Spoiler (Click to Show)
As the group of fighters that I had managed to get myself into emerged through a dense treeline, I followed shortly, accidentally bumping into Private Xander as I had allowed myself to become enthralled by the sight ahead. Before my eyes sat a large stone structure that sat as a group of walls set up in a massive spiral pattern. The seven large stone palisades met in the center of the structure. A river of oddly colored ‘water’ ran through each arm of the spiral, outwards from the center, finally creating seven small waterfalls, one at the end of each spiral arm. The water, if it could still be called such, looked like a flowing black ooze that gave off a rather repulsive odor. Despite the disgusting aroma, the sight of the blackened water was still magnificent in and of itself.
“What is this place?” I found myself asking unintentionally, having simply been speaking out loud.
“This is an Auran spring, one of the seven that dot this landscape,” Tarcon spoke slowly, obviously overwhelmed by the sight as well. “Each of the springs has a different colored water flowing through it, but this one is not normal.”
“What do you mean Chief?” The Private asked quietly.
Tarcon opened his mouth to respond but Ria beat him to the punch, “He means that these things are supposed to have one of the following colors: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Black is not supposed to be flowing out of one of these things.”
“Correct Ria, the fountain at the center of the ruins beneath the spring has been tainted by something..” Tarcon began anew, ignoring the fact that he had been interrupted by a lower ranking fighter.
“And it’s our job to find out what’s tainting it and then to purify the spring,” To-Kala uttered commandingly, obviously not one to take in the scenery or any form of history behind the area. He simply wanted to get in and get the job done, probably because finishing faster meant getting paid faster. “Let’s get this started, there should be an entrance to the ruins behind each waterfall, I want to secure two of them so we have multiple ways to get out and regroup if needed. Xander, you’re with me. Ria, runt, you two go with Tarcon, and watch each other’s backs.”
“Yes sir!” The other three all said in perfect unison. I responded only with a simple nod and a muffled grunt.
“Alright, let’s move you two, kiddo, I recommend you stick close if you have the desire to live,” Tarcon spoke jokingly as we made our way towards one of the waterfalls, he and Ria both passing through to the other side of one of the black downpour with ease and with seemingly no reaction other than shaking themselves off on the other side.
When I passed through the blackened flow of water, I was forced to pause for a moment as I felt the weirdest sensation come over me, it felt as though something was pulling me, but it was a force that was relatively easy to ignore, as it was weak and merely seemed an annoyance at this point.
“Kiddo, you alright?” The Chief asked as he finally noticed the pause in my actions.
“We’re not even through the door and he’s already frozen in fear. Bringing him was a waste Tarcon, can’t we just leave him here?” Ria heaved a heavy sigh simply at the thought of having someone like myself tagging along.
“I...I’m fine, let’s go,” I stuttered, looking up at the two with a hesitant gaze.
Tarcon waved us forward when he realized I wasn’t going to say what had gotten to me, and so we progressed down a short stone stairway until we were confronted by a large door. There was a lock on the door but it was no ordinary lock, it was old, advanced, and supported by magic runes, but apparently Ria spent a few years in thief training and Tarcon did the same in mage training, so the two were able to effectively pick the lock with relative ease while working together. Honestly though I felt kind of bad that I was not able to help much, I had neither skill nor memory on my side at this point, but I had to make do with what I did have.
On the other side of the doorway lie a large room, obviously one of many that formed the structure. The walls were made of solid white stone, just as the outside had been. Tarcon raised a hand, signaling Ria and I to stop moving as he whispered, “We’ve got approximately six people in there, based on the spirit signatures I’m picking up in there. I’m fairly certain at least three of them are spider hybrids, the others are humanoid.”
“So, plan of attack then?” Ria asked quietly.
I don’t know what came over me after that, whatever had been ‘pulling’ me for the past minute or so suddenly decided to give a nice firm tug. I lost it and charged in, blade swinging, I wasn’t even in control, at least that’s how it felt as I began pulling off minor acrobatics and combinations that I never knew that I knew. I finally managed to regain control after involuntarily killing two of the spider hybrids and one of the humanoids, at which point I managed to dispatch the remaining three with my own skills, not relying on some abnormal bust of ability any longer. Throughout the bout Tarcon and Ria must have been utterly stunned, just as I was, mainly because neither took the time to come out and help me. Nevertheless, I managed to dispatch every man in the room, honestly I regretted it instantly, as I never even knew if they were hostile.
