NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 18: Ghost-Web Assassins
Mottled white and gray, the ball unfurled into eight three-foot-long legs around a central, segmented torso with fangs like daggers at one end. Only Hiral’s quick warning alerted Nivian enough to get his shield up in time to block the large spider’s body, allowing him to shift to the side and toss it to the ground. The thorns that normally tore through flesh seemed to do little to the spider’s chitinous carapace, and it quickly righted itself as it landed, then scurried off into the webs.
Where it completely vanished.
“What was that?” Nivian called, eyes on the spot where the spider had gone. “And where did it go?”
How did it disappear like that? Is it just…? Yes… it’s still right there. Its natural colors are camouflage.
Hiral lifted his RHC and pulled the trigger before anybody else moved, and his bolt ricocheted off the spider’s tough armor with a crack. Jerking to the side at the hit, and apparently surprised it was spotted, the spider scuttled out of the web and then stared at the group.
Like the monkeys, this spider had rows of blades down the length its body and lining each segment of its legs, along with veil-like webs hanging from its head and joints. While the coloring and veils would help the creature naturally hide amongst the webbing, they couldn’t account for how completely it had vanished. There had to be something special involved in it. A second of investigation, and Hiral’s View ability brought up a name and health bar.
(Elite) Ghost-Web Assassin Spider – Low-D-Rank
Assassin. That’s not ominous at all…
Worse, the direct hit with his RHC had only shaved off about ten percent of its health. That carapace was solid.
Up came the tank’s shield in a perfect line to deflect the creature’s assault, but it somehow rolled midair and tucked its legs back under itself to land against the shield. Then, before Nivian had a chance to toss it to the ground like he had before, the spider leapt off the shield like it was a springboard right towards Yanily’s exposed back.
The spearman, not even aware of the danger, was only just turning to follow the path of the nimble spider, and the monster slammed into him with its full weight. Down to the ground they both went, Yanily’s cry of surprise turning to one of pain as the spider’s long fangs drove into his shoulder, the creature’s many legs quickly letting it find its balance. No sooner had it bitten into him than the spider’s front legs lifted into the air and drove down like spears. More grunts of pain came out of Yanily’s mouth as he feebly tried to defend himself.
Hiral’s two trigger pulls spat bolts of Impact at the spider. The first did around twelve percent of the monster’s health in damage, and the second did fifteen, but it still wasn’t enough to knock it off. Nivian’s barbed whip followed a second later, all three lashes dragging across the spider’s carapace, the snapping heads nipping at anything they could find.
Despite doing only minor damage, the Infuriating debuff from Nivian’s whip caused the spider to pause in its brutal assault on Yanily, and it turned its attention on the tank. The many eyes on the monster’s head seemed to glow a faint red, but then the color faded, and it immediately thrust its legs down again at Yanily.
Blood spat into the air each time the spider withdrew its spear-like legs from Yanily’s chest, and Hiral pulled both triggers as soon as they were off cooldown. Nineteen percent with the first hit, then twenty-five percent vanished from the monster’s health bar. It had a bare twenty percent left, but it lifted both legs above its head as if to finish Yanily off.
No! Hiral’s weapons were still on cooldown, and with the monster in such close quarters, Seena and Seeyela couldn’t do anything to finish the beast off. They’d never be able to…
Nivian’s whip lashed in, the three thorned vines wrapping around the upraised legs instead of dragging uselessly across the carapace. The strange, snapping ends of the whips bit into the joints with a faint crunch. While the wooden teeth were unable to puncture the carapace, they did manage to secure the whip while Nivian pulled back, preventing the spider from completing its coup-de-grace.
The spider still had its fangs, though, and after what almost looked like a glare in Nivian’s direction, it turned its attention to the spearman beneath it, only to get a knife driven into the underside of its neck.
Dark blood gushed out of the wound and down Yanily’s hand from where he’d driven the blade into the spider on top of him. The thing twitched, like it wasn’t ready to give up even after that, and Yanily twisted the blade, then ripped it to the side, nearly tearing the spider’s head clean off.
All at once, the monster’s health bar bottomed out, and the legs on each side of Yanily went slack. Only Nivian hauling on his whip prevented the creature from falling on the prone spearman, and another strong yank pulled the thing completely off.
“Wule,” Seena shouted, though she needn’t have bothered; the healer was already on the way to the bloody party member.
