We needed to get ourselves into proper formation, just randomly outlining ourselves like this would make us easy pickings for these things and given how many of them they are, we would need to stem the flood of arachnids that was coming our way. I had to quickly figure out the best way to utilize everyone, or else we would all be overwhelmed. But then again whether we would be able to work well together after what had just happened was up for debate too, but there was no backing down from this, we all needed to pitch in or we will fucking die.

“Malkova you take the rear and provide cover fire, anything that makes it past the tight perimeter we’re about to make, you turn it back or turn it to mush. Andrej, Kaixuan, Tobias and Amina; you guys are our main damage dealers. I have no idea how much ammunition will be able to stem this tide, but it seems that soon we might all have to rely on melee combat, but for now you’re at the helm. The rest of us with the exception of Kimberly would provide secondary damage and support. Kimberly just like Malkova will focus on dealing ranged damage and maximizing the amount of destruction we can cause to these things at any given time or spot. So, are we in agreement?” I asked as I picked up an extra assault rifle and made my way down three steps from the entrance of the cave without waiting for an answer.

There was no need for one though, this was the best course of action for everyone here, especially with our survival on the line. The front liners went down 8 more steps while we who had to offer support stayed right where I was and Kimberly and Malkova at the entrance of the cave/temple. Perhaps it wasn’t exactly smart to leave my back exposed to Malkova, but we were facing an existential crisis at the moment, there would be time to deal with a pair of asshole brother and sister later, but for now….”Fire!”

We opened fire, spraying heat and lead and energy blasts through the crisp shells of hundreds upon hundreds of arachnids. There was almost no need for the utilization of skills and spells in this setting, it was just to unleash everything we possibly could on the monsters heading our way. It was a constant drone, as we cycled through guns until there were heaps upon heaps of bodies piled on the stairs, but even at that there did not seem to be an end to the onslaught of arachnids. I was quickly running out of ideas to stem the flow of spider monsters heading our way, when the earth shook, and from within the tree line, the massive body of the Brood mother could be seen making her in our direction. I think by this point I didn’t need anybody to tell me that our situation just went from bad to worse.

With her reappearance it was hard to focus on anything else, we could see hundreds upon hundreds of the smaller arachnids, but still giant for normal spiders fall off her giant body, droves upon droves adding up to the ones that were already attacking and laying dead on the steps of the temple. It wasn’t too farfetched to say that shit had just hit the fan because now we all pretty much understood that to survive, we had to bring that monster down.

“Roll call! What’s the lowest level amongst ourselves?” I called out, we’ve been at this for at least 30 minutes, and with the amount of spiders we have killed, at least a few of us should have leveled up. Perhaps there was a few abilities that could help us deal with the Brood mother, because obviously if that bitch did not go down, then none of us was surviving this encounter, and now that she wants to join the fray, we have no choice but to take the fight to her, at this range she would kill us all with a single attack, especially that soul screech attack of hers, that shit still gave me shivers from how painful a death it had caused me.

“Our lowest is at 8 Sam, and that’s Amina. What do you have in mind?” Ricardo asked as there was a lull in the battlefield, the arachnids had stopped attacking and were just standing there looking at us while the Brood mother let out soft chittering that was obviously spider speak….. or at least we thought it was spider speak until we started hearing her voice in our heads.

{You are intruders! There is no victory to be had, not even you one who defies death can stop the oblivion of darkness that is coming your way. The path to the dungeon heart is locked, and my heart is the key, and there is no way you thieves are getting it! Yes! Thieves! That’s what you all are! Thieves! There will be no mercy for you, Die! Die! Die! DIE! DIEEEEEEE!}

“Oh come on!” Laurent called out as an all new wave of arachnids surged from their mother or spawner or whatever. Even I couldn’t help the annoyed look that crossed my face, things were getting a little too desperate for all of us and I was not so sure that we had a way to defeat that monster, we’ve just been throwing everything we could at the brood and yet it hadn’t made much of a dent.

At the moment it was now a race between time, it was to see whether we would run out of ammunition first, or the brood mother would run out of spawns to send our way. And at the rate things were going I think it was possible. And then the craziest shit happened as a core from one of the broodlings flew over our heads to land into the crowd heading in our direction. There was a small flash of light, a delay and then a small explosion that blasted spiders apart, creating a hole in their formation that was quickly filled up. I turned around to see Kimberly with her hands filled with spider cores, and manic grin on her face as she started chucking them, one after the other into the cloud of spider broodlings. And as they landed with a small delay successive explosions rang out, one after the other as the cores exploded, shocking the rest of us.

“Monster core 101, infuse foreign mana into a monster core and you will cause a arcane destabilization of the mana within, the ensuing magical reaction would cause an explosion that would vary depending on the power and elemental affinity of the monster the core came from. In order words, we have Grenades!” ingenious and at the moment it was probably the ray of light we need, but for this to truly work we needed to at least stem the flow at the Frontlines. There was a small delay before the cores went off, and quite a few of them would have still made their way through by that point, we needed a choke point and fast to at least slow them down long enough to cause significant and successive damage.

