Kerissa's arrow sliced through the sky like a bolt of flaming green lightning, whizzing towards the colossal spider's central eye. The orcs fell silent. Seth held his breath. Gor'Magh even took a step forward, as if expecting an explosion. The tension was thick, almost palpable.
And then...
PLINK.
The arrow hit the Silent Mother in the eye as if it had hit a celestial anvil... and fell to the ground with a dry, pathetic sound, spinning slowly in the dust.
The creature didn't even move.
Kerissa remained static for two seconds. Just two. But it was enough for the whole battlefield to feel an awkward silence.
"...I get the impression she ignored me," she said, blinking slowly.
"Did you see what happened?" whispered Gor'Magh, trying to figure out if they had been dreaming.
"Yes, I did. I tickled a spider the size of a mountain. How humiliating."
Kerissa looked at the bow in her hand, raised an eyebrow, and then threw it down hard. "Is this a toy?! Come on, Tharruk, was that a bow or a bloody wand for fishing orbs from the lake?"
The orc who handed him the bow raised his arms in defense, cringing. "It's the best we've got!"
Kerissa huffed, crossing her arms. "Best you've got... I should have brought my personal catapult. Or a dragon. Or both."
She glanced back at Ak'hazhul, who was now blowing putrid steam from his fangs, obliterating a row of trees effortlessly.
"Right," said Kerissa, snapping her neck with a dramatic twist. "Plan B: scream, run and pray that Seth doesn't die before we do."
Seth looked over his shoulder with a half-smile. "The screaming and running part, I'll leave to you."
Kerissa stared at him. "What about the dying part?"
"I'll pass on that too," he replied, turning his axes and marching back towards certain death.
Kerissa sighed, took a piece of herbal gum from her side pouch, chewed it slowly and muttered, "I should have gone to that clerics' conference in Durn'Hak. At least they only spew faith there."
The Spider took another step. Just one. But it was as if the earth itself protested - cracks snaked across the ground, trees fell with dry thuds and the pressure in the air increased like the harbinger of an ancient hurricane.
Kerissa narrowed her eyes, still chewing her herbal gum as if she were evaluating the menu of a decadent tavern.
Then she turned to Seth with an expression as serious as it was determined.
"Use those axes there, brilliant. Let's attack the eyes," she said, already pulling out a second arrow - this one shrouded in a pale glow of elemental magic. "You take the right and I'll take the left. You crazy orcs," she turned her body, pointing with the arrow at the semi-disorganized battalion behind her, "attack the legs! Let's knock that bitch off balance!"
The orcs stared at each other for half a second, until Gor'Magh raised his axe and shouted:
"ATTACK!!!"
And then it was like igniting gunpowder: screams echoed, spears were raised, and the ground shook - this time not because of the spider, but because of the desperate march of dozens of orcs ready to die making noise.
Seth gave a slight smile.
"I like the plan." He spun his axes, which sparked with live electricity. "But if I die, you pay for the burial."
Kerissa was already running towards the creature's left flank, her steps as agile as those of a wolf hunting at night. "You'll die if you keep talking and don't attack!"
Seth propelled himself with an electric jet, shooting towards the right flank like a thunder arrow. Each step cracked the earth, and lightning ran through his legs, leaving glowing marks on the ground.
The Spider finally reacted.
Its gigantic eyes moved wildly, like living beacons searching for invaders. One focused on Seth, the other on Kerissa.
And then, two beams of pure black energy shot out of her pupils, like streaks of pure death.
"NOW!" shouted Kerissa, launching her enchanted arrow with such force that it broke the sound barrier. The arrow hit the outer rim of one of the creature's eyes, generating an explosion of green sparks - it didn't penetrate, but it made it recoil.
Seth, at the same moment, spun in the air and threw one of the axes, which cut a flaming line across the sky before embedding itself deep in the lower corner of the creature's right eye.
A roar. Not a sound. A roar that came from the abyss of the soul. A scream that made the forest bleed leaves and the air vibrate like a divine war beat.
"ATTACK THE LEGS!" roared Gor'Magh, leading the orcs' attack. They threw themselves at the spider's legs, hitting the joints with axes, spears and rustic magic. One of its knees shook - just a little, but enough to show that it could indeed be hurt.
The creature tried to balance itself. But now it was surrounded.
Seth retrieved his axe with a magnetic gesture. Kerissa was already preparing another arrow, now with poison extracted from the shadows of the forest.
And the orcs were screaming as if the world could end - but they would make sure to take her with them.
The real battle had begun.
The surrounding darkness seemed to pulse with a life of its own.
Seth landed on a high rock, panting. The electric embers surrounding his axes ceased for a moment - but it wasn't the end. He looked down at his hands, clenching his fists tightly. Shadows crawled up his arms like hungry snakes, wrapping themselves around the blades.
He took a deep breath.
[Activated Skill: Flames of the Void - Rank-S]
The axe blades began to glow from the inside out - not with light, but with an absence of it. Thick black smoke, like liquefied coal, dripped from the blades in veins that evaporated the very reality they touched. The earth beneath their feet withered and rotted. Rocks crumbled like stale bread.
The shadow enveloped him. And Seth smiled.
He left like a bolt of black lightning, a blur cutting through the ruined forest, leaving trails of dark smoke as if the world itself was being erased.
Kerissa watched him pass and laughed - a hearty, almost crazy laugh.
"THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"
She shot another arrow, which exploded on contact with the corner of the creature's eye. The Silent Mother roared again, pulling back one of its paws - and it was at that moment that Seth took advantage.
He ran across the rocks, climbed onto one of the creature's legs, spun around and drove his two fused axes into the spider's abdomen, right where the carapaceous plates seemed most vulnerable.
The Flames of the Void glowed - and then tore.
The explosion was silent, as if the world had held its breath. A wide crack opened in the creature's shell, revealing a pulsating, nauseating interior, full of membranous sacs and organic structures that didn't seem to belong to anything natural.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
The spider's abdomen collapsed - and from within it... the nightmare fell.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands.
Millions of tiny black spiders poured out of its body like a living tsunami. They were small - the size of the palm of a human hand - but fast, hungry, and with eyes as bright as burning coals. Their movement was like a sea of legs and fangs, spreading across the clearing with an incessant noise of paws scratching, biting, devouring.
"AH NO NO NO NO-!" shouted Kerissa, jumping onto a tree and firing explosive arrows into the ground.
Orcs started screaming. One of them, surrounded by dozens of the creatures, was dragged away in seconds, disappearing under the moving black mass. Screams echoed. Flames began to be used everywhere, but it wasn't enough - the tide was endless, unstoppable.
"SETH!!!" shouted Gor'Magh, slamming his axe into the ground. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
"I OPENED THE GATE TO HELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" Seth roared back, his blades now spinning like black propellers, burning the approaching creatures, but unable to stem the flow.
The Silent Mother screamed - or laughed? It was impossible to tell. Even wounded, she seemed content. She wasn't fighting. She was giving birth to an army.
"NEW PLAN!" shouted Kerissa, already covered in scratches and sticky goo. "WE KILL MOM NOW, OR IT'S DINNER!"
Seth paused for a second, his eyes sparking. He looked at the creature's colossal head - still intact, still looking, still alive.
"All right, then."
He slammed the two axes together. An explosion of darkness and lightning expanded in all directions, driving away the living tide for a moment. He looked to the heavens.
"Gather them together, I'll kill them all!" Seth shouted as the lightning on his body was suffused with the Flame of the Void...
[You have created a new skill "Flaming Ray of the Void (Rank-S)"]