There was a clear, and somewhat melodious sound which quickly spread through the air above the labyrinth, alerting the spider nightmare creatures inside of their nest that new prey had found their way to them.
In the next moment, multiple heavily armored bodies appeared in the mess of metallic threads, shot through, and above them with nearly unparalleled speed.
The whole spider nest seemed to have come alive, all wanting to get a piece of their newest prey. As they were all rushing towards the sound, it could've nearly even be called an avalanche or flood. Together the horde of spiders appeared like a force of destruction.
And, as if they were challenging this wake of destruction, two figures stood their ground, and blocked the horde's path. Those two figures were none other than Effie, and the Stone Saint. All carrying their shields and making them ready for impact.
Effie had a savage grin on her face, while the Stone Saint remained as taciturn as she always was, but struck her sword against the edge of her shield twice, as if she was trying to further taunt the horde.
Regardless of, if it had been meant as a taunt or not, the moment she did so, a black vicious arrow streaked through the sky, finding its target in one of the many eyes of the leading spider. The massive body collapsed nearly instantly, causing the following spiders to require to either run around, or above it.
In the next moment, the horde of spider creatures already crashed into the small shield wall. The force with which the spiders crashed into the two shield bearers was nothing any mundane person could ever hope to withstand.
Following the loud tone that was produced in that clash, the rest of the cohort were already jumping, or rather running, into action.
Caster appeared from behind Effie, and immediately rushed to the left flank of the group of nightmare creatures, while Nephis suddenly appeared on the right side, with merely a second later, Sunny and Ray reaching the back side.
Ray had used another veil, to temporarily hide himself, along with Nephis and Sunny, as they were getting into position, and as soon as they were, the party started.
Nearly at the very same instant, everyone commenced the attack. The nightmare creatures had even realized their disadvantages position, yet.
Black blood splashed into the air, as Effie thrust her bronze spear into the very front of the horde, Saint used her stone-like sword and cut into the arachnids' bodies, Caster used his ghostly jian and precisely cut through the small, unprotected parts of the spiders.
Nephis used her longsword and moved burrowed it instantly into the nearest nightmare creature, Sunny had his Tachi in his hand and was trying to deal any severe injury, Kai was flying above, and for the moment, rained down hell on the spiders, in the form of the Blood Arrows.
As for Ray, since he knew this was going to be the last battle of the day wasn't too concerned about his essence expenditure. He, with the shield on his left arm, and the halberd in his right hand, quickly made himself space, and began cutting into the horde of spiders.
His first victim didn't even seem to notice him before its whole backside was completely split in two, bleeding so profoundly, it didn't even manage to raise its many legs in resistance.
[You have slain an awakened beast…]
Just like many times before, Ray quickly ignored the voice of the spell and continued his hacking fest. He simply went from one spider to the next, cutting the head off of the second spider, after it had just turned around for a second.
[You have…]
The third was directly impaled on the spear tip of the halberd, before using his weight and momentum to run it straight into two more of them.
Kai, from above, noticed this action from his friend, and instantly took aim, and shot two Blood Arrows in quick succession, hitting both of the knocked down spiders, while Ray had already removed his halberd from the beast and moved on.
[You have slain…]
Then, just before the horde could truly launch a first counterattack, the cohorts shield wall separated for a moment, revealing their blind seer behind them, holding a wooden staff and directing it at the heart of the group.
In the next instant, a wind, like that of a hurricane came crashing forward, and hit the nightmare creatures a split second later. Some of the spiders actually were forced a few meters back.
Sadly, though, it was by no means strong enough throw them off balance, or damage them in any way.
Nevertheless, that had never been its job anyway.
Spiders were considered relatively sensitive to sound, as well as vibrations. Both, things the hurricane staff had caused, making the nightmare creatures get disoriented, and giving the cohort a slight amount more time, to cut as many down as possible.
They used the chance, and continued their assault, as long as the disoriented effect still lasted.