Holes peppered Yanily’s upper chest, though they didn’t look too deep, thanks to the hydra-scale armor he wore. But something about the shoulder wound glowed ominously.
“Bad… debuff… from the… poison,” Yanily said as Wule arrived. “Stacking… damage…” He then shared his notification window.
You have been afflicted with the Ghost-Web Venom debuff.
Ghost-Web Venom: Lethal venom that doubles in damage every six seconds.
Duration: Forty-two seconds, or target death—whichever comes first.
Note: Ghost-Web Venom prevents healing, both natural or magical, while active.
Hiral looked at Yanily, the spearman’s health bar coming into view, and watched in horror as eight percent of the red vanished, leaving him with just over half his bar.
“Wule?” Seena asked.
“Working on it,” Wule said, a wave of solar energy washing out of him and over Yanily.
“It’ll be fine,” Nivian said. “Wule can cure debuffs.”
“It… didn’t work!” Wule said, slight panic tainting his voice. Another pulse of solar energy washed out of him.
“This… really… uuuugh.” Yanily spasmed, sixteen percent of his health bar vanishing in an instant.
“Left, banner,” Hiral said, and the double shaped the banner in a heartbeat, the golden dome washing over them.
“C’mon, c’mon, work,” Wule said, more solar energy pouring into Yanily as the others moved in closer to watch, but Hiral couldn’t join them.
Memories of watching Vix die, of seeing Picoli drive her fist through Balyo’s chest, of Lonil lying smashed on the ground, prevented him from moving his feet.
Another spasm arched Yanily’s back, and his health bar plummeted so drastically there was only a sliver left. Just a few percent of red… all that stood between Yanily and death. All eyes were on their friend as Wule pushed more and more solar energy into him to fight against the insidious venom.
“Talk… about… prejudiced…” Yanily mumbled, time seeming to slow as everybody counted the seconds down in their heads to the tick that would kill their friend.
Five seconds—it wasn’t fair. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
Four seconds—they should’ve stayed back with Cal in the safety of the Asylum.
Three seconds—I hate this. No. I reject this!
Reject?
Two seconds—Hiral launched himself forward, Runes of Rejection erupting on the soles of his feet and powering his sudden charge.
One second—he reached out and activated his Runes of Attraction and Absorption, focusing all his concentration on the Ghost-Web Venom inside Yanily.
Zero sec… Green light flooded out of the wound in Yanily’s shoulder and into Hiral’s left hand, catastrophic pain tearing through his body at the same instant. Like his insides were on fire and melting, Hiral dropped to the ground, his whole body hollowed out in sudden agony as he lost two-thirds of his health bar. His limbs twitched and his muscles spasmed uncontrollably, blood flooding his mouth and bursting out of his ears. The usual yellow light of the double-helix script on his body turned a sickly green and flared, and the heart in Hiral’s chest gave a sudden, dramatic beat like it was going to explode.
This is it…
Warm energy flowed into Hiral’s limbs, and through his red vision, he saw Wule kneeling over him.
“What…?” Hiral tried to ask, but it came out a croak through his ruined throat.
“Incoming!” he vaguely heard as Wule’s healing began to restore his ruptured eardrums, and then motion exploded around him.
Heat flared in a flash of red somewhere above his head, and two shadows took up position on each side of him. Motion, sound, energy—it all burst around him while he lay on the ground. Pounding footsteps raced past him to intercept the skittering of multiple legs, lashes snapped in the air, and then a pillar of purple flame roared to the ceiling. Grunts of pain mixed with the crack of chitin, and Hiral tried to turn his head to look, but Wule kept his hand firmly on Hiral’s forehead.
“Don’t rush it,” Wule said. “They’re doing fine without you.”
But the worry on Wule’s face didn’t seem to agree with his words.
“Left… Right…” Hiral forced the words out, and the two shadows knelt beside him.
“We’re here,” Left said.
“Hands…” Hiral said, lifting his arms up despite the pain still coursing through them.
The moment his doubles’ hands met his, he unsummoned them and reactivated Foundational Split in quick succession, giving over the majority of his solar energy to them. Almost forty-five percent each.
“We’ll take care of this,” Right said, and the two doubles moved away again.
“You should be saving your energy for yourself…” Wule started, but his eyes widened. “The healing… It’s working better now…”
Hiral nodded slightly in agreement, the warmth of the solar energy finally seeming to really sink into him and repair the damage done. Long, painful seconds ticked by, but maybe a minute later, Wule finally sat back, his face coated in sweat, and Hiral forced himself up to a seated position.
