Leave a comment

Nether Flames Whip!

Still trying to fly my way out of the tunnel, I focused my mana into my right arm and a second later a blackish rope of fire began coiling out from the base of my arm. A flick of my wrist and a long whip spanning at least ten meters lashed out at the dying Fire Dryder like a live snake. The female Fire Dryder was immediately rendered immobile by the fiery binding. This time, no amount of willpower was going to be enough to save her. With a quick tug, I severed her body with my whip like a hot knife through butter and tossed the two halves at her oncoming companions… Finally, after two fireballs and a whip, she’s dead!

Because I aimed the halves along the path that the Dryders had to pass by, one of the Dryders, a greenish Poison Dryder, inadvertently stepped onto the still burning corpse and instantly burst into flames!

“Aooooo!”

Its pained cries echoed throughout the cramped tunnel. It didn’t even have the presence of mind at this point to figure out a plan of action; that was how overwhelming the flames were. Once a being was covered with even a single mote of Nether Flames, they would experience an unbearable burning that seemed to work from the inside out till that being was finally burnt to cinders. The quickest way to deal with these flames was to cut off the part that had touched the Nether Flames. Unfortunately, the Poison Dryder didn’t have the judgement to make such a decision. Their ability to coordinate elements was something trained into them by the Dark Elves. On their own, their intelligence was nothing impressive.

Long story short, that Dryder was a goner.

Silly monsters, that’s what you get for defying me. If you don’t step back now, I’ll use my Nether Flames to burn you all to a crisp. I’ll… Hey, at least let me finish my monologue first!

Just as I was about to make a stirring declaration and raise my own spirits, even more Fire Dryders began rushing out from behind. They swiftly overtook their brethren and used their own bodies to block off every nook and cranny my Nether Flames could possibly use to try and harm their non-fire resistant brethren.

Hah, you think that will be enough to save you all? You wish.

Nether Flames Wall!

A wall of blackish flames rose from the ground out of nothingness. Yet with so many Fire Dryders arrayed before me, even that wasn’t enough to deter them. The gathered Fire Dryders immediately fired off a volley of fireballs at the wall. An explosion of mana later, I felt my mana pool immediately empty out by a significant percentage.

Shashlik, this won’t do at all. At this rate, my mana will be used up before they die out. Faced with such overwhelming numbers, I knew that I couldn’t turn this into an endurance match. That was why I cancelled my Nether Flames Wall while I tried to find another spell to use against them.

The question is what can I even do now?! Can someone tell me how exactly am I even supposed to fight against an enemy that clearly has limitless numbers?

With no other choice open to me, I summoned my Shadow Demon back from the frontlines. Upon returning, the Shadow Demon immediately embarked on a massacre of the ten offending Fire Dryders while I took this opportunity to toss out more Nether Flames fireballs. Because of the chaos created, I was able to sneak a few shots at their non-fire resistant brethren, even turning one Metal Dryder into cinders in an instant.

Good job, Shadow Demon. Not only is their formation messed up, they even lost one Metal Dryder -I call that a win. Metal Dryders are a rare strain after… wait, why are there so many appearing all of a sudden?

While my Shadow Demon wasn’t completely immune to all attacks, this usually wasn’t a problem as its agility and sheer deadliness often meant that defense wasn’t a big concern. But these Metal Dryders had the ability to survive a full strike from the Shadow Demon, and in such a desperate fight, this ability was enough to fully counter the strengths of the Shadow Demon.

This soon played out amongst the defensive formation of the Dryders. Just as my Shadow Demon was happily hacking through its sixth kill, its next swing was abruptly stopped by the carapace of a Dryder. Unbeknownst to me, a Metal Dryder had managed to sneak into the frontlines and grouped up with the remaining Fire Dryders.

As an elemental creature, the Shadow Demon’s defenses were basically zero against anything other than the element it was strong against. For example, a fire elemental being was basically a nightmare for fire mages, and free food for any other element… this applied to the Shadow Demon as well.

In the just blink of an eye, the Shadow Demon had suffered numerous injuries as it remained stuck in the carapace of that Metal Dryder. Not only were the Fire Dryders attacking it, so were the Poison Dryders and the Ice Dryders behind it… it’s dead, my second Shadow Demon has died… balls.

