Decision

Black Brother's expression changed as well.

The Spider Queen was often three-tenths stronger than the Spider King. He was confident he could defeat the Spider King alone, but if the king and queen joined forces to attack him, he would be in grave danger today.

Not to mention the dozen or so ordinary hunters below. If two second-tier beasts truly cut loose, no one in the hall would survive.

But Black Brother barely hesitated.

In the gap while blocking the Spider King's foreleg, he shouted toward Lin Yun by the main entrance, "Kid, break open the door and get them out of here!"

Before his words had even faded, he twisted aside to evade the Spider King's sweeping leg, then rolled toward a hunter's corpse. He snatched up an alloy dagger from the ground, flicked his wrist, and hurled it viciously at the Spider Queen on the support beam.

The dagger shot like an arrow loosed from a bow, slicing through the air as it stabbed straight for the Spider Queen's swollen abdomen.

The Spider Queen let out a shrill hiss, rapidly crossing its two short, thick forelegs before its body.

With a sharp clang, the dagger was knocked away by the blade-like legs and buried deep in the ceiling.

The strike failed to injure the Spider Queen, but it enraged it.

The dark purple patterns on its abdomen suddenly lit up. Its eight legs gripped the beam as it scuttled swiftly forward, then its massive body plunged from above and pounced straight at Black Brother.

It gave up suppressing the others from afar. It was joining forces with the Spider King to eliminate the greatest threat in the hall first.

Lin Yun had just turned to rush for the entrance when his ears suddenly twitched.

With the combat stimulant enhancing him, he could hear faint crawling sounds outside the mall's exterior wall, along with low beastly roars. Near and far, there were at least a dozen auras.

He stopped at once.

If they had broken through the door when the attack had first begun, they might have escaped before the beasts outside gathered.

But the battle in the hall had gone on for so long that the commotion had surely spread for miles.

In the dark ruins, who knew how many beasts had been lying in wait before being drawn here by the noise?

Opening the doors now would be like plunging headfirst into a nest of beasts. In the pitch-black night, they would only die faster.

Besides, Black Brother was still inside.

If they abandoned this Martial Master-realm leader of the stronghold and fled on their own, they would not live to see dawn.

On the other hand, if they joined forces and killed the Spider King and Spider Queen, the leaderless Shadow Spider swarm would surely scatter. Once the outer beasts sensed that the aura of two second-tier rulers had vanished, they would grow wary and not dare approach carelessly.

That was their only path to survival.

Lin Yun immediately turned and shouted at the bearded man by the entrance, "Stop breaking it! Going out now means certain death! We have to work with Black Brother and kill those two beasts!"

The moment he said that, the dozen or so remaining hunters were all horrified.

Kill second-tier beasts?

With a group of Martial Apprentices like them?

How was that any different from seeking death?

The bearded man tightened his grip on his blade. He looked at Black Brother, fighting bloodily in the depths of the hall, then at Lin Yun's resolute expression.

After spending time with him, he knew Lin Yun was both brave and clever, and never made empty boasts.

Gritting his teeth, he kicked the stunned companion beside him and shouted, "Brother Lin is right! Going out only means becoming beast food. We might as well fight these bastards! Only by killing the Spider King and Spider Queen can we live!"

The other hunters exchanged glances, and determination appeared on all their faces.

They would die either way. If they fought, they might still have a chance to live.

Everyone tightened their grips on their weapons and gave up on breaking down the door.

Without wasting a moment, Lin Yun led the bearded man and the five strongest hunters toward the center of the battlefield to reinforce Black Brother.

The remaining hunters stayed near the stairway and continued resisting the endless stream of ordinary Shadow Spiders.

Fortunately, the elite peak first-tier spiders had already been slaughtered by Black Brother and Lin Yun. Though the remaining swarm was numerous, they were only mid- to late-first-tier. As long as everyone gritted their teeth and held on, they could barely keep them at bay.

From the corner of his eye, Black Brother saw Lin Yun and the others rushing over and instantly guessed Lin Yun's plan.

After a brief thought, he also felt that Lin Yun's judgment was correct.

There was a great deal of commotion outside. The area must already be surrounded by beasts, and opening the doors rashly would be walking into a trap.