The pain was finally gone, and though he shivered from the experience, he was undeniably not dead. Around him, five more Ghost-Web Assassin Spider bodies littered the ground in pieces, and a sixth was on its last legs against the party. A distracting whip from Nivian, followed by a titanic punch from Right, put an end to the fight, and the whole party took a cautious look around.
“Hate spiders,” Yanily said, on his feet and with his spear in hand, though he really didn’t look much better than Hiral felt.
“Pretty sure you hated them before,” Nivian said, the tank’s back towards Hiral and Wule with the others beside him.
“I did,” Yanily said. “Hate them more now.”
“Wule, how’s Hiral?” Seena asked, her eyes still on the torn and scorched webs all around.
“Better,” Wule said. “I don’t know, he did something. I can’t explain it… but after he resummoned Left and Right, the healing just… started working. Before that, it was like pushing a boulder uphill. I wasn’t making any progress.”
“Because you have scrawny arms,” Nivian said flatly, but the small joke took the edge off the atmosphere.
“The venom,” Hiral said, taking offered hands from Left and Right, then getting pulled to his feet. “It was a PIM venom. I mean, it targeted the PIM and powered itself off our own solar energy.”
“How do you know that?” Wule asked, but the healer was nodding.
“It’s just a guess, really,” Hiral said. “I didn’t expect using Foundational Split to do anything; I just wanted to make sure Left and Right could help.”
“And that thing you did with Yanily?”
“I can take buffs into myself,” Hiral explained, taking his RHCs from Left as the double handed them over. “So, I figured maybe I could do debuffs too.” He looked at Yanily. “Sorry I didn’t think of it sooner.”
“Don’t think you would’ve survived if you’d done it sooner,” Wule said.
Hiral thought about the sudden and extreme pain—as well as losing two-thirds of his health in a heartbeat—and he couldn’t help but agree.
“Anyway, it’s done, and now we know how to deal with the venom if it happens again,” Hiral said.
“Let’s just avoid getting bitten,” Seena said. “Can you move? We’re down under ten minutes.”
“I’m ready to go when you are,” Hiral said.
“Before that,” Yanily interrupted, walking up to Hiral. “Thanks. You know, for what you did back there. I owe you one.”
“No problem,” Hiral said. “You would’ve done the same for me.”
“Still,” Yanily said, and shrugged awkwardly.
“You should take some of your solar energy back,” Right said when the exchange was finished.
“Thanks,” Hiral said, once again absorbing and resummoning Left and Right. This time, though, he only gave them around twenty percent of his solar energy each, keeping the other fifty-ish for himself. “Anything I should know about the spiders as we move?”
“I hate them,” Yanily said.
“Besides that,the spiders aren’t too strong in a straight fight,” Seena explained as the group formed up and started again down the street. “They blend in really well with the webs, but…”
She tapped the tome floating beside her, and a pair of wooden totems grew out of the ground. Almost immediately, they spun to the side, flames dancing in their eyes, and then Seena threw a pair of fireballs in that direction.
WHOOSH. The webbing went up in a bright flash and wave of heat, and a still-burning spider staggered out. It hadn’t even gotten three feet before Nivian and Yanily were there, a whip thwacking across its face, thorns tearing at its eyes, and Yanily weaving in with his Dancing Spear Style. Where his previous thrusts had deflected off the spider’s hard carapace, the slashing attacks dismembered legs with every pass.
In seconds, the spider was on the ground, stubby limbs flailing uselessly, and Right leapt into the air. Fist glowing with purple flame, he came down on the spider’s head like a piledriver, shattering armor and emptying the remaining red of the health bar with a single blow.
“As I was saying,” Seena continued, the party moving further down the tunnel of webs, “we figured out my totems will point right at them when they’re close.”
“And their armor weakens every time we hit them,” Yanily said. “Doesn’t matter how much damage we do, but the next hit will always do more, and the next even more after that.”
“Makes them pretty tanky for the first few hits,” Nivian added. “But, after the fourth or fifth smack, they really start taking a lot of damage.”
“That explains the damage I was doing against the first one,” Hiral said at the same time Seena summoned two more totems, and the spider slaughter repeated itself. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Feel free to pop off a few shots to lower their armor,” Seena said. “Or, save your strength. I think we’ve got a pretty good system going here.”
“I still hate spiders,” Yanily muttered.