Noone was staring at Tobias when a high-pitched shriek roared through the stone chamber. The drider finally rose to its full height, shaking off whatever remnants of Tobias's miracle was left.
Facing Noone and Tobias, the drider was only slightly wary of the two beings, which is why it waited to completely recover. By this point the injuries caused by the flash-burn of sunlight Tobias had summoned were nothing more than vague marks on the creature’s body. It could smell the stink of fear on the paladin and Noone. A violent twisted smile painted the otherwise normal dark-elf face.
Noone’s entire body tensed as he forced his gaze back onto the drider. Even with Tobias at his back, the intense pressure of malice given off by the dark-elf/spider hybrid was enough to cause him to break out in a cool sweat.
His head still throbbed from the pressure, but Noone forced his divine sense to stretch to its limits as endless information flooded his brain. Tobias grunted deeply, staring unblinking at the drider.
Despite the casual atmosphere that had been there for a moment, the reality of the situation was that they were in a hard way right now.
Even with all of his miracles, and his experience, Tobias was less than sure about his chances. Despite living a long and adventure filled life, he had never fought a drider before. He only knew about them from stories he had heard.
Drider’s were usually semi-intelligent creatures. They were dark-elves which were cursed by their god. The curse would steal part of their minds away, but in exchange would give them bodies of cruel strength and speed.
There were driders who maintained their souls and intelligence, however these were very rare, and revered in dark-elf society. By the looks of this creature… this wasn’t one of them.
As the creature’s shiny black carapace stood out shockingly from the artificial sunlight, Noone and Tobias both squared up with the creature who was now pacing back and forth. It stared at them with the face of a dark elf but eyes of a demon beast. The click of eight pointedly sharp legs pacing against the far wall could be heard like knives being embedded into stone.
Despite lacking in intelligence, the drider did not rush forward first. As Noone and Tobias watched on, the drider’s dark-elf torso twisted around, and then pulled a long black quill from the spider’s abdomen. Finally, it turned to face them with a cold and vicious glint in its eyes. It brandished the quill like a spear in the dark-elf’s hands while raising its two front most legs.
Noone’s divine sense immediately saw the muscles under the dark carapace tense and then – like an assassin in the dark – it jumped at them, covering half the room’s distance in a single leap.
Tobias and Noone both grit their teeth. Neither one wanted to give the drider the advantage, so they stepped towards the rushing creature. Although their speed was nothing compared to its, their sudden advancement caused the creature to awkwardly slow its pace. It hadn’t been ready for these two weak beings to try to meet it head on.
A strange almost speech-like growl could be heard over the clack of feet and the sound of blood rushing in their ears as the dark-elf’s mouth twisted into a snarl.
Tobias moved forward before Noone could meet the creature’s attack and hoisted his shield up in its path. Not even a blink had passed before the black spear-like quill was swung against the shield.
Tobias let out a heavy grunt and Noone was shocked to see Tobias be knocked off his feet only to stick the landing a meter behind where he had been.
Despite the arms of the dark-elf being extremely thin, they swung the quill with a weight that was unmatched.
Noone took the sudden pause in the driders movement to dash into the small space between it and Tobias. Noone's throat shook as a shout escaped his lips and his dark iron axe was swung to his limits. Universe energy subconsciously slipped into his bones and muscles to support the strain as he put all of his power into the strike.
In the second that it took for Noone to take Tobias’s place and attack, an eye opened on the spider-body and the drider reared up on 4 legs – creating enough space for Noone’s attack to roar by harmlessly.
Noone watched this happening like slow-motion in his divine sense, he shouted out a curse and instead of pulling his attack back he let his axe embed itself into the cold stone floor. Rock broke with a crack and flew in every direction.
Using his momentum, Noone jumped forward - rolled - and pulled his axe from the earth just as a dark knife-like leg swept past his skull – only missing him by a meagre few inches.
From the outside, his attack and dodge looked masterfully executed – however Tobias was able to tell exactly how close it had been. Not only did the creature attack Noone’s blind spot, but it attacked with such speed that it had been nearly impossible to dodge. If Noone had hesitated for even a moment, his spine would have been pierced by the spider’s leg.
Tobias wasted no time rushing the spider with his shield held in front of him like a charging rhino. He lifted his shield high, blocking another spear thrust and then bashing into the creature’s torso. Tobias was a big man with a lot of muscle. He also had decades of experience on how to throw his weight around.
Using this experience – for a moment – he was able to knock the creature back onto its hindmost legs. However, because of the creature’s size, that was all he was able to do. He gave a violent shout as he quickly jumped back, the creature falling back down – eyes glaring with hate but completely unharmed.
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Tobias glanced to the side as he squared up with the drider, in his eyes, he could see Noone rushing towards the spider’s side, axe once again poised to strike. Tobias grit his teeth and swung his axe towards the space where the spider and dark-elf melded together. He seemed to fight against the air itself as the axe audibly whistled with the speed of a whip.
