Chapter 29: The Price of Survival

Your mind is under assault! You will soon lose control of yourself!

Intelligence has increased to 66!

Intelligence has increased to 114!

Instead of a lure, this time their own minds were rebelling against them as a result of Declan’s magical attack. The resulting thoughts were not their own, and yet they were.

{{Your mate seeks to feast upon your flesh! Kill them quickly, before you are killed!}}

{{You love deeply, but you are not truly loved. It’s all an act, because you are unworthy. If you weren’t the only two of your kind, your mate would surely leave you. Sever this shallow connection before it’s too late.}}

{{This world is savage, and you are unprepared. Let go, and find peace in death.}}

{{If you kill other sapient beings, you become a murderer.}}

Such deeply-unsettling thoughts and worries bloomed fiercely, pressing to the forefront of their minds, and both mantids wavered for a brief moment while fighting to maintain their grip on reality.

With their sanity under attack, Michael didn’t wait around to find out whether he and Rihelah could weather the effects of such magic. With a burst of willpower, he darted over to Declan, lashing out with all his rage against the source of the mental attack like some tiny barbarian.

The closer he got, the stronger the pressure upon his psyche became, and consequently, the more enraged Michael grew.

You fucking dare to use her against me?!

Using every ounce of that fury as a buffer against the mental assault, Michael flicked his forelegs into the spider’s wounds with all his might.

That single strike from both forelegs into the spider’s partially-open cephalothorax allowed Michael’s sharp spines to penetrate deeply into the spider’s already-flagging nervous system.

Simultaneously, Rihelah cast Erosive Spray. Jets of water lanced down through Declan’s abdomen. The combination of their attacks killed him instantly.

The strange, glue-covered ball of silk protruding from the spider’s abdomen ceased its ominous glowing. The mental pressure abated, accompanied by a welcome message.

Your mind is no longer under assault.

For having dealt the vast majority of the damage needed to defeat their opponent, Rihelah received the lion’s share of both experience and levels.

Group kill of Declan, Gloomweaver Level 144.

Experience Split.

Scythe Saint has reached Level 7! +2 STR, +1 AGI, +1 INT

HP 277/352 (+11/30sec.)

MP 256/256 (+9MP/min.)

STR 52

AGI 52

INT 67

Shroud Walker has reached Level 11! +5 STR, +5 AGI, +10 INT

HP 105/171 (+11HP/30sec.)

MP 217/504 (+15MP/min.)

STR 31

AGI 31

INT 124

[Fucking asshole! He tried to turn us against each other!] Rihelah spat, more enraged than ever. She shook from her own fury, and stalked toward Declan’s corpse.

Once she arrived, Michael backed away as Rihelah started ripping into the massive wound in his cephalothorax, tearing chunks of the spider’s internal organs out to vent her tremendous anger over his attempt to use their own instincts against them.

Not wanting to find out if the larger spider could also pull that trick on them, Michael turned his attention to the huge arachnid.

He raced forward using his camouflage and leaped at the enormous and completely-stunned Nephila, stabbing ahead as hard as he could with both forelegs aimed toward the spherical surface of his target.

The spider matriarch’s enormous, forward-facing left eye proved helpless under his assault, and he pressed his advantage. Using his powerful limbs, he began ripping and tearing the huge eye to pieces.

Rather than stopping to eat, he heaved chunks aside while he dug deeper. Once he’d completely destroyed that eye, Michael backed off a bit, then charged her right eye and began the gruesome operation over again.

While he was hacking away at the huge spider, Nephila partially awakened in shock. She felt sluggish and tired, but despite the fact that she knew she’d been in a dangerous situation, she couldn’t feel any pain.

However, she did feel something tugging at the right side of her face. The big spider reflexively tried to bring her pedipalps up to clean her eyes, but they refused to respond. Like the rest of her body, all she could feel in her face was numbness.

She clenched her huge, fang-tipped jaws in frustration, except that her massive chelicerae simply didn’t work any longer.

Must be a-dreamin’, she told herself.

+11HP Regeneration.

+11HP Regeneration.

She felt a tiny impact against her front, and something began tugging once again. But she couldn’t see what it was. Neither of her primary, forward-facing eyes provided any visual information, and she began to wonder what was wrong with her dream.

The flood of recent events slammed all at once into her ailing mind, and Nephila felt a chill. She understood that none of it was a dream. Not only was she immobilized; the damage done to her abdomen had robbed her of her most potent weapon. She no longer had the power to subvert the minds of her enemies.

