World's Last Hope-Chapter 55: Acid

He might have been brave, but he wasn’t suicidal. Just fighting the newborns of these monsters had pushed him so far that he preferred not to face their parent if possible.

So, as soon as he felt the ground shaking and heard the menacing roar, he dashed in the opposite direction.

Observing his surroundings, he realized he was like a sitting duck between the trees.

Deciding it was better to hide, he began climbing the most climbable-looking tree as fast as he could.

Moving his hands as quickly as possible, he climbed.

Despite his left palm being almost useless, he was still able to use it, though sharp pain shot through him with every movement.

Another roar echoed across the field.

It seemed the spider had discovered its offsprings dead, and would undoubtedly begin searching for their killer.

The ground began to shake more violently, prompting Eric to speed up his climb even more.

"Faster! Faster!" he muttered, pushing his body to its limits. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Finally, reaching the lowest branch, the one closest to the ground, he lay on it and placed his right hand over his mouth, trying to silence his ragged breathing.

Another roar was heard as a giant leg came into view.

Then another, and more.

Soon, a giant spider, at least twenty meters tall, came into view.

It was both indescribably disgusting and incredibly horrifying. Its brown body, covered in patches of uneven fur, gave it the appearance of something that should never have existed.

But that was exactly how the Corruption worked.

It created these monstrosities that had almost ended humanity.

’Is that the parent of the countless cocoons?!’ he asked himself, shivering slightly.

’There’s no way in hell I’m fighting something like this and coming out alive!’

The giant spider stopped and began to look around, seemingly searching for the reason its offsprings children had been killed.

It uttered a grunt-like noise and placed its leg on a tree.

Eric’s face lost color as the spider began to climb the tree.

’Shit, why didn’t I think of that? It’s a spider! Of course, it would be able to climb trees!’

Suddenly, it all made sense, why were there millions of cocoons in this forest where the trees were hundreds of meters tall.

It was the perfect environment for these spiders to thrive, so of course, they would use it!

The spider quickly climbed the tree.

It might not have been the tree Eric was on, but being so high would give the spider an advantage, as it would have been able to see him if Eric didn’t move.

Panicking he slowly stood up from the branch, grabbed the giant tree, and began to move to the other side, hoping to remain unseen.

’Why can’t I go faster?!’ he cursed himself for his slow movements, but in the end, he managed to reach the other side of the tree, hiding himself from the spider’s gaze—for now.

Taking a sigh of relief, he got busy thinking.

’Now what?’

He was too close to the spider, so getting off the tree with the hope of getting as far away as possible would leave him exposed, and the creature would no doubt be able to see him.

If that came to pass, he was doomed. There was no way he could defeat the creature, and he doubted he would be able to outrun it, as the spider’s legs were dozens of times larger than Eric entire body.

Especially not with his left palm almost useless due to the injuries he had sustained in the previous fight,

And the fact that he was exhausted and slowly dying of dehydration certainly didn’t help matters.

So, he was completely stuck.

Not having much to do, Eric put one leg over the other while sitting on the massive tree branch and closed his eyes.

There was no point in panicking now, so all he could do was try to keep himself calm.

Some time passed.

Opening his eyes, he observed his surroundings.

The sun had disappeared, hidden behind the clouds. It was soon going to rain.

’There’s some good news, I guess,’ he thought inwardly.

Truthfully, he wanted to look back, cursing, to see if the spider was still there.

He couldn’t stop his curiosity, so he grabbed onto the tree and quietly moved to the other side, searching for the spider.

His eyes widened in awe.

"The cursed thing has made a spider web?" he muttered in awe.

It seemed the large spider had given up on searching for the reason the newborn spiders were dead and had created a large spider web between the trees, as if waiting for something to get caught in it.

’I guess they have to eat something, but are there even any things that fly around here?’ Eric asked himself.

Until he remembered that the only reason he was alive was that he had noticed one flying monster over the forest and used it to soften his fall.

’Never mind, I guess they do.’

The spider was in the middle of the large web, staying completely still, waiting with anticipation for something to get caught in it.

’If it’s going to stay here, then I’m stuck. There’s no way it will not notice me once I reach the ground.’

With a sigh, he returned to his branch and waited for the rain.

At least his thirst was going to be relieved soon.

’Finally!’ he thought as he heard a few drops begin to fall from the sky and hit the ground.

’Hurry up, I will die of thirst at this rate!’ Eric thought about how to reach the water.

He was currently on a branch of a tree, and naturally, there were more branches and leaves above him, so the water wouldn’t be able to reach him.

’Maybe if I go to the end of the branch?’ he thought to himself.

But suddenly, his eyes widened as he realized that the drops of water that had fallen had begun to dissolve the ground.

It wasn’t raining water.

It was raining acid.