemed to fall deeper under a hypnotic spell.

This was the true deadliness of the Mirage Maw!

Mirage Maw were classified as a species somewhere in between a plant and an animal on their home planet of Lorusea.

They could be found in most types of environments with the exception of places that had extreme temperature fluctuation.

It was not due to an overwhelming strength that caused them to be known as apex predators but rather a particularly troublesome ability.

Illusion Pollen.

Few animals could resist the hallucinations caused by the pollen sprayed out from the red flowers swaying so innocently.

The Mirage Maw would hunt by first surprising their prey with a quick jab to their lower half and then hurriedly exposing them to the pollen.

The prey would then be dragged to a safe place where special tendrils would inject digestive liquids inside the animal that would melt their insides.

Another tendril would enter the body of the prey and suck up this gooey biomass substance.

So far everything had gone roughly as planned.

The hybrid girl may have had unusually high awareness, so the initial ambush was not successful, but she failed to escape the widespread explosion radius of the pollen blast.

The Mirage Maw groaned happily as it dragged the strong prey into the murky depths but was now faced with a problem.

Its tendrils could not penetrate the skin of the humanoid prey!

No matter how hard the Mirage Maw tried, its tendrils would just shatter against the fair skin of its prey.

If Sophie had still been in the qi spirit stage during the encounter with the Mirage Maw, then the barrier device would have already been activated once she got caught.

Every student was monitored closely by a team of exam invigilators who could activate the barrier device remotely in the event of an emergency.

Why they didn't in Sophie's case was due to her breakthrough.

Moving from one state of cultivation to the next was not just a simple increase in power but rather an enhancement on the genetic level.

The regenerative abilities of cultivators would improve drastically and injuries that were once fatal could eventually be healed in a matter of seconds.

But it was the skin of the cultivators that saw perhaps the greatest change.

Higher class weaponry was needed to be used against strong cultivators as ordinary swords, blades or even plasma rifles could not break the surface of their skin.

Sophie may have been trapped in an illusion, but the poor Mirage Maw was unable to do anything to its prey.

Grrrrrr!

The angry creature growled softly in a low tone and several tendrils wrapped around Sophie's right arm and began to squeeze.

It was now testing to see if the force it applied could potentially snap the bones of this strange prey.

Minutes soon passed by and Sophie continued to slumber on without a care in the world.

Her lung capacity had always been pretty good even before she started cultivating so staying underwater for prolonged periods of time had no effect.

The Mirage Maw may not be able to break her skin, but the force applied to her right arm was slowly cutting off circulation.

Sophie frowned subconsciously as she felt small jolts of pain. Two cloudy compound eyes continued to watch the hybrid girl's stuck in captivity.

(Hallucination)

"Holy shit!" Sui Meng sat up with a startled breath as she found herself laying down in her bed.

Was it all a dream?

The terrifying parking valet grabbing her arm last night...

Was it just a nightmare?

Sui Meng could still feel small pains in her right arm occasionally but chalked it up to sleeping with poor posture.

Getting up with a sleepily yawn, she opened up the windows to see the dark and gloomy night sky.

None of the neighbouring apartments had their lights on and the entire city seemed to be in a state of quiet and peace.

Huh… seems that I slept for twenty-four hours.

Sui Meng was still wearing her white blouse and black dress pants from the day before, but she was feeling too lazy to change.

"Morning beautiful," Sui Meng smiled happily as she approached Cleo sleeping peacefully on the couch.

She planted a gentle kiss on the lips of her girlfriend. The sweet soft feeling was exactly the same as she remembered.

Where she had met this girl was a mystery as the gorgeous princess had just appeared in her life without any warning.

There was no response and Sui Meng didn't want to wake her lover up, so she decided to make some breakfast.

"It's a lovely day!" Sui Meng exclaimed as she cheerfully darted into the kitchen.

Her four spider appendages had somehow lost the pointed blades at their ends and now had rubber hands.

She was able to fry eggs, roast meat, cook rice and even bake a cake all at the same time!

It was a great feeling to be a hybrid!

Hybrid?

Sui Meng could not shake the feeling that something was just very off, but she took a few deep breaths of the air and the wrongness vanished.

"Sophie, I want my eggs well done!" a pitiful cry came from the couch.

"Sure, thing babe," came the loving reply.

Sui Meng didn't understand why her girlfriend had given her an English nickname but whatever made her happy was not a problem.

Soon a delicious smell floated out of the kitchen and Sui Meng's belly growled with intense hunger.

She needed to feed.

She needed to hunt!

Hunt?

[I am the huntress]

The illusion was broken instantly as Sophie suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to hunt and kill.

Sophie's eyes snapped open and a crimson red colour slowly covered their typical golden glow.

Her fangs lengthened ominously, and the four blade-like appendages easily sliced through the tendrils holding her body down.

An intense feeling of rage and bloodlust swelled as her body overflowed with power.

The Mirage Maw sensed that something was wrong and tried to release more pollen but….

It was already too late.