130: Chapter 130 These ferocious beasts... seem to be intelligent?

At the critical moment!

"Zzzzt—" A blue crackle of electricity sounded.

Su Xiaoxiao's figure instantly vanished from where she stood, transforming into a bolt of lightning.

S-rank core skill—【Thunder Shadow Thousand Flashes】!

The next second, she appeared beside Li Murou, grabbed her waist, and the two transformed into lightning again and vanished.

"Pssst!"

The venom flew past the afterimage Su Xiaoxiao had left behind, landing on the tree trunk behind them, instantly corroding and snapping the tree that was thick enough for one person to hug.

"Boom!"

The two reappeared ten meters away.

Li Murou, still shaken, patted her chest and gasped for air: "Phew... that scared me to death! Thanks, Xiao Xiao! This guy... its reaction is so fast, and it can even predict moves!"

Chen Xi frowned as he watched the Shadow Poison Spider hide back into the shadows of the tree canopy, saying in a deep voice: "The attributes of a Third-Tier Fierce Beast are too high. Especially its agility and perception; it's more than a grade stronger than a Second-Tier. If we don't control it, it's hard to land a hit."

Su Xiaoxiao's eyes turned cold: "It doesn't matter. Since it likes to swing, let's let it fall to its heart's content!"

After saying that, she raised her magic staff again.

"【Sword Prison】!"

This time, she didn't aim at the main body of the agile, scurrying Shadow Poison Spider.

Dozens of ice swords shot like a chaotic rain toward the branches above the Shadow Poison Spider and those barely visible spider threads!

"Snap, snap, snap!"

With a few crisp sounds, the spider threads supporting the Shadow Poison Spider were instantly severed.

"Squeak—!"

The Shadow Poison Spider, which was swinging in the air, lost its leverage, its body instantly losing balance. Its eight legs kicked wildly in the air as it crashed heavily to the ground.

"Now! Mu Rou!" Su Xiaoxiao shouted.

"Received!"

Li Murou, who had long been prepared, had a flash of ferocity in her eyes.

"Zing—!!!"

【Sorrowful Elegy】 fully activated!

Invisible sound waves instantly enveloped the Shadow Poison Spider that had just landed.

The Shadow Poison Spider, which had originally wanted to turn over and flee, suddenly stiffened. A sense of sluggishness, as if it had fallen into a deep-sea quagmire, instantly struck it.

Its speed dropped by more than half, visibly to the naked eye.

"Finally controlled it!" Everyone felt a surge of joy.

"Well done!" A sharp light flashed in Chen Xi's eyes: "Finish it off!"

"Go to hell!" Su Xiaoxiao shouted, her body soaring into the air.

"【Sword of Apocalypse】!"

Boom! A massive, thunderous greatsword descended from the sky, fiercely striking the Shadow Poison Spider that was unable to dodge.

"Squeak—!!" The Shadow Poison Spider let out a shrill scream, its hard shell shattering like thin paper before the S-rank skill. Green blood splattered everywhere.

"It's not dead yet?" Seeing the Shadow Poison Spider still struggling, Su Xiaoxiao frowned and waved her magic staff repeatedly.

"Again! Again!"

Boom, boom! Two more shots of 【Sword of Apocalypse】 to finish it off.

Finally, the Shadow Poison Spider twitched a few times, kicked its eight legs, and stopped moving completely.

【Killed Third-Tier Fierce Beast · Shadow Poison Spider, gained experience points: 3500.】

Su Xiaoxiao landed and let out a long sigh of relief, a fine layer of sweat seeping onto her forehead.

"Phew... This Third-Tier Fierce Beast is indeed harder to deal with than imagined. It takes so much effort to kill just one, and requires using all our skills."

Chen Xi nodded, his expression grave: "Yes. The level suppression and attribute gap are there. If they come one by one, we can still work together to kill them. But if they come in groups..."

"We need to think of a more efficient way."

However, before they could even catch their breath, and before they could discuss any efficient method.

