“John, call Zoe and the others and warn them that the wave changed!” She frantically yelled. “It’s not just Infants but the other spiders as well, including the reapers!”
Even at this distance, without the aid of her Astral Eyes, Hazel could tell that John’s face paled the moment he was told this. It didn’t take long for him to quickly contact Zoe, Kane, and Anais to warn them about the change in the spider wave. Hopefully, they would be able to adapt to the sudden shift.
Meanwhile, Hazel changed her vision, switching back to the Astral Eye that was watching over the swarm coming their way. Much like before, she saw a black sea of spiders marching down the streets of Portland, getting closer to her location.
Mixed in with the infants were several web weavers and a couple of Sentinels towering over the swarm. However, Hazel was looking for the fourth spider species. The so-called Reapers that were debuted to appear on the third stage, which they were currently participating in now.
Since she didn’t know what they looked like, Hazel needed to see if there was anything different about them compared to the infants and web weavers, whether it was their size, some weird design, or something else entirely. She just needed to find a single clue regarding their location.
She urgently scanned the wave of spiders, taking in their appearances all at once. But she was having a difficult time searching for them. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. However, after a bit of looking around, Hazel finally spotted something different within the spider horde.
There were several spiders she spotted that had another unique symbol on their bodies, like the Web Weavers. Instead of a web symbol on their abdomens, the one she noticed possessed a skull one instead. That was a Reaper.
Aside from the skull logo on its body, the Reaper looked slightly smaller than a Web Weaver but was still bigger than an Infant Spider. Another thing she noticed was that the Reaper’s two front legs looked a bit different.
Taking a closer look with the help of her Astral Eye, she realized that its two front legs had razor-sharp blades instead of regular spider appendages like the rest of its siblings. When Hazel saw those blade hands, she knew another reason why this spider species was called a Reaper aside from the skull marking on its abdomen.
Before switching visions, Hazel briefly tried to identify it and saw another panel, displaying its information.
Level 34
Known for being the Spider Queen’s best killing machine. They not only kill in the name of their queen, but were specifically bred to become symbols of death with only a single purpose. To slaughter their queen’s enemies.
Hazel frowned at the information. “Well, that’s very helpful...and concerning.” She spun around to face Chegyaeyi. “Alright, take us back to the other side of the bridge. They’re starting to get closer, and I don’t think we should get caught up in the crossfire.”
The lizardfolk warrior nodded her head before picking up Hazel. Once the witch was in her arms, the warrior then leaped over to the other side of the bridge, landing in front of Astrid and John.
Reaching their destination, Chegyaeyi placed Hazel down. The witch then turned to John with a stern and serious expression.
“Tell Zoe and the other two that the Reapers possess a skull logo on their abdomens, and that they were a few levels higher than the Sentinels. Because they have the highest level, they need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.”
John firmly nodded, like a soldier following the orders of his commander.
“Also, tell them to watch out for the sharp blades that were their two front appendages. I think that’s their main weapon when attacking their prey.”
“Understood.”
While contacting Zoe, Kane, and Anais, John walked away from Hazel and the other two, going back to where the other players were. He was likely going to warn the players who were part of their current group about the reapers as well.
“So, the waves are different now?” Astrid hastily questioned. “How is that possible?”
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“I don’t know. What’s important now is dealing with the swarm. We’ll let the other players deal with the infants while the rest of us focus on the web weavers, sentinels, and reapers.”
Because the wave was different than before, Hazel and the others couldn’t stop and question how it happened right now. Not when the spider swarm was about to appear in a few moments. And through her Astral Eye, she could tell that the horde was getting closer and closer than before.
Realizing their current predicament, Astrid and Chegyaeyi put aside their questions for the moment and focused on their main task, which was facing the spider swarm and surviving the first wave. And Hazel already knew that their first wave wasn’t going as easily as last time.
Hazel, Astrid, and Chegyaeyi soon got into positions like the rest of the players. Some faced the other side of the bridge while a few were stationed against the side, facing one of the streets in case some of the spiders decided to attack from that side.
Once everyone was set and ready, they waited for the swarm to arrive. And it didn’t take long before they did. The players felt a light tremor as it got stronger and stronger, followed by the sound of numerous scuttling sounds coming their way.
