Kai stood up and leveled his gaze at Hawkin and the last surviving soldier.

“Last chance to back out. I can handle this on my own,” Kai said, cracking his knuckles to hopefully drive home the point, and save their lives.

Hawkin simply grabbed his spear and with a look of determination headed down the tunnel with a grunt. After some hesitation the other Rakin followed.

They rushed through the vibrant tunnels, following a bloody trail. If he hurried there was a small chance he could save the Rakin who’d been dragged away screaming.

After an hour of travel he heard the sound of running water. It barely disguised squelching and clacking sounds. Kai snuck around a corner that opened into an underground grove with a meandering stream. More importantly, the cavern was full of egg sacs and swaying over them was a monstrous hairless tarantula with serpentine fangs. The Broodmother’s six sharp legs impaled the earth like tree trunks and her long powerful tail was peppered with glowing blue spikes.

Kai’s stomach lurched while Hawkin’s knuckles turned white. The other Rakin let out a strangled yip, before dropping his spear and bolting away. The thud of the spear clambering to the floor caused the primal’s eight eyes to focus in on them. The Broodmother didn’t even bother to release the petrified Rakin she was feasting upon, and beckoned her brood forward by flexing two of her powerful legs in Kai’s direction, before she continued to slurp on the Rakin’s innards. She doesn't think we’re a threat.

Clearly she was not aware he’d decimated her brood. The last remaining barktail spiders splashed through the stream as they surged towards the two of them.

Kai motioned for Hawkin to back off, then rushed forward like a stormy river. His palms lashed out as he slapped each barktail spider aside casually. The spiderlings didn’t even have time to comprehend what had happened. They simply exploded away from his stardust palms in green geysers of shattered chitin. An unidentifiable mess.

Kai had expected an increase in strength but even he was surprised. His body reaching the next grade was nothing to be trifled with when combined with his aura. He could actually feel slight aftershocks rippling throughout his body, but he absorbed the recoil harmlessly thanks to his trait.

The Broodmother opened her mouth and extracted her fangs from the petrified Rakin she had been slurping. The dried body thudded onto the ground. Bile rose in Kai’s throat but his fury overcame it like a rising tide, no-one deserves to die like that. She clacked forward, carefully positioning herself in front of all the egg sacs.

She lunged back and forward, slamming her powerful spear like legs into the ground threateningly, causing the entire cavern to tremble.

Kai didn’t care. She could threaten all she wanted. This was a species he had no interest in preserving and his eyes flared a predatory gold.

Young Primal; Barktail Broodmother Viper, Level 29

Lurks near the roots of giant trees. Their tails are covered in bioluminescent spines. It will use its tail to lure, poison, and constrict unsuspecting prey, then its powerful fangs will drain them.

That’s a whole lot of nightmare fuel. He made a mental note to watch out for the petrifying poison in the blue spikes of her tail. In fact avoiding the tail entirely seemed like a good idea. He glared at the chitin on her legs; her armoured hide was thicker than the entire body of a normal barktail spider. Perhaps he could bait her into unfavourable exchanges if he positioned himself near the eggs. Kai’s train of thought derailed as her spiked tail whipped out of the dark in an attempt to wrap around him and pierce him with its luminescent blue spikes. Visions of being petrified and dragged into its mouth almost made him panic, but he pivoted on his heels and vaulted backwards to gain some distance.

Kai kept directly in front of the Broodmother to effectively cut off combat support from her tail; it was so thickly covered in spikes he would be unable to land a clean hit. He ran through ideas in his head, dodging its armoured legs as they repeatedly tried to pin his body into the ground like a bug. Each attack left large dents in the ground. She did manage to herd him further from the eggs; he couldn’t both move to them and avoid her tail.

Drown her? Not enough water. Foxfire breath? Need a couple seconds, probably resistant. Tangle her in her own tail? Would have to grab the tail. Snap her legs off one by one? ...actually that might work. Now that he was up close he could see each leg was made of three parts, with two joints between. He’d be able to reach the lower joint. Sweat poured down his face from concentration as he sidestepped a ferocious barrage of legs. Two quick palm strikes infused with aura, smashed into the joint explosively, causing the leg to buckle, but not quite break.

The Broodmother hissed out an enraged chitter, and renewed her assault. His senses were almost unable to keep up with her speed. Instinct and footwork the only things keeping him from being gored to death. He whirled around the legs delivering blow after blow to the joints.

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The Broodmother buckled under her immense weight, teetering to one side. Taking advantage of her pause, he finally snapped off the lower portion of one of her legs with a strained grunt. Kai twirled it around; green blood splashed across his tattered shirt and partially exposed chest. He then hurled her leg with increased weight towards her face like a javelin, hoping to partially blind her. The razor-sharp leg ruptured one of her eight eyes with a pop, the momentum of the force whipping her head back. He’d hoped to pierce the brain, but it seemed the bone around the eye socket prevented the large limb from penetrating further.

