Chapter 21. The strange group of silverhead spiders.

Just then, a slimy substance clung to his leg, anchoring him in place. It was a strand from the web of a Silverhead Spider.

Li Chen, without a moment's delay, spun around and slashed at the web, severing it instantly.

He promptly turned to resume his retreat, but suddenly, five more webs shot toward him.

He nimbly dodged the webs, yet more followed, hindering Li Chen's escape.

"Damn it!" Li Chen exclaimed in frustration, eyeing the barrage of webs approaching.

He realized he needed to extricate himself immediately. The Silverhead Spiders were closing in fast, and with the multitude of webs threatening to ensnare him, his escape was compromised.

Raising his right hand, Li Chen prepared to activate Fire Claw. However, just as he was about to release it on the spiders, his sense of danger tingled with extreme urgency.

Without a second thought, Li Chen hastily cancelled the activation of Fire Claw. Interrupting the skill midway caused a backlash of energy, injuring him in the process. Yet, Li Chen ignored the pain and swiftly sidestepped.

As he did, a very thin silver thread, gleaming with a chilling light, sliced narrowly past him.

The silver thread grazed his midsection, inflicting a deep cut. It continued its deadly path, striking a nearby boulder and cleaving it in two.

"Fuck!" Li Chen swore, feeling a chill in his blood. Had he been a second slower, he would have been cut in half instead.

Li Chen traced the origin of the attack with his eyes, and upon sighting the attacker, his eyes widened.

A mid-level wild beast!

Before the Silverhead Spiders stood one, emanating an intense killing intent and aura.

Without sensing its aura, Li Chen might have thought it was just another spider. It looked identical, but its aura was different.

'No, it can't be the aura of a mid-level wild beast,' Li Chen corrected himself after closer inspection.

It was not a mid-level beast, but a low-level one, albeit with an unusually overwhelming aura. Had Li Chen not learned to distinguish between the auras of different levels of wild beasts, he might not have noticed it was still a low-level beast.

'Strange,' Li Chen mused.

But then, the intense aura-bearing Silverhead Spider let out a commanding shriek, and as the sound left its mouth, the rest of the spiders went into a frenzy, charging forward.

'It's the queen of the nest,' Li Chen guessed, realizing the source of the intense aura.

"No wonder it has such an intense aura," he murmured as he began to retreat. But there was little space left to retreat.

In the brief moment since the silver thread attack, the spiders had closed in. The front line was just inches away, some already leaping at him.

"Damn it!" Li Chen cursed, swinging his sword and cleaving a Silverhead Spider in two, but more leapt toward him.

Li Chen's sword flashed repeatedly, severing parts of the Silverhead Spiders with each swing. Yet, the bodies of the spiders piling at his feet did nothing to lessen their numbers. They seemed to be increasing as they lunged at him relentlessly.

Suddenly, Li Chen's danger sense tingled once again, but this time, he was prepared.

With no hesitation, Li Chen dodged another silver thread. However, this distraction allowed one of the spiders to close in, landing on his neck and attempting to bite him.

"Damn!" Li Chen exclaimed as he swiftly grasped the spider and flung it away. But that brief lapse allowed more spiders to descend upon him like rain.

"Damn," Li Chen cursed again, frustration mounting. "It seems I have no other choice," he declared, and with a slamming motion of his right hand, a massive flaming claw materialized, crashing into the ground before him with immense force.

BOOM!

The collision of the fire claw with the earth sent a fiery shockwave rippling out, charring nearby Silverhead Spiders, and killing those nearby. However, Li Chen wasn't spared from the blast's impact and was sent flying backwards by the force.

Li Chen tumbled through the air for a moment before crashing into the swampy terrain of the Shadow Grove. After rolling to a stop, he stabilized himself and heaved a sigh of relief.

Despite sustaining injuries, it was a far better outcome than being poisoned by the spiders. Escaping their encirclement was a significant relief for Li Chen.

Now outside their ring, Li Chen quickly began to retreat. As he did so, he retrieved a vial from his spatial ring and swallowed its contents—it was a healing potion.

The rebound from the earlier disrupted Fire Claw and the explosion's impact had left him with several injuries.

Feeling the potion's warmth spread through his body, Li Chen felt a measure of relief and concentrated on his retreat.

But then, a piercing shriek erupted from behind him. The pitch was so high that Li Chen's head throbbed painfully as if it might burst, halting his escape.

The shrieking was caused by the large group of Silverhead Spiders and their queen emitting a high-pitched cry, unleashing a sonic wave attack.

"Damn spiders!" Li Chen cursed, clenching his teeth as he pressed his hands over his ears, trying to shield himself from the agonizing sound waves. Blood began to trickle from his mouth and nose, indicating the sound's destructive power.

Fortunately, the spiders couldn't sustain the screeching for long, and the noise ceased, allowing Li Chen to breathe a sigh of relief. Yet, concern crept in as he pondered the unusual behaviour of this particular group of Silverhead Spiders.

To launch their sound wave attack, the Silverhead Spiders expended a vast amount of energy, so much so that some of the weaker ones collapsed from exhaustion immediately after the assault. This demonstrated the tremendous strain such an attack placed on them.

Given the high energy cost, Silverhead Spiders typically reserved this attack for situations where they felt gravely threatened. Li Chen had observed nothing in his actions that should have provoked such a response, leaving him puzzled by their intense animosity and determination to see him dead.

Unlike many wild beasts who consider humans a prime source of energy and hunt them for sustenance, Silverhead Spiders level up by consuming poisonous plants and thriving in toxic environments. They rarely hunt humans and are considered relatively peaceful among wild beasts.

They typically do not attack unless they sense a threat or an intrusion into their nest. Therefore, Li Chen was taken aback by their unexplained aggression towards him. He hadn't slain any of their kind before the conflict began, nor had he trespassed into their territory, leaving him bewildered about the source of their hostility.

The Silverhead Spiders, however, were not inclined to provide any answers. Disregarding those that had collapsed, the queen issued a piercing, commanding shriek and charged toward Li Chen at an alarming speed, followed by the rest of the spiders.

With their queen at the forefront of the assault, the morale of the Silverhead Spiders seemed to soar. They surged towards Li Chen with renewed frenzy, each emitting an intense aura of killing intent.

"Damn it!" Li Chen exclaimed at the sight of the frenzied swarm.

To make matters worse, their speed had increased along with their killing intent. Despite Li Chen's efforts to retreat, they quickly closed the distance.

Realizing further escape was futile, Li Chen ceased his retreat. In his left hand, he conjured a ball of flame, while his right hand gripped his sword's handle tightly. He steeled himself for the confrontation, ready to face the incoming tide of Silverhead Spiders.