Desert Arachnids were insect monsters living in the desert. An adult Desert Arachnid possesses six pair of legs with four of them growing up to three metres in length. A veritable daddy long legs. They were used for movement while the remaining two pairs of legs were used for hunting. These were its forelimbs, and they were more blades than limbs. Whenever they hunted, these razor sharp blades were their main weapons.
They had a hollow sting atop their tail which functioned as reproductive organ. During their spawning season, they would capture and drag their prey to their nests. Then they would inject their eggs into their prey and at which point they will seal them in a cocoon made from their spider silk.
The live prey’s body would serve as an incubator for the eggs until they hatch. The young arachnids would then feed on the organs of its surrogate host. By the time they are done eating, they will be ready to tunnel out of the host’s stomach and be productive members of the arachnid society.
However, their uniqueness does not end there. Desert Arachnids are all hermaphrodites with a unique mating ritual. Two Desert Arachnids would engage in a duel with the winner taking the dominant position while the loser is in charge of producing eggs.
Furthermore, these duels often had more than two parties involved. The result of these chaotic duels could be that all the arachnids become pregnant, leading to an identity crisis for the young arachnids involved…
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A sea of giant spider legs blanketed the peak of the snowy mountains. From a distance it looked like the normally snowy white mountain peaks had been splashed with ink; this ink was now flowing off the mountain. At the rate these Sand Arachnids were traveling, it would only take about an hour for them to reach the stronghold.
These mountains were situated behind the stronghold and were 30km away from Lin Huang and the hunters.
With Lin Huang’s eyesight, he was barely able to spot that ink drop in the distance. As to the identity of this drop, he was definitely not aware of it.
However to Gold ranked hunters like Yi Yeyu and Yi Zheng, they were able to identify that it was a group of Sand Arachnids and even identify their numbers; they were at least a hundred thousand strong.
With these numbers, it would take them one hour to murder all the residents once they broke through the stronghold defenses.
Yi Zheng was deeply worried by this group. Their numbers were already not enough to handle the oncoming horde but with these spiders added in, the situation was truly dire.
“Are there any Cannoneers here?!” Yi Zheng’s voice suddenly rang out in the battlefield.
Cannoneers were a branch of the Gunner occupation; they boasted overwhelming range and destructive capabilities.
Gunner was the occupation Lin Huang was planning on adopting as his secondary occupation. Cannoneer was a part of that consideration but rather he wanted to be a Pistoleer or a Sniper. Cannoneers were more suited to battlefields such as these and as such wasn’t what Lin Huang wanted; in fact, most Hunters felt the same way.
Cannoneer’s unpopularity proved itself once more as not a single person responded to Yi Zheng. While this was to be expected, it still made his heart sink. Without a Cannoneer, they had no way to attack the spiders. The other occupations simply did not possess a range of over 30km.
“Brother, what are you worried about?” A voice suddenly rang out.
Yi Yeyu tossed him a condescending look as she said this. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, her left arm started transforming. Metal plates started materializing from her finger and attached to her arm like a bunch of legos. Within a few seconds, her arm had changed into a huge cannon, approximately seven metres long.
Yi Zheng was shocked by this development but a strange look soon crossed his face. “Last I checked, you didn’t even pass the beginner’s Gunner Exam. How did you buy that cannon without a Cannoneer license?”
“Is there anything you can’t obtain from the black market?” Yi Yeyu replied with a mischievous grin.
“Black market cannon type relics aren’t cheap...don’t tell me the reason you borrowed money from me was to buy this?” He suddenly remembered that Yi Yeyu had took a loan from him recently. He felt it was a strange request as her monthly allowance should’ve been enough. However, he loaned her the money in the end.
“At least you aren’t stupid.” As she said this, she loaded several Life Crystal Lattices into the cannon.
Yi Zheng felt his heart ache with every Life Crystal Lattice she loaded. The minimum capacity of Life Crystal Lattice was 100 years worth of Prana and could fetch a price of a million credits each. Furthermore, cannon relics required one such lattice per shot.
“Yi Yeyu, you're not even a Cannoneer. What’s the point of buying such a relic? With your spending habits, how would you get married?” Yi Zheng scolded her.
“That’s none of your business, aren’t you single as well?!” Yi Yeyu snapped, her eyes staring back at him.
“Don’t come running to me the next time you want to buy such a thing!” He replied angrily.
“Fine, don’t lend me money then. Miser!” She harrumphed and started aiming her cannon at the snowy mountains.
Seeing her reaction, he didn’t push the matter any further but instead leaped to her boulder. As she started positioning the cannon, he adjusted the cannon’s angle upwards.
“What are you doing, I can’t hit anything at this angle!” She snapped at him once more.
“This is why I say that you have no talent as a Cannoneer; you just won’t listen to me.” Yi Zheng shook his head helplessly and started explaining, “Gunners have to be able to factor in their surroundings when calculating their firing angle and also predict the effect of their shot. With the way you are aiming, your shots would have a minimum effect on the spiders. But if you targeted the mountain peak, it will cause an avalanche which might just wipe them all out.”
She knew he was right and didn’t say anything anymore but that didn’t stop her from showing her dissatisfaction by twitching her mouth.
“Lean forward. While gun type Equipment and relics have recoil suppression built into them, this cannon is huge. The recoil from it will still be significant,” saying this, he patted her on the back.
He then circled around her and checked her firing angle once more. Satisfied, he nodded and said, “It’s right. You can fire now!”
Having received his approval, Yi Yeyu immediately fired her cannon.
At the mouth of the cannon, a luminous ball rapidly formed and shot off into the distance.
As she fired, the cannon mighty recoil was transmitted to her. It felt like a sledgehammer had just smashed into her and she nearly fell backwards from it but was stopped midway. A large hand pressed down on her shoulders and stabilized her body.
*Rumble!*
As the luminous ball struck the mountaintop, the surrounding mountains started trembling violently as well.
A short while later, the accumulated snow on the mountain top started surging down. It started out as a tiny ripple, but soon grew into a wave and finally into a giant tsunami of snow; the spiders were rapidly consumed by the snow, wiping that black dot from the face of the mountain.
Yi Yeyu was thrilled by the outcome. She didn’t expect that her one shot would have such a tremendous effect. She projected that at least 12 shots were needed to wipe them all out.
“Nicely done!” Yi Zheng exclaimed as he gave her a big thumbs up.
Yi Yeyu’s face flushed red in embarrassment. She knew that if it wasn’t for him giving her instructions, she wouldn’t have been able to produce such a result.
“I’ll leave the snowy mountains to you. If you spot anything new crossing the mountains, just use that same method.” As he finished giving her instructions, he leaped back to his boulder.
While the spiders were completely destroyed, the snow tsunami did not intend to stop there. The avalanche continued its destructive descent down the mountain and onto the mountain base, heading towards Snowy Mountain County .
However, just as it was about to swallow the county as well, it collided with an invisible barrier causing its momentum to dissipate.
In this manner, a potential disaster was quietly averted
Lin Huang bore witness to this entire process. Seeing the awe-inspiring power of the avalanche, he couldn’t help but sigh, “No matter which world you are in, Mother Nature’s powers are just as fearsome…”
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