Lifestealer: Cursed Healer [A LITRPG Isekai Survival]

Symon re-entered the outside world — at least as outside as he could get while stuck in this dungeon. He had no real plan in mind, but was sure they couldn't stay cooped up in a cave filled with toxic fumes for long.

The cavern wall was so craggy that he never ran out of foot and handholds, but that still didn't mean he was fast. He scrambled to the side as quickly as he could, making space for Entisse to crawl out after him. Where his movements were jerky and hesitant, she flowed out and onto the wall like water.

Or blood.

More important was the giant spider's presence. It was almost directly below them, probably wanting to cut them off from reaching the forest floor far below. It was around a two-hundred-metre drop, though it was less of a sheer wall and more of a very steep hill for the last half. Even with his Constitution, a hundred-metre fall onto the stone below and then a bouncing tumble would almost certainly be instantly fatal, not giving him any time to heal himself. He could improve his chances by aiming for the canopy, but jumping off the cliff was going to be his Plan Z.

The spider danced from side to side, its clawed leg tips stabbing deep into the wall. Even with half of its legs damaged, it was still at home on the vertical battlefield in a way that Symon and Entisse were decidedly not.

Even with that advantage, and despite the rage simmering in its many eyes, the spider did not advance. True to its nature, it seemed content to wait for them to approach.

With no ranged attacks available on either side, they were both at an impasse. He couldn't even drop rocks on it, as there were no loose ones in the cave, and the stone was far too hard for him to break chunks off. He could throw his sword at it, but that seemed stupid. It wasn't doing much sheathed at his side — he couldn't climb with it taking up one hand, but he was confident he could draw it quickly if needed — but he didn't want to throw away his only weapon other than his magic.

Speaking of, his thread had already stretched out and latched onto the spider, beginning to refill his reserves that had gotten low fighting against the venom and acidic fumes. It worked automatically, without him needing to break through its resistance like he had the first time, but it still felt like he was trying to drink water through a straw filled with sand.

Maybe the spider was strong enough to sense the magical intrusion, or maybe the rage directed at the killer of its children simply happened to win out over instinct. Either way, it took that moment to begin charging at him.

A normal spider running at you was bad enough, let alone one bigger than Symon was, but he reacted quickly.

He drew his sword while swinging himself back towards the cave. At the same time, he issued a mental command to his newest minion. It darted out of the cave, its many legs poking into the stone and carrying it forward until it stopped, interposed between Symon and its mother.

The giant spider stopped its charge instantly, its powerful legs driving into the wall. Its body bounced and swayed slightly as the momentum bled off, while every single one of its eyes moved from Symon to the spiderling.

It had seen him do something to its dead young, but Symon had been careful to hide any sign of the reanimation from his opponent.

He hadn't been sure what the spider's reaction would be, though he'd been hoping the undead spiderling would serve as a brief distraction. What he hadn't expected was for it to be so effective.

The giant spider stood stock still, the only motion its many eyes darting between Symon and its young. He would never know how the mother spider would have reacted, as a storm of hissing and slashing claws named Entisse chose that moment to land on it.

It didn't even begin to react until a few seconds after she started savaging it. She held on with just her legs as she carved deep furrows through its body with wide, sweeping motions with her claws. Bits of chitin came flying off, with blood and gore following soon after.

The chunks of exoskeleton fell, bouncing off the wall with a gentle pitter-patter. Some bounced all the way down to the forest floor, while others stopped on small ledges and outcroppings.

But the blood didn't fall — at least not for long. Great spurting arcs sprayed out before returning on a wild orbit, sometimes missing Entisse and looping back around several times. When it returned, it spread over her pale grey skin like oil on water, starting at her hands and quickly working its way up her body. Every time a gout of blood flew out from the spider and returned to her, her wild slashes seemed to move just a little bit faster, and cut slightly deeper.

It wasn't enough.

The giant spider might have been weakened, but the vertical terrain hurt Symon and Entisse more than enough to make up for it. Killing something an entire Step above them would have been hard enough in the best of circumstances, and this was far from it.

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The spider blurred into motion, finally snapping out of its trance. It skittered up the wall as fast as Symon could run on flat ground, and obliterated the undead spiderling with a single flick of one of its legs. The little legs and body scattered over a wide area as it sailed through the air, and the thin black bond he'd had with the spiderling winked out of existence.

Hissing in rage and pain, the creature rammed the side of its body into the stone wall. Entisse's hisses cut out with a scream, which itself cut out into a pained, strangled noise when it repeated the process.

From his position directly above the spider, he had a close-up view of Entisse's battered body being rammed into the jagged stone wall. She was still hissing and clawing, but both were rapidly weakening.