Fury and panic washed over Nephila’s psyche, while her body lay still and unresponsive.

Burning hatred and genocidal thoughts of swift vengeance

against the entire village of Nytalis smoldered within the frustrated spider.

Rotten, bitter-tastin’ ants! Should’a eaten th’ whole lot years ago! These wee young-uns looked like nothin’ more than a light snack for mama, same as th’ rest o’ them village strays mama caught! So, how could-

Both eyes atop her head picked up something blurry and green, then lost their sight. The strange, numb-tugging sensation returned, this time from that pair of eyes.

+11HP Regeneration.

+11HP Regeneration.

The process repeated until she saw nothing.

No!

Amid the constant numbness, Nephila felt pressure that ebbed and flowed at the base of her right front leg. The fact that she couldn’t see what was causing these sensations deepened her impotent rage.

Villages ta protect th’ weak! Wicked foolishness aimed at nothin’ more than ta starve mama half ta death!

The pressure at the base of Nephila’s right front leg stopped as Michael had finally cut the huge limb cleanly away from her body. He could tell the matriarch’s left front leg was cooked through, so he didn’t bother with that one.

The leg-meat was so delicious, he couldn’t help but swallow some while he continued working to finish off the deadly spider.

As he was chewing an ambrosial mouthful, the weight of his

actions hit him. Ohh, fuck.

The sudden realization that he was eating part of another sapient being caused Michael’s stomach to churn violently, and he vomited the entire contents of his stomach out while agonizing over what he’d just done.

The fuck is wrong with me?! Being a danger to my own lover wasn’t enough for this fucked-up body and its twisted, overpowering desires? Am I becoming a cannibal, now?!

Maybe not, since it’s a spider?

+11HP Regeneration.

+11HP Regeneration.

This is so fucked up… Despite her actions, Nephila is a thinking, speaking being! So was old man Declan! What the hell are we doing right now?!

He tried to argue with himself, but the towering rage within mixed with his own logic to swiftly annihilate any chance for mercy.

Fucking hell… I can’t stop now, or Nephila could recover and hunt us both down. Especially true if she’s got regeneration like we do. If she regains her strength and gets close enough to us, it’s over. We’d never stand a chance.

I must protect Rihelah. I have no choice…

He leaned forward and started gnawing his way into the spider’s main body through the front-right eye socket. All the while, he fought the tremendous urge to swallow as he tried in vain to ignore the sickening reek of his own vomit.

I love being with Rihelah, but I fucking hate this world…

+11HP Regeneration.

+11HP Regeneration.

Fuck, I’m gonna need years of therapy after this shit! Why couldn’t we just be human again, and live in a town?!

We’re… murderers… Fuck.

Though Michael fought as hard as he could manage against his new body’s overpowering instincts, Nephila had

long-since embraced her own.

For the Gloomweaver Matriarch, the entire world was filled with edible things, and that was that. If she could consume any creature while avoiding harm to herself, then she would do so.

The fact that she’d so terribly underestimated these strange insects drove the spider’s ailing mind mad with rage, frustration, and indignation.

Nothin’s ever managed ta hurt mama like this ‘afore! Even them lost human children as stuck in th’ web years ago… Them huge, plump, fleshy critters succumbed ta delicious venom’s embrace, same as th’ rest! How’d such wretched-

Nephila’s lucid thoughts were cut off when Michael’s mandibles sliced through a vital nerve connection. Her mind’s rapidly-narrowing focus turned to her mate while Michael chewed deeper into her unfeeling face.

[Dec-l…] Nephila tried and failed at speaking the only word she could now recall; the name of her mate.

A spider’s brain and nervous system is largely distributed through the lower portion of their combined head/torso known as the cephalothorax. This was something both

Michael and Rihelah knew fairly well. Michael had studied arthropods for fun during his youth, while she had learned their anatomy for her degree.

+11HP Regeneration.

+11HP Regeneration.

Making use of this knowledge, Michael acquired the particular taste of the nervous system and followed that, as he continued to tear away at the massive spider’s innards.

The matriarch suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to return and watch over her brood, but her legs refused to obey.

Each thought came more slowly than the last, and she became confused. Even the memory of who she was slipped from her grasp as all that remained of her functional brain was the lower, instinctual portion.

Much-stronger pressure invaded her abdomen from below, but the spider was unable to reach back to find out what was wrong.

Unnoticed by the mantids, a mature assassin worm had discovered the dying arachnid’s scent while passing just below the leaf-litter. It quietly began tunneling its way into her abdomen.

