~~Stanley~~

Stanley was enjoying the peaceful hunting. He had a clear route to retrieve the Cores, and things were flowing smoothly. He had even managed to push his reach out to kill spiders in farther buildings.

Eve was draining Soul steadily from those same spiders, and Stanley made sure to rotate out different species to try and reduce the chance of her gaining a Trait from them.

It was a good change from using his Soul to attack her. While Stanley didn't mind essentially attacking his own Soul to increase its power, it did feel better not to be attacking Eve, even if it was only to help her.

He dragged each victim into the sewers where she had a spider waiting and used Mind Crush to ensure compliance. Every spider eventually died from repeated uses of the Skill, but Stanley wasn't lacking in fresh targets. Though it was getting to the point that he was hoping for some more colonies to attack from further out. He hadn't completely wiped out any of the groups, but they were definitely diminished.

Eve seemed like she was also enjoying the new dynamic, though whether that was because Stanley wasn't attacking her or because her Trait had been removed, he didn't know. Either way, it was good.

At least, it was good until the new spider showed up.

"Holy fuck!" Stanley whispered.

That got Eve's attention, and Stanley saw her head pop up. He was inside the newly expanded shell but still had one of her spiders sitting on his shoulder. Obviously, it was listening and heard the whisper.

"What?" Eve demanded.

"It's… fucking huge." Stanley didn't have any other way to describe what he was feeling with his mental touch and Soul Awareness. He was quiet after that as he felt the behemoth move through his mental touch. Watching those legs stretch across entire streets was… disturbing.

"What is it?" Eve hissed.

"A big spider," Stanley said, "like, really big."

"What are you… Son of a bitch!" Eve switched to whispering halfway through. Obviously, she had gotten eyes on the monster and, funnily enough, had started whispering in the same way Stanley had. It just seemed like the natural response to seeing something that big.

The entire truck vibrated as the newcomer walked closer. "Oh my…" Walter glanced around, and while Stanley was hovering in the air and couldn't feel the ground shake, the rattling of everything around him was apparent enough.

Caffeine was sitting up in Stanley's lap by now, his head tilting back and forth at something he was hearing outside.

"I might need to focus on this," Stanley said to Lee back in the Soul Fortress, "gimme a sec." He didn't tell Lee anymore than that, not wanting to make his brother worry. While it looked… ominous, it was still just a giant spider. How dangerous could it be?

The giant spider walked completely over the building they were hiding under and continued on to one of the mostly cleared nests. It stopped atop that building and… just sat there. A few moments later, one of the survivors scrambled up to the roof and stood before the giant of its species, legs flailing through the air and mandibles twitching.

"Are they talking?" Stanley asked. Could spiders talk? And, more importantly, what would they be talking about?

"Fuck if I know!" Eve said.

"Might I ask what is happening?" Walter chimed in.

Eve cursed under her breath, and one of her spiders projected what she was seeing onto the wall of the trailer. Walter stilled as he studied the image before glancing between Stanley and Eve. "Does it hunt us?"

Eve looked toward Stanley then, or at least at the metal surrounding him. Stanley shook his head. "I don't know," he said, "but why else would something like that show up here and now? It doesn't look like it wants to fight any of the other spiders… Maybe it noticed all the spiders I killed?"

"We didn't see anything like that when we got here," Eve whispered, "and we were swarmed by what looked like everything in the area."

Stanley watched the spider sitting motionless on the distant rooftop while its smaller cousin waved its legs in front of its face. "Maybe that fight ended too fast?" The thing was too big to fit inside any building. Even skyscrapers wouldn't have rooms or even roofs big enough to hold something of its size. Plus, they had gotten a look over the city from Eve's drone. Not a very good look, sure, but they would have noticed something this big.

"It had to be hiding in the park," Stanley finally said. It was the only place where it might have stayed out of sight, inside that towering jungle… Unless, of course, it had only recently grown up?

As he thought about it, the spider moved on from where it had been stopped. It only took a few steps to get across to the next building, where once again, it was met by one of the inhabitants.

"This doesn't look good," Stanley said, "it looks like it's asking questions…" The Soul of the monster was definitely more complex than its smaller kin.

"Fucking snitches," Eve muttered.

Stanley was very careful to keep his touch light on the creature; the fact that it hadn't noticed him immediately was a good sign, and he made sure to keep his Soul very tightly constrained. He even went so far as to leave the shell just in case the power draw might be detectable.

The spider moved on from that building and then went to the next, and the next… It was visiting every building that Stanley had been killing spiders in. "I didn't use any Source, so it can't be sniffing that out…"

Finally, the spider crawled down onto the street and seemed to be inspecting the few corpses that hadn't been salvaged for consumption yet.

