Chương 149: Chapter 3-148 – Scuttling through the Shadows

That Night Weaver's carapace was worth two million dollars, used to make one of the best spell-reflective Mage Armors out there. Sama wasn't too concerned about it.

"Hey there. Go ahead and take it." The massive Snake actually blinked once with transparent eyelids when it understood her talking to it.

"I'll chop it off its web. You gonna have a problem with its poison? It's not dead yet." The Anaconda hissed gently, probably a bit too surprised to not answer.

"Right. One second." Sama reached out to the swinging Spider, whose mandibles were still working in something of a panic. She grabbed a foreleg, pulled it in close with ease, and simply punched Tremble up through its mouthpieces and into its brain, the inky black of anti-Shadow Banefire doing the job as the Spider twitched and went still. She swung out on it as the Spider's corpse moved back towards the Anaconda, hopping up above it and grabbing the almost invisible web rope of spun shadows there.

-Sama, there's incoming. -"Eat it and retreat. There's a bigger one coming," Sama told the Anaconda, one hand on the web and poised to cut with the other. The gargantuan Snake snapped forward, huge fangs on display as its mouth gaped open and took the Spider in. Sama just chopped through the webline and was beyond the edge of its jaws, completely unfazed as most of the Spider vanished inches away from her.

Eyeing her with interest, the Anaconda nonetheless retracted its head silently back down into the dense undergrowth below, while Sama let go of the webline and scampered over to the branch's opposite side before freezing into motionlessness and practically disappearing from view, even though I knew right where she was. There was a bigger one coming here, following that webline path by the looks of it, probably reading a relaxation in the tautness of the web and sensing something had happened out here.

It was also twice the size of the cow-sized fellow who'd just vanished down the gullet of an Anaconda... said Snake down in the shadows of the jungle floor under camo and basically invisible, for all its size. I watched the incoming Night Weaver Blink forwards, covering hundreds of feet each time, and it finally appeared in a tree away a short distance from where the other Spider had died.

Long legs caressed weblines wrought of Shadow as it moved with energy and great control, not a shred of weight coming down on anything, no noise, moving like a spiked shadow or something. Its mandibles gleamed darkly, and I had the impression that it could bite right into that Anaconda and kill it if it needed to, and the Snake might break its fangs biting on that carapace in return. All the Tatted Beasts were watching this with great interest.

Looking out the eyes of Humans who were willing to let them was now one of their great pastimes, and King Dorado was doing so right now back in his Court, hooting and hollering about what was going on to a whole bunch of very interested Monkeys. The second Spider was suddenly almost right on top of Sama, one of its hooked and barbed legs less than six inches from her hand. Other legs caressed the webs left behind as it looked around, and turned its attention to the ground below.

Black-Banders were known for being stealthy among the Anacondas, really good at the camo, and that had also been a Junior Commander-class Snake down there. Staring down below, the Spider could still see almost nothing... Again, Sama was just a blur when she struck. The Monkey King 'eeped!' when he saw her speed this time. She was behind cover on the bottom and side of the tree branch, and then somehow up, pushing off the air behind the Spider, and then underneath it with the speed of a snapping finger.

I saw the jagged burn of Bane of Legends at work this time, pushing Tremble into +XV territory as far as slicing into and through this thing. The stroke was so flowing, so smooth, and then Tremble's Tempered adamantine Blade with the glowing Golden edge sheared through that impossibly-hard carapace at the conjunction of the legs before plunging full length into the underside of the Spider's head.

The Night Weaver instinctively tried to Blink away, but Sama had her Null Interdiction up, and that wasn't going to happen. The Void Magic puffed and rippled uselessly through the stone-hard Veil, unable to make it budge with her Interdiction up. One leg, then another, lost pressure and folded in, the Night Weaver's body lurching as it lost its magic and support. Suddenly it, too, was falling, caught by a slender strand of webline, and swinging helplessly in the air.

Sama took out a syringe and jammed it into the Night Weaver's mouth. Something dark bubbled inside the very acid-resistant container, and she smiled expectantly. With a quiet hiss, the head of the Anaconda poked up through the green below, and rose rapidly to her height once again.

"I'm getting rid of the poison for you. Give me a sec," Sama hissed right back at it, and the Snake actually waited as she did so. She pulled out the syringe, sealed it, and pulled out another one, plunging it into the other venom gland. -Fae, if another one's coming, it'll have a good long Blink range. - A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. -Got it. - Full power on the back trail, moi Capitan!

I peered in that direction, wondering why the Snake looked so nervous... Woop! -Three thousand feet out! - I /called to her, as a literal wall of malevolence popped into my Detect.

"Eat and run!" Sama snarled, jumping up and cutting the Night Weaver free. The Anaconda snapped forward, grabbed the Spider in mid-fall, and in ominous rolling silence, with barely a whisper of motion, was gone into the undergrowth, this time beating ribs in a rapid yet stealthy retreat in my Detect above. The third Spider disappeared again, and I could almost feel the bounce as it slammed into the edge of Sama's Interdiction.

