49: Clutch Rachna

Vir threw himself into a roll, barely avoiding the massive spider’s bladed limb as it impaled the dirt. Green liquid oozed out, sizzling. The putrid stench made Vir gag.

Poison!? Not just a limb then. A stinger.

Vir Leaped to gain some distance, but the spider pursued relentlessly, clacking and screaming, enraged over having missed its prey.

The entire forest floor was a deathtrap. Not only was this the spider’s hunting ground, but the ample space between the trees meant the beast could move around with ease. Which also meant that its underlings had no issues flanking Vir.

He backed up and kept moving. If he stopped for even for a second, his enemies would surround him. More and more appeared each moment, and he soon lost count. There were at least a dozen.

Vir recognized a hopeless situation when he saw one. Horribly outnumbered, there was no way to win. Forget winning, surviving was going to be tough unless he evened the odds somehow.

He looked up. The only hope he had was to climb up onto the trunk of the Godshollow. The minion spiders hadn’t chased him down the trunk, which meant it was a place of relative safety. He was unsure about the massive spider, but the thing must have weighed several hundred pounds. Doubtful that such a beast could scale a Godhollow.

Vir Leaped to the nearest tree, but the spiders seemed bent on preventing his escape. He needed more speed. The Talent only took four seconds to activate on the forest floor, but it still wasn’t enough.

So he dropped his rucksack, making him lighter and more agile.

Threading his way through the spiders, rolling, dodging, and jumping away from their attacks, Vir arrived at the nearest Godhollow and began climbing his way up.

To his horror, the spiders behind him did the same. Worse, arachnids above him on a high limb climbed down on an intercept course.

The badrakking things were only pretending like they couldn’t climb! Once more, they’d lured him into their trap. Continuing upward would only spell his doom.

From fifteen paces high, Vir charged Leap and kicked off the tree, sending him sailing through the air, back to the forest floor. He flipped and hit the ground and threw himself into a roll to dissipate the impact, but despite that, his bones shuddered.

The spiders were quick to react and were already beginning to surround him. He wasn’t about to let them.

Vir leveraged his Kalari training to move like the wind, Leaping to the nearest spider. Tough chitin protected these spiders, which made their eyes their primary weak point. But hitting eyes was easier said than done, especially when they always kept two of their eight limbs in front, like a shield.

Luckily, Prana Vision gave him a better option. The Life and Shadow prana in these spiders coursed through their necks, blazing brightest at the junction between their bulbous heads and bodies.

He brutally exploited this weakness, plunging his katar into the spider’s neck. It spasmed for a brief second, then collapsed.

Vir somersaulted and jumped to the next spider, but fate wasn’t kind to him. A shriek from the enormous spider caused its minions to pause for a moment. When they began moving again, they banded together, sticking to each other in groups of three or four.

Tch. Vir clucked his tongue. The spiders had already adapted. Going one on three against the minions wasn’t going to work out in his favor.

But he had little a choice. To safely escape to the treetops, he had to thin the enemy out. Vir charged the nearest group of three. He reluctantly reached for a chakri and threw it with as much force as his newly developed biceps could muster.

The disk sailed through the air and lodged itself in the face of the first spider, killing it instantly. His second disk sliced off a pincer of another before piercing the spider’s eye. Not quite dead, but injured enough that it scampered off into the distance, leaving its remaining brother all alone.

Vir descended upon the spider like a reaper, using his momentum to plunge his katar deep into its neck before backflipping off the beast in one fluid motion.

Unfortunately, the queen spider seemed to understand this strategy and had already laid a trap. Vir landed right in the middle of a half dozen minions, lying in wait for him.

He lost no time. Right as two spiders attacked him with their limbs, he High Jumped free, sailing clear of the danger.

As he reached the peak of his arc, he locked eyes with the spider queen. The beast almost seemed to grin at him as it launched something right at him—a sticky white goop.

Webbing! Vir immediately realized, panicking. He’d escaped one trap only to fall into another.

The webbing hit him right before he fell back to the ground, sticking to his arms and legs. Vir tried with all of his might to free himself, but the material was elastic and strong. It didn’t budge.

Gaaah! He screamed, as a spider slashed into his arm, leaving a deep gouge. Its friends joined in, slashing at Vir, cutting into his arms and his legs. All the while, their queen approached slowly from behind.

Vir fully understood the danger. As long as he lingered here, he’d continue to take hits. And once the queen arrived, he’d be as good as dead. His eyes searched the area, looking for something he could use. Anything.

His eyes searched and searched, and then finally landed on something.

Found it!

Still bound by the webbing, Vir Leaped away, but not before taking several more hits.

He crashed into a large rock nearby, and his momentum shredding the webbing just enough to free his katar. A few swipes later, and he’d finally extricated himself, Leaping again to safety.

The queen screamed. He didn’t need to understand the beast to know it was furious. He’d escaped its traps three times now.

