DISCOVERY PART 5G

Day 448; 1621 (Afternoon)

Focus: 513

While the spiders emerging from the tunnels were busy trying to regroup from their losses, another, much larger group came flooding down from the top of the massive wall, frantically moving like water droplets racing down a window pane.

513: "Fuuu-"

Dumbfounded by the sight of their sheer numbers, 513 couldn't help but stretch out his words in awe.

513: "-uuuck.'

He had an inkling that the spider army was quite vast, but he didn’t think the entire force would come for him all at once.

Then, as if lightning had struck him, his entire body shivered. He couldn’t ignore the thought that abruptly silenced his mind.

[What if this is only part of the army?...]

Meanwhile, those descending from the wall heard 513’s flowery cursing and increased their descent.

With their mission objective standing right in front of them, hundreds of False Arachnes clattered their arm-sized chelicerae in a frenzy, producing an unholy, dissonant scream that bellowed out from their mouths. The noise quickly snapped 513 away from his internal musings and deafened his ears.

"SCREEEOOOWWW!"

An air of mockery was deeply rooted in their cries.

In the midst of the agonizing symphony, 513's left eye twitched, clearly perturbed. He then instinctually shoved his free hand into a pouch attached to his utility belt filled to the brim with rocks. His body moved on its own, wanting to dish out a long range barrage at his enemies, but thankfully, he managed to control himself just before initiating.

[Patience. Patience. If I engage now, then I'll end up triggering the devices I've set for the spiders prematurely.]

There were only a few areas on his side of the wall that had been left barren and undisturbed, lacking any form of trap or pre-installed countermeasure. One such location was a straight, unimpeded corridor that stretched from where he currently stood to where the tunnel entrance was. The corridor was intentionally left open so he could issue forth attacks without worry.

The spiders descending the wall were already halfway to the ground by the time the group emerging from the tunnel had replenished their ranks. This development forced 513 to switch his focus from the wall to the tunnel.

As the tunnel group charged towards the crescent shaped wall of flame that acted as a blockade for the entrance, 513 tossed three more of the black marbles in their general direction. As a result, another dozen or so spiders lost their lives. Most, from internally combusting from the inside out, while the last few exploded like grenades.

Those last few were the luckiest of the bunch. Their instant deaths bypassed the searing pain that would have spread throughout their bodies as inextinguishable flames slowly broiled their insides into oblivion.

It was truly unfortunate that spider blood was akin to gasoline.

Blazing body parts were flung in every direction as the spiders exploded from the influence of the marbles, causing the growing conflagration within the flame wall's contained area to devour more land around the mouth of the tunnel entrance.

With less usable land, the spider's movements were thoroughly constrained. Regrettably, it wasn’t enough to fully stop their advance.

Scores of spiders continued to spill out from the tunnel entrance despite the clear dangers they faced. For the spiders emerging from the tunnel, the options were limited -- either bravely move forward or be crushed under the weight of those marching from behind.

As a result, an innumerable amount of False Arachnes died, adding even more fuel to the spreading flames.

However, the passivity of the spiders did not last long. A few replacement spiders quickly adapted to the changing conditions of the battlefield and abandoned the burning ground in favor of climbing the wall itself. Those that witnessed this followed suit as the change in their tactics proved effective in bypassing the growing sea of flames.

513: “Tch.”

Frowning, 513 clicked his tongue in response.

He had predicted things would play out in this fashion, but still felt irritation.

Thus, he immediately commenced the next phase of his stratagem.

He took the remaining black marbles in his possession and slung them at the entrance in quick succession. The explosions that came from the consecutive attacks gradually thinned out of the tunnel group's forces and expanded the spread of flames. The efficiency and effectiveness of the attack allowed a sizable section within the tunnel to be engulfed.

At that point, spiders from the tunnel group were no longer able to safely emerge from the entrance.

Of course, there were exceptions, but that did not mean success.

A few brazen souls had rushed into the flames, but were instantly torched; their charred remains, affixed to the location of their deaths just outside the tunnel entrance -- they had escaped the tunnel, but that did not change their fate. To 513’s discerning eyes, they looked like clumps of giant burning cotton balls.

It was a pitiful end to a meaningless show of glory.

Sighing deeply, he fell into thought. [It was a last minute effort, but these frozen rocks coated in blood pitch worked exceptionally well.]

The black marbles 513 had been throwing were from a batch of newly created projectiles he had designed to intentionally explode. The intent of the design was to utilize the rapidly changing states of water -- from ice to steam -- to promote rapid expansion of the marbles as they increased in temperature.

This spark of inspiration came from an inconsequential daydream -- 513 had fantasized eating a ridiculously sized tub of popcorn several hours prior to exploring the tunnel. However, he didn’t think his creation would actually work according to his imagination, nor did he believe that the concept would be very effective. Thus, he had kept his expectations low.

Upon seeing positive results, however, he was pleasantly surprised.

[Better to be surprised than disappointed.]

With his explosive ammunition expended, 513 retrieved his spear-sword and leapt from the top of the barricade towards the ground, sandwiching the barricade between himself and his enemies.

From behind the barricade, he hastily strapped the spear-sword onto his back then picked up a handful of long javelin darts and an atlatl that had been strategically placed in a dug out hole nearby.

Like the barricades and traps that he had carefully prepared along his side of the wall, small weapons caches like the atlatl and javelin darts were set up in key locations beforehand. This way, he could replenish supplies while safely falling back to a more manageable position.

After registering the weight of the javelin darts and the atlatl in his hand, 513 nocked a random dart of his choosing and readied his aim. He patiently restricted himself from attacking as he scrutinized the horde of spiders cascading vertically down the wall. Once he had found a target worthy of optimal destruction, he launched the dart then unhurriedly readied the next.

