Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 120: The best part

Rodrick’s sword flashed, cutting a small spider from the air as it flung itself at Arwin. It was one in what felt like hundreds. They poured out from the webbing and up from the tunnel behind the Broodmother in a rolling wave of chittering bulbous bodies.

Arwin and the others hurriedly backed up, regrouping with their backline and crushing the monsters as they grew close. Fighting them if they got surrounded would have been a nightmare. He banished his helm to avoid affecting his entire group with its oppressive aura.

“You got a plan for this?” Rodrick called, stabbing another one of the monsters before it could catch Olive from her unarmed side. She gave him a curt nod of appreciation.

“Not yet,” Arwin replied through a grimace. This would have been a great spot to have an actual mage. Lillia’s powers were incredibly useful as utility, but they weren’t exactly the best for clearing out large groups of enemies. “I’m working on it. Suggestions would be appreciated.”

He swung Verdant Blaze and crushed a pair of small spiders that had drawn too close. The Broodmother advanced with her swarm of children, jaws clicking. It seemed more than content to let them slaughter the tiny spiders as it took its time to advance.

Decent survival strategy. Pelt children against the wall until they manage to do damage to the victims, then move in for the kill. Okay… not so decent strategy. I can still see it working.

“I’ve got the energy from the other thing,” Reya called, her face slightly pale at the number of monsters approaching them. “I don’t know how much use that will be, though.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” More spiders splattered beneath Verdant Blaze. They were so many of them that they were starting to climb on top of each other just to reach them. A horrifying vision of the spider flow continuing until it completely filled the room struck Arwin and he shoved it away.

He didn’t even want to consider that. He didn’t have time to. They needed a way to kill the Broodmother – that would probably stop the other ones. At the very least, it would trivialize them.

The Broodmother seemed to have similar armor to the Reaper spider that they’d just fought, so Arwin suspected he wouldn’t be able to kill it with just a single lucky blow. He’d probably need two or three consecutive strikes to its head at the bare minimum. Maybe more.

He gritted his teeth and crushed more of the spiders. Rodrick cut another one out of the air and Olive was putting in work on his other side. It wasn’t going to matter if they didn’t change something. There was only so long they could hold off the seemingly endless wave of arachnids.

Shit. Why didn’t I make myself a bracelet that I could eat to buff myself? That would have been smart. If I was faster, I’d be able to sprint through the spiders and kill the stupid Broodmother before the horde could take me out.

Arwin’s gaze fell to his greaves. The magic in them was already starting to sputter. They’d taken some pretty serious damage from the last fight – not enough to render them useless, but they couldn’t take much more damage before he’d have to repair them if he didn’t want to risk losing the magical power they held.

A thought struck him – as did the corpse of a small spider. He cursed as it fell to the ground at his feet.

“Sorry,” Rodrick said. “Flicked my sword the wrong direction.”

Arwin smashed another few spiders with his hammer, not gracing that with a response. Better a dead spider than a live one.

“I need you to buy me some time,” Arwin said. “Olive, can you do that thing with your sword that you did to the centipede?”

“Are you kidding? I’d get eaten alive by the small ones before I so much as got a chance,” Olive replied breathlessly. She cut another spider out of the air and gore splattered across her face. She cursed and wiped it off with her upper arm. “If you manage to get rid of the other ones or somehow get me to the Broodmother while keeping them off me, sure.”

That was enough for him. He hurriedly dismissed Verdant Blaze and started pulling his greaves off.

“Nine Underlands, what are you doing?” Olive asked. “Why are you taking off your pants?”

“I’m working,” Arwin snapped, practically ripping a latch straight off the metal in his haste. “Just keep the damn spiders off me.”

Despite the mounting numbers of spiders pressing toward them, Rodrick and Olive were effectively holding the horde back. Lillia’s shadows worked through the crowd, flicking spiders that slipped past the two warriors across the room like children’s toys. The Broodmother didn’t seem to be pleased with how the fight was going.

It chittered and started to advance. A wave of blue light slammed into it and it halted in place for a mere moment.

“I’ll stall it for as long as possible,” Reya called. Blue energy wove around her fingertips and she thrust her hands forward, sending out an arc of light. It struck the ground before the Broodmother and bloomed into a glistening blue Trapdoor Reaver.

The summoned monster was translucent, but just solid enough to make out its defining features. It zipped forward and clamped its jaws down on one of the Broodmother’s legs. Even though its shimmering jaws didn’t do nearly as much damage as Arwin suspected real ones would have, the monster hissed in pain.

Arwin didn’t waste time watching the fight. He got one half his greaves free and ripped the other part off as well. A spider jumped at him while his hands were full, but Rodrick’s sword cut the monster down before it could land on its target.

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“Okay. Get ready, Olive.” He jumped back to his feet.

“Ready for what?” Olive asked, punching a spider and spearing it with her sword.

He lifted his greaves to his mouth and bit down. Metal melted in his mouth, but he didn’t stop. There was a lot to consume if he wanted to get every part of the magic left in the greaves.

The Maw hungered for power, and he fed it. Energy ripped through Arwin’s body and slipped from his mouth in coils of faint golden energy. Olive nearly tripped over her own feet at the sight of him shoving an entire shin plate down his throat, barely even pausing to swallow.

“What the fu–”

Arwin grabbed Olive by the waist and hoisted her into the air. His legs were practically vibrating with energy.

“Get ready,” Arwin said, dismissing the rest of his armor with a thought. He needed speed, not defense. Besides, the only things that were going to be getting bit at now were his feet and legs – and he didn’t have any armor left there anyway.

“For wha–”

The rest of her sentence was lost in a scream as Arwin blurred. He tried not to think about the glossy bodies crushing beneath every footfall as he raced across the top of the wave of spiders.

