❆ ❆ ❆ Chapter Twenty Nine ❆ ❆ ❆

The Spider Forest

The trail led into the spider forest. Little spiderlings could be seen traversing up and around the dark trees. A sharp wind picked up. Snow could sense the night approaching,

Mina was limping with each of her steps.

“They got you good girl...” Snow rubbed Mina gently. Mina was covered in sword slashes, especially around her legs. In her haste to help Aela, she didn't see Mina was about to succumb to her injuries. Mina needed shelter, and care.

Snow stopped, looking at Mina’s wounds while keeping attention to the spiders around her. The spiders began approaching closer and closer. Between the spiders and oncoming night. Seeking shelter for Mina had become the new priority.

Mina slowed to a halt before laying down.

“Mina, get up. We are going to shelter now!” Snow tried pushing Mina up, but Mina looked terribly injured and exhausted. Mina resisted but then got up slowly.

The spiders around them suddenly scattered.

“Look at what we have here.”

Snow heard the familiar voice in the trees acknowledging their presence.

It was the spider queen.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Aliria, am I glad to see you. We need help! Mina is injured, and they got Aela. Nightfall approaches and I can't leave her here like this!”

“Woah, woah, slow down dear. You are running at a million kilometers an hour.” Allira said with a smile.

“This is serious Aliria, you don’t have any clue what those knights would do to Aela, I don’t have time, I need to save her!”

Snow looked at Mina.

“Come on Mina get up, we need to find you shelter!”

Mina slowly got up again.

“Dear, wait.” Aliria dropped from her web and skittered up to Snow. “I'm afraid, I just had a battle with my sister and I am still wounded. So I can't give chase on those knights but they did indeed pass through here as you described. If you’d like. You can leave the direwolf to me and I will shelter it against the elements, while you give pursuit of your friend.”

Snow looked at Mina, who didn't look like she was going anywhere and reluctantly agreed.

“I don't like this but, Ok Aliria. I trust you. Please take care of Mina!” Snow pleaded.

“No worries dear, there are few tunnels here but I know where they are, the direwolf would be safe from the elements, you have my word.” Aliria said.

“Ok. Do you know which way the knights went?” Snow questioned.

“They went.. that way.” Aliria pointed in the direction Snow figured.

“Thank you so much Aliria, I owe you.”

“No worries, sweety.”

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Snow continued onward. This is twice now that she's been granted passage against the spiders, seems she really did hit a stroke of luck. Eventually Snow was able to pick up the tracks. Even with the darkening night.

The cold was blistering now.

Snow got to the edge of the forest. Just in time to see the gates closed with Aela behind it.

“Damnit!” Snow took cover behind some foliage, “Now what do I do?!” Aela was in the keep. This rescue would be so much harder now. Snow needed to make a new plan. She needed to infiltrate the keep. Maybe Aliria could help her or tell her some useful information. At least She could breathe a little easier knowing that Mina was taken care of, but still, Mina was still severely wounded.

That was the new plan, she would go back and care for Mina’s injuries, speak to Aliria on how to infiltrate the keep, and then save Aela. Now with some control on the situation, Snow gained new confidence. She turned around and stepped back into the spider forest. Her steps came to a stop as all the confidence was drained from her face. She had stumbled across something that shocked her to her core. Her entire mind felt like it was spun, flipped and turned upside down. She grew nauseous and sick. The moment ended with a desperate sprint back towards the same direction she came from.

The half eaten corpse of Aliria stood there, frozen in time, as Snow descended back into the spider forest.

“Mina!... Mina!” Snow yelled.

Snow could hear whimpering and crying the closer she approached. She finally arrived at the spot she left Mina. There were hundreds of spiders crawling on Mina and eating her while Mina just laid there.

“NO!” Snow ripped Icebreaker from its sheath and began hacking at the pile that had formed on Mina. She chopped hundreds of them off with each batting swing. “Get off her!” After some more strikes, the spiders began to disperse, revealing the bloody canine, who was just hyperventilating and looked completely finished.

Tears rolled from Snow’s face as she shouted into the trees.

“Xilla!”

Snow just heard faint laughter from the trees.

“You gave your word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Snow howled in rage.

“I said I’d protect her from the elements, I never said I’d stop her from being a meal. Dear.” Xilla’s voice came from the darkness above.

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“Get down here coward!!!” Snow yelled, before drawing Icebreaker. “Icebreaker GO!” She flung the blade and it started rapidly spinning mid air while Snow puppeteered it with her hands. The blade flew into the trees, into the darkness, then it came back.

Xilla laughed.

