When it leaped into the air and landed on the spider's enormous body, the spider made its biggest mistake.
It exposed its central body parts to protect its legs and prevent them from being broken.
Its logic was simple.
Its most lethal attacks, those involving its web, were being dodged too easily, as if its prey could anticipate them. If its legs, its second source of attack, were broken, it would become the prey instead of the hunter!
It couldn't allow that.
What it didn't expect... was that it had already fallen into its hunter's trap. It didn't expect that the roles had already been reversed since the fight began.
Xiaotian began frantically attacking the spider's back; his sword stabbed like a dagger, nimbly cutting the outer tendons that connected this creature's body.
"AGHHHHHH!" Its terrifying scream of pain almost deafened him. It was like a mental attack that gave him a slight headache, but it wasn't an "attack" that came alone. The spider queen shook violently from side to side, trying to shake Xiaotian off.
And its movement was successful.
Xiaotian fell to the ground, but quickly grabbed the spider's leg to steady himself and began running again, this time toward the front of it, passing under its chest.
He could have attacked again, but he didn't.
'Here comes the hard part.'
As soon as he was face-to-face with those red eyes staring at him with hatred, he raised his sword.
CLANKKKKKKK!
A powerful impact reverberated at that moment, bursting his eardrums.
It was a combined attack from the Spider Queen's two front legs, which had a perfect stop.
Xiaotian was pushed back a few feet, but managed to stay on his feet.
He knew it would be difficult from the start.
He lowered his sword slightly and saw out of the corner of his eye an extremely fast movement coming towards him.
His movement was even faster, and the sword was positioned just to the right of his head, while his two hands held it.
CLANG!
He was pushed back again, and this time, the blood vessels in his arm burst, staining him with blood.
But he smiled coldly. "Despite your small size, you are still as strong as I remember you."
He planted his feet firmly on the ground and shook his blood-soaked sword before running to meet the attack coming from the front.
Running to meet something so fast was ridiculous, but this was a game, wasn't it?
He was the hunter, not the prey!
He couldn't dodge all of its attacks!
The attack hit him in an instant.
And at that very moment, a strange black scale appeared on his left arm... the same item he had acquired earlier.
CLANK!
The spider's most powerful attack in this phase was firmly trapped by an item whose level was several times higher than its own.
It didn't affect him at all. And thanks to that, his defense wasn't limited to a simple block.
He swung his sword with all his might, striking the spider's legs and deflecting its trajectory to the ground. It fell forward, stunned and unable to defend itself in the short term, having exhausted all its resources.
Xiaotian ran towards it in a final attack on its core, holding his sword with all his strength…
It was a bit hypocritical of him to call himself the hunter when he only ran to the front at the moment he knew it was going to fall, but...
"If hypocrisy is necessary to win, you can call me the most hypocritical man in this world!"
His sword moved fiercely and attacked just below its mouth, where he had seen that smoke come out earlier. There was its core, armored.
But that armor was destroyed in seconds, and the blue core was exposed...
"But in the end, it's me who wins again." He sneered as he delivered the final blow.
Small in size, but with admirable strength. But in the end, it was he who emerged victorious once again.
SWOSH!
The echo escaped from that core like a torrent of imperceptible wind.
"Hehe..."
"Interesting..."
Words that remained in the imperceptible wind and made Xiaotian stare at the disappearing corpse.
"And again... the same words."
Something was wrong with that echo. There is no hatred. There is no desire to be reborn.
How strange, right?
But that's how ruins are. Even in a world of cultivation, there are mysterious and inexplicable things.
Anyway, he had won. He could say he was 2-0 against this creature and boast that the second time, he had done it alone.
The spider's spirit crystal fell to the ground, just as the system sent the messages.
[You have killed the Spider Queen Mother!]
[You have obtained 2 Spirit Essence Points.]
[You have cleared the Mystical Ruin: Spider Queen Mother!]
[Congratulations...]
[New challengers have been detected!]
[Number of Ruin Challengers: 31.]
Xiaotian felt a tightness in his chest as he read those last messages.
'Damn it. My title!'
[Calculating rewards...]
His heart was racing. There was a chance that if those challengers had been here before he cleared the ruin, he would not receive that reward or would have to divide it among those who contributed...
That's why he felt desperate. He had done everything, but would the system recognize it?