Zen flipped over the taut wooden log walls, letting his instincts and muscle memory take over in his overwhelming anger and rage. Sliding down off of the wall, where he kicked off of it and landed doing a tuck and roll, he sprinted towards the crosserfang, the rest of the flank team looking over at this man who suddenly came over to help.

It seems the crosserfang had noticed too, and had lost its attention from Stephen to now focus on him. Zen pointed at one of the flank guards, twirling his finger at him before showing him the back of his palm as he ran towards them. The guard seemed to understand and picked up the shield, as if it were a slightly angled wall.

“Don’t you attack Stephen!” Zen yelled with gritted teeth as he jumped, pushed off the shield wall like a springboard, nearly toppling the guard holding it, before somersaulting over onto the crosserfangs back. The X mark on the spider’s back cracked into fragments of brittle hardened brown clay. This wasn’t a normal crosserfang.

“It’s a hulker crosserfang!” one of the flank guards gasped. “Its weakness is on its head! Just stay on top for a few moments and stab through its brain!” Zen nonchalantly nodded, holding onto the hulker crosserfang's back for dear life, as it was jerking and bucking like a man hunting animal.

Unfortunately, Zen couldn’t hold on for much longer, and was eventually bucked off. But the flank guard was still holding the ballistic steel shield, and before the spider or the guard could recuperate on what was happening, Zen had jumped and pushed off the shield wall again, pushing the guard into the dirt for good. Again, he was back on the spider’s back.

The hulker crosserfang was screaming by this point, flailing and spinning, trying to get Zen off of its back, and generally causing a massive scene to everyone in the general vicinity. Not wanting this charade to go any longer, Zen stabbed the iron broadsword deep into the spider’s head, using it as an anchor point. The hulker crosserfang shrilled even louder, before growing quiet and collapsing onto the floor.

Zen huffed. Adrenaline was still coursing through his veins as he wrenched the broadsword out of the spider flesh and dropped from the spider’s corpse’s back.

“That was incredible!” one of the guards wooed in mild admiration. “Don’t worry. Stephen will be fine. The guy you used as a springboard twice is actually a very good medic. How much adrenaline do you have left?”

“Lots…” Zen said coughing, his eyes being forced into a tunnel vision state and his arms were visibly shaking.

“Well if you want to put that adrenaline to good use, you could always help out the others–”

Zen was already running, and the guard waved him away. Quickly, Zen zeroed in on another crosserfang flank team, who were rhythmically attempting to attack its weak point. Time to mess up their whole cycle.

Using his momentum from his sprinting, Zen quickly dove low and kicked his feet out, sliding on the grass and dirt right underneath the crosserfang, much to both parties' surprise. There, Zen quickly stabbed at the underbelly of the crosserfang, and dove out of the way just before it collapsed.

A rush of air filled Zen’s lungs as his rabid eyes darted towards any other viable targets. Running towards another crosserfang, this one with large green glowing sacs, Zen could hear the shrieks and screaming of many guards, who seemed far too afraid to attack even if they were being hit over and over by its claws and mandibles.

“What are you doing here?” a mustached guard yelled in a panic after acknowledging Zen’s presence, who at this point had gained enough rationale to not run headfirst into a glowing enemy. “We’re guards here, we can’t fight this thing! It’s an acid crosserfang, one of the most feared out of its entire species! If those acid pods on its back break, it’ll unleash a wave of acid! We have to keep it away from the walls or it’ll do a suicide bombing, and that’ll ruin everything!”

“That is right,” Zen said with a huff, pushing the mustached guard to the side. “You guys focus on another crosserfang. I’m more expendable here, as I have an AR earpiece. And unlike you,” Zen said, pulling out the crossbow attached to his back, “I just got a crossbow, which I just picked up in twenty seconds.”

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The mustached guard nodded, whistling to the rest of the flank team, where the rest of them broke ranks and redirected to another target. Zen faced his next match, a supposed enemy capable of rabid and agonizing death.

The acid crosserfang was a sight to behold. Large green sacs rippled and pulsated on top of its back, with deep lime green veins and stripes pulsing throughout the crosserfang’s red-orange brown body. It was at least three meters tall and four meters long, and its mouth frothed a cactus green acid that burned the grass with a hiss whenever a drop hit the earth. Zen gulped.

Quickly, Zen notched an arrow into his crossbow and rolled to the left, just as the crosserfang clamped down at his former position. With the spider’s charge over, Zen attempted to shoot one of the sacs, but the bolt did a complete whiff. The crosserfang turned towards Zen again.

Zen did the same tactic, rolling to the side once the crosserfang charged, and attempting to shoot the bulbs. Zen was hitting them, but they seemed to be far more resistant than what he was expecting. It seemed mother nature had planned for this sort of thing, where the outside shell of the bulbs would be hard, and the inside catalyst would explode when the time was right.

