"What's that?", Qimona asked fearfully.
Haze raised his sword and searched for where the sound came from. The screeching sound came again, surrounding the entire cave making it hard to know where it came from.
The ground was still shaking from the tremors earlier and Haze adjusted his feet to keep balance.
Just when I thought it was over, He thought and sighed.
"Do you think this is part of our quest?", Qimona asked.
Haze thought about it, he couldn't possibly tell her about the system and it's missions, so he lied. "If our mission was over, we would be transported back to the arena, so I think it's part of the quest", He said.
Qimona sighed and held her spear tighter.
The left corner of the cave suddenly broke open and a giant spider clattered into their sight. It was three feet long and had a diameter of five feet, legs included. Each of its eight legs was three inches in diameter and the tip of it glinted in the dim cave light, showing that it was metal.
Ding! The system sounded.
Haze stepped back a bit, watching the spider. The spider stared at him with its nine eyes, as if it was as curious as Haze was.
It screeched again and started moving slowly towards them.
So this is the monster that guards the emerald, Haze thought. The emerald must have been very important for such a protector to be needed, or maybe it was a gift.
The spider suddenly increased it's speed and charged at Haze and Qimona. Haze jumped out of the way, he realized with surprise that he had grown faster now.
Haze turned around quickly and faced the spider, it seemed confused whether to attack Qimona or Haze and it stared at the two of them repeatedly.
I can't let it attack her, Haze thought. He swung his sword at the spider and smirked.
"What's wrong, scared of a little competition?"
The spider cocked its head as if it understood his language and charged at Haze, moving so fast that it was barely visible. It struck its leg out at Haze who ducked out of the way just in time. Its leg hit the wall.
Haze looked at the wall where the spiders leg was still lodged, there was a huge hole in the wall and part of it had cracked.
That would have been my head!, He realized with some fear.
Haze knew he couldn't beat the spider with strength, neither could he win with speed so he would need to be smarter.
He raised his sword and charged at the spider but at the last minute, he changed his aim and slashed at its leg with all his strength. The leg sliced off cleanly and the spider screeched and staggered back.
Haze ran it again and sliced off another leg close to the first one, the spider was enraged now and struck at Haze multiple times but Haze was quick, he dodged them and ran back.
Two of the spider's legs were gone and now there was an opening for Haze to strike its vulnerable body, all he needed was a distraction.
Haze turned to Qimona who stood in the corner. "Hey! Distract him so I can strike!", He yelled at her.
Haze hoped the spider didn't understand their language because if it did, the plan would fail.
Qimona nodded and took in a deep breath, then she began to shout and hit her spear on the walls of cave repeatedly.
The noise annoyed the spider who screeched at her but she didn't stop, the spider began to angrily crawl to her. Haze saw his opportunity and ran to the spider's side, he dove between its legs and pushed his sword into its underbelly.
A thick black liquid spilled out and the spider screeched and trashed but Haze held his sword firm, pushing it in deeper into the spider.
Soon, the spider stopped moving and collapsed, it's thick legs curled up and it stopped breathing. It was dead.
[1 kill made]
[+2 status points]
"That's all?" Haze shouted, Qimona looked at him in confusion but he ignored her.
The previous times he had completed mission, the system had rewarded him with Xp, now there was no reward, just some stat points.
This shouldn't be so, unless.. that wasn't the spider king.
Haze felt a rush of fear and tiredness hit his body. If the mission was complete, they would be transported anytime soon.
Haze pulled out his sword and waited with baited breaths.
But nothing happened.
Oh no!, He groaned internally, the mission still wasn't over, that wasn't the spider-king he killed.
Qimona ventured cautiously towards the spider.
"We're still here", She said.
"Yes".
"Which means our mission is not over", She said again.
"Yes".
She groaned and sat on the ground.
No sooner had she sat down than the cave began to vibrate heavily, screeching sounds filled the cave and heavy thudding footsteps were head from every angle except one.
Haze pulled Qimona up and started running. "Come on!"
They ran towards the inside of the cave as they heard the spiders crawling behind them.
They didn't stop running till the entered a large space inside the cave. Huge cobwebs hung from the walls and skulls of various creatures lay on the floor.
They were in the palace of the spider-king.
Haze scanned the opening intently, looking for any sign of the creature that inhabited it but he saw nothing.
"Let's keep running", He whispered to Qimona and they kept running.
However they didn't run for long before a loud guttural roar filled the cave.
Haze stopped running and turned around. What he saw almost made him fall back in shock and fear.
There stood the largest spider he had ever seen. It was six feet tall, it had a diameter of six feet and each of its legs were four inches thick. It stared down at Haze in anger.
"Who dares disturb my sleep?", It asked.
Haze blinked, the spider could speak their language, making it impossible to catch it off guard like the previous one.
He brought out his sword and stared down the spider-king, the rush of power he felt earlier had made him a little confident.
The spider-king roared again and struck out two of its legs, one aimed at Haze and the other aimed at Qimona.
The two of them dodged the legs, Haze stood with his back pressed to the wall and wondered how would kill this monster.
The spider suddenly charged at Qimona and she moved at a very fast speed to avoid the attack.
Haze was dumbstruck. She can move that fast?
Qimona brandished her spear to scare away the spider-king.
"Haze!", She called. "A little help here?"
Haze shook himself out of his shock and ran towards the spider, ready to slice its leg but the spider struck out with its leg and knocked Haze out of the hair.
Haze fell back against the wall and gasped for breath, all the wind had been knocked out of him.
He watched with dizzy eyes as the spider as advanced on Qimona and launched itself at her.
Qimona moved out of the way with that amazing speed once again. She struck out with her spear and sliced open the spider's leg, it was not deep enough to open it however.
The spider-king roared and charged at her again, she pivoted and pushed the spear into its body, it roared and moved back.
Haze was surprised, he didn't know she could fight like that, she had always acted scared and slightly incompetent.
So she was pretending, He thought to himself.
By now, he had healed up a little and he was able to stand. He picked up his sword and crept behind the spider that was still being distracted by Qimona and it's wounds.
The spider did not hear as Haze crept up behind it and leaped into the air, only when Haze was close to it did it turn around to attack Haze but it was too late, Haze's sword sunk into its head.
The spider-king let a long mournful roar and crash to the ground. Black liquid spilled out from the sword wound on its head.
[Mission complete]
[Reward: +10 Exp]
[1 kill made]
[+2 status points]
A warm feeling rushed through Haze's body, he felt slightly stronger, his vision got clearer and his wounds healed up slowly.
Show me my profile. Haze said, he wanted to know the changes that had occurred to his profile.
[Here's your profile]
[Name: Haze]
[Level: 1]
[Rank: Human]
[Strength: 10]
[Speed: 10]
[Stamina: 10]
[Senses: 10]
[Hp: 6/10]
[Exp: 40/100]
[Skills: None]
[Status points: 6]
Haze studied the profile and nodded satisfactorily. He leaned on the spider-king and waited with a smirk for them to be transported but nothing happened.
His smirk dried up.