Chương 35: Web Conjuring

The intensity of the fight increased once more. On one hand Kayzen was no longer suppressing the Archwolf's abilities, while on the other hand, the alien had also significantly improved in strength. The Arachne was now just 10 meters tall, yet all of its eight legs had become sharp like swords. Its speed was nothing to laugh at either. No longer did Vasser and those from the Zephyr have an advantage when it came to mobility. And last of all was its sheer defense.

Unlike how thin it looked; its entire body was adorned with a whitish-red exoskeleton. It didn't even leave a single scratch despite taking on so many attacks. If all of this wasn't frightening enough, then the Arachne was using its most threatening abilities over and over again. It spat out web patterns that seemed to tear through everything in existence. There was nothing to do but dodge in front of such an attack. It was at this moment where true talent shined.

Be it Vasser or the leader of Zephyr, neither of them were someone to be looked down on. Despite the tough opponent they were facing, the duo didn't cower in fear and instead took on an even more aggressive approach; allowing the rest of the mercenaries to stand back and cope with the overall situation. All this while Kayzen was primarily focused on recovering his spiritual strength and crafting a Hex using the bloodlines he had collected.

"This has become a lot more dangerous than I had expected." Kayzen muttered after he saved another mercenary. He knew that right now, his Hex were better suited at saving lives rather than dealing damage. He used the records of Phantom Shift whenever needed and hexed the mercenaries who were on the verge of death. It didn't save them from total harm since Arachne's records were able to negate his own Phantom Shift. However, it did offer some resistance.

What should have been a certain death ended with a crippling blow. This wouldn't make much of a difference if they failed to kill the enemy, yet he decided to save as many as he could. There was strength in numbers after all. Kayzen once again stretched out his roots of perception all over the battlefield. Not all things were bad in his opinion. For once, he now had a different target for his next ability.

At first he planned on using the bloodline of the Archwolf leader as well as its fangs to extract the strongest ability he could. Now, his target had changed. Wasn't there a better option? The gigantic claw that descended from the rift was on a whole other level. He wouldn't even think about attempting such a feat if the owner of the claw were here. But now that the claw had been fused with the Arachne, it was nothing but passive records enhancing the alien's ability. It was well within his power to extract them.

This was also the reason why he thought of bringing the fight to the spiritual realm. In the end, this strength didn't belong to the Archwolf leader itself. The true power of it lay with the records it had gained via the bloodline reversal, in other words, records of its ancestor. Thus, its soul should be weaker than its physical form. The way Kayzen planned on using the record extraction was fundamentally different from the time with Angelica.

Back then, only he and Vasser were there to deal with the enemy, but now, there were more than enough people. Once he dragged the Arachne into the spiritual realm, the rest would be free to attack it as they pleased. Doing so would cause him some harm as well as there was a chance that Arachne would shrug off his Hex and return to reality. So in the end the core of the matter lay with timing. He had to choose a time when the Arachne could neither advance nor retreat.

As Kayzen analyzed the battle from every angle, he realized another fact that probably no one had noticed thus far. It was something only he could notice thanks to the information coming from the roots of perception. The Arachne had a strange habit of using its hind legs every time it jumped at the sky or retreated from the offensive. This was hard to notice as the alien kept spinning around the battlefield with movements too fast to pick up with the naked eye.

However, if utilized properly, there was a chance that this could be a point of breakthrough. Immediately, Kayzen ran towards Vasser. He could have shouted the finding as well, but in the off chance where the Arachne had gained intelligence, it was better to convey his plan in person. Having sensed his approach, Vasser detached from the fight and asked while huffing, "You ready with the plan?"

"Almost. Its hind legs might be its weakness. If you can somehow cripple them, then the ensuing fight would be a lot easier. Rather than focusing on dealing a fatal blow, go with the plan of crippling its legs one by one." Vasser thought for a moment and instead of agreeing right away, she raised a question of her own.

"This will create a battle of perseverance then. I doubt we can save the mercenaries from that thing." Her words held merit. Even now the Arachne was full of vitality as it jumped around in the forest and wounded one mercenary after another. In just a short few minutes, more than half of the people from Zephyr were out of combat.

"It won't come to that." Kayzen looked into Vasser's sapphire-like eyes with determination.

"As long as you immobilize it, I plan on launching a fatal blow. Even if I don't succeed in seizing its records, at the very least I guarantee that it won't be able to use the same power it has been using up till now." Vasser thought for a moment but ultimately agreed with Kayzen's plan. If it were up to her, then she would have chosen to tire the alien out by engaging in a prolonged combat. This was a more feasible option if they had more people like the Zephyr's leader.

This was how humans had fought against monsters, after all. They didn't have the strength or speed needed to kill the mighty predators, however, what they had was stamina and endurance. It didn't matter whether the hunt lasted for hours or days. In the end, they would exhaust their target and kill it. This was how humanity had started conquering this realm. And perhaps, such days will come again in the near future.

Vasser conveyed Kayzen's plan to the mercenary leader, and surprisingly, the latter agreed without hesitation. From his perspective, there was no better alternative. It was he who stood to lose the most if more mercenaries were injured. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Just the sheer financial repercussions from their failure would be enough to cause their entire mercenary group to disband. That wasn't something he as a leader was willing to accept.

The following fight progressed just as Kayzen had planned. Vasser moved with a purpose and launched a straight charge at one of Arachne's legs. The latter tried to jump away into the air, but the leader of Zephyr rushed right then and prevented its movement. This was a dangerous situation where one wrong step would have them shredded to pieces by the Arachne's web. Fortunately, their gamble worked.

