[Morph: Wolf
Cub]

 

The world got
smaller as my body seemed to shrink into itself, bones shifting and changing,
letting out significant cracks as my perception changed. In no time at all
there was a small wolf standing in front of the members of my cohort; me. Malkova
was the only one that has seen the process of my morph, the others had seen me
as a wolf and seen me change back into a human form. Either way it was not as
if it mattered, there was no opinion to be had about this, I’m a druid, things
like this was probably the norm for my class as it is.

 

I moved
forwards and used my jaw to grab the two wrapped up bundles that was Kimberly’s
black widow of black widows(she needed better names). We only had two shots
against the brood mother, and no matter how desperate things got, I had to make
sure that they all counted. It was a lot of pressure to be honest, but at this
point in my life, there really wasn’t much of a choice, now was the time for
action. I raised my head and watched as the others moved forwards, Ricardo
blending into the darkness, as Laurent seemed to vanish. Lightning danced
allover Andrej’s body, Salma grew extra illusory arms, each holding a different
weapon, as Tobias seemed to grow a little bit bigger, Nguyen pulled a spear
from God knows where, symbols on it lighting up as a yin-yang symbol appeared
underneath Kaixuan, before bursting into flames, that licked his body with a
lovers touch yet did not burn him. Dust swirled and Within it specks of fire
could also be seen as Amina called on the power of her miracle. Kimberly and
Malkova were taking a backseat for this one, their miracles did not afford them
explosive battle prowess or skills that could be applied effectively on the
battlefield.

 

I waited for
them to move towards the small forest in front of the temple, watched silently
with the cores in my jaws until the sounds of combat reached me, and that was
when I made my move. I ran off the steps of the temple into the forest,
ignoring the sound dead leaves and broken branches made as my paws went stepped
onto and past them. The forest itself was pretty gloomy, awash with mystery and
eerie in it’s existence. But there really 
wasn’t much of the trees around to provide cover, just enough though as
I circled away from the conflict, trying my best to be as stealthy as possible
in an attempt to flank the brood mother.

Andrej and the
others were not fighting her as we’ve already established that such an act
would be pretty much suicide on their part. No what they were doing was
attacking what was left of the brood, with the possibility of attracting the
attention of the brood mother and perhaps dragging her back towards the temple
where they can be safe from her attack, and she would be vulnerable to one from
me. None the less even if such a scenario did not play out, they were attacking
to give me enough chance to get close to her and set the bombs off, and with
both of them this close, it would probably be one heck of an explosion, not
unless of course I plan it a little differently. I paused, in front of me was
the beach before the massive lack, pearly white sand stared back at me as the
sounds of battle came from the east. I looked up at the tree besides me and
then dropped one of the bombs, before trying to scale the tree as best as my
Wolf Cub body could allow.

Of course such
a move wasn’t easy in and out of itself, canines weren’t built for tree
climbing, not like felines were. But I was still a human in a wolf’s body, so
it stood to reason I would have a better idea about how to climb a tree, except
of course I almost fell off six times. And each time came stupidly close to me
smashing the cores together should I hit the ground, or against the tree if I
had slipped. With the other one so close, I really did not want to find out
what being blown apart would feel like. Either way getting up the tree was the
hard part, stashing one of the black widows did not take much out of me as I
jumped off, careful not to make as much sound, before picking up the last bomb
and then moving out onto the beach.

 

I was right
behind the brood mother, in the time that we had last seen her she had regained
a bit of her bulk, which meant truly and sincerely speaking she was recovering
the mana she had used to launch a sustained assault against us. And with Andrej
and the others giving it their all against her brood in a fake attempt to get
to her, she would probably have to expend more mana just to survive, but it
would not be wise to not take in all the variables. She might decide to
retreat, and while that might seem unthinkable, the fact that she had done

 the first time tells me she’s not just some
dumb dungeon boss. Plus with the lake in this equation, she could really take
herself out of our reach, this first hit had to count, now I’m regretting
dumping the other bomb, I should have just buried it close by, probably in one
of those dunes that are littering the beach.

I walked
forwards, slowly picking my steps as I went past a few of the dunes, drawing
closer to the brood mother as Ricardo sent a lance of darkness flying in the
Arachne’s direction. With 8 of the broodlings suddenly turning around and
taking the fight to their own mother. If I had an eyebrow at that I would have
raised it in surprise, I never knew Ricardo could do that. Suddenly a flock of
massive ravens, three times the size of the Arachne appeared in the air, flying
towards her as she reared back in shock and released an extremely weakened
version of the blast that she had used to kill me the first time. The ravens
vanished into motes of light as Laurent’s dark chuckle could be heard, followed
by a wave of lightning that decimated much of the broodlings and struck the
chest of the Arachne, pushing her closer to the water.

