On the outside, I was calm, gently running my hand through Kharie's soft hair. On the inside though, anger burned within me like like hellfire. I flew here faster than I've ever flown before, the distance between myself and Kharie shrinking in seconds.
I saw many figures as I approached, large disgusting beasts that resembled giant spiders. More reason to hate them on top of everything else. However, they could wait, because towards the back, surrounded by webbing on all sides, as well as those smaller spiders blocking any form of exit, I saw one of the larger Spider creatures, and I saw Kharie. My heart almost stopped as rage at the sight made my vision turn red.
I had not known her for very long, but I respected her. She was very kind to not just me, but my girls as well as Delphia. In my mind, she was a victim to her brother's actions as well, being forced to accept what he had done, and living with self imposed guilt over not stopping him before things got as bad as they did. I didn't blame her, but I also knew where she was coming from.
I blamed myself for what happened to my mom. Hell, some days, I still did. The difference that helped was that my mom was safe and sound back in our village, and the guilt had been fading ever since I brought her back, and killed the fucker that hurt her so much in the first place.
Maybe that was part of the reason why I cared so much. I wanted to help her. Her soul was a bright and wonderful thing, just like the people I surrounded myself with every day now, and something about it resonated with mine. It was just like my women's, and like the ones who I planned to make mine soon. That was something I could parse through later, but I knew one thing for sure. I didn't want to see her get hurt... and she had been hurt. Badly.
"KHARIE!!" I had roared, my voice sending ripples through the air and parting the fog before me.
Her arm had looked like it had been sliced clean off, her stump spurting gouts of blood, while her severed arm lay in a pool of more blood a few feet away, a death grip on the dagger in its hand. Her leg looked... rotted, blackened, and it had detached itself at her upper thigh, continuing to decay while her stump festered with the same weird rot. I had kinda lost my shit, and I had to get that fucking creature away from her.
That's when I used my tendrils to yank it towards me, and then punched it really fucking hard. Simple yet very effective. I landed as best I could so I didn't endanger her, and now I was currently healing her. I think she was a little loopy, but I was just happy she was okay. She had called me "pretty" with what looked like stars in her eyes, but hearing her voice in general had made me feel immense relief.
During all of this, I felt the gazes of the spider creatures on me, but they didn't do anything. Whether it was from my killing intent or not, I wasn't sure. I made sure to layer Kari in a barrier of my Abyssal energy just in case. She wouldn't be getting hurt again.
"We're gonna have to talk about what your idea of a relaxing stroll is later." I said, watching as her eyes become clearer, and more focused with each passing moment.
She had lost a lot of blood, and her Health had no doubt been very low. It wasn't just that, though. Whatever substance that had ate away at her leg seemed to have done something to her blood. My power seemed to be taking care of it well enough, so that was good at least. After about another 30 seconds, Kharie's eyes returned from being hazy to that deep, soothing brown. She blinked a few times.
"Elias... you're... actually here?" She asked me, her grip on my forearm tightening.
"I am. Everyone was worried about you. I was worried about you, so I came to find you." I said, my fingers still idly playing with her hair, "You can tell me what you were thinking later. I'm gonna take care of these things, and then I'm taking you home."
Kharie looked past me, no doubt at the spider creatures. Her eyes held both confusion at their inaction, but a spark of rage at seeing them. I didn't sense much fear from her, but she clearly hated these things. From the black blood, the smaller dead ones, and the big headless spider, it's clear she gave as good as she got.
She seemed to finally realize our closeness, the way I stroked her hair reassuringly, and the grip she had on my arm. Her face actually turned a shade of pink, but she did not release me.
"Elias.... these things are wrong... and they seem to be somewhat intelligent... or least are aware of what they are doing." She said, looking past me at the creatures, "They cornered me, and no matter how fast or how much I ran, they wouldn't relent. It was almost like a game to them. I did my best... I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of giving up..." She said, and her words made me anger rise.
"They toyed with you..." I growled, and whatever Kharie saw made her eyes widen. I assume it was the fire burning within my eyes, burning so fiercely that I could feel it.
"Elias...?" She asked me, then her eyes widened more at the aura I now failed to restrain.
"Can you stand?" I asked, doing my best to be considerate despite my growing anger at these monsters.
Kharie just nodded, looking at me with big brown eyes, one of the only things keeping me calm. That and the pleasant sounds of my women.
"Eli! Did you find her? What just happened?" Cici asked mentally.
