I could not even imagine how much pain he must have been experiencing. I would not wish something like that on my worst enemy.
Before I could do anything, the scraping sound reached my ears from behind. I instantly whirled around and peered across the cavern. The sound was coming from the tunnel. Whatever was making the scraping sounds was inside the cave. And it was the enormous spider, then I was fucked.
My exit portal was too far away, so I decided not to risk my life in running toward it. It was very dark in the cave, so I could not make out what was moving down the tunnel. But since I could hear its footsteps, I had to assume it was not very far. So I decided to hide somewhere instead. If push came to shove, I would use my Active Ability to get as far from the creature as possible and then run for the exit portal.
Quickly but quietly, I rushed across the cavern and entered the tunnel. Glancing around, I dashed for the nearest rock formation and crouched behind it.
The scraping sounds were getting louder and louder. I risked craning my head and peering around the boulder. It was not long before I saw the enormous spider walking down the tunnel, its huge black shape looming out of the darkness.
Dammit.
When the enormous arachnid got closer to my hiding place, a piece of info popped up above it.
> Name: Spider Queen
> Level: 5
> Type: Raid Boss
I was only level two. However, I figured that even if my level matched the spider queen’s, I would probably not be able to deal with the huge arachnid on my own, because it was not a regular enemy but a raid boss. In video games, raid bosses were usually too strong for a lone player to be able to deal with them.
So since it was a raid boss, there was no way I could defeat it. I wanted to ask some questions to Echo about dealing with raid bosses in this video game—or whatever it was—but kept mouth shut. I did not know how well the spider queen could hear, so it was better not to tempt fate.
The huge creature was approaching, headed for the cavern. From this close, I could see that below the two melon-sized eyes there were mandibles. Attached to them were six-inch-long fangs with venom dripping from them.
I also noticed that the creature was dragging an animal-shaped bag underneath it. It looked like a carcass of a deer or another similar animal.
I ducked behind the cover of the boulder before the enormous arachnid would have spotted me.
The huge monster passed my position and entered the cavern. Ignoring the half-dissolved man in the leftmost cocoon, the creature approached the rear wall and stopped. It reared slightly on its back legs. Using its two front legs, the monster then lifted the sack with the animal dead body inside off the ground and pinned it to the wall.
The enormous arachnid began to emit silk from the tip of its abdomen, encasing its victim in a cocoon.
I considered my options. The spider’s back was to me, so the creature could not see me. I could try to sneak out of the cave while the monster could not see me. However, since I did not know how well the enormous arachnid could hear, I should probably stay put for the moment. If something crunch under my feet on my way to the exit and the creature heard the sound, I would be dead. In the close quarters of this cave, having no room to maneuver, I had no chance of defeating the overgrown arachnid whatsoever.
So I decided to simply wait it out. The huge spider did not know that I was in its den, so as long as I was quiet, I should be okay. I would attempt to make my escape when the monster went to sleep or left the cave.
A few minutes later, the arachnid finished encasing its victim in a cocoon. It then squirted yellowish substance from its spinneret. It had to be very sticky because the spider used the stuff to glue the cocoon to the wall. After that, the creature scurried backward and went still for a moment as if admiring its work.
The person in the leftmost cocoon moaned. The sound attracted the large spider’s attention. The monster rotated toward the man and approached him. It straightened its legs and used his mandibles to remove the cap from the cocoon. The spider then opened its mouth and dipped its long tongue deep into the cocoon.
The man inside began to twitch as if trying to get away, but to no avail. He could barely move as if he was paralyzed, which probably was the case. The spider’s two front legs embraced the cocoon as the spider sprawled next to it.
The monster was clearly going to consume the man, not caring much about the fact that he was still alive.
The monster’s large and obnoxious tongue brushed against the man’s deformed face. Then the spider made a slurping sound. From where I was hiding, I could see what was happening. The man’s groans turned into screams as his flesh was being detached from his bones and sucked into the giant arachnid’s mouth.
I could not watch it. I turned away. Yet I could still hear. The slurping sounds and the poor man’s pained screams made my skin crawl.
After what felt like forever all fell quiet. When the overgrown creature began to turn around, I got back behind the boulder. The spider walked across the chamber, its razor-sharp legs making clicking sounds. I wondered what it was going to do next.
The spider queen began to move toward the tunnel. For a second, I thought it was going to get in the tunnel. However, the huge arachnid did not do that. Instead, it walked into the middle of the cavern and lowered itself on the floor. It went still, not moving at all. It seemed to have fallen to sleep.
It was my chance to get away.
I began to walk down the tunnel, headed for the exit. I was taking care to make as little sound as possible. I could see one of the two portals up ahead. I wanted to burst into a run for it but forced myself to take it easy.
I continued to steal toward the portal, approaching it slowly but steadily.
When I was about ten meters from the portal, something crunched under the sole of one of my boots. It might have been a small pebble, a piece of bone, or something like that. It did not really matter what it was. What did matter, however, whether or not that quiet sound had woken up the spider queen.