What the bloody
hell are they doing! They’re not supposed to attack her, even so they were just
to get her attention, not devolve into a full blown assault mode. They gave me
little time to act as the Arachne was slowly inching backwards to the lake, one
step at a time with absolutely no plan of slowing down. I rushed forwards, but
had to quickly rely on instinct to dodge to the side as one of the dunes
exploded and the Cymerian Cyborg Spider I had fought in that chamber of acid
popped out. But it was not just one of them, there were dozens.

“Your petty
tricks will not work on me intruders, even weakened I am still the brood mother
of Durkenholm! I will not be defeated by the likes of you. So now feel despair,
feel the pain and the rage and the desperation of loss as my children rip you
apart!”

 

This was not
good, this was really, really not good. I quickly ended the morph spell, the
fact that I was buck ass naked completely unregistered to me as I jumped, going
well over 6 feet into the air, narrowly evading one the spiders that leapt for
me. I landed right in their middle once again, my mind straining itself at it’s
peak as I attempted to escape from the encirclement I suddenly found myself in.
[Lesser Spider Stride] the movement skill was severely invaluable at this point
as I used it to move past three of the spider cyborgs, turning around just in
time to smash my fist forwards.

[Lion Strike]
[Wind Blast]

 

I felt the
bones in my hands rattle as mana rushed through them, blasting out my clenched
fist was the head of a lion wrapped in a surge of green wind. The wind smashed
the spider into bits and released a powerful shockwave around me that threw the
other spiders back. But mixing two skills was a danger, the first time I had
tried this I had gotten lucky, but this time I had no such luck as the skin on
my knuckles split open. It was blasted apart by the impromptu combination,
leaving my bones exposed to the world.

 

“light Heal”

 

I called out
through clenched teeth as I rushed forwards, having already made a path for
myself. The Spiders recovered quickly though and gave chase, but rapid uses of
[Lesser Spider Stride] helped me keep pace as I drew closer to the Arachne. And
then she turned, this time ignoring the attacks the others were throwing at her
and opening her mouth as if to scream. I didn’t think much, there was hardly
any time to act and I was already close enough with just about 12 meters separating
us, but if she was about to do what I was suspecting, then the others were all
fucked.

“Run Idiots!
Charge Shot!”

This was a
skill that wholeheartedly relied on projectiles, better utilized with guns,
bows, and cannons. But throwing something should work too, at the very least on
principle anyways. But so far my luck hasn’t failed me, and I was banking on it
as I threw  Kimberly’s black widow bombs at
the Arachne Brood mother, just as she released her soul searing scream. And it
was all the chance I could get, and I know I’ll survive what comes next, but
the others, they’re much too close, and I doubt I’d make it in time.

 

“Eeeeiiiiiiiiiiii!”

“Bra-BOOM!”

 

A concussive
wave of energy, an explosion of selected mana, tied to the core of monsters.
Cores that contain life, memories, skills, souls. It threw me back, releasing a
blinding flash of light that obscured everything in my sight, going so far as
making my eyes feel as if they had been burnt. Even before I landed I ached, I
could feel the severity of the injuries about to befall me, even before I had
the chance to do so. I hit the beach, i bounced, I felt my skin peel off as I
skidded on parts of it that were coarse and not as smooth. Bones snapped, while
others got separated and others cut into and out of my body, causing injuries both
internal and external. And then there was the mana, running rough shod through
my body with a vengeance, it was pain and horror all wrapped into one. But not
my pain, not my horror as that had been dulled by the ringing in my ears after
I had a head on collision with a cyborg spider. And then the splash as fell
into the lake, the water burning on contact with my wounds rather than soothing
the pain.

I arched my
back in pain, feeling every inch of it as my mind and body struggled to
withstand the onslaught of the lives, and of the souls of the monsters that
were slain for this outcome to happen. They all were or were once alive, and
this explosion of cores released all of that energy, that life out into the
world, where it will never become a part or used for anything other than the
severe destruction it just caused, this is my life.

 

[Light Heal]

 

Quick relief washed
over and through me with such cool ease that I couldn’t help but release a sigh
of contentment. At Max level [Light Heal] was something else entirely. For a
moment I felt like just laying there and basking in the after glow of the
healing spell, but my senses warned me to an approaching danger as I quickly
rolled to the side, as the limb of a giant spider smashed into the ground
besides me.

