Chapter 6 - Abominations

Two hideous looking half-spider, half-dark elf creatures came out of a hidden crevasse. Their bottom half was all giant spider, including all eight legs. Their upper torso was covered with a mix of chitin and skin in different places. They stood nine feet tall or a bit shy of 3 meters. They were massive and looked very hungry.

‘Ugly bastards! Abomination is right! It reminds me of those infected zerg-humans from Starcraft.’ I thought before giving the mental command for my undead squad to attack and saying, “You two must be the ‘guardians’ the trap warned us about.”

“Pinky, use your webbing to incapacitate them!” I ordered.

They moved quick, far faster than something that size had a right to be. However, with my enhanced stats I was able to mentally track them easily. Moving that fast was a bit more challenging.

One of the abominations was caught by Pinky’s sticky webbing and roared in rage as it swiped to cut itself free.

RAWWRRR!!!

Pinkoria missed her second target as it moved to fast in the opposite direction. The abomination was heading right towards me. I had already drawn my sword and attempted to block the incoming claw attack as the thing planned to bowl me over.

I saw all this happening and calculated where I needed to move to properly deflect the attack.

‘Thank you, geometry, or should I say all those nights at the pool hall learning to do trick shots!’ I thought as I attempted to move my body at the speed my mind was going.

My physical reaction was not as quick as my mental speed, and I did not get my body to the side fast enough and was clipped by the abomination sending me airborne. I had enough time to see where I was heading.

“Awe crap, not again!” I said moments before crashing into the wall face first.

‘Thank you, high Constitution!’ I thought as this time I was not even dazed, that is when I received a notification.

Achievement earned! Title Gained!

Title: Hardheaded

Description: Be forcefully thrown or slammed into a surface 3 or more times. Force must be sufficient to kill a normal target, but your hard head protected you. No longer at risk of being put unconscious from severe blows to the head. Mental Resistance increased by 25%.

“Oh, come on! Really?! What kind of a title is that?!” I blurted out before rolling out of the way of a follow up attack.

It was clear the abomination was fast, barely a bit faster than me, but for sure stronger than my current Strength stat. It did not look as durable. ‘My guess is they were made to overpower their opponent.’ I thought.

Once I understood their attack pattern of rushing in using overwhelming attacks it was easier for me to keep up with them. I was able to dodge once again, giving me time to check in on Pinky and my undead squad.

My undead skeletons had been smashed to bits by the sheer force of the abomination’s attacks. Pinky had not been idle during my latest blow to the head. After she webbed her target, she used the distraction from my undead squad and the webbing to jump on the abomination’s back.

Pinky crawled up the abomination’s back and sunk her fangs into the back of its neck right as the abomination was ripping my undead spider in half. Pinky’s bite flooded the abomination with venom. Just like any other humanoid, the neck was not the most protected. Unfortunately, the abomination was part cave spider and had some resistance to the venom. Keyword is resistance and not immunity as a few moments later it grew sluggish, and a few moments after that it collapsed.

Pinky sent me a mental message. “Master, are you going to continue to play with your food?”

“I’m…” I began to say as I then dodged another attack. “Not playing…” Another dodge, “With anything!”

“Wait, why am I doing this? You gave me an idea Pinky” I finally was able to say as I gained some distance from my attacker.

‘If I do this right, it just might work.’ I thought as I yelled, “HEY MORON, COME GET IT!”

“RAWWRRR!!!” The abomination yelled.

The abomination once again charged me.

Stolen story; please report.

“NOW PINKY!” I yelled as I was already moving and sending her my mental command.

I had moved closer to the other abomination that was slumped over. This put my attacker in range of Pinkoria’s webbing attack. She shot out her webbing in two quick bursts. The first shot bound my attacker’s arms to its body. The second hit tied up its legs. Neither webbing was going to hold up for long, but the combination was just what I needed. As the abomination was caught off guard, it lost its balance as I moved out of the way, and it crashed right into the wall.

“HA, THAT’S WHAT YOU GET! Finally, someone else goes headfirst into a wall instead of me!” I cheered as I rushed over to my downed attacker.

I immediately placed my hand on my target and initiated my Form Contract ability. This was the first time I had attempted to use it on a hostile enemy. I wanted my target to be dazed or temporarily unconscious to give me an advantage in the battle of wills that would ensue.

“YOU ARE MINE!!!” I roared as I activated my ability as an ominous dark glow radiated the room.

