I don't recall falling asleep, but I am woken up rather abruptly, not by Vile or Slave, but by the sudden noises outside of the barrier. The steady low and creepy chittering had been omnipresent for the past few days, but as unsettling as it was, one gets used to it quickly. This was much different, as I looked through the barrier in shock, to see the countless death weavers tearing one another to pieces.
"What's going on?" I ask, unable to look away from the horrific battle which ensures all around me.
"Everything needs to eat." Vile says with a smug voice, clearly pleased by the spectacle. "It just so happens that death weavers also happen to be cannibals. You ready?"
I furrow my brow, having no idea what she's talking about, briefly forgetting the entire plan before it hits me. "Oh, we can attack while they're distracted! Of course!" I say, crouching down as the rat hops up onto my back. I look over to Slave, who wears an expression of determination. I'm glad that she doesn't seem to be jealous of my offering the rat a ride.
"Not quite yet. Very soon, though. We won't strike until they've reduced their numbers as much as possible." Vile says as she continues to watch.
I would like to say that I looked away, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. There were no factions of strategies, the spiders just attacked whoever was closest to themselves. Sometimes they would gang up on another poor soul, only for the two survivors to start biting and tearing at one another. Based on the sheer scale of the carnage, I could scarcely imagine the melee ending with more than a single survivor, but as quickly as it had begun, it ceased. Partners ceased fighting mid battle, both severely wounded, their attention focused elsewhere. That was when the survivors, all of them, began to feed.
"Looks like that took out about a third of them." Vile says. "I was hoping that it woulld be more, but what can you do. Okay, now we're ready to attack. Oh, just one question, first..." the rat asks me. "Do you happen to be close to another experience level?"
"Huh? Um, yeah... kind of?" I say. It's still a little ways away, but not that far.
"Good. You ready, Slave?"
"Always, my mistress." the black cat purrs, her golden eyes shining intensely, clearly eager to fight.
"I'd expect nothing less from you. As for you, Squire, count to ten and begin the assault. Focus on large, clustered groups with your divine strike, and while on cooldown, try to focus on individual spiders and avoid facing multiple opponents at once. Ready?" the rat asks, giving me a little rub behind the ear. Her paws are strangely oily, and I can't say that I entirely enjoy the experience, but still, it's the thought that counts.
"Ready." I say, with a gulp, and then face my greatest challenge yet: Counting backwards from ten. Subtraction has never been my strong suit, and sure, reducing by one at a time is the easiest form of it, but it's still hard while under pressure. Meanwhile, over my shoulder, upon my back, I hear Vile rapidly whispering unknowable incantations. I smile. Clearly it's going to be a big spell, so now I have to do my part.
Ten... nine... eight... six... wait, did I miss one? Oh, who cares. Five... four.... three... two... one...
Showtime.
---- Battle Start! Squire's Party Versus DeathWeaver(94)! ----
I suddenly wish I didn't know my numbers. That's way more than I had expected.
--Slave attacks! Critical Hit! DeathWeaver(55) suffers 43 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver has been defeated!
Slave did a good job of taking one out. I unfairly said that she was weak before, more than once, in fact, the considering her size and the fact that she's fighting with just her short claws where I get a sword, it's quite impressive. Not only did she land a good hit, but managed to target an expecially damaged one.
--Squire uses Divine Strike!
I won't bother going through every one of the numbers. Suffice to say, between my extra training, and the fact that most of the gigantic spiders were wounded to varying degrees, I cleaved a massive arc through a huge group of them waiting just beyond the barrier. Not one of my targets survived. I was feeling awfully proud of myself for taking down several at once, and that was when it happened.
--Vile casts Volcanic Cascade! DeathWeaver(4) suffers 855 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(4) is defeated! DeathWeaver(5) suffers 891 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(5) is defeated! DeathWeaver(7) suffers 932 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(7) is defeated!...
It just goes on like that. While my focus at been directed in front of me, she had cast a downright devestating spell at the hordes behind. It wasn't a mere projectile, instead collumns of flame rose from all around, engulfing spiders, trees, webs, everything. The attackers didn't even leave corpses, and even among those that had escaped the astoundingly wide range of attack, many were running, panicked, flame and bones falling to the earth, as the fire spread rapidly through the countess webs.
I had no idea she was capable of that sort of power, and chuckled to myself over my earlier fears that this might be difficult.
--DeathWeaver sprays webbing! Slave is entangled! Squire is entangled! Vile is entangled!
Imagine that, repeated about fifty times. Slave did a really good job evading them, and I honestly thought she would make it, but Vile's earlier prediction had proven to be correct. There were just too many attacks from too many directions. The nimble cat put forth an impressive effort, but it only took one lucky hit, an inevitability given how many attacks fired off at once, and from there a little bit of webbing quickly turned into a lot.
--Slave cannot move!
--Squire summons her inner strength! Squire is no longer entangled! Attack power increased!
This is fine. We were prepared for this. I say, trying to keep myself calm. In spite of the downright brutal masacre that the death weavers had experienced within the first few seconds of battle, there were still a massive number of them left.
--DeathWeaver(83) attacks Slave! Critical Hit! Slave suffers 8 point(s) of damage! Slave has been poisoned! DeathWeaver(84) attacks Slave! Critical Hit! Slave suffers 6 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(82) attacks Slave! Critical Hit! Slave suffers 10 point(s) of damage!...
Fortunately, the poison effects don't seem to stack, and true to predictions, she has enough HP to hold out for a while. Not forever, but long enough. I hope.
--DeathWeaver(22) attacks Squire! Squire suffers 13 points(s) of damage! Squire has been poisoned! Squire's HP has now 317!
