Now that the spiders were marching towards my dungeon, I called back my minicugas. I didn't want to lose them without fulfilling any purpose, it was better they supported my forces in the defense. I patiently waited for the spiders' forces to arrive at my doorstep.
But I didn't waste my time doing nothing. I saved up on mana and prepared my forces for the enemy's arrival. The spiders found my tunnels about two weeks later, though I immediately eradicated the scout.
Now that the enemy knew about my position they were quick to arrive. I could feel their hairy feet trample the ground outside my domain. Small and large creatures of all evolution steps were fleeing the Horde. While the spiders just continued their relentless charge, careless about anything else.
Once the Horde touched down onto my domain, the war had begun. The smallest spiders were marching at the front, being the first to reach the mice kingdoms' caverns. Though my mice were small, smaller than even the tiniest spiders, they were not to be underestimated.
In a coordinated and controlled counter charge, the mice brought devastation upon the smallest spiders. They swarmed over their bodies and bit down on their abdomens, not ever tiring.
While at first the Horde's advance was halted, the spiders brought out the bigger caliber. The tier 1, large spiders, monstrous creatures the size of foxes entered the fight. They held on much longer and were more powerful, diminishing the mice kingdoms' forces.
To their rescue came the guardian family of the first zone. The red mouse and its brethren took on the larger spiders. This took a heavy load of the kingdoms' shoulders, but still, some of the defenders died.
The battle at the front was in a rough equilibrium, the battling forces gaining and losing ground constantly. But with time the kingdom's forces were depleted and they slowly fell under the spiders' barrage.
Before the ruling family could fall, they fled the battlefield, further into my domain. The red mice weren't this cowardly, fighting until their last breath and taking with them countless enemies.
Not even celebrating their victory, the Horde continued. Though they felt the loss. The frontlines have been heavily reduced of the smallest of spiders.
Next, the snaking tunnels and their inhabitants proved a hard challenge for the attackers. Not being in their natural habitat and unused to the slick walls they were only able to continue on slowly.
Sadly some of the spiders weren't as stupid as one would assume and they used their sticky thread to cover the ground. Not only allowed the web for better movement for the spiders but it also stuck to the snakes' smooth skin.
Luckily the small wirpent clusters were the absolute worst for the many-legged creatures. They would immediately entangle the small legs around them, incapacitating the enemies.
The spiders continued on, stumbling over one and another. Their frailest members, which had been entangled by the snakes, were crushed under the others' march. The snaking tunnels brought with them another advantage for me.
Because the spiders had to divide their forces very often they fell prey to the tunnel snakes.
The snakes themselves didn't even have to do anything, just laying there with their mouth open. The spiders ran into the snakes' stomach, unknowingly, and died from the acid.
But even the very long tunnel snakes would eventually fill up. And then the spiders noticed that the tunnels they were running into were more alive than they thought. They feverishly attacked the walls and killed my tunnel snakes from within.
When another one of the spiders stepped into the flooded tunnels, something unexpected happened. Instead, as I expected, drowning, the spiders were perfectly fine. The hairs on their bodies created an air bubble around them.
This opened up a new angle of attack for my foe. Though I was ready for any surprises. The sea snakes lay prepared in the depth and proved that they earned their name. Once a spider had fully submerged into the water, they would attack.
Their speed and venomous bites overwhelmed the swimming spiders. This immediately halted the spiders' marine advance. They now had to continue in solid ground, where my crushers lay in ambush.
Due to their rockhard skin, they weren't noticed when the many legs trampled over them.
This was a fatal mistake for my enemy. Once a sufficient number of spiders had crossed the ambush point the plan fell into action.
The guardian, the Entanglomination, jumped down from its perch in the ceiling. The enemy now fully concentrated on the zone's defender, started their assault. This was the chance my snushers were waiting for, they jumped up from their low position and attacked.
Under the rock hard snakes, even more, were hidden. They, together with the guardian, massacred the enemies in their reach.
Once the massacre had finished I heard a screech from outside my domain. A bit later a large spider entered the tunnels. It was huge, roughly as large as the sun bear.