Kai’s smile came too soon; he watched in dismay as she slithered away from him up the wall and out of reach onto the ceiling, abandoning her protective position over the eggs. She then proceeded to undo his hard work and ripped out the stake in her eye with her tail.

The Broodmother’s tail vibrated, glowed and rattled violently. The luminous blue spikes thrummed with aura.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this. He bolted away from her, but there was nowhere to hide.

Sharp blue needles rained down like a storm of razor blades, shredding everything on the cavern floor, including some egg sacs, which ruptured. Kai was no exception, he evaded dozens but three struck his left leg. They latched on like a leech and entrenched themselves, then pumped blue liquid that burned like fire into him. He bellowed in agony as he ripped them out, taking chunks of flesh with each. His leg began to petrify, turning wooden. His first thought was to amputate his leg; anything was better than being spider food, but he had nothing sharp enough. Kai then grasped his inflamed leg in a vice-like grip to restrict his blood flow and squeezed, hoping to flush out the poison, but he barely bled. Stupid enhanced body. He swallowed his pain, more rational thinking returning thanks to his Ironblood Will, which was swiftly becoming his favourite vital trait.

If the poison was infused by aura then he could surely combat it with his own aura — he’d learned as much from the Magma Wyrm’s spitted lava. He flooded his leg with his stardust aura, allowing him to feel his body to the smallest details. However the impact site was obvious and after a little focus he directed his aura against the blue liquid corroding his flesh, making them clash like oil and water.

Unfortunately the Broodmother had no intention of allowing him time to recuperate and skittered back down to the ground, her tail now smooth and devoid of spikes. Sensing weakness, she rushed towards Kai’s prone figure clasping his leg, intent to devour him and feed him to her remaining young.

Kai exhaled a mighty breath of purple Foxfire flames in her direction, he didn’t expect it to confuse her, but thought it might buy him the second he needed by obscuring her vision.

Ignoring the pain in his leg and abandoning it to the poison, he rolled to the side avoiding impalement before flipping upright, he then double palmed the spider queen’s leg joint and ripped off a second limb, she screeched. Changing tactics, he dove and rolled clumsily towards her with his half petrified leg, narrowly avoiding her fangs. Now underneath her thorax, he rammed her sharp leg into her exposed underbelly. It barely penetrated, but it was enough to stay put for the few precious seconds foxfire would muddle her thoughts. With grim determination he ignored the petrification creeping up his leg as he spun to create kinetic momentum. His palms struck like cannons over and over, hammering the limb through the beast’s innards and towards its heart.

“Water. Pierces. Rock,” he ground out between clenched teeth as he finally remembered the whole principle that had helped him during the creation of his soul.

Within seconds he’d released a flurry of blows, and the limb had bypassed the layer of chitinous armour, which was thick and coarse like sandpaper on his hands. If not for his improved body and technique he would have ground his palms to bloody stubs.

His final bash ended with his fist gut deep inside her thorax. The sharp limb sliced through the Brood Viper’s heart and the tip erupted out the other side of the spider’s body with a pop. The force of his last hit was so great that its entire body lifted off the floor for a moment.

Despite being unable to move his leg, Kai looked up in triumph, shortly replaced with wide eyes as the monstrous body threatened to crash down and flatten him.

Ah, shi—Kura! Quick! Before we’re squashed.

He watched the shadow of his impending death disintegrate into white dust as Kura voraciously inhaled.

Thanks, Kai thought with relief.

Tasty tasty!

Kai collapsed in a sweaty heap to the ground. His face was a rictus of pain and his leg throbbed. All he wanted to do was pass out, but he persevered. Passing out now meant certain death.

Hawkin skulked out from his hiding spot in the tunnels and approached Kai, his ears downcast, concern plain in his eyes.

Barely glancing at him, Kai mumbled, “Brave enough to stay, but w-wise enough not to fight. Don’t feel guilty.” Usually Kai would wait for a response, or be less direct, but he was tired and simply issued orders.

“Stab any remaining egg sacks—to death,” Kai clarified, just in case. Where was Algrom and his living flame when you needed it. “Give me a moment.”

Kai then closed his eyes without waiting for a reply, essentially dismissing the old Rakin’s feelings on the matter. He withdrew a healing crystal and renewed his internal conflict against the invading poison-infused aura, which was considerably weaker, probably due to its owner’s death. He wasn’t sure how much time passed as he sat there pushing poison out his wound, thick blue ooze trickling down his leg.

By the time he was done, he was an undignified mess — his chest scarred and his body covered in blood, only his pants remained in one piece. I give up on shirts. His head spun from being low on aura as he slunk onto the ground and drifted off to sleep, glad to have avoided being petrified. He’d read his notifications after a nap.