by Rick Scott
Holy crap!
A cackle comes from behind me. “Oh my god! That was too funny!”
I back away from the spider, and then give Aiko a hostile frown. “Did you know that was going to happen?”
She nods, still grinning. “You should have heard yourself, Reece.”
“I did,” I say, feeling none too proud of the very girlish scream I just performed. “That wasn’t cool, Aiko.”
“No, but it was funny.”
Who knew Aiko had a sense of humor? “Well, I’m glad you found it amusing.”
“But hey, congratulations on performing your first charge attack.”
“Thanks,” I say. I look at my blade and the deep gash it left in the tree. “Why don’t I see other people doing this? That was a pretty strong attack.”
“It’s pretty situational,” Aiko says. “And it depends a lot on your play style and weapon type. You basically triple your attack delay to get full strength damage. Most times, it’s not worth it. But it’s good for stacking with things like Backstabs or Power Attacks.”
“Oh, wow, I never knew that.”
“Works better for people like Val, with big slow weapons and a lot of strength. You’ll have to experiment to see if you get better DPS from just swinging normally or from hitting slower with charged attacks.”
“How do I gauge that?”
She points to the massive spider still eyeballing me with its eight nasty black eyes. “Try it and find out.”
I cringe and suppress my revulsion as I focus on it.
Giant Bark Spider
Level: 65
Often found nesting in hollowed-out logs and trees, these stealthy predators ambush their victims with speed and immobilize them with potent venom before digesting them from the inside.
Affinity: Dark
Even the description makes me jittery. “It says these things are super poisonous.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got some antidote vials. Just try not to get bit.”
That’s reassuring.
I steel my nerves, and then launch myself at the nasty creature with a Charge Strike. I fly toward the spider with my kunai, hitting it with a Stun that removes 10% of its life. I use its brief moment of immobility to ready a charged attack, and then unleash it. My blade chops heavily into its big hairy abdomen, and it loses another 50% of its health. But then it leaps at me with incredible speed, and I have to pop an Active Dodge to avoid it. I find it near impossible to load up another charge attack while dodging the quick moving arachnoid, and almost scream as it hops around me like a giant toad. Eventually, I slice it down with normal hits, taking off about 10% with each one. The thing finally dies and curls up on its back, giving me another case of the willies.
You defeated the Giant Bark Spider!
You gain 11000 experience points.
“So, what’d you think?” Aiko asks, folding her slender arms across her chest.
I shrug. “I don’t know if I like the charge attack so much. Didn’t feel natural to me.”
“Maybe if you weren’t dodging, it would have worked out better. Anyway, let’s go kill ourselves a Witch Spider.”
* * *
I check my character stats before we head into the hollow proper.
Name: Reece
Class: Ninja
Level: 82
Strength: 6+25
Dexterity: 80+5
Agility: 80+5
Intelligence: 4
Mind: 6
Vitality: 26 +20
HP: 1202/1202
Stamina: 277/277
TP: 166/166
Whatever we’re about to face, I hope I’m high enough level for it. I cloak us with Shadow Wall, and then we venture into the forest of creepy dead trees. My skin immediately begins to prickle as I sense multiple things watching us.
Your Awareness increases by 0.3!
I can see the nasty creatures perched on the tops of hollowed-out trunks, ready to pounce on us. I’m not sure if they can see us through the stealth, but I know the moment we fail a Sneak attempt, they’ll be on us in a flash. We stay hidden, taking turns rebuffing Shadow Wall as we trek our way slowly toward the center of the dead forest.
We eventually reach a large tree that stands looming above the rest.
I’m not sure what kind of tree it is—or was—but the trunk is wide and gnarled, its bare branches twisted like serpents coiling back over the top of one another. In between hangs thick sheets of white webbing, encasing sacks of something I don’t even want to know about.
Around this great tree, the others are short and stunted, forming a natural ring. As soon as we enter the perimeter, I feel as though we’re entering some kind of boss arena. And then it dawns on me—we probably are. This is the surface, but it’s not the “real” world, per se. Not like back home. Here, everything is constructed by the Builders to mimic the game worlds of Crystal Shards.
Why wouldn’t they make a forest designed to be a boss arena?
We edge toward the large tree in the center until Aiko stops. She reappears from stealth mode, peering up at it. “Makes sense it would be in the corpse of a Mana tree. Come on, let’s buff up. We’ll kill the small ones in those trees on the perimeter to lure it out.”
I’m not sure what a Mana tree is, but a dead one being home to something called a Witch Spider does indeed seem fitting. And scary. I cast Shadow Haste and Shadow Copy, and wait for Aiko to do the same. I then pick up a rock, prepared to throw it at the trunk of one of the smaller trees about thirty feet away. “You ready?”
Aiko nods, and for the briefest of moments, I catch something odd in her gaze. There’s a look of absolute terror marring her pretty violet eyes. Her throat flexes in a swallow as she draws a pair of ornate silver kunai and stands at the ready. “Stay back-to-back, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I mean it,” she says, insistent. “Stay back-to-back.”
Man, I hope she doesn’t freak out or something. “Ready?”
