Rogan's Monsters 2: Below, page 5
We kept walking, our way lit by Ash’s torch and Gamma’s glowing stone, my own sight supplemented by my AC lens. The luminescent plants were almost non-existent by now, and the only things on the floor of the cave were an increasing number of skeletal remains.
Neither I nor Ash chose to acknowledge them.
I heard uncomfortable noises from Zera and Gamma as they picked their way through behind us, but nothing again from Camille.
And then, suddenly it seemed we were through the worst of it. The passageway started to broaden, to open up. It was almost with a sense of relief that Ash and I found ourselves in another large chamber.
But that relief soon faded.
It was like a graveyard. A broad, open expanse filled with the bones of the dead, and while there were fewer sticky webs, there were more of the cables.
By unspoken mutual consent, neither Ash nor I waded out into the graveyard. Instead, the muscular woman held her torch high as if trying to see the other side of the cavern. For that, I had better luck with my AC lens. But all I saw was a ceiling shrouded in webs and crisscrossed with cables, and numerous other exits from the cavern.
Unlike the previous cavern where there were only two options for moving forward, in this one, there were many. Dozens, even. It was like we were at a central junction from where we could choose any direction. Nor were the other tunnels set on a single plane. There were holes in the ceiling, on each wall, and even a few on the floor.
Ominously, all of the holes were of roughly the same shape and size, and all of them were strung with those web cables.
But as of that moment, we were alone.
“What is it?” Camille hissed from behind. “What do you see?”
“Nothing,” I admitted. “But stay wary.”
With that, I led the way. “Lady Gamma, there are multiple exits. Which way should we go?”
At this, Camille made a rude noise but didn’t say anything. I wasn’t looking at the painted princess, so I couldn’t see her expression, but I sensed her uncertainty.
“I… I’m not sure,” she said.
I didn’t want to be in that graveyard any longer than I had to be. “Pick a direction,” I said.
“It is not your place to tell me what to do–” Gamma began, but I cut her off.
“Lady Gamma, forgive my bluntness,” I said while scanning the cavern. “I believe there is danger here, and I would strongly prefer to be elsewhere if and when it chooses to manifest. With this in mind, I want to get out of here as quickly as we can. If you’re unwilling to choose a direction, then I will. Yet this is your quest. If you have a preference, then by all means, let us know what it is.”
I was almost certain that something was out there, something large and scary. I could sense it in the way the cave breathed. It was like there was something in one of the tunnels pushing a small mountain of air in front of it.
And it was heading this way.
But when I glanced at Gamma, I knew she was still caught in a moment of indecision. Not just about which direction to go, but whether or not to scold me for my insolence.
I breathed a sigh.
“This way,” I decided at random. Or, maybe not exactly. Whatever was coming our way seemed to be in one of the tunnels to the left, and I had chosen to go right.
But Gamma apparently didn’t like to have her authority usurped. “No. We go straight,” she said, indicating one of the farthest exits.
I nodded, accepting her will, thankful that at least she hadn’t chosen one of the tunnels to the left.
“Okay then. The floor is covered in bones,” I said for those who couldn’t see clearly. “Watch your step.”
“Bones?” Zera asked, her voice sounding small. “Bones of what?”
“Do you really want to find out?” I asked.
Zera didn’t answer right away. But then, in just as small a voice as before, she said, “I guess not.”
We had made it halfway across, to almost the center of the cavern, when the monster appeared from one of the tunnels to the left, as I had predicted.
It was huge. A pale creature made of legs, pincers, and an unholy alliance of parts, and my AC lens told me more about it than I ever wanted to know.
12
Class: Spider hybrid
Dominant DNA: Spider (71%)
Additional DNA: Scorpion, Hippopotamus, Goblin, Snake, Octopus, + assorted others (29%)
Height: >10’6”
Weight: 387 pounds
Level: VII
Level VII hybrid animals can be very dangerous, showing high degrees of strength, speed, stamina, etc…
Armor: Natural Chitin
Weapon: Venomous fangs
Capability: Sticky exudate production
In essence, it was a ten-foot-tall monster on multiple legs, the scariest, many-eyed mishmash of nightmare fuel I had ever seen in my life.
For just a moment, the nightmare creature stared at us as if it couldn’t believe we had intruded on its territory.
Or perhaps, I hoped, the light from Ash’s torch hurt its multiple eyes.
Either way, it made a high-pitched chattering noise that reminded me of a parrot screech, then lunged before I could so much as blink. With impossible speed, it pounced onto Zera, shoving the butterfly girl to the ground and using its back legs to draw out ropes of sticky web from its ass.
Zera screamed. In an instant, she was coated in a layer of sticky web, and more was coming her way. But by then, I was already moving.
If I’d had my large blade, I would have launched into a spinning attack and sliced through the beast’s legs. Part of me wanted to take the time to convert my blades back even though I knew the process would be too slow. Instead, I found myself operating according to the Path of the Fist, merging that with the Divine Steps that were part of me in a way that seemed wholly natural, as if I’d been using the techniques for all of my life.
