Hazel immediately reacted, enveloping her body in her telekinesis spell before pulling herself away from the reaper. She narrowly dodged one of its bladed limbs as it swung at her throat. If she were even a split-second off with her timing, her neck would've been sliced through like butter.

She wasn't in the clear yet because the Reaper was still alive. And apparently keen on killing Hazel specifically. The spider reaper lunged at her again, this time even faster than before. Just before the eight-legged creature could get close to her, it clashed against something around Hazel and was thrown back by the force.

The monster skidded on the ground, its body scraping against the concrete. Just before it could reposition itself and attack again, Hazel raised her hand, conjured multiple mana bolts, and then hurled them at the reaper. Each bolt that was fired pierced and tore through its body, riddling it with holes.

Once it was turned into a spider Swiss cheese, the reaper finally collapsed and died. But Hazel didn't take her eyes off the monster until she was certain it was dead. What convinced her of that was a kill notification announcing its death.

As soon as she saw the panel, she let out a heavy sigh while crouching over. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest after nearly dying at the hands of the reaper.

"Hazel, are you alright?!" Astrid questioned with concern, rushing over to her.

Hazel nodded. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. It's just that...that reaper was a lot faster than I thought."

It was just quick, but lightning fast. If Hazel hadn't trained her reflexes while enveloped in Telekinesis, she wouldn't have dodged that attack. Her head would've been rolling along the floor while the reaper took out the rest of the players, including Astrid and Chegyaeyi.

Just before Astrid could say anything to Hazel, their attention was immediately drawn to the sound of players screaming nearby. Both of them turned toward the source of the noise, only to see a couple of players get decapitated by another Reaper.

The spider of death stood on the edge of the bridge, both of its bladed limbs coated in crimson, the life force of the players it had just killed. Its eight blood-red eyes then glared directly in Hazel and Astrid's direction, as if targeting them specifically.

The witch and hunter braced themselves, preparing for another fight. A moment later, the reaper blurred toward them, even faster than the first reaper. Hazel raised her hand, immediately triggering her telekinesis spell.

The reaper was then stopped in mid-air, hovering above the ground as if gravity didn't apply to it. Confused and alarmed, the reaper flailed around, trying to move away from its enemy that it thought was merely prey.

"You're up, Astrid!" Hazel said.

"Gladly," The dark elf sneered while nocking back an arrow.

Unable to do anything, the spider reaper was then killed by Astrid's arrow, which was kinetically enhanced. Once its body went limp and the dark elf confirmed that it was dead, thanks to the kill notification, Hazel released her grip on the reaper, letting it drop to the ground with a heavy and wet thud.

"Yeah, you're right," Astrid huffed, lowering her weapon. "These things are rather fast."

"Glad I'm not the only one who thought that. We need to deal with these reapers as quickly as possible."

"I agree. They're far more dangerous than the web weavers and even the sentinels."

Those types of spiders certainly lived up to the name Reaper. Which was all the more reason for Hazel and the others to eliminate them as soon as possible.

After killing the second reaper, Hazel and Astrid rushed back over to where the rest of the players were. All of them were still bombarding the swarm with spells and arrows, not giving their enemies a moment to collect themselves. The web weavers were already making web bridges to allow their siblings to cross over and get to the players.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Due to the weaver's strong and durable webbing, the makeshift bridges endured the continuous assault of spells and other projectiles being thrown in its direction. Even if the spiders crawling on it were killed, the bridge was still intact and showed no signs of collapsing anytime soon.

Once Hazel and Astrid rejoined the group, she used her Astral Eye to locate the remaining reapers. Now that she knew what they looked like, it became a lot easier to spot them among the black swarm engulfing the interstate bridge.

Keeping track of every reaper that she spotted, Hazel counted around five of them. Which meant that there used to be seven of them before she and Astrid killed two of them. Still, taking down two of them was difficult enough. The fact that there were still five of them did not make things easier for her. Especially with the web bridge that was letting the spiders cross over to the group.

Another thing Hazel noticed while searching for the reapers was that most of them were positioned next to the web weavers...as if they were acting as their guards. Like the first reaper she saw defending one of the weavers before.

But why were they...

"Those clever little bastards..." Hazel stifled a growl, finally realizing what was happening.

The reapers were acting as the web weavers' protectors. As long as the weavers survive, they can keep making the web bridges even when they get destroyed. These spiders were planning a war of attrition and were keeping their vital members protected to have an advantage over their enemy.

If it wasn't for the fact that these things were killing members of Hazel's group, she would've been more impressed by their tactics in battle. Could the queen be giving them orders, or were these spiders simply that intelligent?

Either way, it was obvious that both the weavers and reapers needed to be dealt with. Otherwise, it was their loss in this fight.

"Astrid, the reapers are protecting the web weavers. Wait until I deal with the reapers while they're busy defending their siblings, then see if you can take down the weavers."

"Got it," Astrid nodded while reaching for another arrow from her quiver.

Keeping her eyes locked onto the reaper, Hazel conjured a curse spear and kept it floating by her side. Then, she created a couple of curse bombs that were twice the size of a baseball. Once the bombs were made, she glued them to the spear, essentially making an explosive curse spear. She probably could make something like that with practice, but that was for later.

With her makeshift explosive spear in hand, Hazel proceeded to launch it at the reaper. While the death spider was able to intercept her normal curse spear like before, this one wasn't going to be as easy.

The curse spear zipped through the air, hovering above the swarm, completely ignoring them while making its way toward its intended target, the reaper. The spear soon found its objective, barreling toward it with malicious intent.

The reaper managed to spot the curse spear, watching it come its way. Once it was within range, the death spider slashed one of its bladed limbs at it, eager to destroy it before setting its sights on the culprit who fired it.

However, as soon as its sharp appendage clashed against the spear, the reaper, along with the web weaver, was then engulfed in a large purple explosion, sending several spider infants flying in the air from the shockwave.

Meanwhile, Hazel smiled with glee as she stared at the two panels displaying the reaper and the web weaver's death. There was also another panel that she eagerly stared at. It was a level-up panel.

[Level 33 Reaper has been defeated!]

[Level 19 Web Weaver has been defeated!]

[You have leveled up! You are now Level 28!]

"Thanks for the level-up, you bastards," Hazel sneered before moving on to the rest of the spiders.

Now that she came up with a solution to deal with the reapers and web weavers, this fight should be a lot easier now. For the most part, at least.

Keeping up with the momentum, Hazel then called upon all four remaining curse spears and implanted her curse bombs into them like before. Once all four explosive spears were set, she used Telekinesis and hurled them at the other reapers.

She then bore witness to four purple explosions erupting from the swarm, eliminating the threats.

More kill notifications filled Hazel's vision, telling her that she killed the reapers and web-weavers she was targeting. Along with more level-up panels.

[Level 32 Reaper has been defeated!]

[Level 23 Web Weaver has been defeated!]

[Level 31 Reaper has been defeated!]

[Level 20 Web Weaver has been defeated!]

[Level 31 Reaper has been defeated!]

[Level 17 Web Weaver has been defeated!]

[Level 30 Reaper has been defeated!]

[Level 15 Web Weaver has been defeated!]

[You have leveled up! You are now Level 29!]

Hazel smiled with glee, reveling in the results of her hard work. She was now only one level from reaching level 30. But that was just the beginning. She needed to get stronger for the spider queen, and she wasn't going to stop until she was confident in defeating her.

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