The red spear of light rocketed from Fauna’s staff, its intensity carving a blinding scar through the oppressive darkness of Rachneros’ lair. The cavern itself seemed to recoil from the force, trembling as if it feared the magic that Fauna had unleashed. The light illuminated the grotesque form of the hulking spider-hybrid, casting long, monstrous shadows that flickered across the jagged, stalactite-filled ceiling.
Rachneros barely had time to react before the beam made contact. The red-hot energy collided with his bile-coated scimitar, intended to block the blast, but it was too much. The heat vaporized the weapon’s edge upon impact, and a sickening hiss filled the air. The weapon, as ancient and corrupted as its owner, began to disintegrate, the organic mesh crumbling into flecks of black ash. Then, with a final crack, the beam seared through Rachneros' entire right arm, and the limb was severed clean off, flung into the air like a splintered tree limb in a hurricane.
The arm landed with a revolting splat, and Ethan watched in muted horror as it exploded in a hail of charred flesh and corrupted blood. The arm lay twitching, its nerves spasming wildly as bile and dark ichor poured from the ragged stump. Rachneros let out an agonized shriek that reverberated through the cavern, a sound so piercing and raw that Klax’s fur-covered ears flattened against his skull in an attempt to block it out.
“HELL YEAH, FAUNA!” Ethan screamed. “Now, quick! Someone toss me at the big fucker!”
Fauna, still reeling from the sheer force of her attack, blinked in surprise. Her wide rabbit-like eyes darted toward Ethan, now vibrating with frenetic energy. In her panic, she snatched him up, muttering a hasty apology as she hurled him toward Klax. Ethan tumbled through the air like a dark blur, spinning head over brim as the floor of the cavern below seemed to rush up at him.
“Sorry!” she squeaked, her voice barely audible over the churning, furious roars of Rachneros. Klax caught him, turned back to the flailing beast looming above them all, and leaped up on the creature’s muscular torso.
“Ready, Ethan!” he shouted over the bubbling bile that Rachneros sent spilling down from his open jaws to catch them. “We’ll get one chance at this!”
“Toss me, wolfman!” came Ethan’s reply, loud and clear as Rachneros thrashed around like a speared fish, trying desperately to shake them off.
“Now!”
As the other poison-coated scimitar came to slash at Klax’s back, the Lycae hopped right up on the beast’s shoulder and slammed Ethan on his head, jumping back out of the way of the creature’s gnashing jaws.
Ethan blinked frantically as he attuned himself to the Boss of the Festering Den’s fading brain:
[Possession: ACTIVATED!]
RACHNEROS, The Pale Lord WILL: 60 vs Hat [Legendary] Spirit Cores: 90
[Possession in progress…]
Ethan first felt the creature’s surprise. Then came anger—anger that bubbled and frothed into a mindless, animal rage—the insectoid menace twisting its every limb in a frantic attempt to shake off the hat or at least maim its companions.
“Everyone!” Ethan shouted, trying to maintain his focus and hold on the thing. “Run!”
They tried to—but Ethan saw Klax get clipped by a thrusting limb and fall, his stomach bleeding where the impact had been made. The wolfman sent a flurry of jabs right back into the mass of skittering, twisting, and raging spider limbs to at least keep them off Fauna as she readied another spell—but the effort was wasted. Right now, Rachneros wasn’t even registering pain. And like every other bastard monster in this place with an attitude problem, it was putting up a fucking good fight.
[Possession progress… 25%]
“C’mon…” Ethan grimaced. C’mon, big guy, don’t you wanna be a sexy spider dude with a dapper lil’ hat like me? Give in, and I’ll take you out of this shithole, and you can have all the tasty humans you’d like. Sounds good, right? Mmmmmm, roasted human flesh…
Rachneros didn’t seem at all interested. Incredibly, the spider Boss’s autonomy seemed to mean a lot to him.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Well… too fucking bad, buddy!
[Possession progress… 35%]
The beast had all but stopped even trying to shake Ethan off. A low, sly growl emanated from its throat now. And Ethan realized that it had sensed something about him as their minds had begun to join.
It turned from the battered Klax and fixed its attention on Fauna.
Don’t you fucking dare.
With a snarl of hatred, it charged the girl, knocking her back and etching deep gashes into the flesh beneath her robes. She screamed in pain and rolled away, her staff skidding toward the end of the room.
Fucking… Bastard! Ethan roared. You—you understand I’m gonna make this as painful as fucking possible for you now, right?
