STAB!
A leg sped through the air towards Cane, who promptly dodged. Even though he had an energy shield, it definitely wouldn't be able to handle a peak rank 3's power. Instead, he was saving it for the babies which he was expecting.
Well, he wasn't expecting babies, per se. It was more like the Matriarch was. After all, considering it was the 10th round, Cane wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out that she was pregnant and ready to unload an army to fight him.
Just the average fight, yeah?
As Cane dodged and rolled throughout the Matriarch's flailing limbs, he continuously fired syringes into her body. Even though he hadn't heard the commentary on his actions, he also knew that the Matriarch had venom and poison resistance. So, with every shot he fired, he duplicated it using Steal.
With double the dose, Cane was relatively confident that he could paralyse the Matriarch. From there, the second step of his plan would arise. But first, he needed to survive, and he needed to continue drugging that spider.
Otherwise, forget about any second steps. He wouldn't even be able to handle the first!
Cane's heart filled with resolve. This is where I make my debut, or die!
The Matriarch quickly realised that attempting to stab Cane wasn't working. Even when all of her limbs had been working in sync, Cane's Apprentice Warrior speed was still enough to dodge them. One general rule of combat - it's easier to dodge a stab than a swipe, and it's easier to retreat from a swipe than it is from a stab.
And of course, the time it took Cane to move from side to side was far shorter than the time it took for the Matriarch to stab forward, despite the differences in their speeds. Thus, Cane was safe.
The moment the Matriarch realised this, webs laced with venom once again began to be flung at Cane. The Matriarch was switching attack methods, since it'd worked relatively well the first time.
And it worked once more.
Whenever the webs touched Cane's energy shield, they'd burn up and release a toxic gaseous smoke. Previously, Cane had had enough time to swipe his shield through the air and disperse the smoke, but now that the webs were coming in full blast, Cane no longer had that luxury.
Soon, Cane began to cough and wheeze from the continuous toxins entering his body.
Sh*t, the Matriarch has the initiative now. I need to find a way to shift the battle...
Cane tensed himself against the ground. He turned the energy shield from its previous transparent state into an opaque colour. It would no longer burn up the webs, but that wasn't necessary.
The moment Cane's body disappeared from view, he used Hidden Strength and selected the Matriarch as his target. Feeling his strength double in power, he pushed up off the ground and flew towards the Matriarch at intense speeds!
Hiss!
The Matriarch immediately reared her tail and stabbed at Cane, ready to deliver a more-than-fatal dosage of venom. The two parties sped toward each other in a sickeningly dangerous moment. But just as they were about to make contact...
ZZSST!
Cane smashed the shield into the Matriarch's venom barb, causing it to short-circuit with a shower of sparks and zaps. This caused electricity to surge through the Matriarch's body momentarily, bringing pain along wherever it went.
In that same moment, the venom barb on her tail unleashed a stream of clear liquid venom, almost like a hose. It was so powerful that it began to melt the ground which it splattered on. But now, Cane's shield was stuck in the Matriarch's barb.
The Matriarch could no longer properly stab Cane with her tail, meaning that one vital attack method was no longer available.
In a rage, the Matriarch turned and stabbed her legs into her abdomen, ripping it open in a gory display of power. Inside her abdomen? Well, uhh...
It was only hundreds upon hundreds of small, rank 1 Scorpion-Spiders. There were so many that it looked like a tidal wave, limbs tangled and mandibles snapping. Not to mention the tails, eugh!
Cane's face scrunched up at the sight. He was now at the back end of the Matriarch, which meant that he was even closer to the epicentre of the spider explosion. As the army saw Cane, they immediately rushed forward in shocking unison.
...
"Cane has had a phenomenal start, constantly peppering the Matriarch with large amounts of syringes! In fact, he's even doubled the amount through some unknown means!"
The event host first replayed the zoomed-in footage of the flying syringes doubling in the air. He continued to commentate.
"Then, he managed to take the Matriarch's venom barb out of the game! With this, he'll no longer have to worry about her venom. Of course, now he's in a bit of a pickle. He's gotta face off against the baby Scorpion-Spiders, a veritable army for sure!"
The Chief Cleanser butted in. "Rank 1 Scorpion-Spiders aren't much to worry about, even if they're in the tens. However, this swarm is well over the hundreds, so Cane will need every bit of wit and power he's got."
