As blood sprayed across the cavern, dyeing the webbing red, that sensation of time being slowed ended. Having already begun to approach, a pit formed in Aura’s stomach. But she knew that she couldn’t give up hope yet. Even back on Earth, people had survived grievous impalement before. It would probably be a difficult fight, but so long as Kaelen remained on the monster’s legs—

  Her hope was quickly dashed as the Drider-like monster yanked one of the legs impaling Kaelen out. As a fresh gout of blood erupted, Maul surged past her. His expression was one she had never seen before, eyes open wide, face bright red, and teeth bared. Thanks to his higher AGI, he would end up reaching the monster first, but she didn’t care about that. Things were bad, but there was still a chance—

  And then, that chance grew lower. With a flick of the leg, Kaelen was flung away from the Drider. It screeched loudly as it was struck—though that could be from the blast of magic that crashed against it. With Ryse getting into the battle, and Maul charging forwards, Aura made her choice. While she knew that the chances were growing ever slimmer, she needed to try. So, she diverted her path away from the monster and in the direction where it tossed Kaelen.

  He bounced against the ground; a red smear left in his wake. Gathering strength in her legs, she bounded towards him as best she could. The ground made it more difficult, and with one arm numb she stumbled. Crashing forwards, she pushed up and finished making her way to Kaelen. All the while the sounds of combat began behind her.

  Approaching him, she dropped her club and reached out with her good hand. He landed face-down, and even now his wounds were plain to see. Two clear holes, the size of her arm, were through his torso. One through his stomach, and one in the upper left part of his chest. Her vision was blurring, so she pretended that the glittering gold coming off his body was just her tears as she turned him over. As soon as she did so, she placed a hand over the wound on the upper part of his chest. Her gaze was locked onto his, taking in that same blank expression he took on when he started to gain his class.

  “Mana within me rise. Heal and revitalize where I lay my hand. Wound Closure.”

  Chanting her spell, she felt the Mana build within her body and gather in her hand. Only, the Mana failed to release from her and simply settled once more. A choked sob escaped her as the realization hit. There was nothing for her to heal or revitalize, not with this level of injury. That pit in her stomach grew deeper, Kaelen was dead.

  “Aura!”

  The cry of her name, from who she didn’t know, and the sounds of battle behind her cause something to shift. That cold pit soon grew hot, and Aura began to tremble from where she was kneeling above Kaelen’s body. Teeth gritted, she grabbed her club from her side and gave him one last look before turning back to the fight.

  Already she began to bound towards what was happening, assessing the situation as she went. Violet, who had made it to the trapped people, had fallen to their knees, while Ryse stood nearby and was in the midst of casting a spell. With the Drider meanwhile, Maul had made contact and was fighting head on. Unlike with the Silkweaver, he was using the extra reach of his cudgel. He narrowly dodged one of the monster’s legs, but before landing his blow, he was forced to divert his swing to knock away another leg that was coming for him.

  “Scan. Mana within me rise. Be unleashed upon those before me as I call your name. Mana Bolt!”

  While her body and mind were alight with fury, Aura was not lost to rage. Lifting her hand as she ran, she cast her Mana Bolt at the monster at the same time as using her skill. There was no questioning if it would work or not, it either would or it wouldn’t. As the Mana gathered in her hand and fired off, she glanced at the words and numbers that appeared above the monster’s head. As well as that greyed out notification symbol appearing in the corner of her vision.

  Royal Araneid Broodweaver

  500 HP, 15 MP

  As the details of the monster, the Broodweaver, appeared Aura’s spell crashed into the side. Only, unlike normally where there was quick pop up telling her how much damage she did, nothing appeared. She didn’t dwell on it, as the attack clearly did something if the screech of pain the monster gave off was any indication. And while staying back and attacking it from afar might be the safest choice for her, it was not so much for Maul.

  The Broodweaver raised the arms attached to the humanoid part of its body. A sickly yellow color started to glow on the chitin covered hands, before it swiped them down towards Maul who was using the distraction she had caused to move in to attack the torso. He pulled back on the attack to avoid being slashed directly, but the yellow streaks that fly from the swinging claws were not so easily avoided. While she couldn’t see what the attack did, the howl of pain Maul gave off told her that standing back was not an option.

