Caeileera

‘Got attack-’ Lilyth responded, but her message cut off.

‘Lilyth!’ I shouted. ‘Lilyth!’

When no response came, I resisted the urge to smash the radio against the wall and instead shouted to my companions:

‘We’re going after her!’

Aki and Ren, both terrified, simply nodded and started preparing for battle.

Weapons at the ready we charged down the corridor.

When we entered the big chamber, Aki lit her [Abyssal Spark] to ensure she and Rennie could see. This turned out to be a mistake, as the action caused something I didn’t previously realise to be there to roar in pain.

I looked towards the source of the noise and saw a large six-legged insectoid monster, with a humanoid upper body emerging out of one of the ends of the thorax. It was all wrong though. The creature didn't have much in terms of a physical body. Its skeleton was made out of pure lightning-like energy. That frame was orbited by pieces of meat, and there were occasional bands of some strange glowing metal, probably serving as armour, encasing the “body” at regular intervals. The monster’s hands ended with metallic claws.

While I was scared of the creature, I saw that Aki and Rennie were close to panic. This was further amplified by the emergence of further ten more smaller arthropods that appeared to “just” be huge spiders, their bodies looking quite like that of the big monsters.

Realising we were quite likely completely screwed I raised my gun and pulled the trigger. That broke Ren and Aki out of their terrified stupor and they started firing at the monsters as well.

Two bursts from my carbine felled the large monster and the creature collapsed into a pile of meat and metal that soon reformed as two smaller, but still Darhun-sized spiders. The same division happened to one of the beasts Aki’s [Lesser Abyssal Bolt] killed. I realised that even more creatures started pouring out of their lair.

‘Run!’ I shouted and opened fire once again.

Lilyth

Having dealt with the second sprite quickly, now that I knew how to fight them it was a relative cakewalk, I started running back towards my loved ones. I didn't make fifty meters before I heard a sound I was dreading to hear. Distant gunfire.

Fuckfuckfuck!

I sprinted down the corridor and was soon greeted by the sight of Caei, Aki and Ren retreating towards me, firing at… what I now realised was the reason for my instincts going haywire.

Big spiders.

Very big spiders.

Made of energy. And meat. And metal.

Spiders.

As primal fear began to rise inside of me and I began to sweat profusely, I had to fight the urge to turn around and just run away, leaving the girls to rot.

I tried to move forward, but couldn't. That would put me closer to those things.

‘No,’ I squeaked.

No.

Shouldhavewentwiththetoothhorrors.

Shouldhavewentwiththetoothhorrors.

Then I saw one of the spiders lunge at Caei, knocking her down to the ground. Her rifle clattered away from her. My panic was replaced by rage-fueled protective instinct.

Oh no, you motherfucker. You will not hurt my beloved.

I charged the monster, drawing the Blade of the Black Rose.

I saw that Caei was doing her best to fend off the monster, but it was much stronger than she was. Aki and Ren couldn't help her as they had worries of their own, having to deal with the onslaught of more of the beasts. The sight almost gave me a pause, but I pushed through it and reached Caeileera at the last moment. Just as the spider was about to bite her throat with its metallic fangs I lopped its head off. I immediately started pulling Caei, now covered in a pile of meat and metal to her feet. It was good that I did that, as the bits of the monster began to reform.

What.

‘Can you walk?’ I asked Caei when she was upright again.

‘I- I think so,’ she replied weakly.

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She wanted to pick up her gun, but I stopped her.

‘Forget it!’ I shouted. ‘We need to go!’

Caei nodded. She tried to take a step, but her right ankle gave out under her. I caught her and threw her arm around my neck while wrapping mine around her back to support her.

‘Aki!’ I yelled. ‘Ren! We are leaving! Run!’

The girls, doing their best to keep the ever-increasing number of spiders at bay, nodded, turned around and began their escape.

I deactivated [The Swiftness of the Wind] and began to retreat with Caei, firing off [Shadow Bolts] at any monster that got close. They worked maybe two times out of three, but it had to do. We were making good progress, but Caei was clearly in pain and was steadily slowing down. My extensive use of mana throughout the day was also making itself known and I felt I wouldn't be able to keep up casting spells much longer. Especially since I could feel that some of the [Shadow Bolts], be it successful or not, drained far more out of me than they should have.

Shit.

‘I’ll hold them off,’ I said to her. ‘Heal yourself and run.’

‘B-but…’ she began to protest, but I interrupted her with a kiss.

