DISCOVERY PART 5E

Day 448; 1610 (Afternoon)

Focus: 513

513 aimed his spear-sword towards the obstruction as he positioned himself to dash. After adjusting his center of gravity and locking his feet in place, he launched himself forward, propelling his body towards the blocked exit faster than the eye could see.

With a loud bang, the explosive nature of 513’s strike produced a momentary flash of light that caused the immediate area to drown in a wash of phosphorus white. The blinding flash was then followed by a strong gust of wind that rushed towards the tunnel exit.

Even 513 was surprised by the effect.

He surmised that the gust itself was caused by air pressure draining out from the tunnel and into the clearing beyond the exit. If he had to describe the feeling, it would be akin to being stuck inside a pressurized tank during the moment the rubber seal failed, causing the contents to spill out from the container as the pressure within and without the vessel normalized to reach equilibrium.

However, rather than continue moving forwards after completing his attack, 513 reflexively leapt away from the exit and landed back at the location where he had initially stood.

Breathing deeply, he resolved himself and hesitantly pulsed True Sense out towards the tunnel exit.

[I might hallucinate again, but I don’t have any other options.]

The ability swept passed the tunnel and out through the exit almost instantaneously. The modified conical shape of the ability radiated several dozen strides away from the mouth of the exit and out towards several sickly trees where an interesting surprise awaited him.

[That's...why am I not surprised it was something like that…] Thought 513 as he verified what his ability had picked up using his normal vision. [Of course it was a fucking spider...]

Just beyond the tunnel exit lay an imposing False Arachne. One towering even above Areikys. Although the monstrosity was large -- larger than anything 513 had encountered before -- beyond its sheer scale, nothing of merit distinguished the spider apart from its relatively smaller counterparts,

[So, aside from its size and toughness, the differences are negligible when compared to the rest. And here I thought I would have to fight some form of perverse variant. How boring.]

With this thought in mind, 513 was not surprised that his attack had tossed the massive spider’s body beyond the mouth of the exit like a ragdoll, only to be stopped by a sickly tree.

Inspecting the Goliath False Arachne closer, 513 found that it’s large thorax had partially wrapped around the tree that had stopped its pitiful body. And although it appeared to have expired from the injuries it had sustained, its body continued to violently convulse, causing the tree that it was stuck to, to sway to and fro.

[Looks like I destroyed one of its eyes.] Mused 513 as he continued to observe the oddity. [Would it not have been better to use a thicker part of its body to block the exit?...well, with its size being like that, its options were likely limited.]

Turning his attention back to his current predicament, 513 contemplated his options.

513: "Hmm."

He muttered.

[This is a bit too easy. I should test something out.]

Passing his spear-sword over to his shield wielding hand, 513 momentarily stroked his beard to comfort his mind. He then grabbed a few rocks out from the pouch attached to his utility belt. After casually tossing the rocks towards the open exit with minimal effort, 513 waited for a response.

[Plotters gonna’ plot. Schemers gonna’ scheme.] He mumbled in his thoughts.

The moment the rocks passed through the tunnel exit, they were quickly turned to dust.

During the occurrence, 513 had put all his focus into his dynamic vision and sensitive hearing -- two of the four senses he had been training to supplement his True Sense ability. This allowed him to witness almost every attack inflicted on the harmless rocks he had tossed earlier.

[I couldn’t quite make out every detail, but those were definitely spider legs thrashing the rocks into bits.] He thought.

Preparing himself for imminent attack, 513 squared up his shoulders, planted his feet firmly on the ground, retrieved several more rocks from the pouch attached to his utility belt, then immediately shot out a flurry of projectiles towards the edges of the exit.

The rocks cut through the air at blinding speeds -- fast enough that a semi visible trail for each projectile’s flight path could be seen within the gloomy interior of the tunnel.

