Chapter 417: The Spider Horde

‘You dirty rat, you’re trying to shirk your responsibility, aren’t you… you’re the one who failed at showing off and now you want to make it seem like I’m the failure? What gives? We’ve lived together in this body for years now, yet never would I have thought that you were such a scheming Devil… In fact, I’m surprised I’ve survived this long… truly terrifying…’

‘All those trials and tribulations I’ve endured till now, how many of them are the result of your handiwork… makes me shiver just thinking about it…’

‘So this is the reason why the gate keeps failing?’

“Oh my, have I finally been found out?” Her alluring voice dripping in feigned surprise echoed throughout my mind.

‘So you do admit to it then -you’ve been messing with me all this while! A dirty traitor trying to harm his royal highness! Typical…’

“That’s right, your big sis just wants to mess with you. Do you know how boring it is otherwise? Your big sis doesn’t have control of this body after all.”

‘You even admitted it so openly! How bored are you?!’

“Alright, alright. That’s enough fun for now; you should look at what situation you’re right now as well. Those spiders are already up to your neck.”

Hearing that, I whipped my head around to look. She was right. The situation was dire and I had to come up with something quick. However, I still had that translucent web above me blocking the way.

In that case, I have to find another opening to escape through: the hole those spiders are swarming out from!

At the same time as I came to that conclusion, the number of spiders in this pit had reached its peak as well. The entire area was covered in the disgusting things and they were all about to launch an attack at the invader that was me.

Countless spiders began airdropping from the web above me. Those on the ground began firing off whatever attack they had: spider web, poison, etc.

Faced with such an all-encompassing attack, there was only one way out. While it was not the most efficient of spells, in fact this was probably the least efficient spell I had, I immediately wrapped my body in Nether Flames to burn off any incoming attack.

The moment those airdropping spiders touched my flames, they were instantly reduced to cinders. The same situation played out with their projectile attacks. Whether it was their webbing or their toxins, everything was burnt to ashes in an instant. Seeing that, a surge of confidence welled inside of me. I’ve already decided on a plan of action, I guess it’s time to just take the leap then…

Nether Flames still wrapped around me, I furiously beat my wings in a nosedive towards that hole. At the same time as I made my move, the other spiders moved as well. Normally, such brainless creatures would have never posed a threat to me, but their numbers were just too many. A tsunami of spiders collapsed in from all around me. Even though I could burn them with my Nether Flames, every spider dead was a bit of my mana used up.

Hopefully my mana will hold out till then… Ever since I got thrown into this pit, there’s been no turning back. But where does that hole even lead to? How long does it extend?

A deluge of unknowns clouded my mind right now, like the ominous darkness of a haunted house. I could neither see what was ahead nor feel it. In fact, there might just be ghosts waiting for me ahead… but I had no choice either way.

The spiders were powerless to stop me as I dove as quickly as possible towards my goal. Every spider that tried was instantly reduced to cinders but that didn’t stop these mindless beasts from throwing themselves at me anyway.

The hole is just there… a little more and I can make it…

However, it was too late. A swarm of basin-sized red spiders began crawling out of the hole. Wherever there was a spot a person could stand, they were there slowly piling up in a tiny molehole of disgustingness.

Other than the fact that they were stacked in a disturbingly dense way, there was also another annoying trait about them: fire resistance. In other words, I had to spend more mana to kill a single one of them… and that’s just not very neighbourly.

The moment they saw me, they leapt at me like their smaller brethren. I waved my hands and called forth a wall of Nether Flames. Upon touching these flames, they burst into flames, but unlike their smaller brethren, they did not turn to ashes immediately. Rather, they were able to crawl another half a meter before finally dying.

That sight worried me greatly. The fact that they didn’t die right away meant that they had the opportunity to attack me. Thankfully, the wall that I erected was wide and had completely sealed off that hole. The Fire Spiders were completely halted in their tracks, but so was I…

After a hundred or so of these spiders died, the remaining Fire Spiders all stopped their pointless charging and began spitting fire at the flame wall instead. What was frightening was that they were actually able to spit fire at a range of several meters… too bad my Nether Flames wall was still in their way. The moment their fire collided with my wall, these two completely different manas began pushing against each other. In this showdown of mana, those Fire Spiders were clearly not a match for me, but there were just too many of them.

