She heard it long before she saw it, this Spider was bigger, the tiny hairs on her neck stood on edge as she crouched down on her branch, right now she was second-guessing herself, was this really a good idea? Maybe she should bolt while she could - the 4 spider’s she had almost effortlessly slain may have gotten to her head…

But it was too late for that now, she could see it - this spider was as big as a horse, giant meaty legs carried it forward - there was even a hint of intelligence in those 8 red eyes. None of the other spiders seemed careful at all - but this one moved slowly and moved it’s disgusting head back and forth as if looking for something.

The creature slowly neared the egg room, she had stashed all the corpses in there so Kou had to strike before it opened the egg vault, she took a deep breath, this was going to be a lot harder…

Just like with the other spiders Kou jumped to the creature's shadow, then up on her back to stab her daggers into the creatures head - and that went perfectly fine, but her daggers were simply unable to penetrate the monster properly - just leaving shallow wounds.

This Spider - just like Kou was in the higher levels of the first realm - actually it was further along then Kou herself - almost ready to make the step up. So it was no wonder that her sharpened training daggers did not injure it badly.

The beast immediately started to shuffle around throwing Kou off, she landed a few steps to the side - luckily on her feet - crouched down like a wolf ready to pounce her golden eyes focused on the beast.

The giant Spider turned around all 8 red eyes focused on her, it’s mandibles clicked in a disgusting way as it spoke in broken words. “Lil’ Pup.. from ,sect, here… overestimating self… good.. lunch, kekekek.”

Kou’s eyes widened slightly - that thing could talk? But she did have not much more time to marvel at this since the creature shot forward, it was fast - way faster then this giant size should ever let it be.

Activating hunting shadows she immediately bolted to the side, all those training hours with Xiu Shihong avoiding fire-balls finally paid off after all - the spider charged past her - and Kou struck out with her dagger, grazing one of its hind legs.

The creature let out something that Kou could only call a hiss of confusion before turning her way again, even if Kou had landed a strike - clearly, she was on the defensive here - one hit from that spider and she would be dead, while her hits did next to nothing to the spider, on the other hand she was faster and more nimble so it would be a fight of endurance in the end, would this thing get her first, or would she be able to tire it out.

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This time the spider did not charge it opened its disgusting mouth and sprayed something in Kou’s direction, Kou immediately used jumping shadows to jump into the spider's shadow - avoiding the spray and landing a strike on it’s back, Kou did not see the large leg flying into her side coming.

Getting hit by that leg felt like getting hit by a huge boulder, air left her lungs and she was flung a dozen meters to the side, her chest hurt and everything was blurry, Kou bit her lower lip hard - that helped her to regain clarity - her head hurt but she could hear the spider charging in her direction again “Kekeke… Lu’ch… timeh.”

That thing was making fun of her… She used jumping shadows - jumping over to the shadow of the egg vault - she could hear the slightly confused hiss of that spider as she pulled herself up. She would not be able to take one more hit of this thing, hell - this one hit was almost enough to knock her out.

The following fight was Kou simply avoiding the spider - she jumped around it from shadow to shadow. But this was not sustainable fighting, she could already fell how her Qi was running low, but she did not know what else to do, she could not get away at all.

It’s not like she had not tried to just leave but the bastard had always blocked the entrance, not letting her pass at all. It dawned on her right now that this might be her end already, fighting was absolutely scary if you did not finish before the other could strike back!

With her heart pumping and sweat on her skin, she continued to jump around - slowly the distance she could jump and the speed she had dwindled, she could hear those mandibles close in the space she just had been multiple times.

Panic slowly sunk into her bones - her breath became unsteady her eyes widened. Gritting her teeth she jumped away once more - as far as she could. She had to fight, avoiding this thing was not working - it was not tired at all! Why would it - it just used its giant size and no energy at all! It was stupid to think she could outlast this giant thing! Now was her last chance, she had to strike it!

She had her plan already, she would target the eyes, no matter how strong this thing was the eyes would be easy to penetrate with her daggers!

She looked at the giant spider approaching and jumped - this time she did not use jumping shadows. The spider did not expect this at all - it was already turning away the moment Kou moved, but Kou did not leave it’s eyesight this time - she jumped to the side towards a tree, a split second the spider was just standing there.

But that was enough Kou used her remaining Qi and jumped up to the tree branch - using this hight she dove down towards the spider - directly towards its head, Hunting Shadows was no longer running but her speed was enough - her daggers penetrated into two of the spider’s eyes leaving ghastly wounds behind.

The spider shrieked and shook its whole body - Kou was thrown off, her daggers staying in the spider. Her whole body was numb, she couldn’t move at all, she was exhausted to her core. But that damn SPIDER was not DEAD it was wailing back and forth for a bit before it calmed down - moving towards Kou again.

“Will… suffer.. for.. wounding, me..” It clicked.. towering its huge frame above Kou.

Then something hit the spider - she could not see it - since the spider was blocking her field of view, the creature was launched off to the side - and something approached Kou on the ground.

She did not have the energy to see the creature, it moved on 4 legs that much she could hear - but her sense was slowly shutting down, she was falling unconscious, would this be death? Even if it was, she stood her ground, that bastard spider would remember her!

Her eyes blacked out.