The Paladin in the Abyss

As soon as the enemy broke off, Lancelot immediately returned to the team, guarding against the possibility of the monsters launching a surprise attack on his companions.

"What happened?" Elothysia noticed something unusual about Lancelot's strike this time, "You seem to be... a bit anxious too?"

"Just now, Skullhead told me through the mind connection that Little Isa discovered suspected enemy reinforcements, twelve Seductive Demons, arriving in ten minutes," Lancelot's tone revealed his urgency, "Now... there are probably only eight minutes left."

The dire news inadvertently led everyone to exchange worried glances, fully aware of what twelve Seductive Demons implied. They had encountered these Demons before, and last time, when intercepting Elothysia's prison carriage, an Elf Priest even fought and won against a Seductive Demon.

But at that time, he faced an individual who was severely wounded and on the brink of death. These Demons, when in good health, stood twice as tall as Lancelot, weighed up to 2000 pounds, and possessed crab-like giant pincers capable of snapping in half any prey they caught, making them outright killing machines.

Two Seductive Demons could easily defeat anyone in the team except Lancelot, and twelve coming at once? They would stand no chance whatsoever.

"You're thinking about getting rid of the Dark Weaver that's holding us back before the enemy's reinforcements arrive?" Bruto spoke up, "I thought I heard some different sounds just now, did you hit it?"

"Yes, but it still got away," Lancelot shook his head, "If we can't deal with that creature soon, we'll have to head back to Twin Bridges Town first."

"This damn spider, just like those damn cockroaches!" the Dwarf cursed under his breath, "Every time the light comes on, it scurries away without a trace! If I could catch..."

The Dwarf suddenly stopped talking because he noticed a very strange expression on Lancelot's face, as if he had just seen a toilet made of gold.

"What's with you now?" Bruto asked cautiously, "Is Skullhead talking to you?"

"No, I just thought of a way to deal with this creature." Lancelot chuckled at the Dwarf, "Thanks to your reminder, otherwise I definitely wouldn't have thought of it so quickly."

"What are you talking about?" Bruto was utterly confused, "What did I say?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure, but it's still worth a try," Lancelot spoke, but his expression showed he was rather confident. "Koula, if I don't tell you to do so later, don't throw the Flash Bomb yet."

"Huh? Why?" the Halfling's expression was a bit awkward, "Is it because of the dud earlier? I promise it won't happen again..."

"No, it's not your fault. Do you remember what Kalalin said? We were thinking about it all wrong..."

Just then, that strange Shadow Web appeared once again. Lancelot instantly drew his longsword and charged once more toward the monster's position.

The scene had repeated itself several times before, and Koula almost reflexively reached for a flash bomb on his belt, but he stopped himself hard, remembering what the other had just said.

As Lancelot sprinted forward, he concentrated his Divine Sense on his wrist. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire

There was a tiny black dot there, an 'essence' that the Eye of Sarizdon had left on him. Besides serving as a pocket-sized map of the Great Abyss, it had some other functions, too.

For example, like its origin, it could 'suck' away the light from the vicinity.

Darkness suddenly descended on the dim forest, taking away all light as well as all shadows.

To humans, darkness signified unknown dangers, capable of invoking instinctive fear. Dwarves, elves, and many other races with the ability to see in the dark were not affected the same way. They either had higher sensitivity to low light, like elves who can see by starlight at night, or a broader spectrum of visible light, like the Zoel Elves, the distant relatives of surface elves with infrared vision capabilities.

But the essence left by the Eye of Sarizdon created a realm of absolute darkness. Unless one had True Sight from a 6th level Magic 'True Knowledge Spell' or a similar effect, no mortal race could see through this darkness directly.

However, thanks to his perception of the flow of nature's spiritual energy, Lancelot could clearly 'see' everything around him. As he had predicted, the arrival of darkness did not make the monster thrive; on the contrary, it appeared extremely panicked. It didn't manage to use Shadow Jump to escape, and the Shadow Armor that had enveloped its body also vanished.

Lancelot had been wondering why the monster was sometimes incredibly fast, managing to escape from beneath his sword time after time, while at other times it seemed slow, getting 'accidentally' hit by his teammates' attacks.

This peculiar feeling peaked a moment ago. Although his speed increased by thirty percent when he struck with all his might, given the Dark Weaver's demonstrated abilities, Lancelot had not harbored much hope.

Yet, it was during this attack that he first solidly slashed the monster's body. What had caused this change? Had the enemy grown tired before him?

Bruto's inadvertent complaint finally led him to understand the key point—it was the light! Kalalin had already made it very clear before. The Dark Weaver was a master of manipulating shadows; shadows were its armor, its weapon, and the source of its magic power. While Koula's flash bomb did create bright light, it also produced intense shadows, which was why the monster's power surged and it played them for fools time and again.

Valasti swung its thick tentacles in panic, smashing toward the direction from which the Human Knight was charging. Lancelot's hands danced with Frostslash, weaving a flurry of impenetrable sword aura around him. The tentacles, like sausages fed into a meat grinder, were instantly sliced to pieces, failing to obstruct the high-speed charge of the Human Knight.

Reaching the monster, Lancelot swung his longsword. With just the enhancement of his True Yuan to his physical strength, he easily created a wound over five feet long on the monster's body. Then he leaped up, thrusting dozens of times mid-air, bursting all the revolting eyeballs on the upper half of the monster's body and using the rebound to climb higher into the air. Next, he drew the Giant Sword Glacier from his Dimensional Bag at his waist.

The monster's spider-like body consisted of two uneven spheres of flesh, and the width of the connection between these two spheres was no more than five feet. The cyan Sword Aura shone again as Lancelot's great sword fell with his body, striking precisely at the 'thinnest' part of the monster's form.