When they raised their heads, they could still see spiders hanging above them, but no one in the team looked surprised.
That was because the moment they jumped out from below, they had already sensed the situation outside.
Besides, both Ronin and Muherr had their En active. Those giant spiders could not escape their perception at all.
So the moment they emerged from below, the mercenaries opened fire, while Ronin completed a new set of hand seals.
It was still Wind Release, but this time it was Wind Release: Pressure Damage.
It was the same technique Kakuzu had used in the manga, and in Ronin's view, it was one of the best techniques for clearing a large area.
Ronin's chakra formed a high-density mass of wind. The wind ball exploded in midair, turning into a violent gale that swept away every spider above them while continuing to move toward the passage in front of the platform.
Along its path, huge numbers of spiders were blown into the air, while others were pushed by the fierce wind toward the edge of the high-rise.
However, Ronin also noticed that amid the raging wind, one spider after another shot large amounts of silk from their rear ends, anchoring it to the ground. That actually allowed their bodies to slowly stabilize inside the storm.
But Ronin wasn't the only one attacking.
The flamethrower in Golem's hand transformed back into a Gatling gun. As the squad members raised their submachine guns and fired at the spiders gradually stabilizing in the storm, the Gatling finally spat out blue fire as well.
The bullets almost formed a continuous line, piercing through the storm and tearing apart every spider visible on the platform.
As the storm slowly pushed forward, Golem also took measured steps ahead.
Ronin did not continue using ninjutsu either. The effect of Wind Release: Pressure Damage would last until all the chakra he had poured into it was consumed.
According to his calculations, it was already enough to let the team push all the way to the entrance.
With his hands free, Ronin instead turned and looked overhead.
On the cave wall above, spiders could still be seen writhing. They had formed three long rows, all surging toward the entrance.
The violent wind sweeping across the platform made the spiders hanging from the cave wall let out piercing hisses, and the spiders at the front even swung down on white silk threads, lunging toward the people on the platform below.
After all, Ronin's Wind Release was aimed forward.
But guarding the rear were Muherr and Mascher. After Ronin dealt with the swarm ahead, the two of them also moved at the same time.
The weapon in Muherr's hands was still that sniper rifle. When he raised it, Ronin saw a large amount of aura gathering into the gun.
That sniper rifle was a specially made model, not something conjured. When the bullet left the barrel, even Ronin sensed a faint trace of danger.
The projectile he fired didn't feel like a sniper bullet at all. It was more like a grenade round.
Boom!
An explosive roar rang out against the cave ceiling, followed by flames spreading across the surface in a wide area.
An Enhancement-type ability?
That was Ronin's judgment. However, what Muherr seemed to be enhancing was the sniper rifle in his hands and the bullets it fired.
But Muherr's target was the spiders on the cave ceiling. The spiders that had already swung down on silk threads were not within his attack range.
So Mascher made his move.
Mascher sank his breath into his core and placed both hands at his waist. Aura gathered into spheres in his palms, then erupted forward like shock waves.
A textbook Emitter.
Ronin made the judgment instantly, and this was the pure kind of Emitter who had not added any spatial attributes to his ability.
His specialty was simple: long-range firepower saturation from a safe distance.
The aura shockwaves struck the spiders swinging toward them. In an instant, most of their bodies were blasted apart.
The power looked even greater than Franklin's double-handed machine guns.
The key reasons were Mascher's enormous aura reserves, and the fact that the aura bullets he fired were much larger than Franklin's machine-gun rounds.
With only a few aura blasts, the swinging spiders were reduced to mangled corpses, their remains swaying in midair from the silk threads attached to their rear ends.
However, the high temperature caused by Muherr's shot above was extremely destructive to spider silk. Soon, those broken spider corpses also fell into the "abyss" below as their silk threads snapped.
The members of the squad who mainly handled support followed behind Golem with submachine guns in hand.
When the effect of the Wind Release faded, the barrels of Golem's Gatling gun had already turned red, and the Nen user sitting in the copilot seat looked slightly pale. It was a sign that too much energy had been consumed.
They swapped operators with practiced ease. During the entire process, Golem's footsteps did not pause in the slightest.
The iron hammer in his hand whirled, and after stepping over the ground covered in corpses, he smashed away one spider after another that countercharged out from the entrance.
Vanessa moved through the shadows and entered the passage ahead of them first.
Ronin, meanwhile, strolled leisurely behind Golem. Most of the time, he did not need to act at all.
Even when he did, it was only by casually picking up bits of rubble from the ground. With Enhancement-type Nen reinforcing them, even those were enough to deal with the spiders.
"Spiders are ordinary living creatures with flesh and blood. They need to eat," Ronin said, his gaze sweeping over the spiders one by one. "And their food source probably isn't the wooden monsters down below. In other words, somewhere near the cave ceiling, there may be another passage that lets these spiders hunt enough prey."
"There are a large number of monsters in the middle passage, and those monsters should be different from the wooden creatures in the underground city. They're probably true flesh-and-blood beings," Muherr analyzed. "If the spiders have a source of food, I think it's likely those monsters living in the space connected to the middle passage."
"After all, in all these years, there haven't been any reports of massive animal or human disappearances in the Kingdom of Aite."
Ronin nodded in agreement. "Then why are these spiders trying to leave through the passage we came from now? And judging from their behavior, they seem to be in a hurry."
"I don't know if you noticed, but not all the spiders on the cave ceiling are coming toward us," Muherr said.
"Yeah, I noticed. Above several buildings close to the wall, large numbers of spiders are gathering too. As for anything farther away, I can't see it. It's too dark," Ronin said, sounding somewhat regretful.
If there really was a route leading to the central area, as Muherr suggested, then it must be somewhere farther along the cave ceiling or the walls.
But unless absolutely necessary, Ronin had no desire to enter the middle passage.
Based on what they currently knew, the middle passage of the Mahawi ruins seemed more like it led to a monster paradise.
Because when they explored near the withered trees at the bottom of the buildings, they had found many traces of bones near similar conveyor belts.
Judging from those traces, the flesh and blood transported to the withered trees probably had not belonged to humans.
Combining that with the enormous number of spiders on the cave ceiling, as well as their guessed food source, the most likely conclusion was that somewhere within these ruins, there existed a place where those "offerings" were either raised or stored.