"Rustle, rustle..." "Rustle, rustle..."

A dense sound of friction suddenly erupted from the grass and tree canopies in all directions.

Countless compound eyes flickering with eerie light lit up in the depths of the dark forest.

Chen Xi looked up abruptly.

Within his field of vision, dense swarms of yellow halos connected like will-o'-the-wisps.

Dozens of huge Shadow Poison Spiders slowly crawled out from the shadows of the black forest, surrounding the four of them completely.

Looking at the Shadow Poison Spiders covering the ground, the expressions of the group instantly became incomparably grave.

They're here...

Dozens of millstone-sized Shadow Poison Spiders, their eight compound eyes flickering with cold, eerie light, densely occupied the surrounding tree trunks, grass, and rocks.

The encirclement had been formed.

"Back to back! Don't scatter!" Chen Xi shouted in a low voice. The group quickly gathered together, backing away slowly while keeping their backs to their teammates.

However, an unexpected scene occurred.

This group of Shadow Poison Spiders, usually known for their cruelty, actually didn't launch a suicidal charge immediately after forming the encirclement. They just kept grinding their mouthparts, making a teeth-aching "zzzt" sound.

Their eight long legs moved restlessly, but they always maintained a subtle distance.

"Strange..." Chen Xi narrowed his eyes, watching these hesitant monsters, analyzing rapidly in his mind.

Su Xiaoxiao's palms were slightly sweaty as she gripped her magic staff. She vigilantly stared at the few Shadow Poison Spiders directly in front that were constantly probing, and said in a deep voice: "Captain Chen, this group of Fierce Beasts... seems to be intelligent."

"After seeing their companion being finished off by us just now, they have become cautious. They are evaluating our strength, looking for our weaknesses... This is somewhat different from the Hellhounds we encountered last time."

According to the knowledge learned in textbooks, Fierce Beasts were synonymous with madness.

But this scene before their eyes was like a well-trained army conducting a hunt.

"No." Chen Xi shook his head, a cold glint flashing in his eyes, directly denying Su Xiaoxiao's speculation: "Essentially, they are still the same."

"The reason Fierce Beasts are called Fierce Beasts is because they have no sense of pain and do not know fear. But don't confuse 'not knowing fear' with 'stupidity'."

"Their bloodlust lies in the fact that no matter how severe the damage they receive, even if their intestines are ripped out, they will still try to take a bite out of you. But that doesn't mean they will line up to come and die."

Chen Xi stared fixedly at the eyes of that group of Shadow Poison Spiders: "Their hesitation now is not because they are afraid of injury, nor are they hesitating. They are thinking—how to most efficiently kill us humans."

"They are waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to wipe us all out in one go."

Before his voice had even faded.

"Pfft—!"

As if to verify Chen Xi's words, a Shadow Poison Spider on the left side of the encirclement suddenly attacked.

Without any warning, it opened its mouth and shot a stream of dark green venom, like a high-pressure water gun, toward the group!

This attack was fast, accurate, and ruthless, and the angle was incredibly tricky.

"Not good!" Su Xiaoxiao, who had been keeping her nerves tense, reacted extremely quickly.

"Hold onto me!"

She shouted, and lightning instantly exploded around her body.

S-rank core skill—【Thunder Shadow Thousand Flashes】!

"Zzzzt!"

The moment the venom was about to splash onto Li Murou's face, Su Xiaoxiao, carrying Chen Xi, Li Murou, and Ye Fei, transformed into a thick bolt of lightning and vanished into thin air.

"Boom!"

The venom missed, corroding a large pit in the ground that emitted white smoke.

However, this was just the beginning.

That Shadow Poison Spider's attack was like a signal.

In an instant, dozens of surrounding Shadow Poison Spiders moved simultaneously!

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

Countless streams of venom wove into a giant web of death, covering the sky and earth as they descended. There were also a dozen more Shadow Poison Spiders swinging on spider threads, pouncing from the air, brandishing their scythe-like long legs to kill.