Elyssa followed her group while keeping watch for trouble. They were still in dangerous territory after all. The closer she got to the pair the more obvious it became to her that the elf wasn't riding a spider but was part spider. She saw Katherine tense next to her as well.
What the hell was going on?
Gwynn, with all the subtlety of a war hammer, broke the tension.
"Blimey lass, what happened to you?" She asked.
The half-spider elf raised an eyebrow but quirked a smile. She had apparently taken the question with humor.
"Bled all over a ritual circle," she said in the human language. Like all elves, she had a slight accent that emphasized the vowels. "I got thrown around by an angry taratect and by the time I noticed it, it was too late."
Elyssa winced at the declaration. Old ruins often had treasures that could set an adventurer for life if they were lucky but they more often had traps or cursed artifacts. The rumor is that was how the first Vampire was born. Considering the stories she had heard, the elf had gotten lucky in a sense.
"Aye lass, adventuring is a dangerous job," Gwynn said. "Name's Gwynn."
"Liscura, of Niu Village," she introduced herself with a small bow.
Elyssa took a closer look at the elf and her spider body, it was unlike any species she had seen. Her elven body was mostly unchanged, she assumed, with the exception of a second pair of arms. Her carapace was covered by deep black hairs with slight golden reflections. Her legs and front were armored by solid chitin plates outlined in gold as well. She towered over them, her spider body was hovering four feet off the ground and she had a good four feet of elven torso over that.
Despite her monstrous appearance, she seemed friendly.
"Velatha, of Niu as well."
She was short, for an elf, about the same height as Elyssa. Her features were softer than Liscura and her curves were more pronounced as well. They both wore the same style of armor, a cloth coat over a leather breastplate and shirt. It was the same style the scouts and rangers from her village used.
Gwynn elbowed their leader in the thigh with a pointed look. This pulled him out of his stupor.
"We are," he coughed and put on his best leader voice, "adventurers on a mission to slay the Taratect Queen in these ruins. Are you interested in joining forces to eliminate this vile beast?"
Elyssa tried to hide her giggle and it was obvious the two dark elves were as well. She had expected him to have this kind of dialogue, he was the son of a noble after all, but not in the middle of the dungeon. It looked like the weirdness of the situation had gotten to him.
"We would be honored to join forces," Liscura said in the most serious tone she could muster.
"Stop it," Katherine slapped Darrel in the shoulder, "we aren't at some fancy party. Get your head in the game."
"We have scouted most of the area," Velatha said, "with the exception of the cathedral where the queen is."
"Did you find nests?" Hamak asked.
"Yes …" Liscura stopped and whipped her head towards the hallway behind them. "Large group incoming. Two alphas and a lot of rank four."
"What are your specializations," Darrel asked quickly.
"Long range mage and healer," Liscura answered.
"Battlefield control," Velatha said.
The remnants of their previous battle were already coming alive and creeping forward, forming defensive lines of stakes and laying down some vines covered in a strange glistening liquid.
"Don't step on the sticky traps," she clarified.
Behind her, Elyssa felt a large surge of mana and she saw Liscura prepare to cast several spells at once. A strange looking focus that brimmed with magical energy hovered between her four arms. Around her, a dozen or so miniature obelisks of black stone embedded with mana gems appeared.
Is this a spell or a skill? Elyssa wondered. They almost look like secondary foci.
The stones split into different groups, the hexagonal ones arrayed themselves in a circle around Liscura while the others grouped by four and moved to different parts of the battlefield.
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Orbs of fire so bright they lit up the hallway like miniature suns appeared between two groups of three foci. Spears of ice and balls of lighting formed around the mage herself while a swirling ball of purple energy appeared in one of her hands. The elf obviously had the Multicast skill and at a high level. Her body lit up with runes once again, blue and white this time.
"Twenty beats," she announced.
Darrel prepared his shield and defensive magic ran through his body. The head of Gwynn's war hammer glowed an ominous red. Katherine had vanished into the shadows, ready to strike at anything fooling to present their back to her. Hamak had his wolf companion by his side and had summoned a large bear.
Elyssa prepared her own spells, less numerous but no less deadly.
"Ten beats," Liscura said.