Instead of appearing right on top of her, it popped up about sixty yards away, rather awkwardly by the way it fell and its legs snapped out to anchor it off a couple branches and slender lines of nothing in midair. Sama's Cackle rang through the jungle with searing, mocking clarity, and wow, did the anger on that Spider SPIKE. Hokey shit! It blurred into motion, racing for the end of the tree, trying to home in on the center of her voice, moving right for the end of the web...

Sama was already out of view of it, totally able to track it and stay out of its senses... and while it was close to her, it couldn't Blink again, or use any Void Magic at all, using spatial manipulation as it did... -Conduction Junction, what's your function? - Sama /purred, as suddenly the Great Commander of a Night Weaver was in the exact same spot the others had died at, its sword-like front legs ready to strike and chop, fangs bared and actually dripping darkly glittering venom in preparation.

Leaves below smoked and died instantly when the venom touched them. Nothing to see here, mate, only two weblines hanging free, no little Spiders on them... Sama came corkscrewing around the tree, under it, up around the branch behind it, and drove Tremble hilt-deep into the back of its abdomen. It was so smooth the Spider barely felt anything, noted by the fact it didn't react to the intrusion instantly.

A tenth of a second later, four Shardrays of electrical force converged on Tremble's hilt and were conducted inside it past all that Natural Armor. Back in his Court, the Monkey King howled in glee. The Spider's abdomen was large and swollen, the size of a moving truck, and it lit up from inside like a lightbulb as it contained the power of effectively four incredibly powerful Lightning bolts bouncing around inside its own carapace and turning its insides to sizzling mush.

Silver voltage snarled and gathered around its legs and head, superheated ichor-steam spewing out into Sama's face and out its jaws. It twitched, it jerked, it spasmed, and then the Fastcast pair of Shardrays following up blew through it from the beginning to the end, going right out its jaws and taking a lot of its innards with it. It wasn't anchored by a webline. Sama just grabbed Tremble, yanked her out, and leapt away. I decided a good retreat was in order, and zipped away as well.

When the Aura blew past me literally five breaths later, the whole damn jungle went totally silent. I hissed as I stopped and hid behind a tree trunk, feeling Sama smirk as she did the same. With no Null Interdiction to stop her, the Baroness Night Weaver over there had popped in from beyond my sensory range to right on top of the dead Great Commander. She wasn't that much bigger than the Commander we'd just offed, but she was easily ten times as dangerous!

She waited for a full minute, her Awareness spreading over everything within at least a mile, looking for who and whatever had done this. My Astral Ward and Caster Level denied her when added to the range and my Darkstalker and Stealth modifier, and Sama's Null basically made her invisible regardless. The great Spider slowly crept down the tree into the undergrowth, clearly ready for an attack, only not to find one.

She did find the thoroughly broiled Great Commander down below quite dead, but not the other two, either. She bundled the other Spider up with webs, glued it to her back, and pop! She was gone from there. It took a while for her Aura to fade, and the jungle to start to recover. Sama indicated I shouldn't move, so I didn't, TK keeping the bugs off me as they were finally able to skitter again. And pop!

Just like that she was back, only this time with no Ruler's Aura at all, deep in Shadow and basically immaterial, watching and waiting. Wow, that was damn sneaky. I was impressed. And Sama promptly began skirting around her and heading into her territory! I smirked to myself at her audacity, and settled down for a long wait. I wondered if the big Snake was going to come back, and hoped it had the sense not to, especially after it sensed the Ruler's Aura here.

I accepted no communications, my Detect was passive in collecting data, it didn't ping things, and I didn't make a point of waving it around to attract possible attention, regardless. I just sat there and waited patiently... and, oh, might have been keeping Sama's view open in my Visual File via Markspace, watching totally passively. Since this big Spider was here, that meant it wasn't at home.

I had the very distinct impression this was the Ruler for the Night Weavers, something so dangerous King Dorado had no desire at all to fight if he didn't have to. That meant there were a bunch of Spiders back there who didn't have their Grandmother looking after them. Oh, too bad, so sad... I then realized that Sama was going to be killing those Spiders, and someone should be around to collect the carcasses.

That meant I had to withdraw from the area of the Baroness Night Weaver's Awareness without disturbing her, go around her without using magic she might sense, and trail after Sama without alerting any other Spiders around, or tripping any webs. Or, you know, collecting those webs and throwing them into my Pocket, as it was the main reason we were out here. Their carapaces were just incredibly useful freebies.

Well, what's life without a little fun, exercising your Stealth Skill modifiers and lightfoot, and proceeding to really, really piss off a Ruling Spider? It only had eight eyes that never blinked and an awareness of motion from its Void Magic that pervaded everything within a mile of it. Eezy-peezy to deal with. Alas, Darkstalker helped deal with all forms of alternate senses, range was a thing, and trying to use sensitivity to force ripples against an Argent Savant was like the definition of idiocy.

I kept out of its main arcs of awareness, out of line of sight, and slipped deeper into its own territory after Sama.