“Missed me.”

Snow threw Icebreaker again ignoring the bolstering wave of spiders that were approaching her. Icebreaker returned to her again.

“A powerful weapon, but a useless one. You're running out of time dear!”

“I wasn't aiming for you.” Snow threw Icebreaker again.

Icebreaker flew into the darkness, slicing past the last section of web that supported the cowardly roof that Xilla was using to hide. The web collapsed and Xilla fell to the ground a couple of yards away.

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Snow charged at her screaming as rage drove her forward. Adult spiderlings lunged at her in defense of their queen but each of them was met with an icy slash.

“Some is upset I made their little puppy a meal. Haha!” Xilla responded to her blind offensive charge.

Snow was coming into range of Xilla now. Xilla had an evil smirk, as wide as it could be.

A trapdoor spider bursted up beneath Snow’s feet. The ambushing spider got a mouthful of Icebreaker as Snow leaped over it. As Snow was mid jump, Xilla finally lunged for an attack. Snow flipped Icebreaker into an underhand grip as she swung it up, slashing one of Xilla’s pincers right off.

Xilla didn't yell in pain, or move. The spider queen had a pained but satisfied face, her aggressive stance dropped into a relaxed one. Snow knew exactly why, the reason was the cut on her shoulder. Green liquid was coming from her sword arm. Snow threw herself at Xilla to stab her but her arm went limp. Icebreaker slipped from her fingers as she grew paralyzed.

“Noble attempt. But now, it is over.” Xilla hissed with malevolence. The evil spider queen began to meticulously web her up before taking her up into the trees. “My brood will consume your precious flesh. It is only natural, do not fight it.”

“Rrg, I’ll kill you!” Snow struggled in the cocoon while Xilla created a new web underneath them. The only thing Snow could do was speak and move her head.

“The venom is already flowing, moving will only speed your death child, please do not do that. My brood likes live food. Trust me, you won't feel a thing.” Xilla ran her chipped fingers over Snow’s face.

Snow still couldn’t even budge. She couldn’t feel pain but she felt the nibbling of spiders on her legs and arms. There was a blanket of spiderlings crawling into her clothes, going up her legs and back.

“See, My venom is much more refined than my poor sister.

She commanded herself to move, but it was futile.

“You feel no pain, you only nourish me. Your kind is so good at that, you will heal and my brood will eat. Just relax, child. And I will inject you with something that makes you feel good. How about a little taste?” Xilla leaned in close and bit into her neck.

Snow’s face flushed red as her mind fuzzed white, her entire body wracked with relaxation. Her body felt amazing but her eyes told her otherwise. The living blanket of spiders and tearing of her flesh was the only thing keeping her on the edge of reality.

“See? You like that? I can give you more? You want more?”

Snow was panting,

“I… I..”

“Just say it, ‘I want more.’”

Snow looked at Xilla with dilating eyes.

“Icebreaker, protect.. me.”

Icebreaker shot up from the ground and smashed into her, forming into an icy film that slowly covered her skin, all the way up to the sides of her face.

“You really are that dreadful woman’s spawn. Such willpower. But they all succumb. My spiders will rip past that little dress of yours. Like unwrapping a present. Hehe.”

The spiders were biting into Icebreaker’s icy film. Icebreaker was trying to hold but the miniature teeth were penetrating the shell and breaking it off in tiny pieces.

Snow just had to hold on, she could almost feel her fingers again. Xilla definitely only had enough venom built up for that one attack. It would take a long time for her to create more. That had to be why she needed to rely on the pleasure venom.

The nibbling on her legs and stomach grew more aggressive as more spiders were fighting to bite into her. They finally got past Icebreakers’s protective coating.

She didn’t even want to look. It felt like strong vibrations and peeling all over her body.

Xilla responded to her struggle and bit her again, then laughed. The feeling of relaxation doubled, Snow’s body and mind was smothered by it.

Snow concentrated, she needed to keep her heart rate down. Her body and brain were being flooded by this false pleasure. She almost had full control of her body. The faster the heart rate the faster the venom gets circulated around. Forcefully staying calm against this was beyond difficult, it was like fighting primality itself. Her head went limp, her hair suspended over her face.

“There it is. They always give in. Did you know the noble minded ones always succumb the fastest? They always suppress their desires. All I do is give them one bite and they lose their mind. The fact that you needed two bites, I would say you are quite different.”

“Is that what you think?” Snow muttered.

“Hm? Why aren't you going wild? Are you not addicted?” Xilla grew surprised.

“You think your pathetic attempts to arouse me would work after killing my friend?!” Snow growled in anger, Xilla didn't know what to make of it.

