CHAPTER 37: DEFEAT

Defeat

37

Rouke had the guardian class, although this class is common and only increased attribute points related to defense, his strength and perception points were high enough to alternate between attack and area defense.

He was better at defense obviously, but his attacks caused quite considerable damage, his strength attributes surpassed Alex by three times, he had a passive skill that reinforced his defense.

And the most important point was the coordination between his skills and those of his companions, he knew how to make the most of the power that a team contained, it was thanks to these skills that he was able to keep 20 of his companions alive.

Relying on his leadership skills, he was able to raid the spider queen’s nest, steal her most important artifacts, and still escape alive with Sarah and Tiffany.

The 10 enemies moved at once, despite their robust and clumsy sizes, they were quite fast, Rouke didn’t just watch, resting his great axe, raised his shield and activated his skill.

Royal Provocation lv1, this skill affected monsters in general and even those that were somewhat intelligent, it projected onto the opponent an enemy that should be attacked as quickly as possible, the promotion came in various forms.

For some it was the easy prey that they should attack, for others it was the worthy enemy that was worth fighting, and so on, upon this ability, 4 of the mutant spiders headed towards Rouke at the same time.

Four more ran after Alex, and the other two went towards Tiffany, to quickly deal with his opponents, Rouke used, Living Fortress Lv2, which allowed him to increase his defense and resistance for a short period of time.

With his shield replaced by his sword, Rouke advanced with the ferocity of a father eager to embrace his daughter, the axe and the spiders’ claws collided creating a thunderous sound.

Even though he collided with the claws of four spiders, all that happened was that Rouke retreated a little, causing the ground to crack under his feet. He then swung the axe at one of the mutant spiders.

Before the blow could hit its target, one of the monsters released what looked like an acidic fluid, along the way, Rouke made a game of footwork and managed to retreat a little, missing the blow with his axes.

The acid fell to the ground, melting some debris. The other spider saw its opportunity and launched its legs as if they were a missile, detaching them from its slope.

Rouke used his axe to block, his aura exploded from his body like a dam as he charged in a quick attack, the spider’s body glowed blue for an instant and it disappeared from Rouke’s reach.

Already counting on this movement, the next spider was hit with all the force Rouke could muster, the spider screamed loudly, when the claws that held its arm fell to the ground expelling a dark green liquid.

Seeing that one of their brothers was injured by mere humans, the others became angry and decided to attack even more ferociously.

As previously agreed, Rouke signaled his companions to gather around him, and when Alex and Tatiana reached Rouke, he used Seismic Hammer lv2, a very powerful area attack that made the cave shake.

Two managed to escape the attack, but the rest were caught, thanks to their golden bodies which were quite resistant, the damage was not significant, but their defenses had still been shaken.

Tiffany and Alex took advantage of the opening in the defenses, one was enveloped in purple electricity, while the other was surrounded in a bluish-white glow, carrying swords, they attacked at the same time.

The spiders that were not hit by the previous blow attacked Rouke using golden webs that shaped themselves into weapons, Rouke did not have enough time to dodge, his agility and dexterity were low to escape a blow at that speed.

Thanks to his steel skin granted by his passive skill, Rouke did not suffer great damage, Sarah who was being protected by Rouke’s skill, used her healing skill and Rouke’s wound closed at a perceptive speed .

The boy named Alex had killed one of the spiders with his movement ability in conjunction with his swordsmanship, but in the process, Rouke saw him being injured.

Rouke ordered Sarah to heal the boy in his turn, who was almost recovered, not wanting to be left behind by the boy who was a star shorter than him, Rouke advanced fearlessly in a precise attack, the axe descended and a spider had no way to dodge and had its head separated from its body.

Even without a head the spider attacks, Rouke had seen this behavior when Alex was injured, he jumped back and crushed the spider’s headless body.

When the other attacked with fury in its 4 pairs of eyes, the living fortress was activated again allowing Rouke to defend himself and launch a counterattack, defeating another spider.

Rouke glanced at Alex who had not yet defeated his second spider, one of the spiders wiped the smile off Rouke’s face when he was hit again, if it weren’t for Sarah who screamed at the last moment, the injury would have been serious.

Rouke didn’t have time to lament, because one of the spiders ran towards Sarah when his skill was interrupted, he took his heavy shields, concentrated all his strength and attacked it.

The spider blocked the shield with its legs that came out of its back , but when it did, Rouke’s axe was already coming towards its head, the spider dodged it, but part of its shoulder was cut.

At this point in the battle, Tiffany had defeated one of her opponents and the other was still chasing her. Alex had already defeated three of them, leaving only one opponent. With Sarah’s help, Rouke got rid of the four he was fighting.

Rouke rushed to Tiffany’s aid as Alex got rid of his opponent.

With the defeat of his enemies, everyone seemed exhausted, Rouke looked at Tiffany and Alex and asked them both the same question.

"Did you level?" They both nodded and the same words came out of both of them.

"I leveled up three levels, the intelligent spiders give a lot of EXP, it’s a shame they seem to be rare to find unlike the swarms that are everywhere."

Suddenly the underground cave shook violently, part of what was the cave ceiling tore away revealing the surface, countless mutant spiders looked down, thousands of black eyes blinked at the same time.

Rouke and the others found themselves surrounded on all sides, all without exception lost the will to fight, they knew no matter what, only defeat awaited them.

Strangely, none of the countless spiders attacked, they just watched as if they were waiting for something or someone.

Rouke held his breath, suddenly the closest spiders retreated, giving way to some figures that approached slowly.

Rouke saw 14 individuals walking towards them, they looked like humans from head to toe , only one difference was visible in comparison, the figures had 4 black eyes.

Each of the figures wore a different set of clothes, among them 6 were female and 8 were male, but they all moved in the same way, their auras made the other spiders tremble in fear.

Everyone walked at the same pace, when one took a step forward, everyone did the same, their black eyes pointed in the same direction, where Rouke and the others were.

Rouke just blinked for a second, when his eyes focused again, the 14 figures had disappeared, he looked around but failed to locate them, when he tried to order his team to be careful, it was already too late.

Rouke looked at his companions who were on the ground unconscious, he took a step back in horror, only to collide with something.

Rouke looked back and there they were, the 14 figures looking at him with their expressionless faces, before he could understand anything, he too fell unconscious, Rouke didn’t have time to write down the license plate number of the truck that ran over him.

Golden webs covered 4 unconscious hunters and they were dragged away with the spiders as the 14 figures walked on the same steps without saying a single word.

Before the spider queen, 4 golden cocoons were thrown onto her paws, the figures just gave their queen a glance before walking to a nursery, kneeling around and closing their eyes.

The spider queen seemed quite dissatisfied with this behavior, but she didn’t complain, she just took the 4 cocoons, opened them and looked for something on their bodies.

The queen’s jaws crackled slightly as she frowned at the humans, she looked at Tiffany, smelled the girl and hissed a little, she cursed and trapped her.

There were 21 cocoons stuck to the ceiling of the cave, all of them were hunters waiting for the king to awaken so they could finally be devoured.

The queen of spiders was no different from the common spiders you found around, I’m sure you’ve seen her somewhere, the glaring difference was that she was huge, that wasn’t the right word, she was gigantic, that’s what.