Staying on the back of the spider-like danaris is difficult: even if its apparent inadvertent convulsions aren’t aimed at shaking me off, they might have the same effect if I’m not careful.
Gripping with my legs hooked around the insectile monster’s thin waist between its abdomen and thorax, I pull my knife from my belt and another item from my Inventory. Closing my eyes, I send my mind into the item in my hand – a gland full of venom.
It’s the item which River managed to get from the creature which lured me deeper into the forest of vine-stranglers after we’d killed the salamander. Given its effects on me, it’s a pretty powerful poison. Hopefully it will have just as much effect on this danaris.
Of course, I’m not just going to stab the massive spider with a knife coated in this venom: I’m going to try to do more than that. For that reason, I pour my remaining mana into the small organ. Fortunately, it turns out to be just about enough – I’m panting and nauseous by the time I sense that the organ and venom inside are saturated, but it’s done.
Opening my eyes again, I notice with some trepidation that the movements are starting to be a little less jerky and more fluid again. The danaris is healing. I need to get a move on, especially since my Bound have obviously noted the same things as me and have started attacking again.
Using my knife, I stab between two plates of chitin, doing my best to open up a hole, however small. A cry comes from below and River sends me an urgent image of the danaris having coated Bastet’s feet in the sticky web, pinning her down.
Defend her! I send back to him with emphasis. Or get her out if you can. Hopefully this won’t take much longer.
My full focus switches into manipulating the venom into the hole I’ve made. Feeding the poison into the spider-creature’s system, I fight against the creature’s Will to follow it into the danaris’ body.
I win again, not because my Will outmatches that of the danarais, but because the poison isn’t something recognised by the creature’s system. Though my ability to sense the Beast’s body is limited, my mind can travel relatively easily within the venom. Travel…and multiply.
As my mana returns bit by bit, I dedicate it into increasing the amount of venom that is affecting the danaris’ systems. Increasing, and enhancing as much as I can – since I haven’t spent time studying the venom, my understanding of how it works is limited. However, since I’ve saturated both it and its organ with my magic I do have some understanding and it’s this which I use to enhance and hasten its effects.
The massive spider creature under me falters. I feel its legs fail for a moment. For good reason: the venom has managed to eat its way into the thin tubes of fluid that surround the creature’s endoskeleton and act as hydraulics to operate its limbs. Backup systems seem to kick in, and I’ve only managed to get into a small portion of the hydraulic tubes, so it rights itself quickly, but I feel elated at the sense of progress.
Heartened, I pour as much mana as I can into the venom, draining myself dry again and again. At the same time, I sense that the danaris is focussing as much of its attention as it can into trying to clear the poison out of its systems.
From a message I receive from one of my Bound – I’m concentrating too hard to even tell who – I realise that both of us have gone completely stock-still. Apparently, the spider-creature has decided that I’m a threat worth paying its full attention to.
We struggle against each other, a new type of battle of wills. The situation teeters on a knife’s edge: the danaris’ capacity to regenerate is powerful, perhaps its ‘unknown’ special ability mentioned in its description. I damage one part of its body, and it swoops in with its regeneration to heal, or at least plaster over, the injury.
But I’m running out of resources. My mana regeneration just isn’t fast enough to keep up with the rapid pace and I find myself giving ground. If this keeps up, it will push my venom out of its body before I manage to destroy any vital organs. I redouble my effort, pulling all the venom I can in to attack the brain: no brain, no consciousness, game over.
It seems to understand the danger it’s in, and redoubles its own effort to heal the damage I inflict almost as soon as I’ve caused it. I need more mana.
Sending out a desperate wordless message to my Bound, I get an answer.
A small weight landing on my shoulder offers me the opportunity to pull some more mana into my empty reserves. Sirocco doesn’t hold a huge amount of it, and I can’t even pull all of what she can hold out of her, but it’s enough to replenish my pool sufficiently.
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At the same time, I sense my Bound moving below me, but it would take too much focus away from my internal efforts to work out what they’re doing. Instead, with my mana pool almost full again, I pour the resource into the venom.
The danaris is unable to deal with my suddenly empowered efforts, the venom multiplying beyond its capacity to purge. I start getting more of a foothold, the danaris unable to heal all of the damage I’m now able to inflict. Still, I focus on the alien brain of the creature, eating away at it with an enhanced version of the poison which almost killed me.
