Apocalypse system: I have unparallel comprehension-Chapter 65 - Mother spider (2)

The first blow slammed into Tendo’s shoulder.

Stone cracked under his boots. Webs snapped off the walls. Dust blasted outward in a ring.

And Tendo didn’t move. Not even a step.

An enormous leg as thick as a tree trunk pressed into his body, muscles bulging beneath his red attire.

His skin tore. Blood misted.

But Tendo held his ground, fingers tightening around the sword’s hilt. His expression didn’t change from that bored look.

Dante’s jaw dropped.

"Tendo—!"

The Mother Spider drove more force downward, trying to bury him, grind him into bone paste.

Tendo exhaled slowly, like standing beneath a heavy rain instead of under a monster trying to kill him.

"You should pour more force. It is too light." Tendo smirked.

Then he pushed.

With one motion, he lifted his shoulder and tossed the spider’s leg upward.

The entire limb buckled. The Mother Spider shrieked, staggering from its own redirected force.

Dante felt the world returned to normal again. There was no trace of mana in Tendo’s throws. It was not magic. It was not a skill.

It was raw physical strength.

How did he get this much power inside his body?

Tendo blurred forward, katana already cutting through the space between them. It was as if the space itself wanted him to get closer. He just moved.

"Watch closely," he said, almost too quiet.

The blade drew a single slender line through the air.

Reality seemed to crack along its path.

The Mother Spider jerked too slow and the katana carved down her armored head plate, slicing through chitin with a sound like splitting granite.

A geyser of black blood exploded upward.

The Queen screamed, an echo that split the cavern like thunder. She thrashed, her legs stabbing wildly, venom spraying in every direction.

Dante ducked, then focused.

He used his concept and channeled his mana to call forth the wind. And it answered.

Wind howled around Dante’s outstretched hand, weaving itself into a circular surge. Pebbles and strands of broken web lifted from the ground as if gravity forgot them.

A threading sound hummed in his bones. Mana condensed, swirled, layered over itself, until the air vibrated like a stretched bowstring.

Dante thrust his palm forward.

A spear of compressed wind detonated from his fingertips sharp enough to tear steel, fast enough to outrun sound. It punched into the Mother Spider’s flailing abdomen, blowing out a chunk the size of a wagon wheel.

Obsidian ichor splattered the stone floor, sizzling and melting the dirt wherever it landed.

Tendo’s voice drifted from beside him, calm as ever.

"Good. At least you can keep up."

Dante rolled his eyes. "I hope I can keep up with you."

The spider reared again, eight legs hammering the ground like falling pillars. The cavern shuddered. Stalactites cracked. Webbing ignited into strands of dust.

Dante tapped his heel against the stone and used Swift Rush.

The world stretched. Lines blurred, his body threading between striking limbs and dripping venom.

The two men didn’t have any plan to face the mother spider. They didn’t need the plan. Well, they had a simple plan at least. It was just throwing everything you got at the opponent.

And it was working well. Perhaps, too well since the two didn’t need to worry about each other.

There was a subtle understanding between them. At least, that is what Dante thought.

Three legs came for him at once. Every movement slowed. Each attack path unfolded like painted lines guiding him through murder.

He slipped under one leg, vaulted over another, and shoved himself up toward the exposed wound he blasted open.

Mana gathered at his fist.

He smashed his fist into the wound.

It was like punching through wet gravel. The mana exploded inward, shredding tissue. Black blood poured down like tar.

The spider screamed again, weaker and more desperate.

Tendo appeared. No windup. No aura. Just space bending around a man who refused to obey physics.

When he reappeared, he was crouched on the Queen’s back, katana raised in one hand, the other sinking into chitin for grip.

"This is the end."

"No." Dante shouted. "You shouldn’t say that line. It is a classic red flag."

One clean stroke. A silver arc that crossed the cavern.

The head of the Mother Spider slid away from her body slowly, reluctant before the whole creature collapsed like a dying mountain.

Silence swallowed the cave.

Dante exhaled only realizing he’d been holding his breath.

Tendo stepped off the corpse, wiped his blade on the remains, and sheathed it with a clean click.

He turned, that faint smirk still tugging his lips.

"See. Nothing happened."