[Wind Blast]

I used the
spell as a means to propel myself backwards from my attacker, utilizing [Lesser
Spider Stride] to keep my balance and add even more ground between me and it.
Looking up I noticed I was facing a woman with the bottom half of a spider,
about the size of a small beetle car. I didn’t need anyone to point out to me
that this was the Arachne Brood mother. Somehow she had still survive the
explosion, but whatever method she had used, it looks like there was a price to
be paid for it as she was a whole lot smaller than her former almost airplane sized
frame, perhaps she was even bigger than that normally. But just because we had
whittled down her defenses and mana, it didn’t mean that she was any less
dangerous, and this was most probably the right time to fight her, I only have
to…shit!

A thick bolt
of spider silk came flying in my direction, moving with such speed that I
couldn’t evade it. I was sent flying backwards, more bones in my body breaking
in the process, as I landed close to where the others were, most of them laying
very and frighteningly still. [Aurora] [Light Heal] [Blessed Body] [Entangle]

 

I felt my mana
drain from me rapidly as I healed myself and the others, blessing them too and
as quickly as I could since I had to cast the [Blessed Body] spell multiple times
to cover all of them. Steel silk shot out from my gauntlets, this time also
working in tandem with the earth as roots surged out to wrap around the Arachne
Brood mother. But all it did was buy some precious few seconds as Andrej and
Kaixuan were the first to get up, and seemed to be the only ones in any state
to fight. The brood mother vibrated as a ball of black and reddish energy
appeared in front of her and fired almost immediately, releasing a beam of
corrosive energy that was heading our way.

Kaixuan
clapped his hands together and an illusory yin-yang symbol sprung into
existence in front us, intercepting the beam of destruction heading our way and
 stopping it in it’s tracks as a small shockwave
was created and the sand on the beach blown backwards. I turned for a moment to
see Ricardo, helping a distraught Laurent up, while a shocked Nguyen knelt
besides Tobias who was doing still laying still, but staring up at nothing.
silently, unmoving, without a hint of breath in him. “ He’s gone.” I whispered
softly to myself, but it was loud enough that everyone else was able to hear
me.

“Now’s not the
time Samson, we have to get rid of this spider bitch, Kaixuan can’t hold on for
long, and I’d rather not fall prey to that soul attack again, so get a move
on!” I growled out in annoyance, almost snapping at Andrej for speaking, but it
wasn’t as if he was wrong, we had to move and we had to move now. I rushed
towards the Arachne, only for a few of her cyborg spiders to rush at me, murder
in their mechanical eyes. I stretched my hands out towards them and used [Wind
Drag] utilizing it at different spots to have them all crash into each other,
before calling on the mana deep within me with an almost instinctual move as I
pushed my palm outwards. [Wind Blast] throwing a significant amount of them
backwards as I ran forwards, took one step and jumped into the air, utilizing
all of my mana, this time pulling on an attribute from within.

[Lion Stomp]

Wind gathered
around my body as I landed right in the middle of the heap of spiders I had
unwittingly stacked together. There was a sound breaking limbs, followed by the
groan of metal giving way under the strain of superior weight and power.
followed quickly by an explosion of wind that threw me high into the air, as a
bolt of lightning flew past me to slam into the face of the Arachne, leaving
burn marks, in time for sand to surge up in the form of a spear and take off
one of her legs. She screeched out in pain, backpedaling as she swiftly turned
around to run away.

“Don’t let her
get into the lake!” I shouted as I landed, rolling forwards to arrest my
momentum.

A loud bang
followed the wake of my call as Malkova from God knows where utilized her
skills as a sniper to take off another one of the Arachne’s legs. Diverting her
to the side, away from the lake as she ran towards the trees, and right in a
direction that was extremely familiar to me. I followed, utilizing all of my
speed with the help of the Lesser Spider Stride to keep up with her, but even
at that she was still making good pace and drawing away from me faster than I
could catch up. “Guys! Stay back!”  I
yelled as I shot the steel silk from my Cymerian gauntlet at a familiar tree,
and at the same time casting a spell.

[Entangle]

The brood
mother’s superior speed and single minded focus in getting away from us was her
downfall, literally as she crashed into the sands, her limbs tightly grabbed by
vines and roots that had shot out if the earth. I noticed a small glow
suffusing them, as they drained  whatever
was left of her vitality, weakening her enough, to keep her still for the few
seconds I need to grab the second black widow bomb, before using a [Wind Blast]
to propel myself into the air, then using the steel silk from the gauntlet to
grab a hold of the Arachne’s brood mother’s torso. I raised the bomb in the air,
like I was dunking a basketball and dragged myself towards her, letting the
steel silk that could retract and elongate at will, with a significant help from
gravity, do the work of dragging me towards her. And as it did so I poured all
of my mana into the bomb, causing it to glow a deep grey and green light as I
smashed it on top of her head, the final nail in the coffin, and the inevitable
coup de grace.

*BOOOOOOOM!*

And then,
there was death.