Chapter 95: Smoldering

Chapter 95: Smoldering

The people, the demi humans that are trying to survive this, are desperately hiding behind the waves of spiders.

The demi-humans run, crawl, and drag themselves towards the even the smallest patches of spiders they can find. Small children are being picked up and thrown by their parents into groups of the spiders, as powerful blasts of energy rip through the air towards them.

Because of the healing energy, the spiders are able to dive in front of them and absorb the blows, allowing them to get away and survive.

For those who go towards the small patches, they are dragged underground and brought up into a larger group through another hole.

Which honestly freaks many of them out until they see the others emerge within the main groups of spiders.

If there's one thing Gong's spiders are good at, it's quickly digging and reinforcing tunnels, while moving things in between. It's honestly quite frightening. And new spiders learn how to do it efficiently, through the hive mind with Gong.

The connection with the spiders and her is in a sense closer than it is with me.

I wouldn't ever want to fight her. Even with cultivators.

As we get ever closer and closer to the fighting, I can feel the cost of the healing going down.

It appears it looks like I will be able to hold out for a lot longer than I thought I would.

This continues on for the next few minutes, as Gong continues to speed us closer and closer to the battle And then suddenly we stop.

My scan reveals that we're directly beneath the center of the battle. It's clear that this is the lowest my healing cost is going to get, while keeping us out of danger.

As we sit here, fighting in our own way, a pattern emerges with the cultivators and their fighting.

They're avoiding the spiders.

Anywhere that has the demi humans being protected by spiders, they move on to the next area, looking for areas that don't have them. Still focusing on each other, but still doing massive damage to the surrounding area.

Which further reinforces the fact that this is a coordinated approach. It looks like they wait every time after killing a demi human, they visibly pause with an eye towards the spiders. And then looks toward the spies, who are watching them intently. Some spies are watching the spiders, as well.

I can see cultivator's eyes directly landing on the agents for the Yellow Sashes members. Only I can 'see' the spy for Big Sis Crane.

Finally, they look towards Gong's area.

Nonetheless, it is clear we are having a major effect on the battlefield. The cultivators seem almost frustrated by the effectiveness of the spiders and were hitting harder, after realizing they weren't doing much damage to the demi humans. They eventually stabilized their attacks, after realizing it wasn't effective.

It's become a battle of attrition.

Luckily for us, they broke first. After 2 hours of this, I could see that their bodies were becoming too exhausted from channeling external Qi through their dantians and meridians. They likely could have gone on for longer, but they let loose to a medium degree. If they continue further, they'd be damaging their bodies, to where it would need a healer's help. It feels as though they are being casual about this, but also having a bit of fun.

Fucking assholes.

As their attacks begin to slow down, I can see an interaction between the two of them. The two cultivators lock eyes and nod. One of the cultivator's launches a blow at the other, that causes that one to fly into a building.

They repeat the same thing that I saw that day I first explored this area. One forces the other to apologize and they then jump off into the distance.

Leaving a broken area behind them.

My scan reveals the demi human area is still burning, but with the cultivators gone, the spiders are putting out the fires. A few spider groups, surge toward the spies, causing them to run away.

I end my healing and focus towards Gong.

She's already looking at me. Having put all the spiders on alert, but mainly autopilot. One group of them are putting out the fires, while the other is collecting the surviving demi humans into one area. Into what could only be described as a triage area. By the time we had reached them, there were only around a hundred or so demi humans left in the area. The others were well enough to either run away or had died in the process.

A few of the ones who had stayed were clearly stronger than any of the others and were seeming to help the children and weak ones get to safety. It's partially because of them that we were able to minimize the deaths to only two people.

Gong turns to me with a serious look.

"Can you heal them?"

Once again, I come to a decision. I could heal these people, but then they become a security risk. A hundred people are a lot of fucking people. Any of whom could let it out, that there is something going on.

I'll just say it straight.

Before I can say anything, she assuages my fears.

"James. Before you say anything, I want you to know I've already made the preparations to include people in our group."

Alright let me hear her out, at least. She hasn't failed me yet.