—SNAP!
Suddenly reeled back in shock. Another one of its last remaining six eyes exploded.
Lillian, holding up her remaining hand and snapping her fingers, stared at it with a subtle glimmer of desperate madness.
"I didn't need that arm, anyway!" She yelled crazily, her lips curling into an exaggerated smile. She then bent her body forward and dashed towards it.
As she quickly narrowed the gap between them, from her bleeding stump, an arm grew. An arm entirely made out of water. And in the hand of that arm, a familiar shard reflecting the image of an injured Beetle appeared.
Before the Spider could finish recovering from the loss of another eye, Lillian drew back her liquid arm.
It curved back before whipping forward, sending the shard beneath the Spider. However, just before throwing it, she muttered:
"Hope you still got some more fight in you, buddy...!"
As the shard sliced through the air, the Spider had finally regained control of its mind. But became confused at the lack of vision it had. This only lasted for a brief second, though.
But... it did start to feel something. Something it hadn't felt for so long, after evolving into its current form. And what happened next only solidified it in its heart.
It felt its body suddenly become lifted up. Something pierced through its underside once again, tearing through its organs. And that something was... the Beetle's horn.
Despite a portion of the side of its face missing, its exoskeleton cracked and dented, it still let out a sadistic and almost prideful cackle.
Its distorted voice rang inside the Spider's "ears", causing it to briefly shiver.
But this feeling didn't last for even a split second for on reflex, it flashed its metal-tipped legs at the Beetle's back—
—SWISH! CRACK-...!
And pierced through its armour, shattering its segmented exoskeleton. As the Beetle lost its cackle and went limp, the small appendages above the Spider twitched uncontrollably.
Venom dripped into its mouth, shaping into a ball. And as it was about to spit it into the Beetle's wounds, it felt something crawl on its back.
Following that sensation was an uncomfortable feeling of the singular quill in its back being pulled out. And then, it watched as Lillian's blood-covered face appeared above it, standing on its head.
She still had that eerie, mad grin on her face that only grew more at what she did next.
—PSHT!
Another ear-shattering screech rang out from the Spider's maw. The cause was the long, narrow needle stuck through one of its eyes.
As its high-pressured blood shot through the gaps in its eye, it heard the voice of the woman on its head.
"Ohohoho~! We're not done, my friend!"
Lillian hung onto one of the edges of its plated face. She lowered herself before one of its eyes. She ignored the reflection of her awful appearance in its eyes and raised her liquid arm.
The arm wobbled, gradually losing its form. It wasn't perfect, after all. Unlike Marionette, who must've gotten plenty of practice, this was her first time.
But that didn't matter, especially with what she did next.
As soon as her arm was back far enough, she shaped it into a sharp spike. With it aimed at the centre of the Spider's eye, she stabbed it in.
And immediately as she did it, another screech appeared. Due to how close she was, her ears began to slightly bleed. She could feel it too as it ran down from her ear canals.
But that wasn't all for she was once again sprayed with the Spider's high-pressure blood. And unfortunately, she couldn't hang on, due to that.
Thud...!
Lillian landed on the ground, rolling. She quickly got up into a crouch and then into a sprint back. No delay.
She hastily reached the Beetle, which revealed signs of cracks across its body, even its flesh. This was a process in which a Shard would be completely destroyed.
She chuckled a little as she placed her palm on its shell, "Oh no~! I can't have you disappear on me now."
As soon as the Beetle turned into its glass shard, she whispered, "I still have more for you to do... Take a rest for a while..." And tossed it back into her Mana Realm.
THUD!
She looked back towards the Spider, who had collapsed onto its legs, having lost too much blood. It was also out of mana. However, it tried to get back up to its "feet".
But... its shaky legs weren't able to—
—Thud...!
Keep it up for long, causing it to fall back down again.
Lillian's exaggerated grin then soon softened as she circled the Spider, patting its cracked and severely damaged shell.
Pat. Pat. Pat.
"Oh, boy~... you sure did a number on me." She then reached a spot in its armour, finding something unusual deep within its flesh. It was lodged deep but had a familiar metallic colour.
"Because of you, I lost an arm... Behind on time..." She knelt down and surgically widened the area around it before strongly pulling against it.
It was tough, but by continuously widening the area, she managed to pull it out.
Psht...!
Lillian was prepared to get blasted by another wave of blood again but it seemed this time she was lucky. She stood up and gripped onto what seemed to be another one of the Spider's metallic needles.
But why was it stuck inside its body and hidden under its armour?
Lillian grinned, "So this was the one Marionette threw? And what?" She went around and stopped before its head. "It broke through your armour and you..."
She then raised her right foot and planted it against its face, "Just healed it over and hid it?" She smirked. She then aimed the tip of the needle before one of its eyes, twirling it around playfully.
"Look here. Although it would've made sense for you to go after her instead of me..." Her words at the end slurred a bit. Her vision suddenly warped and blurred before returning back to normal.
She took in a deep breath, "You got me. And I say... despite her being stronger than me, you got unlucky." She chuckled a bit, "Because she tends to finish things fast, while I... usually don't sometimes."
She then tilted her head to the side with an innocent smile on her blood-covered face, "I mean... I did lose an arm, right? Call me edgy but I think you losing a few eyes makes up for it... right?"
She pulled back her arm, clutching the needle tighter before stabbing at its already blurry eyes.
It was indeed...
Swoosh...!
Quite unlucky this time in its hunt.
SPLAT!
[You have slain a Dire Gnarl, Needle Prowler]
[You have received a Shard.]