Spiderwolves are a chimeric species – combining traits of multiple different pre-System lifeforms together into a new and usually horrifying combination. In this case, the name is straightforward and easily understood since both spiders and wolves are still common today.
With the legs, agility, and occasionally the venom of an arachnid combined with the powerful jaws, fangs, and cunning of the canid, a spiderwolf can be a formidable opponent. Adult specimens range in size from two feet at the shoulder to much larger, with reports of some exceeding eight feet in height. The only silver lining is that these deadly creatures do not spin webs like many arachnids.
Spiderwolves are highly territorial. In the wild they form small packs – like wolves – of three to thirteen members, typically under the control of an alpha. As with many other chimeric species, mutations run rampant among the species. Some have multiple heads, and others wolf legs in addition to the typical arachnid limbs. They are near-universally nocturnal and adept at hunting both by sight and smell.
- Bonnie, Level 41 Beastmaster,
There had been quite a few curious students peering into our booth, and I was sure people were talking about the fight – if you could call it that – but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to care. I was sure I’d find out sooner rather than later what everyone thought about it. I slightly curious if anyone else had lasted any longer than I had, though.
It turned out that two E10 beers was plenty – more than enough, really. I felt loose and relaxed as we headed back to the dorms, but I could feel the world seeming to tilt this way and that under my feet as we walked. I found myself leaning against Jayce, who had refrained from alcohol as usual. The cyborg didn’t make any comments about my state, which I was grateful for.
The orcs had finished at least two, maybe three, mugs of beer, yet they seemed hardly affected.
My wandering thoughts were cut off as Jayce walked me to my room, where I managed to dismiss my armor before collapsing bonelessly into my bed. I waved off whoever was trying to talk to me, then I passed the fuck out.
When I woke, it was dark outside, and I cursed when I checked the time. My head was throbbing, and my mouth was dry. I’d also missed dinner, so I ended up taking a shower downstairs before pulling out some of my rations from my pack and eating those, along with water from my canteen.
After eating, I sat slumped in my chair, wondering if I’d ever be able to walk down the stairs of that pit again. I shuddered at the feeling of being , like I was a tiny rat trapped under the paw of an unfeelingly cruel cat. Obviously Trite could have killed me at any point – it was remarkable, in fact, that it hadn’t. But the sheer terror of its disgusting appearance, the of the monster that vastly out-Leveled me, had easily overpowered any rational thought.
In a way, it was brilliant, I realized. If Wolf had been the one in the arena with me – if it had been any of the instructors… I would have struggled to believe they would really hurt me, come to hate them once they did, or both. Instead, I’d been facing a monster, one that had birthed nothing but terror in me. One that I sincerely hoped I never had to encounter roaming free around the school. It must live in the stables? I had no idea, and didn’t want to find out. I made a mental note to never go in the stables, just in case.
Tomorrow, I’d go back to classes with Wolf and the other instructors, and I wouldn’t hate . I might be a bit pissed, but I volunteered for the training, and in my heart I suspected I was going to do it again.
Alone in my room, determination quickly turned to boredom. It was almost 2300 hours, and I was sure the rest of my team was asleep, but after my extended nap, I was quite awake. I forced myself to try and read some of the , but after a few pages the words started to run together in my head, the drawings of the monsters within blurring into the image of Trite looking up at my soaring body, ready to snatch me out of the air when I fell back to earth.
I turned instead to practicing magic, stumbling through a few dozen casts of Fire – mostly unsuccessful – before giving up on that too. I ended up pulling out my new cutlass, admiring the wicked curve of the blade, the simple but clean half-basket guard, and the contoured hilt that fit well into my hand. I used the space in the middle of my room to practice cuts and thrusts, my bare feet making little noise on the wooden floor. My room was above the common area anyway, so I wasn’t worried about waking anyone up.
I worked up a nice sweat over the next thirty minutes or so. When my right arm started aching I switched – clumsily – to my left, which had always been a weakness of mine. I lasted less than twenty minutes before I gave up, and went back downstairs for another long, luxurious-feeling shower.
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By the time I got back to my room, I was exhausted, and I passed out in minutes.
When I awoke, I wasn’t in my bed any more. The first sensation I processed was the hardness of the surface under me, and I tried to open my eyes and – nothing happened. I tried to move, to cry out, but my body wasn’t responding to me.
I was wondering if this was all a nightmare, when I felt a weight on top of me, like someone was sitting on my stomach.
“It’s a shame you aren’t awake for this part, You think you can take my girl, that like you can show me up?!”
An icy chill ran down my unmoving back.
