As I jumped off the dying spider and flashed forward to my next target, the wounded spider, I kept a constant wary eye on the Tarantula lord.

Dodging the wounded spider’s leg thrust, I hacked with as much force as I could, sending the spider crashing to the ground with three of its left legs severed.

Still flashing forward, I unsummoned my dagger, and leaping high; I came down clutching my sword in two hands and stabbing it into the head of a spider that reared up, trying to bite me.

Leaving the sword embedded within the spider’s head as it spasmed, I moved forward in a blur toward the reinforcements, which were pausing as they digested what was happening to their comrades.

But it was too late for one of them as I resummoned my dagger, and coming to an abrupt stop, I avoided its jaws that snapped a few inches in front of me before I thrust the dagger with an underhand blow that passed straight through the spider’s lower jaw.

Ripping the spider’s jaw apart, I turned sideways to the left, and as hard as I could; I punched the spider in one of the eyes, and my fist went straight through, pulping both the eye and the brain that lay behind it.

Pulling my bloodied hand out, I jumped backward out of the range of the dying spider’s last movements.

Holding the dagger horizontally in front of me, I stared at the remaining three spiders as the rush of battle receded and calmness restored itself.

Cursing at my stupidity for leaving the sword behind, I gripped the dagger even more tightly, conscious that I would have to engage in close quarters combat to have any chance of killing them the way that I just did the last one.

It was at that moment that Duncan roared out, and his silver armor receded as it reformed into proper knight armor, and he summoned a huge broadsword that he hefted alongside his augmented tower shield as his head vanished underneath a helmeted great helm.

Still roaring out, Duncan swept the broadsword in a horizontal sweep that knocked away the spiders attacking them in the front.

Spotting my chance, I grinned as I charged again toward the reinforcement spiders who skittered as they stood there unsure.

Then I was past them, and running toward Duncan and the rest.

Targeting the outermost spiders, I flashed forward as I kneed an unsuspecting spider in the back, before the knee transformed into a kick that sent the spider flying into the swarm.

In the chaos that was caused, I moved like a fish in water, cutting and slicing with the dagger as spiders fell incapacitated; their limbs hamstrung.

As the pressure lessened on Cathy, she sank a dagger into the spider she was facing, and then as she jumped back; her bow spat out one arrow after the other into the spiders that I had wounded.

Dunkirk, meanwhile, stayed around Cathy, guarding her as best as he could while his father, Duncan, moved like an armored carriage, straight into the ranks of spiders with his great helm giving him a terrifying visage and his broadsword cleaving into the masses of spiders.

17 spiders left.

I whirled and sliced the tips of a spider’s eyes, blinding it before an arrow sprouted deep within its head.

16 left.

Duncan raised his sword and cleaved mightily, sending three spiders crashing to the ground in a heap where they twitched for a few moments before falling silent.

13 left.

Dunkirk raised his shield to block a spider before he calmly stabbed his sword into the spider’s underbelly as it reared up to bite him again, then he shoulder charged it and shrugged it onto the other spider’s paths.

12 left.

Still whirling as I danced around, my dagger a blur, I suddenly stumbled as a spider corpse came alive and a sharp leg sank into my own leg.

An arrow flashed past, and the animated corpse turned back into a true corpse, but the damage had been done, and my speed was reduced.

Tumbling forward to escape another spider, I hobbled my way toward Cathy and Dunkirk, with my dagger fending off attacks from all directions.

Bad things happen all at once usually, and it was no different now as my heart began beating erratically, causing me to stumble again as the unexpected pain washed over me.

As I fell forward, I held out my left hand and pushed off the ground with it, turning the fall into an awkward roll that took me underneath a spider’s belly.

Slicing it as I rolled forward, I came up gasping in pain, and quickly, I summoned a potion of thorns.

Only for it to be knocked away as one of the spiders shot forward and barreled into me.

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Desperately scrambling, my vision turning blurry as a thousand ants began working on my leg wound, I raised my dagger high, only to grunt as a spider’s jaws closed around my arm.

Punching feebly from the awkward situation that I found myself in, I tried frantically to free myself, but as the venom from the spider numbed my hand, I slowly found myself slipping into darkness.

Then fiercely biting my tongue, I held out my left hand and summoned the last vial of the potion of thorns, and flicking the stopper off with my thumb, I raised it and downed the whole vial.

Thump. Bathump. Thump. Bathump.

