The giant spidery citadel was walking through the dense and ancient forest. Its tall metal legs were careful in their steps doing only the minimum damage. The citadel was almost out of the Ancestral Forest, the place it now emerged was the area where the Aurelian Kingdom had used to fell the trees to acquire Spirit Stones. The previous transgressions were all in the past, the area was seeded with young saplings; they were all too keen to grow into a new forest. With the lack of human activity, the forest was on the path of reclaiming its old territory. Just like all living creatures, it wanted to grow, plant its seeds, and expand.
Perhaps that’s why the Wisp had entrusted something very special to a certain individual inside the citadel.
“Sss,” She hissed while playing with a peculiar marble Uncle Wisp had gifted.
The young Chaos Queen was barely a month old, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from just looking at her. Certain items and certain blessings had a way of messing with the natural order of things. Instead of being an infant, the chaos lamia was already a toddler.
Much like a toddler would, the young Queen deposited the marble she was playing with into her mouth.
“SSS!” The Lamia Maid hissed sharply with worry. “My Queen, Ancestral Forest Seed isn’t food. Sss-spit it out!” She stretched her hand demandingly.
“No-hhh!” The Queen mumbled out and turned her head sideways in protest.
“My Queen, sss, if you swallow it, the sss-seed will grow inside your belly and then you will Explode!”
Mind you, this was a real thing which could happen.
“Sss? SSS! *spit*.”
The Lamia Maid took away the seed for safekeeping.
“Sss…” Bored the young Chaos Queen slithered closer to the control panel.
She looked at it with sparkly eyes. The control panel had inviting levers, colourful buttons, and many switches which begged to be flicked. A very big and very red button had caught her eye, and without much hesitation, she pressed it. *Click*, It made a very satisfying sound.
“SSS!” The Lamia Maid hissed in alarm. “This is the button of the Deadly Laser, sss, don’t press it!”
Luckily the weapon took time to spin and heat up, so the maid had to do was to press the button again. *Click*, the attack was cancelled.
“Deadly Laser!” The Queen hissed in excitement and pressed the button again.
*Press*, “No!!!”
“Sss? SSS!”
*Press*, - On.
*Press*, - Off.
*Press*, - On.
*Press*, - Off.
The two battled each other much like children would.
The nearby spider tippy-tapped closer to the two.
“Deadly Laser is for deadly enemies.” he chirped sternly.
“Exactly, sss.” The Lamia Maid added sternly.
It was good the spider came, the young Queen would never listen to other chaos lamia but for some reason, spiders were an authority to her.
Juvenile Queen stopped her play, “…” and then looked at the spider beggingly. Her purple eyes were big and the moisture was building up rapidly at the corners.
“Now-now…” the spider patted the kid with affection. “We just need. A deadly enemy. Simple.” The spider chirped as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
“Deadly Laser!” She jumped in excitement.
The Chaos Lamia slithered closer to the massive screen and began gazing for enemies. Everything was just a tiny speck.
“Here.” The spider handed her the Looking Glass.
“Enemy!” She pointed.
“No, sss, it’s a tree.” Lamia Maid corrected.
“Enemy!”
“A rock.”
“Enemy!”
“A squirrel.”
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“…” young troublemaker pouted, there were just no enemies around.
“I think…” The spider began. “The squirrel can be. An enemy sometimes.”
Indeed, the little critters were known to nibble on TomGrape vines, and if left unchecked could become a nuisance. But that was just a flimsy excuse for some 'FUN!'.
The Queen beamed a brilliant smile, “Enemy!”, she pointed with authority at the distant squirrel.
“Yes.” The spider nodded. “Enemy sighting confirmed.”
“Deadly Laser?” Her hand hovered over the large red button. “Sss?”
“Yes. Engage the laser.”
*Press*, *Click*.
*Sigh*, “sss…”, the maid sighed in resignation.
The laser mechanism spun up and the cell began to slowly heat up. A barely audible buzz filled the control room. The Chaos Lamia jumped up and down giddily at the anticipation. There was a lot more which happened behind the scenes: like the careful aiming of the weapon, and the mages guiding and pooling the necessary mana.
The metal jaws of the giant spider opened ever so slightly, and a cannon peeked out much like a tongue would; the laser weapon was all hot and rearing for some action.
“All you have to do.” The spider pointed at another button. “Press it. And shout a command to fire.”
