Time seemed to slow for a moment.
Bennet and the Lurker met. At the point that the tip of Bennet's [Stonecrusher] descended right above the head of the vicious looking spider. On the other hand from the depths of the Lurker's mouth a blob of poison shot forward.
[Stonecrusher] landed on the eight legged creature's head with the force of a freight train. Six of its eyes bursting in a rain of blood, leaving it with ten now. While the blob of poison landed squarely on Bennet's chest. Bennet's sense of smell was overwhelmed by the nauseating acidic smell.
BANG!
"HISS!" "Urgh!"
Both man and spider fell to the ground. Both writhing in pain. The Lurker in particular seemed to lose its mind. It released mournful cries as green blood spilled to the floor while Bennet's fall left him lying within a ditch of his own making.
Down the chest piece of his armor was a sickening green pool of poison that was already evaporating into the air like pungent vapor. His armor managed to protect him from the worst as the poison would have surely melted through his bones had it landed on his chest.
However Bennet wasn't out of the woods yet.
Bennet ended up inhaling the vapor from the poison by accident. He felt his lungs burn as though he were underwater and lacking oxygen and he felt his blood slow in circulation. His breath labored and his vision swam.
Not too far away, the giant hairy eight legged spider was writhing on the ground in the most pain it had ever experienced since the beginning of the apocalypse. Out of its sixteen red eyes, six had been destroyed and the resulting blood from the wounds had spilled into its other eyes half blinding it and filling its vision with green.
In the center of its head a deep wound more than six inches deep bled profusely.
Its vision was somewhat blurry and unbalanced like the unfocused lens of a camera. It could see everything that was two meters from its face but it could barely make out anything for more than that.
Hiss!
It hissed in anger. Releasing a cloud of green gas that filled the air with an acidic stench that would make even the man with the strongest stomach nauseated.
[Poison Sub-domain]
The Lurker had comprehended this skill in its own time. There was no doubt the Lurker was also a talented existence in its own right. To be able to comprehend a sub-domain while still in the Second Star Order? If there had been anyone from the wider universe witnessing such a thing they would have been shocked.
Let alone Third Star Order, most wouldn't even be able to comprehend a sub-domain until they were ready to step past the Fourth Star Order and were ready to join the ranks of the Higher existences and it wasn't until the Sixth Star Order that a being would comprehend a true domain where one embodied their source element.
The air was filled with poison. Covering a radius of five meters. It had two functions.
One was to weaken the reflexes of anyone who dared to step into its domain.
Two it acted as an extension of its senses. Nothing within its domain could escape its senses. And unfortunately for Bennet, he just happened to be right at the edge of the sub-domain.
The Lurker's fangs twitched. A malicious sort of excitement gleaming in its remaining good eyes. Its eight legs pushing off the ground with ease. Its vision was still blurry and its head was still bleeding but it moved with more vigor now than it had in the beginning.
Before it had been wary of its prey but now that its prey was down and defenseless, it would act with impunity.
Bennet felt a sense of danger overload his senses but he didn't know where it was coming from. By now his skin was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. His blonde hair sticking to his temple and part of his forehead.
The poison was really doing damage to him and he couldn't help but think.
If this is just from breathing in its vapor then what would have happened had he been hit directly? He would have melted like the Evolver from before no doubt.
Bennet suddenly felt chilled. Through his foggy vision he managed to make out a vague shape of a massive shadow. What really struck him though were the red orbs that had once been numerous before looking down on him with unhinged malice.
The Lurker's fangs parted revealing its dark mouth. Then it drove its head down eager to devour him.
'Shit!' was all the former mayor could think at this point. He was a man who rarely if ever swore and when he did then things were just that bad.
He urged his body to move. Just barely rolling out of the way of a pair of hideously sharp and venomous fangs.
The Lurker that had dived forward with its head in an attempt to take a good bite off him, hit the dirt causing the dust and rocks to fly outward.
"Urgh!" Bennet groaned as the forcefulness of the impact sent him forward in an unprepared roll. His world was spinning and he felt like collapsing right that very moment. However he couldn't afford to.
