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*Chapter 56 - The Swamps (may be edited later)
🕑 Added 2021-08-20 02:53:16 +0000 UTCChapter 64 - The Swamps (This may be partially re-written later, old document was accidentally deleted and new document had to be created)
The swamps were filled with illusions. Every time they thought they were making progress towards the pyramid, they found themselves turned around and walking in the wrong direction. Pits of quicksand, large predatory snakes, and vast areas of ankle-deep mud overgrown with reeds or moss-laden trees made travel very slow. The air was hard to breathe, and they all suffered a minor stamina debuff just because of the green toxic fumes the plant life here radiated. But the worst part… was the giant spiders.
He glanced down at one of the dozens of bodies littering the bog between skewering another and blasting three more with hellfire from his mouth. The grotesque, mutant spider-creature was the size of a fully grown rottweiler and was a hell of a lot meaner. Two razor fangs protruded from the head, with eight eyes and eight legs connected to a bulbous, furry, grey body. Underneath the protective layer of thick fur was a hard chitin-like carapace, and the wounds or body parts cut off all oozed foul-smelling green liquid that was viscous in nature.
Name: Web Runner
Race: Spree
Class: Drone
Level: 10
HP: 51/78
MP: 30/30
SP: 29/106
DP: 1/1
Buffs: None
Debuffs: Aversion to Sound (Extremely loud noises send this species into seizure-like episodes)
Stats:
0 Strength
2 Vitality
11 Endurance
33 Dexterity
0 Speed
0 Intelligence
0 Wisdom
0 Faith
0 Luck
0 Willpower
Skills: Webbing, Venomous Bite, Acid Spray, Camouflage
Traits: Hive Mind, Agile, Cunning, Aversion to Sound
Attributes: None
============================
Web Runner’s Power Rating: 33
Utility: 20
Attack: 9
Defense: 4
============================
Vye's identification skill was proving a lot more useful than Trey’d imagined. Of the numerous types of spree here, Web Runners were by far the most common… and they had one big weakness that Trey’d never have thought to exploit if he hadn’t gotten the information off their status pages.
They hated loud noises.
He let out another Roar of the Banshee, sending the nearby spiders into a frenzied seizure-like fit. It gave Napoleon ample opportunity to rip them apart, one by one, as the demon made quick work of the otherwise fast and agile enemies.
Trey lurched to the side as the mutant spider’s silk shot past his head. Flipping around and launching a chaos ball back into the canopy – the spider and the tree shattered in an explosion of black and red mana. Wooden splinters rained down on them, and Trey was left panting from the repeated exertions.
Sweat glistened all along his skin. He’d long since thrown his cloak away, along with his tunic, leaving him just as shirtless as Tyler was.
Tyler, who actually was an ex-marine, laughed a little bit as another explosion rocked the swamplands a dozen yards off. Screams and hisses of more web runners cried out as they were burned alive, torched along with four other trees nearby.
Trey’s head was pounding. He didn’t last much longer until he vomited from the physical strain of their activities, and caught his breath afterwards as he remained ankle-deep in the mud. Off to his right, he could see three Earthborn already strung up and cocooned – their bodies completely drained of blood, and the features still exposed were gaunt. It was just as the same as the ones they’d found earlier, those who’d gone ahead to try and reach the pyramid first…
Thus far, Trey and his group had found well over twenty of these cocooned corpses. All drained of blood, all recently killed. Occasionally he’d hear screams off in the distance, but every time they’d try to come and help whoever it was… the illusions would set them off in the wrong direction. Over time, Trey realized that even the screams were disorienting – once hearing the same scream start up on his left only to continue on to his right a split second later.
“I’d say I hate spiders…” Trey said between panting, his hands on his knees. “But that’s so fucking cliché. Are all spree supposed to be spiders?”
Tyler chuckled under his breath, ignoring Trey’s question wiping away thick yellow fluid from his arm as Rivia healed up his wounds. He turned around and gave a thumbs up to the priestess. “Thanks babe!”
