Dominic wasn’t an arachnophobe, but he had a healthy wariness of venomous spiders, especially when they were the height of a Great Dane. They were in front of the boss – that he was sure about. Worse, he had a sinking suspicion that he knew what kind of spider it was.
When he had decided to take this trip to South Africa, a couple of his friends had warned him not to go. One quoted the high rates of crime; another the dangerous animals – since he’d have died from a lion eating him, he’d have to admit that Toby had had a point. Toby had even taken the time to shove a picture of a black widow spider in his face.
The spindly legs, small head and bulbous black abdomen had stuck in his memory enough to recognise it in this creature. He knew that the black widow had a telltale red hourglass on the underside of its abdomen but this spider was crouched in a position which made it impossible to check – if he’d even wanted to try.
The only good thing was that it hadn’t charged them, yet. Dominic remembered how it took stepping into the room to make the warthog from the first dungeon attack him. Actually, there was another good thing. One of the little bits of dungeon knowledge which he’d torn from the dungeon master last time was that a dungeon, while given more flexibility when empowering a boss compared to a normal dungeon creature, was still limited.
The spider’s size had been increased hugely compared to the average member of its species, so that meant that the dungeon shouldn’t have been able to enhance other aspects of its body too much – like its venom. But considering how dangerous black widows were even in their small size, that wasn’t too reassuring. Even if its venom hadn’t been enhanced, with it being so big, the amount of venom it would be able to pump in with just one bite would be overwhelming.
‘We need to keep those antivenom draughts handy,’ Dominic murmured to Leo, fear making butterflies flutter in his stomach. They had faced lots of creatures, but nothing that gained such a visceral reaction from Dominic. Leo was better off, but not by much. He too had a natural wariness of this threatening-looking creature.
Dominic’s thoughts were interrupted when there was the sound of movement from the entrance. He tensed, his eyes flying to the still-motionless spider. A moment later revealed the source of the noise to be Sekhmet slipping into the room they were in.
Dominic stayed tense for a long moment, fearing that Sekhmet’s appearance would herald the beginning of the attack from the boss. Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. Closer inspection revealed that there was actually a small antechamber separating them from the spider’s room.
It couldn’t really be described as a chamber as the other side was almost fully open. The only indication that it was a separate space was the small step down into the spider’s chamber.
Sekhmet’s annoyed growl brought his attention back to her. She didn’t look too pleased about him ignoring her.
‘Sorry,’ he quickly apologised, rubbing against her in greeting, then explained what he’d been concerned about. ‘I feared it would attack you.’
‘Everything is fine,’ she said, though giving off a small sense of abashment which told him she hadn’t thought about it. ‘Lionel, Fang, come.’
Leo had perked up in Dominic’s mind as soon as Sekhmet had walked in, his eagerness flooding Dominic’s side of their shared mind. As soon as the two male lions padded in, that eagerness turned to aggression. If he’d been in control of their body, his teeth would have been bared, his body ready to pounce. As it was, Dominic found his body tensing before he reined it under control. Leo’s growl rumbled in his head.
‘What’s got into you?’ Dominic asked even as he moved forwards to greet the two males. Lionel returned it with his usual standoffishness, though Dominic liked to think that it held a little relief too. Fang, though, was far more cautious than usual, actually stepping back a little as Dominic moved towards him. When the larger lion just stopped and huffed in confusion, the smaller male padded hesitantly forwards and rubbed briefly against him before getting out of easy striking range.
Dominic was very confused, but that cleared up a moment later at Leo’s words.
‘Can’t you smell it? Our female is almost in heat.’
Dominic sniffed the air. Oh. He hadn’t been paying attention to it but the musky scent which now filled the room was familiar to him from when Leo had gone on a mating spree.
‘So you’re being aggressive because you don’t want Fang or Lionel near her?’ he concluded with a sigh.
‘Precisely.’
‘And Fang is nervous because he thinks I’m about to attack him?’
‘Yes. We should chase them both off before they can get her on her own.’
‘Leo, we’re in a dungeon,’ Dominic sighed again. ‘There isn’t any chasing off, and we need everyone to fight this boss, especially if we don’t want casualties.’
