The Arachne lunged at Hazel, swinging its sword down on her. Instead of dodging, she cast a Mana shield to block the attack. The weapon clashed against Hazel's barrier before bouncing off from the strike.

The spider/human hybrid put some distance between them after its first attempt failed. Judging from its long hair and feminine body, this Arachne was one of the females of the swarm. Hazel deactivated her mana shield, watching it disappear before her very eyes. Then, she summoned several mana bolts and hurled them at the female Arachne.

Seeing the multiple energy bolts hurtling toward her, the female Arachne blocked the spell with her sword, effortlessly defending against them. She used the flat side of her blade to block the bolts, watching them shatter upon contact.

Hazel clicked her tongue irritably. "Looks like you got some moves on you. Let's see how long that will last."

"Long...enough...to deal with...you!" The Arachne snarled while pointing its blade at Hazel.

The witch's eyes widened in shock upon hearing the monster speak. She shouldn't have been surprised since the Orcs from before spoke, but the difference was that the Orcs and the like were players like her. But this Arachne was a monster, just like the rest of its siblings.

Trying to keep her cool, Hazel forced a sneer. "So, you can talk, huh? Does that mean we can have a more civilized conversation or not?"

"Not...a chance!"

"Figured," Hazel sighed.

The Arachne let out a fierce growl and charged at her. Before it could get close, though, she was assaulted by a barrage of spells and arrows. The hybrid dodged and blocked the numerous attacks, still attempting to get to Hazel.

Since the other players were keeping her busy, Hazel could use this chance to keep it still and take it out herself. With that thought in mind, she raised her hand and was about to cast Telekinesis on it, but was interrupted when she heard Astrid shouting something.

"Another boulder incoming!"

Hazel raised her head to look up, seeing the giant piece of rock descending right on top of them. In the heat of the moment, she switched targets and cast Telekinesis on the stone hurtling toward them like a meteorite. Then, with a wave of her hand, she pulled the massive rock into the water around them.

Hearing the loud splash, Hazel turned her sights back onto the Arachne, just in time to see the hybrid swing her weapon, aiming for her neck. Using telekinesis, Hazel leaped back, narrowly dodging the attack.

The Arachne didn't relent and continued swinging her sword at her. Just when the monster was about to lung at Hazel, Chegyaeyi suddenly appeared in front of her and blocked the hybrid. The two weapons clashed against one another as the two warriors fought against each other for dominance.

Seeing her chance, Hazel went to cast Telekinesis on the Arachne again, but was once again pulled away from that task after hearing a familiar shout from her dark elf partner.

"More falling debris!"

"Dammit...!"

When she looked up once more, Hazel saw three crushed cars currently falling from the sky and aimed right at their checkpoint. In a fit of anger, she enveloped all three giant metal vehicles in Telekinesis, suspending them in the air.

But instead of throwing them into the water around them like before, she switched targets and hurled them into the spider swarm, seeing them as the cause of the hail of boulders and cars. She wanted to resume her fight with the Arachne, but knew that those boulders weren't going to suddenly stop unless she found the cause and got rid of it.

And Hazel had a sneaking suspicion as to what kind of spider was throwing those damn boulders. With her body enveloped in Telekinesis, she took to the sky once again, determined to end this fight before it could get any worse.

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She flew over the wall of cars that separated the players from the spider swarm. While in the air, Hazel scanned the swarm, looking for the culprit behind the fall debris. Then, she located the perp. It was the Sentinel Spiders currently stationed on a nearby piece of land near the bridge, where cars and broken buildings were scattered around them. There were around four of them, and each one was picking up a giant piece of stone or a broken car and was preparing to launch them into the air and make them crash into the checkpoint.

"Oh no, you don't!"

Hazel zipped toward the Sentinels, ignoring the rest of the swarm as she flew over them without a second thought. She crossed the water before closing in on the sentinels with haste. Once she was close enough, Hazel summoned her curse spears and sent them hurtling toward their targets.

