And landed right on top of the unlucky soldier.
Though it was only the size of a shepherd dog, the weight of its dense body was enough to snap the man's spine with a loud crunch. As if that weren't enough, the creature immediately latched onto the exposed throat, drenching its chelicerae in crimson blood.
I launched my sword with a magical impulse and knocked the spider off the soldier, but the man was already dead. His neck had been torn open.
What a waste.
The wounded beast twitched on the ground. The blade had sunk surprisingly shallow into its dense flesh, only a hand's length deep. And I had put in enough force to drive it clean through a man!
Focusing on the sword, I pushed it in to the hilt with a surge of magic. It was like driving it into a tree stump. Inside the spider, the core crunched and the creature instantly went still, like someone had flipped a switch.
"Orin! Flash!" Hornet barked right by my ear.
I barely managed to shut my eyes before the bright burst of light hit. A hideous screech followed from above. Green spots danced across my vision, but what I could make out through them I didn't like at all.
Hundreds of spiders covered the entire canopy. They hung there like a living carpet, clinging to it like a web. Dozens, blinded by the flash, were already falling into our ranks.
Luckily, the flash threw off their aim. Most of them missed our position, and our luck didn't stop there!
Disoriented by the bright light, the spiders lost coordination and broke their legs in the fall, becoming easy prey for the soldiers.
I summoned my sword and split it into dozens of sharp spikes. Meanwhile, the alchemist launched glowing orbs into the air to light up our targets.
I tilted my head back and watched the sky.
Got one.
A spider flying straight at me took a spike to the mouth and dropped like a sack. Another. And another.
All around, battle raged. Our fighters adapted quickly, since we'd only brought the best for this raid. Covering each other, they were holding their ground against the beasts that made it to the ground. Piercing the tree-like chitin was hard, but slashing blows worked just fine. They'd first sever the grasping limbs, then finish the monsters off with a strike to the cephalothorax.
Still, soldiers kept falling and dying. It was a game of chance. If you were lucky enough to dodge the spider, taking it down while it was stunned by the fall was easy. But if it landed on you… not even shields could save you from the full-force crash of its flying mass. They just shattered to splinters.
Spider legs flashed. Steel glinted. Ichor flowed and blood spilled. Our ranks were thinning.
I summoned a fallen soldier's sword and launched it into another monster, piercing it clean through. My own sword had long since been embedded in a dozen other spiders, split into steel spikes.
The spiders weren't thinning. More and more kept falling from above. Another soldier, having just severed a spider's limb, exposed himself to a diving monster. I tore off my chestplate, reshaped it midair into a pike, and brought the beast down. Pinned to the ground, the crab-like abomination screeched and spewed acid onto the pike. The metal hissed and quickly thinned. Damn, I missed the core. No time—my gauntlet flew from my hand, reshaped into a spike midair, and stabbed the thing through the cephalothorax.
The alchemist ignited five creatures with a wave of his hand and hurled a vial at a larger one, pony-sized. The chitin melted like wax and the spider collapsed backward.
One of the soldiers broke formation. A stream of acid flew at his back but slid harmlessly down his armor. A wisp of acidic vapor rose from the ground.
My soldier raised a flamethrower, but I stopped him. Too soon.
The Baronet punched one spider aside and bisected another with a single swing.
"Hold the line! Break formation and we're dead!" he shouted, beheading a stunned creature.
Finding a moment, I looked around. The stream of smaller creatures from above had dried up, but more and more were closing in from the sides. Big ones. Damn it. They were coming from all directions. Dozens of beasts led by even bigger monsters, nearly the size of elephants.
They didn't just tower over the others, they looked different. More like beetles. Even from here, I could see the thick chitinous plates covering their bodies. Damn walking tanks.
"Those are Warriors! Formation! Back to back! Now!"
The formation tightened, soldiers pressing shoulder to shoulder as the Baronet stepped forward.
"Viscount, I'll take the one on the left. You take the right," he said calmly, referring to the warrior spiders.
"And those two?" I shouted, pointing at more of the beasts flanking us from behind.
The Baronet just shook his head and charged. Damn.
"You! Take the left one! And you—the right! Hit them up close!" I barked at my soldiers. "Alchemist! Cover them!"
Having issued my orders, I rushed forward.
Damn, this was madness…
I drove an axe into one creature's body with telekinesis, shoving aside a line of lesser spiders with its corpse. A stream of acid whooshed past me, followed by a milky spray of webbing. It struck my greaves and glued them together instantly. Damn.
I gathered power and blew them apart with a burst of needle shrapnel. Not very effective—most of the needles just got stuck in their chitinous armor, but at least I freed my legs.
I rolled to the side, dodging a massive stream of acid. I tried to rise, but another spider barreled into me. Hard, branch-like mandibles scraped against my bracers. Drops of acidic saliva burned through my coat and seared my skin.
