Eric balanced himself on the ground and gasped for breath. He was tired from the continuous use of abilities without any break.
Lyria swiftly arrived beside Eric using her whirlwind sprint and asked worriedly, "Brother Eric, are you okay?"
Eric nodded while pulling out his potions and began to refill himself.
He had to forcefully push down his worries for Livy—it was too late to do anything for her. She had disappeared for far too long, and just knowing the direction wouldn't guarantee they would find her quickly.
They needed to focus on finishing the self-beaten giant spider first before searching for Livy, or else they would all die.
He had a feeling that even if they could escape now, if they couldn't reach Batley City within a day, they would be in grave danger.
Thus, the giant spider had to die! He also shouldn't look away from it even for a moment, or it might do something unforeseeable.
'Hm… just like home spiders, they're annoying with their vanishing techniques.'
Lyria also began drinking her potions to refill herself.
They had all used a significant amount of stamina and Mana, and the battle still hadn't ended.
"About Liv…" Eric needed to know Lyria's intention. She could search for Livy if she wished—he wouldn't stop her, as he was deeply worried too.
Lyria paused and quickly replied, "With all the protection she applied to herself, she should still be alive, though heavily injured. She also has her Vitality of Water. As long as she's alive, she should recover. Due to this Rank 3's presence, I doubt there are lower Rank Beasts around—if any at all—given how empty these plains are." Also, she wouldn't leave Eric alone with a Rank 3 Beast, even if she had to sacrifice herself in this fight.
Eric nodded slightly and gazed at the spider, which had already rolled miles away and was coming to a stop. The forest was ruined by the massive rolling sphere, reducing trees to splinters in a straight line.
He had also noticed that when he deployed his Space Shield midair, his falling speed had reduced slightly—strange, as if he had an anchor in the air. But this wasn't useful for much beyond delaying the inevitable.
He wondered if he could stand on his Space Shield and float. He quickly shook his head—that would be deadly if he couldn't blink away in time.
"It's already injured. Let's finish it. We need to penetrate its eyes to reach its brain or chop off more limbs before killing it." Eric strode toward the spider, Lyria following while drinking potions.
After rolling all the way, the Crimson Tide Spider Queen finally stopped.
She tried to stand up and noticed that even her front right limb was quivering and refusing to listen to her. With that, all three of her right limbs were unusable, with only the hind leg intact. Just how was she even supposed to stand? Much else to fight...
She had already anticipated that this might be her condition. Among the two limbs attacked by the human girls, one was still attached, but multiple sharp objects had plunged deep inside. It pained her so much that she even questioned why it hadn't been completely severed.
But she couldn't bear to cut it off either. She had also lost all her capable children and subordinates. She was the only one left. Alone...
In short, she couldn't receive any help, so she had to heal by herself. Yet she couldn't do it at this moment either.
She was in a condition where she couldn't even flee and hide until she recovered. Otherwise, within a few days, she could have mostly recovered with her healing ability.
The humans wouldn't give her the peace she required; thus, she had to use her new inherited ability...
This ability had its benefits and losses. Originally, this ability would have become permanent after she reached Rank 4. However, currently, while deploying it, its power—though remaining the same—would leave her unable to move around smoothly. As she needed to heal, moreover, she shouldn't move at all.
There were more disadvantages, such as being unable to use her webs for at least a week. Also, while inside this 'armor,' no one could sense anything inside it, but similarly, she wouldn't be able to sense anything outside. Thus, she would remain completely unaware of her surroundings, except for what she could perceive with her eyes.
In essence, this armor blocks all outward and inward senses while increasing her defense countless times.
This ability was much more useful and practical to her when she reached Rank 4. However, currently, it could only be a defensive and life-saving method.
The point which was making her extremely reluctant to use it was that this ability could only be used once until the end of Rank 3!
This was her new ultimate life-saving method, which she had inherited after evolving to Rank 3! And it hadn't even been a day since she had evolved, and now she had to use it to protect herself? Not to mention to protect herself from a bunch of Rank 1 humans?!
She glanced toward the direction she had rolled from and noticed both humans were heading toward her. She knew she was in danger. Both humans, though very weak evolution-wise, had strange, unpredictable abilities that could threaten her. She no longer wished to underestimate them further.
She hissed with pain and used her entire tolerance to pull herself up from the ground, barely standing with three trembling legs on her right side.
Eric and Lyria frowned, watching this. They could see the spider was struggling to even stand, so why didn't it try shooting them with its webs from afar, instead trying to stand up while crying in pain?
Was it its pride?
They had a bad feeling about this, so they exchanged glances with each other in understanding. Then, without saying another word, they shot toward the spider.
Eric sprinted without using his blink.
