Chapter 28: Phase 1
NoNO! Nonononononononnononononono!
Ducking (No pun intended), dodging, and weaving, I scrambled my way out of the cavern of spiders.
Upon being spotted, I was beset by horrors, the spiders swarming me all at once with dozens of the creatures spewing webbing at me.
Uncanny Dodge activated, my skeletal body automatically shifting to avoid the attacks before I leapt over the armored segmented appendage that tried to skewer me.
The Queen remained immobile, aware of my presence but uncaring. Sadly this attitude didn’t extend to her honor guards, her juggernaut immediately rushing me with its armored legs whilst her magician teleported away to fire bolts of mana.
I hit the ground with the grace of a ninja ballerina, the Juggernaut acting as an unwilling shield to the magical attack that smashed into its carapace.
Three minutes left.
It roared, the Juggernaut turned its body and took off after me down the corridor with a hundred tiny spiders scurrying close behind.
To any outsider looking in, it was obvious I was screwed, but I had a plan, a plan that involved using the heavily armored spider to my advantage.
In front of me, a hundred critters sure to cut my path. An immobile wall I could not get through. While behind me, a giant juggernaut charging me with power that was sure to crush Hector and anything else foolish to get in its way.
An immovable wall of spiders and an unstoppable heavy object.
Who would win?
Let's test it.
I slowed my advance, just as I was about to be smooshed between the two sides and leapt, grabbing hold of the charging behemoth that sailed on by with my skeletal fingers.
In that instant, the wall of chitin proved not to be so immobile, collapsing immediately from the force of the juggernaut ramming into it. Bug guts quickly coated the cavern, the juggernaut only stopping when it finally hit a cavern wall.
But my path was clear now, a trail of insect genocide left in my wake.
Two minutes left.
I wasted no time, leaping off the juggernaut half buried in the wall, I moved like a thief in the night, clutching my “acquisitions” that I had risked so much for.
Two minutes, two minutes, less than two minutes! The time kept ticking in my mind, every ounce of willpower I possessed pooled into placing one step in front of the other as quickly as I could.
Every so often, a spider would leap out to attack, but unlike the original invasion and attacks I had experienced previously, these spiders were uncoordinated, wild, no coordination to slow my advance save for their last swarm that ended in failure.
I was nearly home free, I could see the entrance, the exit of the spider monarch’s domain, a minute left on my time before-
Huh?
Suddenly I was flying, my body spinning, tumbling through the air before I landed on the smooth stained floor of the sewer pathway.
CRAP!
It took me a moment to realize I’d been cut in half, the phase spider appearing out of thin air and ambushing me, bisecting my spine with one swipe of its clawed appendage.
My head refocused, eyeing my legs still running that hit a wall, and fell over as the spider crawled over me and hissed, its mandibles opening to crush my skull!
But, what kind of Hiro would I be without a backup strategy?
Suddenly the tension of the flowing sewer liquid broke, a muscular scaled monster leaping out of the green sludge with a roar.
Dave smashed into the spider, its talons catching the blue creature unaware and digging into its head.
Immediately the blue monster attempted to teleport, to flee, it visibly blurred and glowed with power, but thanks to the claws embedded in its skull, the skill failed, the spider hitting the floor.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Take it alive! I ordered, just as my timer ran out and my consciousness was back in the body of my rubber self.
The Matriarch’s brood were in a bit of a tissy, a hundred tiny spiders scurrying about in a panic. The Queen, however, remained immobile, sucking on me still despite the carnage inflicted on her army.
Man… am I really that tasty? Maybe this is why Slimey is always holding me in its body.
I opened my minion menu,
MINION MENU
Slimey: Holy Super Slime LvL 13
Title: Hiro’s Champion
HP: 2350/2350
MP: 500/500
Skills: Dissolve LvL 6. Slime Shot LvL 5. Cleanse LvL 5. Foam LvL 2. Solidification LvL 5. Bounce LvL 3. Physical Resistance LvL 4. Cold Resistance LvL 2. Mimic LvL 2. Blend LvL 1. Duplicate LvL 1. Shape Change LvL 2. Slime Bullet LvL 2. Holy imbue LvL 2. Mend LvL 2. Bubble Blow LvL 1, Acid Immunity LvL EX, Striking Resistance LvL 3, Slashing Resistance LvL 3, Enlight LvL 1,
Dave: (???) LvL: 6
HP: 839/850
MP: 50/50
Skills: Bite LvL 8, Iron Tail LvL 5, Blend LvL 5, Swim LvL 4, Endure LvL 3, Pain Resilience LvL 3, Minor Regeneration LvL 4. Strong Body LvL 2. Heavy Constitution LvL 1. Human Potential, Darkvision LvL 2, Iron claw LvL 1.
