Shadow

2 Days, 23 Hours, 50 Minutes In

That big one has really turned the tide uh? Alice thought to herself as she moved to the far right of the cave, leaving behind the worst of the fight to follow the thread of shadow into the darkness, its thin outline already starting to fade despite only couple of minutes having passed since its appearance.

Behind her, the large, metallic-looking spider was ripping into the masses of Jumping Spiders with wide swipes of its sickles and already two of the largest specimens were lying dead on the ground, their bodies cleanly bisected by the blades.

She turned back for an instant when the sound of shattered stone was followed by a thunderous crash, one of the remaining hulking brutes having literally launched itself against the side of the silvery behemoth, causing it to crash down on the ground in a mess of flailing limbs able to cut through stone.

With her hand, the girl stopped a gasp from escaping her mouth as the rest of the swarm used the fall of the colossus to surge on top of it, as if trying to drown it in corpses.

When she turned around once more, Alice noticed that, as she was looking away, the thread had finally disappeared completely, leaving her without a trail. She took a couple more steps forward trying to no avail to find another strand or some traces, what she did notice, however, was her already dimmed light get even dimmer, as if consumed at the source.

Alice moved forward, lowering her pace and making every effort to be silent as she went further in, in search of the shadowy puppeteer. She didn’t know what she would do upon finding it, and everything in the part of her mind that was still sane tried to push her back, to have her running away, hide and hope the big bad monster would pass without noticing her.

And yet she went on, a deep rage slowly filling her with every step forward.

Flashes of memories kept appearing and disappearing from her mind, deepening her anger, forging it into a blistering fire that let her ignore all pain, tiredness and caution.

The first one to appear was the moment the salamander ate her arm, biting through it as if it was nothing more than another piece of meat, leaving her crippled and dying. As it had come, the memory went away, replaced by the burning sensation of being eaten from the inside out by the Lumen glimmers, then by the sharp pain of getting pierced by the sharp leg of the first spider and the feeling of waves of electricity coursing through her convulsing body.

Alice bit her lip until it bled, pushing back those memories, only for more to come forward, eager to show her more.

The horrid shape of specimen G as it shattered her eardrums and ate its siblings, the panic she felt witnessing the fight between millipedes and wasps, the impotence of being captured, bundled in silk and dragged away to become food for some random spider. And finally, after all the others, out came her most recent memory.

Alice relived the prolonged, ever-present fear that had eaten her for almost three days as she was forced to fight without rest, wading in blood and humors and filth.

All those horrible experiences, sufferings and trials and she had still been treated as a mere nuisance, ignored as if something lesser.

She had survived thanks to that, the spider following the orders without killing her had been the only reason she was still alive. Alice didn’t feel relief at the thought.

How dare you dismiss me. How fucking dare you.

Her light faded completely. the hungry black enveloped her, the sound of the rest of the cave disappearing as she took one more step inside that shadowy dimension.

She kept her eyes open, walking blindly further in, feeling every noise, even the tiniest, most hidden one disappear, eaten away by the oppressing dark.

She stood still, gazing in the void until something moved imperceptibly within it. How could she see it? Alice didn’t know. it was as if even the dark void itself was lighter than the being hiding within as it continuously moved its many limbs, each holding dozens of lines, each one moving a creature to its bidding.

She took one more step towards it, the being somehow not reacting to her intrusion.

Maybe it’s too focused on the fight?

She tightened the grip on her dagger-fang until her fingers went numb, her eyes glued on the shape of the creature.

It too, reminded her of a spider, if one dreamed by a deeply flawed and deranged mind.

From its outline, she could see a thin, elongated abdomen from which it extruded and spun more of its shadow silk; its thorax was also longer and wider than normal while remaining somewhat thin, as if trying to become a being of only two dimensions. From the thorax sprouted many long, segmented limbs, each ending in three recurve, inverted talons, each holding at least one dark line and moving it with gentle tugs.