Lyria, on the other hand, didn't hesitate and used her whirlwind sprint. She only took a couple of seconds to cover the whole distance between them, and as soon as she appeared, she used her Hardening, followed by Crushing Blows, on the spider's already trembling right front limb to make it lose its balance and fall over.
The Crimson Tide Spider Queen was cursing in her heart. These humans were all too freaky and unreasonable!
Just how could a Rank 1 human speed up like that? Even the attack was so powerful that her leg was nearly flung away from its spot.
She no longer hesitated and opened her jaw wide. Then, a huge amount of very thick white "liquid" gushed out, almost like a volcanic eruption.
Eric and Lyria widened their eyes in shock, watching the milk-like liquid after gushing out—instead of moving forward, it turned in reverse and started to cover the giant spider at rapid speed, almost like it was coating itself.
They both realized that the spider was using some sort of ability to increase its defense, and perhaps its offense would also follow.
Eric no longer hesitated and blinked multiple times, but then he was startled—he felt he had blinked far more than just 50 meters on each blink. For now, he didn't have time to give any further thought.
After arriving in front of the spider's mouth, he punched with his Telepathic Slap to interrupt its ability, yet it had no effect. The thick, milky-white substance was still pouring out and continued to coat the spider's lower and main body.
Eric understood that it was beyond the current him to stop the Rank 3 spider's ability. So, he blinked again and stood on the hard jaw, just before its eyes. He pulled out a few heavy swords from his ring and then started to fling them at the spider's wide, malice-filled eyes.
He knew that Crimson Tide Spiders didn't have eyelids, just like most spiders didn't—though he was still nervous that a Rank 3 might have. Thankfully, it didn't. However, it also turned out to be useless, as all his weapons simply bounced off its wide, huge, dark eyes.
The spider's eyes themselves seemed like a Tier 3 product. They were too sturdy for the current him to injure—perhaps only a Master Rank could. However, in this endeavor, he also understood that the spider couldn't move around until it finished with its ability, as otherwise, no matter what, it should have dodged or counterattacked with something. Even though his weapons couldn't penetrate, that didn't mean it shouldn't feel threatened from something hitting its eyes directly.
The Rank 3 Crimson Tide Spider continued to glare at Eric hatefully, to which Eric simply smiled back and secretly opened his space shield in front of him, launching four of his heavy swords at the proper angle toward both of its eyes.
The Crimson Tide Spider Queen was confused for a short instant, then her numerous hairs stood on end.
She recalled that a similar thing had happened when she was propelled away with that unstoppable force.
She panicked. Her ability was mostly fixed and couldn't be controlled freely during the process. She also couldn't move around, or else the ability would cancel, and once it did, she wouldn't be able to use her webs for at least a week—and her ability too.
Even as a spider, she started to sweat and hoped that the human male's attack would fail to penetrate her tough eyeballs—though she also couldn't completely rely on this hope.
Just as she was hesitating on what to do, she noticed that the man had disappeared into thin air. For some reason, her heart thumped loudly with an unprecedented dread—and that was also the final thing she saw before losing both her eyes.
POP! POP!
Two bursting sounds were heard, almost like two balloons popping, and then followed by a loud, anguished yowl.
This howl sounded funny, as it was coming in intervals, with the spider's mouth still producing pure white liquid like a volcano.
Both her eyes were gone!
She was completely blinded!
The Rank 3 Crimson Tide Spider Queen had never experienced such agony and anguish ever since her birth.
Not only that, she, at the same time, felt she had been stabbed again by two sharp objects on her front right limb joint.
She continued to scream in pain, and tears of dark blood kept pouring out of her now empty eye sockets.
Normally, her eyeballs shouldn't have been completely destroyed like this, but the weapons used were extremely sharp and powerful—they didn't just dig deep; they had also obliterated her two eyeballs.
She couldn't remember when she had ever been bullied like this.
She thought after fulfilling her longtime dream and ambition to reach Rank 3, she would be unstoppable, and nothing could threaten her—and as long as she remained cautious, one day, perhaps she might even have had the chance to evolve to Rank 4!
Yet it hadn't even been a day since she had come out from completing her metamorphosis, and now not only had she lost her entire family, her long years of hard work, but then she had been put through so much suffering from three puny little Rank 1 Mana Wielders!
She couldn't describe to anyone how much grief, sorrow, and bitterness she was going through at this moment.
However, she understood that all these were just temporary. As long as she could cover herself with her Rank 4 armor, she could heal most of her injuries within a few days.
Thus, she didn't dare to stop and took extra effort to even cover her now empty eye sockets with this armor.
As it was forcefully put—since her eyes weren't supposed to be covered after her transformation—those thin eye guards weren't the sturdiest. Despite that, no Rank 1 or even Rank 4 Mana Wielders should be able to penetrate this defense—she was very certain of it! Even if the same power as the previous one were used by the male human, it still couldn't be penetrated!