(James)

They stood in front of the door, unchanged since their earlier assault on It. The scaffolding pipe was still wrapped around the handles, but there has obviously been some attempt at an escape from the other side, as the doors were dented heavily.

"I swear, that had better have been the spiders because if we trapped people in there with them, then I'm not going to be happy."

James put his hand on Dana, feeling her trembling a little.

"I doubt it was people. Look at the dents at the top here. People can't reach that."

Dana took a deep breath and calmed down. For a second.

"Yeah but now we know the spiders are this strong."

"And we have magic and weapons. We can do this."

Dana adjusted her grip on her book and looked up at James.

"So how we getting in?"

"Remember that kickass spell I learnt in the cafeteria?"

"The imploding one?"

"What? No. It's an explosion. Whatever, yes that spell."

James cast the mana sphere, surprised at the 15 mana it cost him. But then again, it didn't cost him anything to actually make it explode.

"We should um... stand back. Pretty far."

James walked backwards while pushing the sphere closer to the centre of the doors. He continued until he could feel the strain of his maximum range, then made sure Dana was at a safe distance. She was in fact right behind him, using him as a shield.

He smiled at her actions, and immediately cast implosion. He didn't say the name or anything this time. It was serious time now.

Besides, if Dana heard him call it implosion, he wouldn't hear the end of it.

Again, the spell took a few seconds to wind up, but that wasn't a problem as much as it was a warning system.

The ball of mana imploded beautifully, dragging some of the metal of the doors in with it. This was odd to James. Surely the expansion part fo it would be the more powerful.

He did t have time to think it over properly

As the forces reversed, and the energy exploded outwards.

He had wanted to just destroy the seal he had put on it, maybe break the seal down the seam too, but the spell was much larger than he expected. The system assisted spell was stronger than his own randomly crafted one, and it only made sense. He had been messing with mana for hours at best. The system made the spells.

The doors were blown off their hinges, tearing metal and ripping hinges off the walls. They heard screeches of anger, from inside the dark gym, but there were no emerging spiders.

"Territorial huh? Well. Dana, would you like the pleasure of setting fire to this most unholy of nests?"

"Oh, you know just what to say to a girl."

Dana crept along the length of the hall they had retreated to, following the wall as she went.

"You know, it's weird how we've not encountered any more of the lizards around here isn't it?"

James was getting a bad feeling about this place, so he filled her, taking a much more casual approach.

"Don't jinx it. Please."

Dana just laughed softly as she reached the door and looked back at him, approaching. Her eyes flared and changed to bright blue. James was used to this change now. All of the sight skills were useful, but it gave it away when the eye colour change too.

"Ok. I can see nobody in the main hall, but there are changing rooms and equipment rooms right?"

"Yeah. Two pretty big changing rooms and three rooms with weights and stuff in."

"I think that they're in the other rooms because the main hall is just full of spiders."

"How many we talking about?"

"Well. I don't like our chances."

James grimaced. Dana was an optimist and wanted these things dead. If she didn't think they had a chance, they very well might not.

"Just... tell me."

"About a hundred. Maybe more. They're all big though. The smallest ones are maybe the size of a medium dog. The biggest, well. How tall are you?"

The leading question was terrifying in itself. He had assumed the spiders might be roughly up to his waist. But if they were as tall as him, then they would be way stronger.

"You can see them from the mana right?"

"Yeah. They only have a little, but the bigger ones have more, and even the web has a tiny bit."

"The web. Can't you just ignite it?"

"My god. Yeah. Watch this."

Dana held a hand out away from them both, in the doorway. In her hand, a ball of fire grew from a spark. She stopped grow In it when it was the size of one of James' mana spheres, then it suddenly shrunk and she clenched it in her hand.

She didn't cry out in pain, making James think there was more going on. The light from the fire still glowed from between her fingers. But it dimmed before she released. In her hand was a small translucent red crystal.

"This is a fire crystal. I can put pretty much any spell in it, but it costs a lot more mana."

"Wow."

"And it explodes."

She threw it forwards towards the corner of the gym. A few sputtering pads emerged in response, but no charge of limbs and fangs.

James gazed into the darkness after the slightly glowing gem.

He should have used jewellers eye on it, eager to see how it was structured. He could just get her to make another one later though.

It turns out it was a more solid version of his own mana sphere casting, as she had to say the trigger to make it explode.

"Flaming Nova."

The crystal closed brighter briefly before exploding into a red and orange hemisphere. It rapidly expanded, quickly becoming much bigger than he expected.

Any web caught in its radius was immediately on fire, and it spread faster than the spiders could run.

"Now. Into the side rooms. I'll keep them off us."

Dana nodded and sprinted straight towards the closest side room. It was the girls changing room.