My first attack was straight out of my spinning blade repertoire. I launched a spinning backhand at the nearest of the monster’s legs, cutting through the chitinous exoskeleton enough that pale ichor erupted. Then I kept spinning, aiming for another leg, and another, trying my best to cripple the beast.
But it was too strong, too fast, and my attacks weren’t enough. It uttered another of its parrot screeches and danced out of the way, and I thought that at least I had distracted it from Zera.
“Soul Blade,” I thought. “Powered by chi.”
Then Ash was there, swinging her club at the beast’s face.
She was big, strong, and fast, but the monster was bigger, stronger and faster. It didn’t like having fire shoved in its face, so it launched itself at Ash in an offensive move, driving her to the ground and quickly covering her with silk stickiness as well.
“Fuck,” I said. Then I took half a moment to hone the blades on my arms with my chi, and had another go at one of its legs.
At least, I thought grimly, the monster’s method of catching its prey was to tie them up first, rather than to sink its fangs into flesh. Yet I knew that such was Zera and Ash’s fate if I couldn’t stop this monster in its tracks.
With that thought in mind, I redoubled my efforts, and soon enough I had shorn away two of its legs. The monster had turned its attention toward me and snipped at me with its pincers, but I slipped beneath its maw and hurled myself into a roll to come up beneath it. From there, I gritted my teeth, steeled myself, and then launched high, slashing at the monster’s belly with my blades.
The demon-spider-scorpion thing uttered another shriek as buckets of ooze splashed down around me. It was disgusting and gave off an odor that was repulsive on a whole new level.
But I was pretty certain I had dealt the thing a mortal wound, even if it might take a while for the creature to die.
So I hacked away at two more of its legs, and when it finally collapsed, I climbed up onto its back and punched my blades into the back of its head, again and again until it stopped shrieking.
Finally, when it was merely quivering in place, I climbed off. Then I turned toward Ash and Zera, both of whom were struggling against the sticky silk they were wrapped in.
“Rogan!” Camille shouted. “Look out!”
I dropped into a fighting stance and turned swiftly, but not swiftly enough. There was another monster. It had climbed out of the passageways to the right, the ones I would have led everyone to if Gamma hadn’t chosen another direction.
It was even bigger than the first one, and it employed exactly the same tactics as the smaller one had done. Only this time, its target was me.
It pounced on me, driving me to the ground before I could move, and very quickly started to cover me with the stickiest substance I’d ever felt. And it was strong. I quickly found my arms trapped to my sides.
I looked up at the monster, and my AC lens helpfully gave a breakdown, confirming that it was the same general species as the thing I had killed, if a bit bigger.
I was caught, as were Ash and Zera. Only Gamma and Camille remained free, and I yelled at them to get away.
The monster kept ladling more and more stickiness onto me, and I twisted my head to avoid getting it on my face. I figured that breathing through a mouthful of that would not be good for my health, and noticed that Camille and Gamma had completely failed to follow my instructions.
“Fuck!” I yelled. Soon, I was wrapped completely in the webbing, like a sticky, silk burrito ready for eating.
Ash and Zera were still struggling against their prisons, and I knew that if Ash lacked the strength to break free, then I probably did as well. But I had something neither of them had.
I had my blades.
There was no way this mutated alien spider silk shit could stand up to them. All I needed to do was move!
So I did. Shrugging my shoulders for all I was worth, moving my blades against the webbing a little at first, then more and more as they started to give way. Camille had managed to find Ash’s torch and was distracting the monster above me with its flames. And as for Gamma, if I’d hoped she might find something useful to do—perhaps conjure another explosive potion from her wagon like she had done in the Wastes—then I was sadly disappointed.
Instead, she was cowering in place, together with her chittering monkey. She hadn’t run, hadn’t followed my command, but at the same time, she wasn’t doing anything helpful.
And that made me angrier still. With a snarl of pure fury, I writhed about on that pile of bones, using all of the strength I possessed. And, just like that, my arms were free. I wrenched myself up into a sitting position and used my blades to cut my legs free.
By then, Camille had drawn the larger spider creature a little away from me, but she was in danger, too. The creature was lining itself up for another attack, and this time Camille would be the target.
“No,” I said, acknowledging to myself that it was Gamma’s favorite word. But I didn’t care about that. Zera and Ash were still struggling, I had been bested, and now Camille was next.
Unless I did something about it.
With no time for thought, no time to spare at all, I launched myself at the monster from behind. I don’t know what series of steps I used, but they were effective. I found myself riding high on the monster’s back, digging the tips of my blades into it from both sides, punching my way through its thick carapace with venom and malice.
The spider creature didn’t like it one bit. It started to shake and hurl itself about, desperate to dislodge me. I knew that it was more than just a bug, that it was more than a collection of responses to different stimuli.
These creatures could think. They had brains, and could reason.
And the one I was riding knew I was a threat.
It flung itself about like the mother of all mechanical bulls, desperate to buck me right off. I hung on grimly, knowing I had to kill it, but not certain how.
I began to fear for the lives of my companions all over again. This monster could accidentally crush one and all, and there would be nothing I could do to prevent it.
