Born in Blood

All of Liam's focus had been honed for this precise moment. 

Forming a mass of void took quite some time, and it was difficult to maintain the process until it finally concluded. 

But it finally did.

And Liam shot it forward.

The flash of purple light caused the shadows to dance.

It was closing in on the core!

It was about to dig through!

Just a few centimeters more!

What happened next was just… stupid.

So, so stupid. 

In one quick movement, the spider just… dodged mid-air!

In reality, it had just shot out a streak of silk from the tip of its abdomen, then yanked itself towards it!

The sphere of void missed narrowly.

It passed through the air, consuming a patch of reality—

SHHHHH!

—then puffing out and causing air to shriek as it repaired itself. 

At the same exact time, hairs shot out from all over its body like stray shrapnel.

It was too fast.

Even for Liam.

He sank into the shadows in the nick of time, covering himself with his Blood Demon armor.

But a stray hair shot into his tight just then before his armor fully formed.

The hair in question was the size of an adult armor. 

Its tip was sharp, and it was dripping with poison.

As it entered his body, Liam accepted the pain it gave him with open arms, despite his body spasming uncontrollably. 

In the span of just a few seconds, Liam's entire right thigh was gone.

It sizzled out of existence, and continued to do so from both sides. 

It was as though Liam had become a burning piece of paper.

Similarly, the rest of his leg was turned to ash, and so was his right hip.

Instead of blood dripping from him, most of his flesh had turned to ash.

The fire-like poison wanted to spread even further.

But using Transfiguration, Liam stopped it from doing so. 

The pain was unimaginable.

Even though his right hip and leg were gone, it was as though he could still feel them burning.

'So this is what it feels like to get hit by a Rank 5,' Liam thought calmly. 'It's almost enjoyable.' 

But it really wasn't. 

It made him realize how lucky he was to have protection during the war between the Dual Empire.

And it also made him realize that he wasn't at the level to challenge a Rank 5 creature.

Using the same string it yanked itself on, the Red Fang propelled itself onto the peak of the mountain once again.

Then, it looked at Liam with the same dead eyes.

Except, if Liam's vision didn't fail him, he could sense… anger from it.

That made him smile.

Despite obviously being in a worse situation, the spider was pissed, and Liam was smiling.

That was a victory in his book.

A second later, Liam was about to completely reform his leg.

But he stopped himself.

Looking at the spider again… 

Did Liam even inflict any significant damage to it?

Any damage at all?

…Just a tiny dent.

And a few scratches where his slashes of darkness had landed upon.

But then, something happened right after that made Liam realize the Death Dance was not over.

The Red Fang bent its abdomen and positioned it to the moon, then shot out a long, powerful stream of red silk.

SHHHHHHHHHH!

It was like a geyser, except with pure silk acting as a pillar to the moon.

As it reached its zenith, the stream of silk slowly spread outward!

Now, it was like a volcanic eruption. 

As it left the beam of silk, Liam quickly realized something.

That was a web of silk.

And it was encircling the entire Rank 5 danger zone!

Liam admired the view for a few seconds.

It was beautiful.

The web of silk was patterned intricately, and as it continued spreading, the gaps slowly filled themselves.

This was a cocoon. And it was breathtaking if one could look past its real purpose.

'You've gone past using an RPG to kill a rabbit,' Liam thought to the Red Fang. 'You're using an entire nuke.'

Sheathing his swords, Liam stood on one leg and heaved a sigh. 

In a few more moments, the cocoon would be complete, and he'd be incinerated along with everything inside.

"That's my cue to leave," Liam shouted at the spider. "It was fun dancing with you, friend."

There was no response.

Flipping the spider off, Liam used Shadow Blink just as the cocoon was completed.

The world changed in his vision once more, transporting him out of the Rank 5 danger zone and into a swath of red trees. 

A 500 meter Shadow Blink. 

98% of his blood was used in total. 

Just 2% remained.

Now, Liam looked anorexic almost.

But he was just outside of the cocoon's range. 

He turned around, looking at the massive cocoon that now dominated the Red Fang's territory.

Liam heard a faint screech of frustration echo from the inside.

Liam smiled broadly, still standing on just one leg. "Eat your heart out."

Liam lingered there for a few more minutes. 

"I'll give you another visit soon, my eight-legged friend," Liam said. "Expect me."

***

Soon enough, Liam skedaddled back to the Temple's quarters.

On the way there, he killed a few Rank 4 magical beasts to feast upon.

Regular Zenith beasts didn't require much effort to kill anymore.

A burst of Sanguine Strings were enough to make them bleed out and die.

Through eating them, his anatomy was more or less back to normal.

Since his blood purity was higher, it would require a lot more than just a few Rank 4 corpses to bring him back to full health.

Liam entered his office, and his Shadow Clone was… strangely docile, drawing something on a piece of paper. 

Liam was initially worried his Shadow Clone might have been up to something.

…But this was even stranger.

Approaching the clone, Liam looked over his shoulder to see what he was drawing, and… 

Instantly, he shook his head with a tired sigh. 

"Why are all my clones like this?"

The clone gave a lecherous smile, but said nothing. 

A moment later, Liam made the clone explode—

BOOM!

—and shredded this… 'drawing'... with his darkness.

Liam shook his head.

Now was not the time for foolishness.

It was finally time to put some improvements on his Blood Weaving!