Her words weighed on me.

Each clear became a slog.

Each battle became sloppy.

My moves did not flow as they had before.

Simple things are never that when your mind is not on task.

More than once did Brutus and Wilder have to pull me out from the charged up strike of a heavy arms wielder.

The kind of telegraphed blows that the realm shows you ahead of time; the kind that only fools are struck by; the kinds that take lives if taken directly.

The layout of the raid was one in which chambers rested with narrow corridors that fed into royal ballrooms fitted with chandeliers that once flowed with an impressive opulent glow, but now after the passage of millennium hung like stalagmites in their ancient cavern dwelling.

Tables that once held silverware fit for kings and queens and princes and whores had been raided long ago by dungeon crawling bandits.

What was left behind were not extravagant meals of boars from arctic plains seasoned by spices of oriental origins, all that was left were cold white bones that snapped at the mere touch.

Bones that scrambled and came to life with ancestral weapons that hummed with dark energy.

Their sockets are dark and hollow.

Their souls are lost and searching.

Staring deep into one.

I saw myself reflected in the void.

In darkness you are given the space to reflect. You are able to paint your life on a black canvas and judge yourself by yourself.

It's in this darkness that we search for answers capable of enlightenment.

A forceful push met my body, causing my mind to escape the dark pit of introspection, and I was sent into a table with clothes made of web.

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An ancient silk straight from the source.

Eggs splattered their insides in a toxin the stung but did not shred as it should have were it not for the specialty tonics crafted for this very raid.

Looking above I saw the creatures begin their slow descent.

Like dancers with infinite limbs they began their crawl into the battlefield.

Captain get your shit together.

The voice felt far.

It echoed from across the hall.

My mind wavered.

My soul pulsed and my heart began to steel itself.

Captain, I whispered.

I am the captain.

I am THIER captain...

Standing up, I waited.

Around me an arachnid army appeared.

Sliding down their silver webs, their red eyes glittered like ruby's in their black skulls.

Fangs drenched in toxins beyond lethal threatened death within one quick bite.

Unsheathing my curved blades, I went to work without a second thought.

Without deliberating.

I thought too much, that was my problem.

Let's just fight, I whispered as I gritted my teeth and charged in, my leather boots crunching on the feeble ground as I pushed off and forward.

Popping every offensive cooldown: double strike, ebony blade, berserking, and my newly acquired Opus Strike; I became like the wind in a storm of battle.

Numbers in the thousands hovered in the air like clouds.

Heights that no man should reach.

But I wasn't just a man.

I was gifted with the system and something else.

Something I didn't fully understand.

[System's Blessing] appeared once again with it's faint golden glow.

Something was coming.

The cards within my sack, the cards of fate, began to hum with a power unknown.

Once the fodder had fallen, he appeared.

From a shadow his features came out as if formed by darkness himself.

A unique spawn.

Aegon The Arachnid Knight of Astonia had appeared.

And with him a barrier of purple power surrounded us.

With an energy that repelled anyone from joining and anyone inside from leaving...

This had become a solo event.