Chương 103: The Corrupted Matriarch

The web ahead shivered. James held the mana greatsword in both hands and watched the darkness between the trees move. His armor hummed around him, blue-white plates shaped from will and mana, and the glow from it caught on the silver strands surrounding the clearing. What had looked like scattered webbing in moonlight now revealed itself as a cage, layered from trunk to root to branch, each thread taut enough to carry every vibration to the thing waiting outside. The forest had gone silent.

Even the Cold Mistdrake Runners stood still, their proud heads lifted, their golden eyes narrowed toward the treeline. They had retreated to the far side of the clearing, tails flicking, mist curling from their nostrils in uneasy breaths. Finni's mana wolf stood between them and the group, teeth bared, hackles raised so high that its silver-blue fur caught the moonlight like frost. Then the spider stepped into view. It was enormous.

A long, jointed leg unfolded from the webbed dark and planted itself against the ground with a soft, wet click. Another followed, then another, each limb too thin for the swollen weight that came after, yet strong enough to bend saplings under its touch. Its body emerged from between the trees in pieces, pale and wrong, a corpse-white abdomen dragging over the strands like a moonlit sack of disease.

Dark seams split the stretched flesh beneath its chitin, and black-green ichor leaked from the cracks in slow strings that hissed where they touched leaves. James's stomach turned. The spider's front rose, and its head lowered toward them. Eight eyes stared from its face, but the eyes held no bright animal hunger. They looked glassy and dull. Some were clouded over, others filmed with a grey sheen that made them reflect moonlight without truly seeing it.

Its mandibles clicked unevenly, three fast snaps, a pause, two slow ones, then a twitch that traveled through its whole body as if some invisible hand had yanked a string. A notification flickered at the edge of James's vision. Corrupted Spider Matriarch — Level 14"Level fourteen," James said. Havlik swallowed audibly. Kerrin moved first.

"Formation," he snapped, voice low but sharp enough to cut through the fear.

"Havlik, front-left. I take front-right. Wolf between, forward. Garet, behind James and left. Finni, center-back. Selathi, free angle." James looked at him for a heartbeat. Kerrin's eyes stayed on the spider. His spear was already lowered, his stance adjusting to the clearing, the webbed trees, and the narrow gaps between them. Formation Sense moved through every shift of his body as instinct. He placed them as if the battlefield had spoken and he had understood before anyone else heard the first word.

James obeyed. He stepped back, keeping himself between the spider and Garet, his greatsword angled down, his left hand lifting as mana gathered for a shield. Finni moved behind him, short staves in hand, face pale but steady. Garet stood where Kerrin had ordered, fire already flickering over one palm. Havlik planted himself at the front-left, shield drawn from his back and sword ready, his Hearthguard Harness glowing faintly where its plates steadied his breath. Selathi vanished sideways.

One moment she was beside them, the next her Burststride carried her to the edge of the clearing in a blur of pale motion. She landed near a webbed trunk, bow rising, arrow nocked. Her eyes never left the spider. The matriarch lunged. It moved too quickly for something so large. A hooked leg stabbed toward Kerrin like a spear from the dark. He twisted, spear flashing green as Nature's Vein crawled along the shaft and extended beyond the iron head in a living edge.

His strike met the spider's limb mid-thrust, scraping chitin, turning the blow aside by a handspan. It still clipped his shoulder hard enough to make him slide back through dead leaves. Havlik's Anchoring Presence caught the line before it broke. James felt it ripple through them, subtle but real. His own feet settled more firmly. Garet's stagger stopped before it became a fall. Finni's shoulders steadied. Havlik planted his shield and took the next strike with a grunt that sounded torn from his ribs.

The shield rang. The matriarch's leg recoiled, then came again. Havlik raised his sword.

"Draw Line!" he shouted. Something invisible snapped into being across the clearing, stretching from one webbed root to another before the front line. James felt it only as a pressure in the air, a thin boundary that hummed with Havlik's will. The matriarch's next step crossed it, and the creature slowed for one precious breath, its leg dragging as if through deep water. Kerrin used the opening.

