A few weeks into preparations, everyone began getting uneasy. This was a battle that could easily go sideways which would result in death and defeat. Ari and Kalvin were practicing their fighting skills with old man Jan, who they realized was getting younger. It was dinner and they decided to ask him.
"Hey, Jan. Why are you getting younger?"
He remained in silence for a moment. He hadn't realized that he was regressing that fast. He thought he still had time before he had to explain to them and was caught off-guard. He let out a sigh, he had to tell them sooner or later anyway so he collected his thoughts and he began explaining.
"Firstly, how old do you think I am?"
"At least 200 tbh"
"Agreed, maybe 210, were being too generous"
"HEY I DONT LOOK THAT OLD, well anyway. I'm 625 years old"
"Told you we were being too generous," Kalvin said as he jeered at the old man.
Jan began explaining what happened back 625 years ago.
"I was once a normal man. I lived with my family and I was a monster hunter. I specialized in assassination and trap setup. On most expeditions that I participated in, only a few would return back alive. I was a survivor, but there are some things that you cant go against or run away from. It was my final raid, I had set up my mother so she would be able to survive on her own in her old age. I wasn't planning on going back to my village so I did all that I needed to. The final raid I was going on was one that had a 0.1% success rate. But there was something that had caught my interest, something I really wanted to obtain. The Koval. It's a gem that would allow its owner to obtain immense power. With that would naturally come wealth and popularity. I would have been set for life. But of course, I wouldn't be the only one who was looking for it. Even though the information about the Koval was fairly confidential and I paid great prices to learn about its location. Others did the same, so there were a few insides of the raid who were also after the Koval. But regardless I was determined to obtain it for myself. And so we set out and it took 3 days of straight traveling we finally arrived at the destination intended. We entered a cave and right at the entrance people began dying. We suffered heavy losses before realizing that there were steel spider webs all over the cave. We regrouped those who could still fight, set a new unit out for the injured, and gave the dead a quick burial."
"One of the exceptional hunters who wielded a magma-powered sword was able to cut through the webs and lead the rest of the raid. We encountered many monsters. The more we advanced the smaller our raid unit became. Near the end, most of us believed that we wouldn't have been able to defeat the boss with just the people we had. But there was no turning back anyway so we progressed till we got to the boss room. There were 12 of us including the man who had taken up the position as raid leader. We opened the door on our guard and were ready to attack but once we entered, we saw that there was no one there. The throne was empty and the room was as well. We walked around, assuming the monster was intelligent enough to hide. And we searched for it, but after an hour of waiting, nothing happened. We were all confused, the habitat and its members would continually sustain themselves if the boss isn't defeated. So we continued to wait but nothing happened. Some of the others began searching on the walls and around the throne, seeing if there were any hidden clues or doors. Which there were, but the discoverers were dead the moment they touched it. The life force sucked out of them leaving them dry. Then there were 10 of us.
"My oh my"
A voice, I still get chills every time I think about the sound of that voice. The way it tore through the air and into our bones was horrifying. We were put back on our guard waiting for whatever was coming out of the floor door behind the throne. We weren't prepared for an Arachnid. "
At the sound of this, something snapped inside Ari and she stared wide-eyed. she began shaking uncontrollably but the men didn't notice as it was quite dark inside their tent. Flashes of different memories that she didn't understand kept making her shake more and more but she snapped herself back to reality. Even though her hands kept trembling.
"In the blink of an eye, the arachnid took out 3 of us. We didn't even know what had happened, but it happened. We put up all sorts of defensive barriers but it just kept breaking them. We felt truly hopeless, and we kept dying off one by one for what seemed like a fight that lasted through eternity. Till it was just 2 of us left, Jake and I. Jake was the man who had taken charge. I looked over at him in the last moments and he smiled and muttered something but I couldn't hear. Moments later he was impaled on one of the Arachne's legs. No matter how hard i tried running the arachnid would keep up. It was having fun since the beginning, torturing us. I stopped and yelled
'So you're having fun, huh, I won't let you have the luxury of killing me'
Before I stabbed myself in the throat. I collapsed with a smirk of knowing that I wouldn't let the arachnid have its fun. "
"Oh? It killed itself. Humans are so weak."
"She said as she loomed over my dying body, but she smiled a bone-chilling smile. Before pouring something into my mouth. I began feeling rejuvenated and my wound started healing, I realized what she was doing and opened my eyes. As I was about to attempt an escape one of her legs pierced through my head.