The launched dart was propelled like a heat seeking missile, meeting its target before its flight path could even be determined. Upon impact, the arranged metallic stones that made up the dart's tip grinded against each other, causing sparks to form just before piercing through the target's tough exoskeleton.

Like 513 had anticipated, the sparks managed to catch the spider's silvery green blood on fire the very moment it was impaled by the javelin dart.

513: "Hmm."

Grumbling to himself, 513 watched with interest as his handiwork played itself out.

From his observation, the impaled spider did not die immediately. Instead, it slowly bled out like an erupting volcano, spreading fire amongst those around it and causing large sections of the wall to catch flame.

Nodding quietly at his achievement, 513 picked out several more optimal targets.

Two. Three. Seven more darts were quickly launched from where he stood. They quickly met their targets while 513 carefully observed the changing flow of his enemies.

Though hesitant of 513’s attacks, most of the spiders had almost reached the ground. To them, the scale of 513’s intervention was negligible.

Seeing his enemies unfazed, 513 quietly deliberated the potential of the javelin darts in his mind. While a total of seven darts had been thrown, only three had been successful in turning their target's into searing fountains.

[Roughly half were successful...perhaps their blood was successful in coating the metallic rocks before the tip could produce sparks.]

513: “Hmm.”

Ruffling his beard, 513 shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the darts still in his hand.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he nodded silently to himself -- he had decided that the kill rate of the darts were at an acceptable level. He then unleashed the remaining javelin darts without hesitation, eliminating scores of his enemies.

Once his ammunition had run out, he retreated to the next barricade while still eyeing the spider’s progression.

◊◊◊◊◊◊

Day 448; 1622 (Afternoon)

Focus: 513

Only a few breaths of time had elapsed since 513 had exited the tunnel. While he had managed to kill a great deal of his enemies during that short span of time, there were still countless others that needed to be dealt with.

513: “Yes!”

513 shouted in delight as the first few spiders climbing down the wall touched the ground and were immediately ensnared by one of his traps.

The trap itself was a simple net made out of bits of spider silk weaved around fibrous rope produced from tree bark. Normally, a simple net like this would not have been enough to constrain something as large and as powerful as a False Arachne. However, 513 had dipped the netting inside a boiling vat of blood bone glue then coated the outside with a light dusting of crystal core fragments as it cooled from the hot soak.

Due to his limited resources, producing multiple copies of the trap was a heavy investment, but since the trap itself increased his rate of survival, 513 saw his efforts as an opportunity.

The blood bone coating had made the rope extremely durable while allowing it to retain a high level of ductility and flexibility; the crystal core dusting added a strong grip force to the rope by way of hundreds of small, sharp hooks -- similar to thistles, thorny vines, cacti, etc.

Needless to say, as soon as the traps were triggered by the ignorant spiders, their fates were sealed.

Narrowing his eyes, 513 placidly observed the scene of the panicking spiders as they became entangled in the nets. The sight amused him so much that he cackled maniacally as he breathed in the smoke filled air.

513: “Ha. Hah. Ha. Hah!”

In his view, the trapped spiders could no longer advance, nor retreat. And those who chose to climb over the bodies of their comrades trapped within the nets were also caught by the net’s dubious hooks, consequently becoming ensnared in the process.

Satisfied that his investment had not failed him, 513 revealed himself from behind the barricade where he took cover. From there, he steadied his arm and used the atlatl to launch a few javelin darts towards the closest cluster of spiders.

Luckily, he had restocked his ammunition before the spiders had touched any of his ground traps.

Having thrown multiple projectiles at the same general location, 513 surmised that at least one spider would inevitably conflagrate from the sparks produced by the darts. To his surprise, however, all the darts he had thrown had ignited their targets.

As the flames from the burning bodies engulfed one spider after another, their death cries resounded throughout the battlefield. Scathing hatred, fear, and sadness could be heard in their complex wails. It sounded much like a set of eerie wind chimes fumbling through a howling storm.

Ignoring the noise, 513 proceeded to count his remaining ammunition. To be successful, he needed to make his shots count.

513: “Hmm.”

He contemplated only briefly before switching targets.

His sights were now aimed towards the second closest spider pile, and the same scene as the first, took place.

His actions were repeated as he moved from one pile to another, with each pile growing further and further away as he dispatched those closest to him.

Sometimes, he would only have to expend one dart for a spider within the pile to combust, others, up to three. But he was certain of one thing after making several successful attempts: one spider had to ignite for the rest to be devoured by the ensuing flames.

This proved to 513 that the traps were incredibly efficient.

Normally, one would be disheartened seeing their resources go up in flames, but for 513, the effectiveness of the traps outweighed his temporary losses.

Coincidentally, the resulting flames also helped funnel the spiders continually climbing down from the wall.

With restrictions now impeding their hasty advance, the spiders were forced to travel predictable pathways -- pathways which 513 could easily exploit.

Eventually, 513 ran out of javelin darts to throw and could only look on at the remaining spider piles in disappointment. There was still plenty of ammunition to be found in several of his strategically hidden caches, but their distance away from the oncoming spiders meant having to abandon an important vantage point ahead of time.

513: “...”

It was regrettable that he could only turn two thirds of the ensnared spiders into beautiful, violent bonfires, but he had achieved what he wanted with the first set of traps. In addition, he felt it unfortunate that a great deal of trip wires and devices had unintentionally blocked access to the few remaining spider piles, making it impossible to eliminate them with rock bullets.

He solemnly thought about how to tackle the situation for a brief moment, but came up with no good solutions.

Shelving the issue for later, he once again shrugged his shoulders and left the unaffected spider piles alone.

[The goal is to whittle down the enemy little by little, not worry about unforeseen circumstances...they’ll eventually die anyway.]

---Chapter End