The roar erupted from within me, a raw and primordial force that I didn’t know existed until now. An otherworldly force that froze the spiders in their tracks. Even the Nythalith faltered at the sound, I couldn’t see her face but I had hoped it was uneasy.

“What is this?” she hissed, her voice still muffled as the swarm of spiders had engulfed me but the contempt in her voice was unmistakable.

I could feel it. My body- no, Thalra’s body was changing. My tendrils, growing thicker and more menacing, surged outward, lashing violently at the surrounding webs. The air grew thick with the scent of blood and venom as the corpses of spiders were torn apart and consumed by the writhing extensions of my will.

There was a muffled voice, dulled and overshadowed by the fury rumbling in my core. I could hear Thalra’s voice faintly in the distance of my mind. “What are you doing? Are you okay?”

I didn’t answer, I couldn’t answer. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t find my voice. My throat was filled with fire.

I was changing Thalra’s body to become the perfect host, it was no longer the dainty agile Drow. Her muscles swelled, her arms thickening as the veins beneath the surface darkened her ashen skin. A chitin-like armour encased her whole, growing dense and hard. An impenetrable layer from the outside world, the bulk increasing her height and turning her silhouette into a towering monster. This was no longer Thalra, this was me. Reshaping her into something that could properly contain my power, optimised to destroy and consume - the apex predator.

The spiders surrounding me hesitated, their instincts struggling against their loyalty to the Nythalith. They moved now against their will, puppets of their Queen. But the primal killing intent radiating from me made them jittery, uncertain and afraid.

I pushed myself away from the wall, suspended in midair as my tendrils took root in the wall I had been pinned against. The corpses of spiders began to fall, caught by my tendrils as they lashed out. Absorbing the bodies of the deceased into my dark oily mass, their flesh and venom adding to the armour that was now encasing me.

The Nythalith’s face contorted into a disgusted snarl, her voice full with disdain. “You think this changes anything? You are still nothing before me!”

Her taunt was met with silence as I pushed out further into the air towards her, my tendrils uncoiled and slithering in the air like serpents ready to strike.

“Nothing?” I repeated, Thalra’s voice was distorted with a darker second voice entwined. “You are mistaken, and I’m done playing by the house rules.”

She screamed, a piercing, monstrous shriek that reverberated through the webbed structures that filled the chamber. The spiders that had been hesitating launched themselves at me all at once, a wave of legs and gnashing mandibles.

But this time, I didn’t dodge.

The first wave of spiders crashed into me, their fangs sinking into the armour that encased Thalra’s body. But their venom, which was previously potent and corrosive, had no effect. My tendrils reacted instinctively, stabbing and slashing through the mass of spiders with brutal efficiency. I grabbed one of the broodmothers with a clawed hand, crushing its head effortlessly and tossing it aside for my tendrils to consume it.

I could feel my strength increasing with every kill, an addictive rush of consumption that brought with it a sense of bliss.

More spiders descended from the webbed ceiling, trails of silk glistening in the dim light of the chamber. They continued to swarm towards me from all directions, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t have to enhance my speed in this form, it was already a culmination of the monsters I had already absorbed. The fight was a massacre.

My tendrils sliced through the air, cleaving through carapaces, limbs and thorax. Although they moved according to my will, there was another layer of tendrils that acted instinctively, for anything I may have consciously missed. I moved like an unstoppable force, something Thalra’s body alone didn’t have the strength to do. But like this I was the perfect blend of monstrous power and agility, the spiders were no longer a challenge and the Nythalith began to realise she was just adding fuel to the fire.

“Enough!” she screeched from her perch.

She leapt down from high above, her massive form descending like a nightmare given physical form. The ground trembled as she landed, her legs digging into the webbed floor. Her many eyes were all focused on me, lit with an unbridled anger that was no longer looking down at me.

“This is a joke!” she roared out in frustration, grieving over her children she had committed to death like lambs to a slaughter. Her human face was twisted in rage, but there was also a hint of something else lurking beneath it: fear.

“I am the Queen of this domain! It doesn’t matter what relic or magic you found, you’re still nothing!” she continued.

I wiped the remnants of blood and ichor from my armoured vambraces. Returning her mockery in a bitter voice. “Funny, that’s the second time you’ve called me nothing. You’re starting to sound insecure, Your Majesty.”

She screamed out in frustration, the jaw of her human face eerily extended like a python. She lunged towards me, her legs striking with the force of a falling tree. I sidestepped the first blow, my eyes fixated on her. I could feel the ground beside me splintering under the weight of her strike. She struck again, this time in a sweeping arm. But I ducked low to avoid it, my tendrils lashing out to grab hold of her leg.

I yanked at her leg, pulling her off balance and forcing her to stumble. She quickly recovered, a surprising feat of agility considering her size. She swiped at me again, each strike carrying enough force to shatter stones.

I met her attacks head-on, absorbing any blows that I couldn’t dodge by utilising my tendrils to cushion the blow. My chitin-like armour was holding firm, deflecting her claws with only minor grazes.

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But this just increased her frustration. “Who won’t you die?!”

“I’m just getting started…” I said, brimming with confidence which only agitated her further.

I leapt forward, closing the distance between us in an instant. Slashing at her abdomen with my claws, carving deep gashes that oozed dark blue blood. She recoiled, crying out in pain as I pressed the attack.

My tendrils wrapped around one of her legs, stretching it from her body until a satisfying pop indicated that it had been dislocated from the joint. I then drove my clawed hand into the joint, hearing a squelching snap. The leg had been snapped, and the Nythalith howled out in an unsettling pain.

