Step by step, I moved closer to the large double door with spider gravings on. I can hear screams of terror coming from the other side, and considering goblins decided to lock it right after a small army of them entered inside. I wonder what malicious beast these doors keep inside. Now, I cannot back away after coming this far and killing this many monsters. I grabbed the door's handles and pushed it open. Inside, corpses of several goblins and hobgoblins lie on the floor, each having at least one punch-sized hole in their body. It is feasting upon a goblin, who I suppose is the owner of screams I heard seconds before. The monster is consuming its prey using its razor-sharp teeth. It is a spider made from bones. It has spikes all over its body, and its legs have sword-like serrated bone blades on the back. Looking at all the dead lying on the floor, I can assume that it cuts through flesh like butter. Against such a creature, I wonder what my chances of victory are.

 

I moved inside, and the door loudly closed right after me. So, it does or die now. The skeletal spider turned towards the gate and slowly dropped its prey. I can see the cut and mushed flesh of the goblin it was consuming through the holes between its body structure. This thing doesn't even have a digesting system but has a desire to eat. "What floor of the hell you were born?"

 

The skeletal spider suddenly turned towards me and charged at me with a speed I wasn't expecting. I managed to move fast enough and dodge the incoming attack. Monster's front legs hit the iron door behind me, and a loud noise echoed through the chamber.

 

I had a short time to look at the spider's body up close. Cracks and scratches everywhere. Goblins didn't die without giving a fight, I suppose. 

 

I smirked. I think I now have an idea where goblins help me. Serrated blades behind the spider's legs have no hardship when entering through flesh but struggle to get out. I can use goblin corpses around me to keep its legs busy and give myself an opening to attack.

 

I grabbed a goblin from the ground and threw it toward the spider to test my strategy. As I expected spider instantly pierced the goblin's chest with its left front leg but began struggling to push out the little bastard afterward.

 

I looked around and found another goblin corps. I lifted it, and just as I was going to throw it, the goblin began screaming and struggling to escape. My money is on that it saw what happened to its friend. I guess the spider failed to kill all. "So long, partner." I launched the goblin towards the spider, and the skeletal abomination pierced the monster instantly.

 

Now both of its legs are, sort of, locked up. I might try my chance to attack. I raised my polehammer above the head and moved closer to the spider. It was ignoring me and trying to get rid of goblins stuck on its weapons.

 

"Look here!" I slammed my hammer to the spider's head and heard a cracking noise. But I suppose some more cracks weren't enough to stop this thing.

 

It immediately turned towards me and screeched. Yes, an abomination without vocal cords screamed right in front of me. Wait. Why the fuck am I even questioning this world? That could be the second most normal thing in this place. I am just bored of this all.

 

I raised my weapon once again and charged toward the spider. I must hit harder to defeat this already damaged monster and get out of here. I dealt with enough shit for today.

 

But things don't work as intended.

 

The spider suddenly attacked me at a speed so fast I didn't manage to see it. The blade barely passed over my right arm. It did go through all the clothing and cut some flesh, enough to cause bleeding. If it wasn't for the corpse stuck on it, I suppose I wouldn't be this lucky.

 

And before I even felt the pain of the cut on my arm, it struck again, this time cutting the side of my chest, then another to my left cheek, and one other I barely managed to move away and save my throat.

 

Suddenly, I began panicking. Even after all my years of fighting through countless battles against armed people and machines of war, I didn't feel this hopeless. This thing in front of m, it is faster, stronger, and deadlier than me. And when I look at my arms, I do not see equipment that will allow me to kill it from hundreds of meters away. No, I see a medieval weapon that I can only use in melee combat.

 

There won't be support fire from a plane. There won't be teammates looking to my back with heavy weaponry, no. I must defeat this monster in front of me using my strength.

 

Now, thinking, I remember being this scared once in my life.

 

When I was only fifteen, I was in my grandfather's forest, hunting for a deer with a rifle gifted to me by my father that year when I turned fifteen.

 

It was a hunting rifle that used shells. I had some near me but was scared of accidentally firing and scaring animals. I didn't load the weapon, and all ammunition was on a little leather square side pack I was carrying.

 

I suppose I wasn't careful or got a little sleepy because of the cold, but I got caught off guard by a bear near a hill. To that day, I had many chances to see many different animals, but I cannot remember any resembling a monster like that bear.

