Fight! Fight for every scrap of life that you can! Buy even a single second if you can. If you’re dying, if you’re mortally wounded, fight! Fight for every single breath and maybe, just maybe, you’ll live. And, if not…make them pay for every drop they take! – Sergeant Yuri Sun with the Perelin Army

* * *

I could have punched myself. For all my pride, all my expertise in lunar techniques, I was still fooled by the mind-muddling effects of the illusions.

A thousand voices raised in a chorus of giggles and hisses. Before my eyes, the tunnel melted away, revealing a large cavern. Every wall was covered with spiders, save for the far one. A large, beautiful moon tear illuminated a throne on which sat a woman.

“Welcome dearies,” she said. “I am the matriarch of the Black Crevice.” Her skin was ashen, as if she’d never seen the light of the sun before, but her “humanoid form” seemed to only be a suggestion at a form. Eight spindly legs extended from her back, and her face was covered with black eyes. Whatever she’d done to achieve this form, it was not the orthodox method. In fact, the crimson stains on her deep purple dress gave me a sneaking suspicion as to the particular rituals used to empower her. They were the kind that no spirit beast in their right mind would use, the kind that I had dealt with often in my last life. I wasn’t confident she was a true spirit spider anymore.

Pharyx and Pollen exchanged looks with one another. Technically speaking, good manners dictated that the foreign dignitaries introduce themselves next, but neither wanted to be the first to single themselves out from the crowd. Spiders were the natural predator of both hornets and bees. Even Pharyx wasn’t the apex predator here, and it showed in the sheen of sweat collecting on his collar.

But, in the end, it was he who stepped forward, head held high. “Matriarch, I am Pharyx, representative of the Hanai Hornets.”

“Pharyx, don’t!” Pollen hissed as she grasped at his sleeve, and he turned, surprise written on his features. The two exchanged a look I could only guess at before the hornet gave Pollen a reassuring smile. She reluctantly released his sleeve before stepping back. I beckoned Xinya closer, and the three of us resolved to keep an eye on the spider nest while Pharyx approached the Matriarch’s Throne.

“I hope you’ll forgive our intrusion, here today,” he began. “We’ve been trying for years to set up a time and place to negotiate, but all our efforts were rebuffed. I’m sure that the messengers were just…lost…on their way?”

For a year’s worth of messengers to be lost was ridiculous and everyone knew it. However, with every word Pharyx spoke, he took a step closer to the throne. Soon, he would be in position to strike, yet the matriarch didn’t seem the least bit concerned.

“Yes, lost,” she confirmed. “Or possibly eaten. It’s really hard to say.”

“I would hope that the denizens of the Black Crevice were civilized enough to hear out any messengers they came across,” he continued. “My queen would be most displeased to hear otherwise.”

“Why should I care what lesser species think? You’re all just food to me and my children.” She smiled wide, revealing two horrible fangs that barely fit in her mouth. “Yes, four delightful morsels. My children prefer the crunchy texture of hornets and bees, but you were kind enough to bring a few humans with you for me to dine on myself.”

With a single click of her tongue, the walls surged with the bodies of her children. Seeing the change, Pharyx leapt forward, his lance burning bright with blistering sunlight. He stabbed at the matriarch, but she vanished into smoke.

“An illusion! Watch out!” he shouted, whipping around to search for his enemy. She appeared behind him, stabbing with one of her long spider legs. Pharyx ducked to the side, and the blow only managed to rip his clothes instead of running him through entirely. He countered with a vicious thrust, but the matriarch had already disappeared again.

“Xinya, come here,” Pollen instructed. Her whisk was in her hand, and she drew it across the ground, clearing the webs in a perfect circle. As soon as the area was clear, the honeybee queen bit down hard on her palm and began to draw in her own blood across the ground.

A spider lunged at the bee, only to receive an arrow fresh off my string for its efforts. Three more fell before they reached us, but the swarm approached rapidly.

“Stand here, don’t move,” ordered Pollen. Xinya complied, standing at the center of the array. Pollen shoved her qi into the circle, the smell of sunlight, flowers, and forest filled the air. Grass grew into the center of the circle until it was as if a tiny portion of the Honey Hive had been picked up and dropped in the otherwise dreary cave.

“That should hold,” she breathed, slamming the handle of her whisk into another spider which was sent squealing away. “Do not leave that circle. Do you understand?”

Xinya nodded, her eyes wide with fear and concern. Chiho flitted around her head, ready to protect the little girl, no matter what.

I breathed deep, turning to the rest of the fight. Lights flashes as Pharyx swiped at illusion after illusion. Those lights were intermittent, though, and difficult to see by at this distance. I called my lunar qi into a tight orb of brilliant light and hurled it overhead to illuminate our side of the battle.

There must have been a thousand spiders climbing the walls, each one ranging from the size of a large dog to the size of a draft horse. To my left, one of the biggest ones lumbered closer. I waved my hand, sending my moonlight forth. A jagged blade erupted from the ground, severing two of its limbs. It stumbled back, raising its limbs in defense.

Two arrows should do it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Those two arrows were fitted to my string and fused with corrosive void qi in the blink of an eye. Then I pulled back and fired. The projectiles sailed forward, slamming into the monster’s unprotected belly. It shrieked and thrashed as the void ate into its body. Several of its kin met their ends as it threw itself to the side, trying to dislodge the disintegrating arrows. In the end, it never got a chance.

It crashed to the ground, just as Pharyx’s light shone brightly. His wings burned to life as he continued trying to skewer the matriarch, but, every time he struck, his lance came back clean. He growled in fury and frustration as she continued to elude his strikes.

“Xinya,” I called. “How did you tell that the spiders were using illusions?” Three more arrows were pulled back along my string and fired. Three more spiders died.

