Elemental Magnetic Star

Chapter 64 The Attack of the Colorful Spider

"Lightning," Raina yelled desperately, "Stop!" But Lightning, the black panther, continued to run forward, disregarding her command.

Raina had occasionally ridden Lightning before, but both she and the panther were not fond of it, resorting to it only in emergencies or extreme fatigue. She could sense Lightning's anxiety and fear. In Verdant Thistle Forest, Lightning was an exceptionally powerful creature, with remarkable offensive and defensive capabilities. Under Flicker Shadow's training, Lightning had almost always been invincible. True danger was rare, and they had always managed to cleverly avoid it, never showing such a reckless urge to flee.

Lightning's instinct for survival had completely taken over its mind, and coupled with Flicker Shadow's command, Raina couldn't direct it.

Initially, when approaching the colorful spider, Lightning sensed danger, but neither Flicker Shadow nor Raina heeded its agitation, thinking only of moving forward or retreating.

Years of living almost as one with Verdant Thistle Forest had made them increasingly familiar with the forest. Raina began to see nature as a finely-tuned machine, something predictable if one understood the patterns. But they had overlooked that the world's rules are ever-changing and largely elusive, and they had only seen the tip of the iceberg. A slight carelessness could make them victims of these rules.

Thinking of Flicker Shadow now battling an unknown rule, possibly fighting for his life, Raina forced herself to calm down.

She understood Flicker Shadow's intent; facing such immense danger, he must have anticipated failure to choose to save her by sending her away with Lightning. But Raina's desire to return wasn't reckless; she couldn't abandon her companion, and she felt the colorful spiders' actions were related to elemental magnetic power. At their attack, she distinctly felt a surge of elemental magnetic power. If it was an elemental magnetic attack, she believed she could do something.

Over the past two years, Raina had discovered that while Flicker Shadow's use of elemental magnetic power was offensive and powerful, her own precise perception and control of it was something Flicker Shadow couldn't understand.

That's it – control! She could actually control animals' actions with elemental magnetic power, but she had long given it up due to the backlash and resentment it caused. However, compared to Flicker Shadow's life, a temporary resentment from Lightning was acceptable.

Being in such close contact with Lightning now was convenient for her to exert elemental magnetic control. Raina placed her hands near Lightning's ears, trying to calm down, and released her blue light pillar from her palms – her power had grown stronger since absorbing the Holy Maiden's cloak. She let the blue light invade Lightning's eyes, significantly suppressing its agitation.

Raina whispered, "Lightning, we need to go back now. Flicker Shadow is in danger, and we have to help him." Lightning slowly stopped, looking at Raina with a mixture of confusion and fierce animal wariness.

"We need to go back to Flicker Shadow, turn around, Lightning!" Unable to slowly soothe Lightning, Raina intensified her elemental magnetic control and urged it. She couldn't match the panther's speed, so she chose to let it carry her back.

Lightning indeed turned and began running back. From afar, Raina saw Flicker Shadow curled up on the ground. Always strong and upright, he now lay twisted like a withered vine, suffering immense pain. Raina couldn't bear to think if he was still alive.

Quickly, Lightning reached Flicker Shadow's side. Raina could clearly see the various colored spiders surrounding him. "Flicker Shadow!" she shouted, hoping he could stand up upon hearing her.

But Flicker Shadow remained motionless, his body convulsing. He was still alive! Without concern for the spiders blocking her way, Raina jumped down from Lightning and rushed to Flicker Shadow.

The spiders remained motionless, allowing her unobstructed access to Flicker Shadow. She found him wrapped in spider silk, similar to the web woven by the colorful spider earlier.

On closer inspection, Raina realized the silk wasn't uniformly colored but composed of blue, orange, green, red, and gold strands, each distinct but blending to appear multicolored.

The colors seemed to flow! Where to?

Following the flow, Raina discovered that each spider held a strand of silk in its mouth, matching its body color. What did this mean?

Raina initially thought of attacking the spiders directly, like Flicker Shadow had done. But their eerie stillness made her hesitant to act rashly.

Suddenly, Raina realized: They were absorbing elemental magnetic power! The different colors represented corresponding elements: blue for water, orange for earth, green for wood, red for fire, and gold naturally for metal.

The elemental magnetic power in Verdant Thistle Forest, unlike the layered Elemental Magnetic Mainland, was a blend of all five elements. So Raina had almost forgotten what separated elemental magnetic power looked like.

Regardless of how the colorful spiders managed to separate and absorb the elemental magnetic power, Raina's immediate concern was stopping them from draining Flicker Shadow.

She tried pulling the silk, but it was incredibly tough, stretching but not breaking.

She then tried redirecting the elemental magnetic power back into Flicker Shadow, like she had helped WeeStick in the Abyss, but there were too many strands, and she couldn't handle them all, let alone address the root problem.

Seeing Flicker Shadow's painful convulsions, Raina frantically looked for stones to throw at the spiders, but they were unaffected by her attacks. Were they invulnerable while absorbing elemental magnetic power?

Spider silk, spider webs, colorful spiders... An idea struck Raina – what about the original colorful spider? It seemed to be the cause of everything, the most unique among them – the only multicolored one, different in size, and the only one that could weave webs. Were these silks its creation?

The more Raina thought about it, the more likely it seemed. She searched for the colorful spider, which had disappeared since their return. It was so small and could hide anywhere, making it difficult to spot.

What to do?

Raina tried to calm down, closed her eyes, held her breath, and when she reopened her eyes, her vision was filled with the colors of elemental magnetic power – she had gotten used to turning off her vision's observation of elemental magnetic power to not differ from ordinary people. When she reactivated it, she was momentarily blinded by the burst of colors.

Collecting her thoughts, she searched again and almost immediately spotted the colorful spider amidst the monochromatic elemental magnetic power fields – it was indeed the colorful spider!

Moreover, its colors were distinct and layered, similar to Flicker Shadow's elemental magnetic power field.

Knowing the spider's exact location, Raina could clearly see it connected to many silks, leading to the single-colored spiders. It seemed that Flicker Shadow's elemental magnetic power, after being separated by the single-colored spiders, was all converging on the colorful one.

Unable to cut the silk, the only option was to eliminate the culprit. With no attack power, Raina wasn't sure of her elemental magnetic power's effect against the colorful spider, especially since it possessed all five elements.

All five elements? Raina observed more closely and realized the spider's colorful aura was evenly distributed, indicating balanced elements. What if she disrupted this balance?

Raina tried injecting blue light into the spider. There was resistance, but not strong. Simultaneously, the blue spiders began crawling towards her. Nowhere to hide, and Raina knew she couldn't match them.

Biting her lip, she decided to buy time and go all out. She released all her blue elemental power in one burst.

With a loud bang, something exploded.

Then, all the spiders receded like a tide.