She couldn’t see the creature’s head from her position but she could see something resembling wispy long hair dangle in front of it, their ends turning into the void-like darkness enveloping them like a mist.

She took another tiny step towards it, her hatred squashing down her fear, but this time, the creature seemed to stop for a moment, freezing mid-tug and holding completely still.

Alice froze, her heart hammering silently in her chest as she held her breath for what seemed to be an eternity.

A deep bellow broke through the bubble of silence, making the creature twitch as many of the strands on its talons seemed to puff into nothingness. It went back to tugging the strings, this time more violently and quickly as the fight probably got fiercer.

She took another step.

A few minutes before

The spider pirouetted around another one of its hated enemies, the damned creature having once again appeared in his life to ruin what he had worked so hard to create.

Finding an opening in its defenses, he planted a sharp limb straight into the nape of the enemy, feeling its squishy insides part under the pressure and its limbs twitch as their strength was instantly sapped by death.

Not wasting any time to revel in the victory; he clambered on top of the corpse, feeling the tip of its legs sink slightly into the chitinous carapace beneath. He extruded a thick thread of silk from his abdomen, forming a large bolas he immediately started rotating with its frontal limbs as it looked for a good target.

His eight eyes finally saw the hulking shape of a large Jumping Spider walking among its smaller kin. He threw. The globule flew true, wrapping around two of its legs and making it trip and squash its brethren with its weight.

He chittered loudly before finding another opponent for his next duel.

Where is the damn Thinker? He asked himself as he saw the never-ending stream of hated invaders quickly surrounding them.

It was his fault if she was stuck back there, but why did she have to take so long to bring down a couple of walls? Now of all time?

Next time better lead her through the large way. He thought as he fought off a couple of smaller spiderlings and covered the flank of one of its kins.

He really should have resisted the petty temptation of the smaller passages and he was now paying for it. But who could predict the damned enemy would show up here? After so long? And how come they were so organized all of a sudden? They shouldn’t be losing an open field engagement against some stupid ambush predators. Not with his tactics!

And yet, the Jumping Spiders kept picking off the weakest defenders while keeping the rest occupied and he had also noticed them starting to aim directly at him with their mad jumps; even if he could predict the trajectory and dodge, it was only a matter of time before one of them got lucky.

Stupid Twolegs. Did it give them knowledge?

Just as the thought reached his mind, the male spider saw a familiar green light in the darkness, slowly moving towards the attacking swarm without even the fake-limb to protect her.

What is the twolegs doing? Is it out of its mind?

He frantically tried to click and hiss and shake its limbs to signal the glowing creature to fall back, and yet it didn’t even see him.

Five Jumping Spiders detached from the swarm, moving towards it, encircling it.

He was ready to order a push to save it at the cost of their lives when a crisp sound of cut stone echoed in the expanse, causing the enemy to falter and the defenders to push harder against them.

Then, the beautiful shape of Chillushrith barreled out of the new entrance and into the enemy swarm, easily cutting them with two huge recurve frontal blades that sheared through chitin and flesh alike, finally relieving the pressure on their line.

Instantly, the five spiders left the twolegs alone, focusing, along with most of their swarm, on the larger threat.

However, instead of taking the chance and move away, the stupid creature decided to head away from its lair and towards an almost empty side of their territory, its stumbling paces doing nothing to reassure him of its condition and reasoning.

He kept some of his peripheral eyes glued to the luminous form as he fought, noticing its fading light as it went further towards the empty corner.

Then, a huge crash forced his attention back towards the largest Thinker of their colony as one of the remaining enemy had decided to ram straight into her flank, causing her to loudly fall to the side, her flailing body soon submerged by her frenzied foes.

When his eyes went back to the twolegs’ halo he found nothing more than darkness there.

Where is that stupid creature? How can something so clever be so stupid?

He angrily stabbed the face of another enemy before starting to click at the rest of his brethren, trying to rally them against the surrounding monsters, already he could see the first of the other creatures of the cave emerge from the darkness, ready to join the fray.