A thought crossed my mind and I grasped it like I’d hung onto Zaire’s Earth Spike in the dungeon.
I screamed into the Comms. It felt strange, like my words were beating against a soft barrier.
My words seemed to echo softly inside my head, fading away. I couldn’t tell if anything was getting through. In desperation, I tried channeling mana, stamina, throwing anything and everything into my next scream. I pounded against the soft, slightly yielding barrier – it was like punching a wall of sand with my mind.
“BALANCE!” G’hala roared suddenly, her voice coming from across the hall, and I felt Yuri jump to his feet in shock as a wave of energy surged through my body. Pain seared down my face like my scar was on fire.
“What? Impossible, that dose should have knocked out a Level 3 for at least twenty minutes!”
I suddenly realized my eyes were open, staring at the ceiling of my dark room. At least my left eye was, my right was full of blood and my vision was blurry. Something hammered against my door, rattling it.
“Your door is locked Az, are you in there?!” Raylan shouted from outside, and I sat up, seeing Yuri’s back as he looked at the banging door.
I replied, unsure if my words were getting through, my gun appearing in my hands almost without conscious thought. I thumbed off the safety, glad that I always kept a round in the chamber, and aimed at Yuri’s lower back.
“Hello, motherfucker,” I said, and oh-so-gently caressed the trigger.
BOOM!click-click
My first shot took him in the lower midsection as he turned and shattered his barrier.
BOOM!click-click
I saw another flare of energy around him, flickering off the golden inlay of his armor, and I didn’t hesitate.
BOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-click
My third shot blew through whatever the golden shield was, and then I caught him in the lower chest with two more shots at point-blank range. His leather armor might have slowed down my pellets slightly, but not enough to matter. The knife he was holding flew out of his hands and skittered away.
I vaguely heard shouting in the hallway and over the Comms, but my eyes were locked on Yuri’s shocked face as he collapsed to his knees, blood pouring out of the hole below his sternum. He’d barely managed a step or two towards me before my shots had gutted him.
I staggered unsteadily to my feet as he screamed, clutching the gaping hole in his torso, and I realized that the shutters on my window were still open. The moonlight robbed the scene of color as his blood appeared black in the pale light. I reached up with one hand and wiped the blood off of my face. I didn’t any other wounds, and I still had my clothes on that I’d fallen asleep in, thank the Angels. The burning sensation along my scar was fading slowly.
“AZ! ARE YOU IN THERE?!” Raylan shouted from outside.
I tuned out the voices and stepped towards Yuri. He was curled up on his side now, writhing in pain. I summoned my armor, then unloaded a vicious kick with my heavy steel-toed boot, slamming him onto his back with a fresh shriek of agony.
I stood over him with a feral grin, licking my blood off my lips absentmindedly. A dagger appeared in his hand and I stomped on it, hard, feeling something under my boot. He screamed again, his body arched in pain. Blood was frothing from his lips and I knew he didn’t have long.
Thoughts whipped through my mind as I looked down on him, watching him struggle for each breath. I knew he probably had healing potions in his Inventory, but he was in far too much pain to concentrate long enough to retrieve one. I had one in my medkit, and there wasn’t a thing he could offer that would make me give it to him right now. I watched him slowly bleed out, the pool of blood on my floor growing ever wider. It took somewhere between an eternity and no time at all.
“The instructors are here, Az!”
The shout was all the warning I had, before my door burst open and JJ stormed through. He stopped, taking in the scene, and as I looked up I felt Yuri’s body spasm and go still beneath me. A wave of Essence hit me, and I heard PAST saying something that I completely missed as JJ pushed me back and away from Yuri’s corpse.
Lydia and Thompson followed JJ into the room. I staggered back to my bed and collapsed onto it as someone flipped on the light. I heard a muffled curse, and looked up to see the Head Instructor slam my busted door closed. She pulled out a privacy ward, and suddenly the noise from outside stopped completely.
The warm illumination of the mana lamp returned color to the room. Yuri’s blood, now crimson instead of black, was slowly spreading across the floor. I could see my bootprints with their distinct tread pattern, leading backwards to where a large piece of waxed canvas had been spread across the floor.
I swallowed back bile. I’d just killed a human being, and I wasn’t sure if I should feel elated or horrified.
Here we are, at the end of Arc 5! After a whopping 31 chapters and almost 70k words (just in this arc!), it's time for the story to take its first short break. RR will be off for a week, with Arc 6 coming on March 16th. Don't want to wait? is already well into Arc 6, and there's no break there! I'm posting throughout next week to bring Patreon up to fifteen advanced chapters, still for $10/month.