"Left joint!" he barked. The mana wolf darted low between Kerrin and Havlik, jaws closing around a lower leg with a savage snap. Kerrin thrust at the joint above it, Nature's Vein flaring, the spear's reach lengthening just enough to bite into a pale seam. Selathi's arrow struck the same place from the side, punching into the gap with a silver flash. The spider shrieked. The sound scraped over James's bones, dry and hollow enough to set his teeth on edge, like wind forced through a broken reed.

Garet flinched behind him. James raised his hand just as the matriarch's abdomen flexed. A rope of web shot toward them. Mana expanded from James's palm in a broad shield. The web slapped into it, spreading across the glowing surface in sticky white ropes. The force pushed him back a step, his boots digging into dead leaves. He poured more mana into the shield and twisted it aside, flinging the web mass into the ground before it could wrap around Garet.

"Fire," James said. Garet lifted both hands and cast. A Flame Bolt shot past James's shoulder, small and fast, a streak of orange against the pale web. It struck the mass and burned through it with a hiss. Firelight flashed across Garet's face, showing fear and relief together.

"Good," James said.

"Again when you can." The matriarch spat venom. James saw the abdomen twitch first, then the green-black arc sailing toward them. He pushed his shield wide, curving it over Finni and Garet as the venom splashed across the mana barrier. It hissed violently, eating at the outer layer of light. James felt the contact like acid over his knuckles, though the liquid never touched his skin. The ground beneath the dripping edges blackened. Finni stared at it.

"The grass died before it burned." James's mouth went dry. The matriarch jerked forward again. One mandible snapped at Havlik's shield, teeth scraping along the rim. Havlik roared, pushing back with his whole body. The Hearthguard Harness glowed warmly across his chest and shoulders, helping him breathe through the impact. His Anchoring Presence steadied Kerrin as the young spearman slid into position. Kerrin's spear drew back.

"Verdant Blow!" Green mana gathered around the spearhead, dense and bright. He thrust upward into the spider's front leg, driving the weapon into a cracked joint where Selathi's arrow still quivered. The blow landed with a wet crunch, and living green light crawled into the wound like vines forcing through stone. The leg spasmed. The spider reeled. Then its abdomen convulsed. Finni went very still.

"Oh," Lumen whispered.

"That is unpleasant." Small white spiders poured from slits beneath the matriarch's swollen body. They fell in clumps at first, pale things tumbling over one another, then scattered across the clearing in a wave. Some were palm-sized. Some were larger, rat-bodied with long twitching legs and pinprick black eyes. Their bodies were too white, too smooth, broken by grey patches that looked dry and dead. They moved in jerks, pausing and starting all at once, as if a single mind remembered them in bursts.

James's Mana Resonance recoiled. They had motion, hunger, mana of a sort. Warmth had gone out of them somewhere deep, leaving a brittle, lifeless skitter in its place, like dead leaves dragged across stone by the breath of something buried below.

"Brood!" Selathi shouted. Her arrows began falling before the first spiders reached the line. She moved constantly, shifting around webbed trunks, shooting through gaps, cutting strands and piercing small bodies with ruthless precision. A Moonkissed Arrow curved around the matriarch's bulk in a silver arc and struck a cluster of brood rushing toward Garet's flank. The arrow burst into pale light, scattering burning fragments of spider. Garet cast again.

Flame Bolt struck a line of brood and burned through three of them. Another bolt followed, then another, each one sharp and effective. Spiders curled and blackened where fire touched them. The problem was the numbers. There were too many. They came over roots, across webs, beneath fallen leaves. They crawled over each other without hesitation, silent except for the dry tick of their legs. Havlik stepped back half a pace, shield lowering to block the first wave.

The brood struck his greaves, his shield, his sword arm. He slashed downward with the +5 attack sword, cutting through several at once, but more crawled over their broken bodies. James shifted his shield, using it like a wall, sweeping small spiders away from Garet and Finni. A spider got through and leapt toward Finni's leg. The mana wolf snapped it out of the air. The wolf crushed the spider in its jaws, shook its head, then spat the body aside with a whine. A black stain smoked briefly on its tongue.

Finni's eyes widened, and he touched the wolf's side.

