Victor's entire body went completely still. Even though his senses were going off in his head, his immediate reaction was complete and utter silence. Not a single muscle moved in his body as he gazed at the giant spider limb above him.
His face was completely stoic as he tried to keep his composure. However, his mind was still racing wildly in his head.
'You have got to be kidding me. Why now of all time? Did it realize that we're here? But, it has been a few seconds and it didn't attack yet. Is it searching for us?'
The few cruel seconds of terror that passed were very quiet. The limb hadn't moved at all as it stood there, barely a few meters away from them. Cruelly enough, it was also aiming in their direction as if it was contemplating striking there or not.
A normal person's reaction to such a situation was to naturally jump back and try to escape. However, for better or worse, Victor didn't move and took a leap of faith. With each passing moment, his bet grew more certain.
The spider wasn't aware of their presence yet. It simply floated there, perhaps searching for its next target amongst the dead corpses.
Meanwhile, as everything was unfolding, Nameless was too busy drinking Victor's blood. She didn't seem to notice the dangerous situation they were in as all her senses were focused on the euphoric feeling of drowning in Victor's blood.
'What should I do now? Is it going to move? It should probably find a target and then go down again.' Frowning slightly, he looked slowly down to where the limb appeared from. There, deep into the dark water, he saw shining red dots.
They were so far down, and so faint, he could barely see them after focusing on them. However, they were there for certain. The dots weren't moving, nor were they pulsing with light like Nameless.
However, the feeling of danger they inflicted on Victor was surprising. In fact, the boy didn't realize that his heart rate had increased even more and he could hear it in his ears now.
He didn't even need a single piece of information to know what that was.
'The spider…' He gulped down a mouthful of saliva silently. 'It's twelve eyes are looking here…'
This was the very first glimpse of the mother spider he had so far and it wasn't even its full appearance. Yet, staring at those eyes felt like staring into a dark, terrifying abyss. Not even the dark sea between them could make them any less terrifying.
If anything, the nature of the environment this spider was in made it even more of a nightmare. A gigantic insect was floating in a dark sea, searching for them. Even Victor wasn't immune to that kind of thought.
*Splash*
As he was like that, the boy heard the limb suddenly move with a small splash of water. His eyes that were focused on the water shifted up quickly, only to realize what was happening.
'It's coming to me…'
The limb slowly descended toward him. Its sharp edge bent to an angle where it was pointing directly at Victor. In a matter of moment, the sharp edge reached an awfully close distance from Victor. However, surprisingly, the boy didn't move at all.
Even when he was this close to being skewered alive, he didn't move at all. He didn't know if it was mainly his composure or his fear that got such a reaction from him and he frankly didn't care.
His life was relying on a few inches of distance between them. But, as if that wasn't already really bad, the limb continued going down, closing the small distance left between it and Victor. What was a few inches, became a few centimeters, and then a single centimeter.
It reached so close to his face that it became the only thing in his vision. Victor didn't blink, didn't breathe, and didn't move. He was worried that a single mistake would trigger the spider to attack so he stayed as frozen as possible.
Luckily for him, he had learned to stay completely motionless as a part of his training. His control over his muscles was unparalleled which made hearing or noticing him quite hard.
But, this particular situation felt far more nervewracking than anything else Victor had ever done before. He was staring at death from an awfully close distance. All the spider had to do was move a little forward, and it would pop his eye and penetrate his skull with ease.
Yet, for some reason, it didn't. That made Victor question if it really noticed him yet or not.
'It seems to be… thinking?' He mused as he noticed the complete stillness of the limb. It felt rather weird how reactionless it was to the fact that Victor was right there. 'I wonder if its vision isn't that good? It could be.'
Noting that small detail, he continued staring at the sharp limb trying to breathe in and out as faintly as possible. At that moment, Victor suddenly felt something in his arm. Looking down, he saw Nameless open her eyes slowly as she pulled her fangs out of his skin. Blood dripped down from his forearm and some were even stuck to her lips. The girl quickly licked it before she looked up and opened her mouth.
"Than-"
Victor's eyes widened as he quickly moved his hand and put it in her mouth. His expression turned extremely serious for a moment. The sudden move naturally surprised Nameless.
'Shhh…' He signaled with his eyes to the side. That's when Nameless finally realized what was happening and her face paled visibly. The limb didn't move at all as if it didn't hear the noise.
'Don't make a single move.' He said with his eyes.
Nameless immediately nodded her head as she pulled his hand away very gently. With that, the two sat there, trying to remain as motionless as ever, just like the corpses around them.
An unknown amount of time passed before the limb finally moved after cruelly toying with their minds. It slowly moved up and away from Victor, creating some distance between them, yet they still remained in a very dangerous zone.
The two stared at the limb, anticipating what it was about to do next. After reaching a certain level, the limb stopped for a few seconds again. The two thought that it was going to do the same thing it did before. But, in a moment of surprise, the move suddenly descended like a flash.
Its speed made it appear like a blur for the two. Neither was able to react in time at all. But…
*Stab*
The limb stabbed into the water, piercing one of the dead corpses ruthlessly. The corpse was barely a few feet away from the wooden platform the duo was standing on.
Then, under their terrified looks, the limb dragged the dead corpse underwater and vanished as if it was never there to begin with. Everything was immediately submerged in silence again.
The duo took a few moments to regain their composure. It was so nervewracking, that even Victor felt it in his bones.
"Fuuuh…" Exhaling a small breath, the boy looked down. The twelve eyes had vanished from sight or it at least moved somewhere else where he couldn't see it. When he made sure that the spider was gone, at least for now, he spoke. "That was closer than I would've wanted it to be."
'Actually, way too close.' He added in his head.
"... How long has it been there?" Nameless asked with a frown. "I didn't notice it at all. I was too focused on drinking the blood."
"A minute or so," Victor replied as he stood up very slowly. "It seems this spider is still unaware of our presence. I think the corpses around us worked perfectly as a camouflage that hid us from the spider."
"We're lucky. But, how much more luck do we have? We can't stay here anymore."
Nameless nodded her head.
"Are you feeling better?" He asked.
"Yes, I'm feeling a lot better. Thank you for your help." She nodded. Even though her body was still very weak and tired, it was a whole lot better now after drinking Victor's blood. She could feel more energy going through her body.
'His blood was so delicious. I almost lost control.' She thought to herself. 'It also gave me way more energy than I expected. How could that be? He doesn't seem that strong. Usually, only stronger creatures give more power.'
Staring at Victor's face, Nameless fell into deep thought. 'Is he from some kind of noble family? Or does his blood have special characteristics?'
The more questions she asked herself, the more confused she felt.
"Don't worry about it. Now, we need to move. Don't fall behind or I might not be able to save you this time." Victor said as he approached the edge.
"I won't fall behind. I'm far more confident now." She replied as she stood up too.
"... Good for you."
Then, the boy made a run and jumped to the next, smaller platform.
A//N: If you liked the chapter, support the book on your way!