Adel.
Relief surged through him, and for a moment he even managed to let the corners of his mouth curl into a weak smile. He remembered that last desperate moment before he had been completely wrapped in silk, the way he had yelled for her to run. She had listened, or so he thought. But as her face became clearer through the dim light, that relief twisted into shock.
She had not run. She had waited.
'Thank God...'
She must have been hiding, buying time for her Vyre core to replenish. But that meant something far worse, she did not know. She did not know the massive spider was lying in wait within the false tunnel mouth, its dark shape pressed into the shadows.
Panic crashed into him. He tried to move, to wrench his body forward, to shout a warning, but the sticky webbing clung to him like iron chains. Only muffled, useless noises came from his throat.
Adel's gaze swept over him. Calmly, she brought a finger to her lips.
Silence.
And then, without a word, she dissolved into a faint trail of purple mist that swirled briefly in the air before vanishing entirely.
Gray strained against his bonds. Lira's voice cut through the tension.
"What happened? What did she do?"
He could not explain. His body jerked and twisted as he flailed in frustration, his mouth still gagged by the sticky fibers.
Lira's eyes narrowed. She turned her gaze toward the deeper tunnel, her expression uncertain. "Where could she have gone? I hope she is not doing something reckless. She better have listened unlike you."
Gray's eyebrow twitched. She was right. Adel was here, hidden in the mist, only steps away. Yet he could not say it. The helplessness clawed at his insides.
Lira looked back at him, then toward the dark tunnel once more. "Why would the monster keep us alive this long? I thought… it was for food." Her voice faltered.
Gray remembered his own words from before, how he had told her the truth about these creatures. They did not feed constantly. They could die of hunger and yet still reproduce.
'Ahh shit.' His mind clicked.
Her eyes widened as the pieces fell into place. "No… Gray… we are not food for now. We are food for something else. For that..." She swallowed hard and brought her gaze to the middle of the chamber. Where a massive cocoon lay dormant, as if sleeping.
"It needs Vyre… and we are full of it."
A cold dread settled into Gray's chest. He thrashed harder against the silk, the thought of being nothing more than stored energy for a monstrous successor clawing at his mind.
'That's why the webs drain our Vyre... it wants us to be alive so it can continue to suck it out of us...slowly.'
His pulse quickened, yet he forced himself to remain calm.
That was when he felt it.
A faint tug.
Like the delicate pull of a knife through fabric, the fibers binding him began to loosen in tiny increments.
He craned his neck upward and froze.
There, only barely visible, was a thin, almost transparent shape, the outline of a human cloaked in vapor. The purple mist clung to her like a veil.
Adel.
She was cutting him free.
Hope flared inside him. His mind began to race through the possibilities. If she could free him quickly enough, if they could move before the spider noticed… they might actually escape.
The thought barely had time to form before a deep, resonating noise echoed from the tunnel ahead.
A blur of motion.
Something shot past Gray with blinding speed. It should have slammed into the wall, but instead it struck Adel mid-movement. The sound it made was not a solid impact, but a wet, sizzling one.
She gasped, her form shuddering.
Clinging desperately to the wall, Adel made a sound Gray had never heard from her before, a strangled noise of pure pain.
The truth hit him like a hammer.
Acidic saliva.
'What else does this bastard have? Guns?'
The mist veil broke apart, dissipating into the air and revealing her figure. A glowing, corrosive substance clung to her chestplate, eating through the metal in slow, smoking lines.
Gray felt something wet drip onto his shoulder. He looked and saw the same acid burning straight through the padding, blistering the skin beneath. He bit down hard on the pain as the liquid hissed, the heat of it biting into his flesh.
The damage to the webbing near his shoulder was immediate. Fibers shriveled and snapped, leaving one arm slightly looser. Adel, despite her agony, continued cutting near his neck and head, strands of web curling away under her knife.
She glanced down at the hole in her armor. The acid had nearly breached the last layer. Her eyes hardened.
"Even if I die here," she growled, "I am sending this bastard straight to hell."
Lira's head whipped toward her. "Adel! Run! Hide! Forget about us. We were never close. Not even friends."
Adel snorted without looking back. "And where would I run to? I am done running." Her voice was flat, final.
Gray felt something twist inside him. He did not know why Lira's words stung, but they did. Still, there was no time to dwell on it.
The spider emerged.
And Adel did not hesitate.
The moment the spider's hulking frame shifted into view, she pushed herself off the wall, her body wreathed in faint wisps of fading mist. Her boots struck the uneven stone, and in one smooth motion, she bounded forward. A short blade glinted faintly in her hand, the edge already lined with a thin layer of Vyre.
