the Acromentulas part 2

While I was looking at the sight of the dreaded monster turning into nothing more than elemental dust, my arms didn't stop.

Without warning, time seems to restart. I could feel the stampede march to us, making the ground shake under the weight of their combined bodies.

They were still at least three hundred meters far, but I didn't stop, raining on them deadly arrows, thining their rank.

I could see that I wasn't the only one to shoot at them, at a string of arrows appears on my left. I couldn't help but look at Susan from the corner of my eye. Her serious gaze, her fluid motion, shooting each Acromentula through one of their eight eyes every time.

I couldn't help but feel ashamed when looking at her. While she wasn't born Evans, she seems to embrace her inner self with more intensity than I. Her sight made me remember how I was, not even three years before, the first time I put a foot on the island, or the time I faced the Nidhogg.

'I lost myself in enchantment. I was so far lost in my pursuit of recreating what I was familiar with, that I forget that I wasn't the one I was once.'

Realising, this left a bitter taste in my mouth.

'Had I been alive a single time since then? Ever since I aimed from my past comfort, I nestled in a false world. I won't deny that enchantment isn't life-saving, but was it worth? How much time did I lose those past months, that I could have past with Susan?

How much time did I lose, pursing runes arrays for the shake of winning some? How much simple pleasure had I lost through the use of enchanted trinkets? The feeling of the forming dought under my finger, the scent of the baking bread.

Since when did I start to seek what was easy, rather than striving for it, through sweat, blood and tears?'

~~~

Without knowing, I stopped firing, before looking at my hands, then the swarm. Putting away my bow and gears, I jumped in the air, free-falling.

I couldn't help but laugh at the feeling of excitement rushing through my veins.

'That is, more! I can believe I already forget this feeling!'

Morphing barely meter before impacting the ground, I couldn't help but let out a roar of pure joy and excitement.

'I was born hunter, a lord of the mountain, the child of winter! No more hiding behind tools and false facade, its time to return to the wild.'

I could feel the sensation of hearth under my paws, my blood pumping at the thought of hunting, the rush of an uncertain future, freedom.

Bolting to the incoming swarm, it was only when I sank my fangs into the first Acromentulla, subconsciously pumping magic in them, that I understand why I produced so few venoms. My venom was a weapon; without a prey, it had no meaning.

The blood in my maw turned into pure magical power, feeling a part of the portion I spend to produce venom.

Slashing my claws at the pest trying to sink their fangs in my hide, I bathed in their blood, feeling it turn like the previous, once splashing on my fur. Following my instinct, I took a deep breath before releasing a large cloud of poisonous fumes.

The shrieks of agony od the Acromentulas was only driving me further, proof that I was the superior hunter, and them the prey.

~~~

In the tree, Susan was assisting at the massacre taking place in the clearing. When Alex had stopped firing, Susan had briefly worried, thinking that something was wrong, before nearly losing it when she sees him jump in the air, falling from the tree.

She had some difficulty to understand what he was doing when he morphed and feared for his life when she sees him throws himself amid the swarm. The only thing holding her back was his last roar. Neve before had she see so many emotions in his voice.

Trusting her mate, she had looked with wide eyes as he bolts in the middle of the swarms, mowing and tearing apart small and large Acromentulas as if they were wet paper. She assisted stupefied at the sight of blood vanishing from his fur, leaving it pristine, while the artic dots on it shown brighter and brighter.

Against her will, she couldn't help but feel aroused at seeing such show of dominance form her mate. Never before had he seems so lively, so domineering, and she couldn't help herself to fall a little more for him each passing second.

~~~

While Susan had eyes only for Alex, the centaurs couldn't detach their gaze from the wild beast tearing apart the eight-legs. All had seen the wizard turn into a giant cat, but none had through that the beast was even more frightening that the wizard under.

"Elder was it wise to leave the mares and foals to the wizard..." Asked one of the centaurs, worryingly.

"No." Cut the elder.

"That right, we need..." Started the centaur, only to be cut once again.

"He is no wizard, and never was one. I had heard the story of the Great Herd of the past. Of their encounter with the child of the gods." Say him with strong emotions in his voice, reminiscing of the past glorious day.

While the elder was lost in his memories, all surrounding warriors started to feel uncomfortable. Hearing of the gods had never been a light subject, and speaking of them, evermore. That the one they thought to be a wizard, turn into a child of the gods wasn't something they dare to talk about.

Unlike the flickering threat of wizards, gods are entities; the centaurs had no meaning freely express themself. The gods were the foundation of the old magic, and among the countless pantheons of past, very few of they are still existing.

"Who, elder, who did he came from."

"The Norse one."

The calm statement did nothing to appease the already extremely nervous warriors. All know that the Norse were among the few who remain and the only one to had lost nearly none of their own. In the present time, they are the ruling power, their king overseeing the remaining others and keeping them for interfering too much in the human affair, be it magical or mundane.

All looked with apprehension at the massacre taking place in the clearing, gulping at the sight of what the fumes he released clear an area of fifty meters all around him in a single second.

"Take aim warrior; we cannot be found waiting if we are to entrust the survival of our herd in the hand of the gods' child!" Say the elder firmly.

All took positions, coating the head of their arrows with the venom, before releasing a rain of arrows on the furthest Acromentulas from Alex.

