98 Encounter
The road is about barely enough to fit a wagon.
Thick jungles on both sides. Pretty much a kingdom of wild life there. Territory of forest creatures.
Naturally such a road carries a high encounter rate.
And on the third day, we finally came across 'Those'.
"All hands assume defensive position! It's Purple Eaters! Don't get hit by its venom! Watch out for its web!"
Serena loudly declared. With that as a signal, the elves took a formation to protect me.
(Ok, thanks for the explanation. Haa, still magic beasts huh... These ones look gross.)
Before me are big scooter-sized black and purple colored giant spiders. Three of them.
(Super gross... Man, this is rough... Can't stand it.)
"Kuh... Let's keep it at bay as we pull back! Do not get surrounded! Focus on one before going for another! Stay within formation!"
(What do I do. I really don't want to get close to these things. But we gotta eliminate them. I mean they're blocking the way and all. Doesn't seem like they're gonna let us go too.)
These Purple Eater spiders are simply moving their legs around while swaying, they're not coming at us. Their heads are surveying around, seemingly cautious of us.
Their compound eyes would reflect lights every time they did that.
The panicking Serena readied her weapon against these unmoving spiders.
I was calm. I was just getting grossed out by the spiders. Staying optimistic all the while.
(I'd have to approach these gross things if I use a sword, out of question. Then throwing weapon?)
"Dammit! We could barely beat one, and there's three of them... No! I gotta focus or else they'd quickly turn us into fodder."
While Serena was panicking, I looked for a certain something.
(Yup, this should be big enough. Any bigger and the fluid might fly here.)
I picked up a palm-sized rock lying on the ground.
"Aim for the foremost one! Ready your bows! Focus! Draw!"
(Wonder if it's gonna hit? I've got no confidence in my aim.)
I recalled the time I threw arrows back at the village rascals.
Those arrows I threw back at them in Accelerated state drove into a tree. Arrowhead-less arrows.
This time I'm throwing a rock. It probably won't pierce through like arrows, but the weight should deal some blunt damage at least.
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
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I entered stage [4] acceleration and threw the rock with all my might. The rock got suspended in mid air the instance it came off my hand.
The rock follows my movement when it's still in my hand. Yet the very moment it completely got off contact, this happened.
I ponder while observing the ever slowly advancing rock. Not even myself has a grasp on the principle behind [Acceleration].
It's weird how I'm the only unaffected thing just because I can move around in a slowed down world.
And yet, I don't raise cloud of dust behind me even when I'm moving around in this Accelerated state, and there's no sonic boom when I likely exceed the speed of sound.
I undid Acceleration while spacing out with that in mind.
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But the rock seemed to have produced a shockwave from breaking the speed of sound, leaves on the trees around us flapped furiously.
The rock pierced through the center of a spider's face, came out its rear end and flew high into the horizon.
KIN, PAN! Bichabicha, dosa. The noises came in succession before it quieted down.
They were sounds of rock breaking the speed of sound, the spider exploding from the rock piercing through its face and rear, the sound of liquid coming out and it tumbling down the ground.
I was dumbfounded by the power that exceeded my imagination.
(Nasty... This power is no joke... And the spider's getting even grosser now... Ewww.)
The elves who were readying their bow broke their formation.
Looks like they were frightened by the sound. I'll ask them later.
But it seems they were even more shocked by the sudden mysterious death of one Purple Eater.
By the time Serena realized it was my doing the second Purple Eater that had jumped to trees started moving some sort of white matter in its mouth.
Serena noticed that and gave an order right away.
"...Here comes the web! Spread out! Stay alert!"
White matter got spewed out of the spider's mouth and formed a web as it fell right above us.
(Huh? Don't spiders shoot their web out of their abdomen?)
Serena who missed her command by a beat cursed, 'Darn it'.
The web caught all six elves... not.
It vanished in less than the blink of an eye.
Of course that was my doing. I accelerated, felled a tree and swung it around to twirl the spider web.
I recalled how I didn't feel trees weight yesterday and went with this strategy.
Serena noticed how I was holding a tree with the web twirled around and immediately issued an order.
"N-now! Shoot!"
All the elves readied their bows and let loose their arrows right away.
Apparently the spider couldn't move while shooting web, all six arrows pierced deep in it.
The spider shrieked sickeningly 'Piiiiiiigyaaaaaa' at the pain of having its eyes pierced.
More arrows flew in the air as it writhed on the ground. A volley six arrows, hyun then another volley, all at perfect timings and all hit the Purple Eater.
It finally quieted down once the spider stopped moving.
The third spider had climbed up a tree and faced its back at us. 'Bicha' with that sound a purple liquid that screamed 'I'm toxic', formed a puddle on the ground.
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