Chapter 14: 14: Surrounded

To the sides, bundled shapes were strapped to thick tangles of fibers; I had been like them, once. I had been helpless. I had been alone. I had been dying.

The thought was enough to stoke my rage further.

As I reached the center, the network of threads widened, allowing me to slither normally - albeit somewhat precariously - rather than coiling my length along a single bundle of fibers. That was both good and extremely bad. I was faster due to the increase in space, but the same went for the Aridae. Even worse, they had begun to surround me.

I heard rustling from my flank as one charged, slowed by its stumbling gait. I rolled myself to the side, wrapping my tail around a single thread and slipping through a gap between the threads. My body swung, swaying underneath the shimmering threads and avoiding the bad-thing’s charge. Pulling as hard as I could, I brought myself back around and wrapped around another thread with my upper length, releasing my tail and pulling myself back up safe and sound.

The charging Aridae did not fare so well, weakened by the bad-dreams and surprised by its prey’s sudden dodge. Its face dipped down between the threads, fangs piercing the air instead of my more vulnerable scale-flesh. Before it could react, my own fangs sunk into its back, releasing a portion of the venom that I had stored.

I made sure to use less than before, having wasted some of the powerful toxin on the last Aridae. It, just as the Aridae before it, shrieked in pain. The bad-thing’s body convulsed and shuddered, forcing it to lash out erratically. Even its own brethren were kept back by its thrashing, wary of being attacked in the midst of its struggles.

Suddenly, it turned and charged again, catching me off guard. This time, there was no time to react. In that instant, I longed for the sacred-spots of my birthplace, the fields of the Great Core’s power that seemed to predict my need. But they were no longer around. The Great Core was testing me, relying on me to enact holy vengeance on its enemies. Alone.

The creature’s fangs pierced my scale-flesh, injecting a stream of slow-venom before I thrashed and pulled it off of me. It careened across the bundled threads, off balance and dazed, before slipping through an open gap - tumbling from our battlefield above and landing in the pool of mana-water below with an audible smack.

Buoyed by the air bubbles that formed around it, the bad-thing floated to the surface. And yet, it never moved.

Experience Gained!

My tongue flicked outward, catching the scent of another approaching Aridae, exiting from the Aridae mother’s alcove and approaching the thread network’s center. This one was steadier, walking solidly enough to avoid the stumbling gait that had spelled its companion’s defeat. It was larger too, nearing what I hoped was the full size of a non-matriarch adult. If they became much bigger, I was in trouble.

As it was, the bad-things legs alone dwarfed me, each at least as long as I was. Its fangs rustled in a threatening manner, each large enough to pierce entirely through my body’s girth. Infants crawled under it, looking like far more manageable enemies, stumbling underneath the gap between the giant Aridae’s elevated body and the threads below.

They traveled across the threads in a sea of blurring legs, a torrent of flesh and fang. Emboldened by their approaching reinforcements, the Aridae that still surrounded me attacked. I repeated my earlier dodge, using my tail to latch onto a thread and swing to another. Before I could fully let go and pull myself up from the other end, a set of fangs pierced my coiled tail.

I jerked, forcing it to release. The effort was slower than it should have been, already beginning to be hindered by the increasing amounts of slow-venom in my body. Coldness set itself into my tail-scales, my lower length becoming more and more unresponsive by the second.

The fire that burned within me kept me moving despite that. It forced me to pull myself upward. It invited me to wreak vengeance. It pulled open my mouth. It sunk in my fangs.

My venom released again, in a far less controlled manner than last time. Thin bristles of hair rubbed against my mouth as the unfortunate Aridae jerked and twisted, desperately trying to free itself. Its struggles only lasted a moment.

Experience Gained!

Its body fell in a heap, still twitching despite its death, slowing the approach of the other Aridae as it bounced across the threads in a journey towards the edge. A few moments later, it plummeted to the ground, joining its brother floating on the surface of the pool of mana-water below.

Angry rustling filled my ears as even more Aridae awoke, disturbed from their sleep by the battle. They rose from their slumber, rustling their fangs in an ever-growing cacophony. The sounds mixed and blurred, forming a constant drone that drowned out near everything else.

Including the sounds of another Aridae approaching me from behind.

For the third time in succession, an Aridae’s fangs sliced through me and filled me with its slow-venom. This time, however, the flickering of the thought-light gave me a little hope.

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Resistance: [Venom Resistance - Basic III] Increased.

[Venom Resistance - Basic IV] Acquired.

The slow-venom’s effects decreased, pulling me from the edge of defeat. Just as had been the case in my previous life, venom resistance did not take away the effects of the Aridae’s venom. Despite that, it had reduced the mother Aridae’s venom noticeably, giving me the chance to struggle. I had never escaped, locked in place by my bindings.

This time, I was not bound.

This time, I wasn’t even dealing with the mother Aridae.

At least, not yet.

The slow-venom of the younger Aridae was - while powerful - far from the level of their mother. What would have been near-crippling amounts of slow-venom instead became closer to an inconvenience. It became a hesitance in my slithers, a tugging in my tail.

It became manageable, for a little while.

Enough for me to continue to fight.

The fire-pain that seared my insides had hardly even begun to reduce; it mixed with the pierce-pain of my wounds, and the fear-pain of my mind. Still, I fought.

The next Aridae to come was met with a glob of mana-venom, searing its eyes and causing it to stumble past me, pushing through the waiting Aridae and over the threads’ edge. It joined its fellows below in the mana-water, though the thought-light told me that it had survived the fall.

I attacked the bad-thing that had approached alongside it, taken aback by the quick defeat of its companion. Slithering underneath it, I wrapped myself around one of its back legs where it could not reach, sinking my fangs and releasing a bit of venom.

Filled with slow-venom as I was, and fighting within the bad-things’ own home, I was at a disadvantage. It was similar to how I had known how to use the sacred-spots to adjust my own attacks - though that had not stopped the Coreless invaders, in the end. Unlike me, the Aridae were numerous, more than sufficient to drive me off. More than sufficient to surround me.

That became more difficult when the Aridae around which I had coiled began to scramble and jerk in response to the mana-venom and my presence, unable to dislodge me. It moved far faster than I could, bursting through the ring of Aridae that had surrounded me with ease. Immediately afterwards, I released more venom, putting the bad-thing out of its misery before it could pull us over the edge. It tumbled in a twitching heap.

Experience Gained!

Level Up!

1 Trait Point Gained.

I slithered underneath it, using its body in much the same way that I used the wall-cracks. With the empty air defending my back and the corpse defending much of the rest of me, I was in a better position than before. The slow-venom had progressed, making it difficult to move my lower half with anything resembling speed.

So I hunkered down, waiting for my attackers to come to me, like a hard-shelled bad-thing that covered its back with impenetrable plates.

I hissed, baring my fangs, head pulsing and body going numb.

Waiting for them to arrive.

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