Scarlet Asger

The last surviving arachnid outside of the nest lets out a loud cry as I tear my hand into its abdomen before ripping it off of its body entirely, leaving the creature’s cry to go up an octave in pitch before vanishing completely as it dies.

I let out a sigh of relief before using clean on myself as I jump off of the thing’s corpse.

That wasn’t too bad.

I wince slightly as my feet hit the ground, sending a tremor through my body, making the large hole in my side that’s currently healing hurt worse in the process.

“Most people don’t say that while they have a huge gaping hole in their waist,” Tar mutters, sounding exasperated. But I ignore him to retreat back to the tree line outside of the clearing. During the battle, another egg was hatched by the queen, so the remaining creatures currently number nine. And I don’t think I can take them before healing.

I frown at the creatures in the nest who are still regarding me with clear wariness in their eyes. Even their queen is focusing on me from the center of the nest of webbing attached to trees.

After seeing that the things aren’t approaching I walk out of the tree line again before taking my arm out of one sleeve of my jacket, then lifting my shirt a little to expose the wound on my lower right waist to the moonlight. And then I lie down on the grass on my side while keeping an eye on the spiders to let the moonlight assist my regeneration skill in healing it.

The things look too wary of me now to actually leave their nest, which gives me plenty of time to heal. And while I would try just life draining them, that could also provoke them enough to have them head over here. So probably should just let blood regen and the moon do the work for me.

A few minutes pass as I awkwardly lie on the grass, just healing my wound ever so slowly. Although much faster than it would’ve been before. And throughout the process, the spiders just continue to stare at me from their nest.

I look at my wound again to find that it’s about halfway closed by now before looking down at the grass and getting an idea.

Would that work…?

Deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to try, I use life drain on the grass next to me. And it actually does work.

For a second. Then the blade of grass just turns grey and dies.

I stare at it for a second before hearing Tar say, “Use it on a tree instead. Small plants like grass have incredibly little life energy.”

So they do have life energy then.

“Of course, plants do,” Tar says as if it should be obvious. “Plants are living too, aren’t they?”

Yeah, guess that’s true.

I use life drain on a tree instead, and it ends up lasting a lot longer than the blade of grass. So I continue draining the trees for a second, only to switch my focus onto the trees in the nest, a grin stretching across my face in the process. The trees there then begin to wither, no longer able to hold up the weight of the nest and the spiders, making half of the nest collapse inwards right about the time my wound finishes healing. So I quickly pull my shirt down the rest of the way and slip my arm back into the sleeve of my jacket while standing up again.

After climbing to my feet, I find that the spiders are all in chaos right now, and whatever breeding the queen was currently doing – hatching another egg by the looks of it –fails miserably in the process when she quite literally crushes the egg she’s hatching due to falling from the nest. Which seems to piss off the other spiders even more.

I take advantage of the distraction by using life drain on five of the creatures at once along with blood boil. Then I rush up to them jumping, onto one of the trees and then off of it onto the closest spider, which I stab my claws straight into the head of and rip out its brain with little difficulty.

Since there’s already so much noise going on, I manage to jump over to a nearby spider and do the same to it. But then the queen does something totally unexpected.

With a loud screech, the creature somehow rips off its own abdomen before the wound left behind is sealed up and the rest of it starts transforming slightly, making my jaw drop open in shock.

“Yep,” Tar mutters, sounding just as surprised as me. “Definitely a variant.”

Fucking duh.

I jump out of the fallen nest when I find the spiders’ – including the queen – gazes turning towards me.

The queen now has two legs with bladed endings instead of claws positioned on the upper part of its body, with six legs left like normal on the lower part for walking, although adjusted to its new smaller size. But now it’s just the front part of the creature. No abdomen at all. And it looks really freaking weird.

As if on cue, the queen begins screeching incredibly loudly, making the other spiders’ eyes all flash from black to glowing red in the process, startling me even more.

Oh. Guess it really didn’t like being interrupted while breeding.

Then something happens that borderline shocks me.

The other spiders all begin eating each other as they move in front of their queen, who joins in. This continues as I gape at them for several seconds, the creatures somehow eating faster than should be possible a much larger volume of mass than they seem to have themselves. All the way until eventually, the only one remaining is the queen, with her eyes glowing a scarlet red, just like my own.

So, do you have any idea what just happened?

“Probably just ate the others to absorb their power or something,” Tar says, sounding almost as surprised as me.

Well, this is going to be a pain.