But it had come at a cost. Vir bled from his hand and his legs, and while the wounds weren’t immediately fatal, they certainly compromised his fighting ability. If left unchecked, he risked bleeding out. He had to end this, and soon.

Vir went on the offensive, Leaping onto spider minions, throwing his chakris and timing his attacks so that he Leap again before its brothers struck him.

But even though he spent every effort to recover his throwing disks, he invariably lost ammunition. Now, down to a single chakram and three chakris, the end was inevitable.

Vir dove back into the fray, hurling two more chakris at his foes. He couldn’t afford to throw any more, but his efforts had paid off. The spiders had thinned out considerably, and the queen found itself all alone.

Alone and vulnerable.

Vir brought a chakram up and pretended to throw it, forcing the queen to defend itself in anticipation of the upcoming attack.

Instead, he stowed the weapon around his neck and Leaped to the nearest tree. He didn’t bother to climb—the spider would hit him with its webbing attack—so he did something reckless instead.

Vir bounded up and High Jumped, violently throwing himself up the Godhollow’s trunk. Thorny bark shredded his shirt as he vaulted up. Scanned the trunk for handholds to latch onto, he found them an instant before his momentum ran out.

He came to a stop on the trunk and looked down at the forest floor, now twenty paces below. The risky maneuver had paid off.

Vir waited the ten seconds it took to reactivate High Jump, then jumped again.

The spider queen fired another webbing attack, but Vir was well out of range now. The sticky white stuff fell harmlessly below, which only angered the spider further.

Then it started climbing, along with a half dozen of its minions.

Vir watched in horror as the massive spider somehow hoisted itself up the Godhollow, its eight limbs anchoring it to the trunk as surely as if it were on the ground. It didn’t even move any slower than before.

Taking a deep breath, Vir continued lunging his way up the enormous tree. The spiders were fast, but he was much, much faster when using High Jump. He made it to the lowest bough that soared a hundred paces high with time to spare.

The question was what he should do now. The spider queen and its minions would be upon him in seconds, and while Vir was now out of their death trap, he doubted his pursuers would give up soon.

He peeked down—the minions had raced ahead of their queen and would arrive first.

Flight warred with Fight, and Fight had won.

If they think they’re the only ones who can set traps, I’ll be happy to prove them wrong, he thought, bracing himself.

The first spider poked its head onto the bough, only to receive a katar to the face. The second one blindly followed it and received the same treatment. Both fell off the tree into the darkness far below.

The next pair were smarter. They climbed onto the underside of the bough and popped up on Vir’s flanks simultaneously.

Too bad for them. Such a simple tactic wasn’t nearly enough to deceive him. He kicked one off the limb and sliced the forelegs off another before sprinting to the next enemy.

Vir jumped into the air and launched his last chakri at another spider, killing it as it stepped onto the bough. Vir landed on the dead beast, retrieved his chakri, and skewered the spider behind it, all in one fluid move.

It turned out that killing a bunch of these things had made him quite proficient at the task.

Vir had no time to revel in his victory; the spider queen had finally arrived.

Facing off against the beast, he quickly realized he would not win here. The spider’s bulk restricted its movements atop the limb, yes, but Vir had no defense against its web attack. Which meant he’d have to engage the spider at close range, against those devastating limbs that had allowed the heavy spider to climb up a tree. Not to mention that stinger.

No, he needed a better plan. One that put him in as little danger as possible.

Luckily, he’d done exactly that earlier today, against the first minion he’d killed.

Vir nicked its forelegs with his katar, forcing it on the defensive. But the attack was just a feint. He Leaped and backpedaled away from the spider. As much as he wanted to turn and run, he knew he’d be a sitting target for its web attack.

The beast fired its sticky webbing, forcing Vir to throw himself aside to dodge it. He barely made it.

The spider screamed, threatening him with its forelegs before continuing its pursuit.

Almost there, Vir thought as his heart throbbed in his ears, jumping to another bough with the spider queen in hot pursuit.

This spider shared the same Life and Shadow prana pathways as its minions, which meant that aiming for its neck was a viable strategy.

He just didn’t know if his attack would penetrate its chitin.

Which meant he had to test it to be sure.

Vir waited for the spider to launch its next web attack, which he again dodged by a hair’s breadth. Instead of running, he stopped and jumped into the air, throwing his chakri with all of his might.

The disk hit the spider’s back and bounced right off. A tiny slit of blood shone on its silver hide.

As I thought.

Not only was the queen bigger, but its chitin was tougher, too.

He needed more power, and he had a way of obtaining it. He just hoped it’d be enough.

Vir took off again, spotting more minions tailing him on parallel branches. It was only a matter of time before they ambushed him.

Scanning his surroundings meant taking his eyes away from the ground in front of him, and he tripped as his foot caught on something. Looking down, he saw more white webbing on his shoes.

He could hardly believe this.

The queen was waiting for its minions to distract me!? Just how smart is this thing?

And it hadn’t even attacked him! It aimed for his feet—an easier target.