  With how hard she was going, reaching the monster before it attacked again was easy enough. It saw her approach and backed up, enough to prevent her from getting behind it like she had when fighting the Silkweaver. Club gripped tightly, she started to run rather than bound forwards. Maul’s wound must not have been too critical, as he was alongside her with this frontal attack. At the very least this way, they could split the thing’s attention.

  The Broodweaver reared the front two legs up at their approach, swinging them down in piercing blows like it had done to Kaelen. While not as fast as when Fortress had attacked her, it was still faster than her. The blow was not aimed at her torso, and quicker than she could react a sharp, searing pain coursed through her right leg as the attack sliced into it. The pain was great, but her body still moved as she swung her club at the leg that just wounded her. A dull thud rang out from the impact.

  When no indicator for how much damage she just took appeared, worry surged through her fury. While attacking and not knowing how much damage she was dealing was one thing, not knowing how much she had taken was another. For the fights she had been in, it acted as a safety net for her to avoid getting into a lethal situation. Her fight against Maul was the only time she had gone into single digits of health, and that had been a gamble itself.

  But as another Mana Bolt from Ryse crashed into the monster, Maul moved forwards into its guard. While it put him at risk for the arms of the thing, they were easier to avoid than the legs. Coming to a decision, Aura joined him in stepping into the guard of the monster. Putting her life at risk was nothing new to her. And she would not allow caution on her part to result in someone else dying.

  With the two of them closer, the Broodweaver tried to scuttle backwards. While it was faster than them both, its maneuverability was less with them so close. Aura moved closer to the monster while Maul stayed back, both swinging their weapons and hammering into the torso of the monster. Both attacks thud against the chitin, and it remained firm despite their blows. Given the hiss of pain, it was clear they damaged it somewhat. Though the louder hiss shortly after told her that Ryse probably did more.

  Glancing at the monster’s torso, chitin undamaged from their attacks, a thought crossed Aura’s mind. She had gained two weapon skills from her mastery and only used one so far. While the battle was going well right now, it could turn the other way just as easily. Using something new and unknown was risky, but it could be the turning point.

  With fury helping her focus through the noise of battle, she gathered herself. Grabbing her club in both hands, she kept pace with the retreating monster and called out.

  “Crushing Blow!”

  The Mana surged into her club; extra weight being added into it. Allowing her thoughts to guide her, she began to swing the club forwards as if it were a fireman’s axe and she was trying to break down a door. Only, the door in this instance was the chitinous chest of the monster before her. As her gaze moved to the creature, her eyes widened briefly. Both of its arms were reared up, that sickly yellow glow covering the hands. Already committed to her attack, she couldn’t pull back as the two claws raked down her front.

  A burning pain coursed through her from the attack; unlike anything she had felt before. At the same time her own attack kept going. Thanks to the proximity from the monster having to bend down to reach her, her blow didn’t strike the belly of the more humanoid torso, but the shoulder and face. A loud crack echoed from the collision of the blow; her own scream of pain mixed into it. The monster was sent reeling backwards, the chitin on its face and shoulder cracking and falling away. Aura, meanwhile, fell back as the burning pain reached the peak from the clawed hands leaving her torso.

  Before she fell to the ground, a hand gripped her shoulder to keep her steady. Maul made no move after the retreating Broodweaver, instead helping keep her from falling over. Through the pain, a flicker of concern on his expression, before his attention turned back to the monster.

  “You bought us a moment. Check your HP and tell me if you can still fight.”

  His tone was a mixture of emotions, and with the pain from her chest killing her own fury she was unable to discern each one. The authority was the only one she recognized, and with a brief nod she called open her menu and quickly clicked on her character sheet. Seeing her HP at [50/180] was concerning, but fighting with magic was not viable anymore. Her MP was sitting at [4/20] after her last strike, meaning she only had two Mana Bolts left. And without enough Mana to heal herself up, the situation was looking grim. Briefly, she noticed that her ATU had gone up to 35 as well, but that was something to worry about later.

  “Maul… how much damage are you doing to it?”

  “I have no idea. This one feels tougher than that silk covered spider, so probably less than twenty points.”

  While the lack of confirmation was worrying, it was also reassuring as well. Not knowing how much damage was being done was not something unique to her. Gathering her strength, she stood tall and shook off the hand that had been keeping her steady. As she did, she got a glimpse of the damage Maul had taken. A giant ‘X’ had been carved into his armored top, three times over. And while he had avoided any physical contact with the monster’s claws, there were still lines of melted flesh where his clothes were damaged. Despite knowing what to expect she still glanced down, and winced at the sight that greeted her.

