A few days later everyone's memories had finally repaired themselves and the cohort set off. They had about a week's worth of walking to do before they rendezvoused with their ride. Although problems began to arise as they moved deeper into the labyrinth.
The previously small groups of iron spiders began to rapidly increase in number. Thankfully none of the matriarchs showed up. The problem though, was that the spiderweb they used to trap their prey was changing, too.
The metal wires from which it was weaved became so thin that it was at times almost impossible to notice it, and sharp enough to cut through armor and bone — while maintaining the resilience of superb steel.
The whole Labyrinth was covered in it, turning from crimson to dull grey.
The cohort bled much more because of the invisible webs than they did because of the spiders themselves. Of course, the iron spiders were cunning creatures, too. More often than not, they only attacked once one of the humans was caught in their nets.
The impromptu strategy of Lua using her conjured blades to clear the webs no longer worked. She had to resort to manually using Talon of Unrest to cut through the steel traps. Of course the transcendent dagger tore through the webbing. But it was nevertheless far slower.
And there was a wide variety of other terrifying creatures waiting to ambush them in the twisting pathways of the crimson coral, too. What made them so dangerous was that the cohort didn't know anything about their anatomy and abilities. Every fight was a gamble, often resulting in one or several of them sustaining serious wounds.
Thanks to Neph's flames and the webbing being equally deadly to the spiders themselves the seven of them were mostly able to proceed with confidence.
Lua raised her bone dagger and cleaved through a large swath of webbing, the motion reminded her of old movies where an explorer would cut through thick forests with a machete.
Of course, using the Talon instead of some mundane blade meant it cut through far more than intended, the [Phantom Laceration] helped a lot, its second invisible strike allowing Lua to double her efficiency.
Behind her the rest of the cohort was doing similar things. All of them, weapons in hand, were cutting through the mass of steel webbing.
Straightening, Lua probed for the tether between her and Wolf, she had sent the eidolon out ahead of them, leveraging its ability to mystify, in order to clear the path ahead of them free from any spiders that may be lurking.
Lua paused for a moment. 'Is Wolf a boy or girl?' she wondered to herself, 'it feels disrespectful calling Wolf 'it'.'
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[Your soul grows purer]
The spell whispered in her ear, announcing Wolf's prey was killed. 'That's the fourth one today.' Thanks to this strategy, and the occasional ambush the cohort was subjected to over the last six days, she managed to kill around twenty seven spiders in total.
It was less than Wolf's little excursion during their day off, but still managing to collect fragments without even having to do anything was a boon. She had gotten three memories in total, but given their origin, they weren't worth much, so she sold them to Sunny for more shards.
She really had to thank her Aspect for this one.
Although not technically a combat aspect, having the ability to manipulate and control essence as both a sleeper and in ways even Saint's couldn't was an essential on the Forgotten Shore.
Lua turned over her shoulder and looked at the rest of the cohort, they were all covered in blood and webbing. The steel threads having chipped away at their defences over time. Lua herself was much the same.
Keeping Winter's Warmth tightly wrapped around the Blood Relic she was able to minimize damage. But the formless cloak was a garment, not an armour, so did not offer the same level of protection.
There were gashes in the luxurious cloak, Lua knew that the memory would not be able to keep this up for long. 'Return.' She mentally commanded Wolf before dismissing Winter's Warmth to allow it to heal.
Lua pulled on the conjured essence blades around her, causing them to shoot into the armour. Instead of using her three conjurations to fight, she instead used them to augment the Blood Relic.
A thin purple haze appeared just above the onyx plating. Augmenting the armour with all three conjurations would serve to elevate the armour to ascended rank, which should be enough to survive the webbing.
"Neph. How far are we now?" Lua looked at Nephis.
Nephis paused her web removal strikes. "A few hours." She stated before continuing
'Great…' Lua sighed as she thrust the bone dagger into the profane core of an ambushing spider.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[Your soul grows purer]
***
Eventually they reached their destination. In front of them, the ground was shattered, creating a titanic fracture. Crimson coral clung to its walls, spilling over the edge like a torrent of blood. A long time ago, a graceful bridge of white stone connected the two sides of the canyon together. Now, however, it was broken, with only its base remaining in place.
All their attention was drawn to the remnants of the stone bridge, where...
There stood another giant statue.
Right above the weathered ruins stood a colossal stone warrior. He was clad in an archaic cuirass, with a beautiful spear resting on his shoulder. The warrior was facing south, as though greeting the travelers who traveled on the road to reach the ancient city.
…Of course, his head was missing.
More than that, the whole statue was covered in vast sheets of dull grey spider web, as if dressed in a solemn burial shroud.