With a number of convincing clicks and hisses, he clambered on top of the largest kin they had, an impressive male with metallic striations up to its thorax, busy clubbing an entire squad of Jumping Spiders with its thick legs, keeping them away from the smaller fighters.

From the elevated position he had now reached, the clever spider quickly spotted the weaker side of the encirclement and instantly started coating them with more and more thick lines of silk, causing the opposing arachnids to move awkwardly one against the other, ineffectually trying to shrug them off.

Once the effect started being noticeable, he forced its lungs to fill up to the maximum with air before producing a furious, high-pitched shriek that caught the attention of every one of its kin.

He then pointed straight towards the entangled creatures before jumping straight into the fray, stabbing through the surprised fighters and trying to push through the living blockade.

Behind him, the Spear Spiders stirred, his kin starting to violently push in his direction against the unprepared enemy which soon folded, forced to give way to the courageous charge.

Covered in slick blood, one of his smaller eyes punctured and with a bleeding gash on his abdomen, the self-elected commander of their now small company finally managed to break through the wall of bodies, his sight set on the spot where Twolegs had disappeared.

I will get my name. No matter what.

Behind him, the first of his group started joining him, watching him expectantly.

He clicked once more, pointing at their destination before quickly rushing forward, the remaining Spears on his nonexistent heels.

A creak came from his left as another Jumping Spider was crushed under the weight of Chillushrith, still trying to right herself under the combined assault of more than a hundred creatures.

He spared her a glance, not stopping on his tracks and continuing to lead his platoon forward.

He was halfway through the distance separating him from the darkened corner when a crack of chitin, followed by a keening shriek, came from the heap of corpses that was Chillushrith, one of her legs dropping uselessly on the ground, broken at the joint by the relentless assault.

He moved forward, trying to ignore it.

Another hiss came from behind as the damned foe focused on her open injury.

Stupid.

A few minutes before, again

With a final swipe, Chillushrith broke through the accursed stone blocking her and emerged into the large space of the main cavern.

I know this place she thought, gazing at the ceiling overhead before focusing on the main problem, the huge swarm of spiders quickly surrounding her male siblings.

And I know those creatures, I thought most of them had fled out territory.

She didn’t waste any more time, her powerful legs pushing her forward, straight toward the middle of the enemy lines. Despite the surprise, the enemies were quick to react, most of them turning towards her and fearlessly rushing her with their large numbers.

Swarming me won’t do you any good. She confidently thought as she got close and personal with two of the largest spiders as they moved to bludgeon her with the sheer mass of their brutish bodies.

Not one to say no to a challenge, Chillushrith rammed the one to her left, causing it to stumble as she cleanly bisected the right one, its thorax and abdomen collapsing in a mess of blood and organs. A few seconds later, the largest Thinker was cleaning her long sickles from the blood of the second contestant and preparing to cut through the first line of smaller arachnids.

She had just started swiping cleanly through the hapless ranks of Jumping Spiders when a loud sound of compressed and crushed stone startled her. Chillushrith didn’t really have time to react when one of the last larger enemies, this one more than twenty meters away from her, suddenly appeared on her flank, painfully slamming into her and causing her to lose balance and fall on her side.

Her metallic legs and silvery striations produced fountains of sparks as they were ground against the limestone, her exoskeleton creaking painfully at the hit.

Chillushrith tried to right herself but her bulk was now against her, the smaller enemy now rushing her and covering her in biting bodies.

She hissed as she sliced apart the head of the damned culprit, the spider brute dying having fulfilled its purpose as its kin started biting her joints and underbelly, trying to emerge victorious not by might but by attrition, already she could feel the first tiny cuts on her body.

Long seconds passed as she fought, her mind completely focused on the battle at hand.

I won’t be downed by a mere trick, a lucky hit by some suicidal creature. She hissed from the pain as she cut away more of her assailants, now trying to get to her blind sides.

