Ren materialized in a vast plaza, the echoes of the teleportation's brilliance still resonating in his ears as the blinding light subsided. In every direction, his fellow Greendale Chosen, selected to embark on the perilous journey through the Fractured Realm of Grothluk's Demise, materialized in blinding flashes. Their faces twisted with nausea, they succumbed to the overwhelming sickness, emptying their stomachs in a pitiful display.
“Hey, watch it!” he scowled in disgust, jumping backwards and narrowly escaping the violent projectile of vomit from a nearby warrior. It was a curdled mess, a repulsive mix of half-digested jerky and porridge that splattered both the ground and nearby participants.
Not that they noticed as Ren observed the chaotic scene. It became evident that everyone was engulfed in their own nauseous struggles. People were scattered on the ground, their hands on their knees, while the air reverberated with the unsettling sounds of retching. A select few elites were tossing pills into their mouth to stave off the weakness but vulnerability consumed them all. Shaking his head with a mix of frustration and resignation, Ren unsheathed his knife and surveyed the surroundings. The sight before him triggered a wave of nostalgic memories, dredging up long-buried recollections. It transported him back to a bygone era, to his very first assassination on a cruise ship.
“Ah, the good old days,” he smiled to himself, lost in reminiscence and recalling the routine nature of that particular job.
The target, despite having a weak stomach and lacking swimming skills, had decided to vacation on a luxury liner. It seemed absurd to him at the time. His mission had entailed eliminating her discreetly, as she attended a spiritual retreat that aimed to confront her fears. Ren couldn't fathom such vulnerability. He never suffered from seasickness and had unwavering confidence in his ability to maintain balance on the swaying deck of the large ship. Unfortunately, his target did not share the same advantage.
He had discovered her in her room, hunched over a toilet, her face so pale that he initially mistook her for a lifeless corpse. Relief washed over him when she groaned and continued dry heaving into the bowl. She looked as vulnerable as the cultivators surrounding him in this Fractured Realm and his younger self took pity upon her. Ren's mercy took the form of a swift, painless end to her misery.
Even as the memories of that mission from decades past flooded his mind, Ren remained vigilant, scanning the immediate surroundings for potential threats. It appeared that everyone had been transported to the heart of a deteriorated town square. The crimson cobblestones beneath his feet were cracked and marred by encroaching weeds. The buildings on the periphery of the plaza stood as decrepit relics, pleading for restoration. Over the millennia of abandonment, some roofs had collapsed, revealing glimpses of the former grandeur in the architecture that peeked through the ruins.
Vines snaked their way through the buildings, entwining them in a grip of nature's reclamation. The air was heavy with the putrid scent of decaying wood. In the midst of this desolation, dormant enchantments flickered sporadically, as if nature itself fought to reclaim the remnants of a once magnificent civilization. Though Ren noticed these details in passing, his focus was fixed on the darkness lurking in the alleys between the buildings. It was there that he saw pairs of red eyes, hungry and unrelenting, peering out from the shadows.
With caution, Ren began to retreat from the unknown threat, ensuring he avoided the cultivators who were still suffering from the aftereffects of the teleportation. Some of them had managed to recover and stop vomiting, but Ren had no intention of alerting them to his discovery. Keeping a safe distance from the cluster of eyes, he reached for one of his throwing daggers, hesitating for a moment. Uncertain about the nature of the lurking monster, he was reluctant to lose another valuable weapon in case a tactical retreat became necessary. Shaking his head, he instead searched for a suitable shard of sharp stone among the broken cobblestones beneath him.
After finding a suitable fragment, Ren focused his concentration, channeling essence through the meridians on his arms. With all his strength, he hurled the stone through the air. A buzzing whine resonated through the plaza as the projectile sliced through the air, finding its mark among the group of red eyes. The sound of stone piercing flesh was swiftly followed by a piercing screech from the wounded creature, its rage echoing like the grating noise of nails on glass. In response, its companions joined the fray, launching their attack on the vulnerable cultivators gathered in the plaza.
"A-AMBUSH!!!"
The loud bellow echoed through the Plaza but it took a few moments for the disoriented cultivators to act on the warning. Ren's gaze shifted toward the source of the alert and landed on a formidable cultivator adorned in flexible leather armor. The man wielded a massive axe as he rushed to intercept one of the horse-sized spiders leaping toward the group.
With a resounding war cry, the man unleashed a powerful technique, engulfing the blade of his axe in crackling lightning. In a swift and decisive motion, he severed a limb from the menacing arachnid. However, his valiant act was short-lived as the immense weight of the creature came crashing down upon him, crushing him within seconds.
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A thick strand of sticky web ensnared another cultivator donning the Acolyte robes of the Kringle Temple, dragging the screaming man closer to the merciless fangs of an eight-eyed monstrosity that had landed nearby. Ren swiftly evaded a webbing attack aimed at him from his blindside, his keen spatial awareness saving him from becoming another spider's meal. Taking a brief assessment of the situation, he tried to gauge the monsters' strength and determine if standing his ground was a viable option. From what he could discern, approximately twenty spiders scurried about the plaza, dispatching the few disoriented cultivators with ease. These arachnids displayed a disturbing level of intelligence, sparing only seconds to inject their victims with venom that melted organs before cocooning them and moving on to the next prey.