Lua looked over to hear the conversation between Effie and Sunny. The huntress sighed. "...I haven't seen it myself, but I heard stories of the creature that used to make its nest here. It was the mother of all these damnable spiders we've been dealing with for the past week. A huge menace of a Nightmare Creature, as big as a house and utterly deadly. Armored like a hover tank, too."
Sunny gulped and cast a sideways look at Nephis. "What's a hover tank?"
Effie blinked a couple of times, then answered in an amused tone. "Oh, right! You're a school dropout, I almost forgot. You've seen a PTV before, right? PTV stands for a "personal transport vehicle", as you know. I hope. Well, a tank is sort of like that, only much bigger and heavier, with thick armor and a kinetic or energy cannon installed on it. The government sometimes employs them to support Awakened when a Gate opens near populated areas."
Lua zoned out of the rest of the conversation, already knowing the story. She surveyed the surroundings for a few minutes before she heard Nephis
"We need to clear the nest and climb the statue before the sun sets. Prepare for battle..."
A clear and melodic sound of a ringing bell reverberated through the air above the Labyrinth, alerting the monstrous spiders hiding in the enormous cocoon of grey webs that a new prey came knocking on their door.
Moments later, swift bodies clad in heavy plates of iron armor shot from beneath the grey spider web, moving through the steel wires with terrifying speed. There were enough Nightmare Creatures in that wave to obliterate anything that stood in their way… seemingly.
Lua sighed as she summoned Sky's Gift and readied Talon of Unrest in her other hand. Calling on both [War Spawn] to increase the spear's deadliness along with [Forged Lightning] to devastate the enemy.
Throwing the spear into the hoard, [Forged Lightning] activated. Purple lightning erupted vaporising over two dozen of the spiders in an instant, dozens of soul shards shattering in an instant.
[You have slain….]
The ascended spear continued its journey before slamming through a larger iron spider near the back.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster…]
Lua ignored the spell and called upon [Blood Tip], the accumulated blood exploded outward, taking out even more spiders. Finally they reached the cohort, slamming into the shield wall created by Sunny's echo and Effie.
Lua summoned Winter's Warmth and activated the [Blessing of Flight] enchantment. The white cloak split open into 6 moth-like wings. Flapping downwards Lua shot off the ground and flew up to Kai.
"How many?" She asked as the charming archer launched another blood arrow.
"A bit over one hundred." he answered calmly.
Lua nodded and recalled Sky's Gift before throwing its lightning covered body back into the frey.
[You have slain….]
[You have received…]
Lua deactivated Winter's Warmth enchantment and dropped into the middle of the frey, seeing Caster, Sunny and Nephis following shortly after.
Lua wrapped Winter'sWarmth round her armour whilst augmenting it with her essence, she raised her dagger and spear and cleaved through spider after spider. It felt like hours as their formation slowly enclosed the spiders and worked on eliminating the horde.
Ordinarily this would be impossible but given the cohort's unique battle prowess, it was possible. It also helped that the spiders were pretty weak for being awakened beasts.
What felt like hours later their formation broke as all hell broke loose. Lua danced around opponents, Sky's Gift eagerly drinking the blood of the beasts, only to be unleashed again right back at them.
Lua dodged a large leg aiming for her back whilst using her dagger to deflect another. 'Too many.' She cursed as she felt her essence beginning to run out. Diving under the spiders and plunging her spear upwards into its head, she leaped up, throwing the dagger with expect precision into the head of the spider.
She mentally sighed as she was faced with unreasonable odds. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Sunny fall back. She turned her attention to the ones in front.
Jumping forward she conjured a blade mid air and bisected one, using her momentum she let go of the blade and let it fly into another.
Eventually after only 50 seconds, the last opponent of hers fell.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[Your soul grows purer]
She whirled her head, but there was no more, they'd won. Lua collapsed onto her back, looking around made it clear she'd by far killed the most.
Her devastating lightning enchants served to thin out and instantly neutralise many of them. Thus she received an exorbitant amount of fragments from one singular battle. Nephis was second in kill count followed by Caster then Effie.
Lua looked up, the sun was already rolling down toward the horizon, so they had to hurry with collecting soul shards from the corpses of the iron spiders. 'No rest for the weary.'
***
After they finished dividing up the remaining shards Nephis suggested they explore the nest. The nest was formed by endless wires of the strange metal web and resembled a vast sphere. It was built around one of the legs of the stone colossus, effectively blocking the path to the bridge. The entrance was situated high above the ground, and extremely wide.
Lua walked into the cave, her innate aspect allowing her to see far better in the dark. It still wasn't nearly as good as Sunny's night vision. But it worked well enough. Her dagger in hand she looked round as the cohort entered. Peering into the darkness she froze.