Chapter 445: Spider’s Lair [I]

"I’ve already informed Lady Elu—"

THUD! CLANG!

A loud metallic scuffle echoed through the transmission, followed by the heavy clatter of iron plates grinding together.

"Move your scrawny elbows, Tasmin! Let me talk to my Lord!" Brida’s booming thunderous voice crashed through the crystal, the volume practically vibrating the magical facets. "Lord! Handsome! Don’t you lose a single wink of sleep over us out here! My cleaver already pulverized twelve fake copies of your handsome face which shattered my heart into pieces, I’ll have you know and I’m currently dragging Tasmin along to sweep the crags! We already tossed the warning crystal over to Lady Eluned’s frequency! She’s handling her recruits just fine!"

Silas let out a soft laugh, shaking his head at the familiar chaos.

"Good work, Brida. Keep each other covered. We are pushing forward toward the northern crags."

"Understood, my Lord!"

CLICK.

The azure luminescence subsided, the crystal returning to its dormant translucence.

Silas handed the orb back down to Morrighan, who accepted it with a quiet nod before falling back into her position alongside the vanguard.

Silas turned his attention back to the path ahead, his gaze drifting over the thinning tree line where the jagged stone roots of the northern mountains began to pierce the loam.

"Oh, right," Silas remarked, glancing down at the Princess. "Once we wrap up this initial perimeter sweep and get the recruits thoroughly acclimated to combat maneuvers, we’ll be organizing our first major territorial mining expedition..."

The Princess blinked in surprise, craning her neck to look up at him.

"A mining expedition, Lord Silas? In the middle of an untamed wilderness?"

"Of course," Silas answered with a confident grin. "The Umbral Basin is far more than just a hunting ground for wandering mana-beasts... Beneath these jagged crags sits an extensive network of untapped mineral veins. The foundry requires a steady influx of high-grade ore if we want to reinforce our territorial walls and forge higher-tier items..."

He leaned forward slightly in the saddle, raising his voice so the fifteen recruit maidens marching behind them could hear him clearly over the rustle of leaves.

"How about the rest of you? Have any of you ever swung a pickaxe or worked a spirit-ore vein before coming to Blessed Land?"

The recruit maidens exchanged glances among themselves.

Helen, holding her ash-wood spear near the front of the rank, raised her free hand with an energetic smile.

"Not personally, Lord Silas! Most of us were garrison guards, farmhands, or city laborers before joining... but we’re definitely eager to learn! We’ll dig up whatever you need!"

"That’s what I like to hear," Silas replied warmly, his blue eyes crinkling with effortless charm. "We’ll set up the first rotation later this week. I’ll head down into the tunnels and mine alongside you..."

A collective murmur of flustered excitement rippled through the ranks, several women ducking their heads and exchanging quiet, blushing smiles at the prospect of working alongside their Lord.

Walking along the left flank, Aurelia let out a barely audible breath as she adjusted the scabbard of her mithril rapier.

’Mining...’ the former Saintess mused, a cold unpleasant memory flickering across her thoughts. ’Underground caverns have never brought me good fortune...’

Her thoughts drifted back to her past in the Meolion Kingdom.

During the earlier stages of the Holy War, one of the Demon Kings had retreated into the depths of an abandoned dwarven mithril mine, barricading himself beneath hundreds of tons of unstable bedrock.

When she and Cassian had led the assault into the dark tunnels to eliminate the threat, the demon had triggered a suicidal collapse of the main support pillars.

The entire mountain had caved in atop their heads.

She had been forced to expend three-quarters of her divine vitality simply to sustain an unbroken barrier of holy light over Cassian’s body for four grueling days in suffocating darkness while the weight of the mountain crushed down upon them.

Aurelia shook her head lightly, dismissing the memory, and refocused on the terrain ahead.

The forest path ended abruptly against the vertical face of an obsidian cliffside.

Carved directly into the base of the rock was a yawning cavern entrance, easily thirty feet wide and twenty feet tall.

Opaque curtains of pale-gray spider silk veiled the mouth of the cave as thick fibrous strands of webbing crisscrossed between the sharp rocks, glistening with a toxic sheen that seemed to swallow the ambient daylight.

Silas pulled gently on Valkyrie’s reins, bringing the massive dire wolf to a halt.

"Spiders, huh?" Silas murmured, his eyes narrowing as he evaluated the web density.

Beside the mount, both Aurelia and the Princess visibly stiffened.

The Princess’s grip on the saddle pommel tightened until her knuckles turned pale, her azure eyes wide with genuine distress.

"S-Spiders...? Multi-legged, venomous monstrosities that skitter in the dark...?"

Even Aurelia, whose combat capability stood among the highest in this group, felt a subtle instinctive prickle of aversion.

