Hunt (II)

Alice’s silk-wrapped feet produced almost no noise on the wet floor as she walked past the first rotting carcasses of the beasts lured to their death by the sirenshrooms’ scent.

The fungal spores that had almost taken her life a few weeks ago didn’t seem to have much of an effect on her newly-enhanced physique, the hallucinogenic toxins unable to affect her brain before they were consumed by her own cells.

She could finally explore that side of the cave.

The mushrooms’ territory wasn’t particularly large, covering an area of maybe a hundred and fifty square meters filled with small water ponds, each connected to the other by a confusing crisscrossing of small channels and brooks, which would then become tributaries of the main stream that lazily flowed throughout the cave.

The Biomancer of Symbiosis was deep in thought as she carefully moved towards the bigger fungi, easily as large as her and covered in wide, glistening slime trails.

If we want to have a chance to get the millipede’s core we will want to lure it wherever we have the most advantage; and that, as far as I know, means forcing it to move away from the colony and into our territory.

Or, at the very least, getting the colony away from it. she added after a beat.

And what better way to achieve that goal than using literal bug-luring carnivorous flora? she thought as she inspected one of the largest clumps.

Each toadstool looked completely innocuous with its dull brown color, fat stem, and round, slightly gnawed cap.

The plump things were rooted to the ground by thousands of tiny white roots which, deeper into their territory, completely coated the yellow calcite, some of them strong enough to actually push through the soft stone as the mushroom searched for some extra grip to stay upright.

Some of the tendrils, however, appeared to have a different purpose; larger than the others, they snaked over the growths-covered ground and plunged into the waters, directly taking in the fluids they obviously needed in abundance, always surrounded by small schools of blind fish busy consuming their soft flesh, apparently resistant to the toxins they contained.

Slowly sliding over the deadly shrooms, the young woman could also see the area’s other inhabitants, the large and goop-covered slugs she had already witnessed a couple of weeks before when she was dazedly walking towards her tripping death.

Inspecting the foot-sized gastropods more closely, she could see that they were slightly different from the ones that the Spear Spiders seemed to be so eager to capture. Their slimy mantle, normally covered in a regular texture of soft ridges, was instead sporting several uneven, anemone-like warts.

Carefully, the girl approached the closest creature, sliding just beside one of the larger ponds, and gently poked it with the flat of her knife while keeping the rest of her body as far away from it as possible.

As soon as it felt an external pressure on its slimy skin, the mollusk reacted by contracting the many muscles of its body, turning smaller and much more rigid in a few seconds. At the same time, however, each one of the warts on its back suddenly opened up with a wet, squelching sound, launching a small jet of spores all around it.

Unable to retreat in time, Alice took an entire cloud of them to the face and couldn’t help but inhale a bit.

Immediately, her mind was invaded by the desire to consume the delicious mushrooms around her, their rich, mouth-watering smell overpowering her desire to prod the slug any further.

She needed to feast on those delicacies while she could.

It took the girl a good half a minute to regain her senses, moving the spongy chunk she had eagerly harvested away from her mouth.

Surprisingly, she smiled. Her idea was evolving.

With the plan finally coalesced in her mind and her curiosity sated, Alice turned around and started moving towards Skitter and the rest of their cluster, still worriedly pacing just outside of the more spore-filled perimeter; while the Spear Spiders seemed to be somewhat resistant to the hallucinogenic compulsion, they were definitely not on her current levels.

The biomancer had only taken a dozen steps in their direction when she heard a sudden splashing of water coming from behind her back.

A shiver of fear ran down her spine and she immediately turned around, swinging her mace in an effort to intercept the attack she was sure was coming, only for her swing to find nothing but air on its path.

Nothing had appeared.

Actually, something had done just the opposite.

The slug she had left curled up near the pond was now missing, a number of concentric ripples shaking the previously still waters.

What the heck.

She immediately focused her enhanced sight on the pool, trying to get a good look underneath its agitated surface. Nothing seemed to be there.

Unsheathing her knife for good measure, she carefully took a couple of steps forward, her eyes scouring all around, waiting for an ambusher. She was not keen on repeating the Rocktopus event.

