[Morph: Wolf Cub]

The world got smaller as my body seemed to shrink into itself, bones shifting and changing, letting out significant cracks as my perception changed. In no time at all there was a small wolf standing in front of the members of my cohort; me. Malkova was the only one that has seen the process of my morph, the others had seen me as a wolf and seen me change back into a human form. Either way it was not as if it mattered, there was no opinion to be had about this, I’m a druid, things like this was probably the norm for my class as it is.

I moved forwards and used my jaw to grab the two wrapped up bundles that was Kimberly’s black widow of black widows(she needed better names). We only had two shots against the brood mother, and no matter how desperate things got, I had to make sure that they all counted. It was a lot of pressure to be honest, but at this point in my life, there really wasn’t much of a choice, now was the time for action. I raised my head and watched as the others moved forwards, Ricardo blending into the darkness, as Laurent seemed to vanish. Lightning danced allover Andrej’s body, Salma grew extra illusory arms, each holding a different weapon, as Tobias seemed to grow a little bit bigger, Nguyen pulled a spear from God knows where, symbols on it lighting up as a yin-yang symbol appeared underneath Kaixuan, before bursting into flames, that licked his body with a lovers touch yet did not burn him. Dust swirled and Within it specks of fire could also be seen as Amina called on the power of her miracle. Kimberly and Malkova were taking a backseat for this one, their miracles did not afford them explosive battle prowess or skills that could be applied effectively on the battlefield.

I waited for them to move towards the small forest in front of the temple, watched silently with the cores in my jaws until the sounds of combat reached me, and that was when I made my move. I ran off the steps of the temple into the forest, ignoring the sound dead leaves and broken branches made as my paws went stepped onto and past them. The forest itself was pretty gloomy, awash with mystery and eerie in it’s existence. But there really wasn’t much of the trees around to provide cover, just enough though as I circled away from the conflict, trying my best to be as stealthy as possible in an attempt to flank the brood mother.

Andrej and the others were not fighting her as we’ve already established that such an act would be pretty much suicide on their part. No what they were doing was attacking what was left of the brood, with the possibility of attracting the attention of the brood mother and perhaps dragging her back towards the temple where they can be safe from her attack, and she would be vulnerable to one from me. None the less even if such a scenario did not play out, they were attacking to give me enough chance to get close to her and set the bombs off, and with both of them this close, it would probably be one heck of an explosion, not unless of course I plan it a little differently. I paused, in front of me was the beach before the massive lack, pearly white sand stared back at me as the sounds of battle came from the east. I looked up at the tree besides me and then dropped one of the bombs, before trying to scale the tree as best as my Wolf Cub body could allow.

Of course such a move wasn’t easy in and out of itself, canines weren’t built for tree climbing, not like felines were. But I was still a human in a wolf’s body, so it stood to reason I would have a better idea about how to climb a tree, except of course I almost fell off six times. And each time came stupidly close to me smashing the cores together should I hit the ground, or against the tree if I had slipped. With the other one so close, I really did not want to find out what being blown apart would feel like. Either way getting up the tree was the hard part, stashing one of the black widows did not take much out of me as I jumped off, careful not to make as much sound, before picking up the last bomb and then moving out onto the beach.

I was right behind the brood mother, in the time that we had last seen her she had regained a bit of her bulk, which meant truly and sincerely speaking she was recovering the mana she had used to launch a sustained assault against us. And with Andrej and the others giving it their all against her brood in a fake attempt to get to her, she would probably have to expend more mana just to survive, but it would not be wise to not take in all the variables. She might decide to retreat, and while that might seem unthinkable, the fact that she had done

the first time tells me she’s not just some dumb dungeon boss. Plus with the lake in this equation, she could really take herself out of our reach, this first hit had to count, now I’m regretting dumping the other bomb, I should have just buried it close by, probably in one of those dunes that are littering the beach.

I walked forwards, slowly picking my steps as I went past a few of the dunes, drawing closer to the brood mother as Ricardo sent a lance of darkness flying in the Arachne’s direction. With 8 of the broodlings suddenly turning around and taking the fight to their own mother. If I had an eyebrow at that I would have raised it in surprise, I never knew Ricardo could do that. Suddenly a flock of massive ravens, three times the size of the Arachne appeared in the air, flying towards her as she reared back in shock and released an extremely weakened version of the blast that she had used to kill me the first time. The ravens vanished into motes of light as Laurent’s dark chuckle could be heard, followed by a wave of lightning that decimated much of the broodlings and struck the chest of the Arachne, pushing her closer to the water.

