Volume Three: The Academy Runs Wild Chapter 264: Bloodstained Spider (4)

I'm such an idiot.

Whenever he recalls the events of that time, the now- Sick Spider feels ashamed and wishes he could travel back in time and kill his past self.

When exactly did it begin?

My heart races whenever I think of her, and I feel so happy when I'm with her. I give my all on every mission just to make her smile, as if she has become the center of my life.

One day, she finally realized it.

"Hey, Kasser ... um, I..."

"What's wrong? Why are you stammering?"

"I... maybe, probably, it seems... I've fallen for you."

"..."

"..."

"... Oh, I see."

"That's all the reaction you're going to have!?"

"So what kind of reaction do you want?"

So, I want to hear... your answer!

"Liking me... does that mean you're willing to shield me from the wind and rain, to be good to me, and to stay with me?"

"Yes..."

"Willing to serve me, willing to sleep with me, willing to satisfy my physical needs?"

"Yeah--wait, what did you say?! Ahhhhh!!!"

"Unwilling?"

"... I'm willing, or rather, I really want to..."

"Oh, I want to too."

"... Eh?"

"If it's with you, Lilia, then having a physical relationship is fine. After all, I have those needs too, and I'm not really interested in men."

"Ah, uh, eh eh eh? But--"

"A fresh and vibrant older virgin, wouldn't you like her?"

"Huh? Of course I have to—wait, are you a virgin? And 24 isn't considered old, is it?"

"Is it strange that I've never had sex because of my previous 'job'?"

"Uh, no, it's not strange... in fact, it's better this way... but..."

"But?"

"If it's just a physical relationship, isn't it... like having sex or friends with benefits?"

"... So you mean not only do you want my body, but you also want my heart?"

"Hmm... or perhaps the latter is more important..."

"How greedy."

"You're the one who's so strange!"

"Oh..."

She rested her long, slender, jade-like fingers on her chin, tilting her head in thought, while the Sick Spider waited, drenched in sweat, for the result.

"Then let's leave it at that," she suddenly said with a strange smile.

"If you ever defeat me... I will offer you not only my body, but also my heart."

What if we didn't use this small portion of the Rakshasa True Word's power against the enemy, but instead applied it to ourselves?

According to Xiao Wu's recollection, during the last major rampage, the power of the Rakshasa True Word caused severe mutations in my body. Numerous proliferating blood vessels burst out of my body and enveloped me, leaving me neither human nor ghost.

It sounds terrifying, but if we look at it from a different angle—could we consider that the Rakshasa True Word can greatly activate my body and power, thus making me stronger in another sense?

Thus, this risky experiment came about.

"Thank goodness, it actually succeeded..."

By infusing a small amount of the Rakshasa True Word's power into the body, it dissolves into the flowing blood and permeates the entire body, thereby triggering a controllable, benign mutation.

The results are "these".

I opened my hand, and thin red lines emerged from under my skin. These were blood vessels that had proliferated explosively after mutation, and I had consciously allowed only the finest capillaries to proliferate. The average diameter of these capillaries was only six to nine micrometers, comparable even to the silver threads of Sick Spider. Each capillary was connected to my body, with a large amount of highly concentrated blood flowing into them. I could freely control the movement of the blood vessels and the blood within them.

The question then becomes: how can we make the best use of it to combat the wire-cutting attacks of the Sick Spider?

The principle is simple, but it requires extremely precise operation.

The highly concentrated blood explodes and ignites in an instant, generating an ultra-high temperature that can instantly vaporize steel bars. Normally, I would just let it spread into the space to burn people to ashes.

But what if we didn't let it dissipate, but instead concentrated all that high temperature into a thin line that's only six or seven micrometers wide?

By flinging capillaries towards an object, the highly concentrated blood concentrated on the six- or seven-micron-scale filaments ignites explosively upon contact.

That would create an indestructible, extremely sharp blade.

"Try it out, my ultimate move— Flame Cut Bloodline!"

The bloodline and silverline clashed again, and this time the silverline was at a disadvantage! Although it hadn't been cut yet, it was already groaning in pain as it collided with the bloodline! After the attack, I immediately controlled the bloodline to retract it. It only possesses that invincible cutting power at the moment of explosive combustion; normally, it's just a series of relatively flexible blood vessels that snap easily.

"You bastard..."

The Sick Spider glared at me fiercely, and strands of silver threads emerged from her fingertips—hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and more and more.

"Playing with lines in front of me, do you know what 'showing off one's skill before an expert' means?"

The question is, do you even know who Lu Ban is?!