[Possession progress… 34%]
What?!
Ethan heard the grim snarl of Rachneros as it began to skitter toward Fauna, jaw opened in expectation of its little meal. It was almost as if the insectoid were enjoying this moment—savoring the fact that Ethan could see his companion about to die through its own eyes. The big bastard knew Ethan was there, and every slow, agonizing move it made toward the girl was like a small victory for the beast itself. It wanted him to squirm.
I… do it! Ethan growled. See if I care! You think you’re gonna force me off you with an appeal to emotion? Ethan Hawke ain’t a fucking simp, big guy. I’m the Archon, don’tcha know? And this world’s mine!
Ethan looked through Rachneros’ four eyes to see Fauna shivering beneath its gaze, her robe ripped and tattered, mouth agape and hands searching frantically for her staff that was nowhere to be seen.
[Possession progress… 30%]
…Damn it!
The oozing limb-scimitar came up, ready to deliver a downward slice that would tear the Hopla apart.
Then—pain.
Even Ethan felt it, and Rachneros’ momentary confusion stopped him as the distinct feeling of his flesh burning away began to gnaw at his neck.
He twisted his head to see three black arrows embedded just above his spine, and as he traced their trajectory, he found their owner aiming another triad of pain right at him.
“Hey, ugly,” Tara grinned, shaking droplets of All-Purpose Elixir from her skin. “It’s rude to stare.”
Her arrows sang through the air and found their mark—three of them splintering off and piercing clean through Rachneros’ eye-slits, taking out most of his sight and, Ethan found, his remaining will to resist:
RACHNEROS, The Pale Lord WILL: 25 vs Hat [Legendary] Spirit Cores: 90
Alright, Ethan thought. Time to kick this into overdrive.
He concentrated, funneling his thoughts through Rachneros’ spasming body, channeling his spirit into the beast’s corrupted veins and feeling them finally relent.
[Possession progress: 65%]
Tara, meanwhile, leaped to grab Fauna and sprinted with her to the very edge of the cavern, watching as Rachneros submitted to the Archon’s whims through screaming, thrashing death-throes.
[Possession progress: 80%]
Then: a sudden flaring of action. A final ounce of willpower surged through the beast, and it commanded its scimitar to raise and hover over its chest.
“It… it’s gonna off-itself!” Ethan shouted.
But before its organic blade could come down, Ethan beheld a triad of flame-coated arrows cut clean through the limb, sending the blade somersaulting through the air to land against the barren cocoon its bearer had emerged from.
And Ethan, now looking through the single eye of his prey, saw both Tara and Fauna standing side by side, the latter’s staff raised to enchant the arrows of her comrade.
Synergy… Ethan thought with a chuckle, as Rachneros’ spirit finally left its body with a last, desperate whimper.
[Possession: COMPLETE!]
You have successfully possessed RACHNEROS, The Pale Lord
The Pale Patriarch of all Arachnae’s willpower is just as strong as the toxins which flow through his blood. But even the most corrupted beasts can be broken.
[Stats] LVL: 30
HP: 25/550
MP: 0/0
WILL: 280/280
STR: 100
PER: 55
SPD: 40
CHA: 3
[Skills known]
Enweb [Rank E]
Poison Coating [Rank E]
Paralysis Coating [Rank E]
[Automatically Transferred Skills]
Roar (Grade E)
Hide (Grade E)
Choose any [TWO] Skills from [Dark Raven] to transfer:
Wing Buffet (Grade E)
Peck (Grade F)
Dive (Grade E)
Spirit Core Increase: 500
Current Spirit Cores: 590
Ethan blinked with the single eye he had working as he read these stats.
These… oh yeah, now we’re talking. That Lightborn cosplayer better watch out.
He slowly rose to behold his three hybrid onlookers, raising his bleeding arms, gushing green blood across the floor as he spoke through a mouth bubbling with ichor.
“I’M...I'M A FUCKING SPIDER!” he roared. “SO… what..?”
The cavern then began to spin as he realized that, yes, he had inherited this host when it was literally on the verge of death.
“Ethan!” Klax shouted.
He watched as his three companions ran to him, uncorking their last vials of Malphus and getting ready to practically smash the bottles over his every torn limb.
“Oh yeah…” the Demon Hat mumbled as it sat atop the head of the Spider King. “We kinda… fucked this guy up good, huh…”
Then he fell.