I came to a sudden stop, pricking up my ears. I did not have to wait long to find out the answer. A sound that I did not like at all reached my ears form the cavern. It was the noise of something heavy moving toward me. I had a pretty good idea of what it was.
Heart hammering in my chest, I burst into a race down the tunnel, legs pumping. The ponding of heavy footsteps behind me was getting louder very quickly. I did not need to look back to know that the spider queen was almost on top of me.
When I was sure the enormous arachnid was about to grab me, I reached the portal and plunged into it. Half a second later, I emerged from the second portal that I had set up near the entrance to the cave.
I almost bumped into a small group of armed people that stood next to the cave as if they were about to enter it.
They instinctively brought up their handguns and pointed them at me. I noticed that their hands were shaky. Those people seemed to be scared to death.
Great, I thought. I had barely avoided being grabbed and eaten by the enormous spider only to be shot to death by these nervous people.
I was about to employ my Active Ability to get out of the line of fire when one of the people spoke up.
“Don’t shoot,” he yelled, waving his hands at the other men. He seemed to be in charge here. The man added, “It’s one of the mercenaries. He’s on our side.”
Those people must have been from the colony. I wanted to ask them what they were doing here but decided it could wait for a little bit. We needed to get away from the cave first.
I was not sure what the spider queen’s next action was going to be. It must have seen me disappear upon entering the portal in the tunnel. The enormous arachnid was too big to use the portal. And I doubted that the creature was smart enough to figure out what that thing actually was.
So I wondered what the spider queen would do next. Would it return back to the main cavern of the cave an
d go back to sleep?
I got the answer soon enough.
Before I could warn the group of armed colonists about what I’d found in the cave, the pounding of heavy footsteps reached our ears from the huge opening. So it must have decided to leave the cave to investigate where I had gone to. Or it had simply heard the man shouting at the others not to shoot me.
Anyway, we all were in great danger.
The spider queen burst from the opening and came to a stop in front of us. The terrified people gaped up at the enormous creature. Judging by the looks on their faces, they had never seen insects as large as this one.
“What the fuck is—” One of the men muttered.
But he never finished his sentence. The overgrown spider leaped, pouncing down on the man. In a crawling motion, the two front legs grabbed the man, jolting him into the huge mouth. His terrified screams turned into pained groans as the spider sunk its fangs into his body. Then the creature dropped the man to the ground. He was alive but could not move a limb. He was paralyzed by the arachnid’s venom.
The rest of the colonists panicked and scattered. The monster’s legs bent, holding its body low. A second later, the creature leaped, pouncing on one of the colonists. The spider’s two front legs came down in front of the colonist, causing him to come to an abrupt stop. Before he could do anything, the spider’s legs scooped him up toward its mouth. The colonist let go with a terrified scream as the spider’s dagger-like fangs lanced into him. His body almost instantly went rigid as the creature’s venom entered the man’s system, paralyzing him.
I whipped my pistol up and opened up on the overgrown spider. The rest of the colonists followed suit. The air filled with the crack of gunfire. The rounds drilled into the monster’s body with sickening wet sounds. Dark blood burst from its body, but the creature did not seem to be hurt. If anything, the bullets ripping into its body only pissed the monster off.
I could see the spider queen’s health bar shorten every time our bullets drilled into its body. However, from the look of things, it was painfully obvious that the creature was not going to die quickly. We would not be able to deal with it before it would kill us all.
There was only one option available to us for self-preservation.
“Run,” I shouted to the colonists. “Just fucking run.”
And I raced away from the creature. The colonists did the same.
When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that the arachnid was not following me. Moving swiftly and effortlessly, the monster scurried to the left, then to the right, then forward as if it could not decide which of the remaining colonists to attack next.
One of them yelled and opened fire on the large creature, squeezing the trigger of his machine pistol and holding it down, the rounds lancing into the monster’s abdomen. The spider rotated until its head was pointed in the shooter’s direction. Its blood-stained mandibles twitched and oozed the watery venom. Its legs curled, and then the monster leaped toward the man.
The colonist panicked and ran. Only he did not get far. The spider landed right behind him, striking the colonist with one leg on the back, knocking him to the ground. Screaming, he crawled on his knees and hands.
His yells diminished into groans as the spider’s razor-sharp legs lanced into his body. The arachnid bent down and sank its fangs into the man’s flesh, squirting its venom into his veins and paralyzing every muscle in his body. The man was motionless but still alive.
The colonist’s body jerked as the arachnid yanked its fangs out of his body. The overgrown spider looked this way, then that, searching for the remaining colonists. Only two of them were alive. Instead of battling the dangerous monster, they had decided to run away. One of them was sprinting in my direction, the other in the opposite one. The arachnid rushed after the latter.
