Zenitsu raised his hand and saw that the spot where the spider had bitten him had already turned purple.
"You've been poisoned by my spider venom. The poison will spread through your entire body with your blood. The more you run, the faster it spreads. Slowly, you'll grow dizzy and weak all over. In the end, you'll collapse to the ground, and I'll eat you bite by bite. Heh heh."
Zenitsu froze in place as though considering Brother Spider's words. A moment later, he let out another string of screams and frantically dodged the human-headed spiders' attacks.
"Hah! So you're not just a coward, but an idiot too. All of you, get him! Don't let him escape!"
Upon receiving the order, the human-headed spiders closed in on Zenitsu from every direction.
With nowhere left to run, Zenitsu scrambled up a large tree behind him and clung to its trunk for dear life.
But he soon realized something was wrong with his body. His arms began to lose their strength, and then his body fell uncontrollably toward the ground.
The instant he landed, he remembered the days when he had trained in the mountains with his grandfather.
Whenever he got tired and did not want to train, he would hide up in a tree, while his grandfather stood below with a wooden stick and scolded him.
Even though he was cowardly, lazy, and untalented, his grandfather had never given up on him. Yet in the end, he had only learned one move of his grandfather's Thunder Breathing.
Zenitsu landed on the ground, bent his knees, pressed his left hand against the scabbard, braced his thumb against the guard, and gripped the hilt with his right hand. He assumed a sword-drawing stance, squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his teeth, and took a