Off in the distance, Hazel immediately spotted a black wave of spiders, slowly climbing onto the bridge ahead of them, near the stadium. The sound of trees snapping and crashing to the ground could be heard as well, along with heavy thumps shaking the ground with each step.
With the help of her Astral Eyes, Hazel observed from the sky, looking down at the swarm. Among the sea of black were a couple of spider sentinels currently crawling through the stadium and making their way closer to the interstate bridge as they spoke.
Considering their speed, it was going to take them a while to get to Hazel’s group, which meant they could focus on the other two dangerous spider species: the weavers and reapers. Keeping her astral eye trained on the swarm, Hazel tried to keep track of the web weavers and reapers among the infants, making them her top priority.
As she did, she noticed that the swarm was getting closer while marching on the bridge. After moving a couple of yards forward, the rest of the players noticed the swarm and immediately took action.
“Fire!” John ordered the other players while pointing his weapons at the incoming swarm.
As soon as John gave them the order, all of the players raised their weapons and fired multiple spells and arrows at the surging black wave of eight-legged monstrosities. A chorus of explosions erupted from the swarm as multiple spider corpses flew in the air, engulfed in black smoke.
Despite the countless explosions erupting from the bridge, none of the players could stop and continued to rain hell on their enemies, not giving the spiders a moment of peace. Even Hazel and Astrid were aiding in the spell and arrow barrage as they fired their own projectiles into the horde.
To save her mana for the web weavers, reapers, and sentinels, Hazel mainly hurled mana bolts into the swarm. She wanted to use her stronger spells, like Curse bomb, Curse spear, and Entropy sickle, only against the more formidable spider species. And it didn’t take very long until she spotted some among the crowd.
Hazel immediately spotted several web weavers among the swarm on the other side of the broken bridge, currently getting into position so they could start shooting their extremely durable webs at her and the other players.
The moment she spotted them, Hazel then ignored the infants and focused solely on the weavers, knowing that if she allowed them to stay alive any longer, things would get messy right away.
Once the weavers were within her sight, she canceled her mana bolt spell and switched to curse spears, summoning all five of them in an instant. The purple spears made of condensed curse energy hovered above Hazel, waiting to be used. A moment later, they were then hurled into the swarm, each one targeted at one of the web weavers among the crowd.
Hazel then watched as some of the weavers were killed in an instant by her spell. She witnessed her spears pierce through their targets with relative ease from their skulls to their abdomens. They were soon confirmed dead the moment the kill notification materialized before her eyes.
However, despite killing a couple of them, somehow, she wasn’t able to get all of them in a single attack. And it wasn’t because she missed them during the assault.
Just as one of her spears barreled toward a web weaver, it was immediately intercepted and destroyed within a heartbeat. Noticing that something destroyed her spell before it could hit its target, Hazel locked on to the one that did the deed through her Astral Eye.
That was when she spotted a reaper positioned near the weaver. And with one of its bladed limbs, it effortlessly destroyed her cursed spear with a single slash. Hazel stared at the reaper in shock, unsure of how it easily took down her spell. Even if the thing was a couple of levels higher than a sentinel, her curse spear was nothing to scoff at.
Then the reaper did something that caught Hazel completely off guard. It stared directly at her. All eight of its disgusting beady red eyes. The witch felt a chill crawl down her spine as she was stared down by the eight-legged freak that just protected one of its siblings.
Despite feeling terrified, Hazel was also annoyed by the Reaper’s interference as she glared at the creature with a newfound disdain. “That little bastard got in my way...” She mumbled.
Knowing that the Reaper was obviously going to be a problem, Hazel decided to deal with it as soon as possible. Only when she was about to conjure up one of her spells to deal with it, the reaper suddenly vanished from her sight, no longer standing near the web weaver it was just protecting mere moments ago.
“W-what the hell...?!” Hazel’s eyes darted around the swarm in a desperate attempt to locate the reaper. “Where did it go?!”
As if responding to her question, the reaper soon appeared before her...several feet from her face as it lunged in her direction. Its two-bladed limbs stretched out and aimed at her neck and skull.