Having lost two Shadow Demon in no time at all, my body suffered a shock like none it had ever experienced before. This wasn’t just a simple case of one plus one equals two, the blowback from this second loss reached even my mental state. I could feel a ripping pain in my very soul. For just the briefest of moments, it felt like I had lost all my senses… Thankfully, this side-effect did not last long, else those Dryders would have been able to launch a sneak attack against me.

“Didn’t your big sis tell you already? Just relying on the Shadow Demon isn’t enough.” Seeing that I had recovered somewhat from the mental shock, Ferti’nier took the opportunity to remind me of her existence once more. “If you keep going down this path, how long do you think your body will last?”

Blast…

The damage caused by my Shadow Demon dying wasn’t just a simple addition; they stacked. In short, that second death did not just deal me the damage of one death, but rather also that of the previous death as well. If this were to continue in quick succession, there would come a time when my body would simply cave in, and I would either die or be crippled. My Shadow Demon was basically worthless now in this situation.

What to do… If I can’t use my Shadow Demon, who else can I call for help? Ferti’nier, is it possible for me to summon over some of my subordinates from Purgatory?

“Of course, you can. If it’s that new fiancee of yours… but that requires time and an offering.”

‘My new fiancee… wait, are you talking about Mo Ning? What the heck do you mean by fiancee? She’s a horse! And stop trying to lump me with some strange person who does it with whatever race they can lay their hands on… Oops, I didn’t mean to discriminate against you Dryders… It’s just I can’t accept your way of life, I’m sure you will understand…’

The answer Ferti’nier gave me could be said to be the worst of the worst. While it might have sounded like good news on the surface, was there anything worse than knowing that there was a workable solution, but just not for you?

“Little brother, you better think of something quick. Your big sis doesn’t want to die at the hands of some spiders yet.”

‘Why are you even telling me this now? What’s the point even? If you had just told me about that ten seconds nonsense from the start, would this have even happened?!’

“What do you mean nonsense?”

‘Don’t you start that with me!’

Even as I was sparring verbally with Ferti’nier, the Dryders never ceased in their advance. Just like before, they maintained that mix of Fire Dryders and Metal Dryders as they cautiously approached me. Clearly, my Shadow Demon wasn’t going to work against this formation.

Well, if summoning a helper isn’t going to work, I’ll have to do this myself then.

Shadow Demon!

I summoned forth my Shadow Demon again. The moment it took shape, it immediately charged in the direction of Dryders just like before.

Seeing that, the Dryders calmly encircled their shadowy enemy with the Fire Dryders taking the flanks while the Metal Dryders handled the center. This time however, the Shadow Demon did not engage with them. Instead, the second before they clashed, it suddenly did an about turn and retreated.

Fully expecting an attack, the Dryders were stunned by the sudden reversal and couldn’t react for a second. Their less-than-bright minds clearly hadn’t been programmed with what to do in this situation.

Naturally, they had no idea as to what was coming next either. After all, even I considered what I was about to do next crazy. As the Shadow Demon charged in, I followed closely in its wake. Once the Shadow Demon had gathered enough of their attention, I had it turn around while I reached out and grabbed its neck with my right hand. The moment we came into contact, the Shadow Demon suddenly changed form.

The area above its neck began to shift into a hilt while its lower half began to shift into a blade.

Shadowfang: Inverse Cut!

The moment I grabbed hold of a completely formed Shadowfang, I successfully pulled off the Inverse Cut, a technique which I wasn’t able to use in the past. In the eyes of the Dryders, my body was retreating, yet a moment later, their bodies had been split in half. It was only then that they realised that my blade had struck them…

Inverse Cut was the martial technique taught to me by Habona when she handed down the Shadowfang to me. In the past, I wasn’t able to pull off this move no matter how much I tried. In fact, that even led to me creating the Revolution Slice. Who would have thought that this desperate situation ended up being the inspiration for me learning the Inverse Cut.

Now, that’s serendipitous.

The Metal Dryders hidden amongst the Fire Dryders were the first to react to my attack. During the cooldown between my Inverse Cuts, they took the opportunity to rush towards me, carapaced arms stretched out while they spat their spider silk at me.

Revolution Slice!

Faced with the combined attacks of two Metal Dryders, I calmly began rotating my body, dodging both their claws and their silks at the same time. As I did so, I spun Shadowfang around in a deadly blade dance. With its blade reaching up to two meters in length, a single sweep from me was enough to slice those two Metal Dryders into pieces!

