First Dungeon (14)

The mimic suddenly expanded, covering my face with its black jelly-like body as it began squeaking angrily. It then shifted until it stuck to my neck with its cool body and began sprouting multiple snake-like heads that shot forward, snapping at the spider on top of me while a separate head bit at the thread attached to me.

The spider clicked its jaw as it snapped its legs at the mimic, slicing clean through several of its heads except for the one that successfully bit through the thread. As the heads got destroyed, I felt a large amount of mana drain out of me as the mimics' multiple heads reformed and a sharp pain dug through my head. 

My body immediately began dropping to the ground from being suddenly released from the thread and I forced my slowly stiffening left arm to move, crafting a grappling hook gun and firing it toward the top of the large rock. As my body was pulled forward, I ordered the mimic.

"Take out the little ones instead. And don't get hurt again" I ordered it through gritted teeth. The way it drained my mana to reform itself was alarming and painful, to say the least.

 Squeaking in acknowledgment, it quickly shifted its multiple heads to my shoulders and began attacking the small spiders clinging to my back and arm, swallowing them after crunching them in half.

The grappling fully retracted and my body flopped against the now webless rock, and I continued rolling as one of the spiders threw itself at me while the other one was nowhere to be found. As I scrambled to get up, taking care not to fall into the webs over the large gap still burning away, my numb left hand buckled and I could feel a sharp pain in my left leg as I jumped back unsteadily, before tossing the grappling gun at the spider's head.

With an easy flick of its front legs, it slapped the gun away before turning around and spraying me with a stream of fine white threads that accurately targeted me in a sharp stream.

"Craft Barrier. Kite Shield. Harden. Harden! Spray white Powder." I unsteadily regained my balance and yelled out the items I needed. As soon as the shield appeared, I slammed the bottom point into the ground and tucked myself behind it as fine white powder began to coat the ground around me. 

Despite the fine, threadlike appearance, the webs easily blasted through my barrier, sending another jolt of pain through my head, and began sticking to the shield. As the spider threw itself backward, it almost yanked the shield away despite me slipping my left arm through the loop and bracing my whole body against it.

Seeing the spider dragging the shield and carving through the rock, I quickly released my arm before grabbing my short sword and slicing through the webs attached to the front before switching to my gun and firing at its exposed behind. 

"Transform into a big spider. Keep it busy, don't get hurt again." I ordered the mimic, nodding toward the spider in front of me before ducking behind the shield. With a squeak of resignation, it slid down my body turning into a spider just as large as the one in front of me. With a convincing snap of its teeth, it charged at the spider and began circling it, trying to drive it away from me.

The opposing spider kept backing away while trying to keep both of us in sight with its head tilted in confusion. Despite the mimic snapping at it, it avoided it with agile movements of its large body and seemed almost afraid.

Satisfied that it wouldn't interfere for a bit, I continued focusing on crafting specks of white powder to cover the ground as far as I could see while I took stock of my body.

Left shoulder through arm? Numb and almost useless. Minimal movement and no grip strength. The paralysis seemed to have stopped spreading although it felt slightly more difficult to take a deep breath than usual.

Left leg? Possibly sprained but still useable. Minimal weight on the leg.

Mana? About three-quarters full from the mimic draining me to restore its body, the little bastard.

Holding my body still, I peeked down noticing that Lina was no longer yelling and I could no longer see Julius. Instead, I could see the space below me begin to glow with a blue light from the far end while the free-roaming spiders headed for the light.

Thankfully, the large spider was still and unmoving despite the fuss going on around it. The situation could still be salvaged.

Glad that things were fine for now, I continued observing my surroundings while pretending to be paralyzed and crafting more white powder. I had been taken off guard once and I didn't plan on having it happen again.

Tap. Tap. Tap. 

So quiet, I wouldn't have heard it amoung the commotion if I hadn't been straining my ears for any sound, footsteps sounded out.

As I suspected, approaching me was the spider hidden by camouflage. Although I couldn't see anything, I could see small round prints appearing on the white-covered ground as it slowly walked closer.

"Got you, you sneaky fucker." I smiled at the approximate location of the spider based on its footprints. Focusing my thoughts, I crafted multiple sludge potions above it and allowed gravity to do the rest. As the bottles fell and shattered, small explosions impacted its back, and the wiry black hairs caught on fire.

Without holding back, I crafted a handgun and began firing explosive bullets at it, sending it shrieking and scrambling back as it tried to reach the fire spreading from its back.

"Die you disgusting thing," I muttered as I continued firing. Even though the bullets didn't seem to be effective, the fire burning on its back seemed to be causing it a lot of pain.

"Screech!" it continued shrieking before its remaining eyes seemed to focus on me. As it prepared to charge I willed my handgun away.

"Craft a shotgun. Mid-rank bullets. Explosive," I muttered and felt something begin dripping from my nose as massive amounts of mana repeatedly drained out of me. 

Not risking focusing on the mimic which was probably dead or being destroyed, I lifted the shotgun and aimed at the shrieking burning spider as it dashed toward me. 

The bullet swept past its head and missed entirely. 

Aiming a bit more carefully, I pulled the trigger again. As the bullet went straight through its head, blowing it off entirely, the spider began curling up, its body coming to a stop right in front of me.