Yelling out, I rose, the spider rising with me as I pushed off the ground, and then I punched its head once; twice; thrice; until it fell backward in agony.

Quickly switching the dagger to my left hand, I raised it and stabbed it down into the reeling spider’s skull.

Raising my head groggily, I surveyed the battlefield, wondering why nobody had helped me.

Then I paused, jaw wide open, as the Tarantula Lord blinked between the three adventurers who were desperately dodging the Tarantula’s pincer-like bites, apart from Duncan whose warforce armor was struggling to reform again; dents running densely over his entire front.

“Bal, why is this thing so fast,” I thought furiously, before I turned my attention to the rest of the spiders, who were even now attacking intermittently and preventing the adventurers from fleeing.

8 left.

I was alone.

I was wounded.

One potion down.

One potion lost.

One very harmless Tarantula behind me, trying its best to slaughter the adventurers.

Good odds.

Really good odds.

I smiled savagely as I adjusted my grip on the dagger, my right hand flopping uselessly by my side, as the venom burned through my nerves.

I smiled even more savagely as the spiders rushed towards their prey.

But I am no prey.

I am a hunter.

And a hunter hunts.

Choosing my target, I breathed in and focussing all my warforce on my usable leg; I blasted forward; my dagger slicing a swathe through the spider’s ranks.

Still flashing, I jumped high and straight onto the rampaging Tarantulas hairy back.

Feet finding purchase on the sticky hair, I shakingly stood up as the Tarantula reared up and thrashed. My teeth were clenched tightly, and with a thunderous shout, I brought the dagger down upon the Tarantula’s skull.

Only for it to cleave till the hilt, and stop.

Bal.

That was the only word I could spit out before the Tarantula flipped over, crushing me to the ground.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood as my ribs cracked, I hazily opened my eyes, only to recoil as I stared into the eyes of the enraged Tarantula.

With a heave, the Tarantula rolled off me, its terrifyingly long legs digging deep into the earth in unusual angles.

Then Duncan was between me and the Tarantula, his silver warforce armor flashing brightly.

Arrows shot past and clattered off the Tarantula’s armored carapace as the Tarantula dodged, albeit a bit more slowly than before.

I saw Dunkirk engaging the remaining spiders as he shot worried looks at Duncan.

Meanwhile, I crawled as I realized not only were my ribs cracked, but my leg had also broken.

Unable to stand, I crawled toward Cathy and Dunkirk.

Only to watch horrified as the spider’s legs shot through Duncan as his warforce armor sputtered and receded.

Flinging Duncan’s limp body off, the spider charged at Dunkirk who screamed red eyed.

Shouting out myself, I watched as Dunkirk lifted his sword high, only for the Tarantula to ignore it and slam into him bodily, knocking him far away.

Then it turned its attention to Cathy.

Only for a stone to hit it.

Hissing, it turned to the source and charged toward it.

The source? Me.

Grimacing hideously, I pulled myself to a half sitting position, and held out my left hand as I tried to stop the tyrannical charge of the Tarantula.

Puff, puff.

Two terrifyingly sharp legs created bloody holes in my upper torso and my hand folded as my wrist broke with the impact of the Tarantulas charge.

Unintelligible screaming broke loose from my mouth, as the serrated edges of the Tarantula’s jaws clenched upon my bracer and broken arm, biting down.

Squinting through the pain, I raised my limp right hand, which was just regaining feeling, and punched the Tarantula weakly on the side of its jaw. Again. And Again. As it chewed on the remnants of my armor and reached my flesh.

As the pain escalated, my heart beat unwillingly.

Thump.

Bathump.

Bathump.

Bathump.

Bathump.

And then a primal roar burst loose from me as rage at the monster filled me.

I refuse to give up! Courage! Valor! My values!

And the punches became stronger. Bit by bit.

Bit by bit, the monster’s jaw moved to the left as my right hand pounded.

Until I abandoned the punches, and just grabbed its jaw.

Straining, I pried open the monster’s jaw and then screaming; I ripped it apart with my bare right hand.

Still Screaming, I cried out, “Sword!”

And a sword flew through the air, and my fist closed around its hilt, holding it vertically as the spider in agony crashed down on me.

For a long moment, there was silence broken only by the twitching of a lord as it died.

And the rattling breath of a boy who crawled out painstakingly from under the shadow of death, mutilated as he was.

And the sound of footsteps that came close, one step at a time.