Its chitin was armored and looked rock solid. It slowly made its way into the second zone, lumbering with every step.
The defending force was awaiting its arrival and prepared their last stand. Once the spider came into view of the massacre, it charged the guardian. The inhabitants of the snaking tunnels threw themselves against the thundering spider. But were devastatingly crushed on contact, minimally slowing it down.
The guardian knew it was about to die and attacked without a care in the world. Neglecting its defense, the guardian threw itself against the spider but was quickly destroyed. Only having been able to deal minimal damage to the arachnid, it was quick to recover.
Now that my second zone was cleared, the Horde made their way into the third. They split up into the three caverns, each protected by one of my challenge-guardians.
The armored spider though wasn't stupid and sent for reinforcements. Another two armored spiders entered my domain, though luckily slightly smaller, and each took control over a third of the forces.
Every one of my three caverns now faced an attacking spider-army and its leader. The first cavern, filled by the bat swarm maneuvered around the spiders in their three-dimensional maze. Not allowing the enemy to attack.
At first, the spiders were decimated, being unable to attack the fast bats in the complicated maze of stone branches. Unlucky for me, the armored spider, having found a solution, threw itself against one of the stone trees and its forces mimicked its orders. The brittle trees quickly fell, submerging and trapping a significant number of the enemies.
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In the second part of the zone, the gelatinous slimes created a jelly-like wave consuming the enemy. They were helpless against them because of their large numbers and they were hardly damaged by nonmagical means. The tier-2 spider leader saw the heavy losses on his side but could do nothing against it.
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In the third part, things were looking quite different, their general was the same that defeated the Entanglominaton. Upon seeing its forces immediately killed when entering the water it quickly found a solution to its problem.
It ordered the spiders to lure the Anguiliians up to the surface. It then used its hard carapace to knock stones from the ceiling. The debris was then used by another squad to bludgeon the anguiliians soft flesh. Seeing the massacre, the guardian, the anguiliian warrior, slowly sneaked closer to the spiders' leader.
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Back in the bat cave, the spiders were fending off the quick, but now coverless bats. To again dominate my defender, the death bat, called for a unified strike. The bats' darkness-wrought bodies clustered together. The dark aura around them stacked with each other and they were nearly invisible in the lightless cavern.
In coordinated strikes, they picked off the weakest enemies feeding the guardian the precious death mana. The death bat used this energy and infused it into its fatal venom, planning to assassinate the armored leader.
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The spider force in the slimes' room was now fending better, having found a method against the defenders. They used their talons to cut slices off the slimes, reducing their size and damaging them. While this surely worked, the spiders took too long to find this solution and were slowly losing the fight.
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The Anguiliian warrior had now reached the armored spiders' feet, at the edge of the water.
It threw both of its spears, intending to impale the creature. The general already saw the attack coming and dodged to the side while slashing at the defender. The warrior, now weaponless and out of the water, fell to the spiders' counterattack and released its key.
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Inside the Batcave, the guardian started its assassination attempt. It used its natural stealth and hastily flew towards the general. The bat landed on the spider's unprotected anus and bit down. The death-mana-infused venom quickly coursed through its body. Destroying the circulation system and wreaking havoc in its innards. The spider slumped down, taking the now exhausted bat with it into death. Though the remaining spiders attacked the distraught bats and quickly won the fight.
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In the slime caverns, the attackers didn't look that well. They certainly diminished the slimes forces but were outnumbered. In the last seconds before defeat, the spider general from the water cavern came to the rescue. Looking over the battlefield, it saw the overslime and noticed its importance.
A squad of large spiders attacked the challenge guardian. After a quick fight, the relatively weak mini-guardian fell and the lake of slimes died down. What the now defeated general hadn't noticed was that the overslime was not a fighter but a supporter. It used its tentacles to heal its forces which made them ignore the otherwise fatal damage and let them work together.
The hero of the hour, the armored spider from the water cavern, approached the defeated one and bit off its head. I was surprised by this outcome but summarized that the spider had embarrassed the hordes' honor and was thusly executed.