“Ricardo, Kaixuan! Cover me!” I called out to them as I ran forwards, past our first line of defense and pointed the Cymerian gauntlet towards the line of spider broodlings.

[Entangle]

Steel silk flew out of the gauntlet, tying up dozens of the broodlings and packing them together. As an added bonus the steel silk seemed to have adhesive properties so many of the broodlings that came in contact with the others were stuck fast in a bundled and unable to move. But it was enough, forcing me to use the skill again, and again, and again, and again. Without stop and in rapid succession as I felt the successive drain of my mana. And then was a sharp lance of pain through my head as I leaned over to the side and threw up, which was saying something because my stomach was severely empty without a single drop of food in over 24 hours. I reeled back confused, I wasn’t out of mana, at most I still had at least half of it available to me, but this weakness was extremely jarring and similar to mana exhaustion.

Kaixuan caught me and pulled me back just as he said. “ That’s enough, you’ve done enough Sam.” At his words I raised my head to see my hand work, something that I honestly don’t remember doing. The sliders were bundled up and stacked, over and over and spread across each other in a manner that was reminiscent of a wall. Almost as if I had been stacking them on top of each other until a 5 foot tall barricade had been made, reducing the tide and creating the choke point we needed for Kimberly to bombard the spiders.

“Andrej I need your help with this, throw lighting at the cores once they’ve rolled down enough.” Kimberly called out before throwing a bundle of cores that she had somehow duck tapped to each other. I blinked my eyes in surprise az Andrej pointed his hands towards the cores, waiting until they were just about a meter above the still incoming army of broodlings before shooting out multiple bolts of lightning from his fingers at the cores, introducing foreign mana and causing an explosion… at least that’s what was supposed to happen.

*VooooooooBOOM!*

The explosion released a concussive blast that decimate the area it was throw for a diameter of almost a hundred meters, creating a crater that was at least three meters deep. It brought down the wall that I had painstakingly put together and release a shockwave that threw me, Kaixuan and pretty much every one else backwards unto the stairs, with only Kimberly and Malkova escaping the brunt of it by being at the top. The rest of us on the other hand, suffered from the move as bones were broken, heads split open, wounds torn open and torn into and every single one of us deposited at the doorstep of death and oblivion. What the fuck had Kimberly out together, and where did she get the ducktape.

“nggggh! Fuck-shit! Damn you Kimberly!”

“Sorry Sammy!”

“Fuck! Aurora! Light Heal!”

Aurora bounced from one person to the other, utilizing each of our mana to heal us, but I needed an extra Light Heal, a focused push on the spine I knew was broken. The feeling was not something I ever want to experience again as I focused on connect my lumbar bones that had been seperated. Aurora had made a full circle by that point and came back to me, easing some of the pain I felt before circling out to jump to the next person. The spell did not heal as much or as focused as light Heal did, it was a spell that focused on crowd healing rather than individual healing, so it was not as directed in it’s efforts, plus it wasn’t really high leveled at the moment so it needed multiple runs to take care of all the problems. The upside was that it didn’t fully rely on my mana, and at least if differentiated between my allies and my enemies.

I got back up to my feet, and threw a light Heal at Kaixuan, making sure to use the process to take a closer look at him and making sure he wasn’t too injured. And it was in doing that I heard the Brood mother moving, I quickly turned to look at her, wary of an attack. So far she had kept clear of the temple, almost as if she was scared or stepping on it or coming close. And now on closer look it seems her broodlings have been severely reduced. Of those I could still see alive, only a few hundred of them were left, and it did not seem as if she was making any more, plus her massive airplane like form had been reduced to that of a small yacht. She was out of mana, or at the very least low on it or have reached a limit where she can’t spawn anymore of these damn spiders.

“Do you think this is a victory? Do you think you have won? On the contrary human child of legends, just like the elves that came before you, so too will you call to my children or to my power. Your time of death draws close, see you soon doomed ones.” And then she turned and left, without even looking back.

“Yeah that’s right! You better run mademoiselle spider! We’re dangerous!”

“Damn it Laurent you fool! We’re so fucked!” Malkova yelled at the young Frenchman with a worried look on her face.

“Who invited the slut into the conversation?” Laurent bit back, his eyes blazing in anger and annoyance.

“What did you just say to my sister you … ..”

“Oh shut the fuck up Andrej! I’ve had it with you and your bitch of a sister!” Salma yelled at him, shocking most of us as it never seemed like she had it in her to curse.

“All of you shut the fuck up!” I yelled out, bringing all of them to order as I turned to look at the Arachne Brood Mother as she made her way back to the lake.

“Laurent; Malkova is right, if we let her regain her Mana then we will be facing another army of spiders, we could get seriously hurt….. or worse. And unlike me… .you all will be dead for good. We have to go after her and make sure we put her down…. Permanently. Kimberly I need you to make the bomb you just made again, this time make it bigger, and this time make more! We’re going to kill that bitch or we die trying!”