I brought my full mental strength to bear as a mental battering ram. I was determined to smash aside whatever resistance I encountered. However, what I found couldn’t be considered resistance. It was like hitting a wet paper towel with a sledgehammer, nothing was left.

“I should’ve known a cultist wouldn’t have the strongest will power.” I commented out loud as I scanned my new contract’s mind. The only thing I could really get was a mix of sorrow and a nagging, unending hunger, or at least that is what it felt like to me.

With these realizations in mind, I mentally sent Pinky a command. “Pinky stop feeding on your target.”

“Awe, but master…” Pinkoria complained.

I cut her off, “Army first! We just lost a whole squad, we require replacements. Plus think of it this way, new spider-type creatures to serve both of us.”

That seemed to brighten her up. “Oh, I like that idea. We both should be served. See this is why you are the master; you know just what to say to a woman!”

“I wasn’t the most popular with the ladies of all of my friends for nothing.” I replied.

Pinkoria removed her fangs from her target but waited and prepared to strike if my Form Contract ability failed to take hold, which I knew was a real possibility. I activated the ability once more and an ominous glow again suffused the area around my target and me. This abomination was no different than the previous one and quickly succumbed to my will.

A few things I learned after taking control of my targets, First, even though they were huge, the two of them combined did not come anywhere close to the amount of mental and spiritual capacity space Pinky took up, which gave me hope for future summons. Second, the abominations were called Drider Guardians and were both level 52.

Reading what the abominations were called made me think of one of my dearest friends.

‘See I think my buddy DW would have known that. He was always reading and fascinated with everything to do with religious and mythical lore, fantasy, and science fiction. You name it, the guy knew it, he is a genius and that was saying something as the rest of us were no slouches. The guy knew more trivia about that stuff than the rest of us combined, and that was saying something cause we all geeked out plenty of times at various ‘Cons’. Going to the ‘Cons’ were great places to meet ‘cosplay girls’, they were the best! Man, I miss my buddies, they were the best wingmen and always had my back. I could really use them here.’

Lastly, I got two notifications after completing that fight.

Congratulations! You have learned the spiritual signatures of Drider Guardians. If you can gain the spider goddess’ approval, she may grant you the rights to summon these creatures from her realm.

You have received a quest!

Quest: Past Failures 1!

Description: The spider goddess has taken notice of you and your actions. She is willing to grant you her boon if you cleanse the Spider Cultist Dungeon and retrieve the magical core. Removal of the magical core from the dungeon core will destroy this dungeon. She does not care how you achieve this feat or what you do with the magical core. The spider goddess only requires that you destroy this place and leave no trace of this past failure.

Rewards: +100,000 experience, Boon from spider goddess, magical core.

“Well looks like we got a quest from the spider goddess. She wants me to retrieve the magical core and destroy this dungeon.” I told Pinky.

“Oooo, mayhem and destruction! Such sweet music we shall make master!” Pinkoria commented.

Sighing, I looked at my two Drider Guardians, they were in pretty bad shape. I had them both eat the remains of my undead spider so they would at least get some nourishment. They seemed excited to follow such a command and I realized just how twisted this world really was. After their meal I decided to send them both into my Summoning Realm.

Once in my realm, I could sense their wounds slowly healing. The spiritual energy of my Summoning Realm had the ability to heal over time. The more severe the injury the longer it would take for my summons to fully heal. Sadly, it did not work once they were destroyed beyond saving like my undead squad, but it was still a potential life saver as I did not really have much in the way of healing at the moment.

I dusted myself off and used my Create Water spell to help clean up a bit more. I made a point to rehydrate while I was at it. As I was using my Create Water spell it dawned on me. ‘Why didn’t I use more magic during the fight?’ I thought as I realized one of my biggest mistakes.

‘Sure, I was in an enclosed space so certain spells probably would not be the best to use but I could’ve used Misty Step several times and avoided some of those attacks and injuries. I’m just not mentally used to magic yet. I mean you spend your whole life without it. Using magic is just not second nature and it needs to be. That is going to change. Going forward, I want to make it a point to use at least one combat and one utility spell in every fight. That way I will start to adapt my fighting style and thought patterns to incorporate magic. It may take some time but no better time than the present to get started.’ I mentally decided while searching for anything useful in the remains of the room.

Only finding some random weapons, trinkets, and some coins, I stored them away before turning to talk with Pinkoria.

“All right Pinky, our two new warriors will need time to heal before they are of use to us. Shall we resume our original plan of taking over the world Pinky?”

“YES! I am hungry!” Pinkoria stated excitedly.