It was a mad scramble dealing with these newer, bigger spiders. They were five levels higher than the ones we just finished and they were faster than everyone except for Rukia, and even then, it wasn’t by much.

As the Spiders soared through the air, their bodies took on the red glow of a combat art being activated. Their air-born speed sped up as they came in for a hard landing, forelimbs aimed right at us.

Magnus’s body grew a few inches taller. His skin turned slightly metallic right before he used his explosive stride to meet one spider in mid-air. He brought his hammer around in a vicious spike first blow. Magnus put everything into that blow. Lightning arced over his hammer, the red glow from one of his combat arts covered his arms and weapon. When the war hammer impacted the spider, the boom of the extra kinetic force echoed through the trees.

The hammer hit the Spider in the Thorax and just, well, it exploded. The combination of raw power Magnus applied overwhelmed its defense and still had more than enough force to wipe out all one hundred eighty-nine hit points. It was an amazing first move, but unfortunately it wasn’t very repeatable. It was a Ki and stamina hog.

Magnus Thomson

Cultivation: Body rank 6

HP: 120/120

Stamina: 158/208

Ki:110/200

Like me, Magnus used the brief lull in combat to restore his health stamina and Ki, and this one attack used almost half his Ki and a quarter of his stamina. It was a shame, because out of all of us, he had the highest damage potential, but could only max it out like that twice before his Ki pool drained dry. At least one of the Six were wiped out.

Cody and Malakai layered their shields and braced for impact. Cody braced his Burning Retribution, and Malakai’s golden divine shield sat right in front of it. Between Cody’s leather armor, the spectral-looking Paladin’s armor, the enchanted metal shield and the divine shield ability, they had a stacking defense of one hundred sixteen.

With the impact of both forelegs at once, the sound of shattering glass combined with the screech of metal on metal filled our ears. The spider managed to shatter the golden floating shield, bend the Embersteel shield, punch through both the Paladin’s armor and the reinforced leather armor beneath and punched through Cody’s torso.

Cody Jessup

Faithfull of God, FR 3

HP: 107/153

Stamina: 287/324

Defense: 21 (86)

Even with all that stacked defense, Cody still lost almost a third of his health. He screamed in pain as the spider used its embedded legs to pull Cody up to its mouth as it tried to bite him with fangs coated in a sickly green viscous venom.

Cody screamed again as the spiders’ fangs punctured through his Paladin’s armor and entered his flesh through a gap in the leather underneath.

Rowan managed to avoid his spider in his usual manner of blink stepping away from the point of impact. He immediately began lobbing bolts of arcane energy through his Arcane Focus Wand as Ember and Sparks did their best to pelt the giant spider with fire and electricity while Tess did her part.

Tess’s Mana Bolt spell didn’t do enough damage to get around the Spider’s defense, so she used the new spell she learned after reaching level ten, Arcane Claw. The spell sheathed her natural claws in arcane energies, dealing an extra twenty damage that lasted for five minutes. With the help of the new spell, she had just enough damage potential to get past the defense and annoy and distract the monster.

Slate would have joined in the fight with his summoner, but his enormous size left him as a target for one spider. Slate managed to raise up an earthen wall that had a defense of twenty and a durability of eighty points. The Earthen Wall absorbed much of the force directed at him and gave him enough time to move out of the way. Even though his element was earth, his agility matched up well with the giant spider.

Rock spikes broke from the ground and sought to impale the giant spider. It managed to pierce its carapace, but only managed small amounts of damage the spider failed to dodge.

Kiara didn’t stay put for the Spiders to reach us. As soon as she saw them approaching, she hid behind one of the giant trees and managed to avoid being targeted. Unfortunately, that left one targeting me and two targeting the pony sized Rukia.

With Rukia’s Arctic Flowing River active, she had no trouble avoiding the landing strikes of the two giant spiders. Rukia barked happily as she played tag with the monsters. She would swerve out of the way of their forelimbs, darting between their legs, biting at them as she passed, using her bulk to knock the legs out of line and slightly disrupting their balance.

I took all this in as I used the second stage of my Grace in Combat. I couldn’t spare my Ki usage in this fight, and needed every advantage I could get to avoid getting run through. “MAGNUS! HELP CODY!” I yelled as I avoided a piercing attack. At the moment, Cody was in the greatest danger, and Magnus was the only one currently free to aid the boy.

As soon as Magnus landed from his impressive attack and got his bearings, he triggered his Explosive Stride again and appeared on top of the Spider that held Cody in its embrace. It had just started to spin Cody into a silk cocoon when it felt the tremendous impact of Magnus’s hammer on the back of its head.

While Magnus’s strike wasn’t as devastating as his first, he still managed to shatter the thick chitinous shell protecting the spider. The giant spider let out a long, windy sounding screech of pain as it dropped Cody to the ground.