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.

Leave a comment

Just like that, the dreaded Dryders made their appearance.

With the backdrop of a million spiders frantically fleeing, these half-Elven, half-spider monstrosities swarmed out of the hole…

Humanoid upper half, arachnid lower half, and carapace wrapped around their hands in the shape of claws: there’s no mistaking it, these are the Dryders! Paliseth was right, this really is a breeding ground for these monsters.

I swept my eyes over the horde of Dryders -several hundreds at the very least. These monsters had a mix of females and males, and because of their Dark Elven heritage, they all looked like your typical models. But once one looked down… you would immediately question that previous statement.

An adult Dryder came in at about two and a half meters and had the combat strength of a Three-star at least. Next to that, I was more like a dwarf than anything else, what with my 1.70 meters and Four-star strength.

Even though this sense of being gazed down upon by a giant monstrosity was horrific enough, it was their disgusting lower half that really took the cake for me. If there was ever a World Ugliest Competition, it would basically be a competition amongst themselves… not that they cared.

“Invader… kill…” The male Dryder at the head opened up with a voice that was grating and unclear, following which the other hundred over Dryders behind him yelled, “KILL!!!” Their mighty cries echoed throughout the confined spaces of the tunnel, ferocity only matched by their murderous intent.

Even though there were several dozens of meters between me and them, I could still feel that palpable sense of danger, and smell that stomach-turning stench they emitted… have these guys not heard of the word bath?

Shadow Demon, kill them all!

Having received my order, the Shadow Demon stretched itself out to the ceiling of the hole then immediately dropped itself on top of them. Its limbs turned into deadly blades and its figure was a whirlwind of death that descended from the heavens.

These Dryders had no other innate defenses other than the carapace on their arms. Their upper half was basically that of a normal human’s, meaning that wherever the Shadow Demon swung its limbs, a dead Dryder could be found lying there a second later. Because of how sudden this whole attack was, the Dryders were temporarily caught off-guard. In just the span of a second, five Dryders were already bifurcated along their humanoid halves. Yet regardless of whether they were beheaded or sliced apart, there was always that spine-chilling shriek as they flailed in pain.

Hmm… even if they are monsters, they shouldn’t be alive after being split along their midsection, right?

Then, to my genuine surprise, my Shadow Demon failed for the first time since dropping into this pit. Faced with a Dryder that was three meters tall, it confidently swung out its blade-like arms but was promptly blocked by the carapaced claws of that Dryder. Even though it still managed to slice halfway through those claws, the fact was that my Shadow Demon had been successfully blocked!

How?! That was basically an attack from an Epic weapon that had the sharpness attribute. Well, it’s not exactly the same as Shadowfang itself, but it still shouldn’t have failed like that…

Just as I was still reeling from the shock, the previously silent Ferti’nier suddenly interrupted me with her usual teasing, “My dear little brother, I think you’d better look carefully for a second. Do you see the difference between that Dryder’s arms and the others.”

Following her advice, I turned my attention towards that Dryder who blocked my Shadow Demon and found that his arms had a metallic sheen on it. Almost every Dryder showed signs of its elemental nature on its arms and arachnid lower half. For example, Dryders of the flame element had a black carapace that was infused with streaks of fiery red. Meanwhile, its lower half would be of a fiery red hue. In light of that, it was easy to tell a Dryder’s nature by its outer appearance.

“A Metal Dryder. Because they love feeding on metals, their carapace has become extraordinarily sturdy as well, just like the metal they feed on. This sturdiness is extra apparent against slicing attacks.” As she explained that to me, I could sense a hint of mocking levity to her voice. “These kinds of spiders are quite rare. Back in the days of your big sis, she once met a Nine-star spider. Back then, your big sis was still an Overlord so that opponent was a difficult one…”

‘Difficult meaning that you still won in the end… aren’t you just praising yourself indirectly by promoting how tough of an opponent that spider was?’

Both the arms of the Shadow Demon were still stuck fast in that Dryder’s arms. Because of how deep the cut was, it wasn’t able to free itself quickly. Seeing that, the other Dryders immediately rushed forward to launch what was to be a sure-fire killing combination move of over ten Dryders. In just the blink of an eye, fire, poison, spike, ice, earth and all manner of elemental attacks flew throughout the tunnel. With its arms still stuck fast, it clearly couldn’t dodge the attacks and was instantly torn to shreds… along with that Dryder that was unfortunate enough to be holding it back. In fact, its death was even more miserable than the Shadow Demon.

