Alright. Bellbane didn’t actually scream the word ‘die.’ I wish it did just for the sheer irony, but the thing instead let out a loud huff that sounded like a cold gust whistling through a dense forest as he shot forward.

Bellbane didn’t seem all that fast, and the thing didn’t have a charge ability like Foggy it seemed like, but he hammered its fists into the ground, pouncing his way along like a massive gorilla. His condensed fog body was nearly soundless as he beat his way toward the spiders, however enormous plumes of mist rose as he did so, similar to Fogdahn’s scythe strikes. The mist easily covered the floor of the large space in just the time it took Bellbane to reach the vein spider things, clinging to it like dry ice on the stage of an early 2000s Britney Spears performance.

What? Knock it off. Stop. Let me love my berry life, okay?

The smog monster backhanded a vein spider, splattering a heaping helping of blood stew across the wall it had just climbed down before hammering down on another with a closed fist. The third leapt for him only to be met with his wide palm and a geyser of hot steam, melting the monster into nothing but a smoking pile of paste. One last swing ended the life of the fourth, and there was momentary silence again.

[Your party has slain a Capillarachnid Veinling - Level 14. You are awarded 189 experience points]

[Your party has slain a Capillarachnid Veinling - Level 14. You are awarded 178 experience points]

[Your party has slain a Capillarachnid Veinling - Level 14. You are awarded 193 experience points]

[Your party has slain a Capillarachnid Veinling - Level 14. You are awarded 187 experience points]

“Hey! Stop!” I shouted, far too late to be effective. “We can’t keep spawning these things, we will be overwhelmed!”

It turned back, hollow eye sockets meeting mine while saying nothing at all.

“Don’t you get it?” I called out again as Aeronik took a place beside me.

“No… no, I get it now. I can see it…” Aeronik said, just as more scurrying started above us. “That is it. We are meant to be overwhelmed… one of our party members will be overtaken regardless. You see, we must defeat 100, but by the end of this challenge there is a good chance that there will be more than that around at once. We have no choice… we must fight with this handicap.”

Bellbane must have picked that up as well. I mentally cursed, which I found myself doing way more lately than I ever did in my non-blueberry life. There was no time for me to respond, and instead I just gave a grunt and prepared for battle.

The four scurried down the walls. I looked anxiously around us, waiting on the other four to shimmy their spider asses over here to be slaughtered by my berry might. Just when I was ready to lay the smack down and show them just what The Barry is cooking, four dropped down on us from above, practically bungee jumping down from a long, sticky blood web.

“Blood webs! I called it!” Was all I had time to shout as I jumped back, narrowly dodging a set of teeth.

I immediately tossed down my [Entangling Rose-Hips] right where the one that attacked me had dropped down, and the area of effect was wide enough to catch another. Aeronik swiftly dispatched the two that dropped on him, while Bellbane smashed down on the four that had climbed down the wall as a diversion. I shot forward, swiping out my sword while also remembering I really needed to dump more of my Expertise Points into it when I had some to spend. I severed the first one in half, following up with a hacking chop on the second just as the rose-hips wore off.

Eight more kill notifications and eight more piles of juicy experience points, with my own kills landing me over 250 points each, similar to the first one I had killed. I didn’t have time to check the kill notifications from when Aeronik had taken his out, because the dungeon had something else in mind.

[Dungeon Alert: Your party has completed 19% of the trial. You have eight minutes and thirty-nine seconds remaining]

“Hell Yes!” I shouted as all eight of our foes lay in heaps of crimson goo. “Almost twenty percent in just over a minute? That’s what I’m talking about!”

“Yes,” Aeronik answered. “I know what you are talking about, fool. You do not need to reiterate it.”

I was ready to fire back when Bellbane began his gorilla-style charge back toward us, clearing the space in seconds. I really wanted to know why the spooky thing was heading here so rapidly, but my question dissolved once I heard the skittering, scratching sound of sixteen spiders climbing down the walls all around us. I spun, watching the eight-legged vein creatures surround us entirely. I felt my adrenaline, or whatever I had for adrenaline here, pulse through me, and my whole buddy hummed with a fearful, nervous tremor as they closed in.

With an enormous thud, a gargantuan, ugly, terrible thing fell from the ceiling to land just beside us, already tearing back and preparing to plunge its baseball bat sized fangs down into us.

It dropped on us, attacking faster than I could dodge. I raised my sword in hopes of countering a fang when Bellbane leapt in front of us, both enormous mist-fists grappling the huge teeth and wrestling the monstrosity back.

And this thing was monstrous.

The [Capillarachnid Artery Alpha] was a spider tank. Each leg was as thick as I was, its body putting Bellbane’s size to shame while every single eyeball on its horrible, bloody face were like individual softballs. The veins that intertwined to make up its body and legs were throbbing and pulsating as if it were moving sludge through a garden hose, and sharp bone hooks protruded from all over its back and legs.

I hated it.

