Chapter 31: A Battle in Full Blaze!
After killing the first spider, then the second, Laura didn't wait to watch the bodies fall. Before she could load another arrow, she rolled sideways at speed.
The moment she moved, a sticky web struck the exact spot where she had been standing. Another spider monster had been lying in wait for her from above. When the creature saw it had failed to immobilize its prey, it quickly located her new position. But before it could send out a second web, Laura's arrow had already shot out like lightning, burying itself squarely between its eyes.
The third spider fell.
After killing the monster, Laura cast a quick glance over the team's situation. The battle had been raging from its very first moment without any preamble.
A massive spider suddenly leapt at the war hammer-bearer's face. His large hammer greeted it, turning the spider's head into a bloody pulp in an instant. But another spider monster seized that opportunity. It struck him from behind with its sharp leg.
A deep, bleeding wound appeared on the hammer-bearer's back. The large man gritted his teeth in fury and let out a suppressed roar. He swung his body around and swept his great hammer in a wide horizontal arc.
"CRACK!"
With a sickening sound of shattering, the second spider was sent through the air like a broken kite, slamming into a tree trunk and collapsing motionless.
"Damn… there are so many of them," he cursed, feeling the burning pain of the wound on his back.
Elsewhere, another spider targeted the slim assassin carrying twin daggers. It launched its sticky web toward him. Just as the web was about to reach him, the assassin vanished from his spot in an agile leap. When he reappeared, he was on the spider's back — and drove both daggers into its head, ending its life. Another spider immediately attacked him with its claw. The assassin barely deflected the blow with his dagger and leapt calmly backward.
The spear-carrier and the other two members were also contending with monsters coming from the flanks, while more continued to rain down from above. The spear-carrier killed one spider, only to be caught off guard by another from his side. A long, bloody gash appeared on his thigh.
Watching all of this, Laura's mind worked at speed — analyzing and breaking down the situation. While dealing with the swarm of spiders, she deduced within seconds the methods and strength of these monsters.
She found that individually, these spiders were not particularly powerful and lacked solid defenses. Their attack methods were limited: either launching a web, or using their sharp legs to stab and strike. But their numbers were terrifyingly large. And these monsters possessed a highly effective system of collective ambush tactics. They rained down from the tops of the trees and from the flanks in enormous numbers — kill one and another would catch you off guard. Any moment of inattention would come at a very steep cost.
No… I need to change this situation.
Laura saw that injuries were beginning to mount among her team members. She shouted at the top of her voice with counter-instructions, ensuring her orders could be heard through the noise of battle:
"Quickly! Close in on each other and form a tight circle! Each person is responsible for their own side! And don't worry — above, I'll handle it!"
The team members heeded Laura's words without hesitation and quickly closed in, forming a tight defensive circle. At its core was Laura herself, dropping any spider that attempted to dive from above.
Despite the simplicity of the formation, its effect was immediate. There were no more surprise attacks from behind or above, and the pressure on the other members dropped considerably.
"The injured drink health potions… anyone feeling exhausted drinks a stamina potion! Don't hesitate right now!" The team members heard Laura's steady voice, and their hearts settled.
The injured drew out their health recovery potions and drank them immediately. Within seconds, the wounds of the injured began to close and scar over, and they returned to fighting with renewed strength.
The spiders were still coming in overwhelming numbers, as though they were endless. But upon reaching the team's ironclad circle, every last one was killed without exception or mercy, and the shattered carcasses began to pile up.
---
Far from that blazing battlefield, back inside the Fertile Lands Territory, Kaiden was practicing his new skill, "Terrain Modification," in moderation. He was wary of suffering the same violent backlash as before, so he had become considerably more mindful of his mana level this time.
Fortunately, this new skill consumed far less mana than the Epic "Earth Manipulation" skill. Though Kaiden found it less effective and considerably slower. Its uses were limited — leveling ground, creating small hills, and similar tasks.
Then suddenly, at that moment, a dense flood of kill notifications appeared before him.
[System Notification: Your forces under Laura's command have slain a Bronze-tier alien spider monster of the "Zygros" race. Reward: ×1 Origin Point.]
[System Alert: You have slain a soldier belonging to another Lord's territory. Your relationship with Lord Queen Riviera's Nest Territory has become Hostile.]
[System Notification: Your forces under Laura's command have slain a Bronze-tier alien spider monster of the "Zygros" race… ×1 Origin Point.]
[System Notification: Your forces under Laura's command have slain an alien spider monster of the "Zygros" race… ×1 Origin Point.]
…
Kaiden was struck with astonishment. The notifications kept appearing, one after another.
He had been following both teams' news through kill notifications. From Golan's team, a notification would arrive every now and then about a different monster being killed. But what had been troubling him was that no notifications at all had come regarding Laura's team since they departed — and now, suddenly, notifications about Laura's team were appearing before him in abundance, pouring down like rain.
Kaiden read through the notifications carefully to see exactly what his soldiers were facing.
"It seems things are under control," he murmured, his heart settling after the initial shock, upon seeing that all the notifications concerned monsters killed by his forces — and not the other way around.
---
Back on the battlefield, the scene had changed considerably. Torn spider carcasses had piled up into small mounds, and the surrounding air was thick with the piercing smell of spider blood.
The expedition team was operating like a harvesting machine running at full capacity, reaping the lives of spider monsters without pause. The fuel powering this machine… was the Stamina Potions.
Laura looked around. These monsters don't seem to care about their own lives, she noted — observing that the spiders were still hurling themselves at the team despite the failure of their surprise ambush and the obvious gap in power between the two sides.
While Laura was thinking about this, suddenly — a new change occurred on the battlefield.
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— End of Chapter Thirty-One —