<~> CHAPTER 39

("Focus on the legs,") Luna told me.

Click click click cli-click

("Alright.")

Other than its stumbling from its missing leg, the monster barely seemed hurt. At least if we removed some of the legs it would disrupt its mobility. For now the monster continued to circle us and I waited for it's moment of weakness again.

Cli-click

I leapt forward and swung my axe at it like a baseball bat. My axe collided with another leg and bent it out of its normal shape, sending steam spraying out in two directions. The monster stumbled and flailed its spiked feet at me but I jumped out of the way and back into formation with my friends. I wasn't able to take one of its legs off but the hit had still partially crippled the monster. The damaged leg dragged on the ground filling the room with the awful sound of metal grinding against metal but the monster didn't seem completely unstable yet. Its gait had changed again though, now on every sixth and eighth step it shuffled its legs to compensate for its two damaged ones.

On it's eight step I leapt forward once again but the moment I moved it vanished back into shadows and I heard a cry from behind me. I spun and saw Piper on her back while Maxwell and Aria tried to defend her with their swords and shields. I let out a growl and ran back towards the group but once I got close enough to leap at it the monster scrambled back into the shadows behind it.

I gripped the handle of my axe tighter and kept my eyes focused on the monstrosity. The corpses attached to the crosses on its back spilled blood onto the floor as it paced in a circle high up on the wall.

("Is Piper okay?") I asked Luna.

("She's fine, just a flesh-wound. Nothing she can't handle,") My fox quickly replied.

A deep growl reverberated in my chest, I hadn't even realized I had been doing it at first. This thing was pissing me off. It's hit and run tactics were frustrating. It knows to fear me now. It vanished the moment I attacked. How smart was it? It was learning on the fly but how smart was it really?

"Maxwell..." I growled out. "Attack after I jump. It runs."

"Alright!" he called back to me.

Click click cli-click click cli-click

NOW

I leapt at the wall and as I expected the monster vanished. But this time my friends on the other side had been ready. Maxwell sliced through one of its legs with his silvery blue sword but Aria's only bounced off the monster's hard exoskeleton. When the steam shot out of the newly removed leg it was diverted by a dim red barrier Luna must have cast. The leg hit the floor and the hollow ringing sound echoed through the room. The spider seemed off balance now, it stumbled with each step but because of that, it was scurrying around faster. It was using the momentum of its unstable footing to circle around us.

It was weak, but it could be trying to trick us again. I didn't trust it. Luna began to channel another large skill in the room while me and Maxwell waited for it to attack. Last time it had vanished before the spell was cast. It kept scampering around us until right before the spell was cast and it disappeared again. I perked my ears and looked back and forth for a hint of where it was going to attack from but I was still left unprepared.

Shadows covered the ground behind me and Luna fell through it. My eyes widened when I spotted Luna's body fall backwards through the wall above us. Without thinking I leapt into the air to catch her, all of the jumping around I had done when we were hunting goblins helped me judge exactly the amount of power I would need and I timed it perfectly. I wrapped my arms around her and crashed into the wall while cradling her, the sharp and torn edges of the metal wall ripped against my skin as I pushed back against it and I hit the floor so hard my feet stung. Luna was safe though, I caught her and she's okay.

I looked over to the rest of my friends. The spider was flailing on its back. Maxwell had cut two more of its legs off. I looked over just in time to see Piper pull one of the large legs out of Aria's stomach and begin to heal her. I ran over just as Maxwell finally sliced the last of the spider's legs off and then took the opportunity to slice its large abdomen open. So much steam spewed out of the spider that I lost sight of him for a moment but when the cloud of vapor faded Maxwell was standing there a little red, but unhurt.

("H-Helena? Can you put me down now?") Luna's voice asked.

My eyes widened and I looked down at a blushing fox girl still cradled in my arms. I had been basically pinning her against my chest this entire time without realizing it.

("Of course!") I hurried to put Luna back on the ground and look her over. She didn't seem hurt anywhere, not even a scratch.

("I'm fine, don't worry! But uh, thanks for catching me...") She was smiling, but not making eye contact. I could see the hint of pink on her face, she didn't seem to be mad about me squishing her against my chest the way I did.

The shy but happy fox girl looked so beautiful to me in that moment. My entire being had been filled with anxiety when I saw her fall and all of that fell away as I looked down at her now. Before I could stop myself I shifted back down to my human form and pulled her into a deep kiss.

At first she jerked in surprise, but only a moment later she wrapped her arms around me and leaned into it. I was a good head taller than her so the curves of our bodies locked together like puzzle pieces as she leaned into me.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I was panting when I finally broke off the kiss and looked down into her eyes. She looked just as breathless. Her wide blue eyes looked up into mine, the glow of my eyes made them light up and shine back at me. She bit her lip and blushed as we stared at each other but she didn't break eye contact. The moment felt like it went on for ages.