Thus, it didn’t take her long to spot the flat head of the creature casually lounging beneath the waters, its wide mouth still busy chewing through the remains of the slug it had captured with her help.

Another salamander.

Alice stood there, frozen at the sight of the creature that had taken her arm.

She stared at its sinuous body, similar to that of an eel but sporting two short limbs with webbed feet sprouting from its thorax.

This one was smaller than the one she had killed, no larger than herself, and, on top of that, also looking slightly different. Where the glowing salamander had two jagged, gill-like gashes on its head, this one had instead a pair of round, dull eyes and two deep nostrils on top of its snout.

As she watched, the creature finally finished its meal and, ever so slowly, turned around and gently swam away, moving deeper into the fungal forest.

Only after it had disappeared from her sight did Alice manage to stir herself, shaking her head to get out of her daze.

There is more…

She couldn’t believe it, even if it should have been obvious. Why would there only be one?

She gently slapped her face, her expression turning grim.

She still had a job to do. She would think about those creatures later. She couldn’t waste time.

She ran out before she could change her mind.

The next day, everything was finally ready.

More than two hundred spiders stood silently in the expanse; some of them, younger and less experienced, twitched every few instants, anxiously waiting for their battle while the veterans calmly stared ahead, the only movement that of their palps, slowly brushing against each other with a soft, soothing sound of metal.

In front of them, Skitter watched as the four Elder Thinkers completed the final preparations.

Chillushrith clicked a few times to the minor cluster leaders surrounding her, giving them the last round of advice and suggestions. To succeed, they would need to perfectly lead each of their teams.

Eisor plinked around, checking the condition of the webs and the positioning of the teams, sometimes even gently patting the abdomen of the more agitated soldiers, soothing and motivating the young males.

Ozren was busy reinforcing a few of the larger pylons, adding more layers of her special silk to the structures. They had to remain well-anchored until the end.

Ricee was fretting around a particular cluster of Spear Spiders, the shining striations of her own exoskeleton rippling from the magic she was using on them, her ‘experiments’ suddenly looking larger and stronger under her ministrations. He shivered slightly.

He was standing in the front, leading the largest cluster, the vanguard. He had decided to lead the first push, where he would be most useful with his quick-wit and reaction time. He knew he would be in his environment.

No magic or tricks. He thought.

The human was far away, it had been decided soon into the planning that she wouldn’t participate directly. Too dangerous. She had done enough.

As soon as she had returned to the base, Alice had spent a good portion of her time convincing the Thinkers to modify the plan until, after showing them the effect of the spores, they had finally agreed on the condition that she had to be the one to actually harvest the materials. They couldn’t risk losing themselves to the compulsion.

Thus, as the rest of the swarm, commanded by Ozren, commenced a frenetic weaving of silken lines, Alice had delved once again within the sirenshrooms’ thicket and, with the help of her trusted knife, had carefully cut away a large number of the plump mushrooms, lifting them with a grunt and dropping them on the large tarp specially crafted for the task.

Once a large heap of the spore-filled fungi had been gathered, he and a few others had carefully dragged it along the ground with the help of a couple of ropes that allowed them to stay away from the dangerous things, finally dropping them on the ground in the middle of the no man’s land.

Next, Alice had come back to capture as many of the now-homeless slugs as possible, ignoring their dizzying spores thanks to a very thick scarf that Ozren had woven for the occasion.

Every single one of the gastropods had then been stored in another length of cloth, this one much thinner, which had subsequently been sewn close by the more resistant Chillushrith.

The bait was ready.

The four females finished their work and stood silently in their positions, Ozren retreating beside an observing Alice; she wasn’t made for the frontlines after all.

He stirred, feeling the hemolymph in his body being pumped by his restless heart.

It was time.

He clicked, slamming his metal fangs together as he plinked forward, first slowly but soon faster and faster across the empty stretch of free, unoccupied land.

Into the millipede’s territory.

He ignored the first, smaller creatures, leaving them for his kindred behind and pushing straight into the middle of the burrows instead, where the holes were deeper and the more dangerous prey ambled slowly, still unaware of the attack.