The horde of spiders rounded the corner of the hallway and crashed on the first defensive line created by Velatha. The two Alpha Taratects stood over their brethren and stepped over them. Two beams of pure sunlight fired forward and hit the two titans, bringing the entire corridor into daylight for a fraction of a second. Their screeches of pain were music to her ears.
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The two beams of sunfire scorched the two Alpha Taratects, large swatches of their bodies were burned and even a leg or two disabled. It was a success on that front, for the eye watering cost of three thousand mana. High level spells empowered with metamagic were absolute mana hogs. I thanked Gaia for my deep mana pool. The entire volley of follow up spells combined had been less expensive.
In the background, two of my mind constructs were chugging along. One was tasked with keeping an eye on everyone and healing those who got hurt. The other was keeping an eye on the tactical situation and feeding me targets.
Alpha Fork: Alpha Taratect One is focusing on the human defender.
Beta Fork: No major injuries to report.
With one of my hands, I traced a rune in the air through the spell circle of Wind Overture and channeled the spell into a thin drill. The spinning winds hit the taratect on the head and pierced through. The massive beast fell to the ground lifeless.
"Firing area spell at the back line," I shouted.
I fired the Void Eruption spell that I had been charging. It wasn't the real deal but a Celestial Evocation. Nonetheless, it flew off in an arc over the front line and landed among the spiders that hadn't reached the melee yet. A vortex of black energy swelled and a deadly sphere ten meters in diameters decimated everything. Nothing was left in its wake, no corpses, nor plants, nor ground.
"What was that?" The mage next to me asked. She had been firing spears of ice and balls of fire from my side into any spider that tried to flank her shield bearing friend.
"High level void spell," I answered.
"Be careful of our rogue," she said, "she can shadow travel and tends to be … unpredictable."
"I made sure there was no-one in the target area. Your friend was busy stabbing the remaining Alpha in the spinneret."
She nodded.
My mana reserve was down to sixty percent and I was making good use of my new perk by siphoning ambient mana to recharge it. I uncorked a potion and chugged it down for good measure. The horde of spiders had been thinned considerably from my barrage.
I pulled my bow out, I wanted to conserve most of my mana for any healing if the need arose.
The second Alpha Taratect fell to a combined effort of Vel, the mage, and me. Lances of ice, poisoned vines, and enhanced arrows wore it down in the end. The hammer wielding dwarf took care of a large amount of the smaller variants, crushing them under her massive weapon. The human warrior was cautious and preferred to take advantage of the dangerous terrain Vel had created, he prevented any of the enemies from getting too close or passing through any gaps in our formation.
The rogue focused on stragglers and took care of them swiftly without ever being detected. The orc ranger mostly kept his distance and used his crossbow to take potshots at targets of opportunity. It was his bear who did most of the work, the animal was as large as me and very angry, he mauled spiders left and right with brutal effectiveness.
The battle lasted a few minutes at most. Even with such large numbers, they weren't a match for our combined power. The problem would be how many of those groups we would face. Exhaustion and mana starvation would be the real issues.
> Your group has defeated [Alpha Taratect Warrior (Level 186, Rank 6)]
> Your group has defeated [Alpha Taratect Warrior (Level 186, Rank 6)]
> Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting an alpha
> Experience gain increased by 100% for defeating a monster above your rank
> Essence Absorption collected 36 ES
>
> Your group has defeated [Mature Taratect Warrior (Level 120-145, Rank 5)] x 8
> Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a horde
> Essence Absorption collected 120 ES
>
> Your group has defeated [Mature Taratect Warrior (Level 95-120, Rank 4)] x 16
> Your group has defeated [Mature Taratect Warrior (Level 80-95, Rank 4)] x 29
> Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain reduced by 20% for defeating lower ranked monsters
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a horde
> Essence Absorption collected 360 ES (-1ES/kill penalty)
> Essence cap of 1000 reached, 14 ES overflow
>
> Skill Catalyst Creation reached rank 1, level 8 (+7 levels)
> Skill Catalyst Assembly reached rank 1, level 5 (+4 levels)
>
> Reached Level 130 (Rank 5, +4 level)
> Gained: 72 ES (Essence cap of 100 reached, 72 ES overflow)
"Let's take shelter in the warehouse," I said, "we cleared it already and I need to get some mana back."
"Those were some impressive fireworks," the dwarf joked.
"And very expensive."