Merin wants to step onto the island as quickly as possible and find Evelyn.
He leaps from the spider's corpse and sprints across the lake surface, grey-black energy wrapping around his feet to keep him above the water.
Ripples burst under each step as his speed increases.
But just as the island comes into view—
The lake surges upward, exploding in a fountain of water.
A second giant spider erupts from beneath, water cascading off its monstrous body.
Its eyes glow red.
Its fangs clack together.
It lunges.
Merin twists mid-step, barely avoiding a leg that crashes into the lake like a falling tree.
Waves erupt, and he's forced back, skidding over water.
The spider slams down again, and the surface breaks under the pressure.
Merin raises his hand, energy coalescing once more into a spear.
He spins, parries the blow, and counters with a slash that leaves a crack across the spider's chitin.
The beast hisses and lunges again.
Fangs drip venom into the water, turning it dark and bubbling.
Merin dives beneath a strike and releases his energy downward—
It hardens instantly, forming a black platform he kicks off to launch himself upward.
In the air, he spins and hurls his spear with all his might.
The weapon tears through the air, leaving a grey trail—
The spider tilts its head, and the spear only scrapes along its shoulder.
Merin lands on the water again, breath sharp, eyes focused.
He cannot afford to waste time.
Evelyn is out there.
And every second this spider delays him is a second she might not have.
The lake boils with chaos as the giant spider roars, spraying venom in every direction.
Then the water parts with a thunderous surge.
A figure of stone and moss rises, ten meters tall, hulking, eyes glowing with golden fire.
A demon hunter in the form of an earth giant.
It charges the spider, matching its height, fists slamming into chitin with quaking force.
The spider shrieks, rearing back.
Merin doesn't hesitate—he leaps onto the giant's leg, grey energy anchoring his steps as he climbs.
He scales the arm just as the earth giant locks the spider in a crushing grapple.
Merin runs along its shoulders, energy spear forming in his grip, the tip glowing almost black.
He drives the spear downward, plunging it through the spider's head while the earth giant grips the beast's abdomen.
The spider flails.
Cracks race across its body.
With a guttural roar, the demon hunter tears it in half.
Black blood rains over the lake.
Merin jumps clear, landing on a drifting piece of shattered carapace.
He nods at the giant.
The giant nods back, silent but alive with power.
But the moment stretches only a second—
A shrill hiss splits the sky.
Above them, the spider web trembles.
Then three more giant spiders descend, dropping like stones from the torn silk canopy above the lake.
They crash into the water, sending massive waves.
One lunges at the earth giant, and another rushes toward Merin.
The third scuttles around, seeking an opening.
Merin ducks, slides across the water, and deflects a leg strike with his spear.
He slashes again, but the spider blocks it with its foreleg, aiming a venomous bite at his chest.
He flips back, lands near the demon hunter's foot.
The giant is now wrestling two spiders at once.
Merin breathes hard.
He looks up—
The spider web is alive with motion.
Dozens more giant spiders crawl along it, their eyes glowing like stars.
And from the shadows above, more begin to descend.
He looks around.
The lake is now surrounded.
Merin turns just in time, his blackened energy spear intercepting the giant spider's strike.
The spider's leg shudders under the impact, cracks spreading along its chitin where the spear struck.
Merin twists the shaft and launches himself upward, landing on the spider's back.
The spider rears, trying to throw him off, but Merin drives his spear down, piercing deep.
It screeches, thrashing.
The demon hunter, now holding off two spiders, slams one into the lakebed with a crushing elbow, then grabs the second by its fangs.
The first spider tries to rise—Merin leaps from its back, flips, and lands beside the demon hunter.
He doesn't speak.
He doesn't need to.
They rush forward together.
The demon hunter lifts a chunk of broken lake stone and hurls it at the spider charging Merin.
It hits with a thunderclap, shattering one of the spider's legs.