Using the [Stonecrusher], that had managed to remain in his grip, he dug its edge into the ground, forcing himself to stop. He stood on one knee.
Pain jolted throughout his entire being and he felt as if his arm would rip out of his shoulder at any second.
Bennet gritted his teeth. A trail of blood leaking from the corner of his lips. He pushed himself to stand. His knees, as weak as they were, felt like jelly and his arms felt heavy like lead. His vision seemed to be getting worse and worse.
He could barely make out the Lurker's eyes as it stood and shook its head in an attempt to clear its dizziness.
The impact it had with the ground had actually been concentrated on the wound on its head making it feel disoriented and weak.
HISS! It was all this human's fault!
It opened its maw in Bennet's direction and called upon its mana. Green poisonous vapor poured into the air as poison began to accumulate. It accumulated until there was a globule of poison hanging from its mouth.
The poison shot forward as though it were a ball shot from a cannon. An acidic vapor rose into the air, adding to the concentration of the poison in the sub-domain.
Bennet could hardly see the poison coming his way and his body felt too heavy to even move at this point.
However he forced himself, he had to. If that poison landed on him this time, he didn't think his armor would be able to withstand it.
Bennet's body screamed as he leapt to the side and right then the poison moved past in a blur of motion. Its strong acidic smell lingering in his nose as though it were still there.
The Lurker wasn't finished yet though.
To its back the bulbous abdomen that had remained in the background finally moved. It bent until it was below the spider's hideous body, the tip pointed forward.
Then, a string made from web fluid shot forward heading right for Bennet who had managed to just barely avoid the poison strike seemed to be lost in thought.
Distracted in his own thoughts, Bennet missed the web.
Pah.
It attached itself to his chest, gripping at what remained of his armor with a firmness that exceeded even the world's strongest super glue.
"Huh?"
Bennet felt something amiss but by the time he realized this it was already too late.
The Lurker's eyes twinkled with sadistic glee as it pulled back its abdomen tugging at the web with force. Bennet felt his body pulled so forcefully, his feet were carried off the ground.
'Dammit I'm being pulled'
Bennet realized that he was being pulled towards the Lurker. He had to do something. And fast!
Arms aching, he lifted his greatsword over his head. The action itself feeling as though the veins in his arms may pop at any moment. In an act of pure desperation he swung down on the web. A roar escaping his lips as he did so.
Snap!
The web snapped under the heavy pressure of the strike and Bennet felt elation overtake his heart. However just as quickly as it came, it was crushed ruthlessly.
Bennet may have cut the web that had been pulling him but he failed to account for one thing.
Inertia.
The law of inertia states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force. Bennet may have managed to cut the source of the force pulling him but his inertia continued to move him forward.
And the Lurker seemed to have already taken this into account.
It lifted one of its front segmented legs above its head and waited for the right moment.
And then when Bennet was within its range, it swung down with what felt like the weight of a mountain.
Boom.
Bennet plummeted to the ground with a destructive boom. The ground sinking on impact as cracks spread outward. For a moment, Bennet's eyes rolled to the back of his head. In that split second of impact he felt his consciousness go black.
The Lurker's leg had landed directly on his shoulder blade snapping his bones completely. Bennet could barely lift his arm now without the biting pain in his shoulder.
The blood flew from his lips as he coughed. Strength left his body.
Bennet's eyes regained some of their clarity a few seconds later however the Lurker was already lifting up its two front legs. It was preparing to strike once more.
Seeing this a well of helplessness swelled within his heart. He knew he didn't have the strength to go on with this fight.
However...
He couldn't just give up too.
[Stonecrusher] which had remained by his side this entire time moved under his feeble strength. He couldn't even lift the heavy weapon more than a few inches off the ground now. He managed to bring it to his chest the flat edge of his blade shielding a major part of his chest. He held the large sword in place with one hand by the hilt and the other by the edge of the blade itself.
