Being swarmed by all sides, Edward blasted his aura, sending the nearest spiders tumbling in the air while stopping the charge of the others. This display of power bought him exactly two seconds of respite before the swarm resumed its charge like the inevitable rise of the tide. Edward reluctantly looked at the tarantula corpse, he didn’t have the time to absorb its blood essence. He sighed.

One tarantula won’t make much of a difference, I already killed four of them since I came into this forest. Still, I hate wasting it, but it’s not like those wolf spiders are leaving me a choice, they are too numerous. Killing them one by one so that I can benefit from that tarantula’s essence would be counterproductive, I would probably spend more aura fighting them than the tarantula would give me. I have to explode the nest to get rid of them.

Edward got up, flashed his flamethrower which was still hot from its recent use, and poured mana into it. He watched as a bright tongue of flame hungrily burned the few meters of webs that separated him from the center of the nest. For the brief instant that it took, he had to fend off the spiders coming from him. Having to aim the flamethrower at the nest, and having only one hand to defend himself, he wasn’t able to stop them all, he had to form an aura armor to tank the hits he couldn’t parry.

Throwing a bomb to blow off the side of the nest had helped him to deal with the tarantula, but it was now to his disadvantage, the opened area only adding directions from which he could be attacked. Each spider’s bite consumed his aura by a bit, but for such a short amount of time, the wear was bearable.

The last layer of webs fell to ashes as the mana density kept increasing in the vicinity. Edward quickly took off one more of Leyla’s bombs before the mana could disperse further. With the current mana in the vicinity, he barely had to feed mana to the bomb for it to charge. He threw it at the heart of the nest as it became scalding hot, and the next instant he teleported seventy meters away, leaving the mass of wolf spiders behind him. They turned to look at him, ready to continue the chase when the nest exploded in a deafening deflagration. Edward was already in mid-air and he had been ready, he let himself be carried away by the blast rather than trying to confront it. He barely suffered any damage.

The explosion was slightly smaller than for the other nest since the first bomb had already consumed some of the mana. But it had been enough for Edward’s objectives. There wasn’t a trace of the nest anymore and the spiders on it had been obliterated. The surroundings of the nest had been deprived of their webs, forming a reasonable area where Edward could fight without being at a disadvantage against the Arachne. As importantly, the webs hiding the sky had been pierced by the explosion, leaving an open hole from where Edward could leave if things turned sour.

Even then, there were still wolf spiders nearby. The explosion had killed the majority of them, but there had been so many of them that some had been outside the explosion’s radius. That’s one thing done. Let’s deal with the leftovers before the Arachne reach me. Edward dived on the spiders to finish the job just like a falcon hunting a mouse. He was swift and decisive, one strike was enough to kill a spider before he turned to the next one. Not all of his strikes were clean kills since there were illusions in the mix, but each real spider killed immediately removed its illusions. Within ten minutes all the remnant spiders had been slaughtered.

Whatever happens now, I have already dealt them a good blow. I’ve destroyed three nests, killed the breeding black widow, and devastated the majority of their forces. I only need to struggle for a little bit longer to deal with the Arachne and their portal.

Now that he wasn’t under pressure, Edward absorbed the blood essence of the fallen wolf spiders, it wasn’t enough to push him further, but it was sufficient to bring him back to peak condition. He then sat crossed-legged in the middle of the clearing he had created, thinking about the fight ahead of him.

He didn’t have to wait for long, two minutes later a portal formed at the edge of the clearing where the webs were still present. Out of it came the Arachne with the last of the tarantula.

“What a mess you did”, the Arachne snarled in distaste while leisurely petting the bear-sized tarantula. “I must say I have underestimated you. I didn’t expect for you to escape my pets and killed most of them.” Its voice grew colder. “After having the gall of offending me you disappeared to who knows where, wasting my time, only to blow up my cute babies’ nest the moment you come back.” The Arachne clenched its fist and the tarantula whined in pain. “I’ll take pleasure slowly eating you.”

You sent nightmarish spiders to murder me and complained after I killed them instead. Edward was understandably pissed off by the Arachne’s attitude, however as he was about to answer he felt something was off. The Arachne was too proud and angry to converse with him, it was only making a statement. Instead of his initial answer what left his lips was: “Rèng khwāmrĕw”.