--DeathWeaver(23) attacks Squire! Squire suffers 12 points(s) of damage! Squire's HP has now 305!
...
A lot of attacks came my way. Not quite as many as I had feared, but still a lot. If standw to reason that with the large bodies of the spiders, only so many are able to strike a single target at once before they start getting in one anothers way. In the end, I took almost a hundred points of damage, bringing me down to 241. Not so bad, but a pretty alarming chunk of my total.
On the bright side? There was now a nice and convenient clump of spiders which made for an easy target. Another ten died at once. Now, it was time for Vile to do her thing. I knew I couldn't reasonably expect as cool a spell as the last one, as the big spells clearly require a fairly long casting time, but it seems that spiders burn even better than one would expect. This should help thin their numbers a great deal, considering how many are still wounded.
--Vile cannot move!
What? I look over my shoulder to see the rat struggling desperately against the thin cords which bind her paws, body and snout. I had just assumed that when I was able to cast my webs away, that the same would happen to her, her being so small and right next to me. Instead, some webs remained on my back, the small rodent helplessly pinned in place. Well, at least she won't fall off. Still, this is bad. It's bad enough that Slave is out of commission, but I was really counting on some magical backup. It looks like I'm on my own.
--Squire defends!
A single sword strike against a single opponent a round won't do a lot. I'm sure I could kll one, but there are still so many more. Maybe I hadn't gotten to train agility while in the protective barrier, but I had before, and it did a lot of good. The death weavers may have been numerous, but they weren't all that quick. A lot of attacks missed, and those that got through, I managed to brace myself against and minimize the damage. This continued for two rounds, until I could properly attack again. Am down to 180 HP.
I'm not sure how many died this time. I've gotten a lot better at counting, but is still difficult to do in the heat of the moment. All I know is that it's not enough.
--DeathWeaver sprays webbing! Slave is entangled! Squire is entangled! Vile is entangled!
At this point I had come to realize just how unintelligent that the creatures were. As with the first round, all of the survivors had used their webbing ability at once. Now that I think about it, had things gone differently and the death weavers been capable of strategy, the results would have been devastating. Had half of the spiders constantly webbed the party, and half attacked, I would never have gotten a chance to fight back!
--Squire summons her inner strength! Squire is no longer entangled! Attack power increased!
Good. I have an extra turn to regain my Spirit, my attack power increases, and they essentially wasted theirs. It's their turn once again, however.
Dodging gets a little easier, now that I can see how they fight, and there are fewer of them than before. Still too many, however. Far too many. Between the scratches of their long legs, the bites and constant poison damage, I feel myself rapidly weakening.
--DeathWeaver(31) attacks! Critical Hit! Squire suffers 22 point(s) of damage! Squire's HP is now 63!
That was the last attack of their round. I look to see Slave, still encased in webs, still pinned to the ground in the same spot that she had begun the fight. She's holding on, but showing visible signs of injury, surrounded by spiders which constantly bite at her helpless body. She can't endure this forever. Still, she's clearly not nearly as badly hurt as I am. What do I do? The numbers of the spiders have diminished, quite dramatically, in fact, but there's still far too many. I can take out a sizable chunk of the survivors with my divine strike, but there will still be enough left to almost certainly kill me. Sure, there's always a chance a lot of them will miss, but I can't count on that.
Should I run away for a little while? Combat rounds go by quickly, and if I do get away, all of the spiders will now focus on Slave. She doesn't look to be near death, but she is struggling, and there are only so many rounds that she can endure. Still, I have Vile to worry about. She's a thankfully small target and hasn't taken any bites or scratches yet, but if I die...
I look back over my shoulder at her. She looks rather embarrassed, peering out through the webs, struggling valiantly, but, well... she's just a tiny rat. It's clearly hopeless. If I run away, there's little reason to come back. Slave will die. I don't even if know if running will work anyways... we're still deep in death weaver territory. I could easily rush headlong into another group. We still have no idea how far we are from the exit to this place. What happens if I run and exhaust myself, and desperately need to rest, only to see the familiar bones overhead and hungry chittering all around me? It's hardly worth considering, of course. I can't run. That much is obvious. As rational as protecting both Vile and myself may be, I'd sooner all of us die than leave an ally behind.
All I can do is fight my hardest, and hope for a miracle.
--Squire uses Divine Strike! DeathWeaver(15) suffers 306 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(15) is defeated! DeathWeaver(16) suffers 312 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(16) is defeated! DeathWeaver(17) suffers 299 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(17) is defeated! DeathWeaver(18) suffers 316 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(18) is defeated! DeathWeaver(19) suffers 309 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(19) is defeated! DeathWeaver(20) suffers 310 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(20) is defeated! DeathWeaver(21) suffers 314 point(s) of damage! DeathWeaver(11) is defeated!
Squire has reached level 22!
-Strength is now 162! (+7 point(s)!)
-Endurance is now 217! (+9 point(s)!)
-Agility is now 156! (+7 point(s)!)
-Intelligence is now 31! (+1 point(s)!)
-Faith is now 250! (+10 point(s)!)
-Charisma is now 172! (+7 point(s)!)
-Squire has gained 16 maximum HP and 6 maximum mana!
Pleasant numbers follow, which does offer a much needed morale boost, and the added strength won't hurt, either. There is something else, as well, of course. Something which I hadn't really noticed before, as it wasn't really necessary. With my lay on paws ability, I could always recover easily following a battle, after all, so until now I hadn't appreciated that convenient side effect of leveling up: The fact that your Hit Points are automatically recovered. Now I see why Vile had asked earlier. I can't help but smile as I look out at the spider army, which looks significantly smaller than it had just minutes before.