"We need to get out of here…" Stanley said in a near whisper.

"And go where?" Eve demanded in the same hushed tone. "I'm not ready to fly, and Zeke is still out there… and out of range as well."

"Maybe to another building?" Stanley said, "or an alley? It's going to find us…"

"You think it won't notice a giant fucking truck driving away? I say we just kill the fucker!"

Stanley wasn't against that option, but he had no idea what the spider was capable of… "Think you can take it?"

"I'm sure the two of us…" She glanced at Caffeine. "…the three of us can handle it just fine."

"True…" Stanley knew very well that Caffeine could definitely kill a single giant spider, probably even the B Grade that still lurked inside the jungle, but… Stanley couldn't forget the swarm they'd seen upon arrival. Caffeine couldn't fight the entire Lair.

"Walter, do you have any bigger weapons?" If they were going to fight this thing, Stanley wanted something more substantial than his paltry knife. The tiny blade was worse than a toothpick against the behemoth.

Unfortunately, Walter had nothing bigger than a sword. Better, but still far from ideal.

Fortunately, Eve came to the rescue, dragging her hands through the pile of metal chunks and pulling them together into a hefty spear.

Stanley grinned at the excessively large weapon. "That's more like it!"

"It's a lot easier just to mash a bunch of metal together," Eve explained as she kept doing precisely that, "I could make it a giant sword if I had more time…"

"No, this is good," Stanley said, though the metal was still full of her Soul. That would make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to wield. "Can you remove your…"

"Yea, yea," Eve said, pulling her hands back after finishing up the pointy end and taking the bits of her Soul in the metal with them.

Stanley hefted the spear experimentally and found it no more troublesome to move than his knife. A bit heavier, to be sure, but without any of the resistance that came from trying to influence a living creature. Getting it outside the truck was the most challenging part, thanks to the prodigious size of the weapon, but still doable.

"I still think we should wait before attacking and see if it will leave us alone," Stanley said as he settled the silvery spear onto the trailer's roof, where it would be ready to launch in almost any direction. "Daryl's illusion might still keep us hidden."

Eve was already putting on her armor, with a bit of help from Walter, and she paused momentarily. "Ugh. Fine, I guess." She still kept gearing up, though.

Stanley realized that she was looking forward to the fight. Maybe she had been cooped up for too long in here. Killing monsters was a great way to blow off steam, after all.

"In case you haven't noticed," Eve said, her voice muffled behind a silvery helmet, "I've been a bit busy trying to get us all out of this shithole."

"Yea, yea," Stanley said, "but maybe you'd be less inclined to shoot me if you got to shoot some other stuff."

"Honestly," Eve replied, "I think I enjoy the crafting more than the violence. Plus, I could get used to other people farming Cores for me. It just feels… right, you know? Maybe I should have become queen instead of Nate…"

Stanley ignored her increasingly grandiose imaginings and watched the spider as it continued to crawl awkwardly down the street, its legs either squeezing in between the buildings or stretching up to step on the rooftops. Meanwhile, it kept its head near the ground, almost as if trying to sniff out a trail.

"Do spiders have noses?" Stanley wondered.

Then the spider stopped over the manhole Stanley had been using to feed Souls to Eve's machine below. "Um, Eve…" Stanley started to call out a warning as he felt a surge from the creature's Soul. Then a massive leg punched through the narrow hole, obliterating metal, and concrete alike as it blasted down into the tunnel where Eve's much, much smaller metal spider hid.

Stanley managed to drag her machine further down the tunnel as the spider attacked, but the explosion of shattering road debris still clipped it.

"Son of a bitch!" Eve noticed that. She had lost the visual feed when the monster got down to street level but now knew precisely where it was. "I'm going to fucking kill that bitch!"

Her mechanical spider scrambled into motion, and Stanley did his best to help it along. Unfortunately, some of the legs had been damaged, and it was moving too slowly when the giant spider retracted its leg and blasted back down straight through the road directly above Eve's machine.

"Fuck," Eve cursed, and Stanley felt her Soul whisk away from the machine an instant before it was crushed into scrap. "Ready to kill the bastard?" Eve growled while attaching one of her new jet engine devices to her back.

"You might get your wish," Stanley murmured.

The giant spider had stopped after destroying Eve's machine, and Stanley could have sworn its head turned slightly to follow the fleeing bits of her Soul. The behemoth didn't attack the street again and instead started walking towards the building they hid under.