He had just activated his acceleration when he realized the Arachne was already halfway to him. It had elongated its claws with aura, each claw turned into a fifty centimeters blade. Edward slid to the side, parrying the Arachne’s strike with one of his daggers which he had elongated with his aura as well. In the same movement, he retaliated with his second dagger. The humanoid part of the spider was behind him and its abdomen was exposed to Edward’s counterattack.

I can do it. It’s fast, but I’m on par with it thanks to my acceleration.

Just then the Arachne shifted its weight, leaning on its front legs to twirl around, avoiding Edward’s dagger while slicing upward at him with its claws. The movement was so perfectly executed that Edward wondered if the earlier opening had been a feint. He awkwardly protected himself with a hastily raised dagger, stopping the hit but the weight behind it made him take a step back. The Arachne attempted to push its advantage, but one step back had been enough for Edward to reassert himself. Unable to press its advantage and realizing that the moment had passed, the Arachne gave up the exchange and bounced away, suddenly opening the distance between the two fighters.

Both of them slowly turned around each other, assessing their opponent and searching for weaknesses. Edward watched as the spider deftly moved around, its many legs giving it this extra mobility. If I’m unable to go for a critical strike, I can incapacitate its legs first. If I removed its mobility, it would be a lot easier to deal with it. Its abdomen would become an easy target.

While he was devising his strategy the Arachne was doing the same, its slitted red eyes fixing Edward unwaveringly.

The pause didn’t last long, the fight resuming with the Arachne gathering energy in its right hand before firing ridiculously long aura blades at Edward. Faced with six meters long horizontal aura blades coming his way, Edward couldn’t dodge to the side, so he chose to jump over it. The Arachne followed right after the blades, anticipating Edward’s move. It had waited for him to be in midair to slash down with aura-enhanced claws. Edward sneered, clearly the Arachne hadn’t watched him fight before. He formed aura steps using them as supports and easily avoided the Arachne’s deadly claws.

While in the air he ran to skirt around the Arachne and attack it from behind where it was harder for it to defend itself. However, the spider turned on itself with surprising alacrity, its many legs helping it change direction. Edward wasn’t able to ambush the Arachne from the back. Circling from the outside he had more distance to cross than the spider had to turn on itself. He reluctantly gave up on this tactic. He fired an aura blade at the monster buying him some time to somersault and he fell back on the ground now facing the Arachne which had sidestepped just enough to avoid Edward’s blade.

After two exchanges neither of them had the advantage, anything could happen in this fight. Edward who had been particularly anxious about this opponent was relieved to notice that he wasn’t put at a disadvantage.

That’s when the Arachne smiled viciously at him before cloning itself. Two spitting images of it appeared by its side. It is using illusions just like the wolf spiders. The three Arachne switched positions, preventing Edward to find which one of them was the real one. Edward gritted his teeth. It’s still fine, the illusions aren’t able to do any damage, and they will disappear with one hit. I just have to be careful not to let it hide among them to ambush me.

The three Arachne separated forming a triangle formation with Edward in the center. It’s in moments like these that I’m glad I planned ahead and destroy the surrounding’s webs in advance. Due to the absence of webs, Edward’s aura was able to perceive his environment more clearly. He was perfectly aware of what was going on behind him without having to look, which somewhat limited the impact of the Arachne’s new move.

Naturally, the three Arachnes charged him at the same time. I have to determine which one is real and which ones are fakes, Edward thought with urgency. All of the monsters elongated their claws with aura. Fuck! They aren’t simple illusions they can use aura as well! The spiders were as fast as Edward and they were now too close for him to defend against all of them at the same time. Edward teleported into the air to avoid the attack. The Arachnes clawed only at empty air. However, to Edward’s horror, they didn’t stop there and formed aura steps as well, chasing after him in the air.

Edward faltered and opened the distance between them. If things went soured, he had planned to escape by running through the sky. The fact that the Arachne was able to do the same feat and could pursue him if it wanted to do so changed his plans. His escape wasn’t a certainty anymore.

However, even as Edward was falling back, he noticed that two of the Arachnes had been a tad slower to pursue him through the air. He narrowed his eyes. Those may not be complete illusions but the Arachne didn’t simply multiply. Those two are slower than the original one. Even as he was falling back he fired aura blades at the two spiders slightly lagging behind. They weren’t able to avoid the attack and disappeared as if they had been nothing but soap bubbles. Edward realized the truth. Those are indeed illusions, but somehow the Arachne is able to share its aura with them, just like the black widow was able to share its aura with the ordinary wolf spiders.