Holy mana was pure and immaculate while giant, mucus-covered arachnids with dozens of jointed legs and dripping fangs were an unpleasant contrast to her nature...

SNAP!

Before anyone could suggest adjusting their approach, Valkyrie’s front-left paw came down on a tension-loaded silk tripwire concealed beneath the loose gravel.

VUUUUUUM... FWIP!

The ground directly beneath the vanguard violently erupted.

A massive spring-loaded net of thick, adhesive silk tore upward from the dirt fissures, snapping inward like a colossal cage designed to trap Valkyrie, Silas, and the Princess in a suffocating bind.

"KYAAA!" the Princess shrieked, instinctively ducking her head against Silas’s chest.

Silas didn’t even shift his footing.

With a single effortless flick of his right wrist, a brilliant crescent of Gold Core mana sliced horizontally through the air.

SHING!

The razor-sharp mana wave sheared through the multi-ton web construct, severing it into dozens of disintegrating ribbons before a single strand could touch their armor.

Silas let out a dry sigh, rolling his wrist.

"...A rather rudimentary trap."

He straightened his posture, his voice cutting through the damp air with undeniable authority.

"Squad One! Form your battle lines! Prepare to engage!"

"Move, move, move!" Helen shouted, leading the fifteen recruits as they deployed forward, splitting into two ranks with shields locked and spears leveled directly at the cavern opening.

Inside the dark tunnel, the thick silk curtains shuddered violently.

SKRRRRR... SKLICK... SKLICK... SKLICK!

The rapid, clicking clatter of dozens of hard chitinous legs against bare rock echoed from the darkness.

The web barrier was shredded from within, and a swarming tide of arachnid beasts poured out into the open clearing.

Leading the charge were dozens of scouting spiders... each the size of an armored hound, their dark-brown carapaces dripping with caustic green fluid as their multi-faceted red eyes locked onto the squad.

Following directly behind them marched a far heavier frontline.

Emerging from the gloom were massive ten-foot-wide arachnids whose carapaces were not made of standard chitin, but interlocking plates of slate-gray stone armor that clanked loudly like walking siege engines.

Silas raised an eyebrow in analytical assessment.

’Armored carapaces on arachnid frames? I haven’t seen this particular adaptation in the outer basin.’

A golden interface notification flashed across his vision.

[Target Analyzed: Armorpider (Tier 2)]

"Squad One, advance!" Silas commanded. "Mages, soften their plating from the rear! Vanguards, drive the wedges!"

"Spells loaded! Fire on my mark!" shouted Vila, a recruit mage anchoring the rear rank.

FWOOSH! CRACKLE!

Concentrated bursts of fire-mana and jagged bolts of lightning erupted from the recruits’ staves, slamming directly into the forward ranks of the smaller scouting spiders.

BOOM! KRA-KRA!

The concussive elemental strikes shattered the scout spiders into burning piles of chitin, while scorching lines and hairline fractures spiderwebbed across the dense stone carapaces of the advancing Armorpiders.

"Spears, thrust!" Helen yelled, stepping into the pocket.

THWACK! CLANG!

Four ash-wood spears struck the fractured armor plates of the leading Armorpider.

The tips punched through the weakened stone shell with a heavy crunch, driving deep into its vital blue hemolymph.

"Step in! Don’t let it spray the silk!" Sarah shouted, lunging forward with her arming sword and severing the beast’s left cluster of eyes with a diagonal slash.

To the right flank, Lupina was a blur of silver and steel.

"GET OFF MY FIELD!" Lupina snarled, her retractable three-inch claw gauntlets blurring into a relentless sequence of horizontal and vertical cleaves.

CLANG! SCHLICK! CRUNCH!

Her reinforced steel claws struck the stone plating of an Armorpider, throwing bright sparks into the air before digging beneath the seams of its armor.

"HAAH!"

With a fierce feral pull, the silver-haired demi-human wrenched the top shell clean off the monster’s back before driving her boot straight into its exposed core with a concussive splat.

Across the center, Morrighan stepped forward. Her pale skin glowed faintly as her twin obsidian horns flared with abyssal mana.

"[Demon’s Resolve]," Morrighan incanted, her deep voice cutting across the stone.

Her physical parameters surged instantly.

She closed the distance to a charging ten-foot Armorpider in a single heavy stride, cocking her right fist enveloped in a swirling vortex of black demonic flame.

"[Brimstone Punch]!"

KRA-BOOOOOOOOOM!

Morrighan’s fist collided dead-center with the armored snout of the beast.

The shockwave was deafening.

The dense stone plating caved inward like brittle pottery as the demonic fire incinerated the monster’s internal organs before blasting the corpse thirty feet backward into the cave entrance.

Without breaking her rhythm, Morrighan pivoted on her heel, her heavy, scale-armored spade-tipped tail whipping through the air like an iron wrecking ball.

