Chapter 143: Massive spider
By the end of an hour, the floor was littered with the bodies of multiple people that had been cleared from the spiders and were now free. With their joint strength, it did not take long before they managed to save a lot, but even then, they could not save all. A huge amount of spiders managed to use the humans as shields, and they were forced to kill the spiders and the humans.
While everyone was busy catching their breath, Luna walked to Ren.
"Ren, Luna sees something inside the manor." She pointed ahead to the Baron manor up ahead.
"Hmm? Something is there? What type of thing are we talking about?" Ren asked.
"Spider energy, very large."
"I see," he responded and started heading that way.
"It seems there is a bigger fish to fry inside the manor. I’ll head there and handle it, the rest of you rest," Ren said as he walked. He spread his wings and shot into the air, moving fast and reaching the manor in seconds.
The moment he flew over the compound, he immediately saw something that caused his stomach to churn. Right there on the floors were bodies of humans that had parts of their bodies ripped off.
Ren flew down and landed on the ground. He looked at the bodies with no particular emotion.
"Seems something went feeding," he began walking there while humming his tune.
🎶 I am a dragon, a big big dragon, I am a dragon, a big big dragon.
He stopped at the door and looked at the floor, blood seeping from under it. It was fresh, meaning whatever was inside had done this only now.
He pressed his hands on the door and pushed it open, and immediately more blood rushed out with chunks of flesh and bones in it.
"I can feel a presence here," he muttered, and he stepped in, his boots digging into blood. He walked a few steps in and looked around. The stench of blood and rot filled the air, enough to choke someone.
"Now where are you going to be?" He asked and began sniffing around. Until something dropped from above onto his shoulder, he looked at it and it was some viscous liquid, like spit.
"Shit," he cursed and immediately moved away from that spot fast. In that exact moment, a massive spider at least twice the size of the one he had killed in the town came from above and slammed into the ground, all legs digging into the wooden floors deep.
"Damn, you are a big one."
Ren looked at the chest of the monster, and right there was a little girl no more than ten. She was hanging from the chest of this spider and was almost fired out. It was evident that this spider had drained her and even proceeded to eat all the humans that were around.
’Shit, I’m not going to kill a spider that has a kid in it. I’m a monster, but I’m not a monster. I have to find a way to attack and kill this one without needing to harm the girl at all.’
While Ren was thinking, the spider attacked, shooting out a venom that looked blood red. Ren moved out of the way. The venom hit the floor and immediately melted through it.
"Shit, that’s hot."
[Quest Update: Save the girl]
[Reward: Ancient Map]
[Penalty: All stats halved]
"Well, that’s a bit much for a punishment, but regardless, I planned to save her either way. This is more incentive to go for it and take this big arachnid down."
The spider shot venom again, the blood-red stream coming fast and angled to cut off his movement.
Ren moved, stepping sideways as it hit the floor beside him, the wood dissolving on contact with a hiss that filled the room with acrid smoke.
He closed the distance.
The spider’s legs came down between them, multiple at once, driving into the floorboards and splintering them, trying to create a wall of limbs before he could get inside its reach. Ren read the pattern and went between the second and third leg, the Soul Eater already moving, and the blade drove into the spider’s exoskeleton with enough force that it stuck for a half second before he pulled it free.
The gash it left behind was deep.
The spider screamed, the sound wrong in the enclosed space of the manor, and immediately shot webs from its back, thick white cables that flew upward and adhered to the ceiling and walls simultaneously. It used them to yank itself backward at a speed that the size of it had no business achieving, slamming into the far wall with all eight legs stabbing into the wood and plaster to hold itself there.
It looked down at him from above.
"Still running," Ren said.
He raised both hands, and the energy spheres formed around him, six of them, humming and ready, and he sent them up in a spread pattern aimed to cover the angles the spider had available on the wall.
The spider moved across the wall faster than the spheres tracked, each one detonating against the surface and tearing chunks out of it, dust and splinters filling the air, but the spider was already repositioning by the time each one hit.
Then it stopped.
It turned its chest toward him deliberately, slowly, making sure he could see clearly.
The girl was there. Eyes closed. Barely breathing. Positioned directly between him and anything he could throw at the spider’s center mass.
Ren’s expression went flat.
"Coward," he said quietly.
The spider opened its mouth and compressed the venom into a tight ball this time, not a stream, and fired it straight down at him.
Ren dropped back. The ball hit the floor and detonated outward in every direction, a splash of venom catching his arm, the searing pain immediate and sharp.
He looked at his arm.
The shadow fell over him before he looked back up.
He rolled, came up fast, the spider’s leg driving into the exact spot he had been occupying, wood splintering deep beneath the impact. Another leg came down, and he stepped around it. Another, and he faded back, reading each one, letting them come close enough to be certain before he moved.
He pushed off the ground hard and launched upward.
He came down from above the spider, outside the range of the girl at its chest, the Soul Eater pointed down, and drove it into the spider’s back with everything behind it.
The blade went deep.