Black mist filled the cave, now engulfing the panicked spider queen. With practiced grace, Hannya melded her newly awakened body into the black clouds, rapidly approaching the gigantic spider.
The Spider stood in place, as if it had given up on its initial ferocious assault. It stood guarded, its eight eyes darting around rapidly, trying to lock onto her lost target.
Hannya smirked at the display. The creature would not find her with such methods. She'd long since honed her mist melding. She darted around to the queen's blind spot, her daggers raised, poised to strike the armourless gap at the back of her opponent's neck.
'Die!'
Her killing intent rose as she brought down the two bone blades with destructive force. But what happened next caused Hannya to widen her eyes in surprise.
CLANG
As Hannya exited the mist with momentous speed, barreling towards the spider with her daggers, the spider in question, as if sensing her with pinpoint accuracy, spun its upper body in a blur. Its tree trunk sized foreblade raised at an impossible angle, intercepting her attack.
Hannya felt her arm grow numb from the impact. Then, a second blade followed. Hannya hastily raised her guard to block the incoming strike, only to be blasted back from the sheer weight of the blow.
CLANG
As she was pushed back and sent flying into the surrounding mist, she slammed into the cave wall behind her, forming spiderweb-like cracks from the crash.
"Kuh!" The air from her lungs were knocked out, and she could feel the blood trickling out of her mouth and nose. A single exchange had shown the difference in their strength.
'Damn! I could barely see her move!' As she landed back to the ground, she vanished into the mist once more.
She didn't know how the beast had detected her, but the spider queen was too guarded, she needed to change tactics.
The Spider continued to stay in place as the mist filled her vision and enveloped her, but the queen was unperturbed by the obstructed view nor was she feeling any discomfort in it. It waited and watched. Expecting the black eyed creature to strike again.
The Spider did not have the moniker of Queen for no reason, dread spiders chose their leader by merit of strength. This queen has reigned for decades with no challenger her equal. She has encountered foes both inside and outside her lair. In short, the dread spider queen was quite the experienced fighter.
A flicker of something was seen in the dense mist. Reacting automatically, the spider swung her foreblade in that direction only to swipe the empty air. A second flicker of a person, barely at the corner of the other side of her vision. She swiped once more only to be evaded again.
The Spider let out an irritated shriek. The small devil was playing with her!
This time, the spider saw it clearly. Hannya appeared at the side of her vision again, just enough to be seen fully with a quick enough reaction.
She appeared in the air, as if jumping directly out of the clouds of mist, she had both of her hands in the air, pointing at the spider with an inappropriate gesture. She had a smug smile as the momentum of the jump reached its peak, and she fell back towards the denser clouds below her.
But now that the Queen had finally seen her, she would not let her go so easily!
SCREEE!
SLASH
The Queens blade flew out at lightning speed, catching up to the quickly disappearing devil, ready to cleave her in two. As the blade flew towards its mark, the spider queen felt a sense of incredulity rise up within her. She was slashing towards her foe, a weak devil in terms of strength, yet the sense of danger only grew more as her blade moved closer.
As the blade cut through the devils flesh, The spider felt it, the killing intent directed at her like last time!
The devil in front of her then exploded into mist as the blade passed through it, a fake, the Queen realized.
SLICE
The spider only had time to duck slightly as a second Hannya zipped past her head, slashing two of the creature's eyes and disappearing again into the mist.
The Queen screamed in pain and anger, she had taken damage.
SCREEE!
Within the mist, Hannyas face was grave. She had intended that one to be a devastating blow, but again, even with the lowered guard of striking down her opponent, the spider queen had still sensed her fatal attack and reacted to minimize damage.
'No way I'd get away with that again.' Hannya was getting frustrated dealing with this spider, It was far stronger and far faster than her. She couldn't even approach without getting detected, on top of that, her paralytic doesn't even seem to be an issue for it. She was running out of ideas to deal with it.
While Hannya was racking her brain for other ideas within the mist, The spider queen did something that absolutely horrified the young devil.
SCREEE!
BOOM
With a roar much different from the others, the spider raised her head and sent a shockwave throughout her surroundings. As the wave moved outwards, a purple aura followed.
The cave shook, and rocks from the ceiling of the layer began to fall and crash to the floor below.
As the purple shockwave spread, the dense black mist was also pushed away, and worse yet, began to slowly dissipate.
As the wave passed through Hannya, she was violently knocked out of her ethereal state, returning to her small devil form.
"Ugh! What the-"
DING
As Hannya's bloody form came back into view, she heard the notification of her boon ring out. What she read made her scalp numb.