 

A bear on his two feet, far exceeding two and a half meters, claws large as my index finger. He looks at me with eyes hungry for meat. I can almost see the saliva dripping from its mouth. He is hungry, and I am nothing but prey.

 

I remember panicking, and as I tried to reach for a shell from my side bag, the bear roared, landed on his four feet, and that massive beast, like it wasn't weighing more than half a tone, began running at me, fast as a horse. I tried to get up to run away but trembled and fell through the hill. Thankfully, that hill wasn't very steep, and I managed to survive by rolling down. But when I finally landed on a pile of snow with my rifle still in my hand and a single shell lying next to me, most bones in my body were broken.

 

On that day, I learned that bears were much better at moving down hills than I supposed they could. That thing managed to reach me without getting scratched in minutes which felt like an eternity.

 

With the last of my strength, I grabbed the shell lying next to me and managed to load it into my rifle after several failed tries and droppings. I was barely breathing, and my eyes were slowly closing, but even back then, I was too stubborn to die. They say it pasts through the family.

 

When the bear got close enough and opened its mouth to maul me, I managed to shoot through its mouth and explode its head. That shot, I don't remember it well. Maybe it was the game of luck or God sparing me one more day to live, but that beast was dead for good.

 

I remember closing my eyes happily that day. I was going to die, but not without a victory.

 

Then I opened my eyes inside my grandfather's house with several medical staff nearby. Old geezer saw the bear near the house that day, then moved out to alert me and found me by following the sound of my gunshot.

 

Next to the bed, I was lying. There was a bowl of stew. I remember my first after opening my eyes. "What do we have for dinner." And my grandfather answered. "Bear stew." I began laughing uncontrollably after that, even though my chest was hurting quite a lot.

 

Back to now, I think I can survive this encounter. I raised my weapon once more and blocked the next attack. The spider's blade slipped next to the weapon handle and gave me an opening to strike again. This time I used the weapons beak (nail) to pierce through the bones, and I managed to do it. 

 

Even though the beak got stuck in the spider's skull, the only thing I must do now is, pull it out and shatter this abomination's head for good.

 

"Ugh!"

 

Suddenly, all the air in my lungs left my body, and my view blurred. Knowing its blades are useless with corpses stuck to them, the spider punched me away with the fronts of its legs, far enough for me to slam a wall.

 

At least I managed to shatter some pieces away from its skull, but it wasn't enough. This thing doesn't appear to be ready to die.

 

My weapon is just a meter away from me. If I can get up and strike once more, only then, maybe I can end this fight.

 

But I wasn't the only one thinking about finishing this battle. Spider finally got rid of the flesh stuck on its legs and began moving towards me. With its every step, it is piercing the ground. I suppose I really pissed that thing off.

 

It is a race against time. I must get up and reach for my only chance.

 

I put my hands behind myself and touched the walls behind me. Mossy and chiseled, I wonder why I didn't notice it before, or perhaps while fading away, my mind cannot focus on what it must do and shouldn't.

 

I managed to get up, but I doubt I could walk properly. "Pretty funny. I remember a guy talking about his captivity. It was someone our strike squad saved from an enemy prison. He told me that no matter how harshly hot and dry outside is. His cell always felt mossy, cold, and uncomfortably humid." I limped several steps forward.

 

"Now I feel like him. The only difference is outside is also cold and humid, but at least not mossy, don't you agree? Well, you live underground, I suppose you don't know." I limped two more steps. Monster is closing the distance.

 

Before I opened my mouth again, the spider reached the weapon, stomped on it, and shattered it into two pieces. The head slipped towards me, and the rest of the handle flew to another place.

 

"Fuck." Now spider is right in front of me, and the polehammer's head is just under my foot. Now, now. Looking from here, I can see that there is another skull inside the spider's head.

 

I jumped forward, dodged a piercing strike from the spider, and reached for the weapon hand, and with one swift move, I managed to get up and slam into the second skull inside the spider.

 

Abomination screamed in pain and fell to the ground right after I managed to attack the second skull.

 

With exhaustion, I let my body fall to the ground. I feel many and many different emotions right now, but most of them are good.

 

"Strong enemy is slain. To steal the life force, touch the source." Voice spoke.

 

"Yeah, give me a minute to breathe, and I will do that for you." I closed my eyes to a sound of a machine working and a door opening.