But then I realized what I needed to do.
I poured more of my chi into my blades, and willed them to change.
Perhaps I used more chi than I had last time. Perhaps the blades sensed my urgency. Or perhaps it was no more than my intent driving the change.
Either way, this time, it was much quicker. The blades on my arms turned to liquid. I feared for one moment that I would lose my hold, but it was as if the blades understood the risk and kept me in place.
In the space of no more than three heartbeats, the arm blades turned into something else.
I couldn’t name them. But they were long, sharp, and still connected to my wrists. Now, however, they were thicker, twin swords connected to the tops of my arms rather than the sides.
The blades were thick and powerful, two shining lengths of sharpened steel that speared into the flesh of the beast.
It screamed so loudly I feared the cavern would collapse. And still it didn’t go down. Not right away.
I could have withdrawn my blades and plunged into the creature again, but instead, I threw my bodyweight this way and that, changing the angle of the blades, slicing through its flesh from the inside.
Finally, the hideous spider monster collapsed with me on top of it. But it wasn’t quite dead. It had enough strength to give another of its parrot-like shrieks, although this time it seemed to be filled with despair more than rage.
It was dying, and there was nothing it could do to prevent it.
I didn’t care. Grimly, I kept working my blades, slicing up its innards as much as I could, determined to finish the creature once and for all.
The spider creature put in one more effort and tried to stand, but it could not. The massive creature uttered a final wailing cry, then shuddered and was still.
No matter how tough or how powerful it was, no creature could withstand the damage I was doing to it. It was dead.
13
And yet, my anger remained. I wanted to slice the monstrous spider up into steaks, wanted to carve it into dozens of smaller pieces. This creature and its smaller companion had nearly got the better of all of us. Even now, Ash and Zera still lay on the bed of bones, struggling against the web in which they were caught.
The sight did nothing to still my temper, and I wanted nothing more than to go to them, to cut them free.
But where there were two gigantic spider-like creatures, there could be more. The tunnel system through which we were traveling was huge. A hundred such creatures could be hidden somewhere within its caverns.
I would have liked to track them all down and gut them, slicing them apart with my blades. But doing so was not we had entered the tunnels.
We were on a quest to reach the temple. That was it. Not some mad quest for destruction. So instead of hunting through the tunnels for the spider creature’s siblings or offspring, I did the only thing that I could.
This cavern, this graveyard, seemed to be a central hub, a place that connected disparate parts of the cave system. The spider hybrids had spun their webs throughout and had covered the ceiling with cables. From where I stood, I could see those cables and webs leading into many of the tunnels that pockmarked the walls and ceiling.
I had no way to be sure, but I figured that the cables served some sort of purpose. Perhaps, like a normal spider’s web, these spider creatures could tell if some prey creature stumbled into its domain. Or perhaps they used the cables to navigate through the tunnels.
Ash’s club was still burning. Even then, Camille stood with it grasped in her hands, panting hard as she glared at the gigantic creature I had killed. That torch had served Ash well in the smaller tunnel through which we had arrived. But this cavern was far too big and the ceiling too high for the torch to be effective on the webbing above.
So I withdrew my blades from the corpse of the spider and raised them up over my head, crossing them near the tips. With a cry of anger, I sent a controlled surge of chi through the blades, directing it at the webbing above.
For the briefest of moments, I was a beacon of power, sending a beam of pure fire up to the heavens.
And it worked. My burst of chi burned like fire, igniting the webbing above and burning it away, following the thickest cables and puffs of sticky webbing into every nook and cranny, and even out through the tunnels.
For the briefest of moments, even after my initial surge of chi, the cavern was as light as day, courtesy of the burning webs. Then it seemed that the walls themselves absorbed part of my power, that it that the cavern itself accepted my chi as if it were a gift.
Finally, with motes of spiderweb ash starting to drift down, the light once again faded until Ash’s club and Gamma’s treated stone were the only sources of light.
Except for my blades. They had retained part of the glow and shone dimly in the darkness. I knew without even thinking that as they were, they were too long and cumbersome to be of practical use. So I willed them to change once again, but not back into the arm blades I had selected before.
For the third time, the metal of my blades turned into liquid, the blades themselves shrinking down to a more useful size. When they were done, I had a pair of short swords, one on the back of each wrist, that I could hide or reveal as need demanded.
When the change was complete, I slid each blade into place inside my voluminous sleeves. It was easy. The blades seemed to respond to my will, without the need for any mechanical assistance.
Only then did I dismount from the corpse of the spider creature and move to help Ash and Zera free.
Ash was her usual taciturn self. As soon as she was able, she sat up and started pulling the webbing away from her legs.
“See to Zera,” she said, and I did as she suggested.
The only reason I hadn’t gone to the butterfly girl first was that Ash had been closer. But as I approached, I realized I should have seen to her first. The poor butterfly woman was sobbing quietly as she struggled against the web that bound her.
“It’s okay,” I said, doing my best to soothe her. “I’m here. We’ll get you out of this mess.”