Symon's vision narrowed to pinpricks. He'd just lost all his friends, taken by the Empire. She'd just saved his life, keeping his blood flowing where it should have been still and cold. And now, he was helpless to save her.

Or was he?

His clouded vision followed the path of the stones cracking off the wall, chunks flying down and skipping off the cliff wall. When they hit one of the many outcroppings in the wall, they cracked into pieces. If they missed those and fell directly to the ground far below, they exploded into dust on impact.

<No, no, Symon, we don't need—> Keelgrave's panicked voice started, but Symon had already pushed off the wall.

The wind whistled in his ears and streamed through his messy hair as he fell for a single, shuddering heartbeat. Then, he impacted sword first directly between the arm-sized mouth pieces, plunging hilt-deep through the soft, unprotected meat. Judging by the screech it let out, he'd missed its brain, but he wasn't done yet. More accurately, gravity wasn't done yet.

When the feather-light Entisse had pounced onto their foe, she'd landed gently, then climbed around it like a rabid squirrel. Symon had none of her grace, but he had one advantage: mass. He was far from someone like Atabek or even the still respectably muscled Aslan, but he had made some gains. Even with his lean frame, he was still a full-grown man. That, coupled with the spider's damaged legs, the fresh wounds from Entisse, the stolen vitality, and the sword through its mouth was enough to get it off of Entisse.

It was also enough to detach it from the cavern wall.

Keelgrave shouted something in his mind, but he tuned the spirit out. Man and spider locked together as they plummeted, but the rage-filled arachnid wasn't content to let gravity finish Symon off. It twisted forward to try and bite him, but with nothing except air to push off, it was incapable of its usual speed. It still came close to filling Symon with its powerful venom, as the motion only halted when Symon grabbed onto opposite fanged appendages.

Even through his panic at the situation he'd literally thrown himself into, the horrible view into its mouth still gave him pause. The spider didn't stop, though. Its mouthparts strained against Symon, trying to crush down on him and deliver their lethal payload, while its legs alternated between trying to curl in far enough to push him off and scrabbling for purchase on the wall.

A wordless shout escaped Symon's lips as he wrestled with the spider. He knew that it would have eventually won — all it needed was a tiny bit of venom to shift the stalemate in its favour — but neither of them would need to think about that.

A sudden lurch, as if a parachute just went off, whipped his head into the spider as they both impacted something with a bone-shattering crunch.

Then, everything went black.

Entisse groaned from within a hole in the cavern wall. It was quite snug, reminding her a little of her nest back home, though this one was far less welcoming, largely due to the many-legged creature trying to crush her to death in a blind range. Ironic, she thought, considering its many eyes.

With all the blood she'd stolen from it channeled into the shell of Sanguine Empowerment, its attacks merely bruised bone instead of shattering them. Only dregs of mana remained to maintain the protection, and while she could use her own blood instead, that was a losing proposition.

The next time it reared back to slam down on her, she reached out with one hand and delivered a quick swipe of her claws across its vulnerable eyes. Soft jelly parted under her natural weapons, making the monster rear back and hiss at her.

Not one to be outdone, she hissed back, though she didn't like how raspy it came out.

Recognising it was going to slam back down and perhaps attempt to bite her, she drew her arms back in to cover her face. Her protection wasn't infallible, and worked best when she had a wider surface and more blood to disperse the blow across.

She didn't end up needing to find out if her defences would be able to take the hit, as a familiar blood source fell from above their heads like a broken off stalactite, stabbing into the stupid monster with the annoyingly loud hiss right in its face.

Her bones creaked as she pulled herself out of the indent as fast as she could, one hand hurriedly grasping out, but it was too late. Both the spider and her only ally were already out of range, plummeting down to the floor a hundred paces below.

Just like her home.

Her hand trembled in the air before flopping limply to her side. It was often said that the Gods posessed a cruel sense of humour; though few curried their favour in the depths, those who did often shared similar fables. She thought they would be laughing now.

With one hand digging into the stone for grip, she silently observed as the two spun and tumbled in a deadly dance, picking up speed faster and faster. It spelled death for everyone, herself included. The strength of numbers was necessary to have any chance of survival here, so she was watching her life fall away as well. Perhaps she could hide and subsist for some time, but she still needed to sleep.

She watched her only chance of surviving long enough to get revenge against those who slaughtered her people fall away. The spider twisted and squirmed, seemingly confused between attacking the human and trying to save itself.

One leg flashed out, sticking into the wall. Momentum was not so easily arrested, however, and the damaged limb tore off completely, jerking them both into a spin, hitting the wall, bouncing off, and slamming into the ground. It was far enough away that she only barely heard the impact, but there was no mistaking the red and green liquid spreading out from the impact site.

With a resigned hiss, she dug her claws into the wall and started sliding down.