“[Deadly Laser]!!!” The Chaos Lamia slammed the button as if her life depended on it.
Inside the cannon, the rays converged forming a deadly beam. The purple blast shot out of the giant spider’s mouth and then…
*Explosion!!!*, – everything flashed in purple.
Normally lasers don’t make explosions, but you tell that to the one who named the attack.
Where there once was a squirrel now was a small crater; everything inside was pretty much evaporated. Wisps of rich condensed mana swirled right above the destruction, and an odd miniature cloud or two were firing purple lighting to expend the leftover mana.
“Yay!” The Chaos Queen clapped at the destruction of the spider enemies, but then her jovial mood was stuck with a blank face betraying confusion.
The culprit was the system message she has just received:
[You’ve slayed the Common Squirrel]
[The experience was shared between the party]
[Fighting +1 exp]
No, not this one.
[Chaos Blessed activated]
Seemingly out of thin air, a small party of humans had manifested only metres away from the crater. Purple wisps of mana clung to their cloaks disrupting some sort of either Camouflage or Invisibility ability. There was clear panic in between their ranks. And no, these humans weren't of an Aurelian kind, they were Imperials!
“Imperial Scum!!!” The spider chirped in alarm.
“[Deadly Laser]!!!” The Chaos Queen slammed the button but nothing happened. “Sss?”
“The canon needs time to cool.” The spider informed following up with a suggestion. “But we can use turret fire.”
“Imperial sss-spies!” The Lamia Maid identified the enemies. “Save the turrets and leave them to us, sss, the Chaos Lamia!”
Even before she uttered those words, the nearby defensive tower was already reacting to the threat. A rank of obsidian-skinned beauties assembled at needly carved slits in the wall. These weren’t slots for arrowfire but for the magic instead. The Chaos Lamia here might still be very young, however, that didn’t mean that they weren’t well equipped to deal with the threat. They were dressed in rather scandalous black robes which unlike the loose wizard robes clung to their sleek serpentine bodies snugly, much like the leathers of the Rogue, but they were mage robes still – Dark Robes manufactured out of DarkAgave and enchanted with all those Dark enchantments. They didn’t have their Dark Staves yet, an item to be earned only after graduation, but they didn’t need them to cast basic spells.
An array of pretty manicured claws poked through the many wall slits, magic pooled at their palms, “[Dark Arrow]!”, the girls chanted in unison. Projectiles of dark light shot out of their hands and rained towards the Imperial party. And they didn’t stop with a single volley, “[Dark Arrow], “[Dark Arrow], “[Dark Arrow], …”, they chanted trying to best one another, after all, Chaos Lamia just didn’t know how to hold back – a trait which all of them seemed to share. Yet still, they were amateurs and most of the magic projectiles were off target, but what lacked in quality was substituted in quantity.
Back in the command centre, the Chaos Queen clapped at the impressive light show. The projectiles were only metres away from the already fleeing humans, and soon they would be shredded like the Centauri Cheese.
“S-s-s!” She giggled mirthfully at the prospect of an otherwise gruesome sight and yet, “SSS!”, it never came.
Apparently, the Imperial Spies had a perfect counter. A dome of light shimmered in existence cancelling entire hundreds of Dark Arrows. It didn’t crack or even shimmer at the assault, it was that powerful.
The spider jumped on the nearby web. “We might need. The turrets after all.” With those words, he skittered up to the ceiling and through a spidery hole to only spiders know where.
And very soon, more powerful Dark Blast were shot out of the turrets. The protection the humans hastily erected began to crack and flicker. And by the looks of it, it was erected only to buy some time, because as soon as their Light Fortress shattered there was an internal flash-like explosion and all the humans were simply gone; the Dark magic projectiles hit only empty ground. Naturally, the spiders assumed that this was a trick of some sort: a rapid movement spell like Shadow Step or another Camouflage spell. Detection spells were used, namely, Detect Life and even Detect Soul, but the humans were truly gone as if spirited away.
The spider came back out of his spidery hole. “They’ve got away.” He chirped apologetically.
“It’s Okay.” The young Queen waved it off. She did get to see an amazing laser in action, plus an impressive light show, in other words, her need for destruction was satisfied at least until afternoon.
And then no one thought much about the little incident, after all, some stray Imperial Soldiers and Spies were well expected in this little journey of the Giant ‘ENEMY’ Spider. The next destination was the Aurelian Capital!