From the lounge room, the air was tense as everyone silently rooted for Cane. They already knew at this point that Cane was much more powerful than them, since they wouldn't be able to last against such a large swarm.
"C'mon Cane... you got this..." Jeremy took a huge handful of popcorn.
Frytz's eyes narrowed at the sight of Cane fighting off the swarm. I believe you'll be able to get through this, Cane!
In this moment, everyone's suspicions of Cane had disappeared as they all united in the sight of Cane's solo fight with a rank 3.
...
"HOLY SH*T!!!" Cane had just lost his only defence, and now he was getting swarmed by a huge amount of Scorpion-Spiders. Even the rank 1 babies had venom, so Cane would be in a tough time.
He stomped on the ground with his full force, both of the Hidden Strength markers still activated. From there, the ground cracked and caused a portion of the babies to die. Cane then dug his hands into the earth, standing across one of the cracks, and lifted the ground into a pillar.
He leapt up onto it, and began kicking and squashing babies from above. The babies attempted to climb onto the platform, but one stomp of his foot shook the structure, causing them to fall off.
This slaughter continued for a while whilst the Matriarch rested from unleashing her army. Cane had tried his best to not get stung, but it couldn't be helped - there were too many of them.
Running out of options, Cane decided to use Steal openly. First, he used Steal on the syringe gun. With that, he now held two. Then, as he began to fire the syringes, he used Steal on them too - causing his fire rate to suddenly spike by four times.
With the rapid fire of his syringe guns, Cane finally managed to cull the last of the Scorpion-Spiders. He then began to slowly, painfully make his way to the Matriarch, continuing to inject syringes into her. He kept the 4x attack speed going, using Steal rapidly in a short amount of time.
Cane then used Divine Treasure Eyes as well, aiming for the weak points of the Matriarch's armour. Feeling the sudden pain, she knew that the fight had to continue.
Giving birth had consumed too much energy, so the Matriarch needed to take a rest and recover. Now that Cane was attacking her once more, she no longer had that luxury, and was forced to re-enter battle.
With her venom barb out of commission, the Matriarch was forced once more to stab at Cane. However, this time, he wasn't able to dodge them. His body had been filled with too much venom and toxic gas, and he could barely keep his eyes open.
The Matriarch wasn't much better, of course. But she was better off, and when her leg pierced Cane, miraculously missing any important areas, she was now ahead of him by a huge amount.
Everyone's voices dropped to a hush as they witnessed the leg pierce Cane's body.
"ARGHH!" Cane let out a yell of pain, but didn't hesitate. He continued to fire syringes into the Matriarch, over and over again. Slowly, she stopped moving, immobilised like a statue. Now, both parties were in a desperate situation.
Cane was bleeding out, but the Matriarch was frozen in place. Both of them were easy pickings for the other, as long as they could push through their injuries.
Cane then began to smile, in an evil, vicious way.
Steal!
The sight of an organ began to flicker in his hands. It was the heart of the Matriarch.
Seeing this, she suddenly began to shudder violently. The Matriarch was attempting to shake off the influence of the syringes, but to no avail. Even now, Cane's other hand was sending syringes again and again into the Matriarch's body.
The shuddering caused intense amounts of blood to leak out from Cane's wound, which made his eyes go cloudy with pain. But Cane pushed through.
Minute after minute of intense silence passed. Suspense and tension was so thick in the air that Cane could probably cut it if he wasn't busy having his leg and arm stabbed through.
And then...
the final Steal commenced.
The Matriarch's powerful body suddenly found itself missing a heart. With the blood-flow completely stopped, the Matriarch's legs curled up in on herself. This also violently tore at Cane, but at the same time that he was being injured, something else was happening.
A rank up.
Cane had used Steal. He'd used Hidden Strength, Divine Treasure Eyes, and even Innate Luck when he survived the Matriarch's legs. Having used all of his skills in such an intense manner, and also having consumed the flesh of the Jawbreaker in the previous round, Cane finally reached the threshold of ranking up with that one, final Steal.
With that, Cane began to fall unconscious from the blood loss and venom. Cane's body fell to the ground, healing and bleeding out simultaneously. Medics rushed into the arena and he was carried off in a stretcher.
I... I'm ranking up? Wow, I wdnoer wtha slkil lI'l gte...
His thoughts muddled as his mind drifted off into dreamland.