Dante frowned. "No. There is no notification yet."

He stared at the spider and after a long time it twitched.

The corpse convulsed.

A ripple tore through its massive body like something waking up inside it.

Dante’s skin crawled.

"That’s... not normal."

"No," Tendo agreed, already reaching for his blade again. "It’s annoying."

The Mother Spider’s abdomen bulged. Then burst. Not with eggs this time but with a wave of steaming liquid.

A wet liquid split the air as acidic mucus blasted outward, melting through the corpse’s chitin and flooding the ground. Wherever it touched stone, it frothed and smoked, carving ugly trenches like hot metal branding flesh.

Tendo leapt back, boots splashing on safe ground.

Dante nearly slipped as he hopped onto a raised slab of rock just in time to watch the spider’s ruined body reform.

Its flesh stitched itself with threads of luminous green slime. Bones cracked into new shapes. Muscles writhed like snakes under skin.

The Mother Spider rose again but it was no longer just black and armored.

Now her entire body was sheathed in a translucent coat of shimmering acid thick, dripping, corrosive.

Where blood once oozed, venom bubbled instead turning every limb into a blade wrapped in liquid poison.

Her scream came out lower, distorted, gurgling as if her throat hadn’t healed right. Dante swallowed as a puddle of acid slurped past his boot.

"Okay," he exhaled. "Round two is... unfair."

The Queen lunged, and every droplet that splashed from her skin hissed and ate into the rock floor. Even breathing near her smelled like inhaling battery fire.

Tendo clicked his tongue.

"Do not touch it."

"Wasn’t planning to," Dante muttered and called his mana again. His reserve was running low.

Round two was supposed to be a long ranged fight. To do that he needed a lot of mana.

Dante stared at Tendo and asked. "Can I take your mana?"

"Sure. I have plenty."

"More like infinite." Dante walked up and lightly punched him. He reaped mana and felt it rushing over to his core now matured.

Mana flooded into Dante like a lightning bolt, roaring through channels that felt raw and newly carved open. He could move more now. Shape more. Burn more.

Thanks," he gasped.

Tendo shrugged. "Use it before you waste it."

The Queen skittered forward, legs hissing and dissolving puddles with every step. The cavern floor was no longer stone; it was a melting battlefield.

Dante took position behind Tendo, palms glowing with barely-contained energy.

The Mother Spider reared back and vomited a sheet of acid.

Tendo flicked his wrist. A slicing pressure cleaved the air.

Wind slash. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The invisible blade split the acid curtain in two, sending droplets crashing harmlessly against either wall where they burned deep holes into the rock.

Dante didn’t waste the opening.

"Mana Bolt!"

A streak of compressed energy howled forward like a missile and exploded against the spider’s thorax, blowing acidic mist into the air. It threw sparks against her shell but didn’t pierce.

The shell was too tough.

His mind reached deeper into his memories, searching for something to use.

Fire was the answer.

He extended his hand and called upon the mana with his concept.

A swirling plume of flame ignited in his hand weakly, unstable, shaking like a frightened candle in a storm.

He thrust his arm forward.

A Fire Blast roared across the cavern, billowing like a dragon’s cough. The heat slapped Dante in the face even from behind. The flames connected.

Acid and fire met and screamed.

Steam exploded upward, scalding-hot mist filling half the battlefield. The Queen shrieked and staggered, patches of her corrosive coat sizzling away, burned clean.

"Nice," Tendo murmured. "Do that again."

"I can’t keep doing that!" Dante barked. "I’m not a battery!"

"You can be," Tendo said.

The Queen chittered then unleashed something new.

A pulse of vibration rattled the cavern.

The air trembled.

The stone under Dante’s boots hummed. Dust shook from the ceiling.

"What the hell !?"

The Mother Spider opened the mangled wound on her abdomen now a gaping hole rimmed with bubbling venom and released a concussive sound wave.

The blast wasn’t air.

It was pressure and pain, like being punched on every nerve.

Dante staggered backward. His vision doubled. His teeth rang in his skull.

Tendo, however, simply planted his stance and let the shock roll over him. His cloth flapped. Pebbles skittered around him. That was it.

"Annoying," he muttered again.

He vanished.

He appeared midair.

The katana swept a crescent arc.