Olive recovered quickly. She braced her sword, leveling it to point in front of them as best as she could. Spider fangs tore into Arwin’s legs, but they couldn’t slow him. Between [Scourge] and the power he’d taken one last time from his greaves, he was too fast. Unfortunately, he couldn’t avoid them entirely when there was literally nowhere else to step.

Weakness flooded through his legs. The spiders had poison. That wasn’t a surprise, but it was moving through Arwin’s system faster than he’d thought it would. He skidded to a halt, changing direction now that they were behind the Broodmother and taking another few bites in the process, and burst into motion once more.

Arwin’s legs started to lock up as the poison worked deeper into them. He’d taken so many bites now that he probably had enough running through him to be fatal – it didn’t matter. Anna could heal him when the fight was over. There were only a few paces between him and the Broodmother.

Damn good thing I brought Olive. I don’t think I have the energy to swing my hammer right now.

Arwin lunged. It was more of a trip, but at the speed he was moving, it still worked. He launched Olive forward like a missile and she drove her blade straight into the Broodmother’s side as blue energy flashed to cover it.

He dimly noted that there wasn’t any trace of Reya’s monster anymore – it must have collapsed at some point. Spiders churned beneath Arwin as he hit the ground, crushing several of them beneath himself in a roll.

A shadow plucked him up from the ground before the small monsters could swarm over him. Beneath, Olive’s blade continued forward and carved down the intersection between the Spider Broodmother’s head and body. The monster managed a pained screech before her blade worked the rest of the way through it. Despite its bulbous abdomen, its head wasn’t nearly as thick as the centipede’s had been.

Olive dropped to the ground and the spider’s head splattered down beside her. All the small monsters crumpled in unison, dropping and curling up like shriveled husks. Arwin barely even noticed. His chest had bound up with poison that was already working its way toward his throat.

The world sputtered around him as darkness bit at the edges of his vision.

Then there was relief. Warmth washed over Arwin’s body and he drew in a choked breath as he felt the poison release its grip on him. His eyes snapped fully open to find Anna kneeling beside him and the shimmering words of the Mesh dancing above him.

Achievement: [Mmm, Poison] has been earned.

[Mmm, Poison] – Awarded for having nearly as much poison in your bloodstream as blood. Effects: One skill in your next Skill Selection has been upgraded to Unique. This achievement will be consumed upon choosing your next skill.

“Ah,” Arwin said, dismissing the achievement with a weak grin. “You made it.”

“You’re insane,” Anna muttered, helping Arwin up. The others all stood in a semicircle around him. “Any side effects? Are you seeing straight?”

He nodded, looking over to the Broodmother to make sure it was actually dead. There hadn’t actually been an achievement for killing it, but he supposed that made sense. It wasn’t like the monster itself had put up all that much of a fight – and he hadn’t even personally touched it. The Mesh probably didn’t consider anything he’d done in regard to the actual fight worthy of an Achievement.

Arwin couldn’t complain. He’d gotten an Achievement for pumping himself full of poison. Not one he was particularly proud of, but a Skill upgrade was a Skill upgrade. He’d take what he got.

“I’m fine,” Arwin said. “Everyone else?”

“Didn’t run through a field of hungry spiders after stripping his pants off,” Rodrick said. “Speaking of which, I’d like to point out that it was not me who lost his pants this time.”

“Can I blame you anyway?” Anna asked.

“No.”

“Damn,” Anna said with a sigh.

“Anyone get anything good from that fight?” Arwin asked.

“I got an Achievement for making the Broodmother kill one of its own children. Kinda messed up, actually,” Reya said. “I guess my ability counts as the original monster coming back. Free Skill improvement for my next level, so no complaints.”

“I got one as well,” Olive said. She coughed into her fist. “For… being a projectile. Got me a direct skill upgrade. I’m not sure it’s an experience I’d like to replicate, though. It’s a bit demeaning.”

Arwin bit back a snort. “Sorry. It was the best idea I had at the time.”

“Oh, it worked,” Olive said. “I’ve always just thought of myself as a swordswoman, not the literal sword. If that’s what it takes to win a fight, I’m all for it. I’d rather just not think about it too much.”

“It was cool, though,” Reya supplied. Olive sent her a surprised look followed by a weak smile that showed she didn’t believe her words in the slightest.

Maybe not the time, Reya. Good attempt, though.

“Tastes like all the other spiders,” Lillia proclaimed as she stepped out from behind the dead Broodmother and held up a bundle of wispy white strands. “But look at this!”

“Webbing? Shouldn’t it be super sticky?” Rodrick asked.

“No, not all webs are sticky. This stuff isn’t,” Lillia said.

“Where’d you get that from?” Anna asked.

Lillia shot her a look and stuffed the strands of webbing into her bag. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.”

Hm. I wonder if I could make a string from spider webs? I know they’re strong. If I wove them together or something… could be a possibility. I’ll ask Lillia for some since I can’t imagine she plans to eat them.

Arwin pushed himself to his feet and brushed the dirt off his legs. Lillia also had some plates torn off the Broodmother’s body stuffed into her bag, so it didn’t look like he’d have to collect any himself. “Well then. I’d say that was a pretty damn successful delve. No reason to push our luck going further.”

Olive headed over to the Broodmother and carved a few plates off its back with her sword, tucking them under her arm. She turned back and nodded. “I’m good to go. This is far deeper than I ever thought I would have gone, and I bet these plates will sell for a good bit of gold. They seem pretty tough.”

Everyone else cut the best pieces of the monster off for themselves, and then they were off, heading back up the dungeon toward the exit and Arwin’s favorite part – the bit where he got to make something out of all the monsters he’d just killed.