After a few games of constant cat and mouse, the acid-fang seemed to get wary. Instead of charging, the spider simply waited, the froth churning inside his mouth. Zen had a crossbow bolt locked and loaded. He just had to wait for the spider’s move.

Suddenly, the acid-fang hurtled a large glob of lightish green backwash at Zen, who yiped in surprise, and barely dodged it. The grass where it landed burned and hissed, as the liquid acid swiftly gobbled the organic plant matter. Zen glared at the acid-fang, who appeared to be visibly smug. Zen ran around the spider in a frenzy, as the acid-fang spewed forth lots of pellets of liquid acid, some barely splattering before his little legs, giving Zen the fright of his life.

When Zen came to a stop behind an acid burned tree trunk and notched another crossbow bolt, the crosserfang fired an acid glob out of the side of its mouth in such a way that it curved, hitting Zen squarely in his leather breastplate.

Zen shrieked in a panic, lugging the leather tunic off of his body and immediately throwing it onto the floor, making sure he didn’t touch any of the dangerous acid. In a mild shock, he watched as the acid began to burn and eat up the leather, the armor he was wearing quickly turning into a green and brown sludge.

He bolted out from his cover and shot at the sacs on the crosserfang’s back as it was charging another acid barrage. This time, a sizable crack appeared on one of the sacs, and the spider noticed. It lurched back from his frontal position, and rapidly fired tens of little acid pellets out of his frothing mouth, its eyes glowing in a green and frightened rage.

Zen ran around the spider to the best of his ability, and somehow was left unscathed. Quickly, he went to grab another arrow… and… and… There were no more arrows. He was out of ammo. How was he going to take down this acid-fang if he had nothing to shoot?

Looking from left to right, Zen spotted a corpse of a guard. He quickly made his way over and flipped it over, revealing a bow and a short iron tipped iklwa spear, but no arrows.

Shit! Zen swiftly took the short bow and the iklwa and dodged another hail of acid pellets. He had nothing to shoot. That was fine. Everything was fine. His remaining armor was gone, reduced to sludge. He knew for a fact the acid would pierce his thin cotton undergarments, and inevitably his skin, so he had to make sure that this arachnid abomination dies soon, or he’ll be the one who dies. Not like that mattered, as he would be teleported back, but the agony. He did not like feeling pain.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to his mind, as his eyes drifted to the items he had picked up. A short bow. An iklwa spear. A short bow. An iklwa spear! It was perfect! He could use the iklwa spear as a makeshift arrow and shoot it from the short bow he had picked up! It was borderline stupid, but he’s seen his archer superior use a bow. His visual knowledge would have to resurface for this moment.

After another volley of acid pellets, Zen made his move. Swiftly closing in, Zen hucked his now useless crossbow at the acid-fang’s face, which visibly flinched slightly, but it was enough of a distraction. It was now or never, do or die.

Zen nocked the iklwa spear into his short bow, pulling it back, and not for long, firing it at the glowing green pods. Because of the spear’s short stature and its chipped gash in the middle of the staff, it made a perfect notch for the string.

The staff flew in the air, almost in slow motion, as both Zen and the acid crosserfang watched the staff fly. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, the iklwa made a chunk! Sound, as it pierced right through the acid pods. The acid crosserfang, in mild shock, frothed one more time, before closing its eyes, and violently exploding.

The explosion rocked the surface, with a torrent of acid exploding into the air. Zen, who knew by now the fear of acid, picked up a shield from a fallen guard brethren to use as a cover and made a run for it back to the walls of the fort. As he passed other guards, who had killed most of the spiders at this point, watched in horror as the wave of acid began washing towards them. They too, made the wise decision of making their way to the fort in a frenzied panic.

The spiders did too, as seeing as their major way of wreaking havoc on the humans had been thoroughly destroyed, began maneuvering away from the acid and began retreating back into the woods.

Once Zen had gotten back to the thatched wooden walls, Zen took a look at the shield he was using to cover his head and nearly gasped at the sight. Holes made from acid water droplets were drilled into the wood and iron, some breaking through and entering the other side. Somehow in all that chaos, he was miraculously unscathed, with not much as a few burns on his clothing.

Zen threw the shield aside, and entered the fort with no resistance, as all the guards were too busy guiding the rest of the soldiers inside away from the acid as it came sloshing closer. Right on queue, the acid stopped approaching, and remained stagnant on the rocky earth. After a few coughs that broke the silence, a loud cheer erupted from the archers, which were swiftly followed by the foot soldiers who did the same.

Zen smiled at the guards’ happiness and turned back to the fort’s entrance, where a familiar Devan was standing, hands on his hips.

“Well, Devan. How was my stellar performance?” Zen asked half-sarcastically, spreading his arms out in a slight bow and a smug looking grin.

Devan glared at Zen, with a crease in his eyebrows, and his fists clenched together.

“Zen, you fucking idiot.”