35.
The fort’s walls were reduced to rubble, stone dust rising up in the air with every step. The inner courtyard was covered in shards of detritus, the oily black stone in sharp segments, none larger than the size of a fist. Corpses lay strewn, the dead spiders leaking ichor all over the ground to mix with the dust to create a muddy paste. Everyone let me go first, my stench enough to keep a bubble of isolating space around me. I wasn’t salty about it, the useless shits.
After Miguel had dragged me out of the turtle’s eye, they had handed me tools to saw my way in to find the mana heart in the center of its body. Luke, who had been smiling widely the entire time, had said since I was already filthy, I should get the honors. I won our bet at least, the ruby red vitality mana heart clutched to my chest. It was like a small boulder and I was tempted to crack it open and drink it like a milkshake. I was sure I could get a stat point for a mana heart of this size.
The allure of functioning showers was more appealing than a single point. I was coated in turtle goo from head to toe. My hair was plastered to my skull and stiff as a helmet with all the dried bodily fluids. I had turtle under my fingernails and in my nose and in my boots. If the stench of iron wasn’t so overwhelming, I’m sure everyone would be laughing at me right now. Those few brave enough to get close had ended up beating a quick retreat while gagging as my new odor overwhelmed them.
I was going to live in those showers and no one else was going to use them until I was sure I was clean. Just had to get my newly acquired mana heart to the furnace and get to fixing the fort. Starting with the showers and fresh clothes. Then the walls. Maybe. I was ignoring the part of me that was whispering that with this fort occupied, over half of the forts were taken and the mysterious citadel would be opened. We would have to get past Torien to reach it, but I was willing to bet he would race toward the citadel right away.
The gates that protected the ramp were busted open, hanging on twisted hinges. The ramp was filled with cobwebs, stretched across the passage, filling the dark ramp with gleaming silk. Undisturbed silk. Shit. Something was still down there. I tossed the mana heart to the ground, and yelled for my spear and shield.
“Miguel! Weapons!” I stuck my hands out, grasping the air like an infant, never once taking my gaze off of the ramp. Last thing I wanted to contend with was a wave of those spider variants running me over as I turned away from the obvious monster lair. It had all the hallmarks of a horror movie, one I planned to survive. This whole tutorial had been just a long horror movie. I wasn’t going to let my exhaustion, impatience, and general crankiness get me killed. Not so close to my goals.
“Fire! Get wood and fire. We’re burning these fuckers out!” I yelled toward the others. My mountain squad people turned and started back out toward the plains to gather what they could. There wasn’t much in the way of fuel out there, not unless we majorly backtracked to the woods, but the long grass would burn and maybe the silk would as well.
“What the fuck’s going on!?” Dan bellowed as he closed the distance. He had briefly rendezvoused with us, before retreating quickly. My sudden boost in strength had rattled him, my presence dominating the area, rivaled only by Luke. He had kept to himself at the side of the formation, allowing me to lead the groups in with little input.
Miguel tossed me my weapons, still staying as far as he could, and I armed myself. The spear felt good in my hand, not natural at all, but comfortable. The shield’s weight was now negligible with all my increased stats, the once heavy piece of wood and steel light as a feather. It hit me suddenly, standing there in a demolished courtyard about to possibly invade a sentient bug nest. I was used to it. I had grown accustomed to this craziness at some point and now it hit me.
A surge of emotions followed my realization, not a single one of them useful, as I turned to confront Dan. He came with his own entourage, all of them his former soldiers and all of them high ranked. High teens probably, but still far below me. I wouldn’t be able to fight all of them if it came to it, but the fact he didn’t feel confident in confronting me without them was a welcome boost to my ego.
“Look at the ramp. The silk is undisturbed. They broke the gates but didn’t get into the actual fort,” I explained as more and more soldiers filled the courtyard. Luke wasn’t far away, listening with a lazy expression on his face while Dan circled me like a mangy dog.
“We push then. Deac, Marsh, Alan, get your squads up here and we start clearing this out.” Dan tried to take control, relying on his currently superior numbers to overwhelm me. What a little shit. The burst of anger overrides everything else I had been feeling. I wanted to crush him into the ground, stamp on his face until the bones shattered and he was flatter than a pancake. I wanted to feel his bones give out, to hear his heart stop beating as he breathed his last breaths.
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“Fire. We burn them out,” I hissed between my teeth as my anger turned me rabid. Fuck it, I would fight all of them. I’d die, but I’d hoist Dan’s impaled corpse over my head and let his blood drench me. That image was disturbing and slightly impractical. An effect of my skill?
“We don’t have time.” Dan had no idea of the urges I was struggling to contain. He was dancing on the precipice of death and didn't realize that the ground was uneven. I could kill him before he could react, a singular burst of mana as I stabbed him. Turned him into flying piecemeal before the horrified eyes of his followers.
What the fuck is wrong with me. That would be sloppy and shortsighted. Violence, if needed, was to be fast, brutal, and meaningful. This rage was part of me, alway had been, but the over the top dramatic fantasies weren’t.
“If you don’t want to wait, then they can follow behind me.” I needed to act now before I did something stupid. The last two days have exhausted all my good sense. I turn and start down before they can react. The cool damp of the tunnels were a welcome relief from the heat running beneath my skin. My anger had literally gotten me hot headed.