Rather than scatter and flee only to be picked off one by one, it was better to concentrate their strength and behead the leaders first.

With that thought, Black Brother stopped holding back.

He took a deep breath, and the blood and vitality throughout his body abruptly began to boil. The bloody glow on his heavy-backed saber surged several inches outward, and even his skin gave off a faint red light.

"Overlimit!"

Someone cried out involuntarily.

Every hunter present turned pale.

Overlimit was a Martial Master's final trump card, burning one's foundation in exchange for power. If Black Brother had wanted to leave, his Martial Master-realm strength would have been more than enough to break through alone.

But he had not left. Instead, he had entered the Overlimit state, making it clear that he intended to stay and live or die alongside them.

A surge of admiration rose in Lin Yun's heart.

Humanity had guarded its flame for a hundred years in lands surrounded by beasts not because of any heaven-given talent, but because of countless people like Black Brother. Though they knew the danger, they refused to abandon their companions, carving out a path to survival with nothing but flesh and blood.

"I've worn down most of the Spider King's strength. Keep it occupied while I deal with the Spider Queen!"

Black Brother's voice was somewhat hoarse, yet still thunderous.

Before his words fell, his figure flashed. He was nearly twice as fast as before, and his heavy-backed saber whistled through the air as it struck precisely at the old gash on the Spider King's foreleg.

With a crisp crack, the Spider King's thick foreleg snapped off. Dark green fluid sprayed everywhere.

The Spider King let out a miserable shriek, its huge body staggering backward.

Taking advantage of the Spider King's retreat, Black Brother did not stop moving. His entire body turned into a streak of blood-red light as he charged directly toward the Spider Queen that had just landed.

The Spider King was enraged. Dragging its severed leg, it tried to ambush Black Brother from the side.

Just then, two figures rushed over at once.

"Beast, look over here!"

Lin Yun and the bearded man met it from the left and right, their dagger and long saber slashing simultaneously toward the Spider King's side.

Clang! Clang!

Two sharp impacts rang out almost at the same time.

With a casual sweep of its side leg, the Spider King's sharp leg blade collided with their weapons.

The high first-tier dagger in Lin Yun's hand instantly shattered into two pieces. The bearded man's long saber snapped as well, its blade flying far away.

A tremendous force surged through them, numbing their arms. They hurriedly used the recoil to leap backward, narrowly avoiding another leg blade that followed close behind.

They had come within a hair's breadth of being sliced in two.

In the blink of an eye, the other four hunters arrived as well.

All of them were late-stage Martial Apprentices. They raised their weapons and attacked the Spider King from four directions.

Lin Yun tightened his Armybreaker Fistguards, while the bearded man picked up an intact combat saber from the ground. The two moved to cover the gaps on either side.

Six people surrounded the Shadow Spider King, which had lost one foreleg.

With a furious roar, Lin Yun charged first.

He pushed Wind-Treading Step to its limit. His Gale Battle Boots stepped repeatedly over the insect corpses covering the ground, and his figure became as swift as a low-flying afterimage. In the blink of an eye, he lunged straight at the Spider King from the front.

He gathered power in his right fist, pouring all the force of Vajra Fist into his fistguards before smashing them viciously at the joint of the Spider King's only intact foreleg.

A dull thud rang out, numbing Lin Yun's arm.

The Spider King merely shifted slightly. Its thick leg blade did not move in the slightest, and only a faint white mark was left on its carapace.

Enraged, the Spider King exerted force through all seven of its legs and abruptly turned its massive body toward Lin Yun. Its intact foreleg swept toward him with a howl of tearing wind.

Lin Yun had been prepared. He twisted at the waist and slid close to the ground. The leg blade grazed past his hair, slicing off several strands before slamming heavily into a support pillar behind him. Chunks of concrete came raining down.

The moment Lin Yun landed, he kicked off the ground and widened the distance again.

His plan was simple. He was the fastest, so he would keep the Spider King's full attention fixed on himself and create opportunities for the bearded man and the other five to attack its old wound.

The bearded man did not waste the opportunity.

Almost at the exact moment Lin Yun lured the Spider King to the left, the bearded man led the other four hunters in a pounce from the right.

The five formed a fan-shaped encirclement, unleashing their full strength at the old wound where the Spider King's broken leg had left the carapace shattered.