Kiyan treaded carefully while trying to find a way out. Yes, he wanted to fight against a beast. But, one in the greater beast tier he felt was too much for him to handle currently.
While walking, he noticed the terrain got mushy and muddy. The forest got darker as well.
"Is it nighttime already?" He wondered, looking up to the sky, but his vision was restricted by towering trees that had leaves and branches covering his view of the sky like a canopy. He sighed and kept moving forward.
Kiyan raised his foot to take another step forward but felt no earth beneath his foot and fell down the side of the hill. His body rolled off the ground as he fell.
"AGHH! Umph! Urgh!"
Kiyan shouted at first due to the sudden fall. As his body collided with the ground repeatedly, he groaned. He tried to stop himself from falling further down, but to no avail.
He kept falling and falling until..
*Thud!
His body crashed against the bark of a fallen tree.
"Ow." He groaned weakly. His whole body ached from the fall and the collision. His legs wobbled a bit as he tried to get up. He was covered in mud all over.
Kiyan looked around to get a view of where he had landed. His eyes widened at what was in front of him.
A spider web hanging from the stems of two trees. It was quite thick and large enough to hold two fully grown adults and a kid of his size at least. On further inspection, he noticed the place was filled with them.
He took a step back, cautiously looking around.
"What sort of spider could have made that?" He wondered.
He looked up at where he fell from. It would be a steep climb. The mud only made it worse.
"I have to get out of here before whatever lives here comes home." Kiyan thought and immediately tried making the climb back up. It was proving unsuccessful. With every climb, he slid back down.
"Come on, I just want to leave!" He yelled under his breath, still trying to climb up the sloped hill.
"Woah! Umph." He slid and fell on his bum.
"Dammit!" He cursed looking up at the hill.
Kiyan noticed a figure climbing down the hill and it was moving really fast. He squinted his eyes trying to get a clearer vision of the creature. The squint immediately turned into eyeballs nearly bulging out.
"A s-s-spider?" He stuttered. Its eight legs were thrice as long as Kiyan's limbs. Its body was about the size of two wolves placed on top of the other. As the spider neared, Kiyan could see its eight red eyes glimmering through the dark like rubies stuck on its head.
Snapping out of his daze, Kiyan rolled out of the way and pulled out his sword from its sheath. He clenched onto the hilt of the sword and looked at the spider that had finally climbed down the slope.
"Of all places, of all creatures, I get a spider? I hate spiders!" Kiyan swallowed nervously and rose to his feet.
"Better me than Raten facing this, I guess."
The spider didn't charge at him and just stared at him as if observing its prey. Kiyan still stood unmoving. To have a chance of living, he had to kill the overgrown arachnid.
Kiyan took a deep breath and readied himself for what he was about to face. He raised a brow as the spider began to move. It bent its upper body down and raised its lower half above its head.
"You're done with your assessment, I see." Kiyan tilted his head.
Out from its behind, a web shot out. Kiyan swiftly moved to the other side to avoid getting caught in the spider's web.
"What the?" He noticed the terrain's stickiness made it hard to move. Not like the mud was easy to move in in the first place.
The entire area was covered in a dark, gooey liquid.
"What is this supposed to be?" Kiyan questioned, looking around. There was no time to wonder about the oddness of the place as he had to be alert.
The hairy looking arachnid shot out more webs at Kiyan. He moved his feet fast avoiding all of them. He nearly got caught when one of his feet got stuck in the goo. He bent his body back causing the web to go over him.
He returned to his full height and looked at the spider. So far, Kiyan had successfully dodged all the webs while avoiding the already made ones all over the place, the eight legged monstrosity then changed tactic
The spider stood normally again, but raised its front limbs higher and Kiyan saw it. The goo that covered the area also covered the skin of the spider and now they solidified, standing on ends of its skin like hair, but quickly changed.
What looked like hairs were little spikes, small enough to be properly referred to as needles.
With no hesitation, the needles left the spider's body and went straight at Kiyan. As they left, more were formed all going out at him.
Kiyan moved faster than he initially was, doing his best to avoid getting stung by the needles. He didn't want to find out what they did if they came in contact with their target.
And having needles stuck to you wasn't exactly pleasurable.
Kiyan's breathing was now faster. He had been running for a while now. He hadn't even gotten a chance to strike nor had he gotten close enough to the spider.
He was getting frustrated.
Kiyan noticed the spider had been keeping its distance, so he guessed it wasn't exactly a fighter type beast and relied on its powers to end its prey.
"If my hypothesis is correct, you are at the bottom of the barrel in this tier when it comes to strength, but your attacks are dangerous if not avoided." He said looking at a branch of a tree where the needles had pierced began to shrivel up.
Kiyan turned immediately using his sword to block and knock off the needles that came at him. Thanks to Raymond's teachings, Kiyan had become better at using his weapon and he planned on using it on the spider.
"Raten, you better be okay." He mumbled to himself.
Kiyan, who had been keeping his distance, began scaling the area inching closer to the creature. No matter where Kiyan turned, the spider would follow with a flurry of needles.
Kiyan was panting softly, glaring at the beast while skillfully using his sword. He ran forward and leapt forward to cut down the spider. It moved out of the way fast, but Kiyan's sword connected with one of its legs. It was a clean cut.
"Ah, I was right. Your body is neither resilient." He smiled, but his expression changed immediately. Worry lines formed on his forehead. He gritted in pain.
"I was right about this as well." He sighed. As he lifted his feet, drops of blood were left behind. "Since you can control the goo around your body, it wouldn't be a far cry to think you can control the ones around."
Kiyan removed his feet from the formed needles on the earth.
"This explains how they died." He said looking at the carcass of some larger beasts in the area.
"Are you just toying with me, ugly?"
He wasn't going to back down. The surface of the earth was covered in needles. There was nowhere for Kiyan to stand without getting stung. He didn't expect less from a greater beast tier.
"I have to act fast!" He thought and ran forward at the beast again. Upon moving, more needles were shot out at him. He moved side to side to avoid them. He might be stepping on them, currently taking in venom, that didn't mean he would let more in.
After losing a front leg, its movement stumbled but it stood ready to fight. So was Kiyan.
He ran forward and swung his sword, the spider evaded it and shot out a web. Kiyan slid to the other side, causing it to miss. Immediately in front of him were needles. He jumped back to avoid it.
"GARH!" He winced in pain and bent over placing his arms on his ankle. Moving about on needles was hellish, jumping on them with his already injured feet was a pain he couldn't describe.
The venom was taking effect. He now felt woozy and pain was shooting up his body from the inside, his head felt as though it was being hit by a hammer.
Trying to fight through it, he stood but was surprised by what he saw. "I-It can regenerate?" Kiyan couldn't believe that lost leg was fully recovered and while he was slow to react, he got caught in the spider's web.
The spider stood menacingly and like the sound of stones clattering it moved forward. Its heavy footsteps were loud. Not just it, but Kiyan could hear more footsteps approaching.
From the hill smaller spiders, although still abnormally large, came running down. From the sides, they appeared, from above they dropped down with their webs.
All of them ran towards their next meal, Kiyan.