Hundreds of silver threads swarmed towards me from all directions; I couldn't fight them head-on. In an instant, I made a decision and lunged into the web of threads. The blood threads ignited the moment they touched the silver threads. Now the Sick Spider was truly serious, creating the strongest threads imaginable, which even the Flame Cut Bloodline couldn't cut immediately. I could only change the trajectory of the silver threads in a split second, creating a gap in the encirclement for my escape.

"Don't even think about escaping— Sky Fang!"

The Sick Spider twisted its left hand into a claw, contorting it in the air. Instantly, thousands of silver threads contorted into a silver vortex and hurtled towards me! I immediately activated my blood to its limit, accelerating my escape, leaping over buildings and scattering my blood threads in all directions. The sound of countless buildings being swept up and crushed behind me sent chills down my spine. Suddenly, the sound of wind breaking came from above me, and I saw more than a dozen identical silver thread vortexes rushing towards me, like the teeth of a monster!

"Blood Realm Spiral!!!"

The blood threads I had scattered in various places suddenly erupted, forming huge rings that encircled me and all the vortexes, then quickly tightened! The scorching cuts completely disrupted the rhythm of the silver thread vortexes, and at the same time, thousands of blood vessels proliferated on my body, condensing into a hundred-foot-long giant blade that slashed at the Sick Spider!

"Don't get too cocky! The Thread Wrapped Blade!!!"

In the blink of an eye, countless silver threads entwined into a silver longsword over a thousand meters long. With a flash of sword light, everything within a thousand-meter radius was cleaved in two! The Blood Vein Blade burst forth with dazzling flames in an instant, barely withstanding the first strike of the longsword, but was cut in half at the waist by a second strike just a few centimeters above her head!

But don't forget, Aunt Spider, these are "blood vessels," not threads.

Pfft! Spurting hot blood gushed from her veins, burning mid-air to form a scorching blood arrow that shot towards the Sick Spider. She immediately used her thread shield to block it, but the blood arrow stopped just before it touched the shield, solidifying into Blood Crystal Thorn!

Are you kidding me!?

The silver threads shattered the countless blood Crystal Spike, while on the other side, I had already activated my Flame Wings and ascended into the sky, creating a new Blood Pool. I refined and refined the immense life force within my body, pouring it all into it! A huge blood-red curtain unfolded beneath my feet, stretching for kilometers, a truly magnificent sight. Countless piercing roars of Blood Beast echoed from within, and one after another, crimson eyes opened!

Countless Blood Eagle and flying beasts emerged from the Blood Sea, resembling from afar an inverted crimson waterfall cascading from the blood-red sky! Tens of thousands of silver threads confronted the Blood Beast head-on, crisscrossing and forming a gigantic barrier that spared no living being. Blood Eagle with lower intelligence crashed directly into the threads, turning into mincemeat in the flashing silver light, while Dragon-shaped Flying Beast with higher intelligence attempted to detour, only to be caught and strangled by the silver threads!

"Yog-Sothoth!!!"

Sorry, Mr. Craftsman, Mr. Tolkien, and the broken glass.

With my roar, the entire crimson sky began to tremble violently, and a gigantic creature that almost occupied the entire sky burst forth from the Blood Sea. The Thousand-Throated Demon, resembling a giant octopus, Sky Fall, instantly sliced into thousands upon thousands of pieces upon contact with the silver thread barrier. But these pieces revived in the next instant, forming countless large Blood Beast. These large Blood Beast were then shredded into countless medium and small Blood Beast, seemingly without end!

"Trying to pull this on me? Do you think you're the only one who can create these beasts?!"

The tens of thousands of straight silver threads multiplied to hundreds of thousands, twisting, deforming, and combining on their own to form countless silver-white spiders! The spiders flew on the wind, colliding one after another with the densely packed flying beasts! The spiders' sharp mandibles and claws pierced through the Blood Beast, and then a dozen more Blood Beast swarmed forward to tear the spiders apart. However, the moment each spider stopped moving, it would suddenly explode, scattering hundreds of silver threads like fragmentation grenades, piercing and severing all the surrounding Blood Beast!

"Don't you understand? Although I don't know what tricks you used to forcibly increase your strength, the gap between us is still enormous— Silver Rift Heaven!!"

The silver thread that had slaughtered all the Blood Beast returned to the Sick Spider's hands, where it was directly manipulated and continuously coiled and compressed, forming a longsword that emitted a dazzling silver light! The longsword had a head but no tail, stretching straight to the sky with no end in sight!

"Show me your ultimate slash!!!"

