Crusader King-Chapter 118: Beneath the Statue(3)

Cades quickly assessed the way towards the spider that still sat there, unmoving, perhaps trying to attract him as well, above the endless sea of light, having spun it's net between two separate islands, utilizing some of the silver chains to alleviate the weight on the seemingly useless net, something that first confused him until he realized that the silver chains were much smaller than their onyx counterparts from outside wherever he was now.

It would be relatively difficult for him to gain the resources within the body if he just killed the monster while it still sat within it's own net, that's why he quickly devised the plan to try and conceal his own power, instead acting as the bait to get the monster to come to him, consequently slaying it on one of the adjacent islands on which there didn't seem to be any monsters.

And as Cades thought about that, finally gaining a relatively good plan his smile dropped after just a little bit, because he realized something, perhaps the most important part of this entire thing, the fact that Eximimus's live in swarms, and a queen should never be seen without one.

So why was this queen without one, or at least without one correspondent to her own power which was much greater than the one at the apex-rank he had killed before, which would mean that all the Eximimus's would inherit some small part of that whole to get stronger and hunt stronger opponents, such as himself, after all, even the swarm of the apex one had over a thousand, perhaps even over ten thousand spiders within it.

This was quite unsettling, seeing as he wasn't really confident in winning if he was ambushed by a thousand being probably at the lord-rank from what he had seen in this accursed dimension before, especially if each and every one of these lord-ranks was able to hide from his new ability to read intentions, which normally included the intention to hide, something that was actually quite difficult, but Cades seemed to have a kind of talent for "intent".

As such, after that realization, he took a small break on one of the chains, this one not too far away from the queen which he so longed to kill by now that he had almost forsaken his own safety, something that did indeed remind him of when he had almost cut off a part of his own body had his mother not stopped him.

It took him a little bit of staring at the monster until he realized something.

From what he could see the queen seemed to be hurt, wounded and weakened, something that was both good for him and detrimental if he wanted to continue exploring this place, a matter in which he didn't really have a choice after all.

Finally, he began to look even closer at the queen, abdicating from focusing on the subtle differences he had seen before and spotting a small gash within it's middle part, one of the three parts that seemed to make up this one, similarly to an ant, as if it had been split in the middle.

Other than that he soon realized that it's eight legs that were also decorated with countless spikes were much thicker than normal, and not just because of the hair that already seemed to thicken the insectile muscles it had from what Cades knew.

The third thing he realized after looking at it was that it looked as if the gash on it's back and some other, smaller, gashes seemed to be the only things wrong with it, as if something had simply tried to make it go away, taking the nest it had built for themselves.

Lastly, he realized that the thing had mandibles, long thick ones with greater power than the one before as far as he could see, and perhaps this wasn't important but it was the fact that made him piece it all together and subsequently shudder in his boots, if he had boots to shudder in.

Cades was still smiling, but now it was more so hollow than anything else as he began to realize that the eximimus queen, a monster of great power that had once almost made him wet himself, was probably cattle or a kind of prey around here.

There were multiple reasons for him thinking that.

Firstly, the thing had evolved to have eyes all around it's body, something that was more so alike with a prey-animal than a hunter as prey normally viewed it's surroundings including two eyes on two sides of the head while hunters often had more of a linear vision as they didn't have to be as worried about attackers.

Secondly, the legs of the monster were strong, stronger than the ones of the first queen he had slain, perhaps this one had evolved to quickly escape, something that would indeed be made easier by having powerful legs that helped it with running away, or perhaps, in his worst nightmares, even jumping away.

Lastly, from what he could tell the attack on the spider's back had been clean and powerful, more than powerful enough to simply kill it if the attacker had attacked with even a tiny bit more vigour, but instead he had now seen that the attacked place looked as if it had almost healed once more.

Cades who was still standing on one of the silver chains, a relatively small one with a circumference of about six feet, however, noted that the being must already have seen him, especially with the fact that he was only about three hundred feet away from the spider.

However, he didn't really care, despite the spiders apparent anxiety that did however seem to be false when he looked at it's intent, after all, even if it was able to mask it's magical power, it should not be able to fool the current hi, who was looking with intent rather than his eyes, who was looking at the magic power in a way that eve he himself didn't entirely understand yet.

Finally, Cades quickly closed in, towards the spider that had now begun moving away from him as well, heading towards one of the closest islands to it's sides, one full of trees but relatively small, with only about three hundred foot circumference, with the spider having been connected to two such islands, both equally big.

Cades was already certain while he was using the warp to cross the chains, something that took a bit of time so he could recharge it later on but was better than climbing with one hand or jumping across an endless ocean of light, he was certain that him and the spider would battle it out on that very island he was able to arrive at within a single warp as far as he could tell.