Emotions welled up from deep inside me. Love, desire, passion, fear, anxiety, my bestial half even contributed some of its own, possessiveness, loyalty, and... desire again. I finally broke eye contact and rested my forehead against hers. The fear of losing her came to the forefront of my mind but her presence in front of me allowed me to let out a sigh of relief.

She pulled away from me but she was smiling even as she averted her eyes. She was happy but shy as always. She glanced back at me again before walking toward the others. I followed her over to see how they were faring.

Aria had been stabbed through the gut but she was looking fine now. She had taken off her breast plate and was lifting up her ragged blood covered shirt to examine the circular scar slightly to the left and below her bellybutton.

It wasn't very difficult to piece together what had happened. Before Luna's spell could activate, the monster had used its ability to move through shadows and open up a hole up in the wall where it dropped Luna. At the same time, it crawled through the same spot itself to stab Aria from behind through the gap in her poorly fitting armor. Maxwell, like me, had been waiting for it to appear and was able to cut off the leg that had stabbed through Aria before knocking it on its back and finishing the job. Meanwhile, Piper pulled out the rod and healed her wound.

Despite the victory Piper didn't look too happy. I stepped closer and prodded her shoulder. When I got her attention I used the rings to talk to her, ("Hey, what's wrong? We won.")

She frowned and looked away from me. ("I fucked up again, I didn't heal her carefully enough and left a scar on her.")

I raised an eyebrow. ("Is anything wrong with her? Other than a scar?")

She turned back to me with a look of confusion. ("No! I made sure to heal her completely!")

("Then what's the problem?") I asked with a shrug. ("You saved her life, any normal person getting run through would die.") I tried not to think about the number of jagged spider legs that had run me through earlier this fight.

Her brow furrowed and she looked away. ("After what happened to Luna I vowed never to let that happen again...")

I sighed. ("Did you ask Aria what she thinks? Is she even unhappy about the scar?")

The look Piper gave me told me that she had not.

I nodded over to Aria who was happily talking with Maxwell while he poked around the monster's corpse. ("Go talk to her, see what she says.")

She stared at me for a moment longer before sighing. "Fine." Aria looked over at us in confusion when Piper suddenly said that out loud.

When Maxwell noticed Piper pulling Aria away he waved me over. Curiously I came over and looked down at the monster. "What?" I asked.

"Help me .... it ...." he said pointing.

I cocked my head to the side.

This time he pantomimed what he wanted me to do. "Flip it over?" I asked while pantomiming with him.

He smiled and nodded. I shifted back to my werewolf form and grinned while lifting the big spider monster up. Well, I was grinning until the awful noises of metal on metal scraping against each other forced me to pin my ears back. Once it reached its apex Maxwell helped me guide it back to the ground. The first thing I saw when I stared at the spider's back were the two large X crosses. My eyes widened when I saw the faces of the corpses. It was the men we had left alive on the previous floor.

Maxwell gawked at it too. I looked around the room at all the blood that had been spread across the floor during the fight. More blood than could normally come from just two human bodies. Why? Why was it these two? Are they even real? Is this place just continuing to fuck with us or did they come here behind us and die to this thing?

Maxwell began to remove the corpses from the frames but it quickly became apparent that the bodies were partially fused with the wood down to their bones. The whole thing was bizarre and grotesque. Piper came over to inspect the bodies with the stone face of an experienced doctor. She sent a pulse of mana through one of the bodies and shook her head. This started a conversation between the two of them but I just stepped away. I didn't even want to know what the two of them were talking about.

I looked over at Aria who also didn't seem to be that interested in the monster's body. She was standing over by Luna but the two of them obviously weren't talking. Without the rings Luna couldn't speak so they were just sharing quiet company with each other. I walked over and pulled Luna into a hug. She nuzzled into the smoky fur of my werewolf form and I gently squeezed her against me.

Even for me, the sight of the two bodies shook me a little. I had spoken to them not that long ago. Well... sorta spoke to them. I convinced my friends to let them live only for them to be murdered and fused to a spider monster? I hate this place, this floor is horrible.

("Luna. I want to leave this place,") I whispered through the rings.

She nodded and walked over to the others. She said something to Piper through the rings who quickly seemed to agree with her. Maxwell shook his head grimly and stepped away from the monster. The entire spider body, corpses and all, lit up into a great conflagration. All of us watched as it turned to ash and a remnant metal frame as the smoke rose into the air through the dark grate in the ceiling. The yellow stick that had been leading our way had been forgotten in the corner but once Maxwell picked it up, it began to point the way toward the exit again.

With only a few more shared words the five of us grimly walked down the path the yellow stick led us. Even though the monster that had been hunting us was gone, no other shadows soldiers appeared to block our way and soon we could see the stairs up off in the distance. I let out a small sigh of relief as the five of us got closer to getting off of this awful floor. No other floors had affected me like this one had and I was ready for a breather.

Before I began to follow my friends up the stairs a thought crossed my mind... Didn't I see a tail on the monster that had been hunting us? No part of that spider resembled the thing I had seen quickly turning the corner. I took one last look behind me at the dim bloody hallways before shaking my head, turning, and following my friends up the stairs.