Apocalypse system: I have unparallel comprehension-Chapter 66 - Final strike

Air folded inward around the blade before snapping outward like a detonating storm front.

The concussive wave slammed into the Queen’s sonic blast, two invisible forces colliding in the center of the cavern.

The resulting pressure shattered stalactites overhead and sent fragments raining like spears.

Tendo landed lightly, as if gravity favored him personally.

The Mother Spider screeched in frustration and took a lumbering step forward only to sink its front legs into a puddle of its own acid. The liquid didn’t harm the creature, but it made the stone liquefy deeper, forming pits like boiling tar.

Dante winced. "We’re gonna run out of ground to stand on."

"Then fly," Tendo said like it was obvious.

"Right. Let me just evolve wings real quick."

The Queen jerked again and spat three jets of corrosive slime, each one whipping through the air like thrown spears.

Dante inhaled sharply and formed a shell of spinning mana. Wind coiled around him, a miniature cyclone, and the acid splashed against the rotating barrier harmlessly though every pebble caught inside dissolved into dust.

The shell cracked. Dante yelped and bolted aside.

"I really hate acid!"

"Then stop letting it hit you," Tendo replied.

He swung again, sending another Wind Slash that dented the cavern wall when the spider dodged at the last moment. The blade of compressed air chewed a half-meter gouge in the stone before dissipating.

The Mother Spider retaliated not with acid or sound, but with speed.

Her legs blurred.

Eight streaks of venom-coated limbs stabbed outward in a blinding rhythm, forcing both men to split apart as the monster surged between them like a battering ram of chitin and hatred.

Dante’s heart nearly lodged in his throat.

"That’s faster!"

"She leveled up," Tendo said blandly.

Dante squinted his eyes, observing the acid coated monster. It was true that all her speed and power had taken to the next step.

"Tier 4?" Dante muttered to himself.

"No. But she realized something about herself." Tendo said.

The spider whipped a limb toward Tendo.

He stepped aside by the width of a fingernail effortlessly and countered with a short horizontal slash, cutting a shallow groove into her acid armor.

The wound hissed, bubbling like boiling tar.

Dante moved to strike, but the Queen suddenly stomped, sending up another circular blast of acid that fanned outward like a blooming flower.

Dante threw up both hands.

Air rippled into existence, forming a translucent plane that the acid splashed against with a sizzling roar.

It was a wall made out of wind. The barrier bent, groaned, and then disintegrated, but the attack had already been deflected.

His lungs burned. Mana was a dwindling candle.

But the spider was weakening too.

Its coat of acid was thinner now sliding off in uneven sheets that left raw chitin visible. The shrieks came slower, less powerful.

Dante grinned despite the fear gnawing behind his ribs.

Bubbles swelled across her shell, darkening, thickening, and then bursting into hissing steam.

Dante’s pupils shrank.

"Oh come on. She’s cooking herself now?!"

"Reinforcing," Tendo corrected without turning.

He rushed forward again, but the Queen twitched violently.

Boiling acid sprayed outward not a neat jet this time, but a chaotic rain of droplets.

A single sizzle hit Dante’s sleeve, and the fabric vanished along with a strip of skin beneath.

"AHH. GAH. DAMN IT!"

He clamped his arm, mana pouring into his flesh before instinct even caught up.

Regeneration blazed to life, sealing the wound in seconds while pain still screamed in his nerves.

Tendo wasn’t lucky as well as acid fell on him too. But instead of dissolving flesh, the droplets slid off his skin, leaving only faint smoking trails.

Dante blinked. "You’re... resistant?"

"Yes. I have every resistance skill." He said, wiping his arm, his eyes narrowing.

The Queen spasmed again and let out a rattling roar. Her body warped, chitin plates shifting as if trying to trap more acid inside her cracks.

But the tar-black liquid wasn’t obeying anymore as it soaked into her shell, dripping through wounds, melting her from the inside.

Dante realized it at the same moment she did.

"She messed up," he whispered.

Tendo nodded. "Yeah. She overworked herself. Come on, let’s finish her."

The spider thrashed in agony.

Acid cascaded down the walls in thick strings, turning stalagmites into bubbling pillars of sludge.