The first strands of silk parted easily, as I swung my spear carefully, slicing apart the silk as I worked my way down. The further down I went, the darker it got, the small glowing stones destroyed or covered completely. Thick woven braids of silk replaced individual strands, and though it still parted, I had to put effort into it. I stopped to clear off the mass of silk stuck to the spear blade. It was soft and sticky, a challenge to get off my hand, eventually succeeding in throwing a balled up lump to the side. I started again, but hardly made it to the next gate before I had to clean my spear again.
The silk had become like curtains, blocking all sight further in as it hindered me. Behind me, I could hear the soldiers chasing. Boots thudding on stone as they rushed down. I was still heated, the burning desire to crush my foes lurked at the edge of my consciousness. I worked faster, cutting with wild swings that sheared the curtains in half and allowed me to pass. Strands clung to my legs and feet, further hindering me as I marched down.
Sounds, chittering and chirping, came through the dense weave in front of me. They were still here, in the dark tunnels where all light had fled. Where their webbing had hindered me. I started cursing. I backed up slowly, each foul word leaving my lips another vent of my anger. The webbing stuck and held me, tugging at my boots and pants, refusing to let me leave. I yanked my leg back, an icy pulse of fear spiking through me. I had fucked up big time.
My enhanced perception let me see, but it was like I’m in a dim room. I could make out shapes, vague silhouettes in the low light. My eyes didn’t leave the thick woven curtain in front of me, just outside of spear range. I watched as it peeled back, sliding away without sound as the spiders scuttled forth in a wave. I struck out instinctively, slaying one instantly. The rush of kill heat started, and the rage bubbled back up. My skill, ready to be unleashed in a wave of red hot fury. I needed to throttle it, strangle it in its infancy. I needed to clear my mind if I was going to survive this. The spiders were much weaker than me, even a casual blow was crippling to them. Their bodies were soon piling up around me, my spear hacking and slashing.
A minute into the fight I noticed it. The damn webbing was sticking to the spear, slowing my strikes as I needed to rip apart the loose webbing that I accidentally entangled myself with. A growl of anger rang out as I lost a boot. The ground was so sticky that the boot refused to move, and then bare skin was on cool, sticky, damp stone.
“Come on, you fuckers!” I screamed, letting the rage rip out of my throat, but it was oddly dampened in the hall. I slashed again and again, strands of webbing growing thick on the spear shaft until it was completely consumed. A blow rattled me, fangs gouging at the wood of my shield. I hammered the spider into the ground with the rim, enjoying the crunch of breaking bones. All around me, shapes were racing on the walls, the sticky silk holding and releasing them at their will as they rushed around me.
I was too strong to bring down. So they ignored me, leaving me stuck in the middle of the hall, armed with only my shield. Scores passed me by, the sounds of fighting behind me fading as the distance grew. Finally, the wave of spiders stopped, leaving me alone but a moment before something shoved its head into the tunnel. I could only see the most vague of outlines but it was big. A wide head with antennae sticking out and large mandibles jutted forward.
It was bulkier than the wasps, a head closer to that of a bullet ant. The antennae twitched back and forth in wild ways before it scurried into the hall in a burst of speed. It raced up the wall, staying far away from me as it fled further up the hall. Seven or eight feet long with a dozen multi-segmented legs on each side. That was as much of a view as I got before it disappeared into the murk. Three more of them chased after the original, all of them ignoring me and further driving home the idiocy I had let myself be goaded into. I was stuck standing here, waiting for someone to come and get me. My attempts at moving had only further entangled me with the hanging ropes of silk, making it even harder to move.
The silk screen parted again, and something came out. It was large, wide and squat with a stomach that dragged on the ground. Wide round eyes stared at me, or at least I think they did. Hard to confirm in the dark. It was thirty feet long and flexible, regardless of the way its bulging belly dragged across the ground. Its long legs grabbed and hauled itself up the silk weavings, also ignoring me. Could this be the Queen, or whatever the equivalent is? Did that make the creatures that came first the royal guard or something? I knew they were sentient, they are an intelligent race. Was there some possibility of communicating with it?
“Why would We deign speak with servants?” The voice came from inside my skull as the bus-sized bug stopped and looked down at me with one of its dinner plate sized eyes. Holy fuck, they’re telepathic and use the royal We. Hive mind or just a Queen? Could it read my thoughts right now? Hey fuck you, you’re ugly and smell.
It stared for a moment longer, then started to depart, using the webbing to propel itself. As it went to leave, its final long segmented body piece passing me, it twitched. Pain. Crushing pain. It swatted me like a fly, ripping me free of the webbing and bouncing me off of the wall like a rubber ball. My new improved stats kept me alive fortunately. My skull was strong enough to survive putting a dent in stone.
The Queen disappeared before I could raise my aching head up to look at her. She was fast and strong and was about to burst out into the open. Where she would be killable. Where she wouldn’t be aided by all the damn webbing. I groaned, a mix of pain and bone deep weariness. I was going to sleep for a week after this. I stumbled to my feet and started to stagger out after her.