Rise of the Eromancer

57  Chapter 57: Threat Level: 10

"Psst, No. 6."

"Hm?"

Somewhere in the Underworld filled with rocks and steam, No. 1 and No. 5 were gesturing to Rhys to come to them. Rhys wasn't really doing anything but just cleaning his clothes in a stream of clear water, and so he just put his clothes to the side and approached the two… who were suspiciously whispering to each other beside a large piece of boulder.

"What is—" And as soon as Rhys got even an arm's reach near them, the two quickly lifted him up — locking all of his limbs before they proceeded to carry him somewhere, "What are you guys doing!?"

"You wanted to find out if No. 2 is really a man, right!?" No. 1 let out a menacing laugh as he nodded several times, "Then find out now!"

And without even any sort of warning, No. 1 and No. 5 suddenly threw Rhys into a deep stream. The water was cold, very much so — but what he saw deep in the water perhaps was the reason he almost drowned.

"!!!" Rhys immediately stood up, coughing vehemently as he truly did not expect to see someone else's manhood dangling in the water.

"Bwahahaha!" No. 2 quickly burst out in laughter as he pointed at Rhys, "What!? You liked what you see!? Gay! You gay, No. 6!"

"..." Rhys could really only cover his mouth as he continued to cough, just waving his hand at No. 2 to shoo him away.

"What? Never seen anything that big before!?" No. 2 also glanced at No. 1 and No. 5, who were also almost falling to the ground as they laughed at Rhys.

"Big…?" As soon as he recovered, however, Rhys shook his head and let out a small chuckle, "Isn't that just… below average?"

"W—What the fuck do you mean below average!?" No. 2 instantly stopped laughing as he looked at Rhys, "Wait... Are you fucking telling me yours is bigger? What? You're insanely fucked up handsome, and now you're telling me you're fucking gifted too, you little bitch!?"

"..." And as soon as he heard the change of tone in No. 2's voice, Rhys immediately felt the hair on his neck stand up… and soon, No. 1 and No. 5 also very slowly started to approach him.

"Wait…" Rhys quickly raised both his palms in surrender, "Stop… No!"

"No…"

Rhys could feel himself coming in and out of unconsciousness as his memories started to surface; his eyes, trying their best to stay open… but they won't. His body itself was not allowing Rhys to move, not because he couldn't, but perhaps because he shouldn't.

He could hear the sounds of thunder violently blasting through the air. And with each rumble, Rhys could feel the leaves on top of the trees falling onto him as the very ground itself seemed to want to turn upside down.

"...Arise," and as the whisper escaped his lips, Rhys pushed himself up; resting his back on the tree that knocked him out as he looked to where the roars of thunder were coming from. And there, he saw nothing but streaks blurring across the distance.

The only time he actually saw silhouettes was a second before the thunder — and there, he could see Arachnea slightly being pushed back as she blocked Ayesha's attack; her arm, breaking and splitting in half… but recovering before they could disappear from his sight again.

Most of the trees that were near their battle were already gone, but none of them were actually directly hit by them, no. The trees were just uprooted and blasted away just by the sheer shockwave of each of their strikes; the ground they were standing on, very slowly turning into a crater.

Rhys had already seen how strong Ayesha was when she fought the cyclops barbarian — she was able to fling its hand the size of an entire mansion away with a single kick. And yet now, her strikes seemed even stronger than before. Rhys could feel the blast from their strikes, causing his lungs to lock up each time.

Something was weird, however. Arachnea was the one clearly being pushed back whenever the two collided, and yet… the only one covered in blood was Ayesha. Arachnea seemed to still be completely unscathed.

And soon, Rhys could finally see the two clearly as they stopped moving at a speed invisible to him. Ayesha was on top of Arachnea's spider body, her thick arms wrapping around Arachnea's neck. And even from afar, Rhys could hear Ayesha's muscles contracting—like billions of tungsten threads being twisted.

"Khiee!" Arachnea let out a screeching howl as her skin started to stretch and her neck bent. She tried to move around; each of her legs destroying everything in its path as she did so.

"Why… why is someone like you here!?"

Rhys could hear Ayesha screaming, but Arachnea's screech drowned most of it.

"Why my crew!? You—"

Arachnea suddenly stopped moving around as her arms started to bend in a weird way. She then quickly grabbed Ayesha by the head, before leaning her body forward and slamming Ayesha straight to the ground.

"!!!"

Rhys felt himself being thrown away as a tidal wave of dirt headed its way toward him. He mustered all the strength to stand up; leaping and barely avoiding all the trees and branches that were blasting toward him.

The quake probably lasted for an entire minute before Rhys finally got a chance to rest; his body itself, already forcing him to just sit down. And with everything calming down, Rhys saw the aftermath of Arachnea's single attack.

The sea of trees that once surrounded them… completely gone.

No. 2 told Rhys that Arachnea was a Threat Level 10, more god than monster, and he was starting to see what he meant.

How exactly did he survive their first encounter?

"We weren't bothering your kind!" But perhaps even more surprising, was that Ayesha did not seem to be bothered by the attack as she once again leaped toward Arachnea and started going on the offensive, "Why play with my family!?"

Rhys could not even see Ayesha's arms as she released a barrage of attacks onto Arachnea. Arachnea, however, was able to avoid all of them. Those that she couldn't avoid, however, caused her bones to crack.

Arachnea was able to hit and scratch Ayesha with her legs more, but most of the wounds were superficial; there was blood, but it did not really seem to affect Ayesha.

The two continued to exchange attacks. Soon, however, Ayesha was finally able to avoid one of Arachnea's legs — she quickly stepped forward and stomped her foot on the ground; the back of her fist, almost touching the dirt as she violently smashed her fist straight up onto Arachnea's spider body.

Several skirts of wind surrounded Arachnea as Rhys could see her body visibly contort and compress. And then, in the blink of an eye, another thunder roared in the air as Arachnea's body was thrown straight onto the sun of the Underworld; causing a ripple to quietly flow onto Helios.

"S… shit," Ayesha released a stuttering gasp as she looked up; her body almost falling down as she did so, "And stay there, piece of shit… Recruit… …Rhys!"

"Ayesha…" Rhys let out a whisper as he mustered up all the strength to walk toward her; almost rolling down the crater the two made.

"Where are you…!?"

"Here… Here!" Rhys started running even through all the pain crawling through his flesh.

"There you are, Recruit…" And as soon as Rhys stood close to Ayesha, Ayesha quickly placed her palm on Rhys's chest. Rhys was about to say something when he felt something dangling in Ayesha's hand.

He quickly looked down, only for Ayesha to hang several dog tags around his neck; the sound of them hitting each other, causing Rhys to slightly shudder.

"Honor them later," Ayesha then whispered as she looked Rhys in the eyes, "But now, we should go before that thing decides to return."

"It's… still alive?" Rhys looked at the Helios.

"Alive? It lives there. You really think I had it beat...? It's a god, it was playing with me... Only reason it's a Level 10 is because we don't have a category after that," Ayesha let out a small chuckle, causing a shower of blood to escape her mouth, "Anyway… take me back to the base."

"Ayesha!?" Ayesha quickly wrapped her arms over Rhys's shoulder, falling onto him as her breaths started to weaken.

"The base…" Rhys quickly looked around him, only to see nothing but a wasteland, "...Where?"