She retaliated with a sudden spray of venom from her fanged mouth, the corrosive liquor spreading out in an arc. I raised my arm to shield myself, the venom sizzling harmlessly against my armoured forearm.

“Is that it?” I taunted, stepping through the haze of venom that had appeared.

Her human face continued to twist and warp, no longer resembling a human. She now looked more like a demon, something with seven legs that would visit your nightmares.

The fight wasn’t over, not yet. But as I stared at her face, I could see the truth. She had lost her sense of grandeur, and she was starting to lose hope. The Queen of Spiders was afraid.

She scuttled back, blood oozing from her jagged stump where her leg had been. Her face continued to twist in a mix of rage and desperation, her many eyes were darting around the chamber looking for a solution - or an escape route.

“You think this is over, worm?” she spat, her voice shaking with anger. “You’ve only delayed your death!”

Her bravado would have been convincing, if it hadn’t been for the obvious cracks in her composure. The subtle tremor in her voice, the way she was searching desperately for a way out of the corner she had found herself in.

“No, this is over, Your Majesty.” I said, taunting her further. “You just haven’t come to terms with it yet.”

Her remaining legs braced against the floor, her claws digging into the webbing as she prepared to leap. The webs were trembling as her children chittered nervously, observing from the shadows, too afraid to intervene.

She hurled her massive body forwards, leaping up with a terrifying speed despite her injuries. I met her head-on in mid-air, my tendrils whipping out through the air to meet her claws. The impact sent shockwaves through the chamber, pushing away the various webbed structures and shaking the walls.

She raked her claws against my armour, each strike creating sparks against the chitin, but they couldn’t penetrate it to reach flesh. I responded with a brutal uppercut, my claws slamming into her abdomen and sending her back down to the ground in a slump.

She screeched that horrid sound again, like nails on a chalkboard. She scrambled upright again, trying to regain her posture, but I didn’t give her the chance.

I fell down besides her, my tendrils coiling around two of her legs and pulling them. Stretching them out of their sockets I dug my heel into one of her joints. Despite the fact they reassembled thick tree trunks, they sounded like twigs when they snapped.

Her scream once again echoed through the chamber as she sprawled out on the ground.

“What’s the matter?” I taunted again, my voice cold and detached. “You seemed so certain of yourself a second ago…”

Her face was writhing in pain, she pulled her head back slightly before spitting a glob of venom at me. It was definitely more potent, stinking of decay and chemicals. But it splattered harmlessly against my carapace, sizzling against the armour without leaving a mark.

I leaned in closer, a cruel and unpleasant grin appearing on my bat-like face. “You’re going to have to try harder than that.”

The desperation in her eyes was becoming stronger now, she let out another ear-piercing scream calling to the brood. But they hesitated, however the sacks of eggs that were clumped together around the chamber began to crack. Smaller spiders emerging, sensing their mother in danger and not yet smart enough to understand fear.

“Really?” I said, laughing darkly. “Are you that desperate?”

They came at me in waves, as some of the older spiders that were watching also joined in. However the wall of arachnids was met by my tendrils. Slicing through them as they got close enough, like a farmer’s scythe chopping through wheat. They fell in piles before me, their deaths only further fueling me.

The Nythalith’s attempts to stall for more time, only empowered me. I turned back to her noticing that her once imposing figure, now trembled, she was no doubt starting to realise the inevitability of her defeat.

“You’re starting to run out of limbs,” I said, advancing slowly towards her.

She let out another screech of anguish and fury, lashing out with her remaining legs. But her strength was waning, her movements were becoming noticeably slower. I sidestepped her strikes effortlessly, my tendrils responding in kind by coiling around her limbs like chains.

One by one, I began to pull them from her body.

The first leg tore free with a wet, nauseating sound, her scream echoing through the chamber as blood sprayed across the webs.

The second followed, then the third.

By the time I had pulled all of the legs from her body, her face was in utter agony, her screeching reduced to heavy sobs. A part of me, deep down began to question what I have become - this was no longer a fight, it was torture.

I raised her broken body up with my tendrils, holding her in the air as I stared into the eyes on her face. “This is the end, Your Majesty,” I said coldly, finally ready to see the conclusion of this monstrosity.

Her mouth opened to retaliate, but no words came out. Just a pitiful gurgling sound as her blood dropped to the flood below.

I reached out and grabbed her humanoid head, digging my claws into her skull before tearing it from her body in one swift motion. The chamber fell silent, her severed head dangling from my hand as the body crumpled to the ground, twitching as the last remnants of life faded.

The remaining spiders were frozen in place, now free from the Queen’s instructions - they were all dazed, discovering their own thoughts for the first time.

With the adrenaline beginning to fade, I staggered backwards. The primordial power that had fueled my transformation began to slip away, I could feel it slithering back into the depths of my core. My chitin shell began to dissolve back into tendrils, receding back into my host, Thalra’s form reasserted itself.

Her body returned to it’s usual size, the power I had felt moments ago replaced by an exhaustion that pulled at every muscle. Her skin which had darkened due to my dominance now returning to it’s ashen colour, her veins reverting back to their usual shade of blow as the darkness from my enhancements receded.

The Nythalith’s head slipped from my grasp, rolling across the floor to join the combination of webs, venom and blood. I had created another masterpiece of carnage.

I dropped down to my knees, a darkness threatening to cloud my vision as I began to fight to stay awake. I could hear Thalra saying something, but her voice was faint and my head was too muddled to understand.

I struggled to keep my eyes awake, my head nodding as the world around me became numb. I could no longer fight the slumber that was calling out to me.