The rocks buried themselves into the walls of the tunnel without much resistance, passing through the wall of webs until making contact with the hard bodies of the False Arachne’s laying in wait on the outer wall. Upon impact, both the rocky projectiles and spiders’ hard shell shattered from the instantaneous dispersal of kinetic energy. Each of the three spiders that had planned to ambush 513 the moment he stepped out from the tunnel had their insides devastated by fragmented pieces of shrapnel caused by the energetic collision. With nowhere else to go, the shrapnel burst out from the spiders’ backs, creating exit wounds so massive that looking at the spiders would make one think that they had been shot at by artillery fire.

The clattering of soft and hard objects of varying sizes could be heard hitting the ground as 513 loosened his stance and pulsed out True Sense once more.

After confirming the end results of his attack, he breathed out a sigh of relief.

Feeling a moment of joy in such a depressing situation, the corners of his mouth slowly rose into a smile.

513: “It’s SUPER EFFECTIVE!”

He shouted absentmindedly.

[I always wanted to say that!]

513 then gave himself a high five and finished his small victory with a gutsy pose.

[I can’t be serious all the time.] He thought. [It’s fine to act stupid from time to time. Besides, the Protector can’t see me inside this tunnel. Ehehehe.]

Thinking so, he continued on with his parade of idiocy.

◊◊◊◊◊◊

Day 448; 1613 (Afternoon)

Focus: 513

Unfortunately for 513, even good things come to an end.

His celebration was suddenly cut short as the ground below his feet began to fiercely tremble. As a result, fine dust, ash, and floor debris was launched up into the air.

513’s relatively lax demeanor quickly turned sour as he was forced to cover his mouth in an attempt to prevent unknown contaminants from entering his lungs. The lighthearted expression he had carried on his face from experiencing a moment of brief joy and triumph was lost. Now, only a calm, expressionless facade covered his face.

He slowly inhaled deeply as his thoughts raced to process every piece of information readily available to him.

[Using True Sense here would only get me partial data since its range is still quite limited, but I don’t need to use it to know what’s coming.]

Several hundred paces beyond the quivering body of the collapsed Goliath False Arachne approached a dark, swarming mass that littered the entire forest floor. From 513’s vantage point within the tunnel, the mass’ size stretched further than the reaches of the dimming light of the sickly forest.

This view struck a nerve within 513.

His arms began to shiver as heat drained from his body. A pool of cold sweat drenched his scalp and soaked into his long strands of hair as an uncomfortable sensation crept up his spine.

He once again felt fear.

[Shit. Shit. Shit.] He cursed inwardly as terror eclipsed his mind.

He was turning into a nervous wreck after spotting an army of spiders marching towards his direction.

[Gah. My heightened senses are only good for scouting and surveillance. What should I do?]

513 had plenty of experience fighting off small groups of spiders out in the open. The generous spacing between trees had given him ample opportunity to confront his targets with neither advantage or disadvantage. But an army -- that was different. Even his positioning was not ideal for handling the current crisis.

Doubt and fear caused his body to go through the most basic survival instinct: fight or flight.

While his body tried to flee in a panic, his mind worked hard to remain calm. He understood that running without a shred of resistance would only work to hinder him in the future. So he needed to come up with a plan that would work in his favor.

Forcing himself to stand still, 513 initiated a meditative breathing exercise that had helped him regain control of his mental and physical faculties numerous times in the past. It was a move that worked almost immediately.

[I had anticipated this, but...well, I just have to survive. Right?] He thought to himself after releasing a full breath of air.

By this point, even the walls of the tunnel had begun to tremor from the oncoming danger.

The shaking itself was caused by the coordinated marching of hundreds, if not, thousands of spiders. It was like experiencing a minor earthquake.

Soon after the walls began to shake, a deafening sound of countless clacking legs entered the tunnel, reaching 513’s ears.

[Damn, even the sound dampening properties of this tunnel can't negate such a clamorous noise.]

513: “Time to move.”

Declared 513.

---Chapter End