The group advanced cautiously through the narrow corridor, the light from their torches struggling to dispel a blackness that seemed to emanate from the dungeon walls themselves. The silence, broken only by the constant dripping of water and the crunch of their boots on the loose stone, was itself a form of oppression. A silence that spoke of confinement, antiquity, of secrets buried beneath tons of rock and oblivion. After his conversation with Roland, and his revelation about "Soul Perception," Sebastian felt calmer.
"We're here," Roland said, stopping abruptly. His voice, low and tense, echoed in the silence amplified by the stone.
Sebastian approached cautiously and looked over Roland's shoulder. The corridor opened into a larger, irregularly shaped chamber, its ceiling lost in darkness. The torchlight revealed walls covered in moss and lichen, stalactites hanging like menacing stone fangs, and a floor covered in rubble and... cobwebs.
They weren't ordinary cobwebs, the kind you find in an abandoned house. They were thick, sticky, and as black as night. They hung from the ceiling, stretched between the walls, forming intricate labyrinths that partially blocked the view. And, in the midst of those cobwebs, something moved. A subtle, almost imperceptible, but disturbing movement.
"What... what is that?" Sebastian asked, his voice a mere thread, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
Roland didn't answer. He was focused, his eyes narrowed, as if he were listening to something the others couldn't hear. His hand instinctively tightened around the hilt of his sword. He could feel the presence of the creatures, even before seeing them clearly.
"Rats..." he finally murmured. "Big ones. Very big. And... spiders. Big ones, too." He paused, frowning. "The rats... they're fast. Very fast. Agility... forty, maybe," he said referring to the internal code they used. "But they're not strong. Vitality... low, around ten. The spiders... are slower, maybe thirty-five agility, but... tough. Their carapace... lots of defense, I'd say thirty-five. Watch out for them." They weren't exact measurements, of course. They were estimates, based on the feeling he got from the creatures' aura, on the way their energy moved and vibrated. A quick way to communicate the danger to his companions, without needing long explanations.
And then, he heard it.
A creak. A dry, brittle sound, like dry branches breaking under considerable weight, or the crunching of an exoskeleton.
And then, another. And another. A chorus of creaks that grew closer.
And then, he saw them.
They emerged from the darkness, moving with surprising speed for their size. They were rats, yes, but monstrous rats, the size of large dogs, with bodies covered in coarse black fur, and long, thick tails that lashed like whips. Their eyes, small and round, glowed with an intense red light, like two embers burning in the darkness. And their teeth, long and sharp, were stained with dried blood.
Shadow Rats, Roland had called them. An apt name for those nightmare creatures.
But the rats weren't the worst of it.
Behind them, moving with a menacing slowness, the spiders appeared.
Umbral Spiders, Roland had called them. And Sebastian understood why.
They were creatures straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare. Their bodies, the size of a combat shield, were covered in a shiny black exoskeleton that reflected the torchlight with sinister flashes. Their eight legs, long and thin like stakes, ended in sharp chitinous spikes, and they moved with a mechanical, almost robotic precision, producing a constant click-click-click that made his hair stand on end. They had eight eyes, of a sickly green color, that glowed in the darkness as if they had their own light, and their chelicerae, enormous and covered with stiff hairs, opened and closed with a threatening snap.
But the most disturbing thing of all was that, upon death, these spiders exploded. Not a violent explosion, with fire and shrapnel, but a dirty implosion, a sudden rupture of their exoskeleton that released a cloud of bodily fluids, fragments of chitin, and a nauseating smell that made Sebastian's stomach churn.
And, from their bulging, pulsating abdomens, hung threads of dark, sticky, vibrant silk, as if they were alive. Threads that stretched throughout the chamber, forming an intricate web that trapped the light and turned it into even deeper shadows, a deadly trap for any unwary person who came too close.
"Prepare your weapons!" Roland shouted, breaking the tense silence. His voice, although amplified by the dungeon's acoustics, sounded strangely small compared to the magnitude of the approaching danger. "Markus, to the front! Defensive formation! Liam, to the flanks! Sebastian...!"
But Sebastian, once again, didn't hear the order. He was paralyzed, his gaze fixed on the spiders, feeling panic grip his throat and prevent him from breathing. I can't fight this, he thought desperately. I'm not a warrior. I'm a herbalist. I should be in my garden, tending my plants, not here, facing death.
"Sebastian, react!" Roland shouted, snapping him out of his stupor. "Stay behind Markus! And prepare something useful with those herbs of yours! Anything!"
Sebastian blinked, trying to regain his composure, forcing himself to think, to react. I have to do something, he repeated to himself. I have to be useful.
But what? He had no weapons, no armor, no combat training. He only had his knowledge of herbalism, and a handful of herbs and plants collected along the way.
The Shadow Rats, with high-pitched, guttural screeches, launched their attack. They were fast, incredibly fast, and they attacked in groups, trying to surround Markus and bite his legs, his arms, any part of his body that wasn't protected by his armor.