The spider-creature rallies, trying desperately to force me out through sheer willpower. It fails: I bury my presence within the venom where it can’t put any pressure on me. The venom eats and eats…and then it’s done. I’ve cut the connections between the brain and the body.
Somehow acting on autopilot, as if it had a back-up routine or some other way of controlling its body, it seems to take an attitude of mutual destruction. The legs which had been frozen, suddenly leap into life, flailing at my Bound. I sense their surprise, and pain as River is once more impacted by a leg, Persephone too.
Only half my attention is now on the venom, searching for a way of halting its attack, or discovering whatever organ it’s using to ‘think’. With the rest of my focus, I sense Hades’ immediate protective fury as he leaps into the fray, his wings spreading to cover his fallen mate.
And then the danaris stills. It’s not dead. I still feel signals shooting around its body, even as I frantically try to disrupt them.
Get out of there! I yell mentally, my vague view on its system informing me of what it’s about to do.
In a final MAD attempt, the danaris rears up on its back four legs, actually managing to tip me off completely. But that wasn’t the main aim of its action. Instead, it aims its tail end at my Bound.
Sending out an immense amount of white web, probably emptying its web-making organs completely, it coats all of my Bound who were underneath it. That is basically all of them except for Sirocco. And Fenrir, of course.
Then, it pauses again. A moment later, its sting projects a spray of greenish droplets through the air, the liquid landing on the web and immediately soaking into it. A moment later, I have to scramble to avoid the creature as it crumples to the ground. Dead, or close enough to count.
But I can’t check – my Bound are in trouble. I scramble to my feet and stagger towards them, the effects of the mental and magical battle taking their toll on my body. I can’t focus on that, though. My Bound need me!
That final spray was clearly poison, and they’re already suffering. I don’t know if it’s the same poison which acted as a sedative for Fenrir, or if the danaris had multiple venoms to inject, but either way, I don’t want them being exposed to it for any longer than absolutely necessary.
I still have a bit of mana left, but not a lot. Though the most effective method would probably be to feed mana into the webbing and saturate it, gaining complete control over it, I definitely don’t have enough in the tank for that, and I don’t have the time to Meditate in between attempts.
No, I’m going to have to do this another way.
Choosing to leave my companions who are visibly struggling for the moment, I go for one who is worryingly still: Bastet. She’s next to River who is clearly trying to cut his way out of the webbing with his spear, though not making much headway. So my own idea of using my knife to cut through is probably out. I’ll try anyway.
I have to walk over the webbing myself, but fortunately it doesn’t seem to be particularly sticky: this one was clearly meant more for confinement through quantity than adhesive properties. Even better, my hide boots keep me removed from the poison itself, so I get to Bastet – the one who has lowest health at the moment – without being affected.
Crouching down, I try to cut the web with my knife. No good. It’s tough to cut through for one thing, and as soon as I do, there seems to be some sort of sticky substance inside which very quickly coats my knife blade and blunts it. I tuck my knife away, praying that I’ll find a way of getting the sticky substance off later.
My next attempt involves touching the webbing near my raptorcat companion. Focussing mana into my finger, I push it into the web, but try to limit its spread. Instead of saturating the whole network, I only want to saturate the immediate area at my fingertip. Then, once it’s saturated, I break it apart.
It’s slow at first, but speeds up with practice – good thing too as I’m very much aware of the slowly weakening movements of even my most active Bound. They’re all alive, I know that, but I still don’t know if the poison is only a sedative or something more threatening than that.
And then Bastet’s free. I grab her and lift her out of the area, laying her down gently. Immediately connecting with the small pool of mana left inside her, I do the same strategy as I did with Lathani to free her from ongoing contact with the poison: flaking off everything that’s currently touching it. That does mean she loses a good portion of her feathers, but those are replaceable.
Even that brief contact with the poison reveals something I was fearing: that the venom is not designed purely as a sedative. That’s certainly part of its effects, but the end goal is a lot more…permanent. I need to get them all out and clear of it as soon as possible.
Not easy considering how low on mana I already am. I’ll have to hope that I’m able to get most of them out with the mana that’s within their own bodies otherwise I don’t know how I’m going to do this.
For now, I shove two of River’s potions down Bastet’s throat – that will have to keep her going for now. I simply can’t spend the time or mana getting her fully healed.
Returning to the webbed area, I go for River next. He’s not the worst off, but he should be able to help me keep the others going until I can properly clear the poison out of them. Hopefully he has significantly more potions than I do.