The Spider Queen

"Childish little thing. All your foul mouth knows is nothing but petty insults and low curses that stain our ears," the middle head growled in fury.

There was a sudden increase in pressure that almost forced Sophie to her knees as the force of gravity in this small world intensified.

She looked up and saw an endless sea of fleshy appendages hovering in the air with every eyeball in their center glowing a fiery scarlet colour.

There was a morbid sense of beauty to those abominations as the pitch-black flesh that surrounded the eyeballs was broken up by tiny star-like patterns.

"Cleo… if I make it back… you won't be leaving the bedroom for at least two weeks!" Sophie chuckled darkly as she rose up from the ground.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Wave after wave of red energy beams sliced down at her location as the god of destruction clearly wanted to put an end to this hunt.

It was shameful for a powerful entity to have to struggle to kill a creature that was nothing more than a weakling.

Sophie found her body slowly slip out of her control as her powerful instincts caused her movements to become involuntary.

She ducked and weaved through the heavy barrage of destructive high energy attacks while making full use of her bladed appendages.

Sophie's mind was completely blank.

She barely noticed the nearby trees instantly evaporating into dust particles nor the large clouds of dirt that were kicked up from the impact.

The vines that lay across her path cut bloody wounds into her flesh as Sophie desperately tried to escape with her life.

Swish!

Sophie reached into her storage bag and pulled out more metalloid needles which she flung at the floating eyeballs with deadly accuracy.

There was no time to dip the needles in any of her poison vials, so Sophie had to just spit on them.

Having digested the contents of multiple vials beforehand, Sophie's saliva had gained a lethal effect thanks to her venom glands.

One by one her pursuers succumbed to the noxious poisons and fell out of the sky.

The floating eyes landed on the ground with a dull thump.

Their bulging eyeballs would no longer see as the toxins corroded their internal structure. It was this fact that raised the hope in Sophie's heart.

It was clear that her poisons worked on the fleshy appendages that grew out of the giant's body so why wasn't he affected yet.

Surely if this so-called 'god of destruction' had poison immunity then it would also apply to any extra appendages produced from his flesh.

Sophie did not have any time to think about this further as she was still under great pressure from the attacks.

Even with her constant accurate throws using her metalloid needles it was merely a drop in the bucket compared to the vast number of flying pursuers.

Boom!

Sophie shifted her face to the left and narrowly avoid a piece of rock that split off from a nearby boulder that was destroyed.

Blood constantly dripped down as she ran through the forest from the numerous wounds that covered her body.

Exhaustion was beginning to set in.

Sophie was originally an arrow at the end of her flight and this final burst was nothing more than the effect of a temporary boost in adrenaline.

She could feel her movements gradually begin to slow down.

Even if her movements slowed by just a fraction of a second…

It was enough to make the difference between life and death.

There was nothing more frustrating that knowing that your instincts would help you stay alive, but your body simply could not keep up.

Boom!

Sophie's leg finally gave out when she stumbled on a particularly heavy vine and the hybrid girl crashed to the ground.

A thin red beam of energy passed right where her head was just moments ago and hit a bush that immediately disintegrated.

"Come on… just give… please…" Sophie groaned as she gripped the thorny vine with her right arm and pulled her body forward.

The sharp bladed edges of the thorns pierced her flesh, but she continued to slowly crawl through the forest undergrowth like a worm.

"Not…not…now…" Sophie muttered as her vision slowly darkened around the edges.

Perhaps if she had even the smallest strand of qi in her dantian, Sophie would be able to force her body to move.

But this trial had sealed all of her abilities as a cultivator.

The floating eyeballs still hovered menacingly in the air above her location but oddly enough they no longer fired any more blasts.

They simply watched.

They watched as the ant-like existence that had fought with the most powerful being of this small world wriggle her body through the dirt and mud.

Blood soaked the soil as Sophie's open wounds were exposed to the sharp pointed ends of the pebbles and rocks.

Still… she kept on going.

Maybe this was all futile.

Sophie would be lying if she said that there were no regrets in her mind as she painfully nudged her way one inch at a time.

All she had at the moment of death were regrets.

She never told her father how much she loved and cared for him.

Never got to meet her mom or visited the Insectoid Empire.

Didn't have the chance to see her friends one more time… or Cleo…

Time slowed to a crawl as Sophie could no longer tell if seconds, minutes, or hours passed by as she lay in the dirt.

"Now do you understand?" a deep voice boomed from above.

Sophie struggled to tilt her head upwards to take one final look at the creature who would be her executioner.

There he was.

The enormous twenty-foot-tall behemoth with eight heads and a muscular hulking frame that would leave any who witnessed it in great awe.

"What was the point of all this meaningless struggle?" the leftmost head asked kindly.

There was a brief moment of silence in the empty forest before a wild burst of laugher escaped from Sophie's lips.

The crazy frenzied laughter intensified as Sophie stared at the bewildered giant who could not understand why his prey showed no fear or sorrow.

"The point? There is no point," Sophie grinned at the beast with bared fangs.

"I just didn't want to die to some egotistical bastard who self proclaimed himself as a god."

The expressions on the giant's many faces contorted with rage as Sophie mocked the most important aspect of their identity.

"I wanted to give you a dignified death you pathetic little gremlin," the middle head growled.

"BUT YOU HAVE MOCKED US FOR THE LAST TIME! I WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOU SUFFER A SLOW AND AGNOISING DEATH."

A reddish glow surrounded the giant's palms as the destructive ki energy gathered at his fingertips.

"Not…like… this…" Sophie stumbled to her feet and stood up.

There were no thoughts of resistance in her mind.

She just wanted to die standing.

As the giant brought his hand down with such force that wind slammed against her body, Sophie could not help but observe a tiny detail.

There was a spot of yellowish-white mucus covering an area on the giant's foot where she had previously sliced open.

A crazy idea flashed across Sophie's mind as the shadow of the colossal palm came closer and closer.

She used her bladed appendages to push off from the ground and barely avoided the glowing red palm that crashed down at her previous spot.

"WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?" a loud bellow echoed through the forest.

This was lunacy.

This was nothing more than a reckless gamble.

Sophie narrowed her golden eye and summoned the last reserves of strength that she had left to scale up the titan's foot.

Right in front of her was a patch of disgusting yellowish-white mucus that jiggled softly as the giant moved around.

She had seen this foul biological matter heal the giant instantly, but Sophie had no idea if the effect would also work on her.

She closed her eye and pushed her body inside this foul-smelling liquid.