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I readied myself with my sword as I had yet to extract my spear from the lesser chimera’s… rear end… and I was not about to wield that shit-covered weapon until I gave it a thorough scrubbing.

After standing at the ready and staring at the pillar for more than a minute, I started to feel like something was amiss. I then recalled what the announcer said, this Marage Spider had nearly transparent webs.

I conjured a gust of wind to pick up the sand on the ground and scatter it around the pillar before me and the open air above me, as sand flew through the air, grains of sand got caught on something that soon created a clear picture of my situation, and as I suspected and dreaded, there were lines of webs already connected to the surrounding pillars.

“Aww… Shit.” I cursed under my breath, but before I could do anything, I saw a shimmering, dust-covered thread flutter in front of my face, and before I could register what I truly was, the thread looped around my neck, and I was pulled backward on my ass and dragged through the dirt towards one of the pillars.

If it were not for the tournament-provided mana shield, I would have been choking and unable to breathe from the thin yet tough thread wrapped around my neck.

Before my head smashed into the pillar, I brought my sword above my head and managed to get it in contact with the thread of web, but it was like the announcer described, it was tough as steel, and only once I inject some aura into my blade did I managed to sever the thread.

The moment I did so, I flipped back on my feet and sent an Earth Spike crashing into the pillar, making it crumble, but I was not done, when it came crashing down, I firebombed the rubble, but I heard not a sound of distress, nor did I see any signs of struggle or the shimmer of the Mirage Spider making an escape, the only thing I saw was the surprisingly flammable thread catching fire and burning away.

But as the threads connected to the pillar burnt away, I noticed the end of one particular smoldering thread inching away from the burning rubble in jerking movements, almost like it was being pulled in.

I made no obvious move to see where the smoldering thread was going, but out of the corner of my vision, it was moving to a pillar to my left, which did not make much sense, I was being pulled to this pillar, but I destroyed and torched it almost immediately, does that mean the spider moved that fast?... or…motherfucker… that spider really is cunning.

After thinking of how a spider pulled me from a different direction, I then realized that the spider was using the pillar I had just destroyed as a fulcrum point to obscure its true location.

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Not wanting to expose my hand of letting the spider know that I knew where it was, I was thinking up a strategy on how to kill this spider, and as I scrapped plan after plan in my head, I came to one final conclusion that I would be using a lot of fire, and a lot of mana to get rid of this spider.

When I was ready with the spells in my head, I cast multiple Wind Blades around the pillar I suspected the spider was at, and followed up with another Earth Spike to destroy the pillar. And sure enough, as I saw the simmering threads connected to the pillar get cut off and shimmer as they floated to the ground, and the pillar started to collapse, I saw a shimmering form reaching and failing to grab its falling threads in time.

I took this opportunity to cast multiple fireballs to firebomb the spider's general area for effect, and that was the first time I heard the spider make a sound. It made a chittering screech as I saw its shimmering outline surrounded by the flames I was maintaining, and now that I could see it, I could kill it.

I rushed in to close the distance, unbothered by the flames of my own mana’s creation. When I appeared in front of the spider, I had clearly interrupted its attempts to escape the fires and surprised it, I performed a downward chop, aiming to cleave it straight down the middle of its beady eyes.

But I guess having more than two eyes has its advantages because it saw the sword coming and moved to dodge to the side to avoid being split in half, but it did not get away unscathed as I managed to take two of its front right legs in my chop.

It hissed in anger at losing its legs as it jumped backward, and the magic maintaining its invisibility magic dissipated. It ignored the fires that were burning the hairs on its body as it scuttled backward, but I was not going to give it the chance to escape again.

I dived forward and managed to grab its front left leg, but that turned out to be a mistake because the spider’s grappling game outclassed mine by miles as it curled in its remaining legs to grab and spin me as it brought its abdomen to spew strands of sticky web on me.

By the time I could muster any form of resistance, my shoulders to my elbows were already wrapped and I was having a hard time stretching the webs even with my aura going at full blast. This meant I could not swing my sword, so I swiftly abandoned it and drew my dagger.

Before the spider managed to rotate me a second time in its webs, I injected aura into my dagger and cut the webs restaining me, lunged at the spider and hugged it tight, keeping my head below where its fangs could reach me, I then started stabbing the shit out of the spider.

One stab, and it dropped itself to the ground, with me under it, smashing me onto the ground, but it most likely did little to no damage. Three stabs, and it was lying on its back while using its legs to try and tear me off of it, but to no avail. Seven stabs, by now half of its legs were no longer working, and the ones that were barely had any strength. By the tenth stab, the spider was still and I could no longer feel the pumping of its heart. I stabbed it two more times before I felt comfortable letting go of the big-ass spider.

I had expected to use a lot more mana in this encounter, but things turned out well, I guess that means more magic for the next monster.

As I once again stood to face the royal’s booth, I was covered in dust, spider webs, and spider ichor, all things considered, it was not very fun, but I had an event to finish, and if I am not wrong, this will be the last monster I will have to face in this event. An Ogre.