Let me tell you, having an elephant-sized tarantula stare down at you from five feet away can be a little scary.

Just a little.

The spider's enormous legs reached around me, nearly trapping me in a cage of black fur.

Its ruby eyes glinting in the dark light, each one swimming with malice as it stared down at me.

Massive, furred fangs curled down before my face, filling my view completely, a promise of impending violence.

I was frozen as I looked up into its face, stiff and unmoving. My mind was blank, and my body frozen.

Then, as its head twitched and its legs curled inwards for a second, I realized I had to move.

Activating Time Dilation and Sprint, I instantly sprang backward, but I could already tell there was no dodging this attack.

Its head was slamming downwards towards me, its mouth open and screaming wide. The spider had already picked up on my attempt to dodge and was readjusting mid-attack.

The crash was going to hit, no matter what. I could tell that very clearly.

Through Time Dilation, I could clearly make out the slow descent of those giant fangs, the roar hitting my ears slowly, my limbs shuddering.

I wasn't really thinking. There were no flashbacks or regrets; I just sort of looked up at the spider blankly. White noise filled my ears, and my eyes unfocused.

I was about to die.

Or at least, I would have if not for a blinding flash and a crash of lightning against the side of the Tiletiks body.

Although the sudden attack hadn't managed to stun the spider, it was just enough to throw it off course and miss my body by a hair-thin margin.

Rock shards were flung into the air from where the spider had hit, but I was already running, not willing to waste the opening.

As I Sprinted to safety, my eyes found the Elemental Imp, who had just saved my life.

Why had it done that?

Why had a demon just decided to step in and save my life?

I grinned shakily. Whatever the reason, the outcome was clear. I was about to die, and this little demon decided to rescue me. That blast of lightning had knocked the spider's attack off course enough to let me live.

Or maybe I was reading into this all wrong, and the mindless demon had just decided to randomly attack at a time that coincidentally saved my life.

But looking into the eyes of that strange, floating Imp, I highly doubted it. There was a scary, alien intelligence in those eyes, something so reminiscent of a human.

I turned my face back to the Tiletik Mother, now thoroughly engaged with the Imp, both of them charging each other with malice and devastating power.

The two demons entered into that horrid dance, crashes and waves of dust billowing outwards from their fight, and grating screams echoing through the cavern.

As I looked up to the battle in front of me, I fingered my sword thoughtfully.

Looking at my status block, I noticed I still had 15 HP left, although my stamina was running low.

Thinking for a moment, I nodded to myself and smiled brightly.

Then I ran back into the fight.

....

Me and the strange blue Imp had somehow ended up pairing together to team up against the Tiletik, and I'm still not sure exactly how. After running into the battle, I just ended up helping the smaller demon out, with it also distracting the spider whenever I was attacked.

We ran around the giant spider, throwing out lightning and slashing its legs, bringing down its health hit by hit for who knows how long.

I would dart in and deeply cut into a stray limb, the Imp then blasting some lightning towards the spider for me to escape.

When the Tiletik would suddenly dash forwards, surprising my little blue friend and getting in a strong hit, I would jump forward and draw its attention.

Of course, my teamwork with an unknown demon wasn't perfect at all. Both me and the Imp were hit and thrown around multiple times, and I no longer had the stamina or potions to regain health.

I could feel my bones cracking under the strain, blood dripping down my various wounds, and bruises spreading across my body.

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Luckily, I was quite experienced with fighting under extreme pain by that point, and the promise of leveling up by the end of the fight motivated me like nothing else could.

And after what felt like hours, days, of fighting in that cave, I saw the enemy falter.

It was nothing much, just a stumble at first, but then I really started to see the gaps. The Tiletik Mother was slowing down, and neither I nor the Imp were going to letting it rest.

The spider was gushing black blood like a waterfall, its limbs skewed outwards, and its body covered in burns and singes.

When it stumbled, its leg-breaking under its own weight, me and the Imp jumped forwards mercilessly.

A blast of lightning hit the spider in the head while I jumped upwards to bury my Cirilka sword high into its side.

As the wind rushed in my ears and my grip tightened around the sword, I made contact and tore deep into the spider's flesh, using my body weight to drag the blade down the enormous body, cutting open its insides and letting gallons of steaming blood pour over me.

I hit the ground and bent my knees before stumbling backward, out of breath and nearly gagging from the smell and sight of how much foreign blood was soaking my body.

Screaming and roaring louder than ever before, the Tiletik Mother thrashed loudly, its numerous legs swinging wildly like huge battering rams, and while the Imp managed to fly away safely, I was not ready to dodge.

I was still right next to the massive spider, gasping for breath and trying to stumble away from it. I was too close to the Tiletik when it started flailing and couldn't avoid one of those battering rams slamming into my side.