Impulse!
With a blow from my metal-covered hand, I crushed its cephalothorax and grabbed the core. The magical crystal cracked in my grip, and a surge of energy rushed through my body. Ha ha ha! Why haven't I done this before?
My body crackled with the power flooding through it.
I tossed the carcass aside with ease and literally launched myself into flight, using magic to hurl myself forward by flinging the remaining metal on me at the enemy — just like I had thrown projectiles before.
Getting into melee with a giant, armored spider? Maybe that's stupid. I don't care.
I straddled the stunned beast and struck it with all my strength using a steel spike. It was heavy.
Its armor was incredibly tough, the spike sank only halfway in. The monster thrashed, but it couldn't reach me. Still, I couldn't kill it like this. Or maybe... I kept my hand on the spike and reshaped it inside the creature. The steel grew in all directions, slicing through organs until it reached the nerve cluster.
The Warrior Spider collapsed, nearly crushing me under its weight. I leapt off at the last second. A small spider, the size of a shepherd dog, tried to bite my heel but I kicked it hard.
I glanced at Hornet. How was he doing?
Still standing. His armor was dented in places, but his spider had already lost its front legs and kept getting pounded on the head, ichor gushing from the cracks. The Baronet had it under control.
I rushed to help the soldiers, who were faring far worse.
The alchemical weapons worked better than I expected. One spider's head had burned completely off, and the creature lay thrashing in agony. But another had either dodged partially or the soldier had flinched, only its armor was smoldering, and one front leg charred. It was enraged but far from dead, and it went on a rampage.
Only a little over ten men were still alive from that squad.
The alchemist gestured with his hands, and the smoldering chitin began to glow white-hot, as if bellows had stoked embers beneath it, like embers stoked by a forge bellows. The monster reared up in pain. A soldier tried to take advantage and swung his axe, but a claw strike split him and his armor in half. He was done.
I gathered the surrounding metal with magic and forged a massive spear.
Strike!
The incinerated armor could no longer protect the core, and the spider died. Meanwhile, the Baronet finished off his own target. The smaller spiders retreated, for their large brethren had fallen. Victory?
Something warm trickled down my face. I wiped it away. Blood. Too much mana at once.
From the forest ahead came a roar, low and deep. The sound wave passed through my body, making me clutch my ears.
It felt like even the ground vibrated. Or were those footsteps?
A deafening crack echoed from the thicket ahead. The smaller spiders spun around and began swarming back toward us in a living tide, as if something ahead scared them far more than the humans who had just slaughtered hundreds of their kin.
A second later, I understood exactly why.
Behind them...
I saw everything as if from outside myself. An unimaginably massive creature crawled into view, its back nearly brushing the canopy.
It was enormous. The head alone was the size of an elephant, and its body rivaled a small castle.
"Viscount!" Hornet shouted, but I was already pulling the rune from around my neck and dripping blood on it. Activate!
The icy light flared for several seconds, then exploded into a blizzard. The true power of a senior mage, sealed into a small tablet through enormous sacrifice and effort!
My skin burned with searing cold. I shut my eyes to protect them, and when I opened them again...
The space before me had become a frozen hell. The ground was layered in ice crystals. The spiders were frozen statues, covered in frost.
Part of the canopy, frozen through, collapsed with a loud crack. Black tendrils fell and shattered, crushing frozen spiders beneath them.
Beams of sunlight broke through, dazzling against the shards of ice. Everything fell silent. The rune in my hand faded and crumbled to dust.
"Is it over?" someone asked behind me, but I stared tensely into the rising mist of frost. Damn fog swallowed the battlefield instantly.
The wounded groaned. Someone tried to administer first aid. But I was listening.
A crack. The sound of ice breaking.
From the mist emerged a massive beetle-like head. Three pairs of eyes stared at us, and rows of chelicerae clicked with anticipation. This monster only vaguely resembled its spawn. A long neck armored in plates. An impossible number of legs, like a centipede.
But the most terrifying part, its eyes gleamed with intelligence, with malice. This thing didn't want to kill us because of instinct. It wanted to kill us because it would enjoy it.
The Matriarch threw back her head and roared again. And this time, there was an answer. From all directions came shrieks and screeches. Still distant, still faint. But a new army, to replace the fallen, was already on its way. And it would not let us leave.
"Heh. I never wanted to take this job…" Hornet muttered with a crooked grin, lifting his acid-scarred greatsword.
"We're with you to the end, Captain," voices rang out around him.
The surviving soldiers gathered around their commander. One of them, having swapped an alchemical flamethrower for an axe, stood beside me.
I forged another spear from metal and hurled it at the monster. I didn't expect to pierce its armor, but the result was even worse.
