The huge spider's whole body was still covered in flames, and it was in extreme pain. Almost all the hair on its body had burned off and its skin was charred. The smell of burned flesh pervaded the room, along with the smoke from the burning spider webs, although the latter was magically blowing away in the opposite direction. Crackling noises and screeches of pain filled the spacious chamber.
"Why does it smell like fried chicken?" asked Jacco as the group approached the J'ba Fofi carefully.
They all had their weapons ready, and with the help of the burning webs, Graham and Jacco could see their target perfectly. The spider got into a defensive position but it couldn't retreat anywhere because it was surrounded by flames in every direction.
"Screech!!"
It let out an intimidating cry and raised its four front legs in the air to appear bigger while bearing the pain of the fire. Right now, it couldn't do anything to put out the hot flames on its body because there wasn't even enough space to roll around.
Luuk was still the one at the front-most position. He readied his knife in case of a sudden attack from the creature.
"Careful, it still gives off a very dangerous vibe," reminded Luuk to the others.
Although it was wounded badly, the spider was still able to pressure them with its intimidating aura.
Agatha took a position that was far from the spider but was still close enough to the group. She then slit her wrist and let some blood drip to the ground below, creating a small puddle.
Graham signaled at Jacco and the latter nodded.
"I, in the name of the Deity of War, play this War Drum!"
He beat the iron plate on his stomach and created beautiful beats that pumped their hearts. They felt more powerful thanks to his drum.
Once the drum was sounded, the J'ba Fofi was instantly enraged. However, it stayed cautious and didn't attack blindly. It's remaining four eyes seemed to be observing the group carefully.
Suddenly, it moved its right front leg as if it was about to swipe the group with the giant limb.
"Watch out!" Luuk shouted.
Sploosh!
The swipe was just a feint! It had actually shot a web from its spinneret and hit Jacco accurately, effectively stopping his drum beating.
"Argh! It's sticky! I can't move!" he shouted from the back, trying to shake away the webs sticking around his arms and torso.
"Don't get near the fire or you'll be burned!" said Luuk.
Bang!
Graham shot a paralysis bullet at the spider and hit its underbelly. The bullet only grazed it because of its thick skin, but that much was enough for the paralysis to take effect.
Luuk had quickly approached Jacco and used his knife to cut through the sticky webs. It was much more difficult than he had thought, so he had to slice them many times before they were finally severed.
Meanwhile, Graham had been busy attacking the paralyzed giant spider. His knife couldn't deal any damage to it because of its hard skin, and its underbelly was too high for him to reach. However, thanks to the Tsuchinoko before, one of its legs was already wounded, so he attacked that spot with melted skin.
"I, in the name of the Deity of War, play this War Drum!"
Badum! Badum!
Once freed, Jacco quickly beat his drum again to strengthen his companions.
Agatha, who had finished creating a blood puddle, ran to the closest burning web and use used her knife to cut a piece of it. She used her knife to hold the still-burning white material and dropped it on top of the puddle of blood. Before the blood could extinguish the fire, she quickly chanted.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Bloodshed and Manslaughter, imbue my blood with the power to stick to and burn my enemies!"
The web and flame mysteriously fused with the blood puddle and created a burning pool of blood that was much thicker than normal. Agatha gestured at Graham and the latter quickly went into position. She couldn't control her blood to move on its own, so she needed Graham's assistance.
"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order the burning blood on the ground to shoot at the J'ba Fofi!"
Whoosh!
The burning blood shot at the spider and hit it in the face. The sticky crimson liquid started burning the spider violently and stuck to it without dripping to the ground. The giant spider was shaking and trashing viciously to get the blood off but to no avail.
"Screech!!"
An ear-piercing cry was blared by the J'ba Fofi because it was in a lot of pain. Its front legs were swiping aggressively to ward off any attackers from getting closer.
Graham didn't waste his chance to kill the spider once and for all. He got closer but still away from the legs.
"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order the flaming blood to spread to the spider's whole body!"
The sticky blood mysteriously started spreading all over the spider, burning the already charred carapace of the creature. The smell of burned flesh became stronger in the chamber and the sound of the spider's cry of pain was reverberating in the burning cave interior. It was shaking and moving around mindlessly, trying to shake off the blood, but the liquid stuck to it persistently. The more it moved, the more burning sticky web it came in contact with, and the faster its body burned.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"It should be dead soon, right?" asked Jacco from the back, still beating his drum. He didn't know for sure, but he felt that the flame on the spider was also affected by his beating.
Luuk, who was standing close to Jacco, was also observing the creature closely.
"I think so. Those two's attack is very effective," he said and then looked at both Graham and Agatha in admiration.
It's the first time they fight together but their synergy is amazing. I can't be complacent if I don't want to be overshadowed by her.
After trashing and squirming for a while, the spider finally stopped moving while lying on its back with its legs in the air.
"It's dead now," judged Graham.
Agatha looked around the large chamber that was still burning. The spider webs had reduced a lot, but there were still so many entangling the whole chambers. The cocoons hanging from the ceiling had been burned off and the creatures inside were now only charred corpses.
"What do we do about this?" asked Agatha while gesturing at the flame with her head.
"We don't. Let's wait at a safer spot for now," replied Graham.
He walked towards the direction where they came from and exited the burning room. The other three followed him and they all sat on the cave floor while watching the fire ate away everything in the chamber. The smoke still magically blew in the other direction instead of filling the room with its toxic fumes.
"Is anyone injured?" asked Agatha warmly.
Luuk shook his head and looked at Jacco. He was really the only one who had been attacked by the J'ba Fofi.
"Nah, I'm all good. That much isn't gonna hurt me," replied Jacco proudly while sticking his chest out.
