Becoming a Monster

Chapter 476: Chapter 475: A Desperate Defense

The torrent of purple fire surged forward and collided with Fenrir head-on.

The explosion that followed shook the forest as the combined flames tore through the space where the wolf had been charging only a moment earlier. Heat and smoke rolled outward from the impact, forcing several of the nearby adventurers to brace themselves as the shockwave swept past them.

For a brief moment, the battlefield disappeared behind a wall of fire.

Then the second support spell was completed.

The cleric’s prayer reached its final words as he held an even larger cross in his grip. A heavenly light burst outward from his body and spread through the surrounding forest before settling over the battlefield like a semi-transparent golden dome.

When the light touched Fenrir, it burned faintly against his body, threatening to incapacitate them through purification.

For the adventurers, however, the effect was the opposite.

The prayer the cleric performed didn’t affect the others directly. Its purpose was to weaken tainted evil entities while reinforcing faith abilities and holy energy.

The priest felt the change immediately as the blessing she had cast earlier flared brighter beneath the holy field’s influence. And doing so inadvertently gave the adventures an additional boost.

The combination of their efforts formed a layered defense, while also prepping for their future spells. None of them had the luxury of watching whether their attack had succeeded.

"Ophelia! They’re going after you!"

The warning came just as the priest turned.

The woman, Opheila, could barely register why she was suddenly approached by her two party members, but the sound of metal against metal assaulted her ears before she saw the image of the humanoid spider.

In that brief moment, nearly six exchanges were met.

His shield intercepted one of the descending strikes of Arachne’s bladed legs. A brief red glow spread across the surface of the shield.

The ability was activated the moment her attack came within reach.

Instead of striking freely, the trajectory of Arachne’s leg shifted slightly in mid-motion, drawn toward the shield as though pulled by an unseen force.

But Arachne did not attack with a single limb. Her remaining legs struck from multiple directions at once.

The knight initially approached the attack with the confidence to at least be able to protect the priestess on his own. And that confidence rested entirely on the shield in his hand.

As the first strikes closed in, the red glow spread across its surface, and the invisible pull of its enchantment took hold. Several of Arachne’s attacks were subtly shifted in mid-motion, bending towards the shield.

The knight had expected that much.

Even if Arachne resisted the pull slightly, the redirection should have forced most of her attacks toward the shield. Under the effects of the holy field weakening the corruption within her body, the rest should have been manageable.

But Arachne’s strength exceeded that calculation.

No... it wasn’t just her strength. A thin film of dark violet mana suddenly spread across her entire body, coating her limbs like a second skin. The moment the mana appeared, it reacted violently with the holy energy surrounding the battlefield, producing a faint sizzling sound wherever the two forces touched.

The knight’s eyes narrowed. He had gone up against both demons and undead before, even vampires. But their mana was nothing compared to this. If demons were the personification of evil, then what was this?

The invisible pull of the shield’s enchantment weakened the moment it came into contact with that coating.

The redirected strikes slowed. Some of them bent toward the shield. But the ones imbued with thicker coatings moved unhindered.

Arachne’s legs continued their assault, and the knight realized too late that the enchantment alone would not be enough to contain her.

There was no way to avoid injury. The threat of death was also an option. He couldn’t imagine the damage that deathly energy would cause if it went into him.

And yet, despite this likelihood, the fear never reached his face. The reason was the shadow that appeared from his side.

The dagger wielder slipped into position at his side just as another of Arachne’s legs descended. His blade flashed upward, slicing cleanly through the ominous coating and briefly interrupting the mana Arachne used to strengthen her limbs.

The strange energy parted wherever the dagger passed, but the weapon could not cut through the hardened exoskeleton. Steel, it gave him enough leeway to deflect the attacks without being completely overpowered.

He moved again the instant the strike passed him. As he moved, an afterimage remained where he had just been standing.

Then another.

Each time his dagger met one of Arachne’s attacks, he shifted position deliberately, leaving a faint phantom of himself behind.

The illusions lingered only briefly, but he moved enough to make a number of them that distorted the spider’s judgment.

After stabbing through one of his afterimages the first two times, she adjusted quickly. With three legs focused on each opponent, she still left them little room to do anything but stay on the defensive.

During the exchange, Arachne had already depicted the priest as their strongest, while the dagger user was merely an annoyance. Naturally, this would be the best time to use her unique ability, but instincts told her that it wouldn’t work on the dagger user.

He needed to be stronger than her in at least one category, yet she surpassed him in every way.

After only a brief clash, Arachne had already judged him. The dagger wielder possessed the ability to cut through her mana, but that meant little if he could not damage her body itself. In her eyes, he was no longer worth her attention, and she dismissed him entirely.

All six of her legs lashed forward again, this time focusing entirely on the shield warrior. Two were driving directly toward the shield while the others slipped around it from different angles.

The knight immediately shifted his stance to meet the assault. The red glow spread across the shield once more as the enchantment pulled several of the strikes toward its surface, but the remaining limbs forced their way through the pull with frightening power.

At that moment, Arachne expanded her aura and directed it toward him.

The instant her energy touched the knight’s body, she attempted to seize control of the mana flowing through him and force his body to obey her will. In her mind, the outcome was obvious, because if she could not weaken them through corruption, then she would simply make their own bodies betray them.

However, the control never fully took hold.

The holy energy reinforcing the knight surged outward the moment her aura tried to bind him, forming a thin protective layer around his body that resisted her influence. The opposing forces collided violently, producing a strong sizzling reaction.

For a brief moment, the knight felt something tugging at his limbs as if invisible threads were trying to pull them out of his control. Then the sensation shattered as the holy energy burned through the invading influence before it could establish itself.

That brief resistance disrupted Arachne’s timing.

Her strikes continued, but instead of piercing straight through his torso and skull as originally intended if her ability had worked. The sharpened limb drove into his thigh before tearing free again as dark blood spread across his armor.

The knight staggered.

Clayton saw everything that happened.

The moment Arachne committed fully to the shield warrior, he had already understood that defending him was no longer possible. Even with the shield pulling several attacks toward it, there were simply too many limbs striking at once.

He could not intercept them all. But something else had also become clear to him.

Arachne had completely turned her attention away from him.

Her focus remained entirely on finishing the knight, and to Clayton that meant she no longer considered him a threat. He realized this was the only opportunity he would receive.

"Clayton, stop!" Ophelia called out the moment she realized what he intended to do.

Her warning came too late.

Clayton abandoned defense and lunged forward while Arachne continued pressing the knight. Instead of striking with his dagger, he drove the glowing palm of his hand into the center of Arachne’s back.

Silver mana surged outward from his palm as he forced the energy directly into her body in an attempt to rupture her mana circuits from within.

For a brief instant, he believed the attack had succeeded when Arachne’s body stiffened, and she leapt away from him.

The pain reached him almost immediately afterward.

The moment his mana pierced the coating surrounding her body, the miasmic aura within it reacted violently. The corrupted energy clung to his mana and followed the connection straight back into his hand.

Clayton gasped as a burning sensation spread through his fingers.

The holy energy flowing through his body rose to meet the invading corruption and slowed its advance, but the clash between the two forces only intensified the pain. His fingers began turning black as the skin shriveled and tightened like rotting flesh.

At that moment, two small spheres of radiant energy appeared beside Ophelia and hovered near her shoulders. She released them without hesitation.

Twin beams of holy light tore through the air and forced Arachne to retreat before the attacks could strike her directly.