Trey grimaced and shot Tyler a look. “Don’t call her babe.”
“Whatever you say boss! Just carry me through this ordeal and I’ll do as you say baby girl.” Tyler gave him a wink and wiped his short sword on his pants before trudging along. He was the only other Earthborn that wasn’t shaken to the core by all the dead bodies, and the only one who wasn’t damned impressed with Trey and his minions – or the carnage they left in their wake.
Trey couldn’t help the deepening scowl that came on. He wasn’t sure if he liked Tyler, or found him irritating, but at least he was somewhat helpful. Tyler had killed about a dozen of those eight-legged freaks already, and wasn’t too shabby with the short sword… for an average guy, anyways.
“It’s a real shame we aren’t getting any XP…” Lue muttered under her breath as she hopped down from her perch on the tree, notching an arrow as she stood back up and looking around warily into the fog of green fumes. “We’d all have grown levels by now.”
She continued to trudge through the mud, past Vye and Brody to where one of the corpses was strung up and hung from a low-lying tree branch. Lue took a small dagger out, placing it against the thick silk webbing and began to cut it away. Eventually she was able to clear some of it off the face of the corpse, showing it to be a young girl that was missing an eye with numerous puncture marks along her left cheek.
Vue grimaced at the blank, dead expression the corpse had and sheathed her knife again. She fought the urge to gag, and then turned around to march off towards Trey. “I just want to go back home…”
The old man, Vye, spoke up next as he carried Brody over the thick muddy landscape. “We should get moving again… We don’t know how long until the spiders come back, and we don’t know if anyone else has reached the pyramid yet.”
Tyler scoffed audibly and frowned before sheathing his sword. “Well it’d certainly help if we could find the pyramid at all. You see that?”
Tyler pointed over to the image of the pyramid on his left. “THAT!? That’s not going to be it either. Every god DAMNED time we start getting closer, it turns out to be A FUCKING ILLUSION!!!”
The ex-marine fumed… clenching his fists with the frustration that was evident upon all of their countenances. However, it was Brody that broke the silence.
“Is that a treasure chest?” The little boy was pointing off towards a thick cluster of trees, and the others all turned in unison to look.
There, in the center of those trees, was not one – but three different treasure chests all sitting in a row.
Trey’s eyes sharpened as Tyler immediately began running that way, despite the calls from Vue to wait for the others. The system had told everyone about the loot they might find in randomly placed chests, so no doubt Tyler was gunning for it.
“Greedy bastard…” Trey muttered under his breath.
Sithis agreed. ‘If he obtains anything of value, we can strip it off his corpse later.’
This comment only made Trey chuckle.
Intercepting Trey’s route towards the chests, and with Napoleon perched on her shoulder, Rivia muttered under her breath as she glance downwards at the bog she trod through. “This place is disgusting…”
“Yes yes disgusting!” Napoleon chimed, happily keeping out of the muck himself.
By the time they got there with the other Earthborn, Tyler was already digging through the first chest. He’d pulled out a thick chitin breastplate, putting it on and wearing it even though it looked a little too small for comfort. He’d also pocketed some potions and some coins, with a shifty glance at the others.
“Finders keepers right?” Tyler said with a grin.
Trey gave him a blank glare, and Lue did the same.
“Do you want me to roast him?” Atharost asked curiously, floating down to the ground to land amidst the others.
Tyler immediately donned a scowl, but Trey waved Atharost away with a shake of his head.
“No. I’m getting first pick of the next chest though.”
Thankfully, the chest was unlocked. The hinges were a bit rusted, making Trey question how long they’d been out here or who’d even put them here, but with a grunt he was able to tear it off entirely. Metal and wood buckled, unhinging the lid to reveal old and stale food rations…
Trey frowned, picking one of the moldy and grayed bread loaves up with a raised eyebrow. “Really?”
That’s when he saw the amulet. His brow furrowed at the glint of red light shining near the bottom of the chest, and – violently swatting Tyler’s hand away when the other man tried to take it – Trey reached inside to pull it out.
