When Sam stopped after only taking a few steps and started to curse, Cyn leaned to look around him. Directly in the path they had made stood a massive arachnid, the legs on one side up the wall while the legs on the other side stood on the ground. This one was large enough Cyn could probably walk under it if the creature stood upright fully. Instead of the dark colors they had come to expect, this spider was the same color as the webbing that filled the room. Although its exoskeleton was not luminescent like the webbing, it did have the glowing threads wrapped around its body which helped create an illusion that the spider was a part of the wall. The only reason it was so visible now was the clear path the party had made, and it was close enough that the lack of glow was easy to see.
Greater Illuminant Weaver - Level 5
This ambush predator is able to create large amounts of bioluminescent thread in a short amount of time, which it primarily uses to create nests and store living prey for future consumption.
Has a paralyzing venom.
Parts of this creature are edible.
Considering the size of its fangs, Cyn did not think the venom was going to be a problem. If any of them were bitten they would probably be incapacitated by the wound alone. Each of the arachnids fangs was at least the length of her forearm, making the venom just overkill when fighting at this level. It had not moved yet, and Cyn figured it was probably like the Harvesters, who also remained still until it was obvious the party was aware of them. This would be fine, if it was not for the still unseen second attacker flinging web balls at them.
While Scott and Hex frantically tried to create more room for them to dodge and maneuver, now aware of the obstacle blocking their retreat, Cyn was attempting to track the location the web balls were coming from. She had to focus on dodging them anyway, since she also had the lowest strength in the party by far. As long as one arm was free Cyn could cut herself out of the web easily enough, but if both of her arms got pinned she was probably screwed.
“There's at least two of whatever’s shooting at us!” Her warning might not be immediately helpful, but having any information was probably better than what the party was currently dealing with. It had taken a few more projectiles, but Cyn was certain there was more than one shooter. The timing and distance between shots was just not reasonable, especially since she still had not spotted any movement on the webs around the cavern.
Scott and Hex had made enough room around them to rearrange their positions, with Scott moving to place himself between the party and the waiting Weaver. “Cyn, try to get a good first shot on this thing. We don’t have the space to fight it safely. Dana...Yah, keep doing that.” The Archer was focused on finding the source of the web balls, and had taken to shooting the offending projectiles out of the air when possible. It was pretty effective at making dodging for everyone else easier.
“This ones venomous, by the way.” Cyn was fairly sure only she could see the extra information on the creatures, given her profession. Stepping to the side, and closer to the wall, gave her not only a clear view of the Weaver but also served as a reprieve from dodging web balls since both Dana and Hex were between her and the rest of the cavern. Focusing on her mana, she created four needles and quickly flicked them towards the waiting Weaver to avoid wasting more mana than she had to to hold the shape. She felt her mana drop below the halfway point in the few seconds it took to form and send out the four needles, but the effect was devastating for the arachnid.
Cyn’s practice and improved control was on clear display as all four needles struck. The Weaver attempted to dodge at the last second by flinging itself sideways, towards the center of the room, but the attempt failed miserably as the mana needles had no problem changing direction on a dime, even at high speed. Two entered the arachnid's main body mass, the third went through one of its legs first, and the final needle struck the Weaver's mouth. The first three lost all momentum before exiting the creatures body, since it was tougher than the Harvesters had been, and dissipated rapidly. The final needle was the most impressive, since it ended up nearly severing one of the Weavers fangs before dissipating. While Cyn felt she had probably done pretty good damage to it, the Illuminant was far from done and let out an ear piercing screech before charging forward at the party, easily moving over its own webs.
Scott had already repositioned himself to be directly in line with the creature’s charge, but between the small amount of cleared floor space and the size of the Weaver there really was not enough space for anyone to truly get out of the way. As it reached them the Guardian raised his spiked mace to strike at the arachnid's ruined mouth, the already damaged fang breaking off completely. At the same time, Sam lunged to bear hug one of its legs and plant his feet in the web, trying to use the adhesive strength combined with his own body strength to prevent the Weaver from moving too much. The web was not strong enough to hold both of them in place, but the Warrior did succeed in temporarily slowing it down.
The temporary reduction in speed was enough to inspire Hex to attempt to jump on top of the Weaver. Cyn wasn’t sure if it was strength or agility, but it was clear one of his higher stats had an effect on how high the Rogue could jump as the leap easily brought him to a height above the creature's back. Unfortunately, before he could land and strike, something hit him and sent Hex flying sideways. He had not gone far, or hit the wall, but was now lying solidly in the sea of glowing web. Cyn had not seen the projectile, and based on the Rogues howl of pain she doubted it was the same web balls they had been dodging thus far.
