Chapter 175: Pink Eyes

Chapter 175: Chapter 175: Pink Eyes

The spider shot through the thick dense foliage of the dense dark forest, slamming through branch after heavy branch with enough force to leave a long trail of shattered wood and falling leaves in its wake behind it.

Bark exploded outward wherever its heavy body struck hard and deep into the wood below.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The spider was about to crash straight into a thick trunk when it twisted mid-air with surprising control and landed hard against the bark with all of its heavy legs planted firmly.

BAM!

The entire tree shuddered for a long quiet moment under the sudden weight.

Multiple cracks spread outward from the impact point, racing up and down the trunk in sharp lines that deepened with every single second that passed.

CReeeee—K!

At last the tree gave way completely and toppled with a long, grinding crash that sent smaller branches and leaves raining down across the clearing floor.

BANG!

The spider simply dropped the short remaining distance and landed cleanly on the forest floor, already facing the human who had managed to take it off guard and deal a solid blow earlier.

Alex moved through the higher branches with quick, controlled leaps, using the denser canopy for footing while he closed the gap with quick steps.

His boots found purchase on the barks and the branches without ever slowing down at all during the approach.

The residual pain from the earlier false poison had already faded completely, and Adaptation kept his body ready for whatever came next in this ongoing fight now.

"This huge spider has the stats of a mid Awakened human at best, but that mental attack was way too advanced for a beast in that range."

He muttered the observation as he pushed toward the spot where his kick had thrown the creature hard into the trees below.

The difference between the spider’s raw physical power and the sophistication of its psychic technique kept turning over in his mind carefully and slowly.

At last, Alex landed on a high branch that gave him a clear line of sight over the broken clearing below clearly.

He stood at the edge with Amethyst Paradox already in hand, the chain resting quiet against his arm and the short handle firm in his grip.

The weapon felt solid and familiar after the chaos of everything that had happened inside that illusion trap today.

"Maybe your techniques are already in the Peak stage of Awaken rank, but your stats are still quite behind overall."

"Maybe because you specialize more in mental techniques and not the physical ones? hmm... could be."

He looked down at the spider carefully from above.

It was watching him with every one of its multiple pink compound eyes closely and steadily.

Its full body was coiled and ready to spring, fangs extended and aimed upward at him now.

In each of those eyes Alex could see his own reflection as clear as day, the black of his hair and the mana pressure around him mirrored back at him from a dozen angles at once clearly.

The creature did not move even a little, it simply waited and observed him from a distance carefully.

Slowly, a strange silence settled between Alex and the spider.

Both of them simply watched the other, measuring distance, timing, and intent with careful attention.

Neither moved from their position, and the forest itself seemed to hold its breath tightly around the two of them, anticipating the oncoming battle.

***

On the empire-wide feeds the screen showing the Third Prince of Winterfang, Alexander Abyss, suddenly rose to the top of every array if it wasn’t already there before.

Every other projection shrank or shifted aside so that the confrontation between the black-haired boy and the monstrous spider filled the main view for viewers across the Human Empire fully and clearly.

The shift was so abrupt that every conversation in taverns and public squares was now only about the fight that was going to start between them soon enough.

Everyone’s attention locked onto the sudden stillness completely and tightly.

"Is this really happening...?" A girl in one of the crowded public squares muttered with open excitement with her eyes fixed on the feed and hands clenched at her sides tightly together.

Around her people leaned forward to gain as much proximity to the projection as they could so that they can see every action and not miss any detail at all during the fight.

"Why are they suddenly staring at each other?" The same young man who had asked about Venoma earlier spoke up in confusion, still trying to keep up with the rapid shifts on the screen with as much focus as he could muster.

He had only just begun to understand who the Queen of Curses was, and now, in just a few minutes, the feed had changed again and again, first showing the Third Prince’s certain demise, then his surprise attack on that monstrous spider, and finally something that looked almost like a calm standstill between them.

The contrast between the earlier chaos and this quiet staring match left him unsettled deeply for some reason.

The old warrior from the same tavern grabbed his beer and answered without looking away from the projection at all during the talk itself.

"The Prince might have gotten the first surprise attack, but clearly it did not damage the spider enough to hinder its movements and we know he just came out of whatever that trap was earlier today completely."

"He also needs a little bit of time to get into the flow of battle, so he is probably analysing the spider and evaluating how he would fight that giant monster carefully and thoroughly still."

"You do not rush a fight like this if you want to walk away from it in one piece." He took a long gulp from the glass and set it down again, foam still clinging to the rim tightly as before now.

A few people nearby nodded in agreement quietly and slowly in place.

The middle-aged warrior woman beside him nodded once firmly from her place.

Her gaze sharp and experienced from countless battles fought over the years already.

"And that spider does not seem to be a mindless beast like the ones you usually see in the wild either."

"This one has an especially sharp mind and it is also analyzing and evaluating the Third Prince instead of charging at him blindly now as expected."

"That kind of patience is rare in mana beasts of its rank because most of them would have already thrown themselves at the boy the moment they recovered from the kick earlier on today."

A few more seconds passed on the feed slowly and quietly still.

***

Alexander Abyss remained still on the high branch, Amethyst Paradox held ready but not yet in motion.

The silence between the boy and the spider stretching longer than most of the viewers had expected.

Wind blew through the canopy and ruffled the Third Prince’s hair, carrying the scent of broken wood and disturbed earth strongly across the area below.

Then the air itself seemed to stop moving completely around them.

Everything went silent for an instant in that moment.

The spider’s eyes glowed a bright, vivid pink strongly and clearly visible to everyone now.

The runes across its back lit up in matching light, pulsing once with clear power that made the surrounding pressure thicken for a moment.

The glow reflected off the broken branches and the remains of the fallen tree brightly.

Alex narrowed his eyes in response.

"This feeling again..." He tensed, every muscle coiling under the sudden pressure that pressed against the edges of his mind hard and fast now.

The same suppressing sensation that had held him inside the illusion earlier returned, sharper this time and aimed directly at him alone.

It felt personal now and it was probably because it was focused only on him rather than on the large mist and web-filled field that was around them before.

The spider vanished from his sight completely in that second.

"Shit! It’s definitely that psychic element—"

Alex tried to reach for his newly gained Psychic Element, forcing the unfamiliar element to respond as quickly as possible.

The sensation was still raw and unfinished because the element was only seconds old inside him still at this point in time.

Adaptation had given him the foundation, but control was another matter entirely now in the moment itself.

Before the element could fully answer him at all in time for the attack—

His danger senses flared hard, warning him about the incoming danger.

A sharp, pointed leg descended on him from the side, already committed to the killing strike and moving faster than his eye could easily track in this moment.

Alex thought that this attack came from an angle the spider should not have been able to reach so quickly after vanishing completely from view.

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End of Chapter 175: Pink Eyes

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