Suddenly, a hairy multi-jointed leg ending in a razor sharp claw swiped at Ren from the side. He crouched, evading the attack and countered with an upwards knife thrust. Blood and ichor dripped onto his fingers as he withdrew the blade, assuming a defensive stance while searching for an opening to deliver a fatal blow. Unexpectedly, the spider unleashed a thin sheet of webbing at ground level. Ren leaped backward to avoid it, underestimating the attack's effective range. The spider's web spread across the ground, extending directly beneath the spot where he was set to land. He noticed the spider's muscles tensing, preparing to reel him in once he touched down.
With mere microseconds to decide his course of action, Ren strategically placed his foot to minimize damage, landing with his right leg stretched beyond the web's reach. Unfortunately, his left foot landed at the edge of the web trap. The trap was sprung, entangling his feet, and he swiftly reached down to sever the webbing. In that split second, a thick strand of sticky web shot toward his chest. Reacting instinctively, Ren grabbed a passing cultivator and thrust her in front of him. Her yelp of surprise quickly turned to curses as she realized what he had done. Ignoring her protests, Ren hastily freed himself just in time to witness the spider spinning the lifeless woman into a cocoon.
Seizing the opportunity, Ren hurled three daggers towards the busy arachnid, expending a significant portion of his Essence reserves in exchange for speed. Before the daggers reached their mark, he propelled himself forward, pushing against the cobblestones with his right foot, cracking them under the force. A trail of dust followed his rapid advance toward the spider.
The air was filled with two rapid thwacking sounds as the daggers pierced the spider's eyes, joining the cacophony of battle. It screeched in fury, blood and innards spraying through the air. Although the last dagger missed blinding a third eye, the momentary distraction was sufficient for Ren to close the distance, a mad smile on his face.
Reaching behind his back, Ren unsheathed his newly acquired sword just in time to parry a devastating strike from the agitated spider. Even with Essence coursing through his meridians, Ren was pushed backward, feeling his elbows give way under the force of the attacking limb. Capitalizing on the momentum, he spun sideways, swiping the bitter edge of his sword along the spider's leg. Ren hoped to draw blood, but the spider's twitching hairs and leathery skin thwarted his efforts, leaving only shallow grooves and an infuriated arachnid in his wake.
Spinning faster than he could react, Ren was sent hurtling away by a combination of the injured spider's hind legs. His rib cage shattered, and his vision whirled with a dizzying view of the battlefield as he soared across the plaza. With a heavy crash, he landed near a smaller spider engaged in combat with a warrior wielding a spear. The impact stole the air from his lungs, but Ren swiftly propelled himself off the ground. Sword in hand, his entrails trailing behind him, he readied himself for another attack. After all, who needed air to breathe anyway?
Seeing no immediate threat, he shoved the useless organs back into his slashed stomach. A burning pain radiated through his torso making him stumble, but Ren forcefully shut down his pain receptors, his manic grin growing wider.
[Yes! Yessss! Bask in the glory of gory combat! Kill! Killll!!! Kill them all for me!]
“For fuck’s sake. You’re back?” Ren complained, his mood slightly soured. The fact that he was having so much fun helped alleviate his frustration at having to deal with the voice in his head again. He had been so hopeful that the voice had left for good after such a long period of silence. Well, he had ignored the voice for years before. No reason he couldn’t do the same again.
A swift survey of the battlefield revealed that approximately 40 cultivators had already fallen victim to the relentless spiders. Ren speculated that most of the casualties occurred during the initial stages of the ambush and the chaotic aftermath of teleportation. While the spiders proved challenging to kill, it was possible to wear them down in a war of attrition, causing them to disengage and seek easier prey.
Observing some spiders dragging away cocooned victims for a later feast, Ren noted a few greedy ones that remained behind, driven by their insatiable hunger for more. As he assessed the situation, his danger sense tingled, alerting him to an imminent threat. Whirling around, he found himself face-to-face with a partially blinded monster charging towards him with brute force. It seemed that some spiders had lingered, purely for the sake of revenge. How fascinating!
In a matter of seconds, thousands of pounds of enraged and drooling spider closed the distance, its six remaining eyes oozing with tangible malice as it honed in on Ren. Resigned to yet another painful collision, Ren seamlessly shifted into a fluid stance, his sword held firmly in his right hand and [Sunslicer] in his left. Digging his feet into the ground, he prepared to confront the arachnid head-on. However, the creature surprised him by leaping into the air, its massive body poised to crush Ren beneath its weight.
“You clever –” was all Ren could say before the massive spider crushed him into the ground. In the last moments, Ren had tried angling both his sword and massive knife upwards, towards the falling abdomen of the spider. He was only partially successful as the sword was knocked out of his hands while he crumbled beneath the spiders’ weight. Synthetic blood burst out of his orifices as he struggled to drive the knife into the armored abdomen.