Cyn focused on Hex, trying to get an idea of how hurt he was, because while he was already getting to his feet the Rogue was clearly struggling to stand up. His health points did not feel low, the projectile and subsequent fall apparently not doing much damage outright, but they were draining at a concerning rate. Taking advantage of an opening created by the Guardian and Warrior, who were still grappling with the Weaver, she darted closer to Hex and was able to see the source of his struggle.
On one side of his abdomen the gray tunic he wore had a ragged hole in it, and she could see the flesh beneath was bleeding freely to stain the remaining cloth and drip down his hip. Rather than a puncture wound or cut, it was almost as if a wide chunk of his skin had been scraped off. Cyn did not think that would be enough to account for how fast he was losing health, so, while keeping an eye on the battle with the Weaver, she unclipped her cloak from around her to use in rapidly clearing web towards the Rogue, having to drop to her knees to do so. At least she was a smaller target now. It was not as efficient as cutting the strands directly, or even using a makeshift tool like Scott had been doing, but was definitely faster. For his part Hex wasted no time in stumbling through the web in a straight line towards Cyn, calling out for everyone to hear, “Whatever hit me felt like acid, watch out.”
Acid could explain the continued health loss, if it was still burning through his flesh. As soon as he was close enough to touch she reached out and used Restoration, while the Rogue took out his waterskin and started pouring water down his side in an attempt to wash out the caustic substance still eating away at him. Now that Cyn was more familiar with how her mana felt, alongside being able to discern someone's condition by just looking at them, it was easier to judge how effective Restoration would be. And while she was certain it would be able to overcome the damage Hex was taking, it was too slow. While she healed him they were practically sitting ducks for further ranged attacks, and neither could return to help the rest of the party either.
Using mana to heal felt different than when she used it to fight, and Cyn was pretty apprehensive about experimenting with it. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally hurt someone she was trying to heal. But rather than forgo her skill entirely, like she had done with Mana Ball, what was stopping her from just pushing more mana through her Restoration? Actually, she already knew there was nothing stopping her since she had accidentally removed all safeguards. The risk was just that the excess mana would not be used properly by the skill, and potentially have a more harmful effect.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Hex suddenly grabbed onto her and pulled them both to the side, making them land in the web but narrowly avoiding an acidic projectile. Yup, they were sitting ducks and Cyn was getting less thrilled by the second. The Rogue was still hemorrhaging, and a quick glance to the rest of the party confirmed that while they were ok for now, small wounds had started to add up. And she was pretty sure Scott was a little bit envenomed. At least the Weaver appeared to be in its death throes.
Fuck it. Cyn pushed a large amount of extra mana out through Restoration. It took a bit of finesse to force it through the skill, rather than allowing her Freeform Mana Casting to create new channels of mana out of her body, but it worked beautifully. Hex’s health loss stabilized in mere seconds, and he began to actually gain health. She did not bother trying to get the Rogue back to a fully healthy state, and cut off Restoration quickly after she was sure he would be safe to recover naturally. Ignoring the notification she had received, Cyn quickly pulled out a mana potion and downed it quickly. It was the first one she had used, and it tasted like stale water with a hint of grass. Gross.
She did not feel like it did much for her dwindling mana, but it was technically better than nothing. Pulling out her dagger, Cyn quickly cut herself and Hex free of the webbing they had landed in before making their way back to the party. She picked up her cloak, but had to just haphazardly fold it to carry, the cloth too covered in sticky web to be wearable until it could be washed. Making their way back to the party, they found the Weaver had been taken care of and everyone was now focused on dodging the web and acid projectiles while trying to locate the hidden attackers among the swath of glowing web.
“I can’t figure out where they are. These stupid balls just appear out of nothing.” Dana sounded annoyed, firing yet another arrow to break apart a web ball as Cyn was flitting between Scott and Sam, shoring up the worst of their injuries.
“Let's just try and make it to the tunnel that leads to the sinkhole. We should be close.” Scott spoke as he picked up his dropped mace awkwardly in his shield hand, his shield now attached to his back. The Weaver had grazed his main arm with its good fang during the fight, paralyzing the limb. Restoration had little effect on the venom, so the Guardian was going to have to just wait it out. Accordingly, Sam was now going to lead their way since he would better be able to clear the webbing, and Scott was now at their rear.