Hector: Skeleton Rogue LvL: 13
HP: 891/1300
MP: 3/20
Skills: Undead. Swift Step LvL 3, Uncanny Dodge LvL 2, Play Dead LvL 1, Inconspicuous, Acrobatic, Trap Finding LvL 1, Dash LvL 3, Scarlet Kisses LvL 2, Detect Prized Possession LvL 2, Pilfer LvL 2, Critical Damage LvL 1, Concealment LvL 4, Souls Vision LvL 1. Mana Economy LvL 1.
[Name: Spooderman]
LVL: 10
Species:Red-Eyed Taruntual.
HP: 190/190
MP: 150/150
Skills: Spin Silk LvL 3, Paralytic Bite LvL 3, Pouce LvL 4, Poisoner LvL 1, Blend LvL 1, Dark Vision LvL 2,
Chloe: Minor Skeleton LvL: 10 [Evolving]
HP: 100/100
MP: 0/0
Skills: Undead.
With prizes in tow, my army scurried off, phase one of my plan successful with an enemy officer held hostage and the commander’s mind befuddled.
Oddly, a sense of giddyness took me, one I hadn’t felt in awhile, a sublime feeling of a mission successfully completed.
However this was only Phase One of a multi-step operation.
I had dealt an unexpected crippling blow to the enemy. But, despite the losses sustained, the Spider Kingdom still possessed hundreds, if not thousands of troops hidden in the various caverns. There was also the Queen’s armored and mage divisions along with her champion who was injured by the phase spider’s attack but still functioning.
All these I would purge and soon as I bided my time to the chorus of a thousand angry feet skittering against the floor.
****
ELSEWHERE IN A BRIGHTLY LIT CAVE FILLED WITH BOOKS AND SKELETONS.
“Hmmmmm.” The red-haired man with cat ears wearing a pink bathrobe let out, scratching his back with the arm of a skeleton who’s fingers moved back and forth.
In front of him, a golden ornate mirror, one sequestered between two massive bookshelves that showed to him thousands of stories, various moving images of people in different stages of talking, fighting, or dying.
However, there was one story in particular that interested him the most. A still image of an acid-covered rubber duck.
“Well, look at him go! He’s certainly making a go of things.” Junith said, the Paladin of Death taking off her cat-eared helmet to shake free her bundled up hair caked in blood.
She walked to a nearby couch, her blood-stained black greaves clinking with each movement before she splayed out and stretched.
“I concur,” Said the Book Keeper, the man scratching his chin as his massive white cat leapt off a bookshelf to land on his shoulder. “It may seem as though intervention isn’t needed.”
“Aw but where's the fun in that!” An excited voice exclaimed from across the room, one emanating from a pink-haired cat latched onto a skeleton sweeping the floor. “We should totally help him out! Give him some ULTRA skills! Undo his curse! Drop a cache of legendary weapons into his slime, oh! OH! OH!!! Or better yet! Let’s send a dragon-NYAH!”
The pink cat’s excited rambling was cut off by a skull lobbed at her head, the cat flying off of its skeletal perch.
“Liza, why are you here?” The Book Keeper groaned, the primordial god’s left eye twitching.
“For the tea!”
“Tea?”
“You know! Entertainment!” Liza replied, shapeshifting into a catwoman with pink hair, golden eyes, and bushy tail that swished back and forth as she hugged the red-haired man.
“Of course…” The Book Keeper sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Don't you have some mortals to trick into signing pacts or magical girls to be made?”
“Eh, why do you hate me so! All I want to do is love you!” Liza exclaimed, rubbing her head on the scowling god. “Plus I've got Luna and Artemis creating a new batch of Mystic Sailors for me.”
“Typical lazy bum,” Junith sneered, “Have everyone do your work for you.”
“Of course! That's what's middle-management is for you workaholic!” Liza shot back, sticking her tongue out.
Suddenly the Book Keeper snapped his fingers, the two catwomen gone from his presence.
“Hmmm. Red.”
“Yes sir.” Suddenly, a pillar of shadows manifested, a pale handsome man with red eyes wearing a business suit, one reminiscent of old-fashioned earthen wear said, stepping out of the darkness.
“What is Three-One-Eight doing?”
The crimson-eyed steward blinked, the gears in his undead mind churning.
“Are you referring to the one called Truck-Kun?” Red said, raising a brow.
“Ah, yeah,” The red-haired said, clapping his hand with the image shifting to a large red truck running a man over. “Bring him here, I may have a job for him.”