James followed a few meters behind. It was difficult to run and aim at the same time, but all the spiders that were stupid enough to approach her were large enough targets.

He shot off limbs and blew open their brittle skins.

He was still doing roughly 50 damage per shot, but most of the spiders only needed to be slowed or disabled. They weren't the immediate threat. The fire was.

The web's covered almost every surface of the walls and ceiling, with many branding walkways between them. The floor was mostly clear, littered only with light coils of discarded web. This meant they could run through the centre of the hall with a minor issue. Unfortunately, when they reached the desired door, it was cut off by flaming webs.

"We have to hold out for a minute."

Dana put her back to James' and as she threw balls of fire at approaching spiders from the wall, James fired into the approaching crowd.

Their strategy was working for a while. The flaming webs resulted in flaming spiders, which were dying off quickly. James fired at the ground in front of the approaching line, causing sprays of shrapnel to pepper them with wounds.

The spreading fire stopped them from using any sort of strategy, but their numbers were overwhelming. James was down to a quarter of his mana before he knew it. He grabbed the shaft of his spear, comforting himself knowing he had a backup but then remembering Dana had no such reassurance.

"Screw This! Switch places with me!"

James and Dana rotated 180° keeping their backs together. James shot four spiders lowering themselves from the ceiling. The damage he caused combined with the resultant falling killing them. But he ignored the experience screens and threw a hastily cast ball of mana at the still flaming door.

"Implosion!" He jumped back from the door, covering Dana with his body as the shockwaves washed over him. He had covered his ears, so he wasn't stunned at all, but many of the spiders near him were.

He picked up Dana who had been stunned and was unresponsive and dragged her through the remains of the door.

The inside of the changing rooms was largely unchanged, at least he assumed so. He activated mana sight so he could see, scanning the area for friends and foes alike. There were no webs in here, so at least they weren't surrounded. But they were cornered.

James saw the rapidly approaching spiders, some of the faster ones already at the doorway.

Thinking on reflexes only, he dropped Dana on a bench barely visible in the dark blue room plane of mana sight and threw the next one towards the door with one hand.

It spun him with the recoil, and he had used up half his stamina doing so, but it had destroyed the smaller spiders near the door, and cause the ones further back to hesitate.

He looked over at Dana and her status effect. (0:30)

Only 30 seconds. Good.

Now that the doorway was clear, he just had to block it again. Using every point of his strength as much as they would allow, he dragged a block of lockers to the destroyed doorway and pushed it in place. Immediately, he felt bangs on the other side, as the spiders rammed into It, aiming to force their way in.

James didn't have the stamina to fight them for long, so he picked up a third bench, and wedged it between the lockers and the floor. It may not be a permanent solution, but it would hold until they recovered their mana.

James laid spread eagle on the floor and deactivated Mana sight, and as soon as he heard Dana start to move, he called out to her.

"Don't move. Regen your stamina. Did you take any damage?"

"No."

A simple reply, but a positive one nonetheless.

"Good. How long until you're full?"

"Maybe... six or seven minutes?"

"Huh. Because I think we only have three."

James was looking at the lockers. They were beginning to bend outwards around the bench.

"Fuuuuuuucckkkkk."

James groaned from the ground as he got up. He would wait until the last second to act, maximising his effective time.

He retrieved the spear from his back, and stood, getting into a javelin thrower position. The first furry multi-eyed freak that showed it's ugly fangs would get a face full of spear. At this range, there was no way he could miss.

But even though his stamina would regenerate fast, he was fairly low on mana. He had four shots charged, and could charge another three after that with no problem. He wasn't sure how many spiders they had collectively killed and disabled, but he was sure another seven shots wouldn't cut it.

"How much mana you have?"

He turned to Dana and saw a stream of -1hp's above her.

She grimaced but smiled as she looked over at him.

"Full."

"What?"

"Its a conversion skill. Kinda dangerous. Not important."

She got up off the bench and stood ready.

"Do you have enough mana for another Implosion?"

James sighed inwardly. He should not have said that spell out loud.

"Yeah."

"Use it to blow away the locker toward them. Knock them all back."

James had only regenerated 15 of his mana, but luckily that was enough for the casting.

He put the sphere just in front of the lockers, and they ran as far away from it as possible, behind several layers of lockers.

"Now."

James triggered it, and a second later, he heard the locker screech in protest as it was almost torn in two from the force of the spiders.

Perfect timing.

The sound of the explosion echoed through the tiled room, but the sound of metal crunching through body after body then screeching was far louder, and much sweeter.

They ran out the door again, James favouring his spear over his gun, saving it for an emergency.

James was confronted with darkness, the fire on the webs had spread and expended all the fuel. Any light remaining that wasn't from the initially exploded doors was from still smouldering corpses.