Markus, with a roar that shook the dungeon walls, became a whirlwind of steel and muscle. His enormous warhammer, a weapon that seemed more suited to tearing down walls than fighting living creatures, whistled through the air, describing deadly arcs.
The first blow struck one of the rats, literally crushing it against the ground. The sound of the impact, a disgusting mixture of bone crunching and flesh tearing, made Sebastian's stomach churn.
But there were too many rats. And, despite Markus's brute strength, they couldn't be contained indefinitely.
One of the rats, dodging Markus's hammer, lunged at his injured leg, the leg that had been bitten by the Four-Eyed Wolf.
Markus cried out in pain, a muffled cry that mixed with the screeching of the rats, and he stumbled. The wound, which had been relatively contained thanks to Sebastian's makeshift bandage, began to bleed profusely again, soaking the cloth and dripping onto the dungeon floor.
"Markus!" shouted Liam, who was a few yards away, fighting two rats at once.
He tried to come to his aid, but the rats prevented him. They surrounded him, attacking him with their claws and teeth, forcing him to retreat.
Roland, who was closer to Markus, tried to protect him, interposing himself between him and the rats. But his left arm, the arm that had been injured by the goblin's club, failed him. He didn't have enough strength to wield his sword effectively, and his movements were slow and clumsy.
One of the rats, taking advantage of his weakness, lunged at him, trying to bite his neck.
Roland, with a cry of pain and frustration, tried to dodge the attack, but it was too late. The rat's teeth closed on his arm, tearing the cloth and flesh.
"Roland!" Sebastian shouted, feeling panic completely overwhelm him.
I have to do something, he thought desperately. I have to help them.
But what?
Then, he remembered something.
Something he had seen before, on the way to the dungeon.
Shadow Nettles.
The plants he had used to distract the wolves.
The plants that, if his memory served him correctly, had another property.
A property that could be useful in this situation.
With trembling hands, he pulled a handful of dried Shadow Nettle leaves from his bag. The leaves, a dark green, almost black color, were covered in tiny stinging hairs that released a toxin upon contact with the skin.
But it wasn't the toxin that interested Sebastian.
It was the smell.
The pungent and penetrating smell of Shadow Nettles, a smell that, he had read, was repellent to many creatures, especially those with a highly developed sense of smell.
Like rats.
And, perhaps, also spiders.
Without a second thought, Sebastian threw the dried Shadow Nettle leaves into the air, right in the middle of the fray.
The leaves, being light and dry, dispersed quickly, creating a cloud of irritating dust that spread throughout the chamber.
And the smell, the pungent and penetrating smell of the nettles, became present.
And that smell, that unbearable smell, had an immediate effect on the Shadow Rats.
The rats, which had been attacking Markus and Roland with blind fury, stopped dead in their tracks. Their screeches turned into whimpers, and their red eyes, previously full of hatred, now showed an expression of... disgust.
They began to retreat, moving away from the dust cloud, as if the smell were an invisible barrier they couldn't cross.
"It's working!" Sebastian shouted, with a mixture of relief and surprise. "The smell of the nettles repels them!"
Roland, who had recovered from the rat's attack, looked at him with an expression of astonishment. "Well done, lad," he said. "You've found their weakness."
But the celebration was short-lived.
The Umbral Spiders, the Umbral Spiders, didn't seem affected by the smell of the nettles.
They continued to advance, slowly, inexorably, towards the adventurers, with their eight legs moving with mechanical precision and their chelicerae dripping a dark, viscous venom.
And, furthermore, something was changing in them.
The sickly green glow of their eyes was intensifying. And their bodies, covered by the shiny black exoskeleton, began to vibrate.
"Watch out!" Roland shouted. "They're going to...!"
But before he could finish the sentence, the spiders emitted a sound.
A high-pitched, penetrating, ultrasonic sound.
A sound that wasn't heard with the ears, but felt in the bones, in the teeth, in the brain.
A sound that stunned, that disoriented, that paralyzed.
Sebastian clutched his head, feeling an intense, throbbing pain, as if his skull were being drilled. He fell to his knees, unable to stand.
Markus, despite his enormous size and his resistance, was also affected. He let out a roar of pain and staggered, as if he were about to faint.
Liam, who was closer to the spiders, suffered the most from the attack. He screamed, a heartbreaking scream that was cut short abruptly, and fell to the ground, convulsing.
Roland, despite being injured and stunned, tried to protect his companions. He stepped between the spiders and Sebastian, raising his shield to protect himself from the sonic attack.
But the shield was useless.
The sound, the vibration, pierced the metal and wood as if they were paper, hitting Roland with all its force.
Roland fell to his knees, his face contorted in pain. His sword slipped from his hands and fell to the ground with a metallic clang.
"I... can't... go on..." he murmured, his voice weak and broken.
