Chapter 34 - Chapter 30 : The Real Hunt.

If you want to read more about my works or just to support me then here is my patreon:

👉 Patreon.com/Doflamingo4

__

N/B: Yoy!! Guys Don't forget to check my other works: [ Shadow Monarch × One Piece. ]

__

Third POV:

"…Oh my fucking Lord."

Adam's voice cracked into the heavy, suffocating silence as the very shadows of the forest seemed to bend and warp, contorting themselves around the immense, hulking shape materializing before him. The air grew thick, resistant, as if the darkness itself had gained weight and substance. From between the tangled, massive roots of an ancient, gnarled oak that looked as though it had witnessed the founding of Hogwarts itself, a creature emerged—monstrous, crawling with a predatory patience that spoke of an age far beyond human reckoning, its multi-jointed legs cracking thick, fallen branches as if they were mere dried twigs.

Eight hairy legs, each as thick and solid as a young tree trunk, moved with a silent, unnatural grace that belied their tremendous size and obvious power. Its body was the size of a small hut, a grotesque bulking form covered in rough, dark bristles that shimmered faintly with a sickly iridescence in the weak, filtered moonlight. Its mandibles, large enough and certainly strong enough to snip a man cleanly in half, clicked together with a sound like steel knives scraping against ancient bone, a sharp, grating noise that set the teeth on edge. Its eyes—dozens of them, clustered together in glistening mounds—glistened with a cold, utterly alien intelligence, each single eye catching the dim light like a malevolent, polished black jewel, reflecting not light, but a profound emptiness.

It was not a wolf. It was not any ordinary beast of the forest.

It was something older,something that had crawled from a deeper, darker place in the world. Something infinitely darker.

Aragog.

The monstrous spider stopped its deliberate advance, its immense, horrifying body looming over Adam like a living, breathing mountain of nightmare and chitin. Its breath rattled through the still night air, a wet, labored sound, hot and putrid, carrying the unmistakable, gut-churning stench of open graves, rot, and fresh, metallic death.

Then, to Adam's utter and complete surprise, a voice slithered out from between those wetly clicking mandibles, low and deeply, profoundly unfriendly, but unmistakably formed in recognizable human language, the words distorted only slightly by the form that produced them.

"What are you doing here?" Aragog's mandibles clacked wetly as he spoke, glistening, poisonous venom dripping from their tips like molten, black tar.

"You know it is dangerous for young…children… to walk alone at night."

Adam stood frozen for a moment, his initial shock at the spider's speech quickly melting away as his signature smirk slowly, defiantly curled back onto his lips despite the sheer, primal terror crawling its icy fingers up his spine.

The spider leaned closer, its immense, hairy shadow utterly engulfing him, blocking out the sky and the little light there was, plunging him into a personal darkness.

"This place isn't for the weak of heart."

Adam tilted his head, a perfect picture of feigned nonchalance, though every muscle in his body was coiled tight. > "Really? You think that?" His eyes glinted with a mischievous, almost manic defiance in the deep dark.

"You know…if I were to be scared, it wouldn't be because you're terrifying… it would be because you're so damn ugly."

For a moment, there was only a profound, ringing silence. The only sound was the eerie, rhythmic clicking of those sharp, deadly mandibles. Adam's grin widened, a flash of white in the gloom.

"And you talk in human language too? Pretty impressive. Didn't see that in the brochure."

Before he could speak another taunt, a distinct, unsettling ripple passed through the forest floor beneath his feet. A sound. A relentless, skittering scratching. A pervasive, multiplying crawling that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Adam stiffened, his smirk freezing in place. Every one of his honed instincts flared in urgent warning.

Slowly, deliberately, he turned, dreading what he would see but refusing to look away.

And his blood ran cold.

From the shadows all around, the ground itself seemed to move, to come alive with a horrible, seething life. The trees trembled as hundreds—no, thousands—of smaller but still monstrous spiders began emerging from hidden burrows, from high branches, from unseen pits in the earth that seemed to open like wounds in the forest floor. Acromantulas—each one giant and visibly ravenous, their hairy, barbed legs tearing through roots and soft soil as they advanced in a coordinated, nightmarish tide. Their needle-sharp fangs dripped glistening, clear poison that sizzled where it hit the leaves, and their countless, faceted eyes reflected the scant moonlight like a vast, shifting field of obsidian shards, all fixed on him.

They surrounded him completely, their slow, deliberate, clicking steps closing the circle tighter and tighter, a living, clicking noose. The sound of their collective movement was like waves of bones cracking, a continuous, chittering cacophony of endless legs moving in horrifying, unified unison.

Adam whispered under his breath, a hysterical laugh bubbling in his throat at the sheer, overwhelming absurdity of the situation.

"…Oh my dear life."

Aragog shifted his immense weight, the movement causing the ground to vibrate, towering above the seething, swarming mass of his children. His voice rumbled out like a physical death knell, filled with a terrible, paternal pride.

"Let me introduce my children… They do not like uninvited guests." A deliberate, cruel pause, his mandibles widening into what could only be described as a sick, grotesque approximation of a grin.

"And it has been too long since they tasted fresh meat."

Adam turned in a slow, deliberate circle, his heart pounding a frantic, adrenaline-fueled rhythm against his ribs, but his defiant smirk remained firmly, stubbornly in place. All around him, the forest pulsed and seethed with a ocean of skittering legs, a boundless sea of cold, blue-glowing eyes, and the steady, palpable promise of a swift and painful death.

He sighed, a theatrical sound, stretching his neck with an air of mock exhaustion, as if he were dealing with a minor inconvenience rather than an impending, gruesome end.

"Good Lord… Looks like tonight's another practice session. Let's give them the perfect feast…" His eyes narrowed, his voice dropping to a dangerous, conspiratorial whisper that was meant only for himself and the shadows that served him.

"But I hope no one notices this."

Adam raised his hand, palm outstretched, his personal dark aura crackling around him like contained lightning, the air humming with unleashed power.

"Come out… my army."

The command was not loud, but it was absolute. The forest floor at his feet cracked open with a sound like tearing fabric. From the fissure, shadows poured forth like a living, boiling, sentient tide, rising and coalescing into familiar, terrifying forms—the fifty slain werewolves, their eyes now glowing with an eerie, unwavering blue light, jaws slack yet poised for carnage, their bodies clad in armor of solidified, shifting darkness. They formed a disciplined, silent rank behind him, their collective presence heavy, unnatural, and utterly, profoundly terrifying, a wall of death made manifest.

The air grew instantly suffocating, charged with opposing dread. Every advancing Acromantula froze in instinctual, primal dread, their clicking ceasing for a heartbeat. Even Aragog's many eyes widened slightly, his confident, gloating voice faltering for the first time, laced with something that sounded like confusion and the first stirrings of fear.

"…What… is this?"

The army of shadows stood immovably tall, their ethereal weapons glinting with a light that wasn't there, their collective, utter silence somehow more deafening than any battle roar could ever be. The alpha werewolf shadow stepped forward from the ranks, its movement fluid and powerful, kneeling before Adam in one respectful, utterly subservient motion, its glowing blue eyes burning with eternal, unquestioning loyalty.

Adam smirked, his face half-lit by the faint, cold glow of his spectral army, the other half plunged in the shadow of the giant spider before him. His voice was calm, yet it carried a deadly, world-ending finality.

"Welcome to the real hunt."

And the forest itself, for one breathless, suspended moment, seemed to hold its breath, waiting for the storm to break.

__

[ End of Chapter. ]

_________

If you want to read more about my works or just to support me then here is my patreon:

👉 Patreon.com/Doflamingo4