Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 226: Symbiotic Relationship

Melting into the shadows, Raven infiltrated the Arachne cave and it wasn't long before he stumbled into the bloody mess left behind by dead shapeshifter elves. Their bodies were all but crushed underneath a mountain of crystals–some stabbed through their bodies while the others made their bones still crackle with brute force.

'AGH!' The sounds from the cracking bones echoing through the cave pierced into Raven's eardrums, but quickly plugging his ears with his dark muscle extensions, the pain from the sounds quickly subsided. Looking around as his thoughts settled down, he noticed icicle-like crystals shaking right above him. 'The sound is shaking this whole place? What the fuck?'

Conjuring a bubble shield around himself, the mage began to move silently once again, his feet padded with squishy dark slime. Making sure to not make any noise, he moved deeper into the cave where he first noticed a group of Arachnes walking across a path parallel to his own. Shooting a dark slime out of his palm, he pulled himself to the ceiling to ensure that he wasn't seen by them.

Watching them closely as they passed by, the very first thing he noticed was their threaded pincer-like feet which dampened the sounds made by their steps. His eyes moved to the golden plating on their bulb-like body as well as the helmets and wands tipped with gold and different kinds of jewels and gems.

'A simple battalion has this much armor?' Unlike the dark elves, the Arachnes seemed a lot more crafty. Not only had they trapped their territory but also armed their soldiers much better than Tymaan. 'They somehow look more human than the elves too.'

Letting himself down once they were all gone, Raven's mind slipped back to the image of Nessa–the first Arachne he'd seen back at the dark castle. Unlike the soldiers in the cave, she had neat lustrous blue hands.

'Those pincer hands will be a problem.' Protruding from the underside of their hands were sharp threaded thorns that could easily tear through the thickest of hide. Getting caught in them seemed especially nasty since there was a possibility of getting the thorns stuck inside the body.

Moving deeper into the cave once more, Raven came out to an underground lake with croaking blue frogs floating on lily pads. Stopping by the pond for a moment, Raven looked into the dark water and saw a dark shadow smiling from behind his shoulders. But as he turned around there was no one there, yet the sight had managed to seize his heart with fear for a moment.

'What the fuck is this place?' Turning to the water once more, he tried to see the figure again, but after a few minutes of trying he finally decided to give up, but not before taking some of the water with him inside a pitcher. 'Linkle should be able to figure this out.'

The thought of the witch reminded Raven of the darkness-spreading earrings. Unlike Amedith he'd only kept it in his pocket, still wrapped inside the piece of paper. If needed it could serve him well inside the cave, especially when paired with the teleportation amulet since it required him to stand still for a while to teleport away.

'Another group?' Pressing himself against a wall, Raven camouflaged himself in the dark as yet another group of Arachnes came from around a corner. However as they grew closer, he realized that there was something wrong about these creatures–something that made them stick out like a sore thumb. 'UGHH…That's disgusting.'

With countless holes all over their bodies and insects crawling in and out, this new group of Arcahne looked like a group of zombies although evidently with more intelligence. They acted much the same as the rest, but the gaping holes, the sight of the throbbing organs, and the rancid blood and pus leaking out of their bodies were a little too much, even for Raven.

Even so, keeping his eyes on them as they passed, he took a sideways step to move even deeper into the cave, however, unlike the previous battalion the parasitized Arachne sensed his presence from the reverberations in the air.

"SHHHAAA!" Hissed the marching leader, hand-stretched towards Raven.

'FUC–' The mage's eyes widened as a spear came flying and barely missed his head. Had it gone through he would've died in an instant without even realizing what had happened. It all happened so fast that he couldn't catch even a glimpse of it, not because his senses were slow, but rather the ten times faster response time of an Arachne when compared to a human.

Their abilities were only further perfected through battle, the spiders were far swifter than Raven to the point where he was staring one in the face before his mind even caught up to what was happening. Conjuring yet another bubble shield with spikes, however, he managed to stab the leaping Arachne soldier and give him just enough time to slip away from him.

Running into a darker region of the cave, Raven tried listening to the footsteps of the monsters, but their threaded feet made their steps as quiet as possible. And while he tried to catch any semblance of a sound from their movement, the dark mage felt a sharp pain shooting into his back.

Stabbed through the spine, Raven's body stopped then and there. Falling face first to the ground, his body folded into a ball from the hurt. Reminded of the incident at the minotaur cave, a pained smirk climbed up his lips.

'It's always fucking dungeons, isn't it?' However, unlike the last, he wasn't gonna submit so easily.

Reaching into his pocket as the monsters slowly surrounded him, Raven unfurled the paper and threw the earring out in the open. And even though the monsters could see in the dark, with the light stripped so suddenly, it took them a moment for their minds to catch up. Glancing back down where Raven once was, they found the spot empty with only the golden spear lying in a blood puddle.

'Faerie faerie faerie… Standing behind the preoccupied monsters now, the dark fae finally decided to test out what one-tenth of his blood was capable of. 'This better be damned good!'