Chapter 42 Kin.
Shaeo spoke her answer with such certainty that Isaac was sure that the plan had been made. ‘Shit.’ He cursed internally. ‘Play it cool and hope for the best.’ Isaac kept his face neutral. “While I have you here I have some questions that only you can answer.” He told the creature before him.
She was a spider the entire way until where a spider’s head should be. From there the hips of a dark elf began tilted upwards at a sharp angle. Her elvish body was mostly covered in spider silk that was clearly covering something hard but it was impossible to tell what without cutting it open. Her long unkempt hair fell both in front and behind her torso. Traces of dirt and blood were evident. Her hair was pure black. Her skin, a gray of wet stone just like the color of her spider exoskeleton. Her eyes looked like they had been black at one time but were now cataract. Her sword was the same size as her torso and her muscles were obvious even through her armor.
The thing that really set in the thought that she was merely a monster was the sudden and jerky movements that she made. Every time she moved it was like her body was trying to get into whatever the next position was at the fastest speed possible. There was no elvish grace, not even spider-like fluidity, it was uncanny. She was right about one thing, she was more than any mere mortal, at least in terms of physical power.
Shaeo continued to look around for where the ambusher would come from. She was careful not to move more than necessary as she had no way of knowing what kind of ambusher it would be. The worst case was a mage waiting for her so it could set off some precast trap. Mortal magic was far different from drider magic. “Speak.” She ordered Isaac.
“If I offered you to join me, would you?” Isaac asked. He needed to know if Dri’El actually had the kind of power over the driders that Lenna thought he had. “You might have to fight the drow on occasion but I guarantee it will be easier than fighting me.”
Shaeo’s head jerked slightly at his words and then tilted slightly again. The jerky movements were off putting. She seemed to hesitate for a long moment. “No.” She eventually replied.
“Why not?” Isaac asked. The fact that she still hadn’t attacked meant that he still had an opportunity to learn from this monster.
“Father, not, allow, fighting, kin.” She explained in her jerky speech that mimicked her body.
“Kin?” Isaac asked. “You wouldn’t have to fight other driders.”
“Not, sisters. Kin.” She clarified.
Isaac nodded in understanding. For the drider, dark elves were like extended family but the other driders were always siblings. He wondered if it was actually because all driders had the same father or not. “What if you never had to fight dark elves either?” He asked.
“No, work, for, human.” She replied. “I, no, hunt, human. You, leave?” She actually managed to add the inflection to the last word to make her question clear. Her speech was starting to get more fluid the more she spoke almost as if she was relearning how to talk from watching and listening to Isaac.
Isaac shook his head. “That might work with someone else but you are worth a lot of money. I was expecting to leave with my body weight in your silk.” He exaggerated but he didn’t know if she knew about weights and measures. “If you stay away from humans and give me that much silk, I’ll leave peacefully and never return, unless you break your part of the deal.” That much silk would make him enough gold to buy a small town. It was worth failing the bounty if she agreed.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
She hesitated again. Jerking her head to the side almost as if she was listening for something or trying to remember an incredibly old memory. “No.” She eventually said. “Father said, humans, no silk.” She explained.
“Would he kill you if you disobeyed?” Isaac asked. That got a reaction out of her.
Her face showed emotion for the first time. Fury and wrath. She showed her incisors in a snarl. “You, would, have, us, disobey, Father?” She accused.
Isaac barely kept his smile from his face. “No.” He lied. “I was just curious if he would kill you for doing it.”
Her stance lowered again. Her hand gripped her sword tighter. “Leave.” She ordered him.
Isaac grinned. The interaction with the drider was far deeper than he was expecting. She was smart but everyone had triggers. Questioning Dri’El was hers. He figured that he had hit the nail on the head. Dri’El would kill any drider who disobeyed him. Unfortunately he would never know for sure as they were both preparing to engage.
Lenna was sweating. She had been as still as possible. Careful not to breathe too deeply or too loudly. She was definitely going to get a level from this. There was no way that her broken oath wouldn’t flare with rage from what she was about to do. She grinned at the thought. ‘I bet Isaac wished he could level from pissing people off.’ She thought to herself. ‘Even if they are all long dead.’
Isaac shrouded himself in shadows. His voice deepened as the adventurer Isaac Wexler was replaced by the Lord of Darkness. “Make me.” Isaac felt the webs try to suck up his shadows but he easily reined them back in. Shaeo became perfectly still. It was as if she had stopped breathing. She didn’t blink. Every part of her body was ready to spring.
—
Shaeo’ahna knew that he was prodding her to make the first move. She wanted to. She needed to. She felt the compulsion of Father to kill the blasphemer. She also knew that half measures would lead to certain death. The human turned into a shadow elemental right in front of her. It was at that moment that she realized that the power she had felt before was his and not his god’s. The human in front of her was not like any of the countless other humans she had fought, killed, and eaten in her long life. She had no way to know how old she was exactly but she never really cared. She wished that she knew at that moment. She wanted to know how many days of her life had led to this confrontation. Her instincts were telling her that she wouldn’t live to see the next day, not that she had ever seen the sun in the first place.
She couldn’t hold back anymore so she leaned into it. She launched at her full strength towards the human. She brought her sword down hard. The human turned to the side and her blade struck stone. It had only moved one foot to behind the other one. She had fought another with this kind of skill before. That human had cost her a leg only for him to escape. She reached forwards to grab it with her other hand while stabbing down towards its feet with her closest leg. It was at that moment that she realized the trap had been sprung.
She had been so focused on the human that it had taken her a full second to realize that one of her kin had just appeared. What happened next surprised her even more than the human dodging her attack with ease. Her kin cast magic on her. She felt it but heard no chant. She only saw a sheet of parchment disintegrate in its hand. She instantly felt herself become more vulnerable. She knew this feeling from the same human that had taken her leg. She knew that the kin now knew all of her weak points. Every opening in her armor, both natural and made.
The human slipped under her grasp while dancing their feet away from her stabbing leg. She thrust her sword at the human and heard the familiar sound of bone on steel but she couldn’t see the sword through the shadows. She knew that the human would try to counter attack so she yanked her sword hand hard to the left to interpose the weapon between herself and the human. Sure enough his blade had tried to lash out but was instead stopped dead on contact with her larger weapon. She outclassed him in strength, resilience, experience, and speed. Unfortunately it had one of her kin working for it.
Anger boiled up within her and she shifted focus just as the kin tried to hit her with a flaming sword. She blocked it with her blade and then shot her closest leg out towards the human to keep it at bay while she ended the traitor. She attacked the traitor relentlessly. Pushing it back along the wall only to feel an attack incoming. Her instincts were the only thing that warned her of the attack. She ducked her head behind her shoulder just as a sharp metal object impacted it.
She felt mana move. Power built around the human and she couldn’t leave it be any longer. She turned to see a void of darkness open up behind the human and a dragon made of bones leap out. The dragon was small so it didn’t worry her. What worried her was the immense amount of mana that had been compressed into a spear that the human held in one hand over and behind its head. Whatever that spear was going to do it had enough mana to do it. She abruptly shifted target to the human. She took a few quick steps towards it and swung horizontally. She knew that horizontal attacks were more effective against swordsmen like the human. They lacked the strength to meet her attack and were forced to dodge backwards. Her blade passed through it. It hadn’t even tried to dodge. A thought ran through her head. ‘No resistance.’