The Soul Keeper

Chapter 67: Battle Beneath the Ruins

As soon as the word left my mouth, the creatures dropped from the ceiling. The first scream came from Alina as maybe hundreds of cat-sized spiders landed on the ground. Without even a moment of hesitation, they leapt towards the group still covering behind Rina's shield.

I let go of the giant spider's carapace and slid to the ground. As soon as I landed, I used dark bolt. As five bolts leapt from my fingertips to the giant spider, a large amount of glowing, green eyes turned on me.

"Maybe that was not a good idea." I mumbled as the giant spider finally regained its balance and shook off the chain completely. It let out an ear-piercing screech and reared on its hind legs. I threw myself aside at the last moment, anticipating webs being shot at me. Instead, its target turned out to be Rina's barrier.

"Do something!" The wizard shouted. I spotted Samantha hooking an arrow and shooting one of the smaller spiders. I held my breath in anticipation, were they also going to have that same black glow protecting them?

A loud screech and a soul approaching me was enough confirmation that the smaller ones were not too difficult to defeat. "Focus on the small ones!" I shouted.

"Kai, you have to come closer!" Erik replied. "You're surrounded!"

It was then, I realised the hundreds of spiders between me and the group. I really was surrounded. The swarm of creatures looked like a black sea. A black sea that stared at me with hungry eyes. I could already see some of them preparing their silvery-white webs. I did not want to get any of that on me.

"My barrier won't hold much longer!" Rina's desperate shout distracted me as I quickly glanced that way. "I'm almost out of mana so do something!" She screamed as the barrier finally shattered.

My heart raced as the black smarm leapt at them. It was Erik who stopped them in their tracks as his shield blocked their path. They screeched and tried to jump over his shield, but he promptly killed those who tried with his longsword. Whenever one of them tried to walk past him, Vincent would meet them.

Samantha stayed a bit further behind and rained her arrows onto the creatures. I shivered as the souls of the dead approached me. As usual, there was nothing pleasant about being the Soul Keeper.

As the shadowy souls approached me, the giant spider suddenly screeched. The souls wailed as they stopped in their tracks. Before I could even react, something pulled them to the giant spider. As they disappeared in its giant body, I was left dumbfounded.

"The hell?" I mumbled, before noticing movement behind me. I summoned my sword just in time to cut a spider leaping towards me in half. With that opening move, my battle also began. The giant spider seemed more focused towards the rest of the group. While I wanted to take its attention off of them, it'd probably spell my death if I tried something like that.

"Kai, get down!" Rina's shout prompted me to throw myself to the ground. Not a second later, lightning crackled in the air and I smelled burnt flesh. Her lightning had killed a large chunk of the spiders around me. "Get your scythe!" She shouted.

I looked around to see the weapon. I hadn't even gotten the chance to look for it ever since I had dropped it. For a moment, it seemed impossible to find it as the swarm of spiders covered the entire ground. But then, I caught a glimpse of its pale metal blade laying amongst the corpses of the spiderlings.

I dashed through the charred corpses and grabbed it. As soon as I grasped the cool, metal shaft, I felt Rina's winds around me.

"Wait!" I shouted in a panic. "I can't deal any damage to it!" Maybe she didn't hear me, or maybe she didn't listen. I once again found myself floating towards the giant spider. I clenched my teeth and grabbed on to its bumpy carapace. As soon as my body touched the dark glow around it, I felt the coldness in my chest grow.

It was much colder than before, and the power I felt from the dark glow was much stronger too. I swung my scythe and struck its carapace to no avail. I simply couldn't get through.

I noticed more souls approaching it. With each soul, the coldness grew. "Wait!" I whispered. It was growing stronger with each soul it consumed, just like me! My heart raced as I glanced at the bunch of charred corpses. Rina had just fed it a whole lot more strength.

Suddenly, the creature screeched and reared on its hind legs as its body shook uncontrollably. I found myself in the air as I lost my grip. Instinctively, I summoned my wings and regained my balance mid-air. From up high, I could clearly see the reason of its sudden outburst. Samantha's arrow was stuck right under its face, between the plates of its carapace. She'd actually wounded it!

"Kai, under it's head!" She shouted as soon as our eyes met. I nodded and with a powerful beat of my wings, flew towards it. I prepared to swing my scythe as lightning crackled in the air. A few more spiderlings died to Rina's spells as the giant spider was finally within my reach. Seeing me, it reared on its hind legs and shot its webs at me.

I narrowly avoided them by allowing my wings to lift me higher in the air. Then, I folded them and dove down, closer to the monster. It was within my reach now – I was going to finish it.

A weight dropped on my back. Then, another, on my legs. I lost my balance in my panic and fell to the ground with a loud thud. I quickly beat my wings to get rid of the weight on me and rose on my knees, to see a bunch of green eyes staring at me.

A swing of my scythe cut through them effortlessly. I didn't even wait to see their souls appear. I turned my back on them and came face to face with the giant spider. With a low shout, I tried to back off – such close quarters combat wasn't ideal for the scythe.

Lightning crackled in the air and hit the smaller creatures approaching me. "No, stop killing them!" I shouted glancing at Rina. "You're just giving it more-" I couldn't finish my words as the creature reared on its hind legs and shot a web at me at point blank range.

Rina's shield appeared a few seconds too late. I stumbled as the web stuck onto me. I tried to step back instinctively, but that only made things worse. I felt the web tangle around my legs as I lost my balance and fell on my back.

An arrow hit the creature. Then, another. They were charged with lightning. They didn't seem to deal any damage to the giant spider, but at least they distracted it. It reared on its hind legs and shot a web towards them, which Rina promptly blocked with a shielding spell. I wanted to take this opportunity to get away from it. That was when I discovered – the web was stickier than I'd feared. Not only couldn't I move my legs, but it also felt as if someone had glued them to the ground. Back drops of blood dripped onto me as I helplessly tried to break free.

My heart raced as the creature once again turned its attention towards me. It's four raised front legs came down with force. I noticed the spot where the arrow had struck it before. That was where the blood was coming from. With a little luck, maybe I could reach it. I held on to that thought as if it was my light at the end of a long, deadly tunnel.

I swung my scythe with all the strength I could muster. I didn't even hear Alina's pained scream, echoing in the large room. As the creature's spear-like legs pierced my body, my scythe struck its exposed flesh.

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