‘Maybe we should use the young males as bait for the spider and then attack it while it’s occupied eating them,’ Leo said thoughtfully. ‘That would solve both issues nicely.’
‘We’re not using any of our Pride members as bait,’ Dominic told him firmly. ‘And definitely not just because you’re being territorial.’
‘But-’
‘No. We will figure out what to do with them once and for all when we’ve finished this dungeon, but not before. Or do you want to endanger us all?” Feeling Leo hesitate, Dominic added in the only thing that might make Leo listen properly. ‘Sekhmet included.’
Leo growled angrily, but then turned to sulk in the back of their mind. Dominic shook his head, his mane ruffling around his ears.
‘Right,’ he said, pinning Fang and then Lionel with a look. ‘We need each other to get out of this dungeon – everything else can be figured out afterwards. Clear?’
Fang looked away. Lionel huffed which strangely sounded like a verbal shrug.
‘I am not interested in the female anyway.’
His huff was echoed by a scornful one from the female lion in question.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
‘I don’t want either of the weaker males. I only want the best,’ she said, giving Dominic a challenging look before walking closer to rub herself against him. She finished the movement by practically shoving her butt in his face and brushing past his muzzle with the base of her tail. Even Dominic could tell that that movement was flirtatious.
‘Alright then, good to know,’ he answered, a little off-balance both by her actions…and the stirring of his body in reaction to them. The clear preference for him over the other male lions was enough to pull Leo out of his sulk. The lion urged Dominic to stake his claim and mount the female right then and there, even if she was not quite in heat. ‘No!’ Dominic angrily refused him, pushing away a small part of himself that urged him to do just that. ‘Have you forgotten where we are for heaven’s sake?!’
Deciding to move past the whole thing, Dominic spoke again in the Pride chat.
‘Alright, this is most likely the boss meaning that it’s probably the last room in the dungeon. However, it also means that it’s the most dangerous single creature we’ve yet faced.’ He eyed the spider again. It still hadn’t moved an inch. Good – it should mean they’d have time to prepare then. First question: ‘Did you get a chest in your room too?’ he asked Sekhmet.
‘Yes,’ she yawned, settling down onto the floor and doing the feline equivalent of pouting.
‘What was in it?’
‘Several things. The only thing we took out was a bracelet that looked like mine. Fang wanted it but I decided Lionel needed it most.’ She looked rather smug. ‘He didn’t argue when I pinned him.’ Fang growled but it sounded more like a whiny complaint than anything else. Dominic looked over at Lionel and the bracelet around his foreleg.
‘May I look at it?’ he asked. The healer just held his paw up in answer. Dominic tried to get more information from it, but failed – that was good to know for his own equipment. After all, others could surely use the same System-information that he could. ‘Can you take it off?’ he asked after a few moments of thought. Lionel huffed a little in annoyance, but obliged. Now off the lion, Dominic was able to see its details.
Sure enough, it was a copy of the one Procyon was now wearing. Dominic pushed the bracelet back to Lionel.
‘Keep it. Make sure that you store as many health related items in there as you can.’
‘Yes, that is what we decided. I returned to collect some carcasses we were forced to leave behind before we started trying to find a way out of the neighbouring room,’ he answered.
‘Good thinking,’ Dominic praised. Lionel was definitely someone he wanted to keep around if he could. Not only was he a healer but he had his head screwed on right. ‘Take the other two crocodile carcasses from here – you’re going to need to do lots of healing in the next fight, I think, and that Cure Poison Ability of yours is going to be essential. Here are the healing potions we received before, also for use when necessary.’
The generous supply of storage bracelets by the dungeon this time around meant that between the six of them, four now had a storage system, and three of those were able to drink potions stored within them quickly.
Hoping that there would be more antivenom draughts in the other room’s chest, Dominic headed towards the exit. Each step closer to the spider made the pit of fear in his stomach grow, but it didn’t even twitch. His first step out of the room was accompanied by a certainty that this would trigger the boss fight ahead of time. But it didn’t. Nor did his second step. As soon as he got into the other room, he whirled around just to make sure that the spider hadn’t moved.