An endless silver light cleaved towards the Blood Sea, and in an instant, the Blood Sea covering several kilometers of sky was split in two and vanished completely! But this was not the end. After the Blood Sea disappeared, the clouds behind it were also sliced open, never healing. Following this straight line of slashing, at the end of the sky lay colors resembling another world. A pitch-black darkness, impossible to see in daylight, loomed over the earth like a rift, and the golden light of the sun could be faintly seen along one edge of the black fissure, with specks of starlight within the black expanse!

I hesitated for a moment before realizing what had happened.

The atmosphere of Spirit Star was cut open and has not closed for a long time.

"Hey... this is too much..."

But she gave me no time to marvel; the endless sword sliced through the atmosphere and plummeted towards me at incredible speed! I immediately flapped my Flame Wings in an attempt to escape, but it was too late—

Well, it's late already, might as well not hide anymore.

The time is almost right.

Thank you, Payne. I learned a lot from our battle.

As I was thinking this, I detonated the small amount of blood that the infected Sick Spider had sucked into my body.

"Gulp... cough cough... uh?"

The Sick Spider, caught up in the killing frenzy, suddenly stopped, looked down in surprise at its own body.

Just now, a searing pain suddenly exploded inside her, leaving her momentarily at a loss.

"Huh? What... is this...?"

She realized she had been blown up—a wave of intense powerlessness washed over her, and even her vision began to darken. Unable to support herself any longer, the line beneath her feet vanished, and she fell from the sky, landing heavily on the ground.

How did she do it?

The explosion came from inside her body—meaning he accidentally inhaled her blood? And not just a tiny amount?

Impossible! My defenses are perfectly sound; there's no way I could make such a basic mistake!

But--

"Sick Spider, you're too arrogant. You'll get what's coming to you sooner or later. You'd better be more careful in the future."

The woman's words echoed in my mind once more.

Could it be that I was blinded by anger and became careless for a moment? When exactly did that happen?!

The blade formed from congealed blood vessels was severed by itself, scalding blood gushing out, but turning into blood crystals before being stopped by the shield. Then, shouting, "Are you kidding me!?" it angrily shattered the blade.

That was around that time.

Instead of using a shield to protect the crystal, he lashed out in a fit of rage and shattered it into crystal dust.

Then, Jingchen, taking advantage of the situation, was...

It's getting darker and darker.

Even the regret of capsizing in a ditch is drowned by darkness.

"Haa... Haa..."

The battered and bruised Sick Spider knelt on one knee, with less than ten threads remaining that allowed it to move freely. Its ruptured internal organs were barely held together by the threads to keep it alive. This was one of the most brutal battles of its life.

And right before her stood a giant, like a stone statue, towering proudly.

His posture appeared upright, but a closer look revealed that his limbs were all stone prosthetics; his real limbs had been severed in the previous battle. His body was covered in wounds, and even his close-fitting stone armor was mostly broken.

"Impressive, woman. It's been a long time since anyone has managed to hurt me this badly. If you had just held on a little longer, victory would have been yours. But it seems I'm the one who won now..."

"Tsk..."

The Sick Spider frowned deeply. She never expected her opponent to be so strong, even surpassing the level of an ordinary Special Class Combatant. In fact, she didn't need to fight to this extent; she could have easily escaped with all her might against such a powerful foe, but she couldn't.

Because--

The Sick Spider strained to look at the person behind her. Even after witnessing such a brutal battle, her exquisitely beautiful face remained calm and composed.

This is really worrying!

"Run... run! Kasser!!!"

With each word she uttered, her injured lungs throbbed with pain, yet she continued to shout desperately, urging her loved ones to flee this place of trouble.

"... Escape?"

"Yeah! Don't you understand? I can't hold on much longer, and you're no match for him! So run!!!"

And what about you?

"You still have time to worry about me?! Hurry up... please run away!!!"

The Sick Spider was going crazy with anxiety. Couldn't it even let the person it loved see its triumphant victory, or even let her escape? Why, why did it have to turn out like this?!

"... Forget it, I'd better not run away."

"Huh? Are you stupid?--"

"I won't do anything unnecessary; that's my... kind of standard for dealing with things."

Then, Blood Fiend stepped forward.

"There's no need to run away from an opponent of this caliber. You... your name is Mr. Stone Strike, right? If you lose, you'll have to join our organization, is that the agreement?"

Both the Sick Spider and the Stone Strike thought they had misheard.

But what happened next left them speechless.

Three moves.

It only took three moves, three rounds.

Stone Strike was utterly defeated.