Chapter 289: Shredding Weakness

"Severance!!!"

Chiiiii

A bright sword slash emerged out of Duncan's sword and traveled toward the horde of spiders. The moment it met with the eerie green web that came from the Spider Queen, the sword slash cut through the web with relative ease and looked as if it would travel past it initially.

However, the speed at which the sword slash traveled slowed down dramatically as it got caught in the green web's strands. Even though the slash was cutting through the web, the sticky nature of the web was entangling the sword slash a lot more than Duncan expected.

Ear-piercing sounds arose as the sword slash slowly cut through the web bit by bit, despite the stickiness that tried to keep it entangled. Duncan breathed heavily as he watched the sword slash finally cut through the web and emerge on the other side.

By then, the energy spent in the sword slash had also been spent mostly. Still, the attack strength of the sword slash was operating very efficiently. The next moment, relieved of the entanglement from the web, the sword slash raced ahead and landed amidst the horde in the distance.

BOOM!

A large cloud of dust erupted the moment the sword slash landed. Duncan narrowed his eyes as he watched the aftermath of his attack from his vantage point. He hoped that his attack really did damage the horde. If not, he would be out of options when it came to battling the horde currently.

His qi was running low. Just this last attack had drained one-eighth of his remaining qi. He could at most deliver a few more attacks like this. If he couldn't deal with the horde by then, then he would have no option but to retreat.

The dust cloud cleared rapidly under Duncan's eyes.

What he saw inside the cloud heartened Duncan a lot. An arrogant smile appeared on his face, as Duncan cackled loudly. Looking below, he could see the extent of the damage his attack had caused. And it gave him immense pleasure and happiness to witness how damaging it was.

This was his own self-created sword art. The attack power it possessed had not been tested so far against live opponents. Even though he had tested it against the rock in the stone garden, nothing beat testing it in an actual battle like this.

In the cavern, a large portion of the remaining spider horde were twitching on the ground. Duncan's last attack had really devastated the remaining horde. More than one-third of the remaining spiders were chopped up by the attack Duncan just performed. And this was after his attack went through the eerie green web shot out by the Spider Queen.

Duncan was overjoyed to see such a result. He immediately jumped down below into the cavern and started to walk boldly toward the horde that was scrabbling aimlessly in fear. He sneered looking at their pathetic states and rejoiced in hearing their painful cries.

A part of Duncan was immensely elated to see the damage he could inflict if he willed to do so. It relished in hearing the painful cries of his enemies and wanted to hear more.

Duncan didn't notice such a change in his behavior. To him, everything felt natural. Whether it was rejoicing in the pain of the other creatures or wanting to cause more pain, everything felt natural to him.

Duncan saw the relatively less harmed Spider Queen chittering at the horde in the distance. He immediately knew that the Spider Queen was galvanizing the remaining spiders to attack him. Seeing such a scene, he only laughed out aloud.

Even when they had more numbers on their side, they weren't able to do anything to him. Currently, he had more than culled one-third of them and had simultaneously taken on the best shot of the Spider Queen as well. So, Duncan didn't even have an ounce of caution towards this horde of spiders. Rather, he despised them for being too weak.

Seeing Duncan approaching the horde arrogantly, the Spider Queen let out a loud screech and rushed towards him to attack him. Duncan welcomed it with an arrogant smirk on his face.

Looking at the approaching Spider Queen, Duncan felt like chopping off its head and showing it off to the horde. He didn't know where such an idea came from, but he liked it very much. So, without pausing in his strides, Duncan unleashed yet another Severance directly at the approaching Spider Queen.

This time, the slash went through the Spider Queen before it could even react to its approach. Duncan's handling of the attack had improved after the first usage. And it caused the speed of the attack to accelerate as well.

With no green web to block its path, the slash traveled quickly and cut through the Spider Queen within the blink of an eye. The severed body parts of the Spider Queen slid down to the floor and skidded before his legs.

The attack didn't just stop after cutting through the Spider Queen. It traveled further into the horde and wrecked more havoc. The group of spiders, which were standing directly behind the Spider Queen, were chopped into several pieces as well.

Duncan stepped on the cut-open carcass of the Spider Queen arrogantly and looked at the remaining spiders in the vicinity. The control that the Spider Queen had over them was waning already and they were preparing to go ahead and fight amongst themselves.

Duncan looked at the aggressive behavior of the remaining spiders towards each other and frowned slightly. He felt slightly offended seeing the rest of the spiders planning to attack each other.

He was the biggest threat here. And these idiotic spiders were going to fight amongst themselves right before him. Such neglect of his presence didn't sit well with Duncan at all. Even though he knew that this was the habit of the Red Spotted Spiders, he didn't like it one bit.

Duncan looked at the remaining spiders angrily. Murderous thoughts filled his mind and his killing intent exploded out of his body. This was the first time, Duncan actually used killing intent consciously.

Every time he used killing intent before this, he was under the grasp of the madness induced by his blood. He had never employed killing intent in such a manner before to deter others.

Duncan's killing intent slammed into the remaining spiders like a ton of rocks causing them to become paralyzed in fear. They had never experienced such a thing before. The moment Duncan's attention was placed on them, they couldn't control the innate fear that rose in their body to escape.

And yet, none of them moved.

Duncan eyed the remaining spiders distastefully and muttered lowly.

"Since you all want to fight amongst yourself, allow me to send you all off to follow your bellowed queen as well," Duncan sneered and unleashed another Severance attack without any mercy.

What followed was a complete one-sided slaughter. The rest of the spiders which were frozen in fear had no chance against Duncan's mad attacks. Duncan slashed out several Severance attacks in a row completely decimating the horde.

When his qi ran out, he personally made the effort to kill off every spider he could find in a merciless manner. There wasn't an ounce of compassion in Duncan at the moment. He simply indulged himself in slaughtering the defenseless spiders.

When Duncan came out of his fugue and looked around, the entire cavern was littered with severed limbs and heads of the spiders. Blood pooled in the cavern completely covering the ground.

Looking at the scene, Duncan didn't even bat his eyes. He merely snorted and went ahead to collect the remaining Spotted Spider Silk strands that he entered the cavern for.

After collecting the silk strands, Duncan climbed out of the cavern and looked behind. Seeing the cavern no longer glittering and filled with blood, he became slightly thoughtful.

"In this world, only the weak cry out for mercy and compassion. The strong do whatever they want. The original sin any creature in this world could commit is to be weak. If they are strong, they would be the ones committing such atrocities," Duncan mumbled looking below at the blood-splashed floor of the cavern.

"I was hunted down and forced to enter this Ancient Battlefield because I was weak. Even low-level cultivators whom I slaughtered near the Dark Star City only dared to plan to hunt me down because they thought of me as someone weak," Duncan mumbled and looked up at the magma-enfused rocks that were glowing with red light.

The light felt apt for the atmosphere he was in. He may have lost control of his temper and indulged himself a little while eradicating these spiders. But, he had also gained a lot by committing this slaughter.

The slaughter qi he had obtained from killing the spider horde currently ran through his body in an active manner. His body had been nearly empty when he started slaughtering these spiders. And now, it felt full of energy. He felt even more powerful than he had felt before.

"I don't want to be hunted anymore. I don't want to run for my life anymore. Sects, friends, and relationships are all meaningless in this world. Only strength matters. I will become strong no matter what happens. I will become someone everyone fears," Duncan said determinedly looking towards the exit and started walking.

In this cavern, a true demon was born. The world just didn't know it yet.