And then, one of the spiders, the largest of them all, seized the opportunity.
It lunged at Roland, its chelicerae wide open, ready to deliver the final blow.
Sebastian, seeing that Roland was about to die, felt a surge of adrenaline course through his body.
He forgot the pain, he forgot the fear, he forgot his own weakness.
He only thought of one thing: saving Roland.
He got up, with a supreme effort, and ran towards the spider.
He took out a small glass vial from his bag, filled with a thick, dark liquid.
A liquid he had prepared a long time ago, but had never used.
A liquid made with the sap of the Black Mandrake, a plant known for its hallucinogenic and paralyzing properties.
And, with a shout, he threw the vial at the spider.
The vial shattered on impact with the creature's exoskeleton, releasing the dark, viscous liquid.
The spider, instantly, stopped.
Its legs stopped trembling. Its chelicerae closed slowly. And its eyes, its eight green and glowing eyes, went out.
And then, it exploded.
It didn't explode with a violent explosion, with fire and shrapnel. It exploded with a silent, but disgusting implosion.
Its exoskeleton cracked, shattered, disintegrated into a thousand pieces. And, from its interior, burst a shapeless mass of bodily fluids, internal organs, and fragments of chitin, which splattered the dungeon walls and covered Sebastian in a sticky, foul-smelling substance.
Sebastian, covered in the disgusting substance, felt his stomach churn. But he didn't care.
He had saved Roland.
And that was all that mattered.
"Sebastian!" shouted Roland, who had been watching the scene in disbelief. "You did it! You killed the spider!"
But Sebastian didn't answer. He was looking at the other spiders, which, seeing what had happened to their companion, had retreated, as if they were scared.
And then, Sebastian understood.
The Black Mandrake wasn't just toxic. It was also... psychoactive.
And the spiders, upon exploding, had released a cloud of hallucinogenic spores, which were now floating in the air, invisible but potent.
And those spores, those spores, were affecting the other spiders.
And, perhaps, not just the spiders.
Sebastian felt a strange sensation in his head, as if his brain were expanding, deforming, disconnecting from reality. The colors became more intense, more vibrant, almost painful. The sounds became distorted, amplified, turned into a chaos of meaningless noises. And the smell, the nauseating smell of the dungeon, mixed with the sweet and pungent aroma of the Black Mandrake, creating a combination that was both intoxicating and repulsive.
"Sebastian? Are you alright?" Roland asked, his voice concerned.
But Sebastian didn't answer. He couldn't answer. His mind was adrift, lost in a sea of strange and distorted sensations.
He saw Roland approaching him, but his figure was blurry, deformed, as if it were made of smoke. He saw Markus, lying on the ground, but his body seemed to stretch and shrink, as if it were made of rubber. He saw Liam, standing next to him, but his face was covered in eyes, hundreds of eyes that stared at him, with an expression of... curiosity? Amusement? Horror?
He didn't know. He couldn't understand it.
And then, the spiders.
The spiders that had retreated, were now returning.
But they were no longer spiders.
They were something else.
They were grotesque, deformed, impossible creatures. Creatures with spider bodies, but with human heads. Human heads that laughed, that cried, that screamed.
And those heads, those heads, were looking at him.
They were looking at him with an expression of hatred, of contempt, of hunger.
"Sebastian, watch out!" Roland shouted, or perhaps not. Perhaps it was just a distant buzz, a distorted sound that he could barely hear.
But Sebastian didn't react. He couldn't react. He was trapped, immobile, in the middle of a nightmare.
And then, something hit him.
A strong, brutal blow that sent him flying through the air.
Sebastian felt his body collide with the wall, with a thud. He felt his bones crack, his muscles tear, his head explode with pain.
And then, the darkness.
An absolute, silent, empty darkness.
A darkness that enveloped him, that absorbed him, that dragged him towards a bottomless abyss.
But, in the midst of that darkness, something shone.
A light.
A small, weak, but persistent light.
A light that reminded him of the luminous flowers in his garden.
And, clinging to that light, Sebastian fainted.
When he opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was Roland's face, blurry and deformed, but recognizable.
"Sebastian? Are you alright?" Roland asked, his voice concerned. Or maybe not. Perhaps it was just a distant murmur, a distorted sound that he could barely understand. Reality around him felt unreal.
Sebastian tried to answer, but he could only manage a groan. He felt an intense pain all over his body, and his head was spinning.
"Easy, lad," Roland said. "You're safe. The spiders... they're gone."
Sebastian tried to sit up, but he couldn't. His legs wouldn't respond.
"What... what happened?" he asked, his voice weak and confused.
Roland sighed. "I'm not sure," he said. "But I think... I think you've been affected by the Mandrake spores. They're... hallucinogenic."
Sebastian, little by little, began to remember. He remembered the battle, the spiders, the nauseating smell, the feeling of unreality... and the human heads.