Chapter 60: Ambush (1/2)

Gravis sprinted in one direction, trying to get to the surrounding cliffs as quickly as possible. At the cliff, he would be able to find a cave, and there he would temper his bones. With tempered bones, he could survive at least one hit from a medium-grade demonic beast.

Gravis continued running, and after a while, he noticed that he couldn't see any animals. Typically, such a forest should be filled with different animals, yet, he couldn't see or hear any. Gravis narrowed his eyes as he knew what that probably meant.

'This is the territory of a demonic beast,' he concluded, yet he continued running. 'There shouldn't be many middle-grade demonic beasts in here. The chances of me running into one are…' When Gravis thought that, his eyes widened, and he immediately stopped.

Gravis was angry at himself. How could he forget his incredible luck? Of course, this would be the territory of a middle-grade demonic beast. With his luck, there was no doubt about that. He immediately took out his saber and concentrated on his surroundings, silently. He had been running in here for a while. There was a high chance that the beast had already noticed him.

'So, what's your plan, Heaven? Will you send a strong creature with a valuable treasure or a weak creature with a worthless treasure?' Gravis sneered. 'You are probably not sure if I would die to a middle-grade demonic beast. So, what will you do? Will you bet big and send a strong one, or will you bet small, and send a weak one?'

Gravis slowly turned and kept watch everywhere, even above himself. The fact that he did not notice any movement in this large area, meant that the beast was an ambush predator. What if there was no beast? Impossible! Gravis wouldn't believe that for a second. If there were nothing, that would be the best case for him, which never happened.

Gravis relaxed and lowered his saber, and then immediately released all of his Will-Aura.

SCREEE!

He heard coming from above and behind him, and he immediately jumped to the side. He evaded not a second too early because a long, thin, spiky leg stabbed into the position where he stood previously. The beast had attacked when Gravis showed his relaxation, and it got startled when it suddenly felt the pressure of the Will-Aura. That's why it had screeched.

Gravis could see the beast now. It was a giant spider, the same color as the night. While standing normally, its body reached 1.5 meters height, and its legs were incredibly long and thin, with little barbs coming out of them. The legs were nearly ten meters long, each, and its four red eyes looked neutrally at Gravis. They were emotionless, soulless eyes that only saw prey. When Gravis saw it, his mood grew severe.

'Big bet it is,” he thought to himself. To him, the beast felt like it was just as powerful as the centipede. He could guess that this beast was in the later stages of a middle-grade demonic beast. This was definitely one of the absolute apex predators in this basin!

Gravis couldn't watch it for long, as it immediately lunged forward with incredible speed. Gravis was back in a real life and death battle, and one single mistake would doom him. Just like in his early fights with low-grade demonic beasts, Gravis was utterly outmatched in speed, power, defense, and stamina. He had to predict the enemy's movements again because he had no time to react to the enemy's actions.

Gravis had already seen how the spider attacked earlier, and when he saw it's long, agile, thin legs with barbs, he was pretty sure that those were its primary weapons. Its legs ended in a thin, long, sharp spike. Every step stabbed its legs into the earth, and it was using that increased foothold as a quick way to jump around. Its movements seemed less like walking, and more like climbing.

Just like he thought, the spider stabbed its leg forward like a spear, as it would not use a slash from this distance. Gravis had already prepared himself, and used the Vanishing Shadow Art, to sidestep. The Vanishing Shadow Art was that sidestep that William had shown him. It moved him quickly beside the leg, as it flew past him.