As Grey closed in on the Abyssmother, parrying a jab from one of the oversized spider’s forelegs as he did so, I wasn’t able to keep track of their fight anymore.

I was too busy with my own.

I lashed out first at the weaker Shadeguard as it leapt at me. Midflight, its four fangs began to glow an icy blue and emit frost. I ducked, trying to jab my spear up at the monster’s abdomen as it flew over me. Somehow though, it managed to yank itself vertically up into the air mid-flight, narrowly avoiding my blade. As it did so, I saw the strand of silk extending from its abdomen that it had hidden, trailing on the ceiling. It scuttled out of sight above me using that same strand, swiftly disappearing among the stalactites.

At the same time, I was able to catch sight of the older and stronger Queensguard as it repeated the same tactic, leaping at me with speed.

All right, if you want to play that game.

In the moments before the giant spider impacted me, I dove out of the way, aiming a free hand at the arachnid.

Poisonthorn Shot.

Eat thorn, asshole.

The large blood-red thorn shot from my hand and lodged itself into the right side of the Frostbrine spiders abdomen. It let out a chittering screech at the pain of my skill, swiftly climbing a similar dragline of silk it had hidden like its brother. Moments later, my thorn dropped down from the ceiling somewhere above me, coated in green blood. The beast must have ripped it from its exoskeleton once out of sight.

I exhaled hard, heart thundering in my ears like a drum. In my instant of downtime, I flicked my eyes Grey’s way. I was just in time to watch as the roiling black haze around his sword exploded in size, forming into a monstrous extended blade. With a shout, my mentor swung his oversized magic sword at the monster horizontally. The Abyssmother reacted in time to avoid it, first blocking the swing by somehow conjuring a massive wall of ice to intercept the blow. It seemed to know that wouldn’t be enough to completely block it though, as it also shot out several drag lines of silk a the far wall. With a heave, the monster forcibly moved its massive bulk out of the way, just in time to avoid the abyssal blade that would have bisected it.

Fixing its massive blue eye on Grey, a flash of blue light emanated from the bulbous orb. In the act of a follow-up slash at the monster, Grey suddenly froze in place. With a victorious screech, the Abyssmother speared two of its legs at my mentor, clearly intending to impale him on its spiked forelimbs.

However, before I could yell or do anything to help him, Grey unfroze. Milliseconds before the legs reached him, he threw up a sudden oval shield of blinding silver light. He managed to stop one of the legs entirely, but the other one deflected off of the surface of the shield and scored a bloody line across his ribs. Grey grimaced in pain, but with a shout of effort, the shield exploded in front of him, sending the Abyssmother reeling backward.

I blinked, cursing to myself. I didn’t have time to be watching Grey. I had my own fight to pay attention to here.

I needed to be careful, here. These monsters were stronger than me, but not by much. The weaker Shadeguard was only barely in level range for my Observe to have worked, which was encouraging. Meanwhile, the stronger one was only about a month older than that one. It couldn’t have been much more powerful than its younger sibling.

I could do this.

I jerked my head up just in time to watch as both of the Shadeguards fell down at me from directly overhead, side by side. My eyes bulged at the sight, and I brought my spear up in a guard position. There was no way I’d be able to get out of the way in time.

Both spiders impacted the haft of my spear, scrabbling at it with glowing blue fangs. I was surprised to find that they barely weighed anything at all. I was easily able to hold up both of the spiders at once. Hell, I didn’t even need Sylvan Vigor. I think I could have picked up both of these things with one hand.

However, I missed their actual plan while I was holding them at bay.

Both spiders pointed the ends of their abdomens at me and swiftly surrounded my body in silk. My eyes widened in alarm as my arms were trapped above me and my head was covered in a sticky spider silk. My mind raced as I thought of how to get out of this, while at the same time, I felt both spiders leap off of my spear. Meanwhile, I was frozen in place with my hands sticking straight up.

Bending all three thought rings to the task, I devised a plan in milliseconds before these damn spiders could sink their fangs into me. Swiftly, I activated Sylvan Vigor, while at the same time depressing the activation rune on my spear. Thankfully, my fingers weren’t bound in the silk. My spear retracted, returning to the form of a dagger with The Scintillant Blade active. I angled the blade downwards in my right hand and pressed the rune again, causing it to extend.

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The entire maneuver happened in an instant.

The glowing blade of my spear tore through most of the silk binding me, allowing my arms to break free from the rest through strength alone. I skipped backward as I did so, feeling something shoot through the space I had just been standing in.

Reaching up to my face, I ripped the silk covering my head off it. Just in time to see the other spider leaping for my position. Rather than be afraid, I felt a smirk grow on my face. Yeah, I’d figured out your game, you crunchy fuck. You didn’t actually have that many moves.