Merin leaps into the stunned beast's face, his spear extending mid-air to ten meters in length.
He stabs clean through the spider's eye, piercing to its core.
The spider twitches—then drops, limp.
Behind him, the demon hunter crushes the spider in his grip, throws its corpse into another, and stomps forward.
Merin spins, slashes with his spear, each swing leaving burning trails in the air.
He's faster and stronger than any normal Unification Realm martial artist.
His strikes break legs, his leaps fracture the lake's surface.
Together, he and the demon hunter cut through the spiders with unrelenting rhythm.
The tide turns further in their favour.
Spider corpses float like broken boats.
Webbing burns where the black spear cuts through.
And still, Merin does not stop.
Because beyond the blood, the fangs, and the screeching beasts—
Evelyn waits.
A spider lunges from the lake, its mandibles wide open, but Merin is already mid-air, his spear spinning like a black cyclone.
He pierces its throat and lands behind it before its corpse even hits the water.
The demon hunter beside him roars, body glowing with molten runes, and smashes two spiders together like clashing stones.
They fight with urgency—each second lost is a second Evelyn suffers.
Merin dashes across the scattered spider corpses, using them as footholds to leap higher, breaking through a falling web to impale another beast mid-descent.
The impact shakes the lake as the spider crashes down.
He doesn't pause.
He spins, sends a wave of compressed black energy across the water, slicing off the legs of a spider trying to flank the demon hunter.
It collapses, hissing—then a flaming boulder crushes it, hurled by the earth giant's massive hand.
A sudden screech splits the air.
Dozens more giant spiders pour from above, and now even the air feels tight with danger.
But Merin narrows his eyes, legs bent, spear coiled with surging energy.
He's no longer just a martial artist trying to survive—
He's a storm.
He leaps straight into the swarm, leaving a trail of shattered legs, ripped fangs, and burning silk.
And somewhere through that storm of blood and screeches, the island draws nearer.
Merin's onslaught continues as he and the demon hunter tear through the inferior realm, spiders like scythes through grass.
The lake trembles under the weight of dying beasts.
With each kill, they draw closer to the island—closer to Evelyn.
But then, without warning, it happens.
The demon hunter beside him is split in two, his molten body falling apart like broken rock.
Merin freezes, his eyes widening.
He sees it.
A leg—longer than trees, sharper than steel—dripping blood.
Above it, eight enormous crimson eyes glow in the darkness, each larger than Merin himself.
He mutters under his breath, voice tight, "Titanic realm… giant beast."
He leaps back, widening the distance between them without hesitation.
Titanic realm giant beasts—beasts that match King Kong realm martial artists.
And he, a Unification realm martial artist—stronger than most in his rank—knows the truth.
He isn't ready.
Not for this.
Not even close.
Three average King Kong realm martial artists are needed to barely kill one Titanic realm beast.
Some prodigies can do it alone, but that doesn't matter now.
None of them are here.
Only him.
Only death.
The spider lunges, web firing from its maw.
Merin ducks low, diving beneath the limb, his body brushing the lake as the sticky silk whips past his head.
His breath burns in his chest.
One wrong move—
And he's gone.
Merin dives behind a floating spider corpse as a leg crashes down, splitting the water like an axe into stone.
He rolls, leaps, and bounces from one broken body to another—giant spiders, shattered demon hunters, drifting like battlefield wreckage.
Each move is precise, desperate—but not random.
He's moving with a goal.
His eyes lock onto a figure in the air, soaring above the carnage, untethered by gravity.
A King Kong realm martial artist.
Only those with such strength can defy the world's pull.
Below the flying man, colossal realm spiders fall like leaves to flame.
Merin grits his teeth, changing course.
The titanic spider screams and lashes out again, but Merin uses a demon hunter's torso to leap sideways, narrowing the gap.
The flying martial artist notices.
He doesn't speak—he simply raises his hand and forms a black spear from condensed energy, dense and sharp.
