And yet, not even that was enough to overwhelm the homoarachnoid.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK

"I. Told. You. You. Are. Too. Weak."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A powerful attack ravaged the two pathwalkers, blasting them away. Runark’s EvoArmor barely allowed him to absorb the impact of the attack without breaking half his bones, while Sternon’s evolved biology allowed him to prevent the worst from unfolding. And yet, the sheer speed and power with which they had been struck left them reeling, barely able to stand up.

That was all that -o—o-o needed to take the other two down before the two boys recovered. He shifted his six eyes towards Misha, whose expression curdled with intensity. Her blood surged, immediately forming highly powerful long-range mega cannons. Their massive barrels pointed towards the creature while huge tank-like extensions rested behind her, serving as the thrust of the makeshift plasm cannon.

Even as the creature rushed towards her. She charged the cannon with gritted teeth, unleashing a devastating explosion that might have hurt the creature as well, if he hadn’t been careful. And yet, -o—o-o had foreseen the attack, using his stinger to spew web in one direction as a grappling hook to pull himself out of the way of the attack as he arrived to her side before she could even react.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A single blow launched her flying, her blood barely having rushed in to intercept the attack with the automatic reflexive defense system that she had programmed into the hemotechnology. She grimaced with pain, trying to reformulate her blood to attack the homoarachnoid while trying to put as much distance between herself and him.

And yet, it wasn’t enough.

The creature’s stinger pointed towards her, threatening to take her down in the blink of an eye. Yet, before the stinger could launch the web. A wave of branches and trees blasted into him from the side as Siliscia pushed herself to attack with whatever she could, realizing that her teammate was in danger.

The powerful flora exploded in contact against the homoarachnoid’s body in a bright explosion.

And yet, it was not an attack that could hope to do any kind of meaningful damage against the creature’s web armor.

Even before the smoke and the dust could dissipate, a slew of web attacks emerged from it before she could even react, completely swallowing her up in them, she could create a cocoon of flora.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

"Rgh!" Siliscia gritted her teeth as she struggled to disentangle herself from the webbing that already clung to her body very stubbornly.

STEP

Chills crawled across her skin as she heard the steps of the alien creature emerging from the explosion, his stinger covering his body with more webbing to make up for all the webbing that had been damaged by the female elf’s attacks.

The creature arrived before her, raising one of its insectile legs above the elf as her eyes widened with horror.

BOOOM!

A light impact struck its back, drawing its attention. The creature turned its head towards the source of the impact, finding a grim Runark barely having picked himself up to rush towards the alien creature in order to protect Siliscia.

"Get away from her, you bastard." Runark gritted his teeth as he raised his palm once more, jamming it against the creature’s body.

BANG!!!

It was by no means a light impact; had it struck the ground, it would have had the power to level entire cities.

And yet, against a creature of the caliber of -o—o-o, such an attack was of no consequence. The alien creature simply turned around even as Runark unleashed a flurry of attacks, desperately trying to take the alien down.

And yet, -o—o-o simply allowed him, almost as if it wanted the young pathwalker to feel the futility of even trying to fight it.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!

Runark’s expression crumbled with despair with each attack as the sheer vanity of each attempt fully sank in his bones. Misha was unconscious from the previous attack, Siliscia trapped in a prison of webs, while Sternon hadn’t yet emerged from the crater he had been flung into.

And Ria was by herself, as far as Runark was aware.

And yet, he was too weak to get to her.

BANG BANG BANG...

His attacks grew weaker as strength left his arms. A deep sense of frustration emerged in him.

’Why am I so goddamn weak?’

He actually wasn’t weak by any reasonable standard, given that he was a Martial Master despite his youth. However, he certainly felt very weak having spent the past two years with Ria. He knew that she held back tremendously when the two of them trained and sparred. He knew that he probably held her back from going to take missions that were more her speed. He thought he could get to her if he just kept training and trying to be as minimally strong as was needed to be by her side.

And yet, in that moment, he couldn’t help but feel the crushing weight of his weakness and the vanity of his efforts.

BANG

His fist crashed into the homoararchnoid lightly as he panted with exhaustion.

A sneer of disdain emerged in the six eyes of the homoarachnoid as it simply raised its stinger towards him.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK

"You. Are. Too. Weak. To. Matter."

Even though Runark didn’t understand click the way that Ria did, he could still sense the spirit of what the creature said. Even as the stinger of the creature rushed forward towards him, he couldn’t help but think back to his entire life.

What had he ever accomplished in his entire life?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing of note.

He progressed through the realms at a prodigious pace, and yet it meant nothing to him, for he had spent his entire life comparing himself to the greatest genius of Martial Art. In comparison to the blinding sun of bright talent that was Ria, he felt like a flame at best.

He couldn’t even save her when she needed him the most.

Perhaps it would have been better to simply die then and there.

And yet, fate begged to differ.

WHOOSH