The four of them continued following the tunnel until they came to a split-off point.

“What way should we go?” asked Kendra.

“The main spider’s nest should be along the left path, but we should check out the right path afterward,” answered Lucas.

“What is in the right path,” asked Arthur.

“It should be their food storage area and the place where the…” Lucas paused.

He and the others heard the sound of taps in the cave. It was much louder than the other spider group and had a rhythmic quality to it.

“Everyone ready up,” said Kendra as she prepared a fire spell.

Arthur took out his sword once more. Their group backed up slightly to give themselves more room to engage the wave of spiders coming. The number of spiders that came to attack them was enormous. Arthur couldn’t see their back lines at all as they crawled in their direction.

“It looks like they called the entire pack on us,” said Lucas as he took out his bow.

“Then we must be pretty close to the main nest location,” said Kendra. “Let’s take them out quickly. I hate dealing with spiders.”

Kendra released the spell she had been preparing. The blast of fire activated. It was the same spell she had used to melt the walls. Just like the first time, it started to melt the walls and flesh all the same. The nearest spiders took the brunt of the attack and directly melted while those in the back only got sunburns. The cave walls glowed red for a few seconds but cooled back down quickly.

The noises from the spiders increased. Once they were close enough they fired off their initial attacks. Flecks of acid spit shot at their group. Arthur moved to block Kendra from the attack because he did not have a spell ready for it. The acid hit his metal body and started to seep into his body. Arthur turned back to the spiders that were ten feet from him and activated [Earthen Wall]. He had gotten used to it after the repeated castings earlier, so it activated quickly. A stone wall rose in front of the first spiders running at them. Some of the spiders tried to jump over it, but they were crushed by its rising.

Once the wall stopped moving it had blocked off most of the spiders from getting through. A few spiders tried to fire acid through the edges of the tunnel, but Aria blocked them from doing so with some well-placed spells.

“How are you?” asked Kendra. “What are the damages?”

“I was hit mostly in the back and left shoulder. Some of my connections in my arm are tenuous currently, but I should have them back online in a minute. I can feel some of my movement slowed because of the damage to my back and my abilities to use my affinities of Earth and Water are currently unstable. They will take a bit longer to repair.”

Behind the stone wall, the spiders banged against it chipping at its edges.

“You can stay back and take a rest for a bit while we finish them off. Setting up the wall was a good idea,” said Lucas.

“And thank you for saving me there. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise,” said Kendra.

“I guess I will deal with these things because this cave is bad. Maybe we can at least have a good time fighting the queen together,” said Aria as she turned from the others and back to the wall.

Aria prepared a spell and launched it towards the wall. It phased right through it and flowed through the cracks to hit the spiders. The mental attack affected nearly every spider. Soon the spiders were in chaos trapped behind the wall Arthur had made. The frenzy spell kicked their bloodlust into overdrive. They started turning on one another. Arthur could only hear them from the other side of the wall as he healed. The spiders continued to fight one another for a few more minutes until there was silence.

“That spell will always be great,” said Lucas. “Arthur do you mind taking it down.” Lucas tapped the Earthen Wall.

“Oh yeah. Sure.” Arthur focused on the wall and with a focus of his mana and will the wall have crumbled.

With the wall gone, he was finally able to see the aftermath of the spell cast by Aria. The spider’s bodies lay scattered around the cave grounds. Bites from each other cover their bodies. Acid bubbled in corners and webbing coated some of the walls. The few left alive were unable to move and were quickly dealt with by Kendra. She led them further through the tunnel. They left any loot that might be available and decided to come back once they killed the queen.

Their group continued through the tunnel. The walls started to slope downward and narrow until they came together to form a giant spider-sized hole. The four of them went through. Arthur had to adjust his body to squeeze through and barely fit through. On the other side, the tunnel opened up once more and was much more wide open. Arthur looked up and could barely see the ceiling. As he looked around he heard the skittering of more spiders.

Arthur activated [Detect Life Aura] just as the spiders got to them. He could see their glow along with a much brighter glow of life behind them slowly approaching them. Arthur activated his [Astral Blade] along with a [Bubble Shield] behind him for the others. Arthur’s sword slashed through several spiders at once as his [Astral Blade] worked its power. The magic extended the length of the blade and cut with the same strength as the original. Some of the spiders moved out of the way or shot acid at him. It wasn’t very effective and the acid that did hit him did not sink very deep into him.

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“The queen is coming up from behind,” shouted Lucas to the others. “Kendra and Aria use your fusion techniques to clear them out.”

Aria stepped up to stand to the side of Kendra as they both prepared a spell. Aria stood on Kendra’s right side and activated the spell with her left hand. As they both finished the spells they clasped hands and active the fusion spell together.

Arthur felt the spell pass over him in a wave. He felt a little bit uncomfortable from the fire but adjusted to it, unlike the spiders. A lake of fire billowed out and covered the ground in front of the pair. In between the real flames, blue illusory flames flickered as well. The spiders stuck in the trap started to burn both on the outside and in their mind. Some tried to continue forward but Arthur dealt with them with his sword. The spider’s advancements slowed to a crawl. From behind the others Lucas picked off spiders as well.