What the bloody hell are they doing! They’re not supposed to attack her, even so they were just to get her attention, not devolve into a full blown assault mode. They gave me little time to act as the Arachne was slowly inching backwards to the lake, one step at a time with absolutely no plan of slowing down. I rushed forwards, but had to quickly rely on instinct to dodge to the side as one of the dunes exploded and the Cymerian Cyborg Spider I had fought in that chamber of acid popped out. But it was not just one of them, there were dozens.

“Your petty tricks will not work on me intruders, even weakened I am still the brood mother of Durkenholm! I will not be defeated by the likes of you. So now feel despair, feel the pain and the rage and the desperation of loss as my children rip you apart!”

This was not good, this was really, really not good. I quickly ended the morph spell, the fact that I was buck ass naked completely unregistered to me as I jumped, going well over 6 feet into the air, narrowly evading one the spiders that leapt for me. I landed right in their middle once again, my mind straining itself at it’s peak as I attempted to escape from the encirclement I suddenly found myself in. [Lesser Spider Stride] the movement skill was severely invaluable at this point as I used it to move past three of the spider cyborgs, turning around just in time to smash my fist forwards.

[Lion Strike] [Wind Blast]

I felt the bones in my hands rattle as mana rushed through them, blasting out my clenched fist was the head of a lion wrapped in a surge of green wind. The wind smashed the spider into bits and released a powerful shockwave around me that threw the other spiders back. But mixing two skills was a danger, the first time I had tried this I had gotten lucky, but this time I had no such luck as the skin on my knuckles split open. It was blasted apart by the impromptu combination, leaving my bones exposed to the world.

“light Heal”

I called out through clenched teeth as I rushed forwards, having already made a path for myself. The Spiders recovered quickly though and gave chase, but rapid uses of [Lesser Spider Stride] helped me keep pace as I drew closer to the Arachne. And then she turned, this time ignoring the attacks the others were throwing at her and opening her mouth as if to scream. I didn’t think much, there was hardly any time to act and I was already close enough with just about 12 meters separating us, but if she was about to do what I was suspecting, then the others were all fucked.

“Run Idiots! Charge Shot!”

This was a skill that wholeheartedly relied on projectiles, better utilized with guns, bows, and cannons. But throwing something should work too, at the very least on principle anyways. But so far my luck hasn’t failed me, and I was banking on it as I threw Kimberly’s black widow bombs at the Arachne Brood mother, just as she released her soul searing scream. And it was all the chance I could get, and I know I’ll survive what comes next, but the others, they’re much too close, and I doubt I’d make it in time.

“Eeeeiiiiiiiiiiii!”

“Bra-BOOM!”

A concussive wave of energy, an explosion of selected mana, tied to the core of monsters. Cores that contain life, memories, skills, souls. It threw me back, releasing a blinding flash of light that obscured everything in my sight, going so far as making my eyes feel as if they had been burnt. Even before I landed I ached, I could feel the severity of the injuries about to befall me, even before I had the chance to do so. I hit the beach, i bounced, I felt my skin peel off as I skidded on parts of it that were coarse and not as smooth. Bones snapped, while others got separated and others cut into and out of my body, causing injuries both internal and external. And then there was the mana, running rough shod through my body with a vengeance, it was pain and horror all wrapped into one. But not my pain, not my horror as that had been dulled by the ringing in my ears after I had a head on collision with a cyborg spider. And then the splash as fell into the lake, the water burning on contact with my wounds rather than soothing the pain.

I arched my back in pain, feeling every inch of it as my mind and body struggled to withstand the onslaught of the lives, and of the souls of the monsters that were slain for this outcome to happen. They all were or were once alive, and this explosion of cores released all of that energy, that life out into the world, where it will never become a part or used for anything other than the severe destruction it just caused, this is my life.

[Light Heal]

Quick relief washed over and through me with such cool ease that I couldn’t help but release a sigh of contentment. At Max level [Light Heal] was something else entirely. For a moment I felt like just laying there and basking in the after glow of the healing spell, but my senses warned me to an approaching danger as I quickly rolled to the side, as the limb of a giant spider smashed into the ground besides me.

