The One Unworthy of Legends - V:1.1 - Maria's Ascension

~ Chapter 14 ~ A Dance With Death

Skarlet chanted a fireball spell before setting the room ablaze. She got down on her knees and laid her hands in prayer.
"May you rest in peace." She prayed as the bodies burned before getting to her feet and stepping back into the crossroads area. The fire behind her made the small flame in her hand practically useless. To the left there was a broken wooden door that hung off its hinges, to the right was open. she then decided to go right. With her flame still held up like a torch she stepped into an open cavern-like room with pillars holding up the ceiling. It was dark even with the light from her fire magic, she chanted quickly before tossing an array of fireballs into the area lighting up a majority of the room. That's when the dread set in, she was surrounded by thousands of spiders about the size of herself while a massive spider was crouched at the far end of the room. As she lit up the area, the Lord spider made a loud screeching sound, like it was roaring at her.

Skarlet readied herself as the spiders all attacked at once, adrenaline exploded and she reveled in that feeling.

Skarlet immediately swung her sword while beginning an incantation, she sliced through the two in front and with a follow through swing and letting go with one hand she finished by cutting the spider behind her in two.

Skarlet then swung around her hand while releasing mana in the form of fire without condensing it into a shape. Like a medieval flame thrower, she cast a three hundred and sixty degree fire ring that spread outwards. A bead of sweat dripped down her forehead as she watched the spider's flee from the flames giving her space.

A sizzling sound caught her attention, glancing at the ground she noticed that a greenish blood was pooling out from the spider she'd cut in half. Steam was rising from that blood and it bubbled. Acid, wait some of these spiders are evolved? Shit, I'll have to be careful not to get hit with that.

Skarlet frowned as she pulled her sword into a readied stance, casting another fireball she held it in her hand. She used the fire to keep the spiders from all rushing at once. They approached cautiously, closing the space around her.

Skarlet's senses reacted and she swung her sword just as a larger spider leaped at her from behind. She sidestepped and cut it in half, watching at the green blood splashed a group of spiders and filled the air with chittering and screeching sounds as they received injuries from the acid. A few were hit in critical spots and died.

The leaping of the larger spider sparked something in the others as several smaller spiders leaped at her at its lead. Skarlet didn't stop moving upon her slash and spun on her heel to cut down one of the smaller spiders leaping at her from a different direction. Though she managed to cut one down and deflect the other, a third sunk it's teeth into her arm before she brought the flame around and burned through its face. Skarlet winced as it fell to the ground and curled up.

The wound stung and throbbed, she groaned as her sword arm was a bit unsteady. Venom, of course. Skarlet frowned as she waved the fire around to push them back once more. She was in a predicament, she could dual cast, however she'd need to drop her sword for that. To cast a healing spell she'd need an open hand. She was using one for combat and the other for the flame. And dropping either would get her killed.

Skarlet continued to deal with the constant attacking as it slowly wore her down, but all the while she was slowly pushing herself towards the entrance. She'd racked up bites on her arms from the occasional group attacks. Her vision and body cognition was getting worse, and due to that her injuries only continued to rack up.

Suddenly a new attack came her way, it was a spiderweb, it grabbed her leg and yanked. Skarlet instantly lost her balance, a second spider leaped from behind and she struggled to avoid it. Pain ripped through her as teeth sunk into her neck, she could feel the venom pouring in. The flame exploded as her mana concentration failed and granted her burns on her hand and up her arm. Skarlet scrambled for her knife before stabbing it into the spiders face.