Soulforge Legacy Series

The massive spider was covered in wounds and green blood was pouring out of various sections as it struggled to reach any of its attackers. Before I could even race toward it, the monster let out a final, keening cry, before it collapsed to the ground.

Out of the whole group, I was the only one that wasn’t at least partially covered in the spider’s green blood. That only lasted long enough for Mako to catch his breath. Once he was no longer hunched over with his hands on his knees, he made a few gestures.

Every bit of liquid, blood and otherwise, lifted off everyone there. Well, mostly everyone. I didn’t have anything on me. A fact that was quickly noticed by everyone. While no one said a word, I could almost hear their thoughts.

She didn’t bother to help.

Too high and mighty to fight?

She is too full of herself.

Those thoughts and more flew through my head. Likely theirs as well. And really, they weren’t wrong.

Well, they were, but not enough to matter. It was entirely my fault for being overwhelmed by my first moderately high-end fight. I mean, sure, there was that fight with the bugs back at the farm. But they were weak enough that even my beginner self could handle one or two on my own.

Comparing that battle to this one was like comparing water and vinegar. They looked the same, but they couldn’t be more different. Especially when one considers how the few attacks I threw at them did little to no damage.

The only real damage I managed to inflict came from my blade. It required no skill or ability. Well, except for those that allowed the use of the weapon. Anyone else could have used it to do just as much, if not more, damage. In fact, everyone here did just that.

No one said a word to me. They just started to clean up the battlefield. Collecting corpses and storing them in their inventory. Likely to turn in for some money or to harvest for resources.

Whatever the case, the field was cleared in next to no time. Mako even took a moment to wash the various bits of blood and viscera into the river. By the time they were done, you almost couldn’t tell that there had been a fight here. Well, minus all the damage, but that could just as easily be attributed to some other phenomena.

“Lights up everyone.” The Captain called out as she made her way toward the hole the massive spider had so graciously made for us. Likely as not, it led all the way to its nest.

While that nest likely had a few more spiders to protect it, there was also a chance that it held quite a few goodies. And if we were absurdly lucky, they were like their earthly cousins in how they ate. Specifically the not killing those caught in their webs until they wanted to eat them.

Then again, that wasn’t always the case with spiders on earth, so I doubted that anything down there was alive. At least, nothing that wasn’t a spider.

I hung back, trailing after the group as I tried to recall why I knew so much about spiders. It wasn’t like I looked them up on purpose. If anything, I avoided looking the creepy things up. Then again, there was the short documentary that my biology teacher forced us to watch in eighth grade.

That wasn’t all that different than usual. Not with the lack of money to even buy paper or other materials. So most classes I had been forced to attend consisted of movie after movie. And not all of them were well made or all that good. Still, it was enough of an education for the various companies to hire high schoolers.

My eyes wandered nearly as much as my mind. Flowing from one subject to another. One memory to another. All while I tried to figure out what I was looking at.

Webs covered most surfaces. Most of those on the ground were cut up before being soaked. With his ability to push and pull water, Mako pulled the material into clumps and rolled them to the side before pulling the water back out for the next clump.

A rather large clump caught my eye. Looking at it, I almost wondered if there was a use for the material. Even if it couldn’t be used in crafting, surely it would make for a hell of a trap material.

I didn’t even bother to ask for permission before I gathered several clumps of the material and shoving them into my inventory. All the while being careful not to touch the stuff directly lest I ended stuck yet again. Though, at least I had a way to get out if that ever happened.

A few stacks of thread heavier, I hurried to catch up to the group. When I did, they had come to a halt in front of a massive opening. “…nest. Even with all of those we kill up top, there are bound to be quite a few here. Guards or worse.” The Captain said as she prepped a spell.

She wasn’t the only one either. But unlike the last time, every one of the people here had the time to build up their spell before saturating it with mana.

Not wanting to be left out, I started to do the same. Albeit, I went for something different than my usual. Instead of pure fire, I made missile. Sort of. It was an altered form of the claymore like spell I had used.

Actually, now that I thought about it, the spell was closer to something else I had used in the tournament. Only, this time I layered the spell a bit differently. Fuck, even the stone that comprised the made-up spell wasn’t typical.

With every erg of mana I could muster, I gathered the densest material from the area. Then I compressed it. All while heating it up just enough to make the process easier.

While I strained to hold the thing up, I forced water to condense and flow inside. If not for my careful control over the heat, the water would have caused my weapon to crack or even shatter.

