Chapter Ten: Unnatural

The air was still and heavy, the grass bending beneath a non-existent wind, flashes of black and grey shifting through the grass. It slithered forwards; unseen, unheard, drawing ever closer towards its’ prey waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It would come soon enough...

Soon enough...

He roared rearing back onto his hind legs, two sets of deep red claws slashing through the air as thick black fur bristles across his back, gleaming red eyes peering forwards aover the low grass filling the glade. He dropped down back onto all six of his legs sending forwards a scathing glare towards his enemy encamped high within the roots of the [Glacial Oak], a massive tree with snow white bark and leaves of pale blue, a gnawing cold spreading out from the trees base, causing the [Red-Needle Grass] to wither losing its' signature red glow, fading to a singy shade of grey. A set of eight pale green eyes stared him down, locking his body in place; devoid of any sign of true emotion. This would be a battle for the ages, one that would be written of the annals of history, told by grandfather to grandchild; the final showdown between the [Scorched Rat King], and the [White Pugilist Spider Queen]. The king snorted shaking the rough main of black fur coursing over his neck, long steel grey teeth gnashing in his skull.

Several days ago he had been content to scurry amidst the grass, crawling through narrow caves, dodging [Molten Toads], and [Frost Vipers]. But now, now he was something new, now he was something important he had evolved into the rat king. Every monster was born with a single skill and a single trait, this was an immutable fact, a law of reality itself, but where other creatures sought to gain ever higher stats and more advanced skills monsters were always searching for their next trait, something they could earn only by evolving, reaching their maximum level and consuming the resources necessary to push them up into the next grade of monsters along. Evolving had placed The King into the second rank of monsters, and ever since he had been searching for a worthy oponnent, a foe truly capable of matching his new found magnificence and he had found such an enemy in the form of the Pugilist Queen

This hadn’t been The King’s first attempt at taking the Arachnid down, no, every day for the past week he had launched an attack on the eight legged horror. Each of his offensive campaigns had been met with a fierce rebuttal sending him scurrying back to his den to lick his wounds and try his luck on another day.

Pugilist spiders were far from the most dangerous foes the cave had to offer, but that was only when they were alone. The spiders span their webs in glacial oaks, protected from larger carnivore and herbivores alike, and in from those webs they spawned their young, hundreds of thousands of them. Even many of the higher ranked monsters simply refused to attack the nests; the spiders were very far from nutritious and the amount of experience they provided was minimal. Of course, that only referred to the run of the mill [White Pugilist Spider]s, the foot soldiers, the fodder, sent out on life threatening journeys' across the empty wastes of the cave in search for food, all in the hopes of returning alive and delivering their finds to their mother and their queen. The queens wove the nest, they birthed new spiders and directed them out across the hellish landscape in small packs relying on numbers to overpower vastly superior prey, and that tactic worked. The Queen could pump out hundreds of spiders everyday the beasts able to swarm almost any monster unwitting enough to enter their nests. Normally even The King wouldn’t have dared to mess with a fully established pugilist spider colony but this was no normal situation. This spider wueen was nought but a neophyte, a newly born arachnid ruler yet to spin her nest, born into the second rank of monsters she lacked the additional trait he possessed from evolving under the power of his own will – this made her a prime target.

She would be the first sacrifice to his next evolution!

So there they stood The king, a three foot long rodent; sleek black fur and dark red eyes, with curving claws and a long whip like tail covered in tiny red scales lashing in the dirt, facing down the Queen; a massive spider with short stubby legs, and swelling abdomen, covered in tiny raised ridges, her mandibles swelling forwards to absurd proportions ending in hardened balls five inches across covered in glowing blue bump like protrusions which radiated a freezing aura.

The King let out another screech waving its’ tale behind its head, the spider remaining silent watching him from above camped behind its' arboreal barricade. The rat snorted throwing back his head, this arrogant spider would face his wrath, if it was unwilling to meet him upon open ground then he would burn its’ precious tree to ash and cinders! He reeled back, pulling his long snaking body up onto his hind legs before taking in a long breath, something small and hot beginning to spark within his chest slowly swelling as it rose up burning at the back of his throat, a glob of glowing red flame launching forwards, hissing and steaming as it met the cold air surrounding the tree. The glob flew in a graceful arc with pinpoint accuracy all thanks to The King's birth trait, the ability that had allowed him to evolve in a time unheard of for the rest of his race; [Telemetric Judgement] a unique ability that extended his senses, he could feel his target; the warmth of their blood and the beats of their heart. His aim was perfect and the blast of flaming liquid flew towards the mass of white webs currently spreading through the roots of the tree that would sooner or later become this spider's nest. The bolt of fire struck home, the webs ingitinng practically bursting into flames, sparking and flashing through the dark and winding knot of roots that the spider call home. Finally the queen made her move, The King jittering below squeaking in amusment as she raised her massive club like mandible high overhead the pale blue glow surrounding her weapons seeming to itensify.

