Amy had circled behind the group of spiders. With her spikes drawn she moved swiftly, staying out of their line of sight.
She’d just seen Ian take the third spider down, leaving three remaining. Calvin was slowly retreating back over the line of runes on the ground, keeping the spiders engaged with fierce thrusts from his spear.
This was her time to shine. She began her approach to the rear of one of the spiders on the flank as it pressed toward Calvin. It inched closer and closer, its claws skittering on the surface of the stone sounding like something between the tippy taps of a puppy skittering along the wood floor and nails screeching down a chalkboard. It was quite unsettling and added layers upon layers to the tense atmosphere of the battle.
The unfortunate spider, readying a lunge toward Calvin stepped just inside the boundaries of the rune. A silver light shot up from the ground, completely enveloping the monster and rooting it in place. In a flash, Amy pounced.
Applying Toxic Load to her spikes, she stepped swiftly into the spider’s rear, slamming the spikes through its back. Glowing blue ichor sprayed from the wound followed by a green, virulent substance that slowly began to spread within the spider’s body. It hissed with agony and hate as it was forced to stand there while she laid into its body with destructive force. She slashed once more before dodging off to the side, knowing the rune’s hold would be breaking soon.
The description of Toxic Load indicated that not only would it deliver a poison that sapped the target’s strength and caused damage over time, but that the effect could be contagious. They hadn’t had an opportunity to test that particular feature yet, as nothing they’d fought in their tests had survived long enough.
Amy quickly scanned for another target, the other flanking spider noted her approach and subsequent attack on its ally, who was now breaking free from the runic prison it had been tethered by a short moment ago.
The uninjured spider spun around facing away from Amy in a confusing move that left Amy briefly baffled, however, clarity quickly returned as a string of webs blasted out from the spider’s spinnerets. The adhesive substance contacted Amy’s leg as she made to dive out of the way, essentially gluing her foot to the ground. Both the spider she had wounded and the one that had just trapped her were bearing down on her with incredible speed now. She slashed wildly at the webbing attempting to free herself, but was only succeeding in wrapping her spikes in this cursed webbing. The spiders were lunging at her now, seconds from turning her into a little spider snack.
In a panic she kicked out hard with her free leg at the closest lunging spider scoring a solid hit and sending it tumbling back, unfortunately, the other spider wasn’t deterred by this show of force, and its spiky claw pierced straight through the outstretched leg and into the stone floor below. Amy let out a bone-chilling scream that seemed to stop the battle in its tracks for just a brief moment.
The group fought urgently to get to Amy’s aid as the spider stabbed down again piercing her side. In a desperate last-ditch effort, Amy activated her Phase Shift ability. This had the advantage of briefly making her incorporeal, rendering physical attacks useless against her. She’d initially used it as a last stand against the spider’s next incoming strike hoping to buy some time. The unfortunate aspect to this skill currently was that she would only phase out very briefly. Just over a second, and the skill took several minutes to recharge.
In a complete stroke of luck though, and entirely unplanned by Amy…phasing through dimensions also had the benefit of freeing her from the webbing that currently secured her in place. The moment she was free, she rolled out from the immediate strike area of the spider and made a fast, agonizing retreat toward her group.
Calvin had thrown all caution to the wind trying to get to her. He had charged through the spider he was engaged with, taking a nasty wound to his shoulder in the process. He had been bitten by the lead spider and a fiery pain pulsed through his body. Likely some sort of Toxin from the spider’s bite. He didn’t give two shits at his moment though. His only thought was getting to Amy and covering her retreat.
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The spider Amy had kicked away was closing the gap rapidly, its body crouching to pounce at its retreating prey.
Calvin arrived just in time. Barely able to hold his spear up, he jammed the butt of his weapon into the ground standing between the spider’s lunge and Amy.