“It was struck by lightning,” Xinya answered honestly. “There was a small spider hiding in a bigger illusion.”

Truthful as her answer was, it wasn’t horribly helpful. We didn’t have a lightning artist in our midst, not yet, anyway. Someday, she might be able to use that to cleanse the impurities, but, for now, we needed to find another way.

These illusions could be dispelled if we touched or attacked them, as Pharyx was busy proving without making any real progress. But, that approach would quickly wear us down as we attacked each and every one. A technique that hit multiple at once, however, might do the trick.

“Pollen!” I shouted. “Do you have the materials for a larger array? Ones like you made in Heimian?”

The Honeybee looked around and shook her head. “Materials, yes, but there isn’t the space for one big enough!” Ten razor sharp petals shredded a spider on her left, only for it to dissolve into smoke. She twisted her face in irritation.

“Do you have anything that could hit many at once?”

Pollen thought hard about it for a long second, then seemed to brighten as an idea came to her. “You take that side!” I nodded.

The smell of flowers grew even stronger. I chanced a glance behind me to see Pollen begin to dance. A visible sash of pure qi shimmered around her as she spun and turned. From her feet spawned thousands of pink petals from her dominion. They filled the room in a tornado of rose red as those petals were darkened with the blue blood of the spiders.

Not to be outdone, I slung my bow over my shoulder, mixing the void and moonlight in my core until they flowed together, then I cast it out through my meridians. The orb of light overhead suddenly turned an ominous blue as the void entered it. The sound of sizzling chitin and screaming spiders filled the air as the light burned its foes everywhere it touched.

Everywhere we turned, smokey spiders disappeared into nothingness, leaving only the real ones behind. However, there were still nearly a hundred spiders surging forward from all sides like a sea of black and hairy legs.

Three more arrows found their way to my string as I picked out another particularly large spider. I added just a touch of lunar qi to them before firing. They spun through the air before driving deep into the monster’s eyes. I left that one alive, as it skewered several of its own kin in its confusion.

“Though our odds have significantly improved,” Pollen shouted, slicing another three small spiders with her petals, “we are still vastly outnumbered! Any bright ideas?” She spun around and whipped her whisk at another of the spiders. The fibers whistled as it struck the spider, leaving a bloody streak across its eyes.

Before I had a chance to respond, a sickening CRACK echoed through the chamber from behind us. Pharyx fell to his knees, spitting blood from his mouth in fury as stones from his impact rained down around him.

In an instant, the spider matriarch materialized out of the smoke, wrapping her clawed hands around his throat. The spindled legs from her back began to weave white threads around the hornet as he struggled to breathe.

“Aww, how adorable! Struggle all you like, little queen, your body will feed my children,” she crooned.

“Queen?” I heard Pollen whisper, but this was neither the time nor place to explain that particular detail.

Instead, I drew an arrow back and summoned my light from the ceiling. The ominous light fused to the arrowhead. I aimed at her back, hoping that she was too distracted with my friend to disappear again.

The arrow flew forward and buried itself to the feathers into her back between all her spider legs. Staggering back, she gasped for air. Pharyx collapsed to the ground, dazed but conscious. As she turned, I saw the arrowhead protruding from her chest, the light still shining. The light dissolved the flesh of her front and she howled in rage.

“You dare?!” she shrieked. Her attention was now focused solely on me. “You maggot! I’ll relish eating you first!”

“Wow, your daughter at least made me the offer to be enslaved in death,” I called. “Honestly, bad threats must run in the family.”

“DIE!”

With much greater speed than I expected from a creature of her advancement, she threw herself forward. Her claws swiped wildly. Her spider legs stabbed haphazardly in every direction until she became a blur of clawed death and blood.

I ducked and twisted around her blows as best I could, trying to return each strike with a disintegrating touch, but her moon qi swirled around her, obscuring her movements until it was all a muddled mess of light and movement to my eyes. Even Flash Forward was blocked thanks to the baleful light technique I’d used.

In the end, she managed to slam a leg into my chest, cracking several ribs and sending me flying across the room. I fell at the foot of her throne, struggling to right myself through the pain from the blow.

She was definitely stronger than your average Iron…if she was Iron at all. I felt lucky to still be alive after that blow, but our odds of survival were rapidly falling. Pharyx was struggling to his feet while Pollen kept the children away from Xinya’s barrier array.

The spider matriarch had not sated her hunger for my suffering, though. Whisps of blue-silver light wrapped around her as she stalked closer, hatred in her eyes. My arrow still bulged from her chest, though the light itself had faded. Her flesh was reddened with pocked injuries that made her look more like a walking corpse than a person, and her skin had been melted clean through to muscle in several places. It was heartening. Her blow may have landed with the force of a rampaging ox, but she was still injured by my counterstrikes. If we could just get our footing, turn the situation around to be in our favor…maybe we could still survive.

“Little human, crunchy on the inside,” she crooned. “Let’s soften you up before tucking you away for later.”

She grabbed me by the throat and held me high before hurling me against the wall. Her maniacal laughter echoed in my thoughts as I slammed into the wall and slumped to the ground.

In truth, though, something else had my attention. The band around my heart and core…the immutable Bronze that kept me weak…it was changing. It wasn’t squeezing at all. In fact, it was expanding. It loosened, shifting itself in color and quality until it wasn’t Bronze anymore.

It was Iron.

“Tenri, you sly thing,” I muttered. “You did it.”

I spat a bit of blood to the side before grinning wide. This fight wasn’t over yet. All I needed was a little bit of qi…

From my sleeve, I pulled a jar of Pollen’s honey, which I’d intended to use to flavor my dinner. Instead, I untied the lid, threw it aside, and drank the whole container dry on the spot.