A bolt of golden energy struck Cody even before his limp body hit the ground. Malakai managing to use his ranged healing ability before he turned his Divine ray on the hole in the Spider’s armor and tried to burn it from the inside out. Steam rose from the hole in its head and its black eyes turned milky white before they burst into clouds of steam. With a groaning wheeze, the spider fell over onto its back and its legs curled up.

Magnus managed to leap from the spider’s back and landed hard on the ground. His feet sunk several inches into the soil, but he moved out of the holes he made with minimal effort, rushing to Cody’s prone form.

Kiara teamed up with Rowan, getting in just close enough to reinforce her root spell with her Sylvan bloodline, making it just strong enough for the giant spider to be unable to brute force its way free. With its movement heavily restricted, Rowan could slowly burn down its health, until Sparks and Ember ran out of mana, and their special abilities were both on cool down. Without the constant distraction from the harassing dragonlings, the giant spider used its sharp mandibles to sever the roots holding it in place and charged straight at Rowan.

I was burning Ki and stamina like there was no tomorrow. It took quite a lot for me to overcome the thirty-eight defense. The bonuses from my polearm skill and my strength of twenty-three brought my base damage to just a couple points past its defense. With every strike, I had to infuse Ki to increase the penetrating force and stamina for my Combat Art. The fourteen-foot-long legs kept the spider’s body far enough out of reach that I couldn’t land any deep penetrating strikes or launch a projected technique inside its carapace.

I was forced to cut the spider’s legs out from under it, but it was too damned fast. I dodged under one limb strike, only to be caught by the second forelimb covered in the reddish glow of its Piercing Attack.

-22

Another crack appeared on my Ki armor, the defense and durability dropping faster than I would like. Rukia was doing a lot better than I was. Her ice Ki combined with minor, harassing strikes stacked up the slow debuffs on the spiders she was kiting.

I had just dodged another one-two combo from the spider when a red streak crossed my vision and impacted the giant spider’s face. The spider reared back and screeched in pain. I wasn’t sure where the attack came from, but I didn’t hesitate to take advantage. I charged up forty Ki into my Projection Binding and enhanced the armor penetration just enough to push the tip through the carapace. I leapt up and thrust the spear through the joint between the thorax and the head, and let it rip. The Ki detonating inside the bug liquified its organs and caused it to fall over, legs curling as it twitched in death.

I looked over at the direction the red streak came from and saw a man in good quality leather armor and a massive longbow in his hand. He drew back another arrow that caught flame as he held the string back. The light from the fire grew in intensity as he held it for a few seconds before loosing it at one spider still trying to catch Rukia.

Next to the flaming arrow guy sat a brown-robed man holding a staff with, what looked like, living vines wrapped around the top third. He sat cross-legged on top of a moving statue of a rhino beetle. It looked like a statue, all pure white marble with black veins streaking through it, but it moved like a living insect.

Green light flashed from the guy’s staff and I caught sight of a root as thick as my thigh burst out of the ground and pierce right through the Giant Spider that just broke free of Kiara’s Restraint. These guys were dealing with these giant spiders like they were nothing. I had to use Identify to see what I was dealing with.

Brian Turner

Ranger Level 15

HP: 160/160

Stamina: 378/414

Mana: 144/224

Defense: 31

Michael Richards

Druid Level 15

HP: 96/96

Stamina: 192/192

Mana: 460/540

Defense: 20

Clive

Marbled Rhino Beetle

Warrior type Level 9

HP: 154/154

Stamina: 300/308

Mana: 160/160

Defense: 36

With the pressure lessened, we could rally our forces and destroy the last couple of giant spiders. “Magnus, how is Cody?” I asked once I could get by their side.

Magnus managed to remove the thin layer of spider webbing from around Cody and Malakai restored him to full health, but he still looked sick. I pulled up his information as Magnus answered.

Cody Jessup

Faithfull of God FR 3

HP: 153/153

Stamina: 0/324

Defense: 21

Status effect: Deaths Slumber Venom

Deaths Slumber Venom: A Potent Venom designed to incapacitate prey but leave them alive. Those who fall to this venom suffer a 30% penalty to Dexterity, Agility, and Endurance for 1 hour and suffer five points of Stamina damage per second until unconscious. Once unconscious, the victim will have a stamina recovery of 0 until cured.

“Well, you see, he done got poisoned by that giant spider. Unless Kiara has something in her bag of plant pulp, Cody here was the only one with a cure ability,” Magnus answered.

“Kiara? Do you have anything for poisons?” I asked.

“Venom,” she said.

“What?”

“You mean venom. If it bites you and you get sick, it’s venom. If you bite it and you get sick, it’s poison.” Kiara clarified.

“Whatever. Do you have something to help with this?” I asked, a little exasperated over the pedantry.