“How are you resisting it? Have you been bitten before?”

“I hope your brood enjoyed the meal because it was their last,” Snow’s bloody hand poked out from the web. She flexed her fingers, Xilla saw the motion. “Icebreaker… To me.”

Xilla’s eyes opened.

“NO!”

All of the spiders began to bubble up and explode as glowing blue pieces of ice flew from the spider's stomachs, to Snow's palm. First forming a rock, then handle and finally, the blade. The array of explosions ended with a shower of blood. Every single one of Xilla’s spiderlings were dead.

Snow sliced herself free from the web.

“My brood!” Xilla shouted before lashing out at Snow.

Snow threw Icebreaker in between them, cutting the roof of web once again, causing them both to fall down below. Xilla crashed into the ground again, but this time, Snow was on top of her.

Icebreaker flew into Snow’s hand and shrunk down into a dagger as she began stabbing down repeatedly into the back of the broodmother’s neck.

Xilla screeched again as she tried to fling Snow off but she wouldn’t let go. She continued stabbing.

Xilla tried jumping and rushed around like an unbroken horse, or bull. Snow wouldn’t let go, she stabbed and stabbed and stabbed. Desperation took hold for the queen of spiders as she rammed herself into a tree to force Snow off. Snow refused to let go, she continued stabbing relentlessly, With each penetration of bloody ice into flesh the spider queen slowed, and then pleaded.

“Mercy!” Xilla cried.

Snow replied with one word;

“No.”

Icebreaker got lodged into Xilla’s neck and Snow began biting into the open wound like a rabid animal, until the broodmother had no more energy and collapsed to the ground.

Xilla stopped moving but Snow did not stop, she kept biting pieces of the broodmothers neck off until she ripped out a huge arterie.

When she was satisfied she slid down the spider's corpse. Her eyes looked as if she was a wild animal. “Icebreaker, come!”

Xilla’s head was fully severed as Icebreaker forcefully removed itself from her neck, flying back to Snow. Xilla, the spider queen and twin sister of Aliria, was dead. Snow’s clothes were in tatters, and her body was coated in blood. Snow pushed the pain to the back of her mind and stumbled up to Mina.

Mina was still hyperventilating, but somehow miraculously alive. A pool of blood was slowly forming underneath her though. Could she still be saved?

Snow held up Icebreaker, changing its shape to an orb. All the blood dripped off of it until it was a near perfect and clean sphere.

“Icebreaker, can you protect Mina?” The sword reacted and launched itself at Mina, coating over her injuries. Mina didn't have frostblood regeneration, but that should at least stop the bleeding. Snow got underneath Mina and pushed hard to lift her up. She could only lift up Mina’s front half. But that was good enough. She dragged Mina out of the spider forest.

There was a cave just outside of the spider forest that she found under an old tree. She managed to get Mina inside. The cave was small and round, like a small pod, like a small sanctuary… Sanctuary… Who was she kidding? Snow looked upon Mina’s wounds. After stripping whatever usable cloth and clothing she had left, Snow recalled Icebreaker and mummified Mina with makeshift bandages. Mina was barely holding on and in clear pain. Snow tightened one of the bandages on Mina’s front leg and Mina automatically reacted, weakly biting into her hand.

“I know it hurts, just bear with it, Mina.” Snow pulled back her hand, ignoring the bite mark. Once Mina was patched up Snow put her back against the dirt wall.

“What am I going to do…”

Mina was severely injured, Aela just got dragged away. She could still give chase while there was still time before nightfall sets in. She had minutes left. If even that. Snow shut her eyes in meditation, her wounds began filling with white and closing.

“Give chase? Ha” Chase to her own death maybe, How was she going to take on an entire stronghold of black knights.

I dont want something to happen to you, where u wish for death and it won’t come, plenty of frost born are tortured for weeks on end because their bodies won’t allow them to die, it’s a fate worse than death.

Snow remembered the speech her mother gave her, before she had even discovered this world. Even based on her own regeneration, her mother was right. Torture was inevitable. It was going to happen to Aela. And she could do nothing but sit here. All the training and progress she had was for nothing. She was trained, knew how to use Icebreaker pretty well, and could use magicka deconstruction to negate some magicks, yet, she hasn’t felt this powerless since her first arrival here.

Snow opened her eyes, all her wounds were healed.

But, no matter how dire the situation, she would not leave Aela behind. Snow rose to her feet.

“I’m coming, Aela.”

Snow took one last look at the sleeping Mina, then left the cave alone, into the freezing night.