[
Debuff: Disrupt - [Dread Wail] aura has disrupted your [Mana Flow], channeled spells are silenced.
Duration: 10 minutes
Passive activated: Supreme Devil Core - Your supreme core loves mana, and mana loves your core.
Adaptation time: 5 minutes
Debuff: Fear - [Dread Wail] aura has inflicted external fear in you, cannot take actions while feared!
Duration: 10 seconds
Passive activated: Higher being - You bow your head to only look down on others.
Adaptation time: 0 seconds
]
Reading her status, Hannya became fully aware of her current conditions. The mist was slowly disappearing and she could do nothing to stop it. It was no longer under her control. Her mind raced for a solution. As the mist near the edges of the lair became thinner and thinner, and the large stalactites continued to fall across the space, she quickly dashed behind a large rock that had fallen from the ceiling to hide from the spider queen.
Thanking Lilith Prime for her small body, the young devil crouched out of sight from the enraged Spider. While the spider stomped and slashed the falling boulders and ones lain around her, hoping to find the rat hiding in her nearly destroyed lair, Hannya was not feeling too good about her situation.
She also found a massive flaw in her combat style, after an extended time outside her mist form, she began to feel the searing pain in her ribs and left arm. The damage she was sustaining was not healing when she was in that state!
And now it seems since her mana was disrupted, the healing process of her body has slowed considerably. Hannya's hands began to shake slightly. She glanced at the cave entrance some distance away.
'Do I really have no choice?'
Thinking of retreating only made her blood boil. She had started this crusade in the name of love! Was her words really that cheap? Was her love really that cheap? She clenched her fist at the thought.
No. She had to fight. Wouldn't her unwavering love come into question if she ran? Besides, she injured the bastard already. It was far from invincible. Her pink eyes began to glow brighter at the thought.
DING
Startled by the notification bell, Hannya quickly checked her logs. There was no way she had been hiding for 5 minutes already. What she saw shocked her, her small mouth making an 'O' shape at the message.
[
Offering has been accepted.
Rewards: Boon - [Guiding Hand]
Duration: 3 hours
Reply: [6th Vainglory] believes in your victory!
]
'H-he texted me!'
Hannya's mind was reeling. The ritual had worked! She received the cheat boon she wanted and Vainglory even replied!
Hannya looked down at her small hands and clenched her fist. What timing! Was this the true power of love at work?
The true answer was…no. Unbeknownst to Hannya, the time dilation in the abyss delayed the contract acceptance, it was purely coincidence that it arrived at the time it did.
And unbeknownst to the both of them, the reply was one of the small fallback messages added by the original creator, if no reply was added. Hannya, the one who finished this array, overlooked this small detail when replicating it, focusing more on the functional logic between the sender and receiver. Thus…
'He believes in me!' The heart devils eyes began to spin rapidly, she could feel her heart almost beating out of her chest. Such unquestioning belief and they hadn't even met face to face yet.
She gripped the daggers at her sides a little tighter. Her heart felt warm. Knowing such a handsome was cheering for your victory sure did feel exceptional.
'Fear not, flame of my fire, I will come for you soon.'
Her eyes sharpened with determination as she peeked out from her boulder. The Spider queen's frenzied state seemed to have subsided, given now she was meticulously scanning the area, searching for signs of any movement.
Luckily for Hannya, the Queen also seemed to have become more relaxed now that the mist was gone. Knowing the devil was no match for her when her tricks were all gone, the spider was no longer worried about a sneak attack in this large room, as her back was turned from the direction of Hannya's true hiding spot.
'Relax while you can heretic! Kihahaha!' Without waiting another second, Hannya quickly activated her new boon [Guiding Hand]
DING
[
[Guiding Hand] is now cooperating with [Quantifier]
[Guiding Hand] evaluating statistics…
[Guiding Hand] evaluating current skills…
[Guiding Hand] evaluating battle memories…
[Guiding Hand] evaluating known enemy skills…
[Guiding Hand] Optimizing skill list…
DING
Skill [Charming Smile] has been gained!
DING
Mana disrupted!
[Guiding Hand] reevaluating…
[Guiding Hand] has substituted [Mana Flow] with [Chi Breathing]
DING
[Supreme Regeneration] back to maximum output.
DING
Skill [Mist Clone] has been gained!
[Guiding Hand] is finalizing…
Battle success rate… 86%
Implement Battle Strategy?
y/n
]
Hannya gawked at the list of notifications rapidly filling her screen. Her eyes landed on the battle success rate near the bottom.
'86%'
She was floored at the evaluation. She'd been using hit and run tactics this whole time, just barely staying alive. And now she couldn't even use her mist. How could it be this high?
'I-is it the power of love again?'