~~~

Seeing the centaurs finally act, Susan snap of her trance, and return to the Acromentula extermination. COntrary to the centaur, she shoots down any spiders who tried to overwhelm Alex from their size.

~~~

After he had taken care of all the smaller ones, the largest and oldest Acromentulas had swarmed Alex, trying to stop the massacre. While their fangs couldn't deal enough damage on him, the accumulate weight and ever raising number of opponents was starting to exhaust Alex.

What should have been a simple food-gathering had turned into a disastrous event for the spiders. By the time the oldest and wiser spider arrived on place, all their younger siblings had vanished, with the only odd spot of blood as sole proof of their previous presence.

Due to their young age, those small Acromentula didn't possess much awareness. It had never been a problem before, as they were practically no predator for them in the forest, and their overwhelming numbers had always been enough to take down the few they cross path with.

But not this time. It was the second time they see the strange creature, only to discover that they were at the top of the food chain anymore.

The creature was worst that their natural enemy, the basilisk. At least the snake would hunt they to feed, while this one only slaughters them.

The few who had made a mistake to enter the strange blue cloud never came back, but that wasn't the only problem. The fur, maw and claw of the beast was armour and sword their fangs couldn't pass through. Even their poison turned inefficient when they see it bite off chunks of heads, where the venom sacks were, and do nothing to it.

~~~

The situation was starting to become desperate for the Acromentulas, they lost all their younger siblings, and now, even the oldest wasn't able to take down the beast. If that wasn't enough, they feel the four-legged arrows start to rain down on their brethren, cutting their ever-coming support from the nest.

With the loss of the younger, forming a third of the swarm, and them half of the remaining force, those aware enough know that the nest was in danger.

Seeing an already lost situation, they could only make something they never done before, retreat.

Escaping the place as fast as they could, they lost a large part of the remaining force again when they turn their back to the enemy.

"Aratorn, what happens to your siblings?"

After barely rejoining the nest, the oldest among they didn't have time to explain what happening that Aragog asked.

"The four-leg had called upon the one who comes her previously, father. They had killed my brother and sister; all that return to the nest are the only one left."

All around the remaining spider chittered angrily at the state of the swarm. Of its original size, only a fifth were now remaining, barely 170 were left. Even if they were among the largest specimen, they know that the future was bleak.

There was a reason a third of the swarm was made of young; only them were agile enough to hunt prey and enter small space. With them down to this number, and the four-leg hunting them, it wouldn't be long before they either die of anger or be killed. None of them ould accept this situation, for years they had been the ruler of the forest, feasting as they wish, until this unthinkable disaster occurs on them.

~~~

Aragog, on the other hand, know why it happens. After learning the death of Hagrid, he allowed the hunt of centaurs foal, few of the remaining pleasure they loved to eat. Never would he have through that the once who reared him was protecting them of extinction, rather than the contrary.

He didn't have the time to order them to return to the tree height, that he caught the twang of bowstrings and the whistle of arrows flying.

He could only look powerlessly as a third of his remaining children crumbles to dust, without the time of emitting a single shriek. Before they could move from a single meter, half of his remaining 100+ children shared the fate of their fallen brother.

"Wait!"

Aragog pleading came too late, as a final third volley of arrows slews the remaining of his children. The sudden shriek of pain and anguish from his nest made his turns on himself. Hindered by his size and weight, he barely took a last glimpse of his mate, before she turns to dust, like her babies.

"Why, wizard, have you exterminate my children?" Asked Aragog to the feline creature who exited his nest, knowing that even the eggs hadn't been spared, his descendants annihilated.

"You were nothing more than a thorn in this forest for the past 50 years, a cancer brought by a foolish boy. Your species had nothing to do in those land, and should have been wiped before you could even engender the first of them." Say the creature back, surprising Aragog yet again that he wasn't the only sentient creature able to speak here. "The time where you and yours threaten the balance of this forest are gone."

Before he could get even response, Aragog feel a slight pain, from where he was bitten, before darkness took over.