The veinlings closed in around us, sixteen forming a circle as if we were all in a schoolyard brawl. I eyed them, watching as they slowed and carefully stepped in closer to close ranks as Bellbane struggled and tussled with the large alpha. They were almost where I wanted them…

“Yo! Bee! Stay close to me!”

“What have I said about calling me a bee?” Aeronik shouted back, buying me the time and distraction I wanted.

Come on… come on…

“Now!” I shouted to no one at all, as I sprung up my swirling spite of bursting berry death.

I aimed it right below the center of the alpha, the pillar bursting out from the ground and pushing the creature into the air. Bellbane didn’t miss the opportunity, reeling back with all of his might and dropping the creature behind him on its back like a straight up suplex. The beast landed hard enough to shake the ground around us, squishing two of the veinlings under its spiked back. The fireberry pillar rotated, tossing off bursting red balls of burning berries all around it, damaging several of the closed in spiders while scaring off the rest. I moved out, sword slicing through a burning spider like warm, blood-filled butter. Aeronik, looking all stupid and confused, thrust out to the opposite side and began spearing the spiders who were backing away from the pillar’s area of effect.

Notifications were coming in swarms as I cut down two more. I was momentarily distracted by them, causing one of the bastards to leap onto me while still actively on fire, biting my berry body twice before I managed to toss it off and jam the sharp end of my obsidian blade in its belly. The bites hurt like Hell, each one knocking off around 5% of my health pool; I was lucky that they didn’t seem to be venomous, but their fangs did manage to drain a bit of health which was still deadly on its own. I pressed one of my oily, gray flesh gloves to the wound and came away with a mixture of red blood and blue juice.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Shit… I thought, backing towards my pillar for its final moments active and putting space between myself and the spiders. I have to be careful with these things. They were easy enough to kill on their own, but a dog pile of them could wither me down to a raisin in seconds if I’m not careful. Sparing a quick glance at Aeronik, I could see that he too had taken some bites, but managed to take down a majority of the ones that didn’t succumb to my fire berries.

Bellbane was in an all out brawl. The Alpha had turned itself over, but was clearly feeling the pain of going fang-to-hand with the mist golem, far too weakened and slow to avoid the full force Bellbane was giving it. An uppercut landed square between its fangs right to the chin, catching it even more off-balance and allowing Bellbane to unleash another torrent of steam that boiled the creature where it stood. It collapsed, the last remnants of fight draining out of it as it dissolved into a burbling puddle of gross dungeon spider goo.

[Your party has slain a Capillarachnid Artery - Alpha - Level 26. You are awarded 513 experience points]

[You have gained a level. You are now Level 11. You are 4629 experience points from Level 12]

I internally did the Judd Nelson fist raise thing from the end of the Breakfast Club when the level notification rolled on by. I didn’t have time to set the expertise point, but I already know I was throwing it on my sword skills; my spellwork seemed to be improving and my abilities held their own so far, but I was still just bumbling my way around with the sword and hoping no one thought I looked completely stupid doing so. The level also meant that I had not hit a cap as Aspenoc had implied, so I wasn’t out of luck with an evolution path just yet.

[Your familiar, Scrappy - Level 6 Battle Orchid, has died]

“God damn it…” I said as the notification popped up. At least the little guy went up another couple levels in the process. It made me curious at how the other team was fairing, and how Foggy was holding up all by himself. Seeing the notification about Scrappy dying, again, made me fear the worst for Foggy and Ak.

The last of the veinlings was splattered as Bellbane snatched it up and spiked it to the ground like a touchdown. The mist golem turned back to look at me, offering another nod and hollow expression.

[Dungeon Alert: Your party has completed 53% of the trial. You have six minutes and twenty-two seconds remaining]

“Fifty-nine percent?!” I shouted as we regrouped, preparing for the next horde to drop any second now. “That can’t be us. Not a chance. How many have we killed now?”

Bellbane raised both hands in front of itself and painstakingly began counting using one finger at a time. I raised a hand and shook my head.

“Nah-uh, don’t have all day here. You have any idea?” I said to Aeronik as he wiped slung blood off of the tip of his spear.

“Thirty-one little ones, one big one,” he answered without looking at me. “For all we are aware our team may have already finished the total number needed of the veinlings, however if my assumption is correct then they will continue to spawn even after the one hundred is met, as the trail will not end until the alphas are defeated as well. Our next swarm will account for thirty-two of the veinlings at once, along with two alphas. I fear we are doomed.”

“Doomed? Doomed my ass!” I answered, waving my chipped obsidian sword around like an orchestral conductor. “You haven’t been with us long, bee, but our group has been doomed before and come out on top. So, if you have any potentially helpful abilities that you’ve been holding out on us with, now would be the time to share.”

Aeronik soured, giving me an expression I could only describe as perturbed. He jammed his spear-end into the ground, crossing his insectoid arms and huffing like a whiny little brat. “Of course I do not have more abilities! I am not some product of evil reincarnation conjuring like yourself! I am not gifted abilities as quickly as you seem to be. I have an ability that multi-thrusts my spear up to eight times, and….” He paused, pondering his words and dropping his angry facade. The nubs of his clipped wings clacked together behind him. “And a passive that allows for greater flight speed.”

