Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Another King's Fate
"What the hell is she doing here?!",This was the thought going through Lake's head as he desperately ran for his life.
It's been around a minute since he climbed out of the ravine and he had already created a distance of over 10 miles between him and it.
Taking a glance behind him, Lake looked to see if the Spider Empress was chasing him.
When he turned around, Lake was relieved to see that she wasn't, however, he didn't dare stop running.
As far as Lake was concerned, the Empress Spider didn't leave her throne room, even if her nest was under attack. When he read through the fates of the spiders, he saw the nest was attacked multiple times in the past by either hunters or other hordes of beasts.
Every other time this had happened, the Empress had almost never moved from her throne room, even if more than half the nest was destroyed. Throughout all of Lake's observations, he had only managed to see the Empress attack once, and that was only when a group of relatively powerful hunters had invaded the nest. At that time, the nest was still young and more than half of the spider population had been killed by the hunters.
When the hunters had cornered one of the Queen Spiders, Lake had seen them almost kill it. However, when the hunters were about to land the killing blow, the Empress had suddenly appeared and killed them all in under ten seconds.
In Lake's opinion, if they were able to corner and almost kill a Queen Spider, those hunters had to be High-rank Martial Apprentice or at least Mid-rank, which was around the same level as Lake. If that group of hunters, who were basically on the same level as Lake, or potentially stronger, were killed in less than ten seconds, how long would Lake, who was by himself, survive?
The only reason he was able to dodge the Empress' previous attack was because he had gotten a glimpse of a spider's future where the spider was moving the bits and pieces of his corpse from a crater that had formed where he had stood at the time. He noticed that most of the spiders were still there in that glimpse so he quickly figured out that not much time had passed since he was alive to when he was dead. With that thought he immediately jumped out of the way, barely managing to save himself in time.
"Calm down, calm down and think…" Lake told himself as he ran, "What reason would the Empress have for leaving her throne. The Empress doesn't seem to care much about the regular spiders so it shouldn't be me killing them. Instead she seems to care about the Queen Spiders. The last time she left her throne room was when one of the Queens was in danger, but I was nowhere near or posed a deep enough threat to the Queens for her to leave just to deal with me. That means there must have been another reason why she left…"
"Could something have caused a disturbance in her throne room, or maybe there was another threat besides me that could have posed a threat to a Queen… or maybe even to the Empress herself?" When Lake thought of the last possibility, he felt that it was impossible.
After all, from Lake's estimation, the Empress should be a Rank Two creature with a martial strength equivalent to a Martial Warrior in the Mid-ranks at least, possibly even the High-ranks. For something to pose a threat to her, it would have to be at least a Rank Three creature, which is something that shouldn't exist inside the Star City Ruins.
It was already crazy to believe that a Rank Two creature like the Empress could grow up here when the advanced hunters had already cleared the ruins of any creatures that strong years ago.
While Lake was thinking of this, his sixth sense had suddenly gone off again. Without hesitation, Lake rolled out of the way as the ground where he previously stood was split into two as a long slash mark appeared.
Taking a brief glance, Lake could see the Empress watching the long slash mark she had left on the ground with her icy facial features.
This was the first time Lake had seen the Empress with his own eyes as all of the previous times he had seen her was through the memories of the other spiders who didn't dare to look at her for even a fraction of a second. Something that immediately caught his attention when he looked at the Empress was the violet crown made out of strands of fate above the Empress' head.
Lake had only seen one other fate that had looked similar to the crown above her head and that one belonged to the Goblin King he had killed during the Martial Arts Course Exam. After seeing the crown, Lake lowered his eyes to observe the Empress herself.
Looking at her gorgeous facial features and explosive upper body that was practically nude, Lake would have liked to appreciate the Empress' beauty under normal conditions. However, said Empress was currently trying to cut him in half and Lake highly doubted his chance of survival.
At this point, escape was impossible as Lake had already tried his hardest to run away yet Lake could clearly see that the Empress Spider hadn't even broken a sweat. This meant that she had been following him for the last minute leisurely.
The only thing that gave Lake a slight bit of hope was how long it took the Empress to attack and the slowness of the attack. Since the Empress was following him all this time, it meant that she could have easily attacked him during the entire chase yet she waited nonetheless. Lake wasn't sure why she had waited but it had given him a small glimmer of hope.
Additionally, her attack just now was definitely slower than the attack she used back in the nest which was why he was able to react in time. If the previous attack could be described as going for the kill, Lake felt that this attack could be described as testing him.
Lake wasn't sure why the Empress would want to test him but that was what the attack felt like.
While Lake was observing the Empress however, he was shocked as he heard her mutter words in the human language, "How strange, it's as if you can sense danger approaching…" When she finished speaking, she turned her slightly intrigued eyes towards him.
Lake was slightly stunned at her speech as he subconsciously responded, "You can speak?"
When the Empress heard his question, Lake could see the Empress give him a faint smile. In the next instant however, Lake felt his sixth sense go off like crazy, causing him to subconsciously dodge to the side as another long slash appeared in the ground behind him and a small cut appeared on his cheek.
Seeing him dodge, the Empress smiled again as she softly spoke, "Yes, I can speak the human language."
When Lake heard her answer his question, he immediately understood her intentions.
"She's playing with me…" Lake silently thought, "It seems every question I ask, she will attack me. That last attack was definitely faster than her previous one. I'm guessing the more questions I ask, the faster and stronger she will attack."
As Lake thought about this, he could see the Empress' smile slowly fading. Noticing that she was getting impatient, Lake decided to play along and try to find a way out of this situation.
"Is there any way I can get out of this situation alive?"
Hearing his question, a gleam flashed in the Empress' eyes as Lake felt his sixth sense go off again, causing him to dodge to the side once more. This time however, a large slash mark had appeared on his left arm, causing it to bleed profusely.
"That was a lot faster than the previous attack. I don't think I could survive another one if she were to go any faster." Lake thought as sweat dripped down his forehead as he endured the pain from his injured arm.
"I'm surprised your arm is still intact after that." The Empress smiled coldly as she spoke, "I'll answer your question with a question of my own. What do you think?"
"How cliché," As Lake spoke he took the chance to observe the fate that was above the Empress' head, "I think there must be something that I can use to prove my worth alive to you."
"Oh~ Are you suggesting that you're willing to work for me? And how exactly are you going to prove your worth?"
Lake didn't pay too much attention to the Empress words, instead, he was looking through her fate searching for something. Luckily, it didn't take him too long to find something as his eyes flashed with a bright glint.
"Never have I heard about the employee getting to choose the work he does for the employer," Lake started to speak in a slightly playful tone, "Let me think… I know. What about I work with you in the upcoming battle? After all, we both know that you're not planning on accepting that wolf's offer."
As the Empress Spider registered Lake's words, her originally smiling face turned cold as she slammed one of her legs into Lake, throwing him to the ground. As Lake laid there, the Empress spider stabbed her two front legs into each of his arms, pinning him to the ground to prevent him from moving.
With an icy glare, she stared down at Lake with the dignity and aura of an Empress emanating from her, suppressing Lake. However, when the Empress' aura came in contact with Lake, he felt a familiar power begin to boil up inside him.
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