"In the name of Argia, SHATTER." Vasser used all of the Ether at her disposal and threw out a punch at its hind leg. She didn't have enough power to breach its defenses, but that didn't matter. From the beginning, divine laws weren't something one could understand by pure logic alone. What mattered here was the conviction, belief, and the will to achieve what they desired. Vasser yearned for glory, and for that she wanted to break the leg of a foe that was far stronger than her. And thus, Argia answered her call.

A pillar of golden light shot forth from her gauntlet and tore through the leg of the Arachne. Its impenetrable defense was as good as paper in front of the divine law. Seizing the moment, the leader of Zephyr also made his move and struck at the other leg. He too used a divine law, one that was empowered by Ruzgar himself. Visible streaks of emerald light wove around the Arachne's other leg and tore the entire limb apart. This must have been the trump card he was saving up.

Now, both Vasser and him had used their strongest attack and were left drained of their energy. Arachne had lost two of its eight legs and was now in a difficult situation, yet that was all there was to it. The fight was still far from over. It was this time that Kayzen made his appearance. The bloodlines collected from the Ravager class Archwolves were forged in a pentagon in his hand. All five points held one bloodline orb, while the connecting lines were formed from their fangs and his own blood.

This was the strongest medium he had prepared to date. He knew that this was the only chance he had at catching the enemy off guard, and he didn't hesitate to charge right at it. The Arachne still hadn't considered him that big of a threat as it focused on killing him rather than avoiding the Hex. That turned out to be a fatal mistake. Kayzen didn't even evade the leg pointing at his stomach, and instead pressed down with his palm. With a sickening sound, a mangled mass fell out from his stomach.

Since he had activated Phantom Shift right before the attack came, it had mitigated the damage somewhat and spared him from being skewered in half. Kayzen expected such a thing to occur as he stood no chance against the alien. However, his gamble had paid off. Both he and Arachne lost the color from their eyes in the next second. The battle had shifted to another realm. … Kayzen found himself in a familiar yet unfamiliar space. A gray land that seemed to stretch infinitely in all directions.

This was different from the spiritual realm of the Angelica, since as a plant, it had minimal consciousness. The Arachne was far more intelligent in comparison.

"Not so powerful now, huh?" What answered his taunt was a scream filled with rage. As expected, the enemy didn't know what this place was, it was wary of him. This was good news since things would be troublesome if it attacked with the intent of killing him from the get-go. Kayzen knew that the wound inflicted on his soul would be reflected in reality, while the Archwolf leader did not. Indeed, the archwolf leader and not the transformed Arachne.

Standing in front of him right now was the hybrid of a wolf and spider. As expected, its soul was still the same even if its body had undergone transformation. What caught his eyes even more was a strange orb hanging right above the Archwolf. That sphere was glowing in white and red light even in this space of infinite gray. Both he and the Archwolf felt like tiny ants facing a giant dragon as they looked at the orb. This was the difference between records.

All of a sudden, Kayzen stretched out his roots of perception and executed his authority. Not on the Archwolf, but rather, at the orb hanging above it. As long as he managed to imprison and seize these records, the Archwolf would be as good as dead. The archwolf growled and jumped at Kayzen, at the same time, it also spat out webs to block his routes of escape. That was useless, however. Kayzen didn't plan to run from the beginning.

He avoided the fatal attack with a roll and kept his focus on imprisoning the records of the orb. It was a task difficult to accomplish at his current strength. And this was the case when they were in the spiritual realm while the enhancement of the records was related to a physical body. Outside he wouldn't even consider attempting such a feat. Kayzen let go of all reservations and poured his entire attention on seizing the records.

He wasn't worried about his own defense, since he knew that neither of them would be staying in this space for long. Those outside should be attacking the body of the Arachne, so it would be waking up any moment. He just had to imprison and seize the records of its ancestor before that happened. And his timing was right on the mark. With a pain that seemed to tear his brain in half, he was ejected from the spiritual realm. He could hardly see since blood was flowing out from his eyes and nose.

This was the after-effect of being interrupted while in the spiritual realm. The one who had it worse off was none other than the Arachne. Even Kayzen was surprised at the bloody sight. He knew that Vasser and the rest would deal with its physical body, but the method they had used to accomplish that was both crude and effective. Vasser rained down punches at its head while the leader of Zephyr hacked away at its heart.

The most surprising ones were the remaining mercenaries, who each clung to one of its legs and bombarded it with all sorts of abilities. Now, even if the Arachne gained mobility, there was no way it could shake off these many opponents. This was the literal case of a bunch of ants killing an elephant. And finally, Kayzen put the final nail in the coffin. The Hex made of bloodline in his hand had withered away, and in its place hovered a little sphere of white and red energy.

He had barely extracted 1% of the total power contained within that claw, yet that alone was a feat worthy to be proud of.

'I'll leave the rest to them.' Kayzen looked down at his gaping stomach and immediately applied the Dragon's Blood sap on his wound. Something like this was far from a proper treatment, but at least it would stop the bleeding. His biggest concern right now was to assimilate with the records and gain a new ability. Only with strengthened records would he have a better chance at survival. He had taken a significant step forward on the path of a Warden of Records.

The sigil on his chest thrummed in resonance with the surrounding Ether. Utilizing the momentum, he pressed his palm containing the red-white sphere right on the sigil. Fwoooomm A torrent of Ether currents materialized with him at the center. The commotion was too much to be caused by obtaining a single ability, and as if to prove that, a brand-new sigil was being carved on the back of his hands. Apart from creating an ability shard, he had obtained an additional authority.

This was just as, if not rarer than wielding a divine law. Kayzen slumped down in exhaustion and looked at the dark blue shard that had martialized in front of him. Rank: Medium Web Conjuring: By weaving the ever flowing Ether, you are able to conjure web with various properties. The scale, range, and effects of the web are dependent on your records. Kayzen smiled as he saw the new ability as well as Vasser who returned with a triumphant face. With this, the fight was finally over.