Might as Well

While Sam would never claim he was particularly handsome or beautiful, even now in his bedraggled state with most of his non-armor clothing hanging off him in tatters and bleeding from many small wounds, courtesy of the many shrapnel stone shards and unavoidable strikes from his enemy, he still looked much better than the snarling visage of the arachne hell-bent on murdering him.

The arachne in front of him was also breathing heavily, missing both of its original arms made of stone, replaced by shadows and red lightning, one of its pincers and one eye – nicked accidentally by a strike that missed the monster’s neck – while the black ichor-like substance seeping from the crystal wedged into its chest was almost fully covering it.

The remaining seven eyes were narrowed both in exhaustion and anger, glaring directly at Sam as he met those eyes with his own, trying to look really exhausted.

It was tough to balance the battle between trying to survive the onslaught and trying to lower the monster’s health while keeping a keen eye on the candles so that Sam could strike at the exact moment that Adam and the rest of the guild did on the outside.

He had no idea what would have happened if he had struck the monster down without the candles being extinguished but Sam suspected it was anything from going to the next phase of the fight – summoning minions, being empowered, or worst of all, maybe even an unavoidable cutscene – to the monster simply regenerating.

Naturally, there was the chance that nothing would have happened, but Sam knew he wasn’t that lucky…

Thus, his desperate battle trying not to hit a critical spot, while slowly but surely chipping away at the monster’s health.

Then, as his timer reached five minutes, the last two candles began to waver and Sam knew his moment would come soon.

Unfortunately, the monster had the same idea.

With surprising speed, it clapped together its two arms made of shadows and released a wave of red energy tinted by black at the edge in a cone shape, straight at Sam.

Sam did what he did best and dodged the incoming attack. However, it seemed the monster was ready this time. Wreathed in flickering darkness, red eyes shining with malevolence, the monster was instantly on him, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into one of the walls of the chapel.

The arachne grinned, showcasing several rows of sharp teeth as the stump of the missing pincer dramatically let out a few drops of ichor. Something resembling a grin appeared on the monster’s face as, for a moment, it was seemingly content with holding Sam to the wall, only his depleting Mana Shield preventing him from choking.

As Sam gazed back, arms and legs moving around haphazardly trying to find purchase, he saw that the demonic darkness in the crystal wedged into the torso of the arachne seemingly deepened and if he looked really close, he could see two additional red eyes, looking straight at him with satisfaction. Then he blinked, and the vision was gone, replaced by cold reality.

Thankfully, he came prepared for this exact scenario.

Well, not exactly this scenario.

Being choked by an arachne twice his size in a discount goth hook-up spot wasn’t something he planned for, but the theoretical would still match…

Sam took his mana, twisted it around in a certain way, and then refocused on his opponent, who just raised their other arm, covered in sharp-looking lightning, ready to take his head off.

Then, like an avenging angel, Lucky shot out from one of the many shadows of the room, claws and teeth gleaming with unrestrained mana, almost ripping the very air around it apart as the furious wolf rushed toward the arachne.

The spider monster had exactly a fraction of a second to realize what was happening as the loyal familiar tore his back apart while also pushing it forward at Sam, who was still held by one of the shadowy arms.

Straight into one of Sam’s own arms as he lashed out holding a dagger made of shadow, driving it deep into the stone jaw of the arachne, the motion powered both by him and by the force that Lucky inflected on the arachne.

For a long moment, everything stood still, even Lucky pausing his movement as the wolf prepared to strike again.

Then Sam used the shadow dagger lodged into the brainstem of the monster and channeled one of his nifty air balls through it.

BAM

A small explosion and the crumbling wall opposite of him was painted an interesting shade of gray by the insides of the monster’s skull.

He raised his legs and kicked straight at the torso of the monster which was frozen and sent it to topple backward, finally freeing his throat and landing on the ground with a soft thud while Lucky prowled around the edge of the room, hackles raised, ready for anything.

Despite pretty much killing the arachne, Sam didn’t relax. The candles were still lit, no matter how weak they spluttered, and more importantly, the parts of the arachne that were held together with mana were still there, albeit a little dimmer.

All of it being fed by the shard that had consumed the entire torso and making headway with the throat of the arachne.

Sam knew that using his own hand, even covered with a glove, to yank out the shard of crystal would be the height of foolishness. Thus, he took a step backward from the mostly dead monster (he would be looking for loose change later) and reached for his inventory, retrieving one of his prepared runic circles.

He couldn’t help but grin, as at the exact moment he threw out the plates containing the runic circle, the candles (hopefully) representing the legs of the titanic monster went out one by one.

The mana in the monster flared, but he was a moment faster and injected his mana into the closest plate, containing his Heart Rune, and activated it.

Black mana surged from the crystal, seemingly consuming the body of the arachne in the process.

