Carrie scouted ahead, as Briana almost had to drag herself behind them. It was weird, Coney couldn’t get a good look at either. For Briana, it was because he was on some level trying not to stare. But for Carrie? It was the same, his eyes kept moving away from her, but it didn’t feel as conscious a choice.
In the next room they walked into it seemed to be empty. “Hold it!” Carrie said, holding a hand up. “This place is trapped.” She gestured forward. “Can you see?” In truth, none of the rest of them could. They couldn’t see at all.
“Not really… sorry.” Coney said, holding his paw up to try and point the light in the right direction.
“It’s full of strings, we’ll have to avoid them.”
“Wait, hold on, let me see if I can try something.” Eric said, his confident grin looking a little forced but still on his lips. Walking forward he brought his hands up. Around them weren’t the fires that he’d used to use, bu t instead that odd electric energy he’d just started trying out. “Let’s blow this mother.” He pointed his hands forward and lightning crackled out of the ends of his fingers.
For a second, the strings were all lit up like the filaments of lights, or even like the wires in a machine. That was before they were all overloaded and began to burn out, one by one disappearing into ash.
“Hey, we need to talk about these things.” Briana said curtly. “Don’t you think we should know when you do something reckless? Sure it’s good for the views, but fuck it why should I even care about that any more? I’m not going to be a draw like this.”
“I mean… I’m sorry…” Eric said, not really sounding sorry.”
“Shut up you two.” Carrie said, standing at the front.
“I mean, sure, it was impulsive but no traps went off. That’s what we wanted. If some had, we could have just gotten across the room after.”
“Unless it was a trap that completely blocked the way forward. We have a way out, don’t you think that would be a terrible cliffhanger?”
“Guys, I’m being serious, quiet please.”
“Cliffhangers are proven to get views. And besides, it didn’t collapse, so we’re far closer. I don’t need to tell you every little thing I do. What, you want me to inform you the next time I need a wank?”
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“Sure, maybe then your skinny dick would actually get attention from a girl.” Briana said, getting heated. “I mean, come on, you made yourself the perfect protagonist. You know what that means? It means you’re surrounded by the hot and still get no bitches!” She put emphasis on the word no, really not holding back.
“Shut the fuck up!” Carrie yelled. “You brought a monster to us.” As she said that she had to jump out of the way as a large spear impaled the ground where she was. After a closer look Conehy realized it was in fact the leg of a giant arachnid. A spider which he’d never wanted to see.
“Oh my gods just bang already.” Coney said, deciding not to hold his tongue as he jumped forward and tried to slash at the creature with his sickle. “Hell, you could probably get an onlyfans or something if you just sold sex tapes of two perfected avatars doing it.”
“I’d watch that.” Carrie said, having basically disappeared and now reappearing on the creature’s back. She was getting her knives in, and seemed to have straight up backstabbed it.
“I don’t know if that’s meant to be that literal.” Briana said, stumbling forward and using her sword to try and hit the enemy monster that wasn’t much stronger than her but was definitely big. She missed, but was attacked with spider silk which caught her arms together. Sure, she could still use her sword, but with effectively one permanent two handed grip her attacks were greatly slowed down.
Eric closed his mouth for once and opened his arms wide. From his body there was an acidic smell and the crackling sound of a geiger counter. His fingers poised, and with a power of will he let the lightning go. It was weird, it struck all over but the spider was easily able to dodge him. It was an untenable situation, but he could fix it with sheer destruction, at least that’s what he seemed to hope. As lightning filled the room, making Brianna stumble back and Coney’s fur stand on end. Only Carrie was able to stay in the fight because she, like the spider, seemed to absolutely bite the shite out of speed. She could dodge actual lightning strikes, even if they were not as strong and fast as the ones from the real world.
Carrie moved with the grace of a shadow. Coney couldn’t often get a good look at her, but every time he did she looked confident in killing the creature even though it was so much bigger than all of them. She was able to move as the legs impaled down, looking to make an example of her in the style of Vlad Tepis. It was almost surreal just how amazing and anime the action was. It felt like watching an actual climactic part of Naruto, or even some of the fights in Hunter X Hunter. The place’s fighting was crazy.
“Arachne, Cursed of Menrva, I ask that you not intercede on the behalf of my party member, and instead allow it to reach the ending of both its life and the pain we inflict.” Coney mumbled, barely benign picked up. “Give our party a chance, and allow peace from the remaining life to prevail.”
As he said these words he watched Carrie coup d'etat the spider, cutting it’s head off and leaving the body in the middle of the floor. “This is why you listen to me, girls. You too, boy.” She walked over to Eric and leaned her nose against his. “You picked me, but now I’m picking you. If you make a mistake like this again, I’m cutting your ass.”
The team walked through the room to the next one, pondering what had happened.