"I can feel your rage, Eli. Is she...? Clarissa asked, almost hesitant to finish that train of thought.
"Kharie was in rough shape, but she's okay now. I've got her." I said to them both, helping Kharie to her feet as I communicated with them, "Tell everyone they don't need to worry anymore, and we'll be back just as soon as I take care some bugs."
They trusted me, so they didn't ask much more. They told me they'd tell everyone the news and then they left me to it. I made sure Kari was steady, as she seemed to take a moment to get used to her regrown leg. She also clenched and unclenched her regrown fingers on her new arm. She looked at me, eyes filled with wonder, and endless curiosity.
"Elias... how can you do all of this? Just who... or what are you?" She asked me, and her question caused me a to smirk just a bit.
"Just call me Eli, Kharie. That's who I am." I replied, before I turned around, and swept my gaze across the barren field at all of the spider creatures, "As for what... let me show you."
The fog had yet to fill back in, and whether it would or not, I didn't know. I had just wanted to kill the damn spider, and I threw a lot more power at it in that punch than I realized. In my anger, I had forgotten to even see what these things were, although I didn't need my skills to tell me something I already knew about them.
Corpse Spiders was what they were called, and they varied between Drones, Elites, and a Queen. Still, that one word told me what I already knew.
"A truly apt name." I said, gazing at their cold, undead forms.
"What is?" Kharie asked from behind me.
"You probably already guessed from the names, but these things aren't alive. Not truly, anyways. Undead or whatever you call them." I said, then I actually let out a small snort, "I was kidding about the whole zombie thing, but here we are."
These things were dark on the inside, but I was surprised to see... something there. Not a soul like I usually saw, but not the nothingness I expected from something that was dead, or undead? Other than that though, I couldn't feel much, and their hollow and black eyes also made it hard to make out anything, although if I looked close enough, I could see something. Didn't matter too much though, because they were all going to die. Or rather, die again?
"I thought the same thing... I've never been this deep into the Dead Lands. Usually it's just messed up looking and powerful creatures that seem to have been changed by this place's mana. I didn't expect to actually find undead, but then again... I didn't expect a lot of things that happened recently." Kharie said, her voice going quiet after she finished.
I decided to leave that be for now. I could still hear that guilt in her voice, but now wasn't the time to deal with that. I looked past all of the Drones and the Elites, and locked my gaze with the Queen. The Queen stared impassively at me, like it was observing. I wasn't sure if these things felt anything honestly, but after what they did to Kharie, I was going to do my damnedest to see if they could experience pain and fear in equal measure.
I aimed my hand at one of the Elites in the back, and shot a condensed ball of Abyssal energy at it. I wasn't in the mood for theatrics or a drawn out battle. These things might be strong, but I was still in a league of my own. The ball hit the creature in less time than it took to blink, and it's body suddenly exploded into disgusting body parts, large bug guts, and a fountain of blackened blood. I heard Kharie gasp behind me, and conversely, the other Elites, and the Queen especially, no longer simply stood by.
The Queen made a loud screeching hissing noise, and with that, several dozen drones began to skitter forward, with a few of the Elites following behind them.
"No." I said simply, and waved my hand.
Abyssal Fire followed in the wake of my gesture in a large wave, and engulfed all of the creatures before me in a large wave. A small, satisfied smile made its way onto my lips as I heard many of the spiders screech in obvious agony. Monsters or not, they hurt someone I was starting to care about, or maybe I already did. I wasn't sure if it was me or this world, but I found it easy to build connections in this world, and far faster than I ever would have back home. I truly believed it was my ability to see beyond the flesh, but there was more to it than that I was sure.
"How.... what...?" Kharie said from behind me, her voice a near whisper.
The flames died down, and where there were once close to 100 spider Drones and roughly 4 Elites, now there was nothing. There weren't even ashes left in their wake, their bodies having been unmade by my flames. Now all that remained were a couple dozen drones, a half dozen elites, and the Queen itself. The Queen's many eyes had bugged out, no pun intended, as it stared at where all of its spider lackies once were. Then it looked at me with its many eyes, and while I couldn't parse much, the small steps it took backwards was all the confirmation I needed to make me grin.
"That's right, bitch. Be afraid." I said, and then I took a single step forward, my boot digging into the ground and causing dirt to erupt upwards from the single action, "Kharie, I am going to show you what happens to anyone, or anything, that hurts those I care about."