In the end, what stood before him, cowered in a dome of off-white mana, was a shadowy being, with eight arms and a serpent-like tail and three red eyes that were still glaring at Sam.

“Sup, demon!” He greeted the parasite with a vicious grin. “Having fun?”

The voice that came out was sibilant, yet echoed around as if they were in a giant auditorium. Sam couldn’t really tell if it was a male or female voice.

“Bright one…” it called out, its three eyes meeting Sam’s two as he raised Moonlight. “You shall be consumed… Our hunger is unending…”

“How about no?” Sam answered, then with another twist at the creation preventing the demon from moving around, the off-white dome shattered into countless pieces, much like glass would, and before the monster could react the falling shards rushed toward the many arms and tail and formed into glowing white chains while Sam flew forward, sword enveloped with wind and shadow mana, plus a little Clean magic added just to be sure.

The sword pierced exactly between the three eyes, causing one last exclamation of the monster before it was fully dispersed.

“Watch your steps… Bright one!”

Sam stood there, breathing heavily, his hand holding his sword shaking, Lucky was still prowling around to make sure nothing ambushed them and tried to calm the adrenalin raging through him.

Because if that runic circle didn’t work, he would have been in rather big trouble. Fighting against some kind of demonic spirit was much harder than a berserker arachne.

However, before he could even start to process the fight, the very last candle in the chapel went out, leaving him and his familiar in full darkness.

“Light Ball!” he intoned, summoning the ball to illuminate his surroundings as he felt the mana on the edge of his senses begin to unravel.

He bent down and shoveled the few items remaining on the ground into his inventory, not even bothering to check them out, and stepped forward, all his attention was on the mural above the altar that he hadn't been able to take a look at on account of trying not to die.

His light showed him a rather interesting picture.

On the left side, the humanoid figures living near the mountain, showcasing some primitive cattle herding and farming, while on the right spiders were doing the same, only underground.

Over the top was a band filled alternatively with the sun and different phases of a moon, no doubt representing the passage of time.

In the middle were several concentric circles. Between the first two was a series of runes that Sam maybe recognized a tenth of. Still, he made sure to record them properly for later perusal. Then he took a look at the innermost image.

There were three things.

A humanoid figure on the left, a spider on the right, and on top of that, a very stylistic rendition of an arachne.

‘Huh… well that will be a great help in the future…’ Sam mused as he realized what the runes were probably for.

“Now I only need to figure out a way to get out…” he said out loud while motioning Lucky to get back into his shadow. The wolf let out a victorious howl, then simply took a step back, removing himself from the direct light of Sam’s magic, and sank into the created shadows with a proud look in his eyes.

Sam grinned, planning to reward the wolf with some quality meat for his help, then turned back to the altar.

Sadly, there was nothing helpful on the mural for his escape, but when he turned his attention to the altar that held the previously burning candles, he spotted a small circular part where the melted wax had been recently removed.

There he spotted another runic circle, crudely carved, but this time he actually recognized all the symbols.

“If that’s the travel, and that’s open…then I need to…YES!” Injecting mana on the specific part, he watched as the crude creation flashed with the same color as the portal that brought him here. It seemed the demon planned to abscond with the possessed body after it killed him.

The portal sprang to life right in front of him, and before he stepped through it, he glanced back at the ruined chapel as his mana senses screamed at him to escape as the plane was unraveling at an exponential rate.

In the gate of the chapel, he saw an almost see-through version of the arachne. It looked at him, but the madness was gone from his eyes, instead, it was filled with admiration. It bowed its head once then turned around just in time to be caught by the unraveling mana threads and blown to the ethereal winds, unmade in all totality.

Not wasting time, Sam simply stepped forward just before the entire sub-dimension vanished from existence.

He found himself in the same place where he entered the monster, however, the surroundings were completely different.

The mountain on the monster’s back was almost completely gone, the monster wasn’t moving and was visibly at a lower level and as he looked over the vast surroundings, he could see hundreds or even thousands of people streaming toward the titan monster all of them waving different banner and flags.

Then his messenger rang.

“Yappers?”

Adam appeared on the other side.

“Still alive?”

“It seems so.”

“Any complications?”

“Nothing earth-shattering…”

“Then Plan Blooming Lotus is still go?”

“Indeed…”

Adam looked away from his call as he took a small breather while another team swapped in for his position as they ‘tried’ to keep the enemy from overwhelming them. There were still a lot of stone spiders rushing about, but at this point, the enemy players were much more dangerous.

He turned to one of his aides.

“Positions?”

“All petals accounted for.”

“Pollen?”

“Distributed.”

He took one long look at the battlefield as his guild members did their best to hold the ground, then took a deep breath and nodded, trying to keep calm.

“Then send the signal.”