Ignoring the remark that Lilia had just made, the Assassin narrowed his eyes at the spider. There was a bad feeling in his heart hence why he chose to hide but he couldn't hide any longer.
If he let these two girls steal the show, his own future will be at risk.
Summoning his blades, he threw both of them towards the spider before crouching down low and dashing towards the beast.
He had already made his observations. With what the spider has shown, killing it was simple as long as he avoids the legs.
Entering the spider's attack radius, he dodged the legs with ease while cutting the joint areas, focusing the spider to fall limp before attempting to finish it in on go.
However, sensing the danger, the spider released a large web in the area around it, coated with the venom from its body.
'Not good.' The Assassin thought to himself as his instincts were screaming for him to dodge the attack.
Trusting in his senses, he stopped his attack and latched onto the wall while watching the spider trying its best to get back on its feet to no avail.
Glaring at the assassin in annoyance, it snapped open its mouth and let out a ear piercing screech.
Furrowing his brows, the Assassin noticed the Dusk Hunters converging towards their location, specifically towards him and clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Dusk Hunters are coming. F*ck off if you don't want to die." He shouted out towards Lilia and Alice since he didn't want them stealing his show any more than they already have.
"We were about to run without you telling us!" Lilia retorted in annoyance since they've been trying to cut apart the web behind them to open a path of escape.
They barely managed to open a hole big enough for them to crawl through when the spider called towards its allies.
Seeing that both Alice and Lilia now left the area, the Assassin ignored their presence since it was his show now. The main act.
Summoning another pair of daggers, he stood straight on the side of the wall as a myriad of Dusk Hunters shot their crystals towards him.
Flicking out his cloak for extra flare for the audience, he parried each of the crystals with ease before diving into the shadows and appearing behind one of the Dusk Hunters that shot first.
Stabbing both daggers into its back, the Assassin flayed its back, revealing the bones and organs. A third Sigil lit up on his arms as black spikes erupted from the organs, piercing through other important organs as collateral.
With one Dusk Hunter down, he bent his body back and fell into his own shadow before disappearing once more, leaving the other beasts confused.
Jumping out of the shadows of a second beast, he stabs a dagger to the back of the neck before kicking it with the back of his heel, decapitating the beast without an issue.
All of the Dusk Hunters were small fries to him but he had to make up for the time he spent observing the spider.
'There are 8 of these small fries left. If I kill them then focus back on the spider, it should make up for everything and give me a good standing with the VIP's.' He thought to himself as he threw two daggers at the beast that lunged towards him while finishing it off with a final stab to its brain from under the jaw.
With 7 beasts remain, he danged through the shadows like a phantom, leaving behind corpses with black spikes erupting form their bodies.
Seeing the main attraction finally making a move, the crowd cheered for each kill while the announcer tried his best to keep the crowd entertained.
He was just happy the Assassin finally made a move since it had him worried. Many of the VIP's were expressing their discontent seeing the Twilight Hunter going for some no bodies while the main attraction watched while doing nothing.
Once he was finished with the fodder, the Assassin turned towards the spider once more as it was the last beast in the arena. Once he kills the spider, the event will be over.
Looking down at the beast from above, it noticed a few faint glimmers due to the light.
"So you made some traps while I was killing your allies. That makes sense since you're a beast that uses traps. Not its no use." He smiled confidently. He figured that he must've been too cautious at the start when he heard that the VIP captured this beast specifically and thought there was something special to it. But regardless the form, a beast is a beast, no match for a human.
Created a handful of daggers, he threw them with pinpoint accuracy and destroyed all of the webs before jumping down headfirst.
Power surged through his muscles as the look of fear within the spider's eyes caused his lips to curl up into a smile.
*BANG!!!
Transferring all of his force into a downward swing, he tried to decapitate the monster but it was able to use webs to pull itself to the side, dodging the blow.
Spitting out a mouthful of venom towards the man, the spider let out a furious screech while the man fell into his shadow and dodged the attack.
"Is this all you've got?" He asked with a confident smirk. Appearing next to the spider, he twisted his body and launched a kick to the spider's body, causing it to crash against the arena wall as blood dripped from its body.
Twitching on the spot while flailing what remains of its legs, it tried to get up and failed to do so.
The Assassin knew that he could play with the spider some more, get more reactions out of the crowd but things had to end.
Just as he was about to decapitate the spider, his dagger missed its target and the world seemed to spin.
"What the??"
The lights within this arena seemed to flicker with a myriad of colours while the walls and the spider itself twisted together before disappearing from his view.
Clutching his head, he could feel himself losing energy as he stumbled on the spot and barely managed to keep himself upright.
'The fumes!' Widening his eyes, he understood that he was being poisoned from the fumes of its blood.
"Damn beast!" He shouted in anger and kicked forward. Feeling his kick connect with the body of the beast, he sighed in relief since all he had to do was kill it now. Flicking his wrist, he summoned a dagger and stabbed it into the beast's body before activating his third Sigil.
Black spikes erupted from the spider and the kill was secured.
Standing up, he was about to celebrate his victory to the crowd when he noticed something was off. There was no one in the stalls and the arena was empty except for him. A sense of harrowing unease flooded his mind as the grips of panic wrapped around his heart.
Looking up, he could see the beady eyes of the spider acting as moons in the sky.
Stumbling back, he started to take rapid breaths as he frantically threw daggers towards the eyes in an attempt to break the strange illusion.
"!!!" Pausing in shock, he slowly looked down and saw the spider's leg piercing through his chest. In a moment of soberness, he managed to break out of the illusion and saw that what he was hitting was the moulted skin of the spider.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, he gritted his teeth and glanced back. He could see the new form of the spider. Unlike its previous body, it was now coated with a pristine white with red highlights across its back. The tips of its legs akin to scythes dipped in a pool of blood while a ghostly glow radiated from its body. Summoning a dagger, the Assassin turned to strike at the spider.
"You damn inferior beas-!!!"
Before he could finish his sentence, the spider opened its jaws and crushed the Assassin's head. The sound of bones crunching silenced the crowd as the Assassin's body twitched momentarily before falling limp.
Placing the corpse on the ground, it started to eat away while replenishing its strength.
Meanwhile, both Alice and Lilia were shocked as they watched everything happen all at once.
The moment the Assassin entered the range, he had already sealed his fate as he didn't even notice the spider moulting its outer shell.
"You don't happen to know what kind of spider it changed into now would you? Because that is definitely not a Twilight Hunter." Lilia asked while trying her best to sound calm. Unlike before, the spider now radiated an overpowering aura that caused her to become breathless. Each breath was taken with great difficulty as it felt like she was getting strangled by the spider.
However, Alice did not respond.
There was a strange foreign feeling within her, as though something was reaching out to her from the depths of the Abyss. It felt similar to the moment she killed the Abyss Hound only this time it was much stronger.
She felt as though she was sinking down with no signs of stopping. She did not hear nor see anything. Yet she instinctively felt it in her heart.
A question for her, the bearer of the Eye.
Do you wish to hunt this beast?