Stanley levitated his new spear as it approached and eyed Eve's armored form. She looked like a cross between Ironman and a medieval knight with a myriad of extra weapons and devices attached to the armor.

As formidable as it looked, she was very small compared to the monster outside. "Zeke's not here to heal us," Stanley said, "sure you wanna go out there?"

Eve stopped in the doorway and turned. "You know, Stanley, technically, I've been doing this longer than you have." He couldn't see her smile through the opaque helmet, but he could feel it. "Watch and learn. Maybe you'll learn something." Then she stepped outside, moving far more nimbly than it looked like she should be able to in that heavy armor.

Stanley shared a look with Walter, and the other man only shrugged.

To her credit, Eve didn't attack the spider immediately. Instead, waiting beneath Daryl's illusion as the monster came closer. Meanwhile, Stanley debated on whether to let Caffeine outside to help or not. He wasn't worried about the pug's safety, not against this singular foe, but instead concerned about Caffeine potentially drawing in more threats.

For instance, were spiders considered beasts? Would they act like some others before and want to claim the title? For that matter, if there was a Beast Lord, did that mean there might be an Insect Lord? Arachnid Lord? Or even worse, a Bird Lord…

Despite his useless ruminating, in the end, Stanley decided to keep Caffeine safely on his lap. He could always toss the pug outside if necessary, and besides, Eve was going to show him how it was done.

Stanley closed the door and wrapped his arms around Caffeine. "Stay, Caff," he whispered into his ear. Caffeine was not unaware of what was going on, or at least he knew something was happening because he was sitting up very alertly with small head tilts as the ground vibrated beneath the heavy footsteps.

The spider didn't zero in directly on them but rather circled the building slowly. From its Soul, Stanley could read enough to know that it was looking for something, so he noticed when it seemed to find what it sought. "Here it comes, Eve."

Unfortunately, Stanley hadn't anticipated exactly how it would attack. Something that should have been obvious in hindsight. The spider drew one massive leg back, preparing to stab through the illusion and into the truck beneath. A truck that was much more fragile than a concrete street.

Mind Crush

Stanley blasted it, aiming for its head and hoping that was where spiders kept their brains. He really should have asked Walter about that; the man had chopped up more of the critters than anyone else. Luckily, his attack was on target or at least close enough, and the spider spasmed under the mental attack before it could strike.

Eve must have also gotten eyes on it because she was through the illusion and opened up with twin beams of searing light into the spider's face before Stanley even got his spear off the roof.

Then his spear also slammed into the spider's face, aimed at what Stanley hoped was an eye. It sank deep, easily cutting through whatever passed for flesh inside the monster before blasting entirely through and out the other side, sinking halfway up its length into the ground below.

Unfortunately, the monster recovered almost instantly and seemed entirely unaffected by getting a spear through the head as well as whatever Eve did to it.

Stanley had already ramped up his meditation and watched in slow motion as a giant leg lifted to stab down at the armored Eve. She looked really tiny below that foot, and Stanley had too much time to consider if he should act or not. Another Mind Crush didn't even slow the monster, and Stanley ripped the spear from the ground, sending it toward the descending foot…

The new device on Eve's back pivoted and fired out a burst of energy that pushed her to the side. The spider leg blasted into the cement where she had been standing and dug deep into the ground, sending a cascade of rubble spraying in every direction.

Stanley stabbed his spear through the joint of the buried leg and followed it up with as big of a piece of rubble as he could throw. And then another chunk, and another, each bludgeoning the wounded limb further. Stanley drove the spear through one more time right as it started to lift up, and the leg ripped free from its lower section.

Caffeine was very alert now, thanks to the booming impact almost directly outside, and was trying to go investigate. Thankfully, he was being gentle about it, and Stanley was able to keep him on his lap. "Not yet, Caff."

Eve was sending a constant bombardment of energy blasts into the spider's face as she dashed away from the truck and down the street. The spider turned to follow her form, which was a good thing since it got those stabbing legs away from the fragile truck. Though, Stanley wasn't sure how tough Eve's armor actually was… He was watching closely, ready to intervene if he had to, and worst case, he could always unleash Caffeine.

Stanley followed after the fight with his spear and more pieces of the collapsed building, targeting an undamaged leg in between punching another hole through what he was still hoping was its head.

As far as he could tell, the spider didn't know that he was a separate target and was blaming Eve for all the pain being unleashed upon it. And it was feeling pain. That much was easy to detect in the furious Soul of the creature.

Eve's erratic movements came up short when a burst of magic flew from the spider and coalesced into an almost mockingly perfect spiral web with her at the center. It left her strung up and motionless in the middle of the street.

