TAKE ON ME [Survival LITRPG Apocalypse]

The growing Spider webs pushed them onward. Amber's Dad led the group out of Room 1.

The second tunnel was wider, but its webbed walls and dangling silver vines were no less claustrophobic. The skittering sound and creeping sensation of hundreds of Spider legs replayed in Amber's mind.

Richard's hand shot out. "Wait, there might be—"

Tom's foot snagged. There was a sickening plop.

Rotten egg sacs burst open from the ground, showering him with corrosive goop.

"Shit!" Her Dad's armor sizzled and melted. He pushed more Iron out from his skin, but the gunge kept eating through the plates. He grunted in pain.

"Dad!"

"I'm fine." Tom gritted his teeth. "It's slowing down. I used most of my Iron reserves for that."

"Dude, couldn't you have warned us sooner?" Bo said to Richard.

"My [Detect Harm] only works on me!"

"Richard, I'm going to move you next to Tom as we go through the tunnels," said Tess. "That way, you can warn us about boobytraps."

The color drained out of Richard's face with the speed of a running faucet.

*****

"Trap to your left, with low webs above. Watch it."

Despite the grumbling, Richard was proving adept at his role. They had made it to the end of the tunnel without further mishap.

Tom punched through another webbed veil, and they emerged into an enormous cavern.

Holy crap.

Layers of overlapping cobwebs rose around its conical edges. The space was so tall that an apartment block could fit comfortably inside. Gnarled roots twisted along the ground, their gaps linked by thick gossamer strands.

[Wave 1 of 1]

Amber's boot snagged on a thick piece of cobweb. She shivered, and ripped her foot away. She strained her senses, expecting a howl to shred her ears, or to be bowled over by those horrible hairy legs. Chloe was pressed up against her; Amber wasn't sure whether it was Chloe who was trembling, or whether it was herself.

None of them spoke.

There was no movement on the cavern walls.

Her Dad stepped carefully forward, his Flail and Shield raised.

Kate the Bear stalked up beside Amber and Chloe. Her heavy breaths warmed Amber's cheek. Amber peered up at her mother's huge form, and her heart dropped.

Long, spindly legs crept over the horizon line of Kate the Bear's shoulder. A fanged head with multiple bulbous eyes was just visible over the Bear's fur.

Amber tried to scream, but it came out as a rasp.

The Spider's jaws burrowed into Kate the Bear's shoulder. She reared up and roared in pain, then threw herself from side to side—almost trampling Amber and Chloe. A giant hairless shape landed on a nearby root and scuttled away.

Amber wasn't sure what made her look up.

Dozens of hairless Spiders crawled toward them from the top of the cavern.

Bruh...

[Level 6 Web Slinger Wolf Spider: Dungeon Born.]

"New hostiles!" Tess yelled.

Amber backed as far as possible from the walls.

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"Tom, get ready for incoming ground swarms!" said Tess. "Chloe, use crowd control to help him."

The Spiders crept closer, their bald heads swiveling unnaturally. Their movements were completely silent.

Kate the Bear crouched in front of the group. She limped on her front right leg, but her eyes were ferocious.

Amber pushed down her fear. She danced back and forth to stay limber, ready for Tess's orders.

The Spiders halted, surrounding the group from above.

"Wait," said Tess.

The Spiders were still. Their orb-like eyes locked onto the group, and Amber stared defiantly back at them.

"Wait."

Richard yelped, and unleashed a [Fireball]. It hit one of the Spiders, which dropped from the wall and writhed in a dark crevice directly opposite them. The scent of burning hit Amber from across the room.

As one, the closest Spiders arched their abdomens and shot strands of silk at the group.

She tried to dodge but it was everywhere, sticky webbing coated Amber's face. She couldn't see. She couldn't breathe. Panic tightened her chest.

She grasped at the stickiness and tore a hole in it. She gasped, and refilled her empty lungs. Most of her teammates were fighting similar battles with the cobwebs, and in the meantime the Spiders were moving and organizing above their heads.

"What the hell is that!" Richard pointed up.

Some of the Web Slingers were lowering bulging cocoons down onto the group. The rotten smell of the egg-sack bombs wafted toward them.

"MOVE!" Tess screamed. "Team, huddle on me!"

Amber turned toward Tess, and slammed onto her front; silver strands were still wrapped around her legs. She lifted herself up just as the nearest egg sack hit the ground in front of her.

A pair of empty blue human eyes gazed at her through a layer of webbing.

Amber's heart almost stopped.

The stench of decay enveloped her. She threw her arm over her mouth and gagged.

Another human-shaped cocoon dropped beside her with a gelatinous thud. Eggs were ranged along the body, feeding on its flesh.

"AMBER, MOVE!"

Tess's voice cut through her paralysis. Shaking, she tore away the webs on her legs, and crawled back to the group.

The floor was littered with wrapped human corpses; hosts to dozens of vibrating egg sacks.

The eggs exploded in a shower of putrid acid.

Tess's orders had protected them from the worst, but specks of gunge still splashed them and burned their clothes and skin. White-hot pain erupted on Amber's arm. A large viscous puddle smoked on the floor inches away from Kate the Bear's front paws.

The Team launched their spells at the approaching Spiders.

"Amber!" Tess's voice doused her like cold water. "Get up there and take them out!"

Amber eyed the tangle of roots, webs, and Spider limbs. Her chest tightened again. She swallowed.

This is what you've been training for. You've got this!

"On it!" she called back.

Amber's heart raced as she coiled her muscles, ready to spring into action as she searched for the best route up. Her fingers twitched, itching to grasp her Daggers and carve through those spindly Spider legs.