  Much like he had suffered, from her shoulders down the outside of her breasts claw marks had burned through her armor. It was only hanging onto her due to resting on her shoulders and was leaving two rather large openings on her sides. Her flesh was not unscathed either, having physically been struck by the claws, as furrows of what looked like melted red skin ran down her sides where her armor was torn. Knowing more about burns than a normal person, she recognized them as being caused by acid rather than fire.

  Through her assessments, Maul stood by her side and seemed to be waiting on her answer. His eyes had not left the Broodweaver and as she looked towards the monster it seemed to have recovered. Much like it damaged her, she did the same to it. While her attack only hit the shoulder and face of the monster, it had caused the chitin on the whole humanoid body to begin to fall away. Sickly pale white flesh greeted them, oozing slightly. It looked like something out of a horror movie and soon let out another screech before beginning to charge forwards towards her and Maul.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Rather than answer verbally, Aura began to step forwards to meet the charging monster. Maul was right beside her, for how long she didn’t know. With her HP being so low, and her fury having abated, she couldn’t stay fighting head on for much longer. But this thing must be on its last legs by now, given how it had retreated from her blow. So long as she held out for just a little longer, they could do this.

  The charge between the three of them followed a similar beat to last time. As the two of them grow closer, the monster raised the front two legs to strike. Increased intelligence or not, at the very least it was predictable. Predictable didn’t mean that it had slowed down, and while she moved earlier this time, the clawed leg still hit her. Only, unlike last time where it sliced across her leg, a fresh shot of pain filled her as it raked across her damaged side. A tearing sound ripped through the air, with a louder cracking sound as both her and Maul slammed their weapons into the legs drowning it out.

  “Crushing Blow!”

  While the chitin on the leg that struck her cracks, as Maul cried out his own attack she heard his target snap. The added force given by using a weapon skill was enough to break the thing’s leg. Blue blood spurted and a loud screech was let out as the monster took permanent damage. Once more it tried to scuttle away, but if it was unable to do so before, it was still unable to now. Pushing forwards into the guard once more, now was a good a time as any to put an end to this fight. Lacking the Mana to do another Crushing Blow, she put her all into the other option.

  “Heavy Strike!”

  Mana flowed through her body, and she found the attack she envisioned being carried out. Once more she swung her club forwards like it was an axe, only this time it was not chitin that she struck. Instead, a fleshy thump sounds out, with another one following as Maul struck. Both of their attacks struck the exposed body of the Broodweaver. More blood erupted from the thing’s monstrous mouth, but it didn’t start to disappear into golden particles. Rather, the whole body of the monster began to light up with that sickly yellow color.

  Pulling back her weapon, Aura tried to back off only for the still intact leg of the monster to quickly sweep forwards and pin her and Maul against the monster. While it had been slowed, it was still as strong as ever. And thanks to their position, trying to strike back wasn’t viable. The sickly yellow glow reached a crescendo, and the monster began to let out a loud screech.

  “STOP!”

  A voice cried out, the volume drowning the screech the monster gave out. It was a cry of desperation, of fear. As the word echoed, the power in it was undeniable. For a moment, she was brought back to those times in the Matron’s presence. The weight of her presence and words had a strange power over her. Only, something about this was different. While the voice carried fear and desperation, the feeling behind the word was almost alluring. It practically was whispering into her ears that she needed to stop what she was doing.

  While she shook off the feeling easily enough, the same couldn’t be said for Maul or the Broodweaver. The growing light coming from the monster suddenly dimmed, its jaw slack. Maul meanwhile had stopped trying to force the leg pinning them to the thing off, instead simply standing there with a glassy expression. This was not the first time she had seen this happen, and she knew that Violet was responsible.

  And while their actions did save them from an immediate death, Aura had no idea how long this would last. Her struggles were in vain, only serving to cause fresh shots of pain to flow through her. If she had at least one arm free, she could possibly cast another Mana Bolt with the last of her Mana, but even that was not possible. Really, all this had done was draw out what may well be her death.

  “Aura… finish this… I believe you can do it.”