As the number of spiders started to dwindle the cave shook. Arthur looked up from his fight now that he was almost done and caught sight of the queen spider. His [Detect Life Aura] spell was almost blinding, and he had to turn it off. The giant spider stood at over fifty feet tall. Its legs glinted in the firelight and spindly fur covered its body. Its body was also mostly brown like the other spiders but had a mix of a dark blue around its face.

It stepped over the dying flames uninterested in them entirely. Lucas fired off arrow shots, but the spider swatted them away and shattered them. Its jowls moved around, and it fired off a blast of magical energy. Ice coated the walls it aimed at, and the temperature dropped noticeably. Arthur felt ice crystals start to form on his exterior.

“What should we do?” asked Arthur as he stepped back.

“Arthur block the legs. Try not to get caught up by its mouth. Kendra, you are in charge of directing it. Don’t let Arthur get into too much trouble. Aria, play with your support spells. Use your mind spells as you see fit if you see it as viable.”

The spider struck out at Arthur with its legs. It was fast with its legs and Arthur barely dodged in time for some of the strikes. The first leg jabs went right past Arthur and struck the bubble shield he had set up. The shield shuddered after the first hit and started to show cracks. After the second strike the shield dissolved, and the spider’s attack left a deep gash in the ground where Kendra once stood.

Arthur blocked the spider’s leg strikes that came at him with his sword. The two met and glanced off each other. The tips of its legs were very much like metal and rang out when struck.

The spider responded by spitting out more long breaths of cold air. Kendra responded by using her fire spells to counteract the change in temperature. When she fired off more fireball spells the spider turned its body and took them on by force. The attacks only enraged the spider. It turned its body some more while continuing to attack Arthur and fired off the webbing.

Aria who was focused on casting spells to buff Lucas was caught in the attack. Lucas was able to roll away, but the edge of the attack hit Aria. She flung back as webbing wrapped around her body before trapping her to the wall. Her arms stayed stuck in place as she tried to move.

Lucas put away his bow and turned to Aria. “You two distract the spider. I need to get her out. Do whatever you can.”

Arthur stepped back and prepared a spell. He activated [Earthen Wall] as far behind himself as he could partially obscuring Lucas from view. Arthur was pushed to his limits as he fought off the spider’s strikes. The spider struck with enough force to almost knock him off balance each time.

‘I need to find a way out of this. We are caught in a stalemate and the spider has the upper hand. It seems to have been affected by Lucas and Kendra’s attacks somewhat but that is barely enough so far to get the upper hand. I can’t use my plant spells in here and single-target spells don’t seem very effective against the spider based on Kendra’s previous attacks. So, I’ll try this.’

“[Sand Trap]”

Arthur activated the spell around himself and the spider. The ground around him started to liquefy and Kendra jumped back, but Arthur started to sink too quickly. Arthur used his control of the spell to limit his descent into the ground while the spider used a different strategy. The giant spider queen tried to freeze the ground with its ice breath.

As the giant spider queen started to solidify the ground once more with ice Kendra stepped in and used her magic to slow it. Kendra targeted the ground instead of the spider itself. Every dozen seconds or so she hit the sinking ground with a blast of the fire warming it back up.

The spider stumbled a bit as it tried to maneuver around the sinking ground. Arthur took this opportunity to take several strikes at its open limbs. Arthur tried to target the same spot each time, but it moved around constantly.

Behind him, Lucas was working to cut down Aria. He started by opening up a spot for her arm so she could cast spells. His work was slow with a knife but if he went faster he or the knife might get caught in the web as well. He coated the blade with his sword magic.

It took another minute for the spider to fall and by that point, Arthur’s [Sand Trap] spell had ended. The spider tripped itself up due to the spell and Arthur was able to latch onto its leg and open up a wound large enough for him to cast [Fungal Spore]. From there the magic did its work and destroyed the spider from the inside until it died.

Once Kendra saw that Arthur had the spider almost finished she returned to Aria and helped to burn away the rest of the webbing. Once Aria was back on the ground Lucas checked on her. He found that she had suffered a concussion and was bleeding from the head as well as some minor injuries on her arms and legs. Arthur confirmed the spider was dead before returning to the others.

“How is Aria?” asked Arthur.

“She will be fine. She just needs to be looked over when we get back. One of the other mages will have some basic healing magic,” said Kendra.

“Yeah. I will be fine with some rest tomorrow,” said Aria.

“Let’s clean this up quickly. It is late and dark. I don’t want to be out here for much longer,” said Lucas.

“Me too,” said Kendra and Aria in unison.

The rest of their night went as expected. The spider queen had a fairly large water core that they pocketed, and the other spiders had moderately valuable materials on them as well. To get out of the cave, Lucas had Arthur build a staircase of sorts to the top of the canyon. It took significantly longer for them to get back. When they returned Aria left to find a healing mage while Arthur was returned to his cellar room. The sky was still dark out and no one moved about outside. Lucas told Arthur that they would not go out to hunt again during the day, so he took the time to rest and recover.