“Oh…” was all I could say to the guy, it was all I could offer him at that moment. I moved forward with the conversation, eager to not go down that emotional rabbit hole with Aeronik, and looked to Bellbane. “Any neat tricks you’ve been hiding or what?”

He nodded, holding up a single finger. If I was guessing correctly it seemed like he only had the one steam geyser ability, and potentially one that we have not seen yet. Maybe it could help us, but then again maybe it was something totally useless.

Looking at my own didn’t help any. Rose-hip was back from cooldown, and I had my sunflower cannon and my new healing ability, but that was it. My pillar of fireberries was still out of commission for a while, and I instantly regretted not grabbing the dragon move while I could have.

“Alright, what about an inventory? Do either of you have a pouch? The magical one with infinite storage space?” I asked.

“It is not infinite, fool,” Aeronik answered. “But yes, I have one. Though my supplies are few.” He poked around in a haggard, crappy sack. “Food rations, camp supplies, two books, alcohol…”

“Alcohol?” I questioned as the scurrying began again. “What? Why? What kind? How much?”

“I do not know! Unlike the foul blueberries that come from your world apparently, the people of Icaraz do not poison our bodies with such things.” He pulled the bottle from his sack, the clear liquid sloshing in the unmarked, corked bottle. “I have six of these. Have them if you wish. It is clear that my grandfather stored them for your lot and not for me.”

I snatched it from his hand, ushering for him to give me more. “More! All of it! Quick! And your camping supplies!”

Bellbane rushed at a far wall, smashing into the endless wave of spiders that made their way down. The mist golem battered their ranks, nearly every blow splattering a spider like a water ballo- No, wait. I said that already. I’ll try again. The mist golem battered their ranks, nearly every blow splattering a spider like a dropped family-sized lasagna straight from the oven. Even then, the golem was being swarmed. Dozens came over him at a time, and even though he was made of corporeal mist it still seemed like their fangs could rip chunks out of him at the very least.

Shit. Shit! Alright, Barry. You got this. Use that bulbous blueberry brain!

I took the alcohol and camping gear, which consisted of a tent, sleeping bag, pillow, more glowing lanterns, and…

“Yes!” I shouted, retrieving the flint kit for starting a campfire. I was city trash and knew nothing about starting a fire outside of lighting an after-work cigarette, but I immediately went to work and hoped for the best as I watched Bellbane battled against the sea of spiders, with two Alphas slowly making their way down from the shadows as well.

With my obsidian sword I cut lengths of cloth from the canvas sleeping bag, which Aeronik scolded me for. I then lopped off the tops of the alcohol bottles, bits of glass and liquor spraying out around us before I shoved the strips of sleeping bag fabric into the spout of one and held it out to Aeronik.

“Flint! Light this with the flint! Quick!”

He was annoyed, but ultimately did it. After knocking the flint a few times he got an ember started on the cloth that hung from the bottle, and I quickly handed him another ready to light. Before Aeronik could ask some stupid question, I snatched up the bottle with the flaming fabric, now full on burning, and threw it as hard as my blueberry body could.

“Bellbane! Get out of there!” I shouted as I let it fly, the bottle spinning end over end through the air.

Bellbane turned, saw the burning object, then shoved himself backward and tumbled out of the way, three spiders still clinging to his hazy body. The makeshift molotov cocktail smashed against the far wall, shattering into shards and releasing the alcohol out in a wash of rolling flame. I was momentarily stunned as the fire slowed the spider’s progress while completely lighting two on fire. It worked? That worked?

“Grand Theft Auto was surprisingly accurate after all…” I said, grabbing the second burning bottle and winding it up. “Alright, stay close!” I commanded. “We will whittle them down on fire bomb at a time, then clean up the stragglers! Berry boys, go!”

“What?” Aeronik said, grabbing another prepped bottle and handing me another flaming one just as I let the second fly.

The second landed like the same, sending out a wash of fire that took out a few more of the veinlings. The rest were hesitant to advance on us, buying us precious seconds to continue our Macgyver assault. I spared a glance at Bellbane, who had squashed the spiders that had remained attached to him, and I noticed that he was hunched over and even more sluggish than usual; clearly the spider horde had done some damage to the poor thing. Still, he had given us the time we needed for the plan, and now it was up to us to ensure his suffering wasn’t in…

Vein.

Third cocktail was thrown into the air, though this time my trajectory was off and I missed the slowly advancing horde, causing many to split away and start surrounding us on the outer wall. At the same time the Alphas both continued forward as if the fire was nothing to them, stepping through the burning pools without taking much damage at all, aside from a few -3s and -4s; flame resistant maybe? Some kind of passive skill?

[Dungeon Alert: The quota of 100 Capillarachnid Veinlings has been met. 22 Capillarachnid Artery Alphas remain. Four minutes and forty-three seconds remaining]