The current situation was extremely unfavorable towards me. In just the short span of a few seconds, a sizable portion of my mana had been expended. At this rate, I wasn’t even going to last a minute…

Should I fly into the hole then? Well, that’s a given, the question is how.

Shadow Demon.

The same time as I cancelled my flame wall, I summoned my Shadow Demon. By staying on the ground as a shadow, it successfully evaded the rain for spider flames and managed to rush into the spider swarm within an instant. Like a tiger amongst a pack of eight-legged gazelle, the Shadow Demon leaped out of its shadowy hiding spot and right into a furious attack.

Wherever the Shadow Demon passed by, a slew of cleaved spider corpses would be left behind. Some of these red spiders were still alive despite having their limbs completely hacked off, while the more unfortunate ones amongst them were just bifurcated in half and died soon after.

Thanks to Shadowfang giving it the attribute of sharpness, the Shadow Demon was even more effective against these spiders than my Nether Flames.

For the time being, the Shadow Demon was in charge of my offense while I still maintained that cloak of Nether Flames around myself. Thanks to the Shadow Demon, I was now able to absorb a portion of the spider souls lingering around to replenish my mana. Finally, there was light at the end of this proverbial tunnel. Even so, their unending numbers were a concern. No matter how powerful my attacks were, I couldn’t guarantee that I would be able to keep this up forever. Especially not when a new type of spider began crawling out of that hole right this very second.

These newcomers were all about the size of a large basin and their rear ends were filled with metallic spikes -the Hedgehog Spiders.

The walls were now filled with Hedgehog Spiders and Fire Spiders. These new spiders immediately took up position, aimed their rear ends at me, and with their two rear legs extended, began firing their spikes at me with a twerk. A rain of spikes bore down on me a mere moment later. Because of how many Hedgehog Spiders there were, I really had no chance at all of avoiding them. It was either deflect them or die trying.

The Shadow Demon promptly repeated its previous sweeping action against the Hedgehog Spiders. While they might have been numerous, they were individually weak, coming in at Two-star at best.

Because of how effective the Shadow Demon’s first swathe of attacks were, the Hedgehog Spiders swiftly reacted by turning some of their attacks towards the Shadow Demon. Wave after wave of spikes were sent out with reckless abandon, but because these spikes couldn’t pierce their own carapace, there was no need to worry about friendly casualties either.

Unfortunately for them, those spikes weren’t just ineffective against their own kin, they were ineffective against the Shadow Demon as well. The Shadow Demon was a pure elemental being, meaning that these spikes were basically useless against it and it didn’t even need to consider defense when attacking.

Yet just because part of the spiders’ attacks had been diverted, that didn’t mean I was out of the fire yet either. I still had to keep up my Nether Flames to avoid getting skewered.

Compared to the Fire Spiders, these Hedgehog Spiders were ironically a much easier opponent to deal with. Their spikes couldn’t penetrate my Nether Flames and they were also stronger than the Fire Spiders. That meant that when I killed them, the amount of mana I replenished from absorbing their soul was higher as well.

If I had to hazard a guess, this would be the very definition of a worthless ally.

Still, while I was now able to keep up with my mana expenditure, I wasn’t able to advance even an inch into the hole. And as more and more spiders swarmed out of the hole, the strength I had to face began to increase as well.

Finally, after roughly ten minutes into this deadly stalemate, I heard a hair-raising scream echo forth from the hole ahead. As it swept over the pit, the constant clicking of spider mandibles finally stopped and the pit fell silent. For that brief couple of seconds, it felt like time had stopped. Even if my Shadow Demon was still furiously hacking away at the spiders, none of them made a sound.

A second scream echoed forth, and like a video that had its play button suddenly pressed, the spiders suddenly scattered in all directions with a frenzied click. Some ran in my direction while some tried to scramble deeper into the hole. The majority chose to burrow in place and hide from the impending doom…