“What the hell was that?” Ria shouted at me after entering the room alongside Tarcon.
I hung my head low, “I…I don’t know what came over me, it was like I wasn’t in control of myself.”
“Make sure it doesn’t happen again you little runt.” Ria angrily slapped me across the face, “The whole mission could be ruined now because of that little stunt.”
“Ria, calm down, leave him alone.” Tarcon defended me, but I told him simply not to worry about it, requesting we simply move forward instead of arguing about my mistake, as the time spent arguing was time wasted.
Tarcon agreed to my proposal and we continued on, discovering that even before we had entered, the people inside the ruins were in fact hostile, meaning we had to cut down a few more in each room. We raised the body count pretty high by the time we made it to the center of the ruins, a large circular room that surrounded one final room, which Tarcon called the Room of the Ultimatum, as it apparently was where the spring got its color and its water supply, but also acted as a sort of records room, containing three shrine pedestals, one for the primary and the two secondary god-figures of the Auran clan that used to worship there. It also served as a place to record the rules of law for the clan.
We met up with To-Kala and Xander once more, and somehow when it came time to decide who would lead into the Room of the Ultimatum, Tarcon suggested it should be me, siding with the others on the fact that I was expendable and no one would miss me if whatever had polluted the shrine was still in there and decided to kill me. This was not helped by To-Kala’s lack of trust in me or Ria’s anger at me, so I was sent through one of the long hallways leading into the center-point of the ruins alone, and as I got about halfway down, I felt the ground shift downward slightly under my foot.
“Uh oh,” I muttered to myself, looking back over my shoulder as a large slab of stone slammed down at the hallway’s entrance, closing it off completely. I was trapped, I would have to go through the Room of the Ultimatum in order to get out, there was no going back the way I came anymore.
I figured it was time to go all or nothing, quickening my pace slightly through the rest of the hallway, and again, another trap at the end of the hall, I felt the floor shift under my foot once more just passed the entryway, causing me to lose my balance slightly this time as I was moving a bit faster. I then watched as one by one, all seven arched entrances to the room closed, locking me in with whatever else happened to be in the shadowed room.
“Well hello there,” I was startled by the voice from just behind my head, its feminine tone both cold and seductive. I turned to face who or whatever was there, but was thrown up into some sort of web before I managed to move very much.
Now, not only was I trapped, I was stuck too, unsure of what to do or if there was anything I could do.
Within the shadows I managed to catch a glimpse of the slightest bit of movement, mu eyes still not being fully adjusted to the lack of lighting within the room. I called out into the darkness, “Who are you and why are you here?” The voice that rang through the air was fearless, even though it was just an act, as I was scared out of my wits.
“I guess you could call me a tenant of sorts in this place, but as for who I am, I have no reason to tell you, you’re the one who’s stuck in my web and at my mercy,” The voice spoke almost trying to tease me. “Now, how about you answer those questions for me?”
“My name is Trexly, I’m supposed to be here to aid Eletohm Company in cleansing this spring.” I answered truthfully, not having another option in my current situation, but I didn’t stop squirming, trying to loosen the grip of the web on my body.
“Hmm, Eletohm Company is here to run me out are they?” The voice sounded once more, this time seeming as though who or whatever was talking to me was pouting in a way. “Looks like I don’t get to play around much today,” I heard the voice one final time before the figure behind the voice finally showed herself, and the sight that now lay before me was both terrifying and stunning.
The figure behind the voice was a female spider hybrid, but she was different, she was much larger than your standard hybrid, she had a much larger abdomen and was definitely some special breed. Her steely gray eyes were locked on me as I squirmed around, still trying to free myself. She wore no clothing but still had webbing that I was assuming were hers covering her unmentionables. Her skin was a very pale, very light tone of apricot color. Her black hair flowed almost like silk over her shoulders. In all honesty she was quite stunning for a hybrid, not that it mattered much to me right then, I still knew she was going to kill me as she slowly wandered up the web towards me.