"Verdant Mantle," he whispered. Living forest mana spread from him in a low pulse, wrapping James, Garet, the wolf, and the front line in a thin green sheen. It settled over them like moss over stone, reducing the bite of impacts, the scrape of legs, the little cuts from skittering fangs. James felt the difference at once.

"Good spell," he said. Finni's jaw clenched.

"It won't hold long." The matriarch struck again while the brood swarmed. A web shot caught Kerrin's spear arm. His weapon jerked sideways, pinned by thick strands to a low branch. Kerrin cursed and tried to pull free. The matriarch's leg rose above him, hooked tip aimed for his chest. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Havlik moved.

He planted himself between Kerrin and the descending strike, shield lifted, boots digging into the dead ground.

"Line holds!" Havlik shouted. Anchoring Presence flared around him. James felt the command in his bones. Stand. Brace. Hold. The leg slammed into the shield. Havlik's knees bent. His whole body shook. The shield's rim cracked against the force, and one strap groaned. However, he did not fall. James tossed something from his belt.

"Havlik!" The young Warden caught the vial by reflex.

"Drink it!" Havlik looked at the Minor Stoneflesh Draught for half a heartbeat, then pulled the stopper with his teeth and downed it. Grey-brown liquid vanished into his mouth. His face twisted in disgust. Then his skin took on a faint stone cast. The next leg-strike hit, and this time the blow drove him back only inches.

"That tastes like wet gravel," Havlik snarled.

"Complain later," Kerrin snapped, cutting his spear arm free with a side knife. James grabbed a Darkfire Smoke Vial next. The matriarch's abdomen twitched again, web and venom gathering together in a horrible pulse. If it pinned the front line while the brood climbed, they would lose someone. James hurled the vial. It shattered against the ground between the matriarch and the party. Black-grey smoke erupted in thick plumes. It rolled low over the clearing, clinging to roots, web strands, and the pale brood.

Heat-shadow flickered inside it, something that made the spiders recoil and scatter for a few precious breaths. The matriarch's eyes dimmed behind the smoke, its next venom shot going wide and splashing into a tree, where bark curled black. Selathi used the opening. Burststride carried her to a clearer angle along a fallen trunk. She drew, breathed, and loosed a Moonkissed Arrow. The silver arrow curved through the smoke, slipped around a web curtain, and drove into the spider's eye cluster.

The matriarch shrieked again. Several of its eyes burst in pale fluid. Kerrin freed his spear fully and shouted, "Push!" The front line surged. Havlik cut brood from his boots and shield. Kerrin drove Nature's Vein through the smoke, the green extension of his spear slicing two smaller spiders before striking the matriarch's wounded foreleg. The mana wolf darted in low, jaws flashing. James stayed behind them, shield shifting constantly, protecting Garet, protecting Finni, cutting down anything that broke through.

He wanted to charge. The instinct burned in him. Aether Armament made him feel capable. His greatsword could cleave through brood and web. He had killed worse things than a level fourteen spider, or at least more dramatic ones. Yet every time he stepped forward, another cluster skittered toward Garet. Another web strand angled toward Finni. Another venom arc threatened the backline. His role was here. Behind. Guarding. Trusting. Kerrin understood the battle unfolding before him. Havlik held the line.

Selathi hunted weakness. Finni kept the wolf and the group wrapped in green protection. Garet burned what he could. James became the wall between their vulnerability and the swarm. The brood changed direction suddenly. Half of them rushed the mana wolf. The wolf snarled and tore through the first wave, jaws snapping, claws raking. It was larger than a normal wolf, stronger and faster, carrying its own mana in the silver-blue lines along its fur. It killed many. Then the matriarch moved with horrible speed.

A hooked leg came down from above, catching the wolf in the side and hurling it into a webbed tree. The impact shook the trunk. The wolf hit the ground hard. Brood spiders swarmed it before it could rise.

"No!" Finni screamed. His calm shattered. The boy lunged forward, but James caught him by the shoulder with a mana-reinforced hand.

"Finni!" The wolf rolled, snapping and kicking. Small spiders clung to its fur, biting through silver-blue hair and into flesh. Black patches spread where their fangs sank in. The wolf's growl turned ragged. It tried to rise, then collapsed again as a line of brood crawled over one foreleg. Finni tore free of James's grip. He threw both hands forward. Green mana exploded from him. The force of it bent the grass flat. Finni's voice broke on the words.