  Another voice called out, strained and barely a whisper. Turning her neck, she strained to see behind her and back towards where the people were bound to the wall. Calen had been hanging separate from the women, for what reason she did not know. He was in a similar state of undress, though looking withered rather than having a bulging stomach. Looking at him now, he was not any better, but his head was lifted and he was aware of things now. His eyes looked empty, except for the faintest bit of light within them.

  “Do it.”

  He said those words before his head went limp again, and with them a red glow began to cover her body. She had been told about his skill by Kaelen, Rally or something like it, and even experienced it when fleeing from the fight that went wrong and started all of this. The pain in her body faded away, and a surge of strength filled her. It was not enough to push herself free of the pinning leg completely, but it was enough to raise her arm. The poison on it had long dried, but there was still a lack of sensation in it as she rested it against the chest of the still charmed Broodweaver.

  “Mana within me rise! Be unleashed upon those before me as I call your name. Mana Bolt!”

  Crying out her chant, the last of her Mana surged before erupting from her hand. The force blew her arm back, and the strain was enough to cause her to wince through the numbness in it. But her spell blasted through the torso of the monster, who much like with Kaelen died without making a sound, and with a blank expression on its face.

  Royal Araneid Broodweaver Killed! +83 XP!

  With that notification, golden particles begin to flow from the various wounds on the monster. With its death, the strength in its leg left and she pushed herself free. The sound of her spell proved to be enough to shake Maul from being charmed, and he stumbled back in a daze. She caught a relieved look on his face for a moment, before turning away from him and the disappearing body.

  It took her but a moment to orient herself, before she began to head towards one of the other sources of glowing particles in the room. Making her way over, her whole body was a mixture of sensations. Each step caused her leg to throb from the deep gouge in it; and each breath caused her sides to burn. The red glow surrounding her from Calen’s [Rally] faded away, adding to her exhaustion. But her injuries were secondary, to what she felt needed be done.

  Dropping to her knees on reaching his corpse, it pained Aura to see how much of him was gone. His padded tunic was deflated, as his chest was already dissolved. The only real parts of him still there were his legs, arms, and head. That empty expression was still on his face, eyes wide and glassy. Kneeling over Kaelen’s body, she knew she could do nothing for him at this point. Nothing but be there to see him off completely.

  As one of her hands grasped his, another moved to close his still open eyes. A gloved hand beat her to it, and Violet knelt next to her. Their eyes were puffy and red, as they close Kaelen’s eyes silently. They were not alone in approaching, as soon enough both Ryse and Maul joined them. In silence they watch over his disappearing body, the exhaustion of the battle and what it took weighing on them all.

  His hand was one of the last things to disappear, and Aura inhaled sharply as it did. Tears had silently been flowing, and her fury had long since died out. Her chest and mind were numb, part of her hoping that this didn’t just happen. But the reality was that it did, and it happened because they all came here to do the right thing.

  With his hand gone, Aura slowly rose to stand once more. Briefly watching as items that had probably been inside of his inventory appeared on the spot he passed, she turned away. Coming down here was done for a reason, and looking at all of the still bound people, it was time to finish fulfilling their goal.

  “Ryse, you said you had something that could maybe get them down, right?”

  Her voice was hoarse and seemed to be enough to break the others out of their thoughts. Before she got an answer, she felt a gloved hand gently take her arm.

  “Aura… you are hurt. Pretty badly from the looks of it. Let me heal you up firs—.”

  “No. No, I am not the priority here Violet. Everyone captured here, they are in worse condition. After we have them down, looked over, and treated, then you can worry about me.”

  Violet winced, letting go as Aura cut them off. Already, she was beginning to make her way over towards the wall, pushing her own pain aside as she focused on the goal. Maul and Ryse, both joined her shortly, with the latter considering his words for a moment before speaking.

  “Right. Well, it wasn’t really useful during the fighting, but I was… taught another spell. It’s called Ignition Boost. It shoots me forwards with a brief, but powerful, gout of flames. I don’t know how flammable this webbing is, so using it on it could be a terrible idea. But if we could make a few torches or something, then we should be able to carefully burn away the webs holding everyone right?”

  The admission of the spell gave her pause for a moment, or rather what the spell could do. It was almost ironic in a way that despite having studied Fire Science, she had no means to use that knowledge. But now that she was presented with an opportunity, her mind began to race.