He chittered in glee as he watched her approach. Things were going exactly as he planned, after so many defeats he had finally come up with a stratergy capable of putting an end to this insufferable rivalry. Before the end of the day she would be no more than a light afternoon lunch. He screeched before activating his newfound skill, another byproduct of his recent evoltion; his tail bursting into a wave of flame as his body turned, twisting over itself, whipping his flaming appendage at the incoming arachnid faster than her eight eyes could follow. The Tail struck home, hardened scales cracking through the spiders steely exoskeleton, the greasyoil the tail secreted plattering over the spider's body causing several globs of flame to linger blackening its’ snow white armour. The Spider ignored the attack, whatever damage his tail had done seeming to be limited to the monster's exoskeleton, The spider closed in before lashing out with a savage jab striking The Rat King's side knocking the rodent back several metres rolling through the grass.. The King let out a shriek scrabbling back onto his feet before drawing up another blast of fire from his stomach, this one several times weaker than his opening salvo as he lacked the time needed to funnel the mana into the attack as The Queen closed in. The spider took the blow head on seemingly unphased as its' face began to smoke, under the searing goo, its' body slowly beginning to turn black scorched by the attack, but the damage was not enough to deter it in its' course, within moments the arachnid had reached him. It lashed out striking downwards, Catching the King's skull and forcing him down crashing into the ground with a dull Thud! The Pugilist Queen stood still fo severak long moments, a grinding rattle escaping the arthropods jaws in a horrid faximaly of laughter. The King turned, a dull creping rage beginning to rise from deep within his chest, as he turned towards his foe. The Queen responded in an instant several lightning fast strikes boring down into his midsection eliciting a symphony of sharp cracking noises exploding from his ribs. The King Howled rolling back and forth, head tossing as The Queen watched in indeferrent to his plight.

This had been a bad idea, why had he thought this was a good idea? It was a bad idea, abad idea! The rat struggled rolling on the ground before lashing out kicking at the spider as it leered down at him from above. The Spider stumbled slightly The King taking the opportunity to rise ignoring the throbbing pain of his ribs, as he kicked off in the direction of the tall grass. This was the part of the story where he ran away and lived to fight another day. He'd try to take the spider on tomorrow and then he'd win, no doubt about it, and even if he didn't he could just return the day after that...

Thud!

The King paused, a jolt of pain rushing through his body as the spider slammed one of its’ stubby pointed legs down onto his tail. The Queen tilted her head briefly, a wicked glint shinning off its’ blank green eyes. Slowly the monster began to reel him in using its’ forelegs to tug at his tail inch by inch widing awy and drawing him closer, dragging him through the dirt and the dust. The Rat King turned shaking its’ head struggling against the spiders grip, a cold chill slowly riding up his spine as the arachnid’s pseudo fists began to glow with a pale white light a wave of frost washing out across the glade expanding over several feet. The Rat screeched tugging and pulling as its' tail began to freeze, dark black patches stretching across his skin, before he remembered he could set his tail of fire. The King hissed taking in a hard breath forcing his mana down and into his tail, the scales beginning to flow a deep red before igniting the oil the tale secreted as the heat continued to rise until the limb was a blistering white to match the oncoming cold. The Pugilist Queen released the rat as The king took the opportunity to coil its’ tail around one of the spiders legs before yanking it backwards the limb practically popping off as the tail burned its' through its' armour and the flesh beneath.

This spider wouldn’t find him such easy prey!

The King laughed to himself letting out a wicked screech before the spider, unperturbed by the loss of a limb, lunged forward and slammed a fist down into the rats head a wave of frost spreading over his fur. The oil he secreted was not enough to mitigate the damage of the oncoming wave of cold as several bloody cracks opened up across his skin, the blood in his veins rapidly beginning to cool.

He... He wasn’t dead yet!

With a howl he turned lashing out with his tail once again, failing to take note of the fact his reserves of mana had run dry his tail harmlessly bouncing off the spiders exoskeleton before a second fist crashed down into his head. His vission swam, the rat king twisting backwards, the world seeming flash in a mix of black and white before a strange shudder passed through his skin.

