Chapter 381
"....."
From her neck down to her colossal legs, Nebula was bound like a grotesque birthday present by the golden lasso.
Every limb was locked firmly in place.
Her enormous body was forced against the ground.
She strained with everything she had, muscles tensing beneath the thick violet chitin as she fought against the bindings.
Yet the lasso didn’t budge.
Not even the overwhelming strength of an Emperor Rank beast could overcome the indestructible golden rope.
"Tuah...."
Ray spat a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva to the side before wiping his lips with the back of his hand.
"...When I first got this skill, I thought it was completely useless. Who would’ve thought it’d be the very thing to bring an arrogant bitch like you to your damn knees?"
Nebula’s countless eyes rolled toward him, every single one burning with murderous fury.
Expanding his perception across the chamber, Ray quickly assessed the battlefield.
The others had almost reached the swirling gate.
Chloe stood behind them with both hands stretched toward the cocooned humans and the rest of the cohort, whether conscious or unconscious.
At the same time, she was desperately trying to recover whatever Meta-Force she could before the final push.
They could leave now.
But they couldn’t.
Nebula’s massive body blocked the path.
She didn’t even need to reach the gate herself. Her colossal limbs were long enough to strike them from where she was and tear them apart before they could escape.
So they waited.
They waited for Ray to either cripple the Spider Queen...
...or somehow accomplish the impossible and kill her.
Kai wanted to help.
He truly did.
But his stamina was gone.
His Meta-Force was exhausted.
The deep wound in his side hadn’t stopped bleeding either.
Charging back into the fight now would only get him killed.
Felix could still fight.
Yet, for reasons only he understood, he remained beside the group.
His eyes never left Ray for even a second while the swirling vortex behind them bathed everyone in shifting light.
SCREEEECH—!
Nebula’s furious scream shook the chamber.
She didn’t utter a single word.
She didn’t need to.
That ear-piercing screech alone conveyed every ounce of rage boiling inside her.
Her mandibles clicked together repeatedly, each sharp snap echoing through the ruined chamber.
She strained against the golden lasso once more.
For the briefest instant...
...it almost looked like the bindings would snap.
But they held.
Every one of her enormous limbs remained imprisoned.
Lightning danced beneath Ray’s feet as he lowered his center of gravity.
Crossing both daggers before his face, he watched black blood drip slowly from their edges—the blood stolen from Nebula’s shattered eyes.
BANG!
The marble exploded beneath his feet.
Ray shot forward in a blur of lightning, leaving cracks spider-webbing across the floor where he had stood only a heartbeat earlier.
Even with her body restrained, Nebula’s countless eyes remained fixed on him.
Watching.
Waiting.
Calculating.
Then...
With another furious screech, her mandibles snapped open.
TSSHHK! TSSHHK! TSSHHK!
Razor-thin strands erupted from her jaws like an endless barrage of bullets.
The relentless volley ripped through the chamber.
Every strand that narrowly missed Ray blasted apart pillars, gouged holes through the walls, or shattered chunks of marble into clouds of dust.
He couldn’t continue charging in a straight line.
Changing tactics instantly, Ray began weaving from side to side.
His body zigzagged across the battlefield while every ounce of his focus centered on the incoming strands.
His perception...
His sharpened senses...
His battle instincts...
Everything operated at their absolute limit.
A strand hissed past his face.
Ray tilted his head by barely an inch.
It still carved a thin line across his cheek.
Warm blood trickled down his skin.
’Damn... It only grazed me, and it still drew blood? I can’t afford to let those things hit me.’
Abandoning his plan to charge straight ahead, Ray immediately changed tactics.
Lightning crackled beneath his feet as he zigzagged across the chamber, carefully steering clear of the area where his cohort stood.
"JUST DIE!" Nebula snarled inside his mind with such overwhelming fury that Ray nearly staggered beneath the mental assault.
Gritting his teeth, he threw himself behind a nearby pillar.
TSSHHK! TSSHHK! TSSHHK!
More than a dozen strands slammed into the stone, punching fist-sized holes clean through it.
Ray didn’t wait.
The instant he landed, he hurled himself forward again as though diving into deep water.
His body skimmed across the marble floor before both palms struck the ground.
Using the momentum, he sprang upward while still almost parallel to the floor.
Another volley screamed toward him.
Ray twisted his body like a spinning arrow.
The razor-thin strands whistled past, missing him by mere inches.
Landing lightly on both hands, lightning exploded beneath his feet once more.
BANG!
He shot forward again, crossing nearly six metres in the blink of an eye.
Nebula hesitated for the briefest fraction of a second.
Then her countless eyes adjusted to his new position, and her massive head followed his movement effortlessly.
’Her neck... it’s slightly restricted.’
The realization flashed through Ray’s mind.
Without slowing down, he grabbed the corpse of a dead Carapace Spider lying in his path.
His muscles tightened.
Then he hurled the massive carcass with every ounce of strength he possessed.
The corpse tore through the air with a sharp whistle.
Nebula inhaled.
The next instant—
TSSSHHK!
An even larger barrage erupted from her mandibles.
The steel-like strands obliterated the corpse, reducing it to a rain of shattered chitin, flesh, and gore before it could even reach her.
"...?!"
Ray was nowhere to be seen.
SWOOSH!
Half of Nebula’s eyes rolled behind her.
Ray was already descending from above, both daggers gleaming as they plunged toward her at terrifying speed.
Unable to turn her restrained body—or use her bound legs—Nebula made an instant decision.
She lowered her abdomen until it nearly scraped the ground.
Her spinnerets contracted violently.
Then—
TSSSSSHK!
A tightly wound mass of steel webs burst forth.
Spinning like a colossal drill, it tore through the air with terrifying force.
Ray’s eyes widened.
’Shit!’
He was still airborne.
There was nowhere to dodge.
BANG! TCHAAAAK!
The spinning web punched clean through his abdomen.
Blood exploded into the air as the impact blasted him backward like a cannonball.
[-50 HP]
[HP: 30/90]
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