Massacre

Slowly but surely I worked my way towards the dungeon, but compared to last time I got close the progress was slow. It was like the difference between running through the open plains on horseback… And trying to get through Rothets heavy traffic during busy hours. There were just that many spiders, most of which were probably hatched back when the demand was exceedingly high for spitters, but before said demand suddenly floored when the wargs got wiped out and adventurer activity lessened due to danger.

'I still haven't run into any soldiers… But if I go any deeper without properly clearing these little guys out it could be dangerous…' I stared silently at a large clearing. Normally I'd set up traps first… But honestly I'd rather save my mana.' Looking up to the sky through the canopy for a moment I thought through the best course of action, proceeding instead to go with the fun route, and really see what I was capable of. 'Technically speaking… This is the most effective option…' I smiled as my chest tightened slightly, my lungs staying clear as I grabbed a large web and yanked on it a few times before lighting it on fire. 'Come and get me…'

The spider's panic was evident in their heavy footsteps as they ran towards me from all directions, dozens at once. No organisation, no communication other than the common understanding of swarm and destroy.

I slowly stood up. 'I don't really care about the parts at this rate, they don't give me much money anymore, relatively speaking, so there's no reason not to use fire magic… Well, I am still in a forest.' I quickly side stepped one's acid spit trading it for a throwing knife as another leaped out at me, but ended up heading face first into my dagger as I side stepped again. I continued shuffling along the branch, staying light on my feet and bouncing away from a few more. 'The trees here are pretty resistant to fire though, and it's humid in this area as well. Plus, the spiders have methods of extinguishing fires too.'

I glanced to the side to see them quickly dousing the burning webs with a secretion similar to their acid, only without the melting properties. 'Yea, this should be fine.' I sheathed my knife, and pulled my spear, facing a line of them as they funneled themselves onto the branch, making short work of another three before their numbers simply outdid my ability to keep up. I slid my hand to the very back of my spear, yanking it out of the corpse and flinging it straight back into storage as I took one final step back to the edge of the branch. Jumping high into the air, I flipped backwards letting out a scorching hot fire breath that spread across the branch and lit more webs on fire, burning another 4 to a crisp and severely injuring two more.

Before I fell too far I forced the trees' long vines to grow out and grab me, letting me swing down safely to the forest floor where they continued to scamper over each other just to get to me. 'I knew there would be a lot… But come on… All I did was burn a few webs…' 

They finally started to grow more cautious, waiting until I was completely surrounded and the fire was out before making their move. 'I guess they didn't call it a swarm for now reason… Still… Just what is the queen eating.'

They all charged me at once, some spitting acid and others even jumping down from the tree tops. 'I can work with this…' I created a blinding flash of light that blinded them for a moment and bought me enough time to create a wall of thorns at my back and indent the earth in a half circle around me in front, on my back I rose the thorns higher to try and make up for my lacking earth magic. Using water magic I ripped the water from the thorns and created a mote, then I simply flicked a bit of fire at the thorny wall, and set up an electric rune in the water. 'I still can't use any big flashy spells or anything… But… This isn't bad really…'

The spiders scampered in blind, unable to climb out because of the fire, and unable to turn back because of their friends following behind them at full charge. Elevating myself with another small pillar of earth I threw my spear into the middle of the mote and detonated the rune. When it went off it fried over a dozen. 'Maybe I'm finally getting pretty good at this. That lightning amplification enchantment was no joke either… I'll have to make sure I'm not holding that and using lightning magic at the same time…'

The spiders melted my thorns and doused the fire of the back wall, but I was prepared for that, since I had to conserve mana by not making my death trap into a full circle. The moment they crashed threw a single swing from my blade took out four of them, quickly following that up with several throwing knives took out two more, and then leaping into what was left I slaughtered that last three, seamlessly pivoting with my dager after burying my axe into one's skull so hard it dented the ground.

'That was… Something…' I struggled to catch my breath as the adrenaline started to calm down and I looked back at the flaming devastated murder zone. 'Maybe… I overdid it… I'm all out of mana.'

The fire eventually died down on its own and after a moment to rest I started throwing them into my storage indiscriminately collecting my gear. 'That's odd… Why is this one so big?' I threw the corpses on top of it into storage to get a better look at it, my ax still firmly embedded in its skull. 'It's stuck…' I growled. 'Hold on, this one was a soldier. It's actually on the smaller side.' My annoyed groan quickly turned to a grin. 'I guess that's one venom gland down.' The joy was short-lived though… As after pulling on my ax once again, I confirmed it wasn't coming out any time soon, eventually giving up.

'My magic is getting better… But it's still not that great… I can hold 30 spiders now… But I was already holding 12, and I just killed around 30…' I sighed after capping off my storage and kicking the soldier in the head, sitting on it to take another break, placing my foot against the axe. and fully catching my breath before I did anything else. 'On the bright side, this area should be pretty clear for a couple days, and if I took out a soldier too, that means I have a pretty good idea for where I'll need to go hunting. It's still pretty early, I should dump my storage at the fortress and have the beekeepers gut them for me, then I can keep hunting. Hm… By the time I make two round trips my mana should be decently refilled.'

"What in the name of all that is holy happened here?"

'A person?' I lowered my eyes from the trees and they slowly settled on the man in tattered leather armor. Despite his words, his voice was calm and almost sarcastic as he flipped a massive sword off his shoulder made from Orichalcum, one step up from mine… But only in name. As far as price was concerned, that blade was worth more than my armor and weapons combined… "Who are you?"