The forest was dark and silent at night, with streaks of moonlight filtering through the treetops and casting a silvery glow, illuminating a corner of the darkness.
With a whoosh, a dark shadow flashed by, and quite a while later, the air current it brought whistled through the air, making the treetops rustle.
Before long, figures leaped and chased after them. Even under these circumstances, the mercenary squad maintained a disciplined battle formation, demonstrating excellent tactical skills.
"These guys are no ordinary people!" Gustavo thought to himself as he retreated.
He had also served in a mercenary group in his previous life. Ordinary mercenaries would never have such combat skills and close teamwork. Only the elite teams of large mercenary groups could possess such combat power.
"It seems that even if we kill them, the matter is not over yet!"
Gustavo squinted, a chilling green light emanating from his spider eyes; the Dragon-Hunting Spider's principle had always been to exterminate them completely.
If they are the enemy, then their headquarters must be destroyed as well.
Seeking revenge?
No, that's not true. The Dragon-Hunting Spider will come knocking first, and then it will kill any hostile creatures!
Of course, judging from the current situation, this large mercenary group must be extremely powerful. If an elite team can have such combat strength, then the members must be at least Fourth-Tier Transcendent. Just how powerful must the group's leader and other high-ranking members be?
Perhaps a Legendary being resides there.
It seems we must slaughter them slowly!
Lost in thought, Gustavo unknowingly arrived at his destination, a small valley.
Feeling his strength gradually diminishing within him, he knew he couldn't delay any longer and had to deal with these enemies as soon as possible.
There are traps set by Gustavo in the valley.
He did nothing but work on this for those two days.
Without a carrier, the energy spider silk cannot be preserved for long, so Gustavo spat out all the physical spider silk, exhausting the energy several times, to create a vast and inescapable web in the valley.
Besides the spider silk, there are other surprises awaiting the mercenaries who are about to walk into the trap.
"Hmm? Be careful, there might be something strange in this valley." Margaret appeared, her eyebrows furrowed. Her keen sense of danger, typical of an assassin, made her smell something unusual.
Tula trusted Margaret's judgment and decisively ordered a halt to the advance.
He then took out a pale gold eyeball.
This eyeball is a magical device, a type of detection equipment, capable of detecting hidden dangers in the environment, and possessing an extremely keen sensitivity to energy.
Having drunk a potion to restore his mana, Tula's mana was now almost fully restored. He poured his mana into his eyeball, which immediately rose into the air, emitting invisible waves of detection.
Soon after, strands of translucent spider silk hidden in the shadows were discovered, along with many relatively primitive but dangerous traps.
"Hmph, as expected, there's a trap. This monster is cunning; it prepared a backup plan to hinder pursuers like us," Margaret sneered.
"Tula, what should we do? If we wait any longer, the monster will escape. There's a good chance it dug an underground tunnel in the valley!" a tall, thin middle-aged man said in a deep voice.
Tula narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and then reluctantly pulled out a scroll.
This is a spell scroll, extremely difficult to make. It contains a sixth-ring peak level fire attribute spell, the Sin-Burning Fire, which has extremely strong area-of-effect damage.
"Spread out. After I clear the traps in the valley with the Sin-Burning Fire, we can continue the pursuit." After saying this, Tula removed the seal from the scroll and then gently tossed it into the valley.
The next second, a raging fire suddenly appeared and spread at a speed that defied the laws of nature. In an instant, the entire valley was engulfed in flames.
Moreover, this fire was no ordinary flame; it was a magical flame generated by fire elements, with extremely high temperature and destructive power. The spider silk that Gustavo spat out was quickly burned to ashes, and the traps he had set were almost entirely destroyed.
Inside a cave tunnel on one side of the valley, Gustavo calmly surveyed the sea of fire before him, showing no sign of frustration.
The enemy wasn't stupid; he had anticipated this.
The trap he set was divided into two parts, one visible and one hidden.
The operation, which took only half a day to the surface, was intended to mislead the enemy. It was best if the enemy didn't discover it; if they did, Gustavo wouldn't mind eliminating them.
Because he also had hidden traps, it took him a full day and a half to set them up.
For such a long time, all Gustavo did was bury the spider silk deep underground, to a depth of fifty or sixty meters, and use precise control of energy to weave Concealment runes.
These runes ensure that the spider silk cannot be detected by detection equipment.
However, being buried deep underground ensures that the spider silk will not be easily damaged.
As for who he learned the runes from, it was Logo, of course. The memories of the three clones are all connected; they just have different personalities.
Of course, Gustavo lacked muscle memory, and the runes were drawn very stiffly, but that was enough. He wasn't planning on enchanting them or anything; he was just using them temporarily.
"Now you can rest easy, right? Come on, hunt me down..."
Gustavo murmured, a hidden glint of Slaughter intent lurking in his eyes.
As the flames gradually subsided, the mercenary team entered the valley in battle formation. Margaret hid in the shadows, three tanks led the charge, two warriors provided support from both sides, Mage and archers were in the middle, Tula was at the rear, serving as both commander and a safety net for the team.
Don't let his role as a support fool you; this old guy has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, and his overall combat strength is second only to Margaret.
The valley, scorched by the Sin-Burning Fire, was barren. Some of the rocks and soil had crystallized under the intense heat, and the ground was so hot that an egg would be cooked in no time. However, for these Transcendent mercenaries, it was nothing special.
As they continued their journey, when they reached the center of the valley, Gustavo, hidden in a cave, grinned maliciously, revealing rows of sharp, sword-like teeth.
With a gentle tug, countless spider silks hidden underground broke free from the shackles of the Concealment runes, tearing through the barriers of soil and gravel, and were exposed to the air.
Within seconds, a veritable net of heaven and earth descended upon the valley.
"What?"
"How could that be? Didn't the vice-captain Sin-Burning Fire?"
Why weren't these spider silks destroyed?
The mercenaries were filled with doubt and uncertainty, and all sorts of thoughts welled up in their minds.
"Don't panic, prepare for battle!" Tula tapped the ground with his staff, casting a fourth-circle spell called ' Calm Aura ' to calm the mercenaries down with magic.
At the same moment he made this move, Gustavo followed up with his next move.
Using spider silk as a medium, he activated his [Gravity Control] talent.
In an instant, a gravity field formed within the spiderweb-like cage.
Gravity increased fivefold.
Furthermore, Gustavo activated another professional ability.
[Air-Stasis Corridor Lv1] Class Skill/Active -- Utilizes an energy spider web to amplify air resistance to suppress enemies and hinder their movement. At a sufficiently high level, it can even achieve the effect of Time Stop for a period of time.
With gravity increased fivefold and the air frozen solid like jelly, the mercenaries were like mosquitoes trapped in amber, making movement extremely difficult.
That wasn't all. Gustavo pulled a blackish-yellow mud ball from a spiderweb-woven pouch beneath his body.
This is a primitive blend of poisons made by Gustavo from various Transcendent insects and herbs. It is extremely potent and can cause great harm even to Transcendent life forms.
"Hehe, although I don't have poison, I can make it! Didn't expect that, did you! Take this 'Ten Thousand Poisons Attack the Heart' move!"
With a whoosh, the poison pellet was thrown out by Gustavo and, Gravitational Pull, landed above the mercenaries, where it exploded, turning into a dense cloud of poison that spread outwards.