Versatile Mage Novel - Chapter 1973

Chapter 1973: Bone-Eating Spiders

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
“Little girl, my men have already checked the area. I didn’t notice any trace of demon creatures. The spiders have already left,” Kuma said.
“It proves your men aren’t so reliable after all. Did they check above them?” Lingling asked.
“Above?” Kuma was stunned. She immediately went to a wall nearby and placed her hand on it.
Kuma was extremely focused. Her expression shifted after a few minutes. When she looked at Lingling again, her eyes were full of shock and disbelief.
She did not have time to say anything. She quickly returned to her men and yelled, “Prepare for battle!”
“Battle? There isn’t any sign of demon creature near us,” Tommy scanned his surroundings with a puzzled look.
“Yeah, I’ve already checked…”
“Open your goddamned eyes and look up the walls!” Kuma cursed.
The mercenaries finally observed the walls closely.
The Rift Valley was deep, thus there was not much light. The walls were jagged and irregular too, making it difficult to see the higher spots clearly.
“I saw something, it’s above me. Holy crap, it’s the Bone-Eating Spiders!” a mercenary cried out.
The mercenary was standing close to the wall. He even had to twist his head a little to see through the gap. He could see a few dozen Bone-Eating Spiders lining up the wall.
They each had a huge gland on their back. Their tiny heads resembled the menacing faces of vicious women. Their long and flexible legs were attached to the wall. They did not make a single sound, even when they were moving rapidly!
Many Mages relied on the Earth Wave spell to detect demon creatures’ presence when they were moving. The vibrations from the ground were useful for sensing the demon creatures’ footsteps. The greater their numbers, the stronger the vibration. Therefore, experienced Hunters with the Earth Element would never be surrounded by demon creatures, since their movement was the greatest when they were moving in numbers.
However, these Bone-Eating Spiders were not making a single sound, quietly observing and approaching their prey. It was so quiet that everyone felt a chill running down their spines.
Most importantly, the spiders were great in numbers. The mercenaries had only noticed the demon creatures after they were already so close to them. If they had taken a little longer to notice the demon creatures, they would have been pinned down before they had a chance to set up their defenses!
“They are here too!” another mercenary yelled.
“Vice Leader, there are a lot of them on our side. More than a hundred of them!”
“What’s with the panic? Kill all of them! These scum think we are here to feed them, let’s show them the strength of the Mailong Private Military Group!” Kuma yelled back.
The mercenaries were indeed well-disciplined. They were busy setting up tents a moment ago, but they had already moved into position. The Earth Mages and Light Mages were on the outer circle while the Mages with destructive spells were in the inner circle. The agile Mages were distracting the demon creatures by moving around. Those who were relatively stronger were attacking at will!
“Damn it, why aren’t they protecting us too?” Zhao Manyan cursed.
The perimeter of the Earth and Light Spells had included the members of every team except the ninth team. The ninth team was left on the outside. The Bone-Eating Spiders were quite intelligent. They immediately focused on attacking the ninth team when they realized they were stranded.
“We were too slow. We should have moved closer to the middle when they were moving into position. We can only find a spot to hide since they have to maintain their formation. We are on our own,” a rookie on the team spoke up.
There were four other members apart from Mo Fan and his crew on the ninth team. Two of them were rookies, one was suffering from high altitude sickness, and the other was a freeloader. Their team was indeed a mess compared to the other teams who were moving in a disciplined fashion.
“Let’s head over there. We will have a better view,” Ai Jiangtu pointed at a huge rock.
“Won’t the spiders surround us if we go there? I think this place is fine. There are walls above us too. It feels safer here,” a rookie said.
The rest of the team followed Ai Jiangtu’s order and quickly moved to the huge rock with a lot of space around it. The rookie stayed behind, as he was unsure what to do.
The rookie subconsciously looked up and saw four limbs reaching out of a gap along the walls. More limbs poked out in just a matter of a few seconds!
The rookie was horrified. He immediately ran toward Mo Fan and the others.
“The Bone-Eating Spiders live in packs. They stay in packs when they are hunting. They will hide under the sand in the day and wait for their prey to walk into their traps. At night, they will return to the cracks and the caves where they live,” Lingling said.
“Can you tell us something useful? Like the Elements they are afraid of, or their average strength?” Mo Fan complained.
The terrain in the Rift Valley was complicated, especially since the walls had cracks above the group which the Bone-Eating Spiders could climb around on. They did not see any spiders moving on the ground.
It meant that the Bone-Eating Spiders had a habit of attacking from above. They had to evaluate whether their spells were going to destroy the walls, as falling rocks might bury them all.
—
More Bone-Eating Spiders showed up. None of them were approaching from the ground. They were all crawling on the ceiling and hanging upside down, forcing everyone to look up.
“Fire!” The mercenaries loosed their first wave of spells at Kuma’s command.
The Bone-Eating Spiders were very agile. They had been rapidly approaching a moment ago, but they immediately withdrew inside the cracks along the walls when the spells were fired at them!
The spells did not kill many of the Bone-Eating Spiders. These creatures were extremely patient. They were hanging above the group and staring at them with their green eyes.
“They are very cunning.”
“Keep going, wait for my mark… now!” Kuma ordered.
The mercenaries were split into different formations, so they could still attack after the first wave of spells. Their main firepower was split into two teams; the second team would take over after the first team was done.
The mercenaries were very experienced in such battles!