"Packheart Surge!" Nature mana poured into the wolf. The effect was immediate. The wolf's body grew into a stronger version of itself, shoulders rising as muscles thickened beneath its fur. Green lines threaded through silver-blue like vines through moonlight, and strength flooded its wounded body, driving it upright through the pain. The wolf surged to its feet, scattering small spiders like seeds. It snapped its jaws around one of the matriarch's legs. Then it bit down. The leg broke with a wet crack.

The matriarch collapsed sideways, shrieking, one side of its body dropping as the broken limb folded under it. The sound jolted the whole clearing into motion.

"Now!" Kerrin shouted. He drove forward, Verdant Blow gathering along his spearhead again. Havlik roared and slammed his shield into the matriarch's head as it tried to recover, then cut deep across a mandible with the Emberforge-warmed sword. Selathi fired arrow after arrow into cracked seams along the abdomen, each shot landing with cold precision. James moved only when a leg rose over Havlik's blind side. He stepped forward and swung the mana greatsword.

The blade cut through a web line first, then carved into the striking leg. Mana screamed along the edge, biting deep enough to leave the limb hanging by ragged strands as it bent wrong and sprayed ichor across the dead leaves. Havlik glanced back at him, breath ragged. James nodded once. The spider was failing. Black-green ichor leaked from half a dozen wounds. One leg dragged uselessly. Another twitched in spasms from Kerrin's nature mana. Its eyes were cracked, several burst.

The brood around them had thinned beneath fire, arrows, steel, wolf, and mana. Then the matriarch's abdomen swelled. Selathi's eyes widened.

"Back!" The abdomen split. A final brood burst poured out like curdled foam. Small white spiders fell in a thick sheet, hundreds of them, spreading across the ground in a wave that swallowed leaves, roots, and the bodies of their dead siblings. They came faster than the first brood, driven by a final convulsion from the dying matriarch. Their little legs clicked in a single awful rhythm. James threw up shields instantly. One in front of Finni. One around Garet.

Another sweeping low across the ground like a luminous barrier. The brood climbed them. Crawled around them. Pushed beneath gaps in roots and over the bodies of those he had cut down.

"Fire!" James shouted. Garet cast Flame Bolt. One spider burned. Then three. Then another line. It was not enough. The swarm hit him. Garet cried out as spiders climbed his boots and legs. He stumbled backward, slapping at them, red mana flickering around his hands. James swept his greatsword sideways, cutting a glowing arc through the brood between them, but more came over the blade's fading path. A spider bit Garet's wrist. Another bit his neck. Another sank fangs into his thigh through a seam in the armor.

His skin greyed around the wounds. Garet screamed. James slammed a mana shield into the ground around him, crushing several spiders, but the swarm crawled up its outer face and spilled over like pale water. Bites struck James's greaves, his shin, his forearm. Most failed to pierce the mana armor. The few that did felt cold rather than hot, a numb wrongness that spread before his armor sealed the punctures. Garet's flame faltered. His face twisted.

For a breath, he looked like the boy's brother back in Ashbrook must have looked when fire first escaped his hands and the village turned against him. Fear. Pain. A desperate wish for the magic to obey. Then something changed. Garet raised both hands. Red mana gathered, brighter than before, wider, less narrow than Flame Bolt. It spread across his fingers in a trembling fan of heat. His eyes went wide as if the spell had arrived before he understood it.

"Down!" James shouted, grabbing Finni and pulling him low. Garet yelled. A cone of fire roared from his hands, a rushing breath of sparks and flame that widened as it surged forward. The fire swept across the brood, burning white bodies to black husks, igniting web strands, and clearing the ground in front of him in a violent orange arc. Heat washed over James's armor and made the mana plates shimmer. Garet gasped, nearly collapsing.

James caught him with one arm and held him upright long enough for the spell to end. The opening was all the others needed. Selathi's quiver was empty. She lifted her hand anyway. Pale light gathered between her fingers, shaping into an arrow that had never sat in any quiver. Lastlight Manifest formed in silence, silver-white and sharp enough to make the shadows lean away. She drew it back, eyes cold, breath steady. Kerrin and Havlik pinned the matriarch's head between spear and shield.