She nods and I toss the rock.
My aim is true. I hit the tree, but the rock bounces off and hits the one next to it, too. Five or six spiders leap from the old trunks and come skittering across the dead foliage toward us.
Crap, that’s a lot of them!
I cast Shadow Mist, engulfing them in purple fog.
The Giant Bark Spider resists the poison!
The Giant Bark Spider resists the slow!
The Giant Bark Spider resists the paralyze!
What? Not a single spell lands on any of them?
“They’re Dark affinity,” Aiko shouts, readying her blades. “And strong. That probably won’t work on them!”
I brace myself for combat as the first two spiders come flying at me. I slash with my single kunai as I jump from foot to foot. I land my attacks while evading theirs, slowly chipping away at their HP bars.
Aiko lets out a shrill cry. I look back, startled, fearing that maybe she’s been bit, but I see rage on her face instead of fear.
Aiko uses War Cry!
She becomes a blender as she launches into the spiders, her critical hits depleting their HP bars in a single flurry of attacks. Whatever apprehension or mental block she was suffering from, she must be breaking through it now. And with a vengeance. Maybe I could indeed learn a thing or two from her.
We focus on the spiders, killing them as more begin to emerge from the stumps, attracted by the noise, I guess. We feed off each other, non-verbally, as I watch Aiko out the corner of my eye. She attacks with a grace and fury like I’ve never seen, and I find myself trying to emulate her. A true master.
We kill spider after spider, their blackened innards coating my blade and staining my gear. I lose track of just how many until a message pops up on my HUD.
Congratulations! You have gained a Level!
You are now Level 83!
You have gained 2 attribute points.
Sweet!
“Gratz, pretty boy.” Aiko flashes me a grin, her confidence o
bviously returning. “I’ll give you a kiss for that after we’re done.”
She cackles, and I half wonder if she’s joking or not.
The next wave of spiders comes thick and heavy—a dozen, at least. We keep at it, popping Active Dodge and refreshing Shadow Copy as the fray gets thicker. We cut their numbers down to half, but then I lose my shadow to a stray swipe and a split second later, I feel a stinging bite as a pair of fangs sink into my calf.
The Giant Bark Spider bites you for 203 damage.
You are poisoned!
“Argh!” I cry out as the venom courses though me. The spider, still attached to my leg, gnaws into my flesh, sending mind-numbing pain shooting through my skull. I raise my blade with a charged attack and kill it in a single blow.
You defeated the Giant Bark Spider!
You gain 11000 experience points.
“Reece!” Aiko yells as she flies to my aid, killing the remaining spiders in a flurry of fast strikes. Calm settles. The ground is littered with spider corpses, their legs curled up like skeletal hands as they lay on their backs, leaking their sickly black ooze into the ground.
I feel light-headed and lose another 5 hit points. “Ugh, this stings.”
“Hold on,” Aiko says. “I’ll get you an antidote.”
Her HUD display lights up in her eyes as she searches her inventory for the item. But then the ground shakes, and a wailing shriek fills the air. I cover my ears as it scrambles through my mind. The trunk of the Mana tree cracks behind us, and out crawls a spider as big as a horse.
My skin grows ice cold, both from the poison and the hideous creature now climbing its way to the top of the gnarled tree. Its body is ashen gray, with coarse hair like a wolf’s. Its legs are as thick as bamboo trees. Upon its body are white hairs in the pattern of an eye. But most disturbing is its head. Above its sword-like fangs and multiple blood-red eyes sits a human face. The skin of it is pulled taut and gray, like a corpse, with lifeless white eyes and long, stringy black hair. The mouth opens, revealing two rows of needle-like teeth as the horrid shriek sounds again.
Witch Spider
Level: 85
These vile arachnids spawn from the corpses of arcane undead and possess mastery over many schools of magic. Displaying no true intellect, they are horrors driven only by bloodlust and use unnatural celerity to cast spells in rapid succession.
Affinity: Dark
The Witch Spider lifts its front legs as arcane symbols swirl around its body.
The Witch Spider readies Thunder Storm!
Holy crap! An AOE!
“Buff!” I yell, casting Shadow Copy.
“But the antidote!”
“No time!”
We complete our spells just in the nick of time.
The Witch Spider casts Thunder Storm!
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
Aiko’s shadow absorbs the attack!
Massive bolts of lightning rain down from the sky, setting both the spider corpses and part of the forest alight. We kick them away, shielding ourselves from the flames and choking on the acrid stench of burning spider bodies.
The Witch Spider readies Thunder Storm!
What the heck? Again? I try, automatically, to cast Shadow Copy again, but it’s still gotten seconds of cool-down left. “Aiko!”
The Witch Spider casts Thunder Storm!
The Witch Spider hits you for 645 damage.
The Witch Spider hits Aiko for 645 damage.
A scream rips from my throat as white-hot pain lances through my body, the crackling boom of the thunder reverberating in every cell. My Health bar drops to a quarter, Aiko’s to a third. I’ve never felt such pain in my life. I’m stunned and disorientated.
And then I see it again.
The Witch Spider readies Thunder Storm!
