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What I heard was some kind of clawing sound. Yet that sound itself was small, but the sound of grass being pushed through was instead louder. The fact that there was a big gap between its own sounds and the friction sounds of the surroundings meant that it held quite good stealth abilities.

And judging from the sound of the grass, I judged that it was clearly not a human.

“It’s an enemy. Get ready.”

I concisely conveyed it to my comrades. Michelle, Cloud, and Finia instantly sensed the monster after my words and got ready for combat. They put down the potato bags, Cloud getting his sword and shield while Michelle her bow. Finia also switched her dagger into spear mode, and the three made a defensive formation before Sebastian and the other two.

“Huh? Wha?”
“You three wait there. This enemy is clearly beyond what you can handle.”

Though I sensed its approach, I couldn’t grasp its exact distance. An enemy that could hide its presence so well would be too much for newbies like them.

I pulled out my katana and prepared to intercept it. Of course, I had my gauntlets on too.

“It’s here. Over there.”

Cloud stepped ahead to where I looked. Michelle also nocked an arrow to her favorite hunting bow and stood in wait.

What came out of the forest was a giant spider that was probably about three meters tall.

“Eeek?!”
“S-Spider…and a f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g huge one at that!”
“Agh…blegh—!”

Sebastian screamed, Francis’ legs gave off, while Andrew started vomiting, unable to bear looking at its grotesque appearance.

Honestly, I was bad with these types of enemies too. No offense to whoever liked them, but I found giant spiders utterly disgusting.

Insects were simple things, so they optimized their bodies for their survival and objectives. In a sense that could be called unrivaled functional beauty, but that didn’t mean it coincided with a human’s sense of beauty.

“Um, I’m a little bad with spiders.”
“Hmm, bugs aren’t very tasty.”
“They throw sticky threads at you, so I hate them too.”

Finia backed away with goosebumps. Cloud was the same. I guess the latter just found it a pain to maintain his weapons afterward.

Also, Michelle wasn’t shaken at all…

“Fine, I’ll deal with this much on my own.”
“Huh, are you sure?”

Spiders had strong territorial awareness, so they rarely attacked in groups. The Giant Spider in front of me was on its own too. I couldn’t sense any of its friends nearby.

“What is this monster doing here…”
“Why are you surprised? If it was so safe, they wouldn’t have commissioned us Adventurers to do it for them.”

I loosely lowered my katana and casually approached the spider.

Spiders were known for building nests, setting traps, and catching their prey, but their mobility was also quite high.

Its eight long legs gave it good stability, and also allowed it varied movements in many directions. Its eight eyes also covered every direction, leaving almost no blind spots. And above all, it held superior sixth sense, and could apparently make an evasion maneuver before you even make your move… or so I heard.

“Spiders have sharp senses. So if you assume a stance you’d just end up missing.”

I explained to the people behind me while making sure I stayed as relaxed as possible.

Not just Finia, even Michelle and Cloud have battled Giant Spiders before. So my words were directed more at the other trio.

Relaxing your body completely also made it more able to instantly move in any direction.

The spider seemed confused at my actions and creaked its teeth in a threatening manner.

“When you take a spider on, you should not make the first move. They have good eyes and senses, so they will definitely avoid your attack. So it’s either you wait for them to attack, or attack them after you drive them into a corner.”

As I spoke, I approached the spider a step closer. Once I entered its attack range, it rushed at me in one go.

Seeing its action that had no wasted movement left everyone other than me in total shock.

But it was different for me. I knew it would attack me once I entered its range. Hence I knew the enemy’s attack timing would be the moment I took a step in. As long as I knew the attack timing, it was easy to deal with it.

We were facing each other in a cleared-up part of the forest, so it could only attack me frontally. If I knew when it would attack, that allowed me to counterattack too.

I flicked up my dangling right arm and jumped to the left at the same time. Moving separately from the body, my right arm sliced the spider’s right leg, making it dance in the air.

“—Fuh!”

I breathed out sharply and rotated my body horizontally before I even landed.

I spun my katana along with it and landed another attack. With it I took yet another one of its legs.

Having lost two of its right legs, the spider couldn’t endure its landing and broke its balance.

Since its legs were perfect in terms of function, losing them created big malfunctions.

I intentionally moved to the left side of it where it still had many legs remaining. If it wanted to leap at me again, it would have to use the other side which only had two legs remaining.

But it was far too big to actually execute that.

“Gigi?!”

It finally realized it couldn’t move as it tried to counterattack, and once again creaked its teeth.

If it could properly grasp the situation it was in, it would have moved away from me. If it did that, it could then use all of its four left legs. But it was already too late. The opening it showed was too fatal against me.

I slipped through its four left legs and slashed at its slanted body.

This katana that Lyell gifted me wasn’t extremely sharp, but it was tough enough to have lasted me for eight years. It was definitely full of scratches and I had to maintain it a lot, but it was still something I couldn’t bring myself to let go of.

Its blade mercilessly slid into the gap of the Giant Spider’s carapace.

For insects that had a dull sense of pain, the pain of a slash would serve as no deterrent. The only telling blow would be to destroy the flesh part of its body.

Since I knew that, I aimed for the base of its neck. There was a gap in its carapace there, and it was also where the nerves that moved its body were concentrated in.

For most living beings, this was the ideal spot to aim for if you were going for a certain kill.

Still, the Giant Spider’s flesh was too hard so I couldn’t sever it with one attack.

It attacked me with its left foot from overhead. I dodged it by a hair’s breadth and added another attack from the opposite side.

Even this GIant Spider couldn’t endure that attack. The flesh got severe from both sides, its head only hanging by the muscle fibers. But eventually they could no longer handle its weight and snapped, dropping the head on the ground.

The body wriggled for some time, but eventually ceased all movements.

I still stood ready for a what if surprise attack. This was called continued alertness—to be ready for a counterattack even after cutting down your enemy.

Once it was dead for sure and no longer moved, I shook the blood off my sword, then dried it on my sleeve and returned it to its scabbard.

Like that, I managed to gain an overwhelming victory over the Giant Spider that I would’ve had trouble with even in my past life.