I had you now.

I reached for my other active skill and cast it at the rapidly approaching spider.

Grasping Roots.

Red, thorny tree roots broke through the stone of the cavern floor and reached up to grasp the spider. They grabbed the visibly confused arthropod right out of the air, and slammed it into the floor where they tightened their hold on it. The spider only had seconds to scrabble uselessly at my skill before I descended on it.

Let's see you jump away from this, asshole.

I slammed into the Frostbrine Shadeguard spear first from my running charge. My brilliantly burning blade slid through the monster's carapace easily, pinning it to cavern floor in a spray of green blood. The spider was only able to let out a single pathetic screech, before falling forever silent and slumping onto the stone beneath.

One down.

I was only able to enjoy my victory for a moment.

The other Shadeguard slammed into me in a lunging tackle, knocking me away from the dead form of its sibling. As I flew, I was able to catch a brief glimpse of Grey igniting a familiar swirling ball of darkness, before hurling it into the air of the cavern. I managed to see a few bolts of starlight emerge from it and converge on the Abyssmother before I impacted one of the stalagmites.

My head bounced off of the rock, and my world went dark.

I can't quite tell how long I was out of it, but through a murky haze, I heard something in the distance. I couldn’t quite make it out, though. Slowly, the sound began to grow louder and louder until I could almost make the noise out.

It sounded like…barking?

Suddenly, as if a puppy was standing right on my shoulder, I could hear a crystal clear bark echo in my ear.

Fade?

My eyes snapped open in time to watch as the last Shadeguard leapt at my prone position, laying against the stalagmite that I had impacted. I only had moments before its icy fangs pierced me. But, I had left my spear in the corpse of the other Shadeguard.

Time slowed down.

In a haze, I reached behind me and drew my extra spear from its holster on the small of my back. As I maneuvered the blade in front of me, my core ring noted that I only had enough time to do one of two things. I could either extend the spear and hope the weight of the creature was enough that it could impale itself on my steel blade. Or I could activate The Scintillant Blade, and hope the burning dagger of my unextended spear would be enough to kill the monster, before it killed me with its fangs. I didn’t have enough time to do both.

I chose.

Time sped up as my spear extended, right as the Shadeguard reached my position. With a screech of denied prey, the monstrous sea spider impaled itself on my spear, sliding halfway down the half. It twitched several times, showering me with green blood from its death throes, before laying still.

Before I could even acknowledge my victory over the spiders, I was distracted by the sound of exploding stone behind me. Throwing the corpse of the Shadeguard off of my spear and standing up, I was just in time to see a shape erupt from the dust of the destroyed stalactites that had been blocking the entrance to this cavern only moments ago.

It was Venix, all four of his swords drawn and crossed in two separate Xs across his broad frame. His curved blades were each glowing with an ominous red light. However, I was only barely able to make out his form, as he was blurring across the cavern floor so fast that all I was really able to see was a chitinous smear.

As he bounded to the Abyssmother that was being hounded by Grey’s bolts of starlight, he threw his body into the air above the massive spider. At the apex of his jump, he impossibly hung in the air for a moment, visibly concentrating. The bloody light around his swords strengthened and extended beyond the length of the blades themselves, nearly appearing to be a set of four crackling wings.

With a shout of effort, Venix snapped his swords out in front of him. The crimson energy that had been building on his blades erupted in the form of two connected Xs, almost appearing to be a latticework. The attack rocketed downwards towards the Abyssmother. Harried as it was by Grey’s starbolts, it wasn’t able to avoid Venix’s attack.

It impacted the monstrous spider, cleaving three of its eight legs on its left side into multiple pieces and gouging the abdomen of the beast. As the Abyssmother slumped onto its left side, it let out a deafening shriek that rattled the cavern and hit me like a wall of force. I yelled in pain and clamped my hands over my ears.

As for Venix, the scream must have been forceful enough to knock him out of the sky. The Antium didn’t seem to mind, however.

Grey didn’t miss his chance. Igniting his sword once again and extending the blade with crackling black energy, he lunged at the Abyssmother. With an overhand chop, he swung his oversized spell blade down at the head of the monster and decapitated it in one move. At the same time, his blow removed the two front limbs of the now deceased Prime.

I drew in a shuddering breath.

It was over.

We’d killed the Prime that had been lurking in the heart of Caer Drarrow's cave system. However, as the rest of my companions rushed into the cavern with weapons drawn, I couldn’t help but wonder.

Where was the Prime we had actually come here for?

Where was the leader of the Neptaurian herd?