The mana wolf, still swollen with Packheart Surge, tore through the last brood around the spider's broken legs. Finni stood behind it, trembling, both hands extended, keeping the spell alive by will alone. Selathi released. The spectral arrow crossed the clearing like a falling star. It struck the matriarch between the remaining eyes and drove through the skull. The spider stopped. Motion drained from it in a single terrible moment, leaving the huge body slack among the torn webs and scorched leaves.

One moment the matriarch held together as a thing of hunger and twitching strings. The next, the strings were cut. Its legs folded, its abdomen sagged, and its head struck the ground with a dull, hollow thud. The remaining brood collapsed too. Some curled in on themselves. Others stopped mid-skitter and dropped as if they had never known how to live without the thing that moved them. Silence crashed over the clearing. James kept his sword raised for several breaths. No movement.

Only smoke, dead web, cooling fire, and the ragged breathing of his people. Then Garet sagged against him.

"Potion," James said. Havlik stumbled over, already pulling one from his pouch. His shield arm shook badly, and grey undertones from the Stoneflesh Draught still marked his skin. He shoved the health potion into Garet's hand, then had to help him drink because the young man's fingers trembled too hard to hold it. Garet swallowed. Color returned slowly, but the grey around the bites receded only a little at first. He hissed through clenched teeth, eyes wet with pain.

"Mana potion too," James said.

"I have one," Finni said, voice thin. James turned. Finni knelt beside the mana wolf. The wolf had shrunk back toward its normal size as Packheart Surge faded, though normal still meant enormous. Its side bled in several places. Blackened bite marks dotted its fur. Its breathing came hard, but its head lifted when Finni touched its muzzle. Finni's hands shook. The wolf licked his wrist.

"You scared me," Finni whispered. The wolf huffed weakly, as if offended by the accusation. James crouched near them.

"Use a health potion." Finni nodded, opened one, and carefully poured it into the wolf's mouth. The mana wolf swallowed, then laid its head heavily across Finni's lap. Some of the black bite marks faded. James let himself breathe. Kerrin cut webbing from his spear with sharp, angry motions. Selathi walked the edge of the clearing, checking shadows, her face unreadable. Havlik sat down on a root, then immediately stood again as if sitting admitted defeat.

"I hate spiders," Havlik muttered. James looked at him. Havlik touched the dented edge of his shield.

"I know you said it first, my lord. I am joining the opinion."

"Approved." Garet coughed, then stared at the air before him. His expression changed.

"I leveled," he said, voice hoarse. James looked over.

"How much?" Garet swallowed.

"Twelve." Kerrin's head snapped toward him.

"You were seven," Havlik said. Garet looked faintly sick.

"Now twelve. My fire magic reached level 7, and my new spell is called Cinder Cone."

"New spell, high danger, lots of kills," Lumen said near James's shoulder.

"Quite logical." Finni blinked at his own notification a moment later.

"Level eighteen." Havlik stared into the air, then gave a tired laugh.

"Seventeen." Kerrin waited. His face tightened a little. Nothing came. Selathi returned from the edge of the clearing and shook her head once.

"No level." James checked his own notifications and found none. He had expected as much. He had shielded, cut, guided, but the battle had belonged to the others. That was good. He wanted it to be good. Kerrin's mouth had gone flat. James saw it and said nothing. This was not the moment to soothe pride in front of the group. They drank potions, cleaned wounds, and checked gear. James passed one of Ilyndra's remaining Stoneflesh Draughts to Kerrin, but the young man shook his head.

"Save it." James accepted the refusal. The smell of the clearing thickened as the adrenaline faded. Burnt web. Sour venom. Darkfire smoke. Spider ichor. Scorched chitin. Damp rot. The matriarch's corpse lay in the center like a pale hill split open, its legs bent at angles that made the shadows look wrong. Finni stared at it.

"The forest hated it," he said quietly. Selathi crouched near one of the dead brood spiders, studying it without touching.

