Chapter 146: Women Crawlers

The silence was broken by a strange sound.

Gitter... gitter...

Amon’s body immediately tensed.

The sound came from somewhere within the darkness ahead of them.

Faint at first like something dragging its nails across the stone floor.

It stopped for a few seconds before returning again.

Gitter... gitter... gitter...

This time, it was louder.

Amon tightened his grip around the battleaxe as he slowly looked around.

There was still nothing he could see, even though Seraphina had raised her staff and was filling the immediate area with light.

Everything remained swallowed by darkness.

Seraphina’s voice was unusually quiet. "I can’t see anything."

Amon glanced at her.

She moved the staff slightly, causing the light to spread farther into the chamber, but it made no difference.

The darkness seemed to absorb the illumination before it could travel any meaningful distance.

"I can’t see anything either," Amon said calmly.

The sound came again.

Gitter... gitter... gitter...

This time, it sounded much closer.

Seraphina’s fingers tightened around her staff. "Amon..."

"Don’t panic."

"But I can’t see."

Amon stared into the darkness for another moment before narrowing his eyes. "It’s some kind of illusion."

Seraphina looked toward him. "An illusion?"

Amon nodded slowly. "Something is interfering with our senses. The darkness isn’t normal."

Another series of scraping sounds echoed through the chamber.

Gitter... gitter... gitter...

There seemed to be dozens of them now.

Amon could hear movement coming from different directions.

Something was crawling and was trying to surround them.

He took a slow breath and closed his eyes.

Amon inhaled deeply and began circulating the spiritual energy within his body according to the Spirit Sovereign Scripture.

The moment the cultivation method started circulating, the chaotic thoughts inside his mind gradually became quieter.

The fear that naturally came from standing inside complete darkness disappeared.

His spirit reacted before he consciously commanded it.

His newly awakened Spirit Lord Physique began responding to the spiritual energy flowing through his body.

Amon’s eyes opened and the world changed.

The darkness was still there but the entire chamber suddenly appeared beneath a strange white hue.

Every surface was outlined in spiritual energy including the creatures crawling toward them.

Amon’s expression became serious when he noticed them. They were more than dozens.

They were crawling across the ceiling, walls, and floor, slowly surrounding the two of them from every direction.

Their bodies resembled distorted women fused with enormous spider-like creatures.

Their pale, almost corpse-like upper bodies were connected to grotesquely elongated limbs, each ending in sharp claws capable of digging into stone.

Their heads hung unnaturally low, with long strands of dark hair falling around their faces and obscuring most of their features.

Their bodies moved with jerky, insect-like motions as their limbs repeatedly struck against the stone.

Gitter... gitter... gitter...

The sound came from their claws.

Amon stared at them. "Woman Crawlers..."

He had never seen creatures like them before, but the name was the first thing that came to his mind.

They were everywhere.

Some crawled upside down across the ceiling.

Several were slowly emerging from cracks between the stones.

Seraphina suddenly stepped closer to Amon. "What is it?"

Amon looked at her. "There are a lot of them."

"How many?"

Amon glanced around again. "Enough."

The scraping became louder. The creatures had finally reached the edge of their formation.

Amon took another deep breath as his fingers tightened around the battleaxe.

He could feel the spiritual energy moving through his body, sharpening his senses and allowing him to see every movement around them.

Amon immediately stepped closer to Seraphina instead of moving away from her.

He had no intention of allowing them to separate the two of them. "Stay close to me."

Seraphina swallowed. "How many are there?"

"Don’t worry about that."

The first Woman Crawler suddenly launched itself from the darkness.

Its elongated limbs struck the floor as it rushed toward them at an unnatural speed.

Seraphina raised her staff.

"Frost--"

Amon stepped forward before she could finish.

His battleaxe swung upward and the creature’s front limbs were severed in one clean motion.

Its momentum carried the body forward, causing it to tumble across the floor.