I walked foward with powerful steps. At the same time, without even a gesture, I wrapped all of the remaining Drones in my Manipulation, and squeezed. All of the drones began screeching as their bodies quickly compressed, their heads and bodies rupturing into disgusting, bloody blackened chunks. I kept my eyes on the Queen as I did so, and watched its many eyes frantically dart around as its weaker servants, minions, or whatever they were to it, all died in the span of only a few short seconds.
The thing let out a hissing screech, seemingly filled with rage and fear, and with that, all 6 of the remaining Elites darted towards me. I quickly wrapped the Queen in my power, as I saw it trying to actually escape. I felt its fear through my power, and couldn't stop the grin that formed on my lips. Even monsters like this could be afraid. With that taken care of, I decided to take the rushing Elites head on, my senses also fully aware of Kharie's gaze fixed firmly on me. I did enjoy showing off from time to time, I'll admit that.
The first Elite, a quick one with a sleak and sharp angled body, reached me first. It raised its sharp front legs high above itself, and dropped them with a savage intensity, both legs aiming directly at my chest.
"ELIAS!" Kharie shouted from behind me, sounding a little panicked, and I did smile a bit at her concern.
She went very silent a moment later, as I had reached my own arms up, and casually caught the Elite's appendages with my bare hands, the sharp bladed legs not even coming close to being able to cut me.
"Relax, Kharie. I got this." I said, with the Elite struggling and snarling at me.
I had already covered my own body in a layer of my energy by this point, as I had noticed the odd way these creature's spit ate away at whatever it touched. That also had to be what happened to Kharie's leg. As if spiders couldn't be any worse, these ones had what amounted to acid spit, were living corpses, and were the size of small cars. Yeah, no. Fuck these things.
I ripped down, its arms tearing free from its body with a sickening crack from its outer shell, making the Elite screech in pain, before it was silenced by two of my bladed tendrils slamming into the sides of its head. Black blood gushed from the wounds as I ripped my tendrils out, and its body fell to the ground with a lifeless and heavy thud.
"Mine are better." I said, turning to face the remaining Elites.
They had all slowed, with 3 of them stopping completely as they seemed to actually think better of their orders given by their own Queen. Two of the bigger ones were still bounding towards me, although they had slowed down significantly as well. I looked down at the sharp spider legs still in my hand. A small grin tugged at my lips as I channeled my power into them to make them stronger and more durable than the currently were.
With that, I drew my right arm back, and threw the one in that hand at the closest Elite. The wind howled, a sharp crack echoing through the air as the spider leg flew at speeds only I could truly see. The leg hit the Elite, blew the left half of its body apart completely, and then keep flying. It looked to have hit the side of a small mountain off in the distance, and the boom that tore through the air even from the distance was impressive, with a cloud of dust and debris flying into the air that could be seen even from this distance. The ground trembled from the force of the impact. Kharie made a small choked noise behind me, and I had to hold back my snort of amusement. For now, anyways.
The Elite I struck fell to the ground, the other half of its body twitching and spasming wildly as buckets of blood sprayed from its body, with bits of meat and organs sliding out of it's exposed insides and smacking against the ground. That was pretty nasty, I won't lie, but it was also satisfying. At the same time, the second Elite, seemingly obvious to the other's fate, drew closer, and I just stood there with a grin on my face as I waited for it to arrive.
When it finally reached me, it lowered its head, and opened its big mandibles wide as it seemingly aimed to bite me in half. I raised the bladed leg and met it head on as I slashed downwards. The creature didn't even know what happened as it died, the sword traveling through its head right down the middle. Not only that, but the strength of the swing was so strong, that the force went beyond the blade, a cutting edge tearing through the air, the attack whistling as the rest of its body was cut in half down the middle, and going even further beyond that.
Luckily for me, but unlucky for it, one of the Elites further back was caught by the shockwave of the slash, and it cut its body in half as well, although not as cleanly down the middle as the first one. I know it was just because I was nuts power wise, but I actually looked at the spider's leg in my hand with appreciation. It held up well, and the color of the outer shell of the thing's natural defense was a very dark and appealing shade of black to my eyes.
"Nice."
I looked up to see the remaining two Elites frozen in place, seeming very unwilling to follow through with whatever orders they had been given through their weird hissing language. I didn't speak zombie spider, so I hadn't a damn clue. I then looked back at the Queen, still immobilized by my power, it's many eyes comically wide for such a admittedly hideous creature. I could feel it trying to move, attempting to escape, but it was literally no use. I barely had to even focus on it to keep it in place, my power that much greater than its own.