With a flick, the spear hurtles toward the titanic beast.
The spider intercepts, deflecting it with one massive leg, but it gives Merin a moment—just a moment—to widen the distance.
Merin breathes hard as the King Kong realm martial artist charges the titanic realm giant beast.
He doesn't look back.
Two colossal realm spiders remain between him and the island.
He lunges at them with everything he has.
The fight turns brutal—fangs clashing against spear, claws against will.
One spider slams him into the lake, dragging him beneath.
Water chokes his vision, and his body aches.
He breaks through the surface, gasping, bleeding—but not stopping.
The island remains unreachable.
Evelyn still waits.
And the pressure in his chest—the truth he's tried to ignore—rises like a scream.
If he had time—just a little time—he would break through to the King Kong realm now.
Merin stabs the last colossal realm spider through its skull, blood spraying across his face as it twitches, then slumps lifeless into the lake.
He falls to his knees on the island shore, gasping, his body torn with deep gashes, down to the bone in places.
But he made it.
His foot touches land.
The battlefield behind him is chaos—bodies, blood, and smoke—but ahead lies the storm-shattered remains of the island.
He plants his palms against the ground and exhales.
His field expands downward, threading into the soil, and from the depths, he pulls Karst energy like roots drinking water.
His wounds hiss and close, flesh knitting, bones sealing, breath steadying.
Strength returns.
He lifts his head and watches the distant battle—the King Kong realm martial artist locked in brutal combat with the titanic realm spider, each blow shaking the air.
Further out, across the lake, the spiders' numbers turn the tide.
The demon hunters are being overwhelmed.
But Merin's feet already move, steady and sure, toward the compound rising at the island's centre.
Nothing else matters.
Evelyn.
He crosses the shattered courtyard, halfway to the compound, when the earth beneath his feet lurches.
An explosion rips through the silence, loud enough to shake his teeth.
He stumbles, losing balance.
More detonations follow in quick bursts, their shockwaves rolling like thunder across the trees.
He spins around just in time to see a titanic realm spider struck mid-torso by a streaking missile.
Its scream is piercing—alien, shrill, and furious.
Then it topples, vanishing beyond the canopy, crashing somewhere deep out of sight.
Smoke rises above the trees, thick and black, curling into the night like a funeral pyre.
Merin breathes out, "The Federation has started using hot weapons…"
He glances up—more missiles streak across the sky, followed by thundering explosions that rock the forest again.
But he doesn't stop to watch.
He turns, feet pounding the broken ground, sprinting toward the compound.
Minutes pass like seconds, every step driven by one thought.
Evelyn.
The compound comes into view—intact, untouched by the destruction sweeping across the island.
Merin narrows his eyes.
The gate stands shut.
In front of it, four men wait.
They bare their teeth as they see him, flesh twisting, bodies warping—muzzles, claws, spines.
Dog-men, their veins glowing like molten lava.
They growl and charge.
Their cultivation realm matches his—Unification—but Merin doesn't hesitate.
His thoughts are a whirlwind, but his focus is razor-sharp.
He doesn't guard.
He doesn't evade.
He takes the first claw across his shoulder, the second strike to his ribs, the third rakes his thigh and burns through cloth.
Pain blooms.
But he doesn't stop.
His grey-black energy erupts like a blade through flesh.
One down.
Then another—his spear punches through the chest, tearing the beast apart.
A claw catches his back, sears his skin.
He ignores it and drives his palm into a skull.
The fourth falls, twitching.
Breathing hard, body steaming, Merin turns toward the gate—
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow and clear.
Merin spins, weapon raised.
From the shadows steps the man he had last seen in the air, hovering above the lake, fighting against the titanic realm spider that had attacked him.
Now, he walks with his hands at his side, casual, relaxed.
"You're impressive," the man says, eyes sharp with interest. "Stronger than any Unification martial artist I've seen in a while."