Scotts plan was easier said than done. The narrow path the party created left no room to dodge, and they could not tell exactly where the tunnel was because of the web covering. So far the party had been able to dodge all of the acid and web projectiles, but they were also receiving small amounts of damage from the acid as the balls would burst when hitting any surface, including the wall next to them. The injuries were mild enough Cyn could still preserve her mana, but if they did not find the tunnel soon it could become a problem.
“Cyn, I think it's here. Can you try cutting through?” Sam turned slightly to look at her questioningly, pointing at a spot that to her eyes looked no different than the rest of the web covered wall. She nodded and carefully moved around Hex and Sam to get to the spot the Warrior had pointed at, and started trying to create an opening in the web. She stepped on a piece of broken track near where Sam had pointed as she moved, indicating there probably used to be a full track going this direction, so when her dagger cut through without hitting the stone wall she was not surprised.
While Cyn was cutting the web wall the party failed to notice the amount of projectiles they were being bombarded with had slowed down. Specifically, there was now a distinct lack of acid. Just as she felt the tip of the dagger break through to air, Cyn was knocked to the ground by an arachnid only a little larger than the Harvesters had been, with the same web-colored camouflage as the Weaver. It had dropped down from above almost directly on top of her and Sam, the larger man taking the brunt of the Illuminant’s momentum.
Unfortunately, while the Warrior may have taken most of the weight of the ambusher, the two of them had almost equally shared the burning acid that spewed out of the creature's maw as it fell. Sam took the injuries in stride for the most part, letting out a roar of pain as he tried to grab onto the arachnid. He managed to grab and rip off one of its legs, but the injury caused another splash of acidic liquid from the wound as the agile creature managed to just barely escape the Warrior’s range.
Cyn was not nearly as tough as Sam. It was difficult to tell which stats affected toughness exactly, but she had a suspicion strength was a part of that calculation. And that was her lowest stat by far, on top of only having mediocre vitality. The acid that had been spit onto her landed mostly on her back, but the location did not really matter to her as the pain of melting flesh briefly took over her ability to think for a few breaths. She was brought back to reality quickly by an internal sense of danger. Her health was low, and she was still bleeding health points. Oddly though, the rate she was losing health was slowing, until it reached almost an equilibrium.
She quickly rose to her feet, ignoring her low health for the most part. Everything hurt like a bitch, and she was definitely still injured, but as long as she could keep her health above zero she could power through the pain. Because now she was gaining mana rapidly.
Boots of Near Death Experiences (Rare)(Soulbound) - The larger the gap between your health and maximum health, the faster all resources regenerate.
Enchantments: [Oops]
She didn’t think she would be making much use out of the ability on her boots, but here she was again, flirting with death. She wouldn’t even call it overpowered, since she was pretty sure if anything even looked at her wrong she would be a goner. And the only reason it was working so well was because she had an injury keeping the increased health regeneration from raising her hit points. Plus, she was still losing health. Just really slowly.
Standing now, she quickly reached out to quickly use Restoration on Sam, closing the wounds created by the acid quickly by pushing extra mana through the skill. Dana had shot a few arrows into the retreating attacker, and while it still was not dead it was struggling enough its camouflage was no longer effective.
Still healing Sam she called out, “Hex, I was almost through the web. I can’t risk being hit again.” She met eyes with the Rogue, making sure he understood what she was asking him to do. Yes, it would be faster for her to finish opening the hole, but that would require Cyn to turn her back to the danger in this cavern, and if there was anything waiting just on the other side she would be the first in the line of fire. Luckily, he did seem to understand and nodded quickly, hopping around her and Sam to slice at the web wall. Dana was still trying to finish off the acid spewing spider, and since the Warrior was in good shape again Cyn used Inspect before sending a pair of mana needles through the creature, putting it down for good.
Greater Illuminant Spitter - Level 5
This creature uses camouflage to hide while harnessing its acidic venom for ranged attacks.
Its method of attack makes it unfit to hunt, and instead it will normally serve as a nest guardian.
Its blood has become a potent acid over time.
The acid also made it inedible, apparently. Hearing Hex yelp and curse behind her made it clear that she made the right choice in not finishing off opening the tunnel. Turning, she watched as Scott also moved to help. The Guardian was still one handed, and had chosen to wield the shield like a battering ram instead of using his mace. As the pair of them opened the hole in the web further, the mistake became clear.