The spider lunged, its eight legs scraping along the walls, churning up dust and sending tremors through the web-laden cavern. Adel darted low, feeling the rush of air as one jagged limb slashed just above her head. Her blade flashed upward, catching the leg's chitin, but the strike bounced off with a hollow, dull clack. Not even a scratch.
She gritted her teeth, using the rebound to propel herself forward, sliding between the creature's legs. The air here was thick with the smell of rot, and the faint sound of wet clicking followed her. She emerged behind it, twisting her body into a leap, landing lightly on its rear carapace. Her knife plunged down.
Thunk.
The chitin did not yield. It was like trying to stab a slab of iron. She pushed harder, but the blade simply skittered off, leaving nothing more than a faint scuff mark.
The spider reacted instantly, its legs curling inward in a defensive sweep. Adel rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding being crushed, and sprang back to her feet. She kept moving, bouncing from wall to wall, stabbing whenever she could find an opening, joints, gaps in the armor, anything that looked like a weak point. But each blow was met with the same stubborn resistance. Her breath grew heavier. The mist trailing behind her thinned with every exertion.
The monster seemed to realize she could not harm it. Its attacks shifted from wild lunges to precise, calculated swipes, cutting off her movement paths. She tried to get higher, using the webs and jagged stone as footholds, but a leg slammed into the wall just above her, shaking the entire surface. A second leg swiped at her mid-jump, forcing her to twist midair and land awkwardly.
Her boots skidded on the sticky floor. The spider surged forward, trying to pin her against the wall. She dodged left, but its fangs snapped at her, the stench of venom filling the air. She struck at one fang in desperation, the blade sparked and slid away harmlessly.
Her pulse thundered. She could feel her movements slowing, her muscles screaming from constant exertion. Still, she did not glance toward Gray. She refused to let herself seem like she needed help.
Another lunge came, too close this time. She dropped into a crouch, the fangs whistling just above her head. The spider's leg followed immediately, sweeping toward her in a blur. She knew she could not fully dodge.
Just before the limb connected, a loud tearing sound broke through the chaos. Web strands snapped violently. Gray's arm shoved through the cocoon restraining him, the skin raw and bleeding where the bindings had bitten in. His voice tore across the cavern, raw with urgency.
"Hit the sacs! On its back! Now!"
Her eyes flicked up, catching sight of the faint bulges at the rear of the spider's carapace. She lunged, slashing at the closest one, and this time, her blade sank in cleanly, spilling thick, yellow-green fluid. The sac tore open under her weight, dangling loosely before ripping free entirely.
The monster staggered back, screaming so loud it rattled everyone's bones in the room. Some cocoons on the ceiling even fell.
Adel smiled slightly.
'I knew it! I can drag you to hell with me!'
But the joy and success only lasted a moment.
The creature's movements suddenly became wild, its attacks doubling in speed. Adel barely dodged the first strike, stumbled on the second, and took a glancing blow from the third that sent her skidding across the ground.
'Shit! What the fuck is wrong with this thing!' She nearly hissed the words out.
Lira's expression shattered, she almost had found herself smiling earlier. But the feeling was entirely gone. What was left was fear.
Even Gray realised something had gone really wrong had happened.
"Adel! You need to run! Now!" He didn't hesitate to shout, at the rate it was going. She would almost certainly die.
Adel continued to skim past the attacks.
She tried to fill the air with mist to blind it, but the acid still sizzling in her armor had drained her focus. The mist came out from all the tunnels surrounding the chamber. Purple mist flowed in like water. Drowning the entire chamber in it.
But just then—
SMASH!
A limb stabbed through the mist and caught her square in the chest. She flew backward and smashed into the stone wall, the sound echoing with a sickening finality.
Blood streamed from her mouth, nose, and ears. Her body slumped, motionless except for shallow breaths.
The mist surrounding her and yhe chamber dispersed instantly, revealing a harrowing image.
Adel tried to move but found her limbs unresponsive. Her ears ringed and every part of her body stung.
'That—how...how did he see me?' She struggled to think straight. Her thoughts barely forming before dissolving.
She weakly looked up.
The spider's eyes locked on her defensless form. It raised a leg high, ready to end her.
"No!" Gray roared, his voice tearing through the chamber. "Look at me! Come here!"
Every one of the creature's eyes turned toward him.
They all focused.
And they did not look away.
Gray had managed to free himself. But was too late to free Adel.
He ripped the webbing from his sheath and pulled out his sword. Vyre shot through his weak body.
He pointed the sword at the monster.
"That's right... come and get me."