Chapter 3 - Two in the Hole

Wang Du didn't have many thoughts in her mind, wishing to preoccupy it with the task at hand instead. Neither did she lament her brother's loss of control, which forced them to  stay and fight.

Having the keenest senses of the three, she was confident in the success of her part of the plan. A portion of her strength was enough to send her flying through the air. As she landed atop the humongous spider's back, she once again took in the sight of a hairy grey shell that spread out around her. The earth beneath her danced to a rhythm of death, shifting from limb to limb. As one ally had come up with the plan, the other had been matching their foe blow-for-blow, metal-to-limb.

'Well, honey, here it goes.' She had pulled the rope along from behind the monstrosity, and now its other end had moved a quarter circle to the right.

In close vicinity of her fist, which she pulled back, a hard to describe fluctuation occured. The air became heavy, flowing like lead and locking her fist in place at its apex, as if afraid of its descent, and the destruction that would be wrought.

But it was useless. The fist descended as the layers of air locking it in place shook. A deafening sound erupted from where the fist met the grey earth. Then another one. And another. Each blow was like a shot from a cannon. But unlike a cannon Wang Du stuck to the same spot with her feet, as if the reactionary force was meaningless to her.

Her face flushed and her breathing roughened. Each punch was like the stomp of an elephant or a boulder crashing from high on above. To conserve her strength awaiting the unforeseen, she hadn't yet given the task her all.

But as the wind pushed her white robe taut against her skin, it gave view to the muscles rippling beneath. And even though she knew she was alone on the grey expanse, her fist couldn't help but shake from a feeling resembling shame. She scowled as the redness left her face.

Giving vent to this feeling, a shout of frustration erupted from her throat, suppressing the uneasiness in her heart that felt worse than even the feeling of death that permeated the air.

"Hell! Just! Die! Already! You piece of shiiiiit!!" Each word was punctuated with a blow, the last curse followed by a twist of the waist that had her looking halfway to the back. It seemed to do the trick; the spider's limbs on the left erupted with strength at the same moment, sending it rolling towards the lower end of the rope.

Wang Du jumped to the other side, gasping from her previous effort, and pulling the glowing rope taut, when suddenly, her hand loosened in realisation. To the right of the creature stood Yan Sha. Going in, she hadn't paid mind to which way the creature would choose to roll in. Now, it had chosen to go towards the shorter expanse of cavern floor. The monstrosity was mid-roll, and Yan Sha's life would be forfeit in its completion.

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Anxious was her heart and careless was her mind, until the voice behind the plan reached her ears. "I'll be fine, Du. We need to give Ma the time he needs. Now, Pull!"

The voice renewed no strength of hers, but it bolstered her heart. Wang Du pushed away the sullied thoughts. She wasn't a Foundation Establishment cultivator who could see afar without the eyes, so in this moment, she could only trust.

She pulled the rope hard over the underside of the creature that was now facing the ceiling. Captured with its back to the stone, it flailed around, stressing the glowing vine the rope was made of. But the trap held firm for the moment.

Her companion with the cracked sword rushed forth and jumped upon it. Unleashing the cold fury that had been building upon the former resistance by the creature's many limbs, he began to tear it apart. Strike after strike sundered the spider. Foul-smelling green blood drenched him, to which he paid no mind.

The vitality of the arachnid was to be praised. Each blow was strong enough to seperate even one of Wang Du's own arms, yet many together could not give the crazed thing respite from its existence. And as it struggled, she would feel the rope loosen by a meter time and again. Each time she would step further back to make up for the difference. And each time she would feel as if her beloved's life was counting down by the length of the rope that was being lost.

But however wild the struggle was, however strained the rope became, Wang Du felt hope emerge in her heart. Only for the causal inevitability of human suffering to shatter it, as the battle turned tides again.

The entirety of the noble aura that shrouded Siha Ma gathered upon his sword, which he stabbed downwards. In imminent conclusion, it dropped like a dragon descending to the earth as it disappeared upto the hilt but for a few inches. Yet the tenacity of its victim outlived the sword's. It burst into shards of metal that further ruptured the foul insides of the creature. The hilt and protruding metal were no different, raining down upon the one that had brought it to collapse. Instinct protected his vitals by offering his arms instead, and as the shrapnel took the sacrifice, he was blown many feet away.

Wang Du saw his visage change as his aura dropped to a weakened state and the Dao Qi dissipated. But before she could consider losing the rope to save her ally, the creature slammed its back onto the ground in its greatest show of strength so far. Resilient as it may be, the earth couldn't hold back the peternatural monstrosity from defying its fate.

Cracks spread along the stone of the cavern, reaching in every direction but Wang Du's, who stood far away with her strength applied to the trap. In the end the spider had been unable to finish its roll, but it still took the two males with it as a chasm opened into the ground. In the last moments before the upturned creature and the executioner lying fainted upon it disappeared from her vision, she saw a robed figure run up the cavern wall opposite of her. Alas! The wall crumbled along with the final vestiges of hope in her heart. The men and the monster fell down the gaping maw of the earth a distance she could not fathom, into a darkness she could not dispel.