We’re going to die! “Aiko! The crystal!”
She’s a step ahead of me, though. She’s already got the purple gem in her hand. She crushes it with a loud pop! A purple aura flashes outward, engulfing us along with the massive spider.
The Witch Spider is spellbound!
You are spellbound!
Aiko is spellbound!
You no longer have the effect of Shadow Haste!
Holy crap. It affects us too!?
I check my HP.
357/1222 HP
My heart jumps as I lose another 5 hit points just watching it. Holy crap.
“It won’t last long!” Aiko cries, already charging toward the tree and the huge spider atop it. “Move!”
I charge after her, my life rapidly slipping away. There’s no time for the antidote. We’ve got maybe a minute or two to kill this thing before it starts chain-casting spells again. My heart is in my throat. I’ve got to fight for my life. Literally.
I’ve got to do more damage than I’ve ever done before.
That null spell won’t last long.
And with this poison coursing through my veins, neither will I.
Chapter 30: Witch Spider
I leap over the flaming spider corpses and Wall Run up the gnarled tree. Aiko is two steps ahead of me, already engaging the gigantic arachnid. The cobwebs coating the branches immediately adhere to my clothing, giving me a debuff.
You are slowed!
Darn it!
I look to Aiko and see she’s suffering from the same difficulty, desperately trying to evade the Witch Spider as it attempts to pierce her with the spear-like tips of its legs. Aiko slashes back, but the spider, immune to its own webbing, shifts back and forth with a speed that’s frightening.
This isn’t going to work. We’re fighting it on its home turf. “Aiko, we need to get it on the ground.”
I shout at it using War Cry: “Come get me!”
The Witch Spider spins in a circle, and I leap off the tree to avoid its fangs. As I hit the ground with a roll, I expect the beast to follow me, but it doesn’t.
Crap. Now what?
I endure another 5 hit point loss to poison as I wrack my brain for a solution. I spy one of the burning spider corpses and get an idea. “Aiko, jump down!”
I pierce the stinking thing with my kunai and toss it into the cobwebs. They ignite like tinder, and soon, the whole tree becomes engulfed, including the Witch Spider. It lets out another horrendous screech as it loses 5% of its health, and finally jumps down from the burning branches.
“Good thinking!” Aiko says, already on the ground with me. “Let’s trade tanking and hit it with Backstabs until we can Assassinate it!”
Before I can nod in acceptance of her plan, she Charge Strikes the massive spider and goes to town with her ornate silver kunai. She’s able to fight it much easier now, and gets in strong critical hits with her blades, taking off 1% of the monster’s HP each time.
I dash behind the spider’s large abdomen and Hide until I get the permissive to Backstab. Throwing my arm back, I prepare a charged attack and let it fly when the gauge hits full.
You Backstab the Witch Spider!
Critical Hit!
You hit the With Spider for 1523 (407) damage.
Wow!
Releasing an ear-splitting shriek, the spider rises up on its back legs and performs a spin to come crashing down right on top of me with its huge fangs. I pop Active Dodge and shift backwards in a puff of nano-dust. The spider’s fangs slam into the dirt where I once stood.
I slice at the Witch Spider’s freaky human face as it wiggles to free itself and get rewarded with critical slashes each time. I clear my head as I prepare to tank it. Aiko can do way more damage than me, and if I can keep it focused on me, she can go all out.
“Stay on me!” I shout at it with another War Cry.
It rushes forward with two quick stabs of its front legs and a swipe with it fangs. It’s faster than I imagined. I evade the first two hits, but not the fangs. One of them claws me in my left arm, sending a jolt of sharp pain as the fang tip pierces my bicep.
“ARGH!” I cry out as it goes numb.
The
Witch Spider bites you for 247 damage.
Oh God!
91/1222 HP
“Reece!” Aiko yells with a War Cry, causing the beast to turn from me.
My head is shaky from the bite, but I guess I’m already poisoned, so it doesn’t matter. Its Health bar is down to 60%, but with Aiko tanking, her damage slows to a crawl. My life seeps from my wounds as I struggle to hit the spider with charge attacks.
86/1222 HP
We’ve got to kill it faster than this, and we can’t do it with Aiko tanking. My heart pounds in my temples. I’ve got to get it together. We push on and get it down to 55% when my War Cry comes off cool-down.
“I’m tanking it, Aiko!” I shout with War Cry, turning the Witch Spider back toward me. “Focus on DPS!”
“No,” she says. “You’re too low!”
“100% or 1%, it doesn’t matter!” I evade the incoming strikes. “You taught me that! Now, go!”
I get into the zone and feel a confidence I haven’t felt since coming to the surface. I’m riding the line, the knife’s edge between life and death, my body reacting like precision clockwork to the lightning-quick bites and thrusts of the spider’s legs. My world tunnels. All I see are its attack patterns, preemptively positioning myself as I predict its attacks.
I stop slashing haphazardly and instead use charged attacks between each set of its hits, landing critical strikes to its wailing human head. I do decent damage and pray that it’s enough to equal the string of hits Aiko keeps laying into it from behind.