The hemolymph pumped at a pressure in his legs, his muscles twitching madly as he jumped on top of the largest millipede he could see, his spikes scrambling to find a grip on the smooth and hard chitin of the arthropod.

The surprised beast buckled, trying to shake him off, his venomous mandibles clicking its hatred; he ignored its thrashing, lifting a leg and waiting for the right moment and spot.

He saw the gap opening between one of the frontal plates as the monster—no, the prey, squirmed.

There.

He plunged his spike and it struck true, instantly severing the connection with its brain.

The first monster hadn’t even stopped twitching and the tiny male was already onto the next one.

The rest of the swarm followed a heartbeat later, swarming the surprised creatures and butchering them without mercy, leaving their spasming, segmented bodies on the ground.

He had time to kill a third one before he finally felt the first rumble on the ground.

Here they come.

The burrows exploded outwards in a sea of armored plates and sharpened limbs as the remaining millipedes came out to fight the invaders.

He didn’t relent, clicking loudly to direct his companions as they killed away, slowly retreating from the center, fighting together as to not get swarmed.

They were halfway out of the territory when he saw it soar over his head, a shower of warm mucilaginous droplets coating his carapace as the bundle of hallucinogenic slugs, each one filled with dangerous spores, landed with a wet squelch in the middle of that mass of frenzied bodies.

He couldn’t help but hiss in relief when it was immediately attacked by the mindless creatures which easily ripped into the thin material and released the harmful toxins barely contained within.

The cloud completely swallowed the area, dispersing into the air and even reaching the massive nest of blind wasps that loomed over the millipede’s burrows, the deep drone of the giant insects growing louder as the spores filtered into the holes of their hive, intoxicating them too.

In the meanwhile, the millipedes had suddenly stopped as one after breathing in the noxious particles. They stood immobile and completely silent for a few of his thudding heartbeats before the entire swarm frenetically streamed out of their territory and towards the heap of mushrooms laying many meters away, its size and distance enough to keep them—and the wasps that were sure to follow—occupied for at least a few minutes, probably more.

Perfect.

Skitter and the surviving soldiers took that moment to completely retreat, his first task had been completed successfully, the rest of the swarm more or less intact.

He felt the ground trembling again. The titan was awake.

With a soft hiss, Chillushrith stepped forward, a massive silvery glob, connected to a braided thread, rotating slowly between her frontal limbs.

Another rumble shook the ground. It was angry.

A massive crash of broken stone overwhelmed all other sounds as the massive head of the titanic millipede emerged from the limestone, its massive mandibles snapping in the air as its organs of sense searched for the reckless beings that had disturbed its slumber once again.

It was in that exact moment that the heavy mass of sticky silk landed on its horrid face, causing it to raise its entire body in surprise, for a moment reaching almost twice Chillushrith’s height as it failed to shake it off.

A furious bellow reverberated from its insides when it finally realized the silk was stuck.

The gleaming behemoth of a Thinker hissed in response, her pedipalps crashing together in defiance as her frontal limbs turned into massive mallets, able to crack through the strongest rock.

It charged.

The stone beneath the titan turned into a fluid wave on its path, allowing it to almost swim through the ground as it rushed his Sister who, for her part, waited until the last moment to sidestep its charge, avoiding its deadly mandibles as it slammed into the thick grove of silken pillars Ozren and her Weavers had just finished creating.

The first few of the pillars were ripped off by the incredible weight and strength of the monster but, after a couple more steps, the extremely resilient anchors managed to finally stop its lunge, the sticky, smaller threads that had been laid between the thicker cords further reducing its mobility as they tangled between his countless legs; the more it tried to get out, the more they restrained it.

Chillushrith, however, hadn’t managed to completely avoid the attack, receiving a glancing blow from the monster that still sent her tumbling a couple of meters away in a shower of sparks of metal on stone.

Despite the hitch in the plan, the rest of them didn’t wait, immediately jumping on the thrashing creature and launching web after web in a crazy effort to tie it down for enough time for the heavy hitters to finish it off.

He started pushing forward, skittering towards its squirming head, ready to find a weak spot in the impenetrable armor that protected it from harm.

