Labyrinth of Spiders

My skin was crawling, and I could feel what I hoped to be hundreds of imaginary spiders crawling over by body. Every time I looked, I would see nothing, only for my skin to begin crawling in another locations.

When I looked to Hylia she did not seem to have the same problem, and actually looked like she was anticipating the coming battles. Her soft voice rang out. "I love spiders. My late mother used to collect parts of them. They are truly amazing creatures. They are as intelligent as humans, and even craftier than most of them. They are highly venomous, and they are capable of hunting even the strongest of prey. "

She looked rather excited as she walked towards the labyrinth of spider webs. I followed behind, maintaining my stealth. I did not share her excitement, and would rather finish this dungeon as quickly as we could.

When we turned the band our first victim came into sight. It was a large Black widow looking spider. Where the Hour glass should have been was a bright green skull.

[Green Skull Widow]

A highly venomous spider. The venom of this spider is ranked in the top 3. It is a web hunting spider, but can move with a deadly grace even on land. Most who encounter them do not live to tell the tale.

There wasn't much information on the spider, but what there was told me to avoid if possible. Unfortunately, it had already noticed Hylia, and began to rapidly descend using its web. Hylia eyes the creature with fascination, but I did not give her any time to admire it as I rapidly fired bullets at it.

The creature screeched in rage as it fell to the ground. Its eight eyes searching for its assailant. When it could not find me, it settled on the juicy looking cat girl before it. Green venom dripped from its large fangs as it eyed the girl in front of it.

Before the spider could move, I began to fire again from its side. My bullets pelted its exoskeleton, causing blood to gush out. The creature screeched again, charging my location. Before it could arrive, I used [shadow movement] to appear in another location.

Hylia was done being idle and rushed the spider, throwing her hammer as she charged. The hammer hit the creature hard, causing the spider to stagger. The hammer rebounded back, and Hylia easily caught it as she already began to swing.

She uses the blunt side of her Maul to repeatedly hammer the beast, its body slowly being crushed by the blows. The spider had no time to recover as I cast by [Poisonous bone Bullets] repeatedly.

The spider was unable to attack before it fell, its body falling into a squished mess. Hylia eyes the spider's corpse with a covetous gaze but resisted as she saw me shake my head. It was not the time, and I did not want any part of that disgusting thing in our house.

The next few fights were more of the same. These giant green skull spiders were intelligent, but our combined power and strategy was enough to overcome these traits. Perhaps if they worked together instead of alone it would have been a different story.

At last we approached the mini boss of the second floor. It was of course a spider. But unlike the widows we had encountered before this the spider was a large bright green tarantula. It did not have any webs; it was not a web hunter. It displayed its massive fangs as it lifted its front legs off the ground. The image was rather frightening. Hylia of course looked on in fascination at the beast, her eyes glistening with adoration.

The tarantula noticed Hylia was not intimidated by its move and decided to take the initiative to attack. The spider charged at her, its speed being even faster than that of the Widows. Before it had even arrived, it had shot out several of its spiked hairs at her, venom could be seen glistening on their ends. The massive size of the beast made the hairs seem like a volley of javelin, and their speed made it impossible for her to dodge them all.

Hylia was not intimidated, and began to spin her maul rapidly. The Javelin like hairs fell uselessly to the floor, but the tarantula was already upon her. It slammed its massive legs towards her body, attempting to knock her down as it lowered its massive fangs.

Hylia managed to dodge the spider, counter attacking with her maul. The maul smashed into one of the spider's fangs, but rebounded off harmlessly. The tarantula was furious at the actions of its prey, swatting her away with a rapid swing of its powerful leg.

Hylia bounced on the ground after flying for several yards. her body eventually rolling and coming to a stop. But, by then the tarantula was already upon her. It opened its massive mouth, intending to end her life right there.

I was not about to let this stand as a utilized shadow movement to appear before the tarantula and cast several grenades directly in the spider's mouth. The resulting explosion forcefully threw Hylia's body away again, but had caused the spiders mouth to become a mangled mess. Its giant fangs were now missing, as well as the majority of the spider's head. It fell to the ground dead. Its body turning into a bright green smoke as it rushed towards my body.

I could feel a rapid heartbeat like vibration as my body absorbed the green smoke, and a pain that burned into my very soul. I fell to a knee panting as the pain was far beyond my comprehension. My screams could be heard echoing through the spider web maze.

I could feel a hand being placed on my shoulder, when I looked up, I could see Hylia looking down at me. Half of her jaw was missing, but I could see it slowly re-growing. The image was one of nightmares, but I was comforted by her presence regardless.

The lack of a notification from the Dungeon proved that this was not the end. There was in fact a final level to the instance. A final boss that we would need to be defeat before we could exit this horrible instance.