To make a long story short, we were heading toward a group of the creatures. My small brigade of three Corpse Servants lead the way, serving as a distraction and walking minefield. Well, I could detonate them at any time so I guess they were more like remote mines.

“When did you learn to do this?” Jameson whispered as he walked beside me.

“A few minutes ago,” I answered honestly. Of course, I left out the important parts.

“Really? I’ve heard of Gifts evolving in stressful situations but its so rare that I never expected to see it happen in front of me,” Sophia responded with wide-eyes.

I felt a little bad for misleading her, but I couldn’t tell her the source of my abilities.

“Ah, that necklace you have. It’s an artifact, right?” I pointed to her pendant.

“Yes.” She softly grasped it as if it was her lifeline. “I’m renting it from my guild so it isn’t really mine. It was supposed to be my last line of defense if someone slipped past Grant and Emma… Once a day, it will provide a shield for me, but I doubt it’ll work on anything in this place.”

“I see.”

The clattering bones behind me distracted me from any further thoughts and I quickly remembered there was another line of defense behind us, a one-armed Skeletal Soldier. I resolved to upgrade it whenever I gained enough souls and time to do so. As of now, it was slower than the lumbering corpses moving in front of us. Unlike the soldier, they kept a brisk pace and avoided tripping over their feet.

“Hold up, let’s slow down a little and let them push ahead.” I recognized the area around us from the pieces of memories I collected and I personally had seen living presences close to the current location not too long ago.

“Got it.” Jameson readied his sword while slowing his pace and Sophia tightly gripped her staff.

We let the living corpses move on their own while we remained behind.

“Ah, that reminds me, how did you guys land safely?”

“Unlike you, we managed to keep from falling but everything went black and when I opened my eyes we were here… I think the two ruins merged together or the Class-Three Ogre Ruin collapsed into this one.”

“You think the Ogre Brute is still alive?” I asked, realizing there may have been another enemy to worry about. I hardly could see how an Ogre from a Class-3 Ruin could compare to even the weakest monsters of a Class-5 one.

“Its impossible to say anything for sure,” Jameson responded with uncertainty.

It was only then that I realized he had a lot of responsibility as the leader of this group, or, what remained of it. Information, strategy, morale, whatever you could name seemed to land on his shoulders. It was a role I had no confidence in taking if I was in his shoes.

Yeah, it seemed that ordering around corpses and skeletons was more of a fit for me.

“I see something… I think.” Sophia strained her eyes to peer through the deep red fog that seemed to permeate every corner of this place.

“I’ll check.” I used my Spirit Sight and the outlines of eight creatures that weren’t husks but definitely weren’t big enough to be classified as Dark Arachnids.

“There’s something,” I confirmed Sophia suspicion, but she and Jameson seemed to focus on the change of my eyes.

“Not now.” I reminded them to focus on the developing situation than another part of my “gift.”

“You’re right… What did you see?”

“Spiderlings I think. They weren’t Husks, that’s for sure.”

The Corpse Servants served their purpose as bait and the Spiderlings emerged. A gaunt, sunken torso sat atop spider parts. They were much larger than humans, that’s for sure.

Some of them came slowly crawling out of the forest while others descended from the treetops. They surrounded my Corpse Servants and began to weave their webs, but before they could entomb their potential prey the corpses rushed forward. They knew their purpose and each sought a different spider. As soon as the corpses latched onto their targets, I made them explode with one thought. The stench of blood filled the air as bone fragment flew out like shrapnel, cutting into the Spiderlings and causing them to hiss in pain.

I felt Soul Siphon grant me strength so I took it as my cue to attack.

“Protect Sophia.” I left Jameson with those words as I rushed forward while the Spiders were still confused. Perhaps I was feeling confident, stupid, or both, but I took the fight on my own. Sophia's ice-related gift was ineffective against all arachnid-creatures and Jameson was only a Class-2 Fighter.

I pushed off the ground and leaped into the air, before stabbing my war scythe into the first one. I twisted the blade around before using all my strength to cut through its torso. I wanted to separate it in half, so even as the blood spilled out, I didn't stop guiding the war scythe through its body. Its innards were tough to cut through and I had to put my all into just to gain some progress.

I snatched the war scythe out and before I could make my next move, I felt something hit my back before I was pulled away.

‘Webs.’ I thought to myself as I rolled across the ground.

When I came a halt a Spiderling was standing over me and stabbed one of its legs downward, piercing my shoulder through the synthesized combat suit.

“Casper!” Jameson’s voice managed to reach my ears.

“Aah!” I let out a cry before gritting my teeth and thrusting my war scythe upward with my free hand. I hit a hardened portion of its body and barely pierced through so I repeated the stabbing motion until blood began spilling onto me. The Spiderling recoiled from the pain and I quickly shifted into a flock of crows and headed toward its backside where I reformed. I pushed my war scythe through its abdomen with all my weight and held on as it thrashed around.

The War Scythe was dug deep into its body so I planted my feet and pulled it toward. It abdomen slowly tore open revealing its insides to me.

Without thinking much of it, I dug my hand into its organs and felt a burst of vitality enter my body as Sanguine Palm began to draw in its blood. The ache from my wound had lessened but I couldn’t continue to draw blood as more Spiderlings approached. I jumped backward and shifted back into the form of the flock but more silk strings flew toward me, hitting one of the crows and stopping my transformation short.

I braced for impact as I was slammed to the ground and assaulted with the sharpened ends of their legs. As I rolled to the side, the two Spiderlings I killed rose up and headed toward one of their ex-comrades, before exploding into a blood and organs. A blood arrow emerged from my palm and struck one of the last two Spiders on its human-like chest causing it to let out a shriek. While it writhed around in pain, I rushed toward its friend, performing a series of swings.

Soul Siphon gave me a huge increase in energy and I was able to spin the war scythe so fast it became a blur in my eyes, but that didn't mean I couldn't control it. I meticulously cut away at the Spiderling until it lost all mobility and with its legs gone, it was nearly eye to eye with me. I beheaded the vaguely human head sitting on its shoulders and kicked off from its body before finishing the last Spiderling off with three power swings.

By the end of the fight, I was filled with gashes and lacerations. My lungs burned as I drew in air and the war scythe felt like it weighed a ton. My brain felt like it had been filled with nails and my body became stiff.

“...Shit.” I coughed out a bit of blood before dropping my war scythe and plunging both of my palms into the wounds of the Spiderling.

Sanguine Palm served as a cure-all for me, relieving the pain and speeding up both my Flesh Mending and Bone Mending. The bleeding of my wounds stopped, but the mental fatigue I built up wasn’t going anywhere.

“Casper!” Jameson rushed over to me with Sophia in tow.

“Give me a sec,” I mumbled with closed eyes.

I could feel the blood draining out of the Spiderlings corpse and crawled over to the next one before I pulled out every pinch of vitality that I could gather from it.

“Do... Do you need medicine?” Sophia asked, ready to offer her own supply of pills and salves to me.

“No, I’ll be fine.” When I opened my eyes, the Spiderling had grown noticeably more withered and dried up.

I examined my body, wiping the blood off, and found my wounds had sealed themselves shut and begun the process of healing completely.

“Almost as good as new,” I said aloud in a bid to convince myself that statement was true.

After the soreness was gone, a whole new type of hurt emerged from my ruined combat suit. I saved up a lot to buy it and looking at it now made me want to shed a tear.

“You poor thing,” I muttered.

“What did you say?” Jameson seemed to have caught part of my whispering but I just shook my head.

I picked up my War Scythe and spoke to them, “Are you ready to move?”