As the giant limb hit, I could feel something in me crack, and I couldn't even gasp or scream; the air had been taken out of me completely.

My body felt motionless as it flew through the air before crashing into the rock floor, brutalizing my already damaged bones.

I laid there, weakly coughing up blood, and my eyes flew to my status block.

HP: 2/17

SP: 0/14

MP: 7/13

Okay. Two health left.

All I need to do is kill that fucking spider, and I'll level up. Then, I'll be healed and perfectly fine. Easy.

Trying and nearly failing to stand, I stumbled to my feet and coughed up a bit more blood before raising my eyes to see the Tiletik Mother.

Its elephant-sized body was on the ground, futilely kicking and twitching while the blue Imp watched from above.

The spider looked so... pathetic, as it struggled to move.

As I slowly stumbled over to the grounded demon, the Imp's attention switched to me for a few seconds. I could see its black eyes twitching over my bloodied and broken form, and it seemed to stiffen before looking back towards the Tiletik Mother.

The blindingly bright glow surrounding the Imp's body faded to nothing, and it raised one thin arm to point towards the Tiletik.

I stood there, hesitantly, watching the blue demon as it pointed to the weak and twitching boss spider. The Imp stared at me, its head cocked, before gesturing with its arm again.

Wait, was it... giving me the kill?

I shrugged to myself and dragged my bleeding form closer to the near-dead Tiletik. If this Imp thing was actually letting me take the kill and all the XP, I certainly wasn't complaining.

I did still keep an eye on the devil as I walked by it. The Imp was still a demon, and if I know one thing about demons, it's that they love trying to kill me. This guy may just be trying to get my guard down before shanking me in the back or something.

Actually, I doubt that. It can clearly see how weak I am, and I have no doubt a single lightning bolt spell would kill me.

Looking over the Tiletik Mother, I frowned. Now that I could see it all laid out along the ground, I could really appreciate how disgusting this thing was.

I mean, it was a tarantula at least ten feet tall and more than twice as long. The size of a motherfucking African elephant.

I groaned and stepped up to the body, readying my sword and looking at the spider's head.

Nothing for it, I guess. You can't go wrong with a stab to the neck, right?

I walked forwards, a bit jittery, and watched the giant legs carefully.

Then I slashed its neck.

....

The spider actually didn't die after I cut its throat, so I stabbed that general area many more times, with the primary intention of repeating the motion until I finally got a notification saying I killed the damn thing.

It took... longer than I would like to admit for the spider to die. And this was with me stabbing its neck, face, and head, over and over for maybe five minutes.

The whole scenario was so weird I quietly laughed to myself a few times. It was probably not a good thing that I was literally chuckling while stabbing a living creature in the head, but I did not want to deal with the trouble of worrying about my mental state. I'm weird, and maybe a little unstable, and possibly a bit too happy when killing things, but we all have our flaws, right?

The whole thing was also slightly awkward because that Imp was just standing to the side, watching me.

I had a feeling it was judging me as I continually failed to kill a spider even though I was literally stabbing it in the head.

But after what felt like an eternity, a white message finally appeared in front of my face.

You Have Slain: Tiletik Young Mother

+440 XP Acquired

Reflexes: Level 4 Acquired

Reflexes: Level 5 Acquired

Slayer: Level 4 Acquired

Quick Feet: Level 3 Acquired

Sprint: Level 2 Acquired

Tenacity: Level 2 Acquired

Level 4 Acquired! Please See Your Character Profile To Level Up

Level 5 Acquired! Please See Your Character Profile To Level Up

I stepped back from the enormous carcass, stumbling backward and clutching my bloodied side with my good hand.

All of those notifications sounded great, especially the double level-up.

Now I could open my menu, click the screen, and just heal myself while leveling.

But just before I could access my menu, the Imp finally moved.

It drifted over to my slowly on its midnight-blue wings, eyeing me carefully and slowly touched the ground before me.

As we stood together, I could really get a sense of just how short this thing was. It couldn't have been taller than three feet, and yet it was able to fight off that Tiletik Mother and shoot lightning bolts!

Although, that incredible strength wasn't exactly reassuring now that it stood next to me and seemed to be staring at me cautiously.

This could quickly get violent, and with how powerful the little demon seemed to be, I doubt I would escape alive.

The Imp looked at me quietly for a few more seconds, before opening its mouth and letting out a chattering stream of hard consonants and syllables that hurt my ears like nails on a chalkboard.

It soon stopped the weird sounds and looked slightly... disappointed.

The realization struck me instantly.

Was this thing trying to communicate with me?

The blue demon brought one clawed hand up to its throat, a dim blue glow suddenly emitting from the creature before settling down.

It opened its mouth again.

And then it started speaking English.