The drider quickly braced the quill in Tobias’s path, the thin arms of the dark elf having no problem embracing Tobias’s strike. The bladed end of his axe rung off the side of the quill. The dark-elf's arms were like steel, not reacting in the slightest to the force.
Noone’s expression was calm however his heart beat quickly, he was now right next to the creature’s body and his heavy great-axe fought against his muscles as he chopped down into the joint between the drider’s leg and body.
The sharpened edge of his cool iron axe easily crushed into the joint, Noone felt the edge bite into each quill, fibrous muscle, and tendon as he put all of his weight into his weapon. The axe severed enough tissue to bite halfway into the joint, almost a full eight-inches before coming to a violent stop as it struck some cartilaginous endoskeleton.
Noone’s initial joy was immediately offset when he realized that – due to the jerk back of the creature’s muscles, his axe became wedged in the creature’s side.
“Shit.” He thought. He had just enough time to see the leg he had tried to sever raise up and pierce towards him. Using all of his strength he jumped back but due to his weapon he was too slow. The creature’s knife-like leg pierced into Noone’s arm before he managed to get out of range.
Blood immediately began draining from the wound and Noone felt his arm go numb from pain however he grit his teeth and maintained his grip on his weapon. His knuckles were white, and blood began seeping between his fingers and his weapon.
Inwardly Noone sighed a small breath of relief. When the leg had pierced into his arm, he had been able to feel Tobias’s miracle at work and block some of the force. Without it, Noone was sure the leg would have cut through his arm entirely.
The drider jumped back creating some space between itself and the two humans. The leg Noone had struck trembled as the spider tried to move it, however due to the severed ligaments, it had become mostly useless.
Tobias glanced at Noone and the wound in his arm.
“Noone… how much force did you use in that attack?” Tobias asked worriedly. Noone could only frown and shake his head. He looked at Tobias, and the look was enough to cause Tobias to grind his teeth in worry.
Noone’s off hand hovered around his waist.
Tucked into his clothes was a belt with two bottles of liquid fire. Noone wasn’t sure how effective they would be against a spider creature like this… but he was more worried about getting any on himself or Tobias in such close quarters.
Even if he did manage to strike the creature, if it rushed them out of desperation and any of the liquid got on them, it would only be bad news.
And that was nothing to mention about the fact that they were deep underground. In that moment if the cavern filled with smoke, or the fire used up all the air… they would be good as dead. Noone quickly weighed all of his options. His head throbbed violently as he continued to pump stored energy into his divine sense. He could only grit his teeth and bear with it.
The creature itself swayed on its back legs staring menacingly at the two humans in front of it – hate could be seen festering in its eyes.
Tobias was panting heavily after blocking numerous strikes from the creature’s spear. His entire body was numb from the constant impacts, and his organs ached from the shock.
The drider hissed in what sounded like it could have been language and jumped towards Noone and Tobias, giving them no chance to catch their breath.
Tobias would block a strike, using all of his muscles to try and throw the spider off balance, and Noone would dash forward embedding his axe only a couple inches into the spidery torso. Its thick carapace easily thwarting all but the most direct strikes.
Tobias followed up with his own strike only to roll away from a sudden spear aimed directly towards his head.
Noone's breath was ragged as he came in low, swinging his axe at the spider’s lowest leg joint causing several cracks to develop in the carapace before needing to jump back.
Noone and Tobias did not let up for several minutes. After so long training with each other, their movements were in perfect sync and despite their growing exhaustion and the increasing number of wounds on their bodies they continued to pressure the drider.
No matter how much they struck the creature though, it seemed that they couldn’t inflict any major damage to it. As a battle of endurance, Noone was faring much better than Tobias who was fighting back the mental effects of exhaustion.
Noone was able to tell that Tobias's movements were getting slower… a frown shown on his face…
Noone’s hand shot towards his waist as he backed up, his fingers wrapped around a glass bottle and he was about to call Tobias to create distance from the creature.
As though the drider knew Noone was planning something, one of the several eyes on its torso turned to Noone. Noone felt a chill run up his spine just as the drider forced its entire body violently into him. Noone had no time to react even with his divine sense. His entire body shook, and he coughed up blood as he was tossed through the air. The drider had hit with the force of a runaway carriage. Made of steel.
Noone's head hit the floor first despite his best effort to protect it.
He did his best to get up quickly, but the entire world around him spun. Even his divine sense was shaken. What he could see though, was that the drider had decided to ignore Tobias completely. Like a rabid wolf, the drider shot straight towards Noone.
In the time it took the drider to cover the distance, Noone managed to think through a plan. His hand shot quickly towards the bottle on his waist. He knew if he used the liquid fire now, he would certainly be caught up in it as well… He grit his teeth.
But just as his hand wrapped around the bottle… Tobias's booming voice rang with the power of the gods themselves.
"SWITCH!" The paladin roared.
Suddenly, Noone felt the world around him shift. It happened so quickly he had no time to realize what had occurred.
The sound of a shield being dropped.
A blood chilling shout followed by a gurgling chuckle of laughter and blood which echoed out like a chorus of regret and cathartic release.