The armored spider stood still after it had killed the other one. I saw the mana flow towards it and forming into an intricate pattern inside the spider's abdomen. With shock, I realized that the spider was evolving. That was bad, not only would I have to deal with the mother, but also with a Tier-3 spider.
Sadly there was nothing I could do against it, my forces were too far away and the spiders' would protect the evolving one to the last men. With building trepidation I watched the creature evolve. The pattern inside its abdomen spread to its whole body. But the mana was the most concentrated in its brain.
Slowly the spider began to grow. From the size of a sun bear, it got larger. Its armor got thinner but its muscles bulged. What had me the most scared was its growing brain. It had grown up to the size of a large apple and intelligence gleaned within its faceted eyes.
It ended its evolution as a giant spider, one and a half times the size of the sun bear. The restrictive armor had transformed into a flexible but hard carapace. Its legs ended in sharp talons and had grown more numerous. Instead of the normal 8 legs, the spider used its fifth pair in conjunction with its mandibles. They allowed the spider to pick up the Anguiliian warrior's spears to use in fighting.
The giant turned towards its smaller family members with an indifferent stare. With its newfound intelligence, it was easily able to decipher the usefulness of the key and open the door further into my domain. As the first spiders died to my ingenious pitfall I absorbed its memories. I now knew the evolved arachnid to be a warlord spider.
A formidable spider general, a veteran of war and battle. It uses its mind to overwhelm its enemies in large confrontations. But it wasn't just a mastermind. Its sharp legs were used to impale any foe and its hands were able to wield primitive weapons. The flexible armor allowed it to move quickly and protected it against glancing strikes.
The information I got let me remember that I didn't yet look through the memories the armored spiders held that had died. I searched through the gained information and was enraptured by their vast experience.
Even though they lived shorter than the sun bear they were not as limited in their travels.
Both of the armored spiders belonged to the same clutch and grew up forming a strong
bond.
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In our childhood, we always followed our mother. She was benevolent and a strong ruler. We grew up fast and were rewarded for it with more food and training from the veterans.
When we had our first evolution from a normal spider into a large spider our mother send us to her domain's borders. We were sent there to absorb mana and evolve even further. We fulfilled our mother's wishes with unwavering loyalty.
During our mission we united with others, forming a small squad of elite fighters. After some months of relative calm and only weak enemies, we stumbled upon a group of intruders. They looked extremely weird.
They walked on two legs like birds but were significantly larger. Their skin was scarcely furred, with mostly brown hair, but one of them had white one. Two of the five intruders had large protrusions sticking out from their chests.
From their abdomen to their feet there was a sheet of weird bark and leave-like material.
The creatures hadn't yet seen us but were getting very close. Our squad's leader, a tier-2 peak web weaver, started the attack. She spun a net of threads and entangled two of the creatures.
We jumped after her, attacking the pale white one. He saw us jumping at him and threw himself to the side, snatching one of my comrades.
Once on the ground I and my brother attacked one of the smaller bipedal. We bit into his feet and toppled him over just when the web weaver jumped on him. With the foe now on the ground we sank our talons into the vulnerable neck, ending its life.
My brethren had finished the other similar-looking one and we turned to see the web weaver fighting the white-haired creature.
Using this opportunity we fell upon the entangled weirdos with the large mounds of flesh. We bit open their innards and fed upon the banquet of soft and delicious organs. Both of the entangled ones quickly fell to my brother's and my cuts and slashes while screaming loudly.
We turned around and saw the web weaver in the hands of the white one. The enemy was bleeding heavily and threw the dead evolved spider to the ground. We looked around but found the whole squad laying dead around the last enemy, various sticks and stones impaled in their bodies.
Enraged by the view we charged the monster. It tried to defend itself but was too weak in face of our vast power. We slew the foe and absorbed the large amount of mana the battlefield provided. After the Pyrrhic victory, we returned to our mother and evolved into armored spiders, ready for her next orders!!!