"I don't... believe any of this..." Kharie mumbled from behind me, her voice filled with shock and said disbelief.
It didn't need to be said that she had to believe it, but I could understand her shock. That seemed to happen a lot around me these days. It was also at that point that the two remaining Elites decided that their best bet was to both attack me at once. I was waiting for them at any rate. They both lumbered forward together, their large limbs creating holes in the ground, kicking up dead soil in their wake.
At the same time, both of them launched a stream of their disgusting spit at me. I dodged to the side, not because I was worried about it harming me, but because I didn't want that nasty shit anywhere close to me, even with my power surrounding my body. I wasn't really keen on bug fluids, weirdly enough.
Either not discouraged, or just mindless beasts, they kept charging forward. One now went far to my right, while the other mirrored the movement on my left. They came at me from both sides, however this time Kharie was silent as this happened, seemingly already deciding the outcome given what she had seen so far. I wouldn't disappoint her.
They lowered their heads, their mandibles opening wide as they both seemed to throw the other's safety out the window, provided that they had it before that is. Kharie actually did make a noise this time, as a little yelp escaped her throat, probably not expecting the pincer attack on me. I just smiled, and extended both of my arms. When their heads met my palms, they stopped on a dime, their bodies trembling with useless effort as they tried to push forward. At the same time, their mandibles closed around my body, but when they met the invisible layer of power over my body, not only did their mandibles do nothing, but they actually cracked, with the one on my left having one of them break off entirely and fall to the ground in a jagged piece.
"I know you creatures probably can't understand me," I said, mostly speaking to myself and Kharie, my voice carrying to her easily, "This is what it's like to be played with. This is your game, only this time, you're the ones that lost."
With that, I sent fire out of my palms to engulf both creatures entirely in Abyssal Fire. The creatures screeched for only a moment, my burning hot rage seemingly transferred into my own fire, causing them to burn to nothingness quite fast. And just like that, my palms held nothing in them, and I dropped my hands back to my sides as the fire died, and sure enough, no trace of them remained.
I wasn't completely stupid, and made sure to leave some bodies around. There were a few of the Elites, as well as a bunch of the drones that Kharie had killed. I was gonna put them in my storage, along with the Queen once I was done with it. That being said, it wasn't going anywhere, and I wanted to see if I could gleam anything from this creature before I killed it.
So, with everything in the immediate vicinity dead besides the Queen, I began to walk forward, meeting it's many eyes with mine. It flinched, and the reaction was enough for me to almost take pity on it. It was very clear from what I heard from Martin, and what I seen and felt around this place, that nothing about this was natural. Whatever that King did to this place, Gremorious I believe his name was, he had well and truly fucked this place up. That wasn't this creature's fault, whether it had killed this creature, or the mana itself changed what it originally was, I didn't believe that thos creature was to blame for that. However, what it was to blame for, was trying to kill Kharie.
I now stood in front of the spider. I used 4 tendrils, almost in an imitation of the creature before me, and rose up to its height so we were now face to face. It was truly a nasty creature, although again, it's carapace with its midnight black sheen was very nice looking. I wondered if armor could be made with it, which was one reason not to completely destroy this thing completely.
I studied it for a while, using my perception and eyesight to the best of my ability, but I couldn't really gleam any more from it. Another reason to not destroy the body, as maybe someone knew what this was, or could figure out more than I could. I didn't know everything, but maybe someone like Martin would know more. All that being said, my anger at this thing was still present, and my aura flared as I used my Manipulation to shape a dark longsword in my hand.
"You picked the wrong target today." I said, and with one quick slash, I separated the Queen's head from its shoulders, the flesh and carapace parting like butter.
I stared at the Queen for a while as it's body twitched and fell to the ground, going still after roughly 30 seconds. I lowered myself to the ground, and focused back on Kharie, who was still my number one priority currently. I walked back over to the wide eyed and still form of Kharie, who stared at me with a mix of awe, and understandably... some fear, which did hurt a little even if I didn't blame her.
"Are you okay, Kharie?" I asked as I neared her.
She just stared at me, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly. I stopped a few feet away from her, and gave her space. I didn't want her to be afraid of me, so I just gave her time while she worked through what was going through her mind. After about a full minute of me waiting patiently in front of her while she collected herself, she finally spoke.
"What... what in the hells are you?"