Firestrider’s Amulet
Item Tier: (9) Grand
Bonuses: +49 damage rating to all fire-based abilities
Requirements: Fire Attribute, 50 Intelligence
Durability: ???
Special: ???
It was a well-crafted amulet, with gold borders encircling a square ruby gemstone set into the middle. Little indentations created ridges all around the border for decorational purposes, and the chain itself was made of another gold-plated metal.
“Vye, can you inspect this for us?”
The old man nodded once and put Brody down, coming over to hold the amulet for a moment as Tyler grumbled in the background with Lue giving him glares. Seconds later the full status page popped up with the information Trey’d missed.
Firestrider’s Amulet
Item Tier: (9) Grand
Bonuses: +49 damage rating to all fire-based abilities
Requirements: Fire Attribute, 50 Intelligence
Durability: 93/93
Special: None
Trey frowned a little bit after not having any special abilities, but it was still a great addition to the ifrit. He immediately shoved it out in Atharost’s direction. “Yours.”
Atharost took it without question, donning the amulet and admiring the large jewel with a smile of thanks. “It is appreciated.”
“My turn?” Lue asked hopefully, glancing to Vye who gave her a smile and a nod. The young Chinese woman started for the third chest, only to have Tyler get in the way.
“You didn’t do nothin.” Tyler said with raised eyebrows and folded arms, turning his back to Lue who stood open-mouthed at the rudeness he was showing her. “Trey and I did all the work, so we get all the loot. You got – what – maybe two kills back there?”
Tyler gave her a grunt of disapproval before turning back around and heading for the third chest himself.
Lue looked to Trey, and then to Vye, and it seemed like she was about to say something. She was obviously upset, and was getting flushed in the cheeks, but she backed down after a moment to think about it. However, her grip on her bow tightened and Trey could tell she was angry.
Sithis snarled internally. ‘I don’t like him’
Yeah. Neither did Trey. If things kept up like this, there’d be a very good chance he’d forcefully take Tyler’s shit the moment they finished this tournament.
Tyler rattled the handles and tried prying the lid open just like the other ones, but this one didn’t budge. He grunted, heaved, and even brought out his short-sword to try and get leverage, but none of it worked. After a while, he took a look down into the keyhole at the center of the box.
“Ha!” Tyler exclaimed, pulling out nothing other than a lockpick from his back pocket. “Figures.”
He got to work fidgeting with the locked chest, doing his best to open it while the others watched.
Trey felt a tug on his pant leg, and looked down to find Brody standing in the boggy water beside him. “Yes?”
“What’s he doing?” Brody whispered, curiously looking on with sincere fascination. “Is he tried to open it? What’s that little stick he’s got in his hands?”
Trey smiled. “It’s a lockpick. It opens locked boxes or doors if you’re good enough to do it without breaking the pick, but sometimes it fails.”
"IT DIDN’T FAIL THIS TIME!” exclaimed Tyler as there was an audible click from the chest. Hooting, he pocketed the lock pick and quickly yanked on the lid one more time. The lid moved, flipping open to show its contents.
A split second later and a blur of motion slammed into Tyler’s head. It happened so fast that Trey wasn’t able to react to it before it’d already done its damage.
Tyler’s pupils slowly widened, and he staggered back two steps… before lazily falling backwards into the shallow bog water behind him. A bolt was protruding halfway out from his forehead, and Treys’ HUD indicated Tyler’s HP bar was now at a dead 0.
“Oh fuck…” Trey muttered to himself just as Brody gasped and tightened his grip on Trey’s pant leg.
The others just stood there, startled and taking in what had just happened, before Atharost started to snicker.
Napoleon scampered down off Rivia’s shoulder and waded through the water, coming to perch atop the open lid. The demon examined it thoroughly for a solid minute before giving a thumbs up. “It have no no more trap traps. All gone gone.”
Trey exhaled and shook his head. “Welp. That’s what he gets for being greedy I guess. Napoleon, take his potions and give them to Rivia. Lue you’re up, unless you want me to take first pick.”