She didn't know what the [Guiding Hand] planned to do, but since this was a gift from her destined one, she happily accepted'.
HUM
Immediately after accepting, Hannya could feel the control of her limbs lessen as a foreign aura entered her body.
"This…"
She could feel she could deny this power from using her body, but she allowed it to do as it wished, giving up control.
Another energy coming from her own body then activated. A pink hued Aura slowly began to wrap around her small frame. It emitted from her body like a slowly twisting flame.
As Hannya began to let go of control, she felt like she was a passenger of her own body, watching the happenings deeper and deeper in her consciousness.
Her face became blank, showing no emotions. Her wounds began to rapidly heal as she stood up, rotating her shoulder, earning a small 'pop' as she turned and walked to the startled Spider Queen.
'Damn, that was cool…gotta remember doing that later.'
As Hannya watched her body move on its own, she was completely unbothered by the actions, opting to take notes instead. She put her faith in this cheat ability. Why?
Because not once in the novel had Vainglory lost with this ability active.
Hannya stepped forward and took out the bone blades from her waist. She lowered her stance and shot forward at blurring speeds.
'What a take off!'
The spider shot forward as well, the queen was a little startled that devil's speed had increased, but this amount of speed would not make up the difference. Along with her strength, the spider queen would still be the victor in the end.
SLASH
CRASH
As the queens foreblade crashed down on the small figure, Hannya's body preemptively twisted ever so slightly, narrowly evading the swing. She continued on, hopping up and driving the dagger into the joint of the beast's entrenched foreblade.
'C-close one!'
SCREEEEE!
The queen shrieked at the pain. Hannya's emotionless face showed no interest in the creature's agony. She swung herself up with the dagger, one small foot landing gracefully on the handle. Using it as a springboard, she launched herself higher.
CRACK
SCREEEE!
'Brutal..'
With a sickening crack from the joint and another painful wail from the Spider, Hannya somersaulted over the queen, utilizing the blind spot from her two damaged eyes and the blood that obstructed the remaining two to disappear into the debris behind her.
The Spider queen, reeling in pain, viciously swiped her remaining good foreblade at the rocks behind her. The pain from that attack earlier had frenzied the spider once again. And with her foreblade now mangled, the spider was off balance trying to attack every possible hiding spot. Trying desperately to keep weight off the destroyed appendage.
As the spider queen's eyes darted around furiously, it locked onto the small devil darting from a rock nearby, but before she could react, a second pink haired devil ran from the other side.
'hehe'
Furious at the trickery, the spider backed away while shrieking, using it's ability [Dread Wail] again.
As the shock wave passed through the room, the spider queens eyes widened in horror when the two devils did not disappear, continuing their dash towards her in a pincer formation.
In her desperation, she swiped out at the devil sprinting towards her good blade. With a horizontal swipe, the devil was cut in two.
POOF
'kikiki!'
The devil exploded into mist and disappeared. Another fake! The Spider whipped its head around, the other devil was now too close for her to swing a second time. But the creature only grinned maliciously. She had no plans of letting the devil mangle her blade anymore than it already was.
With a wild shriek the queen shot her head forward at maximum speed, opening her maw wide, showing razor sharp teeth as she began to chomped down on the devil jumping towards the bone dagger lodged in her joint.
The devil was crafty, but far too slow.
But as the Queen rapidly approached, she watched as the pink haired devil gave up reaching for the dagger mid jump. In the air, she turned to the ferocious looking spider queen, and with a blank face, did a double peace sign.
'....'
The Spider queens closing mouth froze.
"???"
The queen did not understand what it ment. Was the devil surrendering? Perhaps it did not want to die? It was understandable, the queen was mighty, the battle had been hard fought, but again it was the queen that came out on top. If she agreed to become a cauldron for a demi spider army, wouldn't her power grow further? Perhaps this was an unexpected gai-
SLICE
SPLASH
PLOP
As the spider queen considered her options, she did not notice a third devil appear above her, a pink aura wrapping around her dagger as she dived silently towards the creature's outstretched neck.
DING
[Guiding Hand] battle strategy complete.
'....'
Hannya was impressed by the [Guiding Hand]. Truly an overpowered ability….
An ability she learned much from….
A Devil sent from her destined one…
It was just….
Why did her best ability have to be a cringey pose? Did it even need to use it in that fight? It was mocking her right?
She eyed the [Guiding Hand] suspiciously.
As Hannya slowly regained control of her body and the [Mist Clone] holding the bone dagger dissipated, she glanced down at the giant head of the spider queen, still rolling from the momentum of the decapitation.
She smiled.
"Stepping stone crushed."