System vs Rebirth

The spider landed in front of them as if implying that they could challenge him directly.

"Kh." Noel gritted his teeth. There were two big problems with that jump alone. First of all, that colossal body would be extremely heavy if the spider was able to create such a tremor from jumping alone. They could easily get squashed by that giant body if they were not careful.

The second problem would be the spider's mobility. It was said that ants were moving much faster than humans, but because humans had a far greater reach, they would never outrun humans.

Right now, Noel and Anna are the ants. The fact that it could easily jump meant the spider could run as well. If it decided to chase after them, the spider could easily catch up to them.

In other words, they had nowhere to run.

Noel was trying to find their escape path, not expecting that an Ancient Demon would appear. Even if the spider was an Ancient Demon, he didn't think it would be this ridiculously strong.

The spider tilted its head down, gathering energy once again.

They couldn't stay here. Noel didn't have the confidence to stop that ray of light one more time. At the same time, they couldn't go left or right since the spider could easily tilt its head that way. The Superior Demons were ready to intercept them if they moved back.

The only way to go was to the front. But moving underneath that enormous body could get them crushed.

Noel clicked his tongue and chose to move diagonally to the left.

Anna followed right behind him, wondering what their plan was. In this situation, she shouldn't suggest a plan, which would just distract Noel. Instead, she should focus on giving Noel time to think.

'The body? No, I think I should aim for the legs. Even though those legs are sturdy enough to withstand the spider's weight, if we can take out one or two legs, the spider won't be able to chase us.' Anna's expression turned grim as she assessed the situation.

Since she had found her target, she should get going. After ensuring that no one could harm Noel, Anna sped up, heading to the second right leg.

As if noticing her movement, the spider lifted up its leg to avoid Anna's attack.

"!!!" Anna jumped into the air. The leg was so big, so lifting it would require some time.

However, the spider itself was extremely tall, so she didn't get enough jumping power. She considered choosing another leg, but she would end up going too far from Noel.

Hence, Anna used the Platform Rune to get the second jump.

As if noticing what she planned to do, the spider chose to do something special.

The spider pointed its leg toward Anna and tried to stomp her.

With such an enormous body, the leg itself was as thick as a single tower in the airport.

And this massive leg was coming straight at her.

"Not good." Anna summoned another Platform Rune, barely avoiding the leg. Or did she? "Wait!"

The leg was actually not aiming for her. Its target was Noel.

The spider was smart enough to position its leg so that Noel and Anna would align with its trajectory.

Now that Anna had chosen to dodge, Noel was left alone on the ground.

"…" Noel raised his head as if he were trying to time his dodge. However, the grass demon hadn't given up on him.

Numerous grasses grew around Noel as though they were trying to stop him even for a second. This way, the spider's leg would hit him.

Before the top was blocked, Noel waved his hand, freezing all the grass around him.

After that, he jumped into the air, seeing the huge spider leg hit the ground.

It formed a crater, and the soil in front of the leg's trajectory was pushed forward, forming a small hill.

Noel furrowed his eyebrows. 'The opponent is too ridiculous. We are still fine, but the longer the battle drags on, the more we will be put at a disadvantage. The legs are good targets, but one wrong move will kill us.'

Noel bit his lips. 'Can we actually defeat an Ancient Demon before reaching Spirit Transcendence Stage? I can't see the path for victory. In that case…'

Noel waved his hand up, shooting the Undying Phoenix to the spider's body.

"!!!" Anna noticed Noel's counter attack, making her feel relieved.

She then shifted her focus back to the leg. Using the falling momentum, Anna struck the enormous leg.

Raging Blood Lightning.

The flash of blood-colored lightning lasted for a split second before a powerful eruption of lightning hit the spider's leg.

Bam!

The spider tilted its body slightly as if feeling the force of that attack. At the same time, the Undying Phoenix had also reached the spider's body and exploded, spreading the Undying Flame.

Boom!

The spider should have been injured after all this, but to their surprise, the spider didn't let out a single sound.

"Huh?!" Noel widened his eyes, seeing the spider's body. His Undying Flame, which was supposed to burn the spider's skin, actually disappeared.

It was then that he noticed the small hair that covered the body. He saw the fluctuation of energy that actually formed a barrier and dispersed the flame.

Anna was in the same predicament. Despite using everything she could, her sword actually failed to pierce the spider's skin.

She only made a small dent on the skin's surface, which could easily be recovered.

"What?" Anna gasped in disbelief.

Both of their attacks were useless. How were they supposed to hurt the spider if that was the case?

After all, both of them had amplified their power with the True Spirit Body. Yet all of it was useless.

The spider gradually pulled back its leg as its body was moving down.

"Not good!" Noel flew straight to Anna, ready to take her out of this place as the spider was going to crush them with its body.

'No. He won't make it with me.' Anna spun her body mid-air and formed a Platform Rune so that she could launch herself to the ground.

The time it took her to reach the ground was enough for Noel to overtake her. However, Noel didn't come to her because Anna was much faster on the ground, especially with the lightning boosting her speed.

Yet, despite fleeing at full speed, they barely escaped from the spider's enormous body. The latter even produced a powerful shock wave when it touched the ground.

"Kh!" Noel landed next to Anna and formed a Spiritual Barrier Rune to block the shock wave.

The spider shocked him once again when the shock wave actually blew everything away, such as trees, boulders or even the top layer of the earth itself. And the thing that shocked him the most was actually what happened to his Spiritual Barrier Rune.

*Crack!*

A huge crack appeared on the Spiritual Barrier Rune. This rune was capable of stopping the attack of a peak Superior Demon. Yet a simple shock wave from the spider was enough to actually crack it.

Noel's face became pale. For the first time in his life, he was actually wondering, 'Can we even escape from here alive?'