Everyone was doing their job great, but, by now, barely a few second later, the spiders had recovered and, once again, noticed their attack, but were luckily not smart enough to react to it as efficiently as they could have, had there still been a tyrant around, to command them.
Ray inwardly thanked the Second Lord for doing them this favor, before quickly going back to hacking his way inside of the horde.
When he had managed to get a few meters inside the mountain of bodies, he began summoning a memory, which would be paramount in this scenario, [Reaper's Whispers].
At this point, Ray wasn't even dodging any further attacks from the spiders, be it their scythe-like legs, their crushing pincers, or the relatively rare metallic threads. Thanks to his aspect ability, nothing managed to bypass his defense.
In the sky, Kai, needed to be a lot more careful with his shots, by now, due to all of them not remaining merely on the periphery of the group any longer.
While, Ray had reached the furthest into the horde, the others were also busy, but unable to hold one single point, and instead had their little zones, in which they resisted the onslaught of the nightmare creatures.
Then, the memory he had been waiting for had finally been completely weaved into existence. Ray did not hesitate, and immediately plunged two of the throwing knives inside of the deepest spider he could reach, before he began disengaging.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Iron Spider]
[You have slain…]
The effect did not let him wait for long, and very soon multiple of the, by now, cornered spiders fell to the corrosive poison. Though, he noticed that the poison was not as effective on anything that hadn't been deal a sizable amount of damage to.
"The poison is starting! Everyone that can, disengage immediately!" Ray called over, but the others weren't able to hear him clearly. Only Sunny, who was the closest to him, heard what he said, and after killing the closest spider, did exactly that.
Most of them weren't able hear it the first time. They only noticed it, when some of the bodies already began disappearing, or those beast they were fighting grew weaker.
Thankfully, everyone managed to distance themselves in time, while the corrosive attribute spared them the task of cutting out the soul cores, as it slowly but surely caused most of the bodies to disappear.
[You have slain…]
[Your body is getting forged.]
[You have received a memory: Spinner's Weight]
That sound was like music to Ray's ears. It had been months, since he got a new memory, but, for the moment, he just wanted to rest.
He, along with most of the others sat down on the ground, while the poison was still doing what it did best, and sparing the cohort of that tedious task.
On the ground, he quickly took of his helmet, wanting to breath a bit of fresher air, which he quickly regretted. The smell of blood, cut flesh, and the corrosive poison still lingered all around them.
Trying to ignore it, and instead using this moment for something else, Ray decided to throw a quick glance at his progress with the fragments. So, in the next instant, his runes were in front of him, and he focused on the counter.
[Demon Fragments: 1274/2000]
About thirty new fragments were added to the counter, though, the soul shards would still follow soon. It was a good haul, especially adding the memory on top of it.
Ray glanced around for a second, and seeing that everyone was still resting, decided that he might as well also check out his newest memory addition. He began summoning it, while taking a closer look at the memory section.
[Spinner's Weight]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: II
Memory type: Weapon
Memory Description: Forged from the core of an Iron Spider, this meteor hammer features a heavy, ridged sphere of dark iron connected to a long chain of interlocking metallic links that resemble spider silk. The weapon feels incredibly dense and pulses with a low, kinetic hum when swung, ready to unleash its stored momentum.
Memory Enchantments:
- [Armor Collapse] - Successful strikes against armored targets have a high chance of creating fractures in their protection.
- [Tremor Sense] - By planting the hammer's weight firmly on a solid surface, the wielder can use the chain as a conduit. It will transmit subtle vibrations from the ground or structure back to the user, allowing them to sense the location and approximate size of moving creatures within a limited radius, even through walls or other obstacles.
Ray looked over the runes, and remained in thought. The enchantments seemed… interesting, not too powerful, just… interesting. What actually caused him to be in thought was the name of the weapon mentioned in the description, a meteor hammer. He had never heard about such a thing.
Thankfully, he didn't need to wait long, before it finally finished weaving itself into existence, and appeared in his hands…