Premature Destruction!
----
Whoosh!
Apollo sprinted away from the enclosing spider beast. However, he didn't head toward the entrance. Instead, he changed directions towards the side and moved with one intention—destruction.
Apollo his arm along the floor and picked up a severed spider leg, hurtling it in every direction. Unfortunately, his attacks were deflected from his target, but that didn't stop him. There were a large number of such limbs covering the floor.
Hence, he entered a playing field greatly suiting his desires.
'This beast is so much faster than the others, it may even be slightly faster than I am. But its movements are awkward' Apollo thought as he glanced at the rampaging spider behind him.
While the information he received indicated this beast was stronger than him, it didn't unsettle Apollo. In fact, he felt if he could complete his plans then he'd be able to combat it.
「Monster Name: Dark Iron Widow Queen
Type: Variant
Cultivation: Peak Stage Rank 1 Spirit Beast
Health: 3,490/3,490」
Its health was amongst the highest he'd seen, disregarding the two warring beasts. Still, as the beast hadn't evolved into a Rank 2 Spirit Beast, its abilities were still only half of a Rank 2 Spirit Beast.
Finally, Apollo grabbed another handful of legs, and this time he hit his mark.
Splich!
The swarm of severed punctured the eggs after breaching the defenses of the rampaging queen. This was his plan all along—to deal with the eggs before attempting to finish off everything here.
However, he was surprised by the notification that appeared in his eyes. It was beyond his expectations. After all, these were unhatched beasts.
〈System: You have killed a Rank 1 Spirit Beast (Unhatched).〉
〈System: 50[25+25] Experience gained.〉
〈System: Experience: 19,250/19,900〉
'Rank 1 Spirit Beasts? Why aren't they counted as Mortal Beasts?'
[It's quite simple. The lineage of the beasts follows the principle of bloodline inheritance. In other words, they are born as Rank 1 creatures. It's only a matter of maturing for them. Especially those birthed from this queen.]
'Hm...I see. If it's like this then I've been going about this all wrong. I doubt they'll be able to catch me if I change my focus,' Apollo thought as a malicious gleam passed through his eyes.
He continued with his actions, but this time they were far more brutal. Apollo relentlessly hurled a stream of severed legs in various directions. Furthermore, he remained on the move while doing so.
Naturally, this infuriated the Widow Queen. If she managed to get Apollo in her grasp then it wouldn't be a pretty sight. Perhaps she might even make his end a slow one to carry out her vengeance meticulously.
Steadily, the number of destroyed eggs increased, which in turn increased the rate at which Apollo accrued experience. However, this only served to further incense the queen. Its path to advancement was being cut off! Its offsprings birthed for one purpose were being destroyed!
It was unacceptable, causing the Widow Queen's eyes to glimmer with pungent madness.
Screeech!
The queen's movement experienced a sudden burst and caught up to Apollo who was almost caught of guard. It seemed certain beast possessed an innate berserk technique that served as a means to temporarily increase their lethality.
In response, Apollo dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding a destructive stab of the beast that flattened a protruding boulder.
Not much needed to be said about the force behind its blow as its leg obliterated a boulder with ease
'I can't get hit by that…' Apollo thought. Although his body was stronger than it was before, that type of destructive power was beyond his resilience.
After jumping, he landed on a regular spider beast. However, he didn't stop moving because now that the spider queen was on a rampage, it didn't take the safety of the regular spiders into account.
Fortunately, Apollo also took this time to kill them while he weaved and spun in the air evasively. This way, the crushing rampage of the queen wouldn't affect his experience source.
At the same time, Apollo plunged severed legs into the eggs when the window presented itself. Needless to say, his experience bar climbed at a visible rate.
A short moment later, he smirked as the notification appeared before him.
〈System: Congratulations, you have reached Level 70.〉
〈System: 0.2 Attributes and 0.3 Stat Points rewarded.〉
〈System: Experience: 0/21,900〉
At this point, Apollo possessed a grand total of 8.8 stats points, and because of the corrosive liquid that afflicted him, his stat's effectiveness was steadily declining. So, he was forced to use his stat points, divvying them up into the needed stats in order for him to prevail.
〈System: Strength: 40.7 → 44.1〉
〈System: Agility: 35.1 → 37.5〉
〈System: Vitality: 27.0 → 30.0〉
The small burst of stats allowed him to increase the previously minuscule distance between him and the Widow Queen. A scene that caused the beast to spit poison madly. At this point, it had relinquished all qualms with dealing damage to its eggs. After all, Apollo was destroying them anyway.
'It seems to have thrown caution to the wind… if I do this properly. I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone,' Apollo inwardly thought as his eyes shifted back and forth.
The small boost of strength was only temporary, as it was still fading fast. If he didn't act quickly, he would once again fall into a disadvantage of stats.
Apollo picked up the corpse of a red-eyes spider nearest to him and used it as a makeshift shield against the Widow Queen's poison. Once it was covered in poison, Apollo touched its heavy carapace onto the largest collection of eggs.
Instantly, a continuous stream of notifications appeared before Apollo.
'So it does work! If I cause the action that leads to their demise, even if it isn't me damaging the eggs then I'll receive the experience,' Apollo thought excitedly while watching his experience filled by ¼.
The number of eggs in this breeding ground was simply astronomical!
Unfortunately, the Widow Queen exuded an ominous presence as it looked at Apollo. The Natural Essence seethed and flowed towards it carrying a poisonous aura. Noticing this, Apollo acted even faster. Being as it was a Spirit Beast teetering on the edge of Rank 2 and the fact whatever it was doing was a large move, the speed was rather slow.
Bang!
Apollo's experience continuously filled, however, his attention never left the Widow Queen. He realized it was going through a small change. First of all, it was shrinking as it was expelling a toxic screen. Besides that, its abdomen was opening presenting 6 jet black spinnerets.
Rooting itself on the ground by stabbing its legs inside, the Window Queen launched 6 threads. However, they seemed different from the rest. They were entirely green in color without any hints of white!
Immediate signs of danger arose which prompted Apollo to dodge with ghost-like movements.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Unlike the other webs, these ones seemed to follow his movements. In other words, the Widow Queen was actively manipulating their trajectories. It was now intent on seeing his doom. His prior actions were intolerable.
'What the heck is this…' Apollo yelled internally as he twisted and turned his body in odd fashions. Yet even then, he didn't forget to stomp and damage the eggs in the process. Then it happened, an abrupt change!
The threads weaved together forming a net covering all of Apollo's paths. But as they did so, they vibrated and splattered poison everywhere. Some of which landed upon Apollo; specifically his right eye.
"A-agchhh…" Apollo retreated while gripping his throbbing right eye. His vision blackened in mere moments, losing all vision from that side. This type of development was far from ideal because losing part of one's eyesight was synonymous with losing part of your view on this battlefield.
The pain drove him mad as he screamed in pain.
[Shit, all vision from his right eye is gone and I sense something obscured seething in his soul. Could it be from doing? Lad, can you hear me?]
Sadly, his words fell on deaf ears as Apollo's body twitched. At the same time, a faint purplish-black, gaseous aura seeped from his body as his eyes were illuminated by a treacherous light.
A second after this aura appeared, Apollo lifted his head. Their infuriated gazes met but the Widow Queen shuddered for some odd reason.
Meanwhile, Azridan was taken aback.
"Kill…"
[!! Holy hell, this aura...]