  The webbing is sticky, and the air is humid. So, a fire wouldn’t spread that quickly. Though if he is creating enough fire to propel him forwards, it is bound to be hot. Natural gas would normally be a concern this deep underground, but things living in here makes it a non-worry. So, using his spell to make torches could work.

  The issue, is possibly hurting everyone captured. They are decently high up, so more likely than not, we will need to either climb the webbing and risk getting caught. Or we will need to make a human ladder. And that doesn’t even account for possibly burning anybody caught up there. They look to be in rough condition, so even a minor injury could be enough to kill them.

  But between all of our injuries, getting back to Fortress will take days. And since I’m not sure that Fortress himself isn’t at least partially responsible for them being here, we can’t trust that he wouldn’t stop us from coming back. So, we need to save them now. And then hope that if he did come after us that he brought all of the Soldiers. If he does have any involvement in all this, then hopefully witnesses will keep him from acting out.

  “That… should work. The webbing won’t go up instantly, but we should still clear a space. Maul, can you help me tear up some of the stuff on the ground? Set it aside, because the web can make fuel for the torches.”

  Maul had kept silent since the fight was done, his gaze alternating from looking at her and looking distant. What was going on in his mind was a mystery, which had become somewhat normal regarding him lately. Ever since their spar, he had begun to act differently. Him charging in to fight the Broodweaver after it struck down Kaelen was expected. But him kneeling as the body of a fellow disappeared was not.

  “I’m going to try something first. If it doesn’t work, then we do things your way.”

  Voice gruff, Maul walked towards the wall after speaking up. Ryse looked ready to question what was going on, but she shook her head for silence. The two of them watch as Maul reached out towards the wall and began to pull and tear at the webbing covering it. He was doing so more easily than even before the fighting, which had her thinking of her own stats. In the moment in battle where she checked her HP, she saw that her ATU was five points higher than it should be. And while she would love to check it out right now, it could wait.

  After maybe a minute of work, a panting Maul stepped back. He made some progress in tearing the webbing away, but it proved to be more than he could handle. There was a look of frustration on his face as well, and Aura realized what this was all about. For as much as things had begun to change, some things stayed the same. While she and Ryse had suggested a magical solution to the problem, Maul wanted to try something physical.

  But with that failing, he now seemed ready to give their idea a try. Moving next to him, Aura began to help in clearing a patch of the ground. It was tiring work, and at some point, Violet had stopped mourning to help. Ryse did as well, speeding the process up until they finally pulled enough webbing away to reveal the rock beneath it.

  From there, it was easy enough to wrap the stone clubs they had been using as weapons with webbing. Ryse then stood at the center of the cleared-out area they made, before he shot forwards with an eruption of fire. The gout was large enough to leave the edges of the clearing smoking lightly, but at the center of it were two lit clubs turned torches. She quickly stepped over and stomped the smoldering silk webbing out, not wanting to risk a fire.

  After that, came figuring out how exactly they would get the captives down. With how high up they were, simply stretching to try and reach with the torches was not going to work. Nor was climbing the still sticky walls. Ryse suggested dragging the corpse of the Broodweaver over and climbing it, but with it already disappearing that was out. In the end, Maul was the one who suggested a solution. While exhausted, he pointed out how his strength should be enough to hold at least two people. So, he suggested having Aura got on his shoulders, and then someone else got onto hers to stack each other up.

  Were this back on Earth, she would never agree with this human ladder idea. It had a very real risk of toppling over, which could lead to them all getting stuck or getting hurt. Sadly, she knew it was the best plan they had and she agreed to it. Ryse ended up agreeing to be the one on top, with Violet waiting at the bottom to receive first the dropped torches, and then the people as they were lowered down.

  With the plan decided, they stack up and began. Their ladder was unsteady at first, but Maul found his balance quickly enough. Any awkwardness Aura might feel at her current position, having her head between one man’s legs and another man’s head between her own, was washed away by a combination of exhaustion, and numbness.

  The first people they saved were Jackie and Calen, the former still seeming to be in what Aura recognized as a traumatized state, while the latter had fallen unconscious again. It took some time, but the webbing burned away and they freed their fellows from the wall and got them to safety on the ground. And with that success, they move to the next. It was going to be long work, but they were determined to free everyone held captive here. Because otherwise, Kaelen would have given his life for nothing.