Elyssa followed her group while keeping watch for trouble. They were still in dangerous territory. The closer she got to the pair the more obvious it became to her that the druid 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 perfect common. "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 artefacts. 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 brown 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 forced 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 was 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 saw Liscura preparing several spells at once. To orbs of fire so bright they lit up the hallway like miniature suns, spears of ice and lightning, and an ominous ball of deep purple. The elf obviously had the Multicast skill and at a high level. A strange looking focus hovered between her four arms.
"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, lighting the entire corridor for a fraction of a second. Their screech 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 twenty percent of my mana pool. High level spells empowered with metamagic were absolute mana hogs. The entire volley of follow up spells had been less expensive.
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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.
I traced a rune in the air with my hand and channeled the Wind Rune 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 that had been charging, it flew off in an arc over the front line and landed among the spiders that hadn't reached the melee yet. The 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 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 forty percent. I was making good use of my new perk and siphoning ambient mana. 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 needed to conserve most of my mana for healing if necessary.
The second Alpha Taratect fell to a combined effort of Vel, the mage, and me. Lances of ice, poisoned vines, and explosive 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.
System Log
Your group has defeated [Alpha Taratect Warrior (Rank 5, Level 18)]
Your group has defeated [Alpha Taratect Warrior (Rank 5, Level 13)]
Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
Experience gain increased by 50% by blessing
Experience gain increased by 50% for defeating higher ranked monsters
Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting an alpha
Your group has defeated [Adult Taratect Warrior (Rank 4, Level 40-80)] x 16
Your group has defeated [Adult Taratect Warrior (Rank 4, Level 90-120)] x 8
Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
Experience gain increased by 50% by blessing
Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a horde
Your group has defeated [Adult Taratect Warrior (Rank 3, Level 40-80)] 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 50% by blessing
Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a horde
Gained 30 Levels (38 to 68)
+30 SP, 36 AP, 8 CP, 2 Perk
"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."
As the group moved into the warehouse, I stabbed my leg through the body of the two fallen Alpha Taratects and used the Harvest Essence skill. The bodies didn't measurable change but I received a notification.
Collected Essence
Collected 100 ES from [Alpha Taratect Warrior (Rank 5, Level 18)]
Collected 100 ES from [Alpha Taratect Warrior (Rank 5, Level 13)]
Total: 200 ES
I repeated the process with a few of the larger corpses nearby before retreating.
Collected Essence
Collected 84 ES from [Adult Taratect Warrior (Rank 4, Level 96)]
Collected 85 ES from [Adult Taratect Warrior (Rank 4, Level 104)]
Collected 85 ES from [Adult Taratect Warrior (Rank 4, Level 117)]
Collected 85 ES from [Adult Taratect Warrior (Rank 4, Level 108)]
Total: 339 ES
It was a good enough quantity for experimentation later.