There.

She tensed.

"No, Amber!" Her father's hand clamped down on her shoulder and yanked her back. "That's too dangerous!"

"Dad, let go!" Amber growled. She struggled against his grip.

Movement.

Amber looked up at the underside of a Spider's thorax.

Three Web Slingers dangled above them. A thick net of webbing shot at them; hunters capturing their prey.

Tom knocked Amber to the ground and shielded her with his body. The sticky strands coated him and hardened into an immobilizing shell. Her Dad's rigid weight—and the weight of his armor—pushed her into the rocky ground and crushed her ribs. A sharp root started to burrow into her back.

She took short, sharp gasps. She couldn't speak.

"Amber!" Her Dad choked.

Can't breathe.

"Dammit, Tom!" Tess was miles away.

Flashes of light. Gangly limbs twitching. The stink of rancid flesh.

A thunderous roar floated through the fog in Amber's mind. Kate the Bear's massive paws swiped the Spiders away, even as they swarmed over her fur and chomped on her underbelly. Her bellows tore at Amber as her consciousness faded.

"Finn, get over here!" Tess barked. She was closer now. "Richard, we need those webs off Tom and Amber! Burn them off!"

"Are you sure? The heat—"

"DO IT!"

Orange light flooded Amber's vision. The acrid smell of burning cobwebs filled her nostrils. Tom cried out and tried to wriggle away from the flames across his back. Amber's extremities began to sear, but she couldn't move away from the scorching heat. She took a weak breath and inhaled hot air.

The fire stopped.

Tom groaned and shifted. Some of the pressure lifted, and Amber took a deep breath of warm air. She coughed. "Dad?" Her voice was a croak. The webbing was ash beneath her fingertips. She smelled cooked meat. "Dad!"

Tom rolled to the side, and eased himself into a sitting position. The armor on his back was black.

Amber regained her breath. Her senses regained their clarity.

Kate the Bear charged past them in a frenzy. Her fur teemed with Spiders.

Her father spared Amber a quick, assessing glance, then turned toward Kate.

"Mom needs me. Amber, stay back!"

He stood and rushed back into the fight.

Fury spilled into her veins. "Screw that."

Amber stood, brushed herself off, and bounded up the twisted bark.

Her feet barely touched the bark as she leaped from root to root. The world blurred around her. Higher and higher she climbed, until she was balanced on a branch fifty feet in the air.

A cluster of long-limbed Web Slingers surged at her.

Amber activated [Dodge] as razor-sharp fangs slashed through the air where she'd been standing.

A [Fireball] whizzed past her ear and caught one of the Spiders in the face. It tumbled down, and landed with a sickening crunch at Richard's feet. He torched it.

"Nice shot!" Amber called.

"I was aiming for a different one!"

Awesome.

Legs and pincers closed in on her; she could barely see through the wall of chitin. Her [Dodge] timer counted down. Amber suddenly regretted climbing up there alone.

Bo's voice yelled out from below. "This one goes out to Amber! You train your ass off, kid. Here's a special dedication to kick some naked Spider ass!"

"Wait, what?" yelled Tom.

The opening chords of [Real Wild Child by Iggy Pop] filled the cavern. The song, directly dedicated to her was, was powerful. The music pulsed through Amber's muscles, and a new buff flared to life.

[Wild One: Gain an XS.12 buff to attack damage when separated from allies in a perilous situation.]

Amber gritted her teeth and activated [Show off]. The Spiders were all focused on her anyway, so she tried for the damage boost. Hot and hungry magic surged through her veins. Her senses sharpened, and her muscles tensed in anticipation. She was powerful. Invincible. Unstoppable.

She twirled her Daggers, and launched into a series of rapid strikes.

The Web Slingers were built for ranged web-shooting and crawling through trees. They weren't built for up-close fighting. One Spider fell, then another. Amber's confidence grew with each kill.

Amber leaped to the next branch with a wild cry. She stabbed the nearest Spider in the thorax, and buried her blades to the hilt in its hairless body. Its legs thrashed as she ripped her knives free and spun to face the others.

They swarmed her, hissing and spitting, their fangs dripping with saliva. She ducked and wove between them. Her Daggers sang as they sliced through chitin. Her laughter was ragged and breathless.

This. This was what she'd been looking for. This rush, this thrill, this—

Crunch.

A Web Slinger crashed into Amber's chest and the breath whooshed from her lungs. She slammed into a lattice of sticky webbing behind her. She thrashed and tried to tear herself free; the more she struggled, the more ensnared she became.

The Web Slinger loomed over her and spun more threads around her torso. Its abdomen contracted, and it dropped an egg sack beside her head. Amber turned, and looked straight into the face of a man. His decomposing face was frozen in a silent scream. Small spiders crawled in and out of his mouth.

Terror overpowered her.

"HELP!" she screamed. She thrashed against the webs.

The Web Slinger turned back to Amber, and began covering her face in a gossamer death mask.

The Spider froze. Its legs contorted. It slid off the branch and landed feet below with a wet thump.

Amber turned her head enough to see Chloe on the ground, her hand outstretched in Amber's direction.

Amber's mind began to clear, her raging panic dulled. She wouldn't look at the man beside her, or the vibrating egg sack. She focused only on slicing through the webs.

Thank you, Chloe.

Amber cut away the last strand holding her and dove off the limb to a lower one

The egg sack bulged and exploded, throwing acid all over the walls.

More Web Slingers poured from hidden holes in the trees.

Focus. Use your muscle memory. You can do this!

Amber's Daggers became a blur as she fought to keep them at bay.