It hadn’t.
Breathing out in relief, he was pleased to see that the chest was still there. He’d also worried that the dungeon would have got rid of it once all three lions had moved over to Dominic’s side.
Inside the chest was much as he’d expected. Fabric like they’d previously received, an Ability orb, and – most useful for them at this moment – three more antivenoms.
Tucking it all into his storage, Dominic quickly returned to the group. There was a lot more space in the room now that Lionel and Procyon had stored the crocodile carcasses and everyone was lying down.
‘Right everyone,’ Dominic started deciding to make sure everyone was on the same page. ‘We’re going to take advantage of the break right now to rest and make sure we’re all in the best condition we can be, because this is going to be a difficult fight. For those who don’t know, this is a spider. A really, really, massive spider. It’s usually pretty fast for its size, and its eight legs mean that it can turn quickly and keep going even when some have been damaged. Normally, it only has one main weapon, but it’s a big one – its fangs are likely to be highly venomous. If you do get bitten, you need to quickly retreat to Lionel.
‘Lionel, I want you to stay out of the fight, it doesn’t help anyone if they need help and you are occupied by fighting. Heal anyone who comes into range. We also have these antivenoms which should be able to deal with the venom immediately.’ Dominic pulled the four antivenoms he had out of his storage space then prompted Procyon to produce the two he’d handed over.
Keeping one for himself, he returned one to Procyon, gave a third to Sekhmet, and then pushed the other three to Lionel.
‘What about me?’ Fang asked indignantly. Dominic gave him a level look.
‘Where exactly are you going to store it?’
Fang lowered his head but apparently couldn’t stop himself from grumbling a bit.
‘If the female hadn’t stopped me from getting a bracelet like the rest of you….’
Dominic growled threateningly making the young lion look up in alarm.
‘We’ve already discussed this!’ he snarled this time using the Pride chat for all to hear. ‘There was one bracelet in each chest down here. Lionel received the one from your chest – as he should have. He needs it most. Procyon received the bracelet from our chest – Sirius didn’t get one either. You are not the only fighter in this pride – if anything, you’re one of the weakest. Learn your place or leave the Pride.’ He didn’t think he needed to say that if the lion chose to leave the Pride in that moment then he would become an enemy who needed to be dealt with before they fought the spider, as much as Dominic wanted to keep him, at least for that fight..
They held eye contact for a moment longer then the younger lion lowered his eyes again.
Dominic huffed in annoyance, then returned to explaining the plan.
‘Even those who have an antivenom now, please use them as a last resort since they’re one-time uses only. Lionel can keep healing and curing poisoning as long as he has mana and carcasses to absorb. Same with the healing potions. Obviously, if you’ve been bitten and you can’t get over to him, then use the antivenom.
‘Fang, we’ll need you in the fight, but I want your first responsibility to be helping your brother. Guard him and make sure he’s not attacked while he’s healing. Keep an eye on the others and if you see that someone has been bitten and can’t get over to him, go and help out. Clear?’
‘Clear,’ muttered Fang. He was still grumpy but he’d proven to be reliable enough that Dominic wasn’t worried he’d let spite stop him from helping, especially given that he’d decided to stay as part of the Pride – for now, at least. He might not help pull Dominic himself out of danger, but since Dominic was rather larger and heavier than him, he probably wouldn’t succeed anyway.
‘Dominic, I collected these for you,’ Sekhmet told him. ‘I know that you find them useful.’ So saying, she raised her paw and a veritable flood of Cores dropped out of her bracelet, scattering all over the floor in a wave of large marbles. When she’d finished dropping all the Cores, she hesitated and then a potion fell out with a loud clunk– the water-breathing one he’d given to her. Fortunately, it didn’t break.
‘Thank you,’ he answered, surprised. Touching a few of them, he found that they were a mixture of level 14 trodils and level 12 meerkats. The exceptions were a level 20 trodil and five level 17 meerkats which caused a short flicker of worry, soothed only because they were here, they had survived. ‘Right everyone, take a few minutes to rest and prepare mentally for the fight. I need to absorb these Cores and level up and then we can get going.’