[Wind Blast]

I used the spell as a means to propel myself backwards from my attacker, utilizing [Lesser Spider Stride] to keep my balance and add even more ground between me and it. Looking up I noticed I was facing a woman with the bottom half of a spider, about the size of a small beetle car. I didn’t need anyone to point out to me that this was the Arachne Brood mother. Somehow she had still survive the explosion, but whatever method she had used, it looks like there was a price to be paid for it as she was a whole lot smaller than her former almost airplane sized frame, perhaps she was even bigger than that normally. But just because we had whittled down her defenses and mana, it didn’t mean that she was any less dangerous, and this was most probably the right time to fight her, I only have to…shit!

A thick bolt of spider silk came flying in my direction, moving with such speed that I couldn’t evade it. I was sent flying backwards, more bones in my body breaking in the process, as I landed close to where the others were, most of them laying very and frighteningly still. [Aurora] [Light Heal] [Blessed Body] [Entangle]

I felt my mana drain from me rapidly as I healed myself and the others, blessing them too and as quickly as I could since I had to cast the [Blessed Body] spell multiple times to cover all of them. Steel silk shot out from my gauntlets, this time also working in tandem with the earth as roots surged out to wrap around the Arachne Brood mother. But all it did was buy some precious few seconds as Andrej and Kaixuan were the first to get up, and seemed to be the only ones in any state to fight. The brood mother vibrated as a ball of black and reddish energy appeared in front of her and fired almost immediately, releasing a beam of corrosive energy that was heading our way.

Kaixuan clapped his hands together and an illusory yin-yang symbol sprung into existence in front us, intercepting the beam of destruction heading our way and stopping it in it’s tracks as a small shockwave was created and the sand on the beach blown backwards. I turned for a moment to see Ricardo, helping a distraught Laurent up, while a shocked Nguyen knelt besides Tobias who was doing still laying still, but staring up at nothing. silently, unmoving, without a hint of breath in him. “ He’s gone.” I whispered softly to myself, but it was loud enough that everyone else was able to hear me.

“Now’s not the time Samson, we have to get rid of this spider bitch, Kaixuan can’t hold on for long, and I’d rather not fall prey to that soul attack again, so get a move on!” I growled out in annoyance, almost snapping at Andrej for speaking, but it wasn’t as if he was wrong, we had to move and we had to move now. I rushed towards the Arachne, only for a few of her cyborg spiders to rush at me, murder in their mechanical eyes. I stretched my hands out towards them and used [Wind Drag] utilizing it at different spots to have them all crash into each other, before calling on the mana deep within me with an almost instinctual move as I pushed my palm outwards. [Wind Blast] throwing a significant amount of them backwards as I ran forwards, took one step and jumped into the air, utilizing all of my mana, this time pulling on an attribute from within.

[Lion Stomp]

Wind gathered around my body as I landed right in the middle of the heap of spiders I had unwittingly stacked together. There was a sound breaking limbs, followed by the groan of metal giving way under the strain of superior weight and power. followed quickly by an explosion of wind that threw me high into the air, as a bolt of lightning flew past me to slam into the face of the Arachne, leaving burn marks, in time for sand to surge up in the form of a spear and take off one of her legs. She screeched out in pain, backpedaling as she swiftly turned around to run away.

“Don’t let her get into the lake!” I shouted as I landed, rolling forwards to arrest my momentum.

A loud bang followed the wake of my call as Malkova from God knows where utilized her skills as a sniper to take off another one of the Arachne’s legs. Diverting her to the side, away from the lake as she ran towards the trees, and right in a direction that was extremely familiar to me. I followed, utilizing all of my speed with the help of the Lesser Spider Stride to keep up with her, but even at that she was still making good pace and drawing away from me faster than I could catch up. “Guys! Stay back!” I yelled as I shot the steel silk from my Cymerian gauntlet at a familiar tree, and at the same time casting a spell.

[Entangle]

The brood mother’s superior speed and single minded focus in getting away from us was her downfall, literally as she crashed into the sands, her limbs tightly grabbed by vines and roots that had shot out if the earth. I noticed a small glow suffusing them, as they drained whatever was left of her vitality, weakening her enough, to keep her still for the few seconds I need to grab the second black widow bomb, before using a [Wind Blast] to propel myself into the air, then using the steel silk from the gauntlet to grab a hold of the Arachne’s brood mother’s torso. I raised the bomb in the air, like I was dunking a basketball and dragged myself towards her, letting the steel silk that could retract and elongate at will, with a significant help from gravity, do the work of dragging me towards her. And as it did so I poured all of my mana into the bomb, causing it to glow a deep grey and green light as I smashed it on top of her head, the final nail in the coffin, and the inevitable coup de grace.

*BOOOOOOOM!*

And then, there was death.