"Of course spiders get cheating magic webs." It didn't even shoot out of its butt like it was supposed to…

Stanley diverted the first leg that shot towards the immobilized Eve using rocks and a spear. It missed and instead punched into the web beside her. Unfortunately, rather than destroy the web, it only stretched and dragged Eve to the ground. Which was when the spider lurched forward, going straight for Eve with its mouth.

Stanley watched the terrifying maw descend towards Eve, easily big enough to swallow her whole, and was glad he couldn't actually see what it looked like. Once again, Stanley had to wait as death descended on Eve. Wait, and see if she had a solution before he applied an overwhelming answer to the problem.

She did have a solution.

Eve erupted with energy that burned away the webs touching her armor, and her jetpack pushed her out of the path of the approaching maw. Only, rather than fly away, Eve passed just high enough to dodge the mouth that took a bite out of the street. Then she dropped down and landed on the spider's back.

Stanley saw the trickle of Soul flow from the spider as she landed and smiled to himself. "Not bad." Using the Soul Leech in the middle of a fight like that, she did have some skill. Meanwhile, she stabbed multiple devices into the spider's carapace beneath her feet. She followed that up by firing her largest cannon point-blank into its back.

"Oh, it felt that," Stanley thought as he rained down another storm of projectiles into the spider's face. He had tried going for the body, but only the spear could punch through the carapace, and Stanley had no idea what was considered a vital organ for a spider, much less where they were located. So instead, he went for the eyes.

Eve fired her cannon in a continuous blast into the spider for all of two seconds before the monster responded. It released another burst of magic that sent Eve flying through the air, twitching and cursing in pain as she went. Her tumble quickly became a more controlled flight, and Eve landed half a block away.

The spider didn't hesitate in pursuing her, likely thanks to the literal pounding its face was still receiving at Stanley's hands… or mind. It wasn't just in pain anymore, now the spider was pissed, and it apparently was still blaming Eve for the pain.

Eve stood in the street, lifted both hands toward the charging arachnid, and raised two middle fingers. Simultaneously, the devices she'd left on the spider's back erupted into an explosion not at all commensurate with their small sizes.

The resulting explosion drove the spider's belly into the pavement, even pulling some of its feet from the buildings they had been clinging to in the process, and blew out every window on the block that still held glass. Even the truck rattled under the shockwave, and they were around the corner.

Stanley kept destroying the lumps on the spider's face. He didn't know if they were eyes or not, or for that matter, how many eyes a spider usually had, so instead, he just attacked all of them. He also threw in the occasional Mind Crush without much success, but kept at it if only to hopefully level the Skill.

Eve charged the stunned monster, running unheeding through Stanley's storm of weapons as if she had complete trust in his aim. Or maybe in her armor? That or she wanted him to hit her so she could talk shit. Regardless, Stanley was participating in this fight in slow motion still, and it was child's play to avoid hitting her.

The spider recovered just in time for Eve to land on its head, where she immediately stabbed another couple of her bombs into its flesh. It must have recognized what was happening because Stanley felt fear coming from the spider for the first time since the fight started. It wasn’t an idiot and the previous explosion had definitely made an impression.

Two legs swept up over its face in an attempt to dislodge Eve or the bombs. Either way, it didn't matter. Eve was already airborne, flying straight up as another burst of magic raced over the spider's body and passed harmlessly beneath her.

Then the new bombs detonated.

The legs that had been in the process of swiping them away blew apart, and a deep hole was blasted into the top of the spider's head.

Eve was pushed higher by the explosion, though it didn't appear to have hurt her. Even as she rose through the air, Eve lined up her cannon and launched another beam into the freshly created wound. The beam continued as she reached the apex of her flight, and it only intensified as she plummeted back down toward the massive monster.

She landed inside the spider's head right as it stopped twitching, and Stanley saw some of its Soul begin to coalesce into a Core while the rest dissipated.

"Not as hard as I expected," Stanley thought right before everything went wrong.

"Piece of fucking cake!" Eve proclaimed, her voice coming from the robot on Stanley's shoulder as she jumped free of the gory mess and posed triumphantly atop the corpse.

"We got a problem," Stanley said right as the first spider jumped from the nearest building and straight toward Eve.

She casually blasted it away, and the next two that followed right behind but had to jump aside when a dozen more descended from all directions." What the fuck?"

"They're coming," Stanley whispered.

"Who?" Eve shot more spiders out of the air even as she sprinted back towards the truck.

"All of them," Stanley said, "everything in the Lair is coming here!"