As she reached me she walked up and stood facing away from me so that her right legs were close to me, then raised one to strike my chest. As it came down I got the bright idea to use as much force as I could to pull my chest up and to the side, pivoting on the side furthest from her, and instead of striking me, her legs struck and cut through the webbing instead, making it slightly easier to squirm. She looked at me in shock, then raised her leg for another strike, this time at my right arm. I pulled the same little trick to avoid being hit and was rewarded with a free arm, allowing me to draw my blade from my hip, using it to cut through the web with ease, despite the web strength.
The blade was sharper than it looked.
I fell from the web, having to use my arms and legs to soften the landing to a point where I didn’t break anything. I looked back up at the hybrid, my eyes now full of a newfound determination. I then heard her call out, “What? How? You shouldn’t have been able to break my web! Spider Guardians, get him now!”
As she yelled, I heard the sound of stone grinding against stone as the floor opened up on either side of the room. The grinding sound continued as two hybrids, dressed in full armor, rose from the ground via an elevator mechanism of sorts. My greatsword was lying in wait against the wall, having been knocked off when I got slammed up into the web, and if I wanted that, or my SMG, the second of the two weapons I had borrowed from Eletohm Company, I’d have to find a way around one of the two ‘guardians’ that I now faced.
I was at the ready, and waited as the two guardians made their first moves, the first was a bowman, and little did I know his bow packed a little extra punch, I saw the sides of it begin to emit a blue light as he drew the bow back to his ear, aiming directly towards me, then releasing the arrow from its place back on the string, propelling it forward at a rather slow rate for a bow, allowing me to move to the side easily, getting well out of the way before it reached my distance. The fact that I dodged granted me a bit of extra time, as the other guardian, a swordsman, had to dodge out of the way of the projectile as well. As the arrow struck the wall, it gave off a small explosion, causing me to widen my eyes slightly.
I knew I had to find a way to end this quickly or I’d end up between a rock and a hard place. I bolted towards the swordsman, aiming to engage him quickly while furthering myself from the archer.
The swordsman never knew what hit him, he went for a high swing with his longsword as I got close, an easy dodge and an even easier kill opportunity. As that blade came near my head, I ducked down and to the right, my blade in my right hand but held on my left side, and as I came up from my dodge, the sharpness of my fine little katana allowed me to easily swing the elegant blade in an upwards direction, angled forward, ensuring that as I came up I’d have a full swing chance, and that I wouldn’t have to worry about that pesky armor he was wearing.
My blade came up through the area just below where his spider’s abdomen met his human torso, a clean, diagonal cut all the way through. His upper and lower halves separated, perfectly severed, and fell lifeless to the floor. “This whole fighting thing is either easier than I thought, or your ‘guardians are just really bad at it,” I yelled up at the spider hybrid above, suddenly feeling a surge of confidence through my body after such a perfect kill.
I then was reminded that I still had another opponent to face as I heard the twang of the bow once more. I was close enough to the greatsword that I had the time to sheathe my blade, and dive-roll to the blade, dodging the arrow in the process. Once again, small explosion upon impact with the wall, this time it came with noise and a loud flash though. I was blind and deaf, meaning I wouldn’t hear or see if he fired off another arrow, and I was defenseless against an arrow that exploded on impact…Or was I?
I now had the greatsword in my hand, and as I waited for my vision and hearing to clear, I pulled it up in front of my face, hoping that my gauntlets would protect my hands if he shot them. I waited and tensed up, knowing that right now, if I didn’t maintain my grip it was over. The adrenaline allowed me to hold my ‘shield against the next few shots. One…two…three..four shots were what I counted before I finally lost my grip, the greatsword flying off in some unknown direction behind me, now leaving me truly defenseless, though my vision had returned slightly, I saw the shape of the hybrid actually fairly close now, and I looked to the side, spotting my SMG, I grabbed it and hoped that I had the skill to aim and was close enough to land my shots as I fired off a burst of three rounds. I didn’t exactly hit my mark, but by some miracle of the gods, I managed to hit one of the arrows in his quiver, setting them off, at least that what I assume had happened when I heard a loud explosion similar to the ones from earlier arrow shots. I was relieved as I saw a partially charred corpse in front of me when my vision finally cleared.
I looked up angrily at the hybrid above, I was getting mad at her for putting me through such trouble.
“You killed my guardians, you may be of use to me if you were that skilled,” The hybrid spoke once more.
“Yeah?! And Why should I listen to a word you say?” I yelled out, not trying to hide an ounce of my anger.
“Because I’m a goddess you dimwit, now watch