James cursed inwardly and activated Mana sight again, realising all at once that pain resistance seemed to do nothing for his headache.

There were fewer than half the spiders remaining, but he already couldn't catch his breath and didn't have time to regenerate his mana fully.

They ran into the next room, the boys changing room. It was a quick dash along the wall, so they could run into it without much conflict. A few arcs of fire stream and a swing or two of the spear was enough to keep them back without any risk.

Dana ran through the double doors and halted. Assuming there were enemies inside, James rushed to put his back to hers, keeping the spiders out while she dealt with whatever was inside.

He spent a tense few moments where the spiders ignored his desperate swings, so he charged the last two crystals, and fired all six shots at the closest spiders, destroying them. This was enough of a deterrent to give him some breathing space, so he checked his mana, and on the way up, saw three more spiders lowering themselves from the ceiling or crawling down the walls.

Shit. 14 mana

He couldn't do this. He could charge and shoot twice, killing two of the ambushers, but if even one of them jumped at him, they would all pile on and kill him.

The futility of the situation overwhelmed him. He would die here in the dark. James felt his limbs trembling. The fear flooded him. But then he thought of Dana. She had a fighting chance. He had to increase her odds. He would protect her at all costs.

He charged his two crystals, leaving him with 2 mana, and not enough time to recover more.

He could have asked her for a mana boost, he could have asked for them to leave. He had regrets. Again.

Rage overtook James as he refused to accept his death. If he could overcome death once, he could do it again.

Skill learnt: Red Mist (B)

If this skill was anything like what he thought it was, it might just be his saving grace.

Red Mist [1] (B):

Release an aura of pure anger that boosts the users base damage, damage resistance and reaction time at the cost of all rational thinking.

Cost: none

Warning: high stamina deficiency possible.

James grinned to himself and shot upwards at the two nearest spiders, dropping them and seeing the screens to confirm their deaths. The gun was all but useless to him for now, so he shoved it into the strap and kept swinging the spear, keeping the crowd back.

At the last second before the final ambusher jumped, he threw the spear up and pierced It, launching it back up in the air, but when it landed, the spear was still lodged in it. It was all but lost now. No time to retrieve it.

A grand total of maybe 30 seconds had passed since he had put his back to hers, but James decided that it was now or never. Now that the threat was all in front of him, he stepped forwards while cracking his knuckles.

His confidence oozed, and he realised he was happy to give his life for Dana. She was all he had to live for right now, so if he died, he would only go knowing that she would live.

"Red Mist."

Red fringed James' sight, and he stopped seeing the crowd of blue silhouettes in front of him but instead saw precisely 43 targets that would die, mere dominoes that would inevitably fall.

James screamed a war cry as he felt his logical mind fall apart and ran into the depths of a crimson abyss.

When James blinked himself back to consciousness, he realised he was still on his feet, but barely.

He had a status effect called exhaustion for the next 2 hours that halved his stamina regen.

James fell to his knees and felt pain in all his joints. Especially his hands. It was too dark to see them, but he felt pain shredded through them.

The only part of him that wasn't pained was his head. Miraculously clear for once.

He activated mana sight and was greeted with a torn reality.

His hands were stripped almost to the bone, pain resistance becoming evident in its effect. His armour was in tatters, cracked an split in places, torn off in others. His body underneath was relatively unscathed besides his wrecked hands.

And as he tried to wet his mouth to speak, he found it already dripping with a foul liquid. He spat it out, retching and coughing, finding out that three of his front teeth were also missing.

The fuck happened? What did I do?

He looked around at a scene out of a horror movie. There were pieces of spider piled up around him. Legs and heads alike.

The blue mounds of death were rapidly losing their colour, and the bodies drying out. This would be one hell of a haul if looted, but now, it was rapidly becoming a dark maze.

He checked his stats as he limped to the closest wall.

His health was at 17, stamina refusing to go above 20, and Mana at a surprising 70. He looked around frantically for his pistol realising it was a usable weapon again but calmed down when he saw it was still tucked into the leather strap around his waist.

"Dana?"

James called into the dark. He had no idea how much time had passed, but it was completely silent, and that made the fear all the more suffocating.

A headache formed and he wished he had some skill or spell to make light with instead of using Mana sight.

He reached the wall and deactivated Mana sight. With the mana perception gone, he could see the light still coming in through the doorway to the hall.

Good. It's still daytime.

James remembered the phone in his pocket, and used the torch on It. The screen was cracked, but it didn't really have any other use now.

With real light, the scene was so much worse. The floor was coated with a layer of the thick black blood that fuelled the giant arachnids, and also coated a large portion of James. The last time he remembered seeing Dana was when he had her back to her in the doorway of the boys changing room.