And then the Lurker struck. Its legs descended in a tempest of blows so heavy that even though the majority of them were being offset by [Stonecrusher] the reverberating force that travelled through the rest of his body was more than enough to cause him injuries.
The Lurker's assault was a relentless barrage that felt no different from mountains being dropped on him again and again.
Under such assault from a being that stood at the peak of the Second Star Order, how could the body of a First Star Order even fare?
Bennet's internal organs were ruptured causing his lungs and mouth to fill up with blood and cough it all out. His bones were completely crushed some of them even piercing into what remained of his organs. His armor was completely broken to the point that it fell to the ground, his skin was torn and bleeding covering his entire body from head to toe in red.
His arms which were used to hold up [Stonecrusher] were now a broken mangled mess of flesh at this point and the greatsword that had once acted as a shield to protect him had long since slid off his body and fallen to the side.
Pain assaulted his entire being as though he had been dropped in a vat of oil. It was so intense that his mind slipped in and out of consciousness.
However even in this state he couldn't help but think about those kids.
They were so strong to have been able to make it out of York Town High like that and even take on a gang. Others like Huey, Jordan, Lydia and Veronica even possessed strength that was strong enough to surpass some of his men and even himself.
'I really would have liked to see how far they would go in the future' he sighed in his fading mind. 'I hope you guys will take care of this beast without much issue and hopefully don't die'
There was nothing more for him to do. He had done all he could. Strength was slowly leaving his body. Bennet could feel it, his injuries were too severe this time around. If he managed to survive he would probably be crippled for life.
He had the strong urge to close his eyes and just let go at this moment.
'Yeah I should just close my eyes for a second'
Bennet's body was shutting down, it had endured more than it could handle and had been holding on solely due to Bennet's will.
But now that that will was fading...
In the distance, the remaining evolvers watched with tears in their eyes as their leader was utterly and completely crushed.
Thorne especially grit his teeth to the point that his gums bled. Either he didn't feel it or he didn't think that it mattered. Tears of blood dripped from the side of his eyes. His pupils red with grief, rage and helplessness.
His body shook and the veins in his forehead looked as though they might pop at any moment.
It was taking a combination of incredible loyalty, strong will and survival instinct to keep himself from rushing forward and joining the fight. But he knew it wouldn't make a difference, he had barely been able to follow half of the fight that had happened and yet this was the ultimate result.
What should he do? Should he just watch as his mentor, his friend and leader was dying while he stood to the side and did nothing?
The other evolvers felt the same way.
They found it hard to breathe as though a rope was being constricted around their throats. They wanted nothing more than to look away and yet they also couldn't bring themselves to look away as they felt that would be disrespectful.
The Lurker halted its barrage.
It regarded Bennet for a moment or at least what remained of his body. It had completely crushed all the bones in his body and his eyes were half-closed as though he were in a daze.
Glee filled the Lurker. It could feel it. Bennet wouldn't last long. Soon he would be dead. It could finish him off right now and be done with it but the Lurker was grudgeful.
It had suffered untold humiliation at Bennet's hands, how could it possibly just kill him like that?
No, it wouldn't just kill him.
Before the Lurker and Bennet had started fighting, he had told the rest of the evolvers to retreat and not get involved in the fight after all they were really weak to even consider being in close proximity of the battle between the two of them and would have probably died without even knowing how.
At the time the Lurker hadn't really thought much about it and had even decided to let them go. But now having suffered this humiliation from Bennet, how could it just let this go?
The Lurker turned away from Bennet its gaze looking far into the distance where Thorne and the rest of the evolvers stood powerless to do anything other than watch as their leader was crushed beneath the Lurker's might.
It turned to look at Bennet's broken figure once more. The latter having just a sliver of his consciousness to just make out the Lurker's intention.
'No...' Bennet said internally and the twinkle in the Lurker's eyes seemed to say 'You wanted your subordinates to survive? Ha watch as I tear them apart! Right in front of you!'
The Lurker turned to face the evolvers once more before its eight segmented legs carried it forward.