Shwet hung upside down, his body cocooned in thick layers of silk. Below him, the battlefield was carnage incarnate—a war of monsters, a symphony of slaughter.
A Great Taratect screeched as it was torn apart, its legs ripped from its body one by one by the crushing coils of a Great Serpent. The spider flailed, its mandibles snapping wildly, trying to inject venom even as its body was twisted beyond repair.
Snap.
Its abdomen burst like rotten fruit, black ichor spraying across the battlefield.
Another Titan Taratect slammed its massive bladed forelegs into a Great Serpent's back, carving deep gouges into its thick scales. But the serpent whipped its tail with blinding speed, shattering one of the Titan's legs on impact. The spider stumbled, but before it could recover—
Fangs sank into its throat.
The Titan let out a warbling, choking screech as venom flooded its body. Its struggles weakened… and then ceased.
The Taratects were losing ground.
Their once-unstoppable advance had been met with unrelenting fury. The Lesser Serpents had been hunted down by the Assassins and Weavers, their bodies littering the cavern floor in heaps of coiled corpses. But the Great Serpents were proving unstoppable.
A Weaver Taratect scurried along the ceiling, spinning reinforced silk to immobilize a Great Serpent below. Threads coiled tightly around the beast's head, digging into its scales like iron chains—but the serpent did not struggle.
It merely lunged.
With a single, explosive jerk, it ripped the silk bindings apart, its fangs closing around the spider's thorax. The Weaver's body convulsed violently as venom flooded its system, its insides turning to liquid before its exoskeleton collapsed in on itself.
Not far away, an Assassin Taratect materialized from the shadows, its razor-sharp legs flashing in a blur. A Lesser Serpent's head rolled across the ground, cleanly severed from its body. The assassin darted toward another—
And was intercepted.
A Great Serpent struck with terrifying speed, its mouth opening unnaturally wide. The assassin had no time to react before it was swallowed whole.
The Taratects were being slaughtered.
The battlefield was a graveyard of broken legs, split-open skulls, and pools of venom and ichor. The Great Serpents, though wounded, were unrelenting. For every spider they crushed, another took its place—but the replacements were thinning.
The tide had turned.
But none of it mattered to Shwet.
His eyes were locked on the exit.
That was his only concern. His only hope.
For so long, he had been waiting for this moment—the perfect opportunity to escape. He had planned it carefully. Once the Titan Taratects engaged in battle, there would be no one left to guard the nest. He would slip away in the chaos, unnoticed and free.
Then—
His blood ran cold.
One of the Titans turned away from the battle.
Instead of charging into the fray, it moved toward the cavern's only exit.
And then—
It began sealing it with silk.
Shwet's stomach dropped.
"No, no, no—!"
His plan was crumbling before his eyes. If the Titan finished sealing the exit, there would be no escape. He would be trapped in this death pit, caught between two warring nightmares.
His heart pounded furiously as his mind raced.
He had to act immediately.
[Phantom Stride]!
The moment he activated it, he felt his body loosen, his form shifting slightly as if turning weightless. The silk prison should have faded away, letting him phase right through it.
But he didn't move.
The silk held firm.
His skill failed.
Shwet's breath caught in his throat.
"Why?! Why isn't it working?!"
Then it hit him.
The silk is infused with magic.
His ability had one major weakness—it couldn't phase through magical barriers or objects. The Taratects weren't just using ordinary silk; they were reinforcing it with mana.
His only escape method had just been rendered useless.
The cooldown had already kicked in. He couldn't use Phantom Stride again till it reset.
And he didn't have any time to wait for it to be available again.
The Titan Taratect continued its work, weaving layer upon layer of silk over the exit.
Shwet struggled wildly, his muscles straining against the bindings. He could feel his breath growing ragged, his body drenched in sweat.
"I can't let this happen!"
He activated [Double Dash], trying to jerk his legs free.
The silk didn't even budge.
[Air Kick]—he launched a desperate kick, hoping the impact would loosen the threads.
Nothing.
The silk prison was like iron. Unbreakable.
He thrashed harder, twisting his body, jerking his limbs with everything he had—but the more he struggled, the tighter the silk constricted.
His breathing turned erratic.
The exit was almost fully sealed.
A few more seconds…
And it would be over.
Shwet gritted his teeth, rage and desperation surging inside him.
He had come so far. He had survived through sheer cunning, escaped death time and time again.
He refused to die here.
But as the final layer of silk covered the cavern's mouth, snuffing out the last sliver of hope—
A terrible realization set in.
He was trapped.
The cavern's last exit was sealed shut. Above, he struggled in vain. Below, the Taratects screamed as they died.