"What happened?"
Although he had indeed landed the blow, he felt that he hadn't even hit it with a quarter of the force he had originally intended.
He quickly analyzed what had held him back. In addition to the obvious wall of rock, he noticed some long, thin marks on his limbs and torso that were slowly disappearing.
Then he saw something golden, picked it up... and realized what it was.
A golden thread... Obviously there was nothing visible on the path; they were hidden. Now that I think about it, Lys seemed to want to tell me something. I guess it was this. Well, it only left a small mark.
He glanced back and saw the group... Valeriane, who was heading toward her own spider, was swinging her sword at nothing. But in fact, her movement produced metallic sounds and left cuts in the golden threads that were now visible as they broke away.
The same was true of Celestine, except that she used her claws, which had grown and certainly looked dangerous. Apparently, they didn't need warnings about invisible threads.
!!!
THRUM!
Just then, Cassian felt the peculiar signal telling him to move away. As if by reflex, he did so, and as soon as he did, a spike of earth emerged from the ground where he had been a second before.
Cassian realized that this was no time for distraction. He turned his attention back to the spider, which now watched it with savage intelligence and looked at it cautiously. And indeed, suddenly, it seemed to be floating and ascending without taking its eight eyes off him.
It must be using the threads. I can't let it climb.
Cassian, seeing the spider rise, immediately understood that letting it ascend would put him at a disadvantage.
He had to end this as quickly as possible; if the spider climbed any higher, unless he suddenly grew wings, he would be in a very bad position.
Whoosh!
He started running again, heading toward the arachnid. But this time it wasn't so easy: he felt there were more threads, and he couldn't build up as much momentum as before, which slowed him down considerably.
And to make matters worse, more stone spikes emerged from his path, forcing him to swerve as he dodged and tried, somehow, to avoid the invisible threads.
It seemed that if he allowed them to accumulate on him, he would end up tied up and restricted little by little.
The good thing was that when they broke off, they revealed their striking golden color, which made it easier for Cassian to identify them and get rid of them quickly.
But he was wasting time, and the spider kept climbing higher and higher. It was then, when he was just over four meters away from it, that instead of dodging a stake of stone protruding from the ground, he decided to go straight at it and struck its hard, pointed form directly.
Bang!
Cassian managed to destroy it and, using what remained as support, took a huge leap toward the spider, narrowly dodging the rest of the stone spikes.
By that point, the arachnid was already more than five meters high, but Cassian, thanks to his strength, surpassed it for a brief moment.
you will not go up anymore
Now he descended with a direct blow, his two hands together above his head as if they were a mallet, ready to crush it with all his power.
Instinctively, the spider knew it was in a very bad situation; it even seemed to panic and began to move its front legs quickly, as if it were doing something.
Cassian didn't understand what it was preparing, but he was already in the air, and his only option was to strike it.
When he was inches away from it, he brought his hands down toward its head. He felt something getting in the way and offering some invisible resistance; he knew it was the threads, but didn't stop.
He put all his strength into the impact, to the point that the veins in his arms and neck stood out intensely.
WHUMP! BOOMM!
He tore through that invisible barrier and landed a brutal blow to the giant spider's head. The impact echoed throughout the giant nest, and the spider was thrown violently to the ground.
THWACK!
Another loud bang shook the floor, and, as if that weren't enough, Cassian fell with all his weight on top of it, crushing the creature's abdomen.
The impact was brutal; his body was stained with purple blood, ensuring that the arachnid was dead, although it was unnecessary: its head was already shattered from the blow in the air.
"phuwa! I think something got in my mouth... wait, it doesn't taste bad... how curious,hmm.... No, I need to concentrate, let's see... what's the situation?"
Putting aside the fact that the spider's blood tasted strangely good, Cassian looked around to understand what was happening.
Valeriane had said that, after finishing off his spider, he could provide support, according to his own judgment.
"Let's see... Luna is okey. Yefeng? Hmm, he seems happy?... but he's covering Lys properly... Where's Ling-Ling? Was she devoured?... No, it was the same before... oh, that shadow is moving strangely. Oh! So that's what it was... how convenient."
Cassian quickly glanced at those he thought might be in trouble, but Naelune was, in fact, handling many spiders at once.
She was holding them back and even killing them with what looked like bullet-fast drops of water. She was fine.
The same went for Yefeng, who was also eliminating spiders with his sword, staying close to Ellys and fulfilling his role.
They were basically the same, just a little bigger than the spiders that had almost killed him earlier. Maybe that's why he was so happy.
Ellys was fine too. For a moment, he worried again about Yefeng's silent sister, believing she had been devoured, but when he saw a shadow moving curiously around Ellys, he thought of something and stopped worrying.
"Let's see, Ria... her spider also rose, but she can attack from a distance. And on the other hand... ah!, that's not good."
Cassian didn't hesitate any longer, because he quickly understood who needed his intervention. He ran straight to where Celestine was.
It wasn't that she was in serious trouble, but rather that Cassian noticed that her spider had risen very high and she didn't seem to be able to attack from a distance.
And just like the one he faced, hers also made spikes come out of the ground and attacked her from a distance. Along with the invisible web, it seemed that she was very frustrated and about to unleash her breath.
It wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that, earlier, when Valeriane was organizing the group, she also took into account each person's Skill and limitations. So she asked, and Celestine obediently confessed that she could normally only do one strong breath per day.
After doing so, she was exhausted, both in terms of mana and physically. That's why she climbed on top of Cassian that time: she was short on stamina.
If she hadn't eaten the fruit, she wouldn't be able to do it again today. But if she launched another one and missed, she would be at the mercy of the spider, which could easily impale her with its stone spikes.
That's why it was a last resort and not something she should use just because she couldn't reach it, as was the case now.
"Draconic Roar of...!"
"Hey, wait there!"
"Hmphm? Hm?"
Cassian reached her just in time and grabbed her from behind while covering her mouth. He did it without thinking, but now he realized that might not stop her, because he felt the heat in his hands for a moment.
Luckily, it subsided. He also dodged the stone stakes emerging from the ground.
"Puhaa! Hey! What are you doing? Why are you stopping me? Huekk!!... Why are you hitting me!? you're going overboard, when you're just my servant."
"Why are you throwing your final attack first?"
Cassian didn't let her complain and scolded her after hitting her on the head, again while jumping and dodging a stake.
He was going to move her out of the way, but she was able to react on her own and dodged in the opposite direction.
"But it was too high and... No! What do you care what I do!? You have no authority to question my methods, don't overstep your role!"
"I'm not saying it, remember what Ria said. She said to only use it as a last resort."
"Oh, right... ahem... well, if it's my last resort, that abyssal beast had left me with no choice. But now that you're here, you deal with it."
"You know? I can't attack from a distance either!"
"Tsk... then what do you propose if you won't let me use my magnificent breath? You're not doing anything, you're just getting in my way!"
"..."
Well, Cassian couldn't deny that he had no idea how to get to the spider. Even for him, jumping what looked like more than fifteen meters from the ground was too much.
Earlier, he had jumped with all his might and only reached between seven and eight meters, so that was out of the question.
As he continued to dodge, he saw Celestine stop paying attention to him and prepare once again to unleash what appeared to be her breath. This time, he had no reason to stop her.
If she doesn't kill it, I'll grab it and throw it towards where Lys is...Oh! I know what to do!