BANG-CRACK!

The tail strike shattered the legs of a second Armorpider, sending it crashing to the dirt before she raised her palm and released a point-blank [Brimstone Bolt], reducing its head to smoldering cinders.

Sitting atop Valkyrie, Silas watched the engagement with a calm eye.

’Good,’ Silas thought, tracking the unit’s spacing and momentum. ’The recruits are holding their formation, Lupina is channeling her aggression effectively, and Morrighan is locking down the choke points. All we need to do is carve through this forward line, clear the stragglers in the upper tunnels, and reach the Queen’s chamber.’

Silas had little interest in the Spider Queen herself... she was merely another obstacle to be cleared.

His focus was entirely directed toward what lay behind her: the Queen’s eggs.

’Hiro ruined my plan last time,’ Silas recalled, his focus sharpening with clear intent. ’...But this time, there will be no interruptions. The spider eggs! The eggs are the real prize...’

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A deafening ground-shaking roar tore through the cavern depths.

The rock walls vibrated as a massive heavy silhouette burst through the dark tunnel at terrifying speed, barreling straight toward the sunlight like an enraged battering ram.

Silas blinked in genuine surprise.

Emerging from the spider-infested cavern was not an arachnid... It was a nine-foot-tall Mountain Orc.

The creature possessed thick moss-green skin covered in crude tribal markings, tusks jutting four inches from its lower jaw, and a massive tree-trunk-sized spiked wooden baton gripped firmly in its calloused fists.

Its bloodshot eyes burned with berserk frenzy as it charged blindly toward the open air, trampling over the dead spiders beneath its heavy boots.

’Where did an Orc come from inside an arachnid nest?!’ Silas thought, his mind rapidly assessing the battlefield. ’Is there an active tribal camp deeper in the crags? Was it trapped within the web tunnels and fighting its way out?!’

Before Silas could fully process the arrival, the Princess lost all composure.

She grabbed Silas’s tunic with both hands, shaking him frantically as she buried her face against his chest in panic.

"LORD SILAS! AN ORC! A PRIMITIVE BEAST!" the Princess cried out, her voice cracking. "WE ARE GOING TO DIE! I DO NOT WISH TO BE GROUND INTO MINCE BY A CLUB!"

Silas looked down at her with a flat unimpressed expression.

"Die?" Silas repeated calmly. "Princess, look at the field."

SHING!

Before the charging Orc could close the distance toward Valkyrie, a blinding flash of white light illuminated the clearing.

Aurelia moved.

Her golden-amber eyes flared with tranquil focus. In a matter of seconds, the former Saintess vanished from her position, her movement tearing through the air in a silent frictionless streak of pure platinum mana.

She materialized instantly at the Orc’s blind spot, right behind its massive charging legs.

SCHLICK-SCHLICK!

Aurelia’s slender mithril rapier flickered twice like lightning as the blade effortlessly severed the thick Achilles tendons of both the Orc’s legs.

"GRAAAAAAAGH!"

The nine-foot brute let out a deafening roar of agony as its momentum collapsed instantly.

Its legs buckled, and its massive frame pitched forward, tumbling helplessly through the air in mid-fall.

VUUUUUUUUUM!

As the Orc fell, brilliant incandescent Argent Flames ignited along the severed tendon wounds, surging up its legs and across its torso like living ribbons of holy fire.

The creature screamed as the sacred flames seared through its corrupted flesh.

Aurelia however did not wait for the brute to strike the ground.

Suspended gracefully in mid-air alongside the falling giant, Aurelia drew her rapier back in a fluid circular arc.

Her golden eyes narrowed.

SLASH!

A single immaculate vertical cleave of pure holy light sliced cleanly through the center of the Orc’s massive frame.

SPLAT-CRUNCH!

The colossal green brute was cleaved perfectly in two from crown to groin while still suspended in mid-air.

A shower of cauterized organs, black blood, and pulverized bone rained down across the gravel as the two halves of the carcass slammed into the dirt with a heavy thud.

"Haah..."

Aurelia landed softly on the tips of her boots, her white-enameled cuirass completely spotless, without a single drop of gore touching her silver trim.

She raised the slender rapier to her eyes, admiring the immaculate balance of the dwarven steel.

"A truly fine weapon," Aurelia murmured softly, flicking an invisible speck of dust from the tip before sheathing the blade with a crisp sound.

She turned smoothly on her heel, stepping gracefully back toward the dire wolf mount.

Aurelia looked up at Silas with calm devoted golden-amber eyes, placing a hand over her chest as she offered a soft respectful bow.

"My Lord Silas... are you unharmed?"

Silas sat in the saddle, looking from the split Orc carcass back to the Saintess with a wide impressed grin.

"Never better, Aurelia," Silas smiled. "Never better."