Several unfortunate events coalesced in that moment. First, the spider was unable to stop its pounce, as it was already flying through the air, bound only by the laws of inertia. Second, inertia was a bitch. The spider slammed down on top of Calvin’s spear, its immense body weight driving the spear entirely through its abdomen. Third, Calvin’s reckless speed to get to Amy had built up an incredible amount of Resonant Charge in his spear, and finally, the energy released from Calvin’s spear essentially popped the spider like a water balloon. Amy and Calvin were slammed to the ground by the force of hundreds of pounds of spider parts, guts, and goo.
The two remaining spiders had grouped up, taking a defensive posture before inching closer to Amy and Calvin. It was evident that the spider suffering from Amy’s Toxic Load had been severely weakened and was taking steady amounts of damage. Its movements were uncoordinated and sluggish. Its claws would drag on the ground as it clattered over to its ally. The wound on its back and a large section of its body were festering with boils, the ichor a green slime instead of the typical blue glow.
Amy lifted her wounded body up out of the gore she was lying in, with Calvin echoing her actions next to her. He looked at the wound in her side and quickly slapped a leather bandage on it, sealing the wound. Amy nodded appreciatively, tending to the wound on her leg, keeping a wary eye on the two remaining spiders.
The remainder of the group joined them now, forming a defensive circle around the injured duo. The venom coursing through Calvin’s body was causing incredible amounts of pain, however, a quick glance at his HP showed that it was a very slow drain. He’d be ok for now.
Freya, still injured but recovering quickly placed herself between the spiders and her pack. Baring her teeth in a ferocious growl, she stood resolutely, daring the spiders to take one more step towards them.
Ian had enough juice left over for one, maybe two more casts of Rock Shot, and then he would be entirely spent. He relayed his status to the group and they silently formed a plan.
Calvin signaled to Freya to make her move, while he mustered energy deep from within his exhausted reserves and charged. Like a lightning bolt, Freya charged the least wounded spider, pouncing sideways to avoid a stab of its claws, latching onto one of the legs with Attuned Bite. The damage was minimal, however the mark it left would be devastating. This mark would enhance the effectiveness of any nanite-attuned attacks. Which arrived swiftly in the form of Ian’s two final Rock Shot projectiles.
Simultaneously, Seth and Marshall unleashed their Javelins at the poisoned spider. To Marshall’s extreme displeasure, he could not activate Double Tap. The spider, however, was far too weak and slow to dodge, both weapons striking the creature and toppling it to the ground. Calvin arrived just as the lumbering bug completed its fall. With all of the rage he had, he jammed the spear right into that little shit’s mouth, silencing it for good.
EXPERIENCE REWARDED BASED ON CONTRIBUTION
Calvin fell to his knees, along with practically everyone else in the group. Their lungs heaving frantically for air. Marshall set about healing everyone now that their status as combatants had been removed. Amy was the worst of the bunch. She’d taken two nasty wounds that would have killed her just a week ago. The fact that she was still conscious and remotely mobile was a testament to the stats she had gained thus far. Marshall had contemplated using Field Surgery on her, however, the skill’s refresh timer of 24 hours stayed his hand. Although it would likely take several hours for her to recover with his nanomist, he would save his cooldowns for when they were in truly dire states.
The group sat in silence for several minutes, each of them personally digesting and dealing with the most recent fight. There had been several close calls, and each of them at any moment could have been snuffed out just like that. Calvin weakly looked over at Amy, with a questioning look. Was she OK? She nodded back at him. She just needed a few minutes.
After a brief recovery period, they all stood up. They still had that weird ass glowing Crystal in the center of the room and it was time to figure out what that was all about.
Repeating the same earlier test, Calvin tossed a pebble at it, this time, no barrier sprang into place. Looking around at the group hesitantly, he shrugged and reached out to touch it with his hand. No risk, no reward right?
YOU HAVE CLEARED THE SPIDER DEN WITHIN THE SUNKEN CAVERNS THE ENTRANCE HAS BEEN UNLOCKED. YOU MAY EXIT THE DUNGEON PERMANENTLY FROM THIS NODE.
GENERATING REWARD
With absolutely no fanfare whatsoever, a large golden chest materialized next to the pedestal.
A huge smile cracked on Marshall’s face. Loot.