The Crimson Tide Spider Queen was desperate, trying her best to corrode and destroy all the weapons that had dug inside her.
She prayed that the humans would take this chance to escape. After she had completely healed herself, she would remove the armor and hunt them down wherever they ran off to.
She was not worried about them escaping, as she had already marked them. As long as they didn't go beyond her tracking range—nearly 1,000 miles—she could grasp their direction.
She had decided that she wouldn't move even if the humans attacked. The white armor was not simple; it belonged to Rank 4 Crimson Tide Spider. Even she, a Newborn Rank 3, wouldn't be able to break it within a day or two.
Since the armor blocked all senses from both sides, she also had no idea if the humans were attacking her—but she should feel vibrations if the attacks were powerful enough.
She decided not to move even if the humans attacked, certain that a few Rank 1 Mana Wielders couldn't break it. She had never seen a Rank 4 Mana Wielder's full strength before but was certain even they couldn't break it! Perhaps not even a Rank 5!
'Do what you like, I won't move!' she declared within her heart.
After waiting nearly an hour, she sighed in relief. It seemed the human had truly run away—there were no powerful attacks on the white armor, or else she would have felt it.
She snorted in her mind, 'Run as far as you can. Just wait till I'm healed—then it'll be your last day!'
She focused on healing completely, no longer worried.
First, she focused on her amputated leg—but then was startled.
She felt something non-physical blocking the healing. Almost as if that part of her body had changed memories, deciding there had never been a limb there.
'What's going on?' She was bewildered.
She ignored the leg for now, focusing on other limbs. She could spend extra time on the amputated limb later. With other limbs healed, she could still act with one less leg.
Eric originally thought he would last less than 30 minutes using Space Shield, but now he felt he had broken through. All his abilities now at 'Lvl 2.' He wasn't certain, and this wasn't the time to experiment. Sadly, if he had known he could last this long and the spider would be this docile, he should have sent Lyria to find Livy.
After nearly an hour since deploying the space shield, Eric felt he couldn't hold on much longer. He started preparing for the future.
After drinking more refilling potions, he took out a bottle emitting a calming white hue.
Carefully, he took a single drop, covering it with his Mana and placing it in his mouth like candy—not swallowing.
Then, he took out blank paper, scribing with a smile before attaching it to the bottle and tossing it back into his pocket watch.
Lyria stood silently far away. Though she couldn't see exactly what Eric was doing, she knew he was using his space shield. She initially thought he'd finish within a dozen minutes—but it had been nearly an hour.
The Crimson Tide Spider Queen was now relaxed. Certain all humans had escaped, she focused entirely on healing.
Yet, after some time, she suddenly started feeling nervous.
She wondered if some human expert had arrived. This was one of her major concerns since she evolved to Rank 3. Though it would be too fast and unrealistic, considering she had only finished her evolution just a few hours ago.
Nonetheless, she was confident that her armor could protect her from any human experts of nearby region.
While she was calmly healing herself, she suddenly felt powerful vibration from her eyeguards, which she had hastily put on at the last minute with her ability.
She nearly jumped with fright, but it happened too fast.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!... BANG! CRACK!
Eric had blinked far away midair and watched the weapons hitting the spider's eyeguards, exploding like glass shards.
He was extremely nervous that all of them would fail to break the shell.
Thankfully, that guy's hammer didn't disappoint him!
All other weapons barely scratched the white armor and didn't even put the tiniest dent, but the legendary Tho... ahem, blacksmith's hammer had cracked the white armor like an eggshell!
Sadly, it was still not enough. The only good thing was that the hammer flew elsewhere and didn't shatter like the other weapons.
Just as he was considering doing the same thing again to completely destroy the cracked shell, the spider's left front limb swiped toward where he was standing not long ago and started assaulting everything in front of its face like a mad spider.
The pitifully beautiful spider seemed to have lost its mind with how crazily it was attacking the air.
Eric blinked and arrived beside Lyria.
"Brother Eric, are you alright?" Lyria asked worriedly, noticing his pale face, perhaps due to lack of stamina and tiredness.
Eric nodded lightly and sighed. "Your blacksmith's hammer cracked the shell, but dozens of Tier 2 weapons were destroyed in process. What a pity. I should have only used the hammer... I'm truly frustrated at losing so much..."
Lyria unexpectedly didn't console Eric and also sighed. "That's right. This spider really took a lot of money from our pockets..."
She was very vexed at the spider for wasting so much of their hard work and future prosperity. It took enormous focus, dedication, and effort to make those weapons, and she had expected to make a lot of money from them too.
Eric was speechless. He had expected consoling words like, 'It's fine, no need to worry', or something.
"Let's leave that aside for now. I've only managed to crack it, and I don't think it will allow me to try something similar again..."
"Leave this to me!" Lyria patted her chest confidently. "While you were busy, I noticed that my abilities have broken through. They've all grown stronger—that kind of feeling I'm having. Although I don't think my Crushing Blow can still destroy that armor, I have a feeling that if I put all my spirit into it, I might be able to completely shatter it because it's cracked now." She didn't know where her confidence was coming from, but she felt ready to unleash her strongest punch to date.
"Hm... I think I've also broken through," Eric nodded, though now was not the time to discuss it. "I'll try to hold its front limb back as long as possible, and you give your best to blast the shell completely."