Cooled down and ready, I closed up the inside. Sealing the water only to wrap the stone in darkness before pulling yet more heat out of the water. Pressure inside the vessel rapidly grew as the water tried to expand. I refused to let it.

Unable to expand, the water reached a supercritical state. One that was held in check by my magic and only my magic. Magic that was rapidly depleting my mana.

Could I have added some heat into the core? Sure, I could have wrapped it in darkness to keep it from interacting with the water until it impacted upon something. But something told me the effectiveness of the spell would be hampered by such an attack.

Especially against these things. After all, heat didn’t do much damage to them or their webs. Cold, however, managed to break their webs. The question was if they were just as weak to it as the webs they produced.

Seeing everyone else was ready, the Captain started to count down from five. “Five.” Mana filled the air as spells were reinforced. “Four.” Light spells flickered to life around us. “Three.” Everyone pulled their weapons back. Preparing to fire their spells at anything they found. “Two.” The lights turned into little more than fireflies as they flicked into the cave. “One.”

Each of the specks of light flared to life. Bathing the entire cave with light. At the center of which was a massive nest of webs. One that was occupied by something that made the spider we had just fought look small. In fact, four similar sized monsters were arrayed in front of it.

The world slowed down as every one of us fired. Each spell speared toward a target. Surprisingly enough, even without planning or discussing, one spell lanced at each of what had to be guards.

Hundreds of spears tore apart one of the spiders. Leaving nothing but Swiss cheese where the spider had just been standing.

A stream of highly compressed and cloudy water cut through another like hot knife through butter.

Space twisted oddly around the third guard. And within a moment, the thing both imploded and exploded at the same time.

Then there was the last guard. It was hit by hundreds of needles. But unlike the rest, the monster wasn’t killed. In fact, it seemed to almost be struggling against something.

I caught all of this even as I watched the other spells slice through the webbing. Cutting their way through the various structures in an effort to make it to their target.

To the shock of the monster, the first spell to reach it was lightning. Only, it wasn’t branching off or anything. Whatever the Rabbit Beastkin did allowed her to condense and concentrate it into a single, continuous beam.

A beam that slammed into the monster and cause it to stagger. Unfortunately, the webs around the monster served to dissipate and absorb the energy.

As the bright blue-white beam faded, a sphere of pure darkness hit the things eyes. While it did no visible damage, so long as it was there, the monster was blind.

Enough so that it was unable to avoid the next attack. A ball of plasma splashed against its head. The hot liquid dripped down the monstrous chitin but did little to no damage.

On the heels of that spell came a flurry of fire stakes. Each of which were larger than the width of my arm. And they even managed to do some damage thanks to the kinetic force, but that was it.

Being one of the slowest spells in the group, mine finally crossed the distance and reached its target. The moment the shell of darkness touched the chitin, the containment spell collapsed.

In a violent explosion, the water forced its way out. Due to the spell failing at the point of impact first, the ice forced its way in that direction. To my shock, the explosively created shard of ice cut through the creature without much of an issue.

It took a moment for the monster to react. But when it did, the monster let out a scream that shook everything. The scream was cut short as the fourth spider slammed into it. Cutting at the things head with its mandibles.

With the massive ice shard spearing through its abdomen, the monster stood no chance. It died in next to no time. After which the Captain cut off the last guard’s head.

Silence fell upon the cave as everyone took in what had just happened. At what we had just defeated.

The silence lasted only so long as Zara called out from a heavily webbed section. “There are some cocoons over here.”

Kiran shook his head and went in the opposite direction. I wanted to do the same, but I didn’t. After all, who knew if any of those inside were alive.

To my shock and horror, there were hundreds of the things. All of which were surrounded by a veritable army of eggs. I didn’t hesitate to pull heat from each and every one of the things. Going so far as to nearly deplete all of the mana in both me and my collar in the process.

Even then, that still was only enough to kill a small portion. Thankfully the rest of the team pitched in to take care of the rest.

With the spiders eradicated, the Captain moved to the nearest cocoon and carefully sliced it open. A humanoid body fell out of the opening to the ground at her feet. Instead of killing it, she felt for a pulse.

“Femi, I am going to need you to open a portal to the city hospital.”

“He is alive!?” Multiple people cried out in shock. Myself included.

“Not for much longer if the state of his body is anything to go off of.” With her words, everyone started to cut through each of the cocoons. Every single one held a still-living person inside. Likely so they could feed their babies when they hatched.

Well, whatever the reason, this was going to be a long day as I doubted we would be allowed to leave until we scoured this place for more survivors and spiders.