3

My venom could still kill her. Even if I myself was much weaker then her. For now I wanted to remove a few more of those legs. Slowing her would give the water more time to pour in. The number of drowned spiders in the water only confirmed the weakness Gaia had pointed out.

I flew closer. She lashed out at me, but I was still just barely out of her reach. She was mostly focused on walking along the bridge that was forming out of the bodies of her kin. I inhaled slowly as I circled again. Bathing her in lightning.

She screamed again. This scream was much louder then the first few. The sound was so loud that my ears rang. I kind of wished that I'd had my mouth open with my natural ear plugs in place. Being deaf didn't stop me from being able to fight.

The sound was so loud that all the spiders on the walls turned, and ran to become part of the bridge for their queen. Suddenly a minor slow problem had become a major one. I dropped in close to one of her hind legs. I grabbed onto her leg angrily. Biting down quickly to pump some venom into her leg before springing free to disappear beneath the water.

Some of the deeper pillars of earth had survived here. The water was much deeper then I expected, but water, and ice were both something I'd taken time to work on. The large spikes of ice that shot out of the water surprised the queen spider. They weren't strong enough to pierce her, but she slowed to break them anyways. The water was rising.

She would run out of minions eventually. I just needed to stop her from completing her bridge. Letting her drown would be the easiest way to take care of her. The sheer number of minions she had under her control was more then enough for her to make a bridge of bodies with. My muscles tensed from beneath the water.

Lightning danced along my scales. Then went out. I'd never lost control of my lightning before. What the hell is going on? I convulsed beneath the waves as a massive jolt of lightning went through me.

Affinity threshold has been reached. Elemental fusion has been initiated. Lightning element is altering, and fusing with users body.

It didn't hurt. In fact it felt amazing. Lightning cracked through the water wildly without restraint. My wings spread as I thrashed around for a few seconds. Then the lightning starting pulsing in time with my heartbeat.

My body stopped convulsing. I could hold my breath a bit longer, but my lungs felt like they were full of lightning.

Lightning fusion complete. Lightning fusion level 1

I burst from the water, and unleashed a beam of wild lightning. It had quite a bit more kick then before, and the lightning bothered my throat less. I dove back into the water as she spat venom at me. I dove down deep before using my wings to launch myself at speed out of the water. The splash I created in that moment made it look like I was exploding out of the water.

Lighting peeled off of me in all directions. All of it was in time with my pulse. The mana cost of my lightning abilities had dropped considerably. The queen already thought of me as an annoyance. I was sure she didn't think of me as an actual threat.

I roared again. An instinctual thing to draw my bonded to me. I needed more strength to kill this spider. She had already broken off her poisoned leg before I came out of the water. I could feel Ethan responding to the call right away.

Aurora responded to my call as well. Answering with her own quieter roar. I bathed the spider in my lightning again. I had no intention of letting the queen spider go. She was mine to kill.

I planned to do just that. The lightning just skittered along her hardened carapace. Doing nearly nothing to her. I growled as I hovered well out of her reach. My lightning wasn't doing enough to kill her.

Lightning was by far my strongest element. If it couldn't damage her then there was almost no point in me being here. The rapidly forming bridge of dead or dying spiders was quickly reaching to meet in the middle. I didn't have long. The queen was going to escape her trap.

I dove down on her. My talons skittered along her big ass. Begging for purchase on the unforgiving surface. I tried to dig my teeth in. My venom sprayed on her carapace.

I'd failed to get my teeth in, but my venom started doing what it could anyway. Hissing, and spitting like angry acid as the part it touched started turning to stone. The queen screeched angrily. Shaking me off easily. I was flung back down into the water.

She struck at me as I fell. Her leg pierced my lower neck. Somehow missing the important parts before she tried yanking me in toward her. I felt a surge of mana from above as a beam of light more concentrated then a laser sliced off all the legs on this side of the queen's body. I beat my wings.

Diving deeper into the water before yanking the leg out of my neck. I saw a flash of white scales as Aurora dove into the water after me. It felt like she had exhausted all of her mana with that one attack. I surged to the surface to stop her from diving in too deep. Grabbing her in my arms before bursting out of the water.

I made sure to pull her wings in so I didn't damage them while in fight. She curled into me out of exhaustion since she'd spent all her energy in a single attack. I hovered for a few seconds as I assessed the condition of the spider queen. She'd lost all the legs on her right side. Her speed, and mobility was drastically reduced.