Just when the sentinels attempted to throw their next piece of rubble or car wreckage, the curse spears hit their mark, striking the giant eight-legged monstrosities in their abdomens or heads. The sentinels all let out a unified screech of pain and released the debris from their grasp. While injured, these creatures were not done yet as they raised their heads and used all eight of their eyes to glare at Hazel, the one who wounded them.

Hazel ignored their glares and summoned multiple curse bombs, letting them levitate around her with the help of Telekinesis. After summoning around two dozen of these bombs or so, all of them around the size of a watermelon like before, she launched all of them at the sentinels.

The sentinels couldn't react in time as they were then engulfed in a chorus of purple explosions. Hazel heard the pained screeches from them and calmly watched the scene unfold. Moments later, several kill notifications appeared, informing her of their deaths.

With the sentinels taken care of, Hazel was about to turn around and regroup with the other players. That was until she saw something bolting toward her from below. She moved to the side, avoiding whatever projectile was launched at her.

"What the hell...?" Hazel muttered while taking a look at the thing that was hurled at her.

The projectile had a sickly green color and looked acidic, like something from an acid pit in movies and TV shows. Curious, Hazel scanned the ground below to see who or what had launched that attack just now. Getting a closer look at the ground, she saw several eight-legged humanoid figures crawling near the debris of a collapsed building.

Hazel descended from the sky, making her way over to where she saw the figures. Landing on the ground, she was met with a surprise when another Arachne suddenly appeared and thrust a spear in her direction.

Still covered in her telekinesis, she avoided the attack by shifting to the side. Then, she summoned multiple mana bolts and fired them at the Arachne. The eight-legged hybrid was rather quick, despite being so close to Hazel, and managed to jump out of the way.

Behind her, another Arachne appeared and swung a sword at her skull. Hazel cast a Mana Shield, watching the weapon bounce off her barrier, causing the Arachne to lose composure for a moment. That was when she canceled her shield and fired a Mana Bolt, striking the creature in the spider's abdomen. Hazel was trying to aim for its legs to try and cripple it, but her aim must've been off.

A third Arachne, a male this time, suddenly made an appearance, this one, wielding a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. Hazel fired a mana bolt at the monster, only for it to be easily blocked by the shield. Closing the distance, the Arachne propelled its blade forward, attempting to drive it into Hazel's chest.

With a flick of her wrist, she casually moved the blade to the side, letting it miss her entirely. The male Arachne was taken aback by this, allowing Hazel to place her hand against his side and push him away with the help of Telekinesis.

She watched the monster tumble across the ground, its arachnid body scraping against the concrete from the force of her push.

"I'm assuming you guys planned this out, right?" She addressed the three Arachne in a cold tone. "Instructing the Sentinels to throw the rubble and cars around here at our checkpoint to try and stagger us and allow the swarm to do the rest?"

This was the first time the swarm had done anything this clever before. And the reason why was that they were being ordered to do this by the Arachne. Their description called them generals to the queen's army, and they sure did live up to that title.

Hazel didn't expect the initial attack with that boulder. However, she should've known better after appraising those Arachne. Unlike the other spiders, the Arachne were considered far more intelligent than their siblings. This was proven to be a fact after they instructed the sentinels to throw the boulder to distract Hazel and the other players. Then, they told the reapers to take advantage of the chaos and kill the players off one by one.

It was a very effective plan, and it would've succeeded if Hazel, Chegyaeyi, and Astrid weren't there. Knowing that the Arachne were essentially the strategists of the swarm, she worried about Zoe's group, then they were likely facing their swarm similarly.

"You..." One of the Arachne spoke up in a raspy voice. "Are...one of...the most dangerous...enemies to our...swarm."

Hazel smiled upon hearing this. "So, is that why you brought me here? To take me on while the rest of the swarm tries to take down my group?"

"More...or less," Another answered with a similar tone.

"The moment...we saw you fly...was when our mother...made you our...top priority."

"Top priority, huh? I'm flattered."

They certainly knew how to discern a threat that needed to be exterminated. And Hazel was their current objective now.

"Don't...be."

"Because right now...you will...die!"

Upon declaring this, the three Arachne charged at Hazel from all sides.

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