‘I have no intention of dying, Caei,’ I said after I parted from her ‘Just want to give you enough time to escape and I’ll join you.’

Caeileera

My heart torn to pieces, I followed Lilyth’s instructions.

Why does she have to save me again? Why?

Finally able to walk again, I shouted to Lilyth I was done and began to run.

Live, my love. Live!

I kept glancing at Lilyth and saw she was also retreating but much slower, giving me a head start. She would be overwhelmed soon, as there were dozens, nay, HUNDREDS of the spiders bearing down on us. Then Lilyth looked back at me, nodded and reached into her satchel. I saw her pull something out, yank at it and then roll the item on the floor. Then she turned tail and apparently activated [The Swiftness of the Wind] given how fast she ran.

I picked up my pace too.

When Lilyth runs from something, IT IS TIME TO GO.

Aki and Ren, who were a fair distance away from us, also must have come to the same conclusion as they didn't stop.

It was good too, as the corridor was lit by blue light, I heard a loud crack and a wave of heat and pressure washed over me and knocked me to the ground. Lilyth, who was slightly behind me, ended up next to me shrieking in pain.

Then came a deafening series of crashes and rumbles behind us and we were covered by a cloud of dust. I saw Ren shoot arrows at something and Aki soon followed with a [Lesser Abyssal Bolt]. Then having likely run out of mana, she ran over with her swords drawn. I tried pushing myself to my feet but my limbs felt like wet noodles. It took me a moment to regain my strength, but by then it was over. The surviving few monsters were dead, and the corridor had caved in, blocking any more from following us.

Aki ran over to me and handed me our last healing potion. I downed it immediately and felt immediate relief on my back.

‘How bad is it?’ I croaked.

‘You had some burns,’ Aki admitted. ‘Lilyth though…’

My attention immediately turned away to the love of my life and saw her writhing in pain, her body damaged and covered in burns.

And this is why I got the potion.

Still dazed by the explosion I crawled towards Lilyth and began healing her.

It took every drop of my mana, but I managed to get us all to working order. Ren and Aki sustained some wounds during the fight, but it was nothing I couldn’t deal with quickly. My body was still sore, but the best I could tell sustained no permanent damage.

‘What did you do?’ I asked Lilyth once she was cognizant again.

There was no accusation in the tone. She saved us. Saved me.

‘I may have used one of the grenades that we found on those soldiers,’ she admitted. ‘Though I misjudged what the fuck it was.’

‘Meaning?’ Ren asked.

‘I assumed it was a fragmentation grenade. Basically, one using the force of the explosion to send shrapnel into the bodies of things. I have no idea what that was, though.’

‘Remember when you screamed at me for playing with one of those?’ Aki asked, white-faced. ‘Thank you.’

‘No problem. I know it was a bit hypocritical of me, but I took it just in case. I thought we would meet more undead soldiers.’

‘And we found something worse,’ I sighed and kissed her.

She smiled weakly.

‘On the plus side, I am level eighteen now. Turns out… blowing up a legion of monsters has its perks.’

I checked my notifications. And saw that between the large monster, simply called “The Hive Praetorian” and the few smaller ones referred to as “Energy Spiders”, from lesser to greater, I was level fourteen now. Ren made it to level eight and Aki to level twelve.

‘What happened to you, by the way?’ Lilyth asked. ‘You stopped responding to my radio calls. I thought you were in danger. I mean you were, but…’

‘It’s… unrelated,’ I replied and gave her our side of the events.

‘Oh… It cut me off in the worst place possible,’ the love of my life laughed. ‘I wonder what happened?’

We did a radio check and all of them worked.

‘Was it due to the flat motherfuckers?’ Lilyth wondered and told us about the creatures that flipped between being flat like a painting and “normal”.

‘I guess it is irrelevant now,’ Aki said.

‘Not really,’ Lilyth retorted. ‘There could be more of those here if we ever get separated again…’

She mentioned there being a fork in the road.

‘No,’ I shook my head. ‘We are no longer splitting up. If this was fucking normal difficulty for you, I dread what else we will find here.’

When we got to the fork in the road we simply flipped one of our coins and went left. That turned out to be the correct choice, as soon we came across another door.

With a shrug, we entered it and ended up in a room made of metal. There were some, likely steel, tables and chairs there. The biggest feature, however, was the window… or rather what was outside - a seemingly endless light-specked void with a massive green orb surrounded by a series of beige rings suspended some distance away from us.

What in the Badlands is that?