The instant the Shadow Demon died, I felt my heart stop for a second like something had suddenly gripped down on it. That momentary sense of death and its ensuing pain was just indescribable to the uninitiated. Thankfully, that sensation only lasted a couple of seconds before I re-summoned the Shadow Demon. The newly reformed Shadow Demon immediately turned its arms into blades once more and charged into the Dryder army like a machine of death.

Blasted spiders! I swear I’ll kill all of you for doing that to my clone.

“I’m afraid that’s not happening. These Dryders aren’t like those brainless spiders you fought before. They not only have an impressive reservoir of battle experience, they are able to coordinate attacks with each other as well. They can easily adapt their strategy to counter any opponent they meet.” At the same time as my second Shadow Demon appeared, Ferti’nier promptly interjected by throwing a bucket of cold ice over my wishful thinking. “If you don’t change your tactics now, this new Shadow Demon will end up dying pretty soon as well.”

‘Like heck it would, I’ll have the Shadow Demon…’

Before I could even finish defending myself, that Shadow Demon got itself surrounded by two more Metal Dryders. With no time for words, I hurriedly had it transform into a shadow. Unless it physically tried to attack an opponent, there was no way it could ever get caught in this state.

By maintaining its shadowy state, the Shadow Demon successfully avoided those two Metal Dryders and managed to sneak into the ranks of the relatively less defended Fire Dryders. By the time those two Metal Dryders managed to catch up to it, the Shadow Demon had already enacted a brutal massacre and turned into its shadowy state once more.

This game of cat and mouse continued a couple more times until finally on its third attempt the two Metal Dryders gave up on trying to chase down the Shadow Demon. Instead, they turned around and started crawling towards me.

Your typical go for the head maneuver then?

Their intention was clear: I had to defend myself quickly. No time to lose at all, I hurriedly beat my wings to increase my elevation from the ground while steadily backing out of the tunnel.

As for why I decided to give up on my hardwon progress into the hole, that was because I still had the wits about me to know that I couldn’t fly through hundreds of Dryders stuffed in a cramped tunnel.

Blast it, of all the times for these monsters to set their targets on me.

Even though I was unhappy about this turn of events, I dared not linger a second longer. I completely abandoned any thoughts of escaping through the hole, at least not till these Dryders had all been killed.

In order to block them from chasing me, I threw out my Nether Flames at the same time as I retreated. With how deadly these flames had proven so far, there was no doubt in my mind that these Three-stars were doomed. Yet just when it seemed like I was about to hit one of the Metal Dryders, a female Fire Dryder suddenly leapt into the path of the fireball and what was supposed to be a sure-hit spell ended up exploding on her instead…

As the dust settled on the explosion, the female figure of that Fire Dryder slowly revealed itself. Its upper half was still burning in my Nether Flames. In just those few seconds alone, the Nether Flames had already spread throughout her entire upper half, and as it burned every inch of Elven flesh it touched, a charred stench filled the air and nearly made me vomit. She tried her best to control the searing pain that ran throughout her body with her screams but the flames refused to relent. Yet in spite of that, she channelled that pain into further determination to kill me. A second later, her burning self charged right at me with a speed that I could hardly believe.

Her ghastly figure was merely twenty meters away from me at this moment. Left with not much room to think, my first instinct was to toss out another ball of Nether Flames at her, hopefully killing her for good this time. Unfortunately, with how determined and burnt she was, she had no intention of even dodging this new attack!

The second fireball impacted her body and threatened to send her rolling away with its shockwave. Yet she resisted the momentum through sheer force of will, stopping her body from toppling over before re-engaging in that suicidal charge once more.

Even two fireballs weren’t enough? Is that how flame resistant these Fire Dryders are?

While these Dryders might have been weak on their own because of their single elemental nature, their knowledge of tactics and coordination was more than enough to cover up for this weakness.

When faced with the physically strong Shadow Demon, the Metal Dryders were there to stop it. When faced with my searing Nether Flames, the Flame Dryders were there to shield the others…

So they know how to counter the elements then. Seems like I’ve underestimated these spiders… But don’t think you’ve won just like that!

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.