Eisor was already there, frenetically slamming one of her spikes into a gap of the plates while Ricee’s brood was busy tearing off sharp leg after sharp leg from its massive body, ignoring the wounds already covering their carapace and reveling in the beast’s ichor.

He had managed to get close enough to the Overseer to see the moment the monster buckled and the plates naturally opened up, revealing the softer flesh hidden beneath.

She thrust forward once more with both of her frontal legs, aiming for the right spot, where the sharp limbs would do the most damage.

Skitter unconsciously stopped breathing when he saw them sink straight in, deep into the exposed meat of the millipede.

The titan shivered and the stone with it.

Another deep bellow vibrated the chitin under his feet and the young male saw the ground itself bubble and roil while the two armored plates closed around Eisor’s frontal spikes.

He just barely managed to avoid the large pillar erupting from the ground, directed straight towards him.

Most of his kindred weren’t so fortunate.

He watched as another massive column of stone slammed against Eisor’s side, crushing her three right legs and sending her flying in the air with a sound of torn-off limbs. The female Spear Spider shrieked in pain as her two metal spikes were left embedded into the titan, blue ichor spraying through the twin wounds.

At the same time, most of his swarm was launched into the air or sunk into the ground, suffocating in the liquid stone as he helplessly watched.

The Titan was in pain, squirming around even more than before, its incredible strength, coupled with the softened stone, starting to sever the remaining restraints. It was injured but not enough.

They were going to fail.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream reached his earholes and he turned just enough to notice the glowing human that was currently rushing towards the crazed, armored monster while holding the end of a thin metallic wire in her hand.

Unable to believe his eyes, Skitter watched Ozren feverishly use her own magic to weave the wire out of Chillushrith’s metallic exoskeleton, removing a thin layer of its metal and mixing it with her own silk.

The human kept running until, with a sudden flare of the light coming from her legs, she jumped and landed with a dull thumping sound on the titan’s shell.

“I need to tie this one to the spikes!” she shouted, still holding the thin wire as she frenetically tried to keep her equilibrium on the shivering behemoth, lances of stone flaring all around it in a deadly mineral rain.

“We need to move the other end to the electric grubs on the wall!” she exclaimed, her leg slipping on the smooth chitin as she got even closer to the severed, ichor-covered spikes. “We will fucking fry this bastard!” she promised with a manic grin, a mess of blood streaming out of her mouth and nose, cracked from the impact with the exoskeleton.

He turned once more to stare at the massive wall of grubs he had learned to avoid as soon as he had come to the expanse, their strange energy so easily attracted to the metal of his body.

Attracted to the metal of his body.

He couldn’t help but click in amusement as she tied the first end around the legs.

The stupid twolegs saves us once again. Huh? Well, let’s not waste this chance.

The human had just finished the knot when he pushed her away, ripping away the platinum thread from her hands.

“Hey!” she exclaimed after regaining her balance, “What the hell are you doing?”.

He gave her one last look, using one of his legs to sign her away before jumping off, ignoring her warning shouts as he sped away from the titan and towards the wall of the grubs, the thin wire held between his palps extending behind him.

The spinnerets on his abdomen worked madly to form the perfect-sized glob of silk which he then connected to his end of the wire.

He reached the wall moments later, close just enough to reach it with a good throw, he looked behind on last time, catching a glimpse of the human and his surviving brethren rushing away from the horrid mess of legs and armor and poison that had almost freed itself from its bindings.

For Mother. He thought to himself as he swung the bola between his frontal limbs.

He threw, watching the metal wire soar through the air and impact the largest of the clusters of the magical grubs.

He turned and fled just as the first spark appeared from one of the larvae, he could already smell the burned air surrounding him.

The greatest concentration of energy he had ever perceived swelled up behind him, he saw the air itself become radiantly bright before that incredible power arched towards the wire, rushing through its length and into the titan.

Skitter heard it screech and shiver and cry as the electricity flowed through its flesh, searing it from within as it uselessly squirmed, trying to escape its death.

The tiny male, however, didn’t have time to rejoice in his success as less than an instant later, he felt the same agony as the leftover energy grounded itself on him in a stream of pain that scorched through its body.

He burned.

*****

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