The waves of bugs continued for what felt like an eternity. My muscles screamed in agony and the pain in my leg was almost too much to bear. Still, I continued to fight. Each time my health ticked downward from the effects of the spider’s milk, it would restore back to full again.

As long as I didn’t take too much damage at once, I had no other choice but to continue forward. The only way out of this mess was to keep plowing through, defending the annoying caterpillar until he finally hatched from his cocoon.

The entire glade was looking like a battlefield of epic proportions. Bug guts stacked in putrid mounds of goo. Corpses of hundreds of enemies created trenches and berms. The thick bark of the surrounding trees were riddled with slug spines and acid burns from the ants.

Exhaust now filled the air with a miasmic haze, a telltale sign that the Jabberwocky was honing in on my location. Mechanical screeches and the rusty whine of gears periodically echoed throughout the woods. The source of the sound, distorted by the size of the redwood-like trees, was difficult to pinpoint. Aside from choking on the caustic grime and the sting in my eyes, I had no other indication of where the beast was, or even how close.

Almost more concerning than its ambiguous location was the lack of messages concerning the creature. The system had been strangely quiet, which felt odd. There had to be some reason. I was willing to bet it couldn’t be good.

As if reading my mind, the entire forest suddenly erupted in a cacophony of noise. Log-sized twigs crunched and crashed while servos screeched and gears stripped in their casings. The miasmic haze that had filled the air turned to rolling plumes of smoke. The sounds got louder, and the ground trembled and shook.

The two slugs and three ants that had just arrived as the last mob of the previous wave had fallen turned in hasty retreat. They scurried and slurped as they vanished back into the protection of the deeper woods.

I had no such option to flee, so long as Absolem remained encased in his cocoon. The stupid caterpillar had to survive long enough to fly if I was going to have any hope of leaving this place. That meant that until he hatched out of that thing, I would have to stay and face whatever might come. And that apparently included one very pissed off Jabberwocky.

Secondary Quest Progression:

Kill the Jabberwocky.

Do you remember when I told you back in the Spider Grotto that terrible things had been set into motion? If you don’t, please allow me to give you a quick refresher.

(Not because you want it or because I’m trying to be nice. I’m not! I only said ‘please’ because it’s hilarious, and it’s even more entertaining watching you squirm.)

You decapitated the Spider Matriarch before you managed to kill her. You were all, ‘Off with her head!’ and that’s kind of a big no-no around here.

It’s like wearing a wedding dress to someone else’s wedding or upstaging Elvis and stealing his blue suede shoes. And then peeing on them.

Your actions made the Red Queen very, very angry. So, she did what any reasonable monarch would do. She ordered her fun little pet to hunt you down and eat your entrails while you’re still alive. Only then will you feel the mercy of her executioner’s blade.

What? Did you actually expect her to come out here and fight you herself? Oh, no. That’s not how royalty works. You’ll be dragged kicking and screaming back to the castle, bathing the world crimson with your blood as a nice little warning to anyone who might be foolish enough to visit this place once you’re gone.

Wait, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah…

The Jabberwocky.

It’s heeeeere!

The Jabberwocky bounced and careened into the glade with abandon, crushing and splattering bug remains as it went. The beast was a two-story wolf-headed machine of horrendous design. It was so horrible that it was certain to make any respectable Gnomish Necromancer’s mother proud. It appeared to be composed of rusted iron and spare parts from the creatures that dwelled within the forest at large. The overall shape was eerily spider like. There were several mechanical legs and a few that had been fashioned out of ones borrowed from actual spiders.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Twin beams of red light poured from the lifeless eye sockets, scanning the area as it searched for any possible sign of quarry or foe.

Sinking low to the ground, I gripped my weapons tighter and held my breath. My heart pounded in my chest and each second felt like a lifetime. To hope that the machine would give up its search and return to the queen empty handed was unrealistic. But with each second that passed, a little bit more of my mana was restored.

I didn’t need to kill this thing. I just needed the damned bug to wake up and fly. As long as I could hold the Jabberwocky off, there was still hope that I could finish this. I could use the mushroom in my inventory to shrink down small enough to fit back through the door. Then I would leave this terrible thing and the whole world behind.

My plan and any hope were dashed when the Jabberwocky found Absolem’s cocoon, highlighting it in red before it found me.