Then, a loud, high-pitched scream came from where she had seen her swarm, now hidden by the mess of frenzied creatures.

A hint of panic bloomed in her mind, the thought of her kin losing a possible cure for Mother from under their fangs was almost inconceivable.

She thrashed more, using the momentum of each hit to rock a bit more, trying to right herself from her awkward position.

Her enemies reacted instantly, the number of them gnawing at her joints raising by the second, the painful sensations something she hadn’t felt in a long time.

She tried to ignore it, moving more and more violently until she was almost at the tipping point, her legs extended to the maximum to push her further.

Then she felt one of the legs snap at the second joint, the limb spraying her dark blood as it was severed, falling loudly on the ground with a metallic clang.

She hissed her pain to the uncaring ceiling above her, the remaining Jumping Spiders covering her, now moving towards the bleeding injury, gnawing at it with their fangs.

She was growing more and more tired, the swipes less powerful and precise, where previously she killed or injured ten or more foes with each hit, now she was barely hitting any, the attacks too slow and avoidable.

At least I hope the little one got to the creature, if they both survive I’ll have still triumphed.

What a sad way to die for an Elder Thinker.

Her legs started to still as her blood was subjected to gravity, starting too pool on her back and spilling out of her injuries. At that moment, a hard impact rocked her side, shaking her awake from the daze. Chillushrith started trying to swipe at the culprit, only to hear a familiar clicking coming from the spot. Before she had a moment to think, another impact slammed her, and another, and one more; in an instant, a growing pressure was pushing her injured side, helping her reach the tipping point.

She could still hear the subdued noise of the fight, even under the flowing of her life-juice in her dizzy head.

Her own swarm pushed until gravity could do the rest, the incredibly heavy body of the Thinker falling loudly on her legs, the remaining pointed ends sinking in the limestone as if in mud.

Once back on her legs, Chillushrith surveyed the remains of her swarm, clicking appreciatively at the little one who had already started to lead them towards a strangely dark spot a few web throws away.

“Go and get the twolegs, I have some work to do” she hissed, honing the edges of her sickles against each other and looking straight at the remains of the enemy swarm.

A deep, guttural and animalistic hiss flew out of her mind as she jumped forward, launching herself straight into the still immobile enemy throngs.

She was gonna slaughter every one of them.

2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes In

Skitter rushed forward with the few remaining Spear Spiders, every single one of them had at least an injury, most more than one.

He lead them, slightly limping on his right, towards the shadowed corner, his seven remaining eyes straining to catch a glimpse of the twolegs.

“Something is wrong” he clicked, more to himself than to the others, looking warily at the strange darkness that seemed to flow like mist in the space, hanging like their curtains of silk in their nests. 2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 15 Seconds.

“Attack on sight anything that doesn’t look like the web you saw, focus on retrieving the twolegs at any cost. Bring it to Mother” he ordered. 2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 23 Seconds.

He had just cast one tentative step into the void when the jet-black curtains seemed to start dissipating, the darkness gradually evaporating as they progressed further in.

A shape appeared, obscured at first, but more and more visible as they came closer.

He finally saw the twolegged creature slam one of its kin’s fang in the misshapen head of a nightmarish approximation of a spider, its enormous four eyes staring at him even in death, as if waiting for his move. 2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 45 Seconds.

The twolegs was shouting, small trickles of water flowing out of its two eyes as light started flaring once more on its body, the inky blood of the creature staining its smooth visage.

It finally thrust a feeler straight into the cavity that had once housed the brain of the creature and extracted a fist-sized orb from within, the hard sphere eating her light as she held it in her feeler. 2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 52 Seconds.

The spider came close and the creature’s eyes landed on him “Skitter uh? Welcome back” it murmured, strange unknown words to his earholes, before it collapsed on the ground, unmoving and still clutching the orb. 2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 56 Seconds.

2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 57 Seconds.

2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 58 Seconds.

2 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 59 Seconds.

3 Days.