Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Spiders nest

Moving forward was tedious. It was necessary to wait again and again for spiderwebs to burn enough to go through. And, what was worse, the lamp was often caught in them. It was at those moments when the spiders appeared, alerted that a prey had been trapped. It didn't matter it was just a shinning object.

The best thing was that spiders focused on their strange prey, and momentarily ignored the high human, which gave him the opportunity to attack by surprise. The Burning Blast was very useful, especially affecting the webs on which those arachnids were walking, often causing them to fall to the floor where several Burning Walls were waiting for them.

Abyss was also useful for not letting them escape, or attracting them to the Walls, in addition to the fact that the spears he had prepared were very effective. Even those that were at 57, two levels higher than Eldi's, didn't become a big problem.

It would have been dangerous if they had collaborated and attacked him all at once, but they didn't see him as a threat until it was too late, just as a prey for which they all were competing. But it was very different when he entered a passage that was a dead end.

There, in the end, there were huge eggs protected by thick sacks made of that hard threads. And, as soon as he entered and saw them, a large number of spiders appeared, surrounding him. They were there protecting the eggs, not hunting. At that time, he wasn't only the intruder they had to kill, but a welcomed extra meal. Therefore, they immediately blocked the entrance with spiderwebs, preventing him from escaping.

The first thing he did was casting a Burning Ring. It was far from enough to defend against enemies coming from the walls and ceiling, but at least it could create some problems. The next thing was the spell Air Conditioning. He then created a Rock Wall and leaned his back on it, dropping the axe on the ground and pulling out a spear. As expected, a rain of poison fell on him, so he used Mill to repel it.

Lion's Roar had no effect on those arachnids, perhaps because of their different auditory system, perhaps because fear works differently in them. They were keeping the distance, and the first Javelin was dodged by its objective. He tried to approach them, but they climbed on their webs to the ceiling, and attacked him with poison from range, in addition to filling the space with the sticky threads.

He had to bring them down, so he approached an egg sack. Immediately, three of them rushed towards him, suffering two consecutive Burning Blasts, an Abyss and a Shred. But he couldn't continue his attacks, because he had to dodge the poison that the other five threw at him.

Thanks to Feline Response, he not only left behind the poison, but placed himself under one of the spiders, inside a hole he had created with Mole's Power. From there and with a spear, he pierced the already injured spider with Perforating Impact.

"I should've thought of it," he complained to himself.

As it had happened with the dungeon spiders, he ended up covered in the blood and entrails of the arachnid. Despite this, despite the feeling of claustrophobia and the unbearable stench, he waited a while to get out of there, while recovering some energy and mana. Only when the other spiders moved out the body of their partner, did he use Kangaroo Power to escape, falling on them with Earthquake and another Fire Explosion.

One was dead and two were badly injured. He decided to kill these as quickly as he could, using Decapitate with one of them, and two Double Edge on the other one, followed by a new Decapitate. Both spiders had tried to defend themselves and had caused some injuries to Eldi, but, with his protections and how weakened his enemies were, they caused no more than a few scratches, so it was enough with Regenerate.

The worst news were that the other spiders hadn't been still. Taking advantage of the relatively static position of the intruder while finishing off their companions, they had managed to hit him with their poison. It burned, so he quickly used Cure Poison to counteract it. But, although he managed to heal himself, the poison was still on him, so it re-filtered through his skin.

He used an Earthen Wall to protect himself for a few seconds while he took out a cloth and water to clean himself. He had to take off his armor to achieve it, and wear it back. Now, it was clean and shiny again, unlike him, covered in dust and spider guts. Although, looking at it on the positive side, those disgusting fluids had partly stopped the poison.

It wasn't long before the guardians of the place could aim at him again, forcing him to move. As he did so, he realized that they seemed to move somewhat slower, which meant that the cold from Air Conditioning was affecting them, which justified having depleted his mana reserves to invoke it. Due to the high expense of mana, he had taken a potion and was trying to delay the fight, although, unfortunately, it wasn't easy, since neither holes nor walls can't help too much when your enemies walk on the ceiling. In fact, those which hadn't done so were dead.

This time, it didn't work to try to attract them with the eggs, even when he crushed one of them, so he decided to try Almost Thor. He created a new Earthen Wall and, when the first one approached, he jumped over the wall and used the skill.

It hit the spider's body. Then, he dropped the hammer and took out the spear just after, while launching a new Burning Blast. He used Javelin while falling, being Projectiles against me? enough to protect him from the two poisons that got him right, so he renewed it immediately. He also needed Balance to get back on his feet after returning to the ground, as he wasn't as agile as Gjaki.

He took out the axe while his assistant was retrieving the hammer, in a scene that, despite having seen it several times, he still found it incredible. It was shocking to see the little fairy carrying that huge and heavy weapon.

Seriously injured, the spider fell, being pierced by the spear even deeper when it collided to the ground. Protected behind a new Earthen Wall, Eldi hastened to finish it off with several Double Edges and a Decapitate.

He had got rid of half of them, but he also had less than half of his mana left.