Chapter 224: You Have Enraged a Male Louse
A dense, ice-blue mist burst from the crack in the door and spread at once, swallowing the area before the entrance and blurring the outline of the sleeping Illusion Spider.
Now!
Rex let out a low growl and shot out like a cannonball.
Vera flicked her hand, and a fierce wind wrapped itself around his back, driving him even faster.
Almost at the same instant Rex charged out, Ryan and Ilyss moved as well.
Ryan drew the short blade in his left hand, its edge wrapped in silver-white lightning, while wind elements gathered in his right palm. Ilyss formed hand seals before her chest, her violet eyes flashing as the lightning elements in the air began to stir.
Rex reached the struggling cocoon and slashed upward with his greatsword. The blade severed the tough spider silk, and the cocoon dropped. He caught the cocoon with one arm, threw it over his shoulder, and spun around without the slightest pause, sprinting back toward the room.
The ice mist began to thin.
Deep in the nest, the enormous shadow finally moved, just as Ryan had expected.
First, all eight pitch-black compound eyes snapped open. There was no light in them at all, only endless coldness. Then its mountain-sized body rose, and its long legs, covered in gray-black armor, unfolded with a shrill grinding sound against the ground.
SCREEEE—!
A furious shriek, filled with the rage of a violated territory, tore through the air.
The Illusion Spider had awakened.
Its eight compound eyes locked instantly onto Rex, who was racing back with the severed cocoon over his shoulder.
Rage drowned its simple mind. Its massive body lunged forward with a speed utterly at odds with its size, and one scythe-like foreleg ripped through the air toward Rex’s back.
“Get back!”
Ryan’s shout and Ilyss’s incantation sounded at the same time.
Ryan hurled the short blade from his left hand, blazing with white lightning. It struck the joint of the sweeping spider leg with perfect precision. Lightning burst outward. It did not pierce the shell, but the impact and numbness twisted the spider leg’s trajectory by an inch.
At that same moment, Ilyss thrust both palms forward. A condensed violet lightning spear arrived a heartbeat later and struck the same point. Violet light exploded, scorching the bristles on the spider leg black and curling them up, slowing its forward momentum even more.
That single instant of delay was enough.
With Vera’s wind pushing him onward, Rex made it back through the doorway with the cocoon. Lillian, who had already been waiting there, immediately rushed forward to help steady it.
“Fall back!” Ryan barked.
He stretched out his hand, and the short blade flew back into his grasp. Without even glancing at it, he swung backward and severed several mucus-coated strands of spider silk that had shot in from the side, then retreated at once.
Ilyss withdrew as well, violet lightning still crackling faintly in her eyes as she followed Ryan inside.
The moment both of them crossed the threshold, Rex and Vera rushed forward and heaved at the stone door together.
“ROOOAAAR—!”
The Illusion Spider’s enraged body had already reached the doorway. One scythe-like foreleg stabbed into the closing gap.
Clang—!!!
The deafening crash of metal against stone shook the room. The great door shuddered violently, and dust rained down in sheets.
The tip of the foreleg wedged itself into the gap and thrashed wildly, trying to pry the door back open.
“Shut it!” Ryan shouted.
Both hands braced against the stone, Mana rushing through him. Vera and Rex shoved with all their strength, while Ilyss pressed both palms against the inside of the door. Faint silver patterns appeared across the stone, as if the ancient door itself were answering her power.
The closing motion stalled against the spider leg jammed in the gap.
Outside, the Illusion Spider raised its other foreleg and drove it toward the crack again.
They could not let it get inside.
A fierce light flashed in Ryan’s eyes.
The short blade in his right hand blazed with lightning again, but instead of slashing at the spider leg, he drove it straight into the narrow gap where the leg was wedged, the blade running tight along the exoskeleton—
“Thunderburst!”
Silver-white lightning exploded through the short blade and poured into the seams of the spider’s shell.
SCREEEE—!
A shrill scream of agony rang out from outside. The spider leg convulsed violently, then jerked backward.
That was the opening they needed.
All four of them shoved at once, and the massive stone door slammed shut, cutting off the Illusion Spider’s furious shrieks and mad battering.
For the moment, they were safe inside.
The stone door thundered with blow after blow from the other side, like war drums being pounded in the dark. Each impact made the slab shiver, sending more dust sifting down.
Outside, the Illusion Spider’s furious screams and the grating scrape of its limbs against stone were muffled by the heavy barrier, distant now, but the savagery and killing intent in the air still seemed to seep through the rock itself.
Rex and Vera kept their backs pressed against the door, their rough breathing loud in the stillness.
Lillian knelt beside the gray-white cocoon they had just dragged back. Her hands trembled as she hovered them over it, wanting to touch it but afraid of hurting the person inside.
Ilyss stepped back toward the center of the room, her violet eyes sweeping over the door. The ancient silver patterns on its surface, briefly awakened by their combined efforts, were already fading once more.
Then her gaze fell on Ryan.
Or rather, on the motionless little blue-green bird peeking out of the pocket at his chest.
Her eyes flickered, then shifted away at once, finally settling on the cocoon. Her expression was complicated.
Ryan’s breathing was heavy too. That short burst of power had cost both Mana and stamina. But the Seals of Enlightenment within him continued to pulse with warmth, calming the turmoil in his blood and straightening out the slight disorder in his Mana.
He walked to the cocoon and crouched down.
The silk was wet, slick, and sticky, carrying that same sweet, rotten scent. Through the half-transparent mesh, the human figure inside could be seen clearly.
Eleanor’s eyes were shut. Her face was terribly pale, and her lips had gone white. Fine beads of cold sweat dotted her forehead.
Her breathing was weak. The rise and fall of her chest was so slight that it was almost impossible to see unless one looked carefully. The dark knight’s uniform she wore was covered in dust and spider slime, with tears here and there, but there did not appear to be any obvious external wounds.
“Senior Eleanor? Senior Eleanor?” Lillian called softly, one hand carefully touching the cocoon’s silk.
There was no response from the figure inside.
“Let’s get her out first,” Ryan said.
He raised his right hand, two fingers together like a blade. A thin strand of concentrated silver-white lightning gathered at his fingertips, hissing faintly.
The edge of the lightning was razor-sharp, but the heat was controlled with exquisite precision. It would not burn the person inside.
He followed the seams of the cocoon and carefully cut in. The tough spider silk melted and charred under the heat and energy, giving off a burnt smell.
As the shell of the cocoon split open, more of that sweet, rotten stench spilled out.
Ilyss frowned. She traced a light motion in front of her, and a breeze carrying the fresh scent of grass and leaves swept across the room, clearing away part of the odor.
Ryan did not look up. He kept cutting with full concentration.
In a few moments, the cocoon was split open from top to bottom, revealing Eleanor inside.
Lillian and Rex carefully lifted her out and laid her on the cleanest patch of floor they could find.
Ryan reached out and touched the side of her neck. Her pulse was weak, but steady. Then he lifted one eyelid and examined her pupil. It was somewhat unfocused, and its reaction to light was sluggish.
“She was trapped in the illusion too long,” Ryan said after a moment, drawing back his hand. “Her mind is exhausted, and the paralytic toxin in the silk is still affecting her. That’s why she’s still unconscious.”
The Illusion Spider’s silk carried a neuroparalytic agent. It forced prey into deep hallucinations while slowly draining away their mental energy and life force.
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