The cavern floor vanished inch by inch, devoured into steaming sinkholes. Only scattered pillars of un-melted stone remained as a tiny island in a sea of boiling acid.

The Mother Spider gathered herself, legs trembling, acid spilling from her joints like a leaking furnace.

Dante felt the mana starving inside him, thin and dry as thread.

This had to be the last shot.

Hey, Tendo," he wheezed.

"You better kill her in one hit... because I’m out of tricks."

Tendo didn’t answer. He simply lowered his stance.

Katana loose in his grip. Breath steady. Eyes calm, not blazing or bloodthirsty, just certain about the fact. The fact that he would not miss.

Dante felt a click in his mind. A concept aligning.

He raised both hands and dragged every last whisper of mana toward Tendo.

His concept fueling into his mana threads. He transformed into the wind mana and used compression.

Invisible strands lashed onto Tendo’s back and blade, funneling energy into him feeding. Fusing with his motion so gently the swordsman barely felt it.

Tendo’s brows twitched.

"I don’t need it but thanks."

Dante grinned through sweat. "Just hit her really hard."

The Mother Spider screeched and launched forward, body smoking, legs stamping molten craters with every step.

Tendo drew his blade back.

Wind tightened around the katana not swirling wildly but aligning edge to edge, perfectly compressed, like a sharpened storm wearing steel skin.

One slow inhale.

One decisive exhale.

He disappeared.

A streak tore through the cavern too fast for eyes, too precise for instinct. The katana passed through the Queen in a straight, unforgiving line.

For a heartbeat nothing happened.

Then her entire body split open, from mouth to abdomen, a perfect seam carved through chitin, organs, and acid-filled sacs.

Black blood and melting flesh burst outward in a tidal wave.

But the wind around Tendo’s blade parted the flood, creating a clean corridor through the spray that evaporated into steam before touching him.

The Mother Spider crashed onto the stone, legs thrashing one final time before slumping limp, half her corpse dissolving into the pit she had created.

Silence.

Even the acid slowed its boil.

Tendo flicked his sword once, sending a thin arc of wind that cleared the lingering droplets on the ground.

Dante collapsed backward, gasping like a drowned cat.

"...I hate spiders," he croaked.

Tendo sheathed his katana with a soft click. "Same."

Dante heard the system notification ringing inside his head. He looked up, opening the system interface.

[You have slain Mother Spider.]

[10000 points earned.]

Dante whistled a hum and sat down. He stared at the boiling ground and let out a sigh.

"Tendo, can you use earth mana?"

Tendo turned around and gave him a slow nod. "I can."

"Good. Cover the ground with earth."

Tendo looked down and let out a long sigh. He extended his arm and released a wave of mana into the air. He then willed the mana and covered the entire ground, mana hardened and transformed into the earth.

"Woah." Dante exclaimed. "That is nice."

He lay down, staring at the ceiling. Tendo coughed and sat down as well.

"Don’t take it the wrong way, Dante." Tendo said softly.

Suddenly, there was a cold silence between the two men. Dante waited, his mind wandering about what Tendo was going to say.

He remembered why he followed the Prodigy. Tendo said he wanted to say something to Dante. Dante had a bad feeling about this and that’s why he put that in the back of his mind. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Now that Tendo started that conversation, Dante felt uncomfortable.

He frowned. "I am still waiting though I have a bad feeling about this."

Tendo nodded. "I want to say at the start but I have my own plan." He paused and looked for Dante.

"Ashar. It is about Ashar."

Dante nodded. "What about him?"

"Do you know his class and profession?" Tendo asked.

Dante shook his head slowly. "I don’t know. I suspected that he had some kind of masking class or something like that. And the profession that mainly focuses on aura?"

"I see." Tendo muttered. "Then I will tell you about his secret."

Dante sat up and listened to Tendo with a serious expression.

"His class is called Mimivore."

"Mimivore. Never heard of it."

"I guess. It is what the system is named for."

"I see." Dante stopped and thought for a moment. "Mimics and carnivores?"

"Yep. I can eat everything and transform into that. Don’t underestimate him. He had eaten a lot of strong monsters in that cave." Tendo said, his voice slowly lowering at the end.

Dante nodded. "And what is his profession?"