Whacking it away as hard as I could, I peeked out behind the shield and caught sight of the mimic being bisected by a spider's leg once again.

Before the spider could take a bite, the two halves fell to the ground and lay still for a moment before transforming into a black pool that joined together and began shifting into a spider.

Feeling another massive drain of mana that made my body clench up, I couldn't help but curse at it.

"You little punk! Didn't I say don't get hurt? Come back here!" I yelled before aiming my gun at the spider.

Mid-transformation, the mimic just converted itself into a full blob that shot toward me before splatting on the shield.

Giving it a disgusted look as it peeled itself off before latching onto me while sending feelings of being bullied and sadness.

"Instead of whining, do something about this poison in my body, I can't move my arm."

Squeak!

Ignoring its whining, I began shooting at the spider that kept trying to approach me. Seeing as it easily dodged the slightly off-target shots, I dropped the shotgun and crafted a handgun with explosive bullets. 

In the momentary pause, the spider shot forward, its legs scrabbling as it seemed poised to tackle me. Remembering the last one, I crafted sludge potions above it and shot my remaining bullets at it.

Despite the barrage of explosions and even being on fire, the spider tanked everything and repeatedly dug its legs into the ground, shattering the rock easily as it was made from butter.

As we both began falling, I crafted a grappling hook and began aiming for the wall but the persistent spider somehow intercepted it, allowing the hook to punch through its flaming body.

Asani: "..."

What kind of fucking persistence was this? Did I offend it in a past life?

"Pillows, Trampoline. " I yelled out and released the grappling gun as my body continued falling through the air while I imagined a trampoline cushioned by pillows.

Thankfully, it seemed that luck was finally on my side. At the perfect angle where I would land, away from where I knew the large spider was, a large black trampoline appeared filled with a small mountain of fluffy white pillows.

Preparing my body for the fall, I spotted the flaming spider leaping at me, its legs spread wide in its final kamikaze attempt.

"You've got to be kidding me." I groaned before forcing my limbs to curl up and protect my head and the shadow mimic.

"Kite shield. Imbue harden and incorporal." Clutching the shield, I activated incorporeal while timing my arrival on the pile of pillows and for the spider to go through me.

5.

4.

3. 

2.

1.

The moment I became solid and was about to hit the pillows.

Slam! 

A large leg slammed my whole body, shield and all until I was almost embedded into the wall.

"Kid!" 

I heard a voice calling my name as if through water, but I couldn't focus on it as my body slid down and fell with a light thud. I could feel the back of my head throbbing and my gaze blurred slightly, unable to make out what I was seeing.

My only coherent thought was to raise the shield and protect myself. Or I would die.

Crack!

As my head and back slammed into the wall once again, the shield in my hand shattered into pieces that sliced my face and I felt myself black out for a moment.

Vision blurry and stunned I stared up in a daze as a large black object sped toward me.

Move.

Move!

Move damn it!

Regardless of my will, my body refused to move apart from a slight twitch of my fingers. I could feel something dripping down my forehead and out of my nose onto my lips. The salty yet familiar scent of my own blood surrounded me and I felt as if the world slowed down and I was viewing it in single-second frames. 

Fine. 

If I couldn't move, I would just have to kill it before it killed me. Defense wasn't my specialty anyway. And our good school nurse could heal anything as long as I lived.

My eyes passively scanned my surroundings, taking in everything happening at once. I could see the crumpled burning body of a spider off to the side. Julius and Lina slowly ran toward me with the giant spider between us. The giant spider had its back to them as dozens of smaller spiders fell off while Julius looked completely inhuman as parts of his body were just made of pure blue flame. 

As he got closer, I could see a large dragon-shaped blue flame shooting from Julius' hand, heading toward the leg of the spider aiming for me. Based on the speed and trajectory, I would have a nice spider-leg-shaped hole in my stomach before his flames got here.

Heh. So much for protecting me. I knew I couldn't count on these bastards.

 Mentally ordering the mimic to drag me sideways and dodge by any means necessary, I created every spear-like weapon I could as well as mana sludge potions, almost draining my mana in one go. Feeling my vision begin fading, I bit my tongue to wake myself up and focused on pointing every crafted item solely above the giant spider.

Feeling the mimic wrapping my body in its cool, shadowy embrace as it yanked itself and my body sideways and away from the approaching attack, I couldn't help but laugh as I whispered. 

"Rain down."

And die, you damn disgusting spider.

Hopefully, those damn punks would take advantage of the opportunity and kill the damn thing.

Still, I couldn't depend on them and I couldn't be incapacitated especially since I couldn't see Lionel.

Collecting my thoughts, I crafted a shield big enough to cover my body and used my last bit of mana to activate concealment.

Feeling the cool temperature of the mimic's body as it spread over me like a water blanket, I could feel a dry tongue simultaneously licking the back of my head and my face.

"Oi mimic, start sucking the poison out of my body even if you have to drain every ounce of blood from my body to do it."

"Eat?" 

I couldn't see it but I could hear the discordant voice whisper to me.

"If you have to. Suck it all out. But leave my mana alone."

"Sorry." 

It apologized and before I could tell it to stop, I felt razor-sharp teeth sink into my shoulder.