As he walked over, slowly charging his crystals, and preparing for any surprise, he stepped on something that didn't crack or squish under his shoes. Upon closer examination with the light, he discovered it was his backpack. He must have lost it while he was rampaging. One of the straps was severed, but he hooked it over his shoulder. And kept moving.

James limped up to the doorway of the boys changing room, finding it shut and barricaded on the inside. At least that meant Dana was safe. Hopefully.

He knocked on the door, and when he heard nothing on the other side, shot at the centre of the door until he had made a hole through it.

There was still no sound, and he pushed his hand through the hole, pushing away the bench on the other side.

The door swung open and on the other side, found a sci-fi looking scene. There were cocoons hanging from the ceiling, filling the room.

He could only guess there were people inside, but logically, if Dana was in here, and had barricaded herself in, then whatever had done this was hiding.

James sighed. This was a long day and he just wanted to go home. Honestly, he could just happily walk away from it all. If his life wasn't in danger yet again, he probably would have.

He used mana sight again, and the thin wraps of blue thread surrounded figures of black or white or somewhere in between. He guessed the white figures were alive, and the darker they got, the closer to death.

There were only three bodies full of mana, and Honestly, the He others didn't look good at all. This didn't bode well at all.

But he had to stay focused which was hard with his critically low stamina, and now disparing amount of Mana.

He could get a good 6 shots in before he had to resort to his hands again, but that wasn't really an option now.

The rows of lockers and benches could hide any number of creepy crawlies, so he kicked over the rows of them, causing them to fall over, crushing the wooden benches and anything else that might have been underneath.

James heard something skittering just out of his line of sight. That was the final straw. This... thing was killing people and eating them. This room was full of its victims, and it was something that his out of sight, ambushing its victims. A spider by any name. And it infuriated him that it thought he would fall to it too.

He looked around frantically, but even when he saw a shadow of movement, there was little mana to it. Enough to slip into the background colour. Camouflaged it seems. He needed another edge.

Aurora lense!

James almost doubled up on his visual skills again, but a deep-rooted fear of losing an eye again made him pause.

When he did activate Aurora lense on its own, the world shifted from blue, through black, then to orange. His own aura was filling the room, weak, but enough to find the absence of aura that wasn't human.

It looked more like a scorpion than a spider with a longer body and claws, but it had no tail. While he could follow it quickly, he could analyse it. This would put him in a position where any rapid movement might push him over the edge, but he needed the information.

SpiderMite (evolved):

Level: 20

Hp: 170/170

Mp: 0/10

"The unholy offspring of a spider and a mite that was fused by mana and inherited random arachnoid features. It survives by trapping, leeching and completely absorbing its victims."

This thing was a leech. With barely enough stamina to remain to stand, James waited for the SpiderMite to launch itself at him, pretending he hadn't noticed it. At the last second, he spun and hit the mite with the barrel of his pistol.

Instead of falling as his stamina fell from 5 to 4 then 3, adrenaline flooded his system and in a moment of clarity, fired all 6 shots after the SpiderMite. The screen filling his vision told him it was dead. And he had gained skills and levelled them. But that's would have to wait. At the moment, he was safe, and he was more than a little tired.

James was awoken rudely by multiple people shaking him. When he opened his eyes a crack, a drink was out to his lips.

Honestly, he was quite thirsty. Why would he not drink it? It was a warm liquid, but it was pleasant and tasted sweet, vaguely of berries. His mind filled with the colour red.

Suddenly he felt strength fill him again. His body felt like his, and he opened his eyes further as he felt better and better.

Before him, blurred shapes became faces. Multiple faces. As he focused, he recognised Dana immediately and smiled at her. But beyond her was another three faces. Dom, Callum and May stared at him, with sickly pale faces, but concern obvious on them.

"You guys."

"Yeah."

Dana put her hand on his cheek. And he relaxed. In the state he was in, it wouldn't do him any good to get worked up.

But his eyes for misty he had worked so hard with Dana to try and rescue these lovable nerds, and they had succeeded.

Almost.

"Annie?"

His voice was little more than a whisper.

Dana shut her eyes and put her forehead on his chest. The other all looked away awkwardly.

"She... she didn't make it in the webs. I'm sorry James, she... Her body was too weak."

James blinked away tears that threatened to form in his eyes.

"No. It's... ok. We can talk later. Can we leave now?"

Dom put his hand on James' shoulder and gave him a soft but genuine smile.

"We already did man, look."

He gestured to James' left, and James realised he was outside at night, not in a dark room.

He looked over and saw the front of the college, smoke rising from part of the building where the gym was.

It was over. The nightmare was over. James smiled an laid his head back down, relaxing. It was done.