“I believe I can help if you will allow,” A mans voice spoke up. I looked over and saw the Druid, Michael something.

“I am a Druid and have a potent healing spell that can clear many debuffs. I mean you no harm, so long as you mean us no harm.” He said, trying to set us at ease. I looked at the others, especially at Rowan.

Rowan’s face was riddled with fear and anxiety over his brother. When our eyes met, I could see the pleading in them to help Cody. I looked at Kiara.

“I have nothing to help with this specifically. I have a general antivenom that can help clear it from his system, but it will take time,” she said with a shrug. “My herbs don’t work fast.”

With the general agreement of the group to try it, I stood up and locked eyes with the Druid. “Do what you can to help him. But if you try anything funny, you won’t walk out of here alive.”

The ranger took an aggressive step forward, bringing up his bow, but Michael held up his hand to his friend. “It’s fine Brian. They are just worried about this boy. You would feel the same way if I was the one in need of help.”

The Ranger, Brian, scowled a bit before relaxing his arm and letting the bow fall to his side. It was still easy to raise quickly in case things got dangerous, but we all appreciated the lowering of tensions. I put my spear in my storage ring, knowing I too could have it out and ready in an instant.

The druid stood over Cody, waving his staff over the boy as green light gathered in the leafy vines. After five seconds of light building, it radiated out and covered Cody from head to toe and settled into his body. It took close to a minute before we noticed Cody’s face regaining its color and his stamina ticked back up. It would only take about ten minutes for his stamina to fully recover. He couldn’t wake until it did. One of the side effects of passing out from stamina debt.

The status effect disappeared from his information screen, and I let out a sigh of relief.

I extended my hand towards the druid, and we clasped hands. “Thank you for curing Cody. I apologize for threatening you earlier. It’s becoming harder to trust others these days, but I’m glad there are still good people left in the world.”

“I understand. We have been fortunate since the apocalypse happened. By the grace of the gods, we were able to secure a safe place to live and grow strong enough to protect our people. Blessed Be”

I smiled and replied, “Blessed be.”

“Do you follow the Craft?” Michael asked.

“Once upon a time, I dabbled in Wicca. I drifted away a long time ago. I don’t think I ever really believed, but I liked the idea. Know what I mean?” I asked.

“It’s understandable. Not everyone truly believed in the old gods that walked the pagan path. But look where we are now. The old gods are real, the monsters of myth and legend are real, and our High Priestess is capable of true wonders with our rituals now.”

“High Priestess? You guys have a coven out here?” I asked.

“Yes, we rented a camp ground for this year’s Beltainia celebrations. We arrived before the celebrations to set up and organize everything. Unfortunately, the System Initialization happened the day before people were supposed to show up.”

“Well, I’m glad you guys made it. If I may ask without sounding rude, why were you here to help?”

“We venture into the edges of the Wellspring to farm for materials and magically infused meat. We were on one such foray when we heard a loud commotion and checked it out. When we saw you guys having trouble with those giant spiders, we decided to step in. After all, with what few humans that are left, we need to stick together, right? Though we’ve never seen the giant spiders this far north. They usually haunt the southern edge of the Wellspring. And they weren’t fey touched before either.”

“It probably has something to do with the fey taking over here. We had to fight off a band of them after they tried to enchant us.”

Brian stepped up and spoke before Michael could reply. “Look, as great as it is to meet new people and chatter on, hanging around here out in the open with all the ichor splashed around isn’t a great idea. We need to loot what we can and bugger the hell out of here.”

Michael shook his head and said, “You’re right. We can talk over all of this once we are safe behind the ward. Clive can carry the boy, Cody, was it? He can carry him until he wakes up and can walk on his own. Sound good to you guys?” He aimed the last question at the rest of us.

I looked to everyone to see if they wanted to go with these guys and got a round of general agreement. No one spoke up with any better ideas. “Ok, we will get to looting the spiders, then we can follow you back to your home. I take it that you guys have a System Settlement?”

“Yeah, we managed to get a City Core after fighting off a small army of three-foot-tall rat looking things.” Brian said, “Hey I need to check in with the High Priestess before we head back. We are just out of comm range here. If you wait to loot until I get back, my class grants me a thirty percent bonus for beast loot. If you let me keep fifteen percent of the total, you guys can keep the rest. You will still be up around ten percent of the loot.”

I considered it for a moment before agreeing. There was no real downside. I could check the loot logs to confirm he was shooting straight with us and we would all end up ahead in the agreement.

Brian turned to Michael before speaking softly “Keep a sharp lookout, ill be back in less than five minutes, but be careful babe.”

Michael smiled softly at Brian before giving him a quick peck on the lips. “Be careful too, and hurry back.”

Brian nodded and took off to the east. He was extremely fleet of foot, probably able to give Rukia a run for her money in a race.