Lyria agreed and didn't say anything else, using her Whirlwind Sprint to climb the spider via one of its unmoving limbs, not far from their location.
Eric was amazed at Lyria's Whirlwind Sprint; it seemed to have truly improved.
He didn't have time to admire it—he also proceeded to blink toward the spider.
After furiously attacking whatever was in front of her, the Crimson Tide Spider Queen felt another threat approaching, but she couldn't sense from where.
She guessed that the humans must be trying to destroy her damaged eyeguard. And so, she continued to assault whatever was in front of her left eye with her front left limb at full force.
Noticing the spider's action, Eric—after arriving in front of its eye—deployed his Space Shield to block the spider's front left limb.
Unlike in the past, where he could barely hold for two to three seconds, he felt he could hold for at least five to six seconds now. But it was still not enough, and his Space Shield 'arm' currently felt too tired.
"Hurry!" Eric roared toward Lyria.
Lyria swiftly arrived before the spider's left eye and, with a spirited war cry, poured her entire life into this Crushing Blow.
She knew Eric had painfully obtained this opportunity, and after this, the spider would definitely guard its eye—all hope would be lost. So, she bet her entire life on this punch. Her current mentality was such that either the shell would completely crumble, or her entire arm and body would be obliterated.
With such a determined mentality and spirit, Lyria punched.
BOOM! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
After taking such a powerful blow, the eyeguard could no longer hold on—it started to crack and finally shattered entirely. The spider's bleeding left eye was exposed in the open.
'Impossible!' The Crimson Tide Spider Queen screamed in utter disbelief.
She could feel her left eyeguard had completely shattered. This absolutely shouldn't have happened—it was absolutely impossible.
Even though this part of the armor was the weakest—just a thin layer compared to the thick armor throughout her body—it wasn't something even she, a newborn-stage Rank 3 Mana Beast, could easily destroy with a single attack, even if it was cracked!
She felt the human who destroyed it had used something other than just a powerful attack. But before she could think deeply on this, she once again started rolling helplessly.
As soon as Lyria destroyed the white shell, Eric swiftly grabbed her, covered her with his Mana, and blinked far away.
As Eric disappeared, so did his Space Shield.
And thus, the same thing happened—the giant spider was once again helplessly dragged toward its right side, rolling while destroying the environment as if someone was pulling its front left limb with terrifying power.
Eric and Lyria landed in a safe location and watched with pale faces.
Suddenly, Lyria stumbled and started falling face-forward as if losing consciousness. Eric quickly caught her and asked anxiously, "Ly, what's wrong? You shouldn't have received any hit."
Lyria didn't reply, frowning deeply with her eyes tightly closed—almost as if she was in unexplainable pain or weakness.
After a few moments, she finally had the strength to reply.
"I-I'm fine. S-sorry, please give me a moment." Weakly, she sat on the ground.
Eric took out a bottle of cold fruit juice—which he had secretly been saving—and without hesitation handed it to Lyria.
It was a big sacrifice for him, as he rarely ever shared his fruits with others, especially fruit juice.
His motto was: 'My fruit belongs to me, and your fruit, of course, belongs to me as well.'
Lyria thanked Eric, and after drinking the cool, sweet juice, she finally felt a bit of life returning to her body.
She didn't know what had just happened and similarly didn't know how to explain it. For a moment, she felt all her energy had drained—not stamina, but mental energy or perhaps life energy. She couldn't properly understand it. She had a hunch that this might have happened because she had drawn too much of 'something' out of herself during her last attack, and thus she ended up so drained.
While she was punching, it had been strangely pleasant—almost as if she had become one with the punch, or rather, with her entire action. It was her first time experiencing something like that, and she didn't know how to describe it in words, even to herself.
She couldn't figure out what had happened, and now was also not the time to contemplate it—the spider was still alive.
After drinking the sweet, cold fruit juice, Lyria started to understand why Eric liked fruits so much. It wasn't that she hadn't tasted them before, but due to her exhaustion, it felt like life itself.
She coughed. "Thank you, Brother Eric. I'm fine now." She paused and briefly explained, "For a moment, I felt a little too drained—maybe I'm just tired, since otherwise, I still have plenty of stamina."
Eric nodded. He didn't think too much about it—they didn't have the luxury to give each other warmth while the enemy was still alive.
Lyria was still feeling mentally drained. However, she forcefully pushed away such exhaustion and asked while watching the spider disappear into the horizon, "Brother Eric, can you use your Space Shield again? I... I don't think I want to journey inside its eyes."
She could still feel the tremor on the ground and the loud noises of numerous trees being uprooted and obliterated—and she could also hear a disturbing shriek coming from the single eye-hole far away.
Eric shook his head. "I need some time. My Space Shield is too tired after being used for an hour straight. Let's chase after it—who knows what else it will pull out. Can you run?"
Eric wasn't lacking in stamina. However, after drinking so many Stamina Potions while keeping the Space Shield up previously, he was starting to feel a massive headache. If possible, he didn't want to use his abilities further—sadly, they first needed to kill the spider. So, for now, he could only push himself.
Lyria gave a quick nod. "I'm fine. Let's go."
Both of them then chased after the screaming giant spider miles away.