Halfway through the air, the projectile lost all force and bounced harmlessly off the chitin.
"An anti-magic field. Second or third class. Which means our enemy isn't just a red-level threat. It's a Crimson one. A creature capable of wiping out an entire continent singlehandedly. In some twisted way, dying to such a legend… is an honor," the old alchemist said cheerfully.
"Screw that. I'm not dying here to some overgrown cockroach. I still need to beat the crap out of one smug little bastard who thinks he actually plays better than me. I'M THE ONLY CHAMPION HERE!"
Rage surged through me. Is this what you wanted me to see, Samael? Then watch how a real professional handles things.
All the metal around me rushed to my side. The fallen were stripped of armor and weapons. From the corpse of a Warrior Spider, a spear of metal flowed out. The metal streamed like water, obeying my will, reshaping into something new. A guide rail. A main spring. A projectile.
The creature was approaching. Slowly, inevitably. I needed to let it come closer. Closer still. It didn't expect a threat from us.
I aimed for the head. One shot. One final chance.
The spring was loaded. The massive spring-gun was ready to fire. Fire!
I pushed with all the magic I had, trying to give the projectile maximum speed. A twenty-kilogram spike shot forward. Fast. Fast enough.
The Field might suppress magic, but it wouldn't stop something that was already moving.
At the last moment, the creature twisted with speed impossible for its bulk. The spike hit its chest. Even from here, I could tell it didn't go deep enough. But it was inside. It pierced the armor. I just had to get close! Maybe I could still reshape the metal even inside the anti-magic field,if I touched it.
I could kill it the same way I killed its Warrior.
The beast stared straight at me. I'd bet every trophy I had—it knew exactly what I was planning. Its head dipped toward the spike. With one motion, it ripped the projectile from its chest. A small wound — with ichor oozing from it, the only sign I had hit it at all.
Seconds later, the injury healed before my eyes. Regeneration. Great. Is there anything you can't do, monster?
The Matriarch looked at me again. Weighing the threat. She deliberately bit the steel spike in half and spat the pieces to the ground.
The end?
My brain cycled through options, each more desperate than the last. Nothing. It would heal from any minor wound. Even if I had gunpowder—it wouldn't be enough. I needed something massive, like the firepower of a battleship. Naval...
"Hold it off!" I yelled, sprinting toward the nearest Warrior Spider corpse. I needed energy. As much as I could hold. Screw the consequences.
Something flickered in the creature's eyes, and it accelerated. Soldiers, led by the Baronet, charged screaming toward the monster. The alchemist reached into his robes, pulling out his most precious elixirs, saved for a rainy day.
I burned my hands on the smoldering chitin. Deeper. There—its core. Cracked, leaking raw energy. To absorb this much was suicide. But I had no choice. I took in as much as I could... and a little more.
What is my power, really? Is it telekinesis? Or magnetism? Everything depends on the answer. The alchemist's favorite cauldron flew into my hands, obeying my will. Without copper, the plan won't work.
The creature ignored the soldiers and charged at me, gaining speed. One warrior stumbled and was instantly trampled to death. The alchemist tried and failed to ignite anything—no apprentice could pierce an anti-magic field. The monster didn't even notice him.
But Hornet did. His sword struck deep enough to draw attention. The creature swung its forelimbs at him, but the Baronet narrowly dodged.
And I kept building.
Guide rails. Copper. Coated with silver from my coin pouch. Lorentz force. Electromagnetic induction. Laplace's law. School physics formulas flared to life beside ritual circles. Blood. A steel thread marked the boundary of the ritual. Just a boundary...
Will. My thoughts fragmented, became jumbled.
The Matriarch opened her jaws. Dousing me in acid seemed like a great idea to her. The Baronet threw his sword upward. The blade lodged in her throat, and the creature choked on its own acid. But revenge was swift. Her scythe-like limbs tore through Hornet's armor and ripped him apart.
But she made a mistake. She looked away.
You all make this mistake, I thought, and poured all my mana and plenty of blood — into the semi-magical railgun I had built.
A blinding arc flash. The projectile accelerated to orbital velocity, leaving a molten trail in the air. No time to react. No way to dodge.
But the creature tried.
Explosion.
A fountain of ichor, flesh, and chitin blasted across the field for hundreds of meters. A mostly intact head landed beside me with a deafening crash. The Matriarch's eyes blinked, searching. Her chelicerae clicked weakly. She looked at me. I looked at her.
No joy. Only mechanical emptiness. Her eyes dimmed.
I dropped to the ground. I should've passed out from magical depletion long ago, but something kept me awake — filling me with energy that tore at my chest. A backlash from the collapsing anti-magic field?
A shrill hum rang in my ears. I tasted ichor and iron. My own blood.
Nervous exhaustion hit me like a wave. I finally fell into darkness.