Nephila willed her limbs to move, but they disobeyed and she became indignant.

Nephila never regained her sense of self, nor her ability to feel physical pain.

Thus, the moment of her death was relatively peaceful after Michael had opened a hole in her carapace large enough to fit the front half of his body inside. Once he had access to her vitals, the lucid-but-still-enraged mantis ripped organs

to shreds with his forelegs, while the assassin worm silently and ravenously ate its way inside her from behind.

Combined with the considerable damage Rihelah had done with both of her spells, the massive arachnid finally succumbed.

Group kill of Nephila, Gloomweaver Matriarch Level

186. Experience Split.

Scythe Saint has reached Level 10!

+6 STR, +3 AGI,+3 INT

HP 344/364 (+11/30sec.)

MP 262/262 (+10MP/min.)

STR 58

AGI 55

INT 70

Shroud Walker has reached Level 15! +4 STR, +4 AGI,

+8 INT

HP 168/179 (+11HP/30sec.)

MP 382/520 (+16MP/min.)

STR 35

AGI 35

INT 132

Once the hostile spiders who had tried to kill them were dealt with, Michael and Rihelah found their inner rage calming at last.

While that came as a relief, the fact that they’d just killed two sapient creatures weighed heavily upon them both.

[Why the fuck did they attack us, Michael? I thought enkelyn were supposed to be our friends!] Rihelah screeched, beginning to shake with horror at what they’d done.

Her face went numb as the added feeling mixed with her slowly-diminishing rage, while they made their way further

from the badly-injured spiders upon stiff, freshly-healed legs.

[Think about how strong our instinct is at times. If either you or me didn’t eat anything for a few days, we’d probably go mad and murderous with hunger. That spider claimed she hadn’t eaten for a whole lunar cycle…] He managed to tame his own anger just enough to respond.

+11HP Regeneration.

+11HP Regeneration.

[I wasn’t fucking asking for a serious answer,] Rihelah snapped, still in shock over the fact that they’d killed others who could talk.

After a deeply-unsettling moment, during which his forelegs nearly lashed out toward Rihelah of their own accord, Michael regained enough of his wits to reply.

[Look; I’m not saying it’s okay, and I’m not justifying a damn thing they did. But, I’m pretty sure I’d have burned them both to death immediately if I were the one who had magic. Anyone who threatens you was already in serious danger around me, even when we were human. Now, with this body and the powerful urge to kill whenever there’s danger or food nearby…]

[Michael, I know. I just blasted them with deadly magic, and then I just… stood there watching, while you…] She buried her face in her forelegs.

[Well, after what those spiders tried to do; and the threat she made… With that overwhelming rage, I don’t think I could’ve stopped myself like you did, even for that brief moment. In any case, they’re dead. That means they can’t ever hunt us again.]

What the fuck am I thinking and saying? I sound like a goddamn psychopath! Michael trembled while burying his face in his own forelegs.

Rihelah looked up. [Yeah. Well, every part of me wanted that creature to die. Slowly. Even though I know it’s wrong, I still enjoyed watching while you finished her off! It’s evil, and I hate this; so why won’t these feelings go away?! This is fucking terrifying, Michael… Something’s really wrong with us!]

[I know. I’m just trying to make sense of it all… To be honest, I still feel like killing something right now.]

[Mm.] Rihelah agreed, and the pair resumed walking, both of them seething and agonizing in silence as they neared their destination.

I should have learned magic. It seemed like I made the smarter choice at first, but now…

How the fuck am I supposed to protect Rihelah, let alone myself? All I can do is sneak around and fight with these tiny forelegs! Michael fumed in frustration over his own relative impotence in combat.

That discomfort continued to build within him as they walked, while flying insects braved the air once more.

+11HP Regeneration.

When they reached the edge of the meadow, a trembling Rihelah spoke again at last, [Spiders aren’t supposed to grow so fucking big, Michael! Declan already made us look tiny by comparison, but that rotten mate of his was-]

[Yeah… I think we should vent our anger on something edible. Maybe then we won’t do something stupid. I know we have plenty of food in our storage, but we need to hunt. Now.] Michael growled quietly.

His mandibles and forelegs clenched up tightly enough to cause him pain while he scanned the grasses ahead for anything that seemed both appetizing and accessible.

Rihelah nodded curtly while doing the same.

Though they tried to focus upon the hunt, and their mobile heads actively followed both aerial and terrestrial movements around them, one immutable truth weighed heavily upon Michael and Rihelah.

They had taken the lives of sapient beings.