I pointed my pistol at the creature and opened fire on it. Yet I was not able to distract the monster from its prey. The spider pounced on the man, pinning him down to the ground.
My pistol’s slide locked back. And I did not have any more extra mags on me.
All I could do was run for dear life.
The last remaining colonist drew level with me and shouted, “What do we do? How do we kill that thing?”
“There’s no way we can kill it now,” I yelled, not slowing down, my legs pumping.
“What do we do then?” He panted.
“What do you think? Just run. Don’t let it get you.”
However, the enormous spider caught up with us very quickly and pounced on the colonist. I could do nothing to prevent the monster from paralyzing the man, so I just kept barreling through the deep foliage.
I continued to run as fast as my legs would carry me. The branches lashed at my face. I did my best trying to dodge them, but every now and then, I failed to duck my head in time and ground my teeth in pain as a branch hit my face.
The sound of the spider crashing through the foliage behind me was getting louder by the second. The creature was so large there was no way I could outrun it.
Not slowing down, I glanced over my shoulder. The giant arachnid was dangerously close. It would pounce on me very soon unless I did something.
So I employed my Active Ability.
Thanks to it, I put some distance between myself and the spider queen. However, it did not help me much. The enormous arachnid was gaining on me extremely fast. I had put two skill points into the Ready for Action skill, decreasing the cooldown of my Active Ability to forty seconds. Still, it was painfully obvious that the arachnid would close the gap between us and pounce on me way faster than my Active Ability would recharge.
And there was absolutely nothing I could do about that.
I was about to die and had nobody but myself to blame for that. I should not have ventured into that cave. It was a huge mistake that was going to cost me my life.
Branches slapped at my face and leaves whipped my skin. I gritted my teeth against the strain and ran on. All I could do was run.
Roots tugged at my feet and tripped me up. I suddenly lost my balance and collapsed to the ground just between two large roots of a nearby large tree.
Before I could sit up and get to my feet, I heard the enormous spider crashing through the foliage. The spider queen was close. Dangerously close. Before I could do anything, the creature was looming above me.
That was it. Now the nasty arachnid would paralyze me with its venom to munch on me later on. It would put me in a cocoon and fill it with some sort of acid that would liquefy my flesh so it would be easier for the spider to consume me.
It was a terrible, terrible way to die. But I could do absolutely nothing to prevent it from happening to me.
However, to my big surprise, the spider queen did not slow down. It rushed past the two roots between which I lay and continued to run.
It had not noticed me fall down. It continued to crash through the foliage, thinking I was still running away.
Blind luck seemed to have saved my life.
I did not risk getting out of my hiding place for some time. I just lay on the ground, pricking up my ears. A minute later, I could no longer hear the spider queen. It must have been too far away from me, so it was now safe for me to get out. Yet I did not immediately did so. I continued to lie between the two roots, getting my nerve up to stand up.
When I finally got to my feet, I quickly scanned my surroundings to make sure there were no overgrown spiders nearby. I then consulted the map to get my bearings and headed in the direction of the colony, hoping like hell I would not run into the spider queen again.
Suddenly, a text message popped up in my HUD.
> Your objectives have just been updated.
I wondered what it was about but decided to hold off checking my Mission Menu for a later time. I needed to get to safety first.
Though I did not say anything to Echo—I was trying to be very quiet and produce as little noise as possible—I received a text message from him.<
br />
It read, “Warrior, I used the nanotrites in your body to scan the creature you encountered a few minutes earlier. I’ve been analyzed the data and now finally have results. They look quite promising. The creature you have met is a Raid Boss. Raid Bosses are extremely powerful and can only be defeated by the joint efforts of the whole team. So not trying to defeat it on your own was good thinking on your part.”
Though I read Echo’s message, I did not say anything to him. All my attention was riveted on what was happening around me, my eyes constantly scanning my surroundings for any sign of danger.
Echo continued, “But what’s more important than that is that the spider queen is actually a mutated form of a regular spider. It appears to have happened two months before. I do not know what caused a regular spider to mutate into a queen, though. I would need a sample of the spider queen’s DNA to find out the answer to this question. It does not matter right now, however. What does matter is that the spider queen is much smarter than ordinary arachnids. Moreover, the spider queen can telepathically control regular spiders. She tells them what to do and they comply. She is keen on obliterating the colony which is why she has been making ordinary arachnids attack the colonists. I do not know why she hates humans so much, but I can tell you for certain that if you kill the spider queen, the other spiders will no longer be under her influence and will have no reason to attack the colonists. So to deal with the colonists’ spider problem, you can just kill the spider queen instead of trying to eradicate the whole population of local spiders.”
Okay, I thought. At least, I didn’t risk my life for nothing. Looks like I’ve found out the reason why local spiders have become so aggressive and how to deal with them. Venturing into that scary cave was worth it, after all.
A couple a seconds later, a message from Nate popped up in my HUD.
> Nate: David, what’s taking you so long?
I texted him back.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 17