"Can't you extinguish the fire with your ability?" asked Luuk to Graham.
He shook his head without hesitating.
"No. I can put out a section, but for the whole room, I don't think so. I'll need to exhaust my uses first before I can extinguish the fire in the room,"
"So why does all the smoke in the room obey your Order?" Luuk asked again curiously.
Graham shrugged and then stroked his chin.
"Beats me. Maybe instead of making the smoke blow in that direction, my Order created a suction somewhere over there and attracted the smoke," he explained, but he was not sure about the answer either.
"So after this, we should fight with the Nhang, right?" asked Agatha.
Graham looked meaningfully at her and replied, "We might not even have to fight,"
"Why?" interjected Jacco.
Luuk and Agatha showed an expression of sudden realization while Jacco was still looking confused. However, nobody explained anything to him.
"Come on, tell me!" he said.
"You'll see later," replied Graham mysteriously, and then looked at the chamber ahead.
The fire had slowly subsided, leaving only embers of burned webs on the ground. Graham got up and cleaned the dirt from his coat.
"We'll have a big haul after this," he said while looking at the corpses of burned creatures that hadn't been sucked dry by the giant spider.
There were more than ten corpses of supernatural creatures in the large space ahead of them, including the J'ba Fofi's but not all of them were intact. Only about four of them still looked like their organs hadn't been eaten while the rest was basically just burned husk.
Luuk's and Jacco's eyes were full of anticipation in the face of the potential wealth while Agatha remained indifferent.
"Shall we go now?" she asked.
Seeing that it was safe now, Graham nodded and the group proceeded to continue their mission. Luuk still took the spearhead and Jacco walked at the back, illuminating the way with his headlight. With the fire gone, the cave had gone back to its initial darkness.
They made their way quickly across the large chamber and walked into a narrow pathway ahead. There was still some smoke in the air, but they had soaked their masks again in some water to mitigate the effect.
"Is that...?" said Luuk suddenly.
In the dark, in front of him, there was a bat-like creature that was lying motionlessly on the ground. Its size was a little smaller than the one they had fought previously; only a little bigger than an adult male. It seemed to have fallen dead from the ceiling where it was sleeping.
"A dead Olitiau. Must have suffocated to death because of the smoke," replied Graham.
They ignored the creature's carcass for now and went past it.
"How do supernatural creatures reproduce? If we keep killing them like this, won't they go extinct, Val?" muttered Graham in curiosity.
They kept walking with the help of Jacco's headlight. The cave floor was not as rough as the one in the corridor before the spider's room, so they didn't have any difficulty navigating quickly. They reached another fork not long after with two paths ahead of them. They stopped and observed the two paths available.
They were both very dark, but the paths didn't give off any special intimidating presence like what they felt in the previous one. The whole area was still covered in a very thin layer of residual smoke, but they felt that most of the smoke had blown to the left path for some reason.
"Is it the left one again?" asked Agatha.
Graham nodded.
"According to my divination earlier, the red dot was located on our ten o'clock direction, so it should be that one,"
They walked into the path on the left and followed the trail of smoke. They could feel the moisture in the air rising. They must have gotten very close to the underground lake where the crocodile-like creature resided. The four of them walked carefully and slowly Luuk could see another large space ahead of them.
Graham signaled at him to stop. They all stood right outside the large chamber and looked at Graham curiously. He took out his lighter to make sure that his earlier conjecture was correct. Among the creatures they had fought so far, the Nhang should be the most dangerous, and the fact that it was aquatic would make fighting it much more difficult. He lit his lighter and focused on the flame.
'Is the Nhang dead?'
After repeating the question enough times, an image started to form in the flame. It showed a large chamber with a big lake in the middle that might be the one ahead of them. Beside the lake, there was a giant crocodile lying motionlessly on the ground. After several seconds, it still hadn't moved at all. The image slowly disappeared after that. Graham put the lighter back in his pocket and looked at his companions.
"It's dead. Let's go in,"
"Cough! Cough!"
The four of them walked into the large space and was welcomed with a smoky atmosphere that made them start coughing. Their masks helped but the amount of smoke was still more than the pieces of cloth could handle.
"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order the smoke in this room to go away!"
Once he had finished chanting, the grey smoke magically rose in the air and escaped through the small opening in the ceiling where a tiny beam of sunlight came through. If they had waited longer, the smoke surely would blow to that hole on its own, but it would take far too long. Now that they could breathe normally again, they could focus on the sight.
There was a big lake with dark blue water in that area. They didn't know how deep the lake was or what other creatures lived in it. The Nhang died because it needed to come up to breathe, but if there was a creature that could breathe underwater, it should still be alive. There was a dead giant crocodile that was identical to the one they saw in Graham's divination but seeing it from up close felt very different. Its size was enormous; it was as big as, if not bigger, than an intercity bus that was available in Sloten. Fighting it normally would have been very difficult.
"This thing is crazy huge!" exclaimed Jacco.
"Yes. We're lucky we don't have to actually fight it," added Luuk.
Both of them showed an expression of awe, looking at the magnificent beast in front of them. Its sharp teeth looked like it could tear the cave wall apart if it so wished. Its tail, which was still submerged in water, looked stronger than steel and heavier than a motor carriage. Getting hit by it would cause a lot of broken bones and probably death for those weaker.
"You need its scale and blood, right?" asked Graham to Agatha.
"Yes," she answered shortly. Her deep blue eyes were glimmering with expectation at the sight of her goal laid down in front of her.
"How do we even cut it open? Will our knife work?" asked Luuk.
Graham shrugged and got closer to the dead Nhang.
"I don't know, but it's time for harvest. Let's get to work,"