Jabberwocky Status Updated.

Target located: Chrysalis - Absolem (Pupa).

Secondary target: Locked.

The creature chuff-chuff-chuffed and let out a big plume of exhaust as it whirred back into motion. The building-sized monstrosity sprang forward on all eight legs without a single hint of balance or grace, closing the gap much quicker than I’d expected.

If Absolem died, then I would die, too.

I shook the goo from my wings and took flight, throwing my chakrams one at a time at the lifeless wolf's head. Both shots rang true, but did no damage at all. The attacks hadn’t removed a single hit point or even inflicted a minor stun effect. The creature was immune. Seeing was believing, and there was no denying it now. This thing was going to be impossible to kill.

The Jabberwocky halted abruptly, nearly toppling over as it focused its eye socket scanners on me. Then the screeching, mechanical voice pierced the air.

Jabberwocky Status Updated.

Target located: Diver - Claudia Swift.

Primary target: Locked.

Gears churned, and servos screamed. A fresh plume of exhaust filled the air, and it moved to change course. The spidery legs crashed downward again and again in rapid succession, churning bug guts and loam as it turned.

You Inspect the Jabberwocky.

Level 99 Undead Contraption - Elite Minion of the Red Queen.

Hit Points 99,999 / 99,999.

Warning! This mob has been affected by the following boon: Combat Medic.

This mob can keep its victims alive. That’s normally a good thing, but not this time. You’ll likely be begging for the sweet release of death before this is over, but the Jabberwocky is a heartless beast. Go ahead and scream. He simply won’t care.

Quest Status: Let’s be honest. If you are seeing this status message, a quest is the least of your worries.

If I’d had any doubts before, the status message confirmed it. There was no logical way to beat the Jabberwocky. The odds were stacked against me, and I still had no idea how long it would take for Absolem to finish his transformation. I had half a mind to cut him out of the chrysalis myself, but I only had one shot at this.

The cost of taking a shortcut and being wrong was simply too high. It was for that reason that I knew the system wouldn’t just allow me to fly overhead and stay out of reach. Absolem had been marked as a secondary target, forcing me to remain vulnerable and well within the creature’s range.

A salvo of legs arched forward in a flurry of chitin and steel. The four mismatched appendages tore through the air, narrowly missing as I dove to the side. Two more slugs dropped, and three ants scurried forward. Now that the Jabberwocky had acquired its targets, it appeared that the original quest of NPC Defense was back in play.

“Absolem.” I yelled his name at the top of my lungs. “Come on, you stupid bug. I won’t be able to hold out much longer.”

The chrysalis didn’t respond at first. It just kept undulating, sucking in and puffing out just as it had done since the very beginning. Then it twitched.

This was new.

I dodged another attack from the Elite and took out one of the slugs in the process. The other slug shot a salvo of its own. One of the gelatinous spikes impaled my arm while acid from one of the ants sprayed across my leg. The Jabberwocky narrowly missed, yet again, but I fell to the ground, crying out as I was wracked by a fresh wave of pain.

Absolem’s chrysalis began to tear open.

The effect of the spider’s milk was much more intense when there was more damage to heal. The pain was unbearable, but it quickly mended all of my wounds, with the exception of the one on my leg. My health was restored, and I tried to get up, but it was no use. Fatigue threatened to take me. Sleep beckoned, but there would be no rest.

The goo-covered moss was soft and cool. It mopped up the sweat that poured off my skin and promised a respite it couldn’t possibly give. I had almost made it. I was almost done, and now it felt like I didn’t have any fight left.

Once the Jabberwocky had me in its clutches, it would only be the beginning of a cruel and twisted end. It would drag me back to the queen, feasting on my living corpse along the way.

I tried again. This couldn’t be it. I didn’t want to die, but I’d given everything. I had nothing left. With every last bit of my strength drained, I closed my eyes.

And then I waited.

But the incapacitating blow never came. Instead, a new sound entered the forest glade. It was oddly familiar, but so out of place.

I opened my eyes to see spiders. Hundreds and hundreds of massive spiders. Gertrude was with them. They were attacking the ants and the slugs and the Jabberwocky. What was even more surprising was that the beast’s health had finally started to dip.

“Oh, Not-Alice,” Absolem cried out in his typical lazy drawl. “The Jabberwocky? And spiders? What in this world have you done?”