"I have fought spiders before. They hunt. They react. This one moved strangely." Kerrin wiped his spearhead on dead leaves.

"It paused mid-strike. Twice. Like it forgot what came next." Havlik looked toward the collapsed brood.

"The little ones dropped when it died." Garet rubbed his bandaged wrist, face pale.

"They didn't feel alive when they bit me." No one answered. James thought of the grey wounds, the cold numbness, the way life around the clearing had drained into shape without warmth. He thought of Finni's words from earlier. The memory is being eaten. He looked away from the brood.

"We are leaving this clearing," he said.

"In a moment," Selathi said. James turned to her. She was eyeing the matriarch's corpse with the practical focus of someone looking at an unpleasant treasure chest.

"Selathi."

"This is valuable."

"It nearly ate us."

"Many valuable things try." James rubbed his face with one armored hand.

"Of course." She pointed with the tip of her knife.

"Venom sacs. Silk glands. Spinnerets. Chitin plates. Eye clusters. Ilyndra will want some of it. Varn may use the chitin. Onvir will want the eyes. If we leave it, the forest takes it." Lumen brightened reluctantly.

"She is correct. The silk, if cleansed, could be exceptionally strong. The venom is concerning, though potentially useful for antidotes or offensive alchemy. The eye cluster may retain sensitivity to vibration or low light. The chitin is light and durable." James stared at the corpse again. The corpse stared back with remaining glassy eyes.

"I hate that you are both right." Selathi gave him a faint smile and got to work. It took time. Kerrin and Havlik went to retrieve the runners, who had fled the worst of the webbed clearing and waited tense among the trees. Havlik limped slightly, though he insisted he was fine every time Kerrin glanced at him. The runners returned reluctantly, stepping around webs and dead brood with open disgust. James's runner sniffed the edge of the clearing, then looked at him as if blaming him for the accommodations.

"I know," James said.

"Terrible camp site." The runner snorted. Selathi harvested with skill and cold efficiency. She removed two venom sacs, each sealed in layered leaves and cloth before being placed into a small hard container from their supplies. James watched the black-green fluid slosh inside and decided Ilyndra could decide how close anyone should stand to it. She cut free a section of silk gland, pale and fibrous, still faintly sticky.

Spinneret barbs followed, delicate and hooked, useful in ways James did not yet want to imagine. The chitin plates came from the legs and head, lighter than expected, pale on the outside and darkly veined beneath. The eye cluster was the worst. Selathi took only the least damaged portion, wrapping it carefully while Lumen explained far too cheerfully that it might retain motion sensitivity if preserved properly. Garet sat with his back against a tree, watching her work with a hollow expression.

"You get used to this?" he asked Havlik. Havlik looked at the corpse.

"No." Garet gave a weak laugh. Havlik considered.

"You get better at pretending."

"That helps?"

"Sometimes." Finni remained with the mana wolf, feeding it small sips of water and stroking its head. The wolf's eyes stayed open, watching the clearing with furious exhaustion. James crouched beside them once more.

"How is he?" Finni did not look up.

"Alive. Angry."

"That sounds healthy."

"He wants to bite the dead spider."

"Tell him I support the feeling, but we are leaving soon." Finni whispered something into the wolf's ear. The wolf huffed, apparently accepting the compromise. At last Selathi stood, hands cleaned as well as cold water and leaves allowed, the harvested parts packed and sealed.

"We go," she said. No one argued. The Flower of the Seeking Current still drooped in its tube, useless until morning. They could not follow its true guidance in the dark. But James refused to sleep inside the webbed ring. Selathi and Finni chose a direction away from the worst of the webbing, and the group mounted slowly, painfully, carefully. Garet needed help climbing onto his runner. Havlik needed help pretending he did not. Kerrin kept watch while everyone settled.

James's legs ached, his mana felt scraped, and several cold bite marks throbbed beneath his fading armor. He looked back once. The webbed clearing lay in moonlight behind them. Burnt strands hung in black curls. The matriarch's husk slumped among dead brood, pale and still. Already the shadows seemed to gather around it, swallowing the shape of the battle. James tightened his grip on his runner's mane. They had left Heartroot to find another settlement. The forest had found them first.