Vye and Lue exchanged uneasy glances, but Lue carefully waded through the shallow water to come to a stop. She rummaged around a bit, throwing some undesirable linens to the side. Then her face lit up, and she took out a single silver ring that was all-consumed by a purple miasma. She took time to identify it, her eyes went wide, and she quickly pocketed it.
Trey grinned. “Don’t worry. I won’t try to steal it from you, and I won’t ask about the details.”
She gave him a curt nod, flushing in the face again just a bit, and glanced over at Tyler’s corpse. “What a bastard.”
Trey chuckled with a snort. “What a bastard indeed.”
***
There had been no announcement of anyone winning the contest, but it had been many hours since starting. The sun was setting, with no tangible temple in anywhere to be seen and only a trail of dead spree spiders left in their wake as evidence of their efforts.
They continued to cross dozens of dead humans as well – cocooned Earthborn who’d been unfortunate enough to meet their final resting place here in the swamps of this unknown world. Occasionally, Trey and his team would come across empty loot chests – and they even saw a couple other living teams, but the other Earthborn just gave them a wide berth. They were all untrusting of one another, and for good reason. One of those times they’d even stumbled upon one group of five murdering another group of three in cold blood, but Trey didn’t interfere. He didn’t know what had started it or why they’d fought, but the nagging feeling that this was likely happening or had already happened numerous times clawed at his gut.
They continued to walk, with the sun setting low over the next two hours. Was it really supposed to be this hard? He’d thought they’d at least have found the pyramid by now, and if they couldn’t it with the help of Atharost scouting ahead with the power of flight, then how the hell could the other teams hope to?
Another hour passed, and as they crossed under the strung up corpses of two more men – Trey’d had enough. They were all tired, it was dark, and none of them aside from Napoleon and himself could see in the dark. Atharost was definitely a nightlight, but it also attracted a lot of unwanted attention.
“Turn the flames off, that’s the fifth time we’ve been attacked in the last twenty minutes…”
Atharost did as Trey asked, extinguishing his flames to nothing – leaving only dull starlight above them and through the putrid fumes to guide their path.
After a while - Trey motioned for the others to come to a stop after reaching a patch of dry land, trying to ignore the vast amount of webs woven about them in the forest. They’d already killed the spiders here, at least the ones they’d seen, but he still go the creeps. Even with his night vision, the fumes from the bog stunted his vision up to a maximum of about fifty yards out, meaning he was extra paranoid about things coming out at him from the unknown.
“Let’s take a break and think things through… I can tell y’all are struggling here.”
“Very well, master.” Rivia brushed by his shoulder and sat beside him, leaning against him with a tired sigh as she stared blankly out into the darkness. The others took it grudgingly, they all wanted to leave this horrid place far, far behind; but they were all exhausted and didn’t put up too much of a fight when finally deciding to take a breather.
Vye sat gasping from the exertion, he in particular wasn’t cut out for this and was still the one carrying Brody around. Sweat trickled down the old man’s face, and he spat in irritation at the ground after they’d come so far only to yield nothing for it. “I can’t… keep going… like this…”
Vye said the words inbetween deep breaths, and his shoulders heaved with every inhale he took. His glasses were stained with muck, despite how many times he’d tried to wipe them off, and his clothes and hands were equally dirty.
"We must be doing something wrong…” Lue muttered, downcast as she poured out the water from her left boot. Glancing around, she threw out her arms to either side in a hopeless expression to suggest she’d given up. “This is… terrible. How many bodies have we passed by? We can’t just sit here… but… I don’t know where to even begin trying again.”
And at that very moment, as if on cue, they were all contacted with a tournament-wide message:
============================
Hello participants!
This is a tournament-wide announcement. One of your teams has found and activated a hidden switch, disarming all illusions and granting themselves a ticket out of the tournament. The entrance to the underground temple has been highlighted for everyone remaining to see. As of now, only 41/360 participants remain. 18 have escaped the tournament, and the rest have died.
Good luck!
============================
The message blinked rapidly a couple times and disappeared, vanishing from their HUDs as if it’d never been there to begin with.