The king shook his head clear of the image, teeth barred waiting for the next strike to come. But it didn't.

The Queen stood paused mid strike arm raised above him, her body seemingly frozen in place. A dark black smudge seemed to be her face, different from the charing of his fire attacks the black stain was slowly bubbling away, fading moment by moment as it dissolved into dark steam. The Arachnid swayed, tilting on its' seven remaining legs before falling to the floor attempting to drag itself back up onto its' feet. The rat tilted its' head for a moment considering the creature before him and the strange turn of events before deciding to take the opportunity and attack. He lunged forwards, out of mana but with teeth strong enough to gnaw through steel given time and enough concentrated effort. Then he noticed a black blur twisting through the grass, at the corner of his eyes before a dull Thump! Impacted his side and his vision turned black.

The world seemed to fall away before his eyes a howling void stretching out beneath his feet. He stood in a world without light, or dark, cold or warmth, it was an empty. And through the endless night a silence howled so loud it crept down through his skin and his bones and settled somewhere deeper within, it latched itself to his soul and would not let go. So he waited alone in the dark.

Then the image was gone, the void was replaced with light and sound, a wave of it strong enough to stun his senses sending his stumbling back. He stood in a cave the amidst the grass and the monsters and the sound and the light of a living world. That was when he noticed the slowly parting fronds of grass and the gentle sound of a creature that should not have existed creeping forwards out into the open air. It’s body was corpse grey, eyeless, mouthless and devoid of anything that could have marked it as truly alive, several sickly grey limbs waving about above its’ head another dozens of the long tentacles dragging its’ body forward over the earth. A dark gem was mounted in its centre cracking with white light, the monochrome horror lumbering forwards to meet them, several small orbs of darkness floating about the creatures crystal. The King turned to run before noticing the Spider Queen slowly rising from the grass floor jaws clicking, in rage before rushing towards the creature that had just interrupted their fight as one of the a black bolts zipped from the dark stone in the monster’s centre striking the spider across its' face, its' body locking up and tumbling back to the ground. The King shuddered backing away.

From the day he had been born he had lived in the cave and its' surrounding tunnels, scurrying between the dark red grass, gnawing on the roots of trees and fighting for his life with the inhabitants of their dark little world. Once he had even had the opportunity of seeing the lords of ice and fire themselves do battle for dominance out on the burnt plains. But this creature was new. He couldn’t feel its’ aura, faint and weak, barely a trickle of mana escaping its; form, it was more like an animal than a true monster in that regard, but that didn't quite the growing sense of unease rising through his body as the beast approached.

A thick twisted limb slammed down into the spider pinning it to the floor, its’ body suddenly pulsating with a fierce green glow, shinning brighter and brighter by the second. The Pugilist Queen seemed to have once again snapped out of the state of confusion the monster's attack had inflicted as it began to struggle against its' oppressor for several long seconds before a third and final blast of dark magic exploded in its’ face. Her legs fell still by her side, her swollen mandibles clattering to the ground the dark substance bubbling off of her carapace.

It seemed like the tentacle monster was focused on the Pugilist Queen for now. The Rat King shuddered before turning to run, wincing at the pain sparking between his ribs, barely managing to limp out towards the grass before a sharp Ding! Filled his’ ears, a notification popping up before his eyes

CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Been Offered A Contract]

The Dungeon Core [Gimble] Has Attempted to Bind You to it as a Subordinate Monster. Do you Accept?

[Yes]/[No]

Accepting Will Form a Contract with Dungeon Core [Gimble] and will provide you increased life force, mana and status points, but will also prevent levelling through traditional means.

The rat froze at the sudden wave of information that had just been forced into its’ brain. He did not understand what the symbols on the blue screens meant, but he could feel there meaning, concepts and ideas slipping into his head, worming deeper and deeper into his thoughts until he understood them entirely. He understood the message that he had been provided and he shuddered. The rodent turned slowly, looking back to face creature its' arms and legs resting easily at its' side, a small glob of black mana solidifying in the air over the creatures head to replace the several bolts of magic it had just fired at The Pugilist Queen. The rat’s mind flickered back to the strange sensation that had passed through his body a moment before, the endless void and the dreadful silence. The King Closed his eyes, something deep within his chest beginning to turn, contorting itself as he made his choice.

It agreed to take the contract.