Amon immediately followed and axe came down again cutting down its head.

The creature stopped moving but the others had already begun attacking.

Several crawlers descended from the ceiling at once.

Amon moved between them. His battleaxe swept through one creature while his other hand released a burst of frost that froze another against the wall.

A third crawled toward Seraphina from the side.

Amon noticed it immediately through Spiritual Sight. "Behind you!"

Seraphina spun around and released a wave of ice.

The creature was caught in the attack and frozen halfway through its leap.

Amon appeared beside it using Spatial Steps.

His battleaxe struck the frozen body with enough force to shatter the ice and the creature together.

Fragments scattered across the floor as more crawlers came.

The chamber suddenly became a nightmare of movement.

Seraphina continued casting ice magic, but the sheer number of creatures was beginning to overwhelm her.

One crawler slipped past her defenses but Amon intercepted it before it could reach her.

His hand grabbed its arm.

The creature twisted violently, attempting to sink its claws into his chest.

Amon’s Dragon Emperor’s Scale Armor spread across his skin.

The claws struck the black scales and failed to penetrate them.

Amon looked directly into the creature’s distorted face. "Wrong target."

He slammed it into the ground.

The stone beneath its body cracked from the impact.

Another creature rushed toward him as Amon turned and swung the battleaxe sideways.

The blade struck its torso and sent it crashing into the wall.

Before it could recover, Amon used Spatial Steps and appeared directly above it.

He brought the axe down cutting it in half.

Seraphina continued fighting beside him, but her breathing had become increasingly uneven.

"Amon!"

He looked toward her.

Three Woman Crawlers were approaching from different directions.

Seraphina raised both hands.

"Frost Bind!"

Ice erupted from the floor and wrapped around two of them.

The third managed to leap over the spell but Amon quickly stepped between it and Seraphina.

The creature’s claws came down.

Amon caught one of its limbs and pulled. The creature was dragged toward him with tremendous force.

His knee struck its body before his battleaxe finished the attack.

The chamber echoed with another heavy impact.

Amon immediately turned toward the remaining monsters.

There were still many but their numbers were decreasing rapidly.

He moved through them like a storm.

Spatial Steps carried him between targets while Frost Spear pierced creatures attempting to attack from a distance.

His battleaxe smashed through bodies that came too close.

Whenever one creature attempted to circle around them, Amon intercepted it before it could get close.

He never allowed himself to move far from her.

Even while fighting, Amon constantly checked her position through Spiritual Sight.

Every time a creature came within striking distance of her, he was already there.

"Amon!"

Another crawler rushed toward her.

Amon appeared in front of it.

The creature slammed into his armored body. He grabbed it by the throat and lifted it from the ground.

Its limbs desperately scratched against his armor.

Amon stared at it for a moment before throwing it into the path of Seraphina’s next Frost Lance.

The attack pierced through the creature and pinned it against the wall.

The number of monsters continued to fall.

Eventually, the horrible scraping sounds became fewer until only one remained.

It was crawling across the ceiling directly above them.

Amon looked up as the creature slowly lowered its head.

Its long hair hung toward the floor as its pale body twisted into position.

Amon raised his battleaxe. The weapon struck before the creature could reach them.

Its body fell motionless onto the stone floor.

Silence returned.

Amon stood still for several seconds.

He slowly looked around the chamber and Bodies were scattered everywhere.

The floor was covered in cracks, fragments of ice, and the remains of the creatures that had tried to surround them.

The darkness began to disappear.

One by one, the blue crystals embedded within the walls began glowing again.

The chamber slowly returned to its original appearance.

Seraphina stood silently beside Amon.

She didn’t say anything. Her eyes remained fixed on the devastation surrounding them.

Amon glanced at her before he smiled gently.

"You just have to believe in me."

Seraphina slowly turned toward him.

Amon rested the battleaxe against his shoulder. "I won’t let anything happen to you."