Underground? Is that why they’d not found anything yet?
Trey rubbed his eyes glancing around at the others just as a beam of light illuminated the sky above. As a pillar from the heavens, it shot down brilliantly into the ground a couple miles away.
Then the realization hit him.
Everyone else would be gunning for it.
Right now.
They had to go.
Getting up just as fast as he did, the others immediately came to the same conclusion. If they didn’t want to be stuck here forever, they needed to get the fuck over there – and now.
Now matter who he had to kill, and no matter what he had to do – Trey was getting off this god-forsaken world and back to his friends.
It was time to move.
***
The chittering was growing louder as they approached the beam of light as a fast-paced walk. The web runners were surrounding them, stalking them as they splashed noisly through the swamp trying to get to the beam of light in the distance. Trey would have gone faster, he wanted to go faster, but the others were holding him up. It was all he could do to keep himself from killing these other Earthborn outright in his sudden state of panic... but he knew he couldn't really do that, and leaving them behind by themselves would only make them quick snacks to end up in a spider's belly.
He'd thought this would be a piece of cake.
He'd thought this would be his win.
But if others got there first and managed to kill whatever creature guarded that pyramid, it didn't matter if he was stronger or not - because he'd still have lost.
"I'm sorry, I'm going as fast as I can!" Vye exclaimed between gasps. He was supported by Lue on his left side, and Rivia had taken to carrying Brody. He was still by far the slowest though.
Trey didn't bother replying, and with his anxiety growing he was trying to just keep his head on straight. Panic was flooding through him, and He'd sent Atharost ahead to scout the area out in the meantime to see just how bad the situation was.
His thoughts were quickly interrupted by a scream as he whirled around. A spree web runner, the size of a large house cat, had sunk its fangs into Lue's back thigh an was repeatedly biting off small pieces of her leg in quick succession. Its long legs were rapped around her, stopping her from shaking it off as she fell to the ground - and with her came Vye.
Trey shadowstepped back to where they stood as Brody began to scream and cry in fright. Not bothering to console the child, Trey reached down with a clawed hand and grasped the spider by its gray head. He crushed the creature effortlessly, and flung its corpse away to drift in the still waters of the swamp.
Lue grimaced, bleeding heavily from the wound as Vye reached over to inspect it.
"Thank you..." Lue managed to say as she clutched at her leg. "I didn't even hear it coming..."
The chittering heightened, becoming high pitched and angry as a chorus of spideres all around them began to screech. Trey's eyes lit up with chaos mana and he unlatched Talsh'Noc'Un, daring them to come.
And then the chittering ceased. He could see them... out there, in the marshy wetlands... watching him.
He stared them down for a time, flexing his mana in challenge, until eventually... the spiders began to disappear behind the trees. No one else but Napoleon could tell in the dark of the night, but these spiders... were retreating.
Rivia began to heal Lue's injury with a rejuvenation miracle, and cast a wary glance around her. "The sounds... they stopped. What's happening out there? Can you see them?"
The demoness was a little concerned, and it showed. She finished healing Lue, smacked the crying child on the back of the head to shut Brody up, and clasped her hands in front of her as she awaited Trey's reply.
"They gone gone!" Naopleon chimed in with a gleeful smile.
But Trey continued watching. He stood there, not blinking, staring into the darkness... this didn't feel right. Something was off... "Yeah, it seems like they ran away. Hopefully Atharost gets back soon, they-"
Trey stopped in his tracks. His jaw slowly began to drop, and began to creep in. A sound, like a roaring tidal wave of chittering death, began to rise up from the forest beyond. "Oh... fuck."
"What do you MEAN oh fuck!?" Rivia whipped around, eyes frantically searching, but she could only hear it. The hair on the back of her head stood up on end.
Trey just continued to stare, the grip on his weapon growing slack, and then tensing up again with renewed determination. Out there, in the dark, a sea of many thousands of giant spiders was rushing directly towards them - screeching and hellbent on their death.
"This is going to be a real shit show."