The spider queen approached the helpless Vir, chittering smugly.

Vir furiously sawed at the webbing to extricate himself.

No time! He wasn’t going to make it.

In a last act of desperation, Vir Leaped, tearing the webbing with his supercharged lunge. His leg roared in protest, pulled two different ways at once. Luckily, the pressure didn’t last long. He broke free and jumped off, just a split second before the spider’s venomous stinger impaled itself onto the bough where he’d just lain.

That was too close, Vir thought, wiping sweat from his eyes. Thankfully, he wouldn’t need to run anymore. He’d arrived.

Vir looked up at a bough that stretched above the one he was on. He’d identified this as a possible ambush point from his scouting efforts, but he hadn’t needed it… until now.

Readying his last chakram, Vir took a deep breath, and High Jumped. He bounded straight up, but he paid no attention to the bough that he was on a collision course with. His eyes were glued to the spider that had just launched its web attack.

Chakram in hand, Vir threw it at the incoming webbing. The two attacks met midair, with steel winning against the organic substance. His disk sliced through half the webbing before getting tangled in it, and together, they sank like a brick to the distant forest floor.

With barely a half second to prepare himself, Vir tucked his knees to his chest and reached out with his arms, grabbing a vine that grew on the underside of the bough he’d just collided with.

Using both hands to keep himself pinned in place, Vir hung upside down, staring at the queen below him. The seconds stretched agonizingly on as the spider readjusted its aim.

He’d learned earlier that the beast couldn’t fire off its webbing attack in quick succession. If this plan was to work, he had to rely on that. Ten seconds was all he needed for High Jump to charge. But the spider also required a similar amount of time for its web attack.

Not one to leave things to chance, Vir briefly let go of the vine with his right hand, just long enough to fire his last chakri down at the spider, forcing it to abort its attack to protect itself.

Five, Six, Seven…

The spider immediately aimed again, and Vir knew he’d be too late.

Good enough, he thought. With whatever prana he’d accumulated in his legs, he cut the charge short, activating High Jump prematurely.

It wouldn’t be nearly as fast or as strong as the fully powered version, but he didn’t need it to be. This time, weight and gravity aided him.

Vir hurtled at the spider, now directly below him, his katar extended out in front.

With the speed of an arrow, his blade plunged into the spider’s chitin, eviscerating its armor. Vir’s bones rattled from the impact, but he held doggedly on as the spider juked and bucked under him.

It tottered perilously close to the edge of the bough.

Realizing that the beast was about to fall off in its death throes, Vir yanked his katar blade, intending to escape…

Only to find his weapon buried within the beast. There wasn’t any time. He let go of the katar and backflipped off, right as the spider jumped.

Vir landed on the very edge of the bough. The spider found only air to support it.

He watched the queen fall into the darkness. A sickening thud followed a moment later, followed by silence.

The queen was finally dead.

Vir stumbled back and collapsed onto the bough. Fear coursed through his body, suppressing the pain of his earlier wounds.

Disarmed, disheveled, and driven to his utter limits, the world reeled in front of him.

He forced his mind under control. He wasn’t out of danger yet. The spider minions… were gone?

Looking around, he found not a single trace of them.

Only then did he look up at the sky and roar, his fists extended up into the air.

“You see that, father? I did it! I won!”

Tears flowed down his face as the realization dawned upon him. He’d lost against the knight scout. He’d lost against the pirates. Time and time again, he’d lost against Riyan.

But now… for the first time in his life, he’d fought a powerful opponent, and not only had he won, he’d done it without ever relying on Ekanai. Without losing control over his own body.

Vir’s arms and legs throbbed, and only then did he realize he wasn’t out of the woods yet. Most of his cuts had clotted, but he needed to clean off and get them bandaged, lest infection set in.

He wasn’t looking forward to the sting of antiseptic… but compared to a life-or-death struggle against a spider? Compared to losing to Ekanai? He’d take tending to his injuries any day.

Vir gingerly climbed down the tree—an effort that exhausted him far more than he’d thought, as he’d burned through his stamina at an alarming rate. If he hadn’t learned to enhance his stamina by containing his prana leakage…

He gulped. I’d surely have died.

Vir’s feet finally touched dirt, and he limped his way to the gruesome sight of the spider’s carcass. The fall had not been kind to its body, which lay mangled and unrecognizable.

He gingerly made his way to his weapon and reached out to dislodge it.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

Vir jumped in shock. He spun around to find two warriors staring at him, leveling their weapons at him. One wielded a poleaxe, while the other wore a buckler shield in one hand and gripped a talwar in another.

Both wore brigandine over gambeson.

Emerald and gold brigandine.

“Ash damned luck, boy. That was quite a fight. What an impressive performance defeating a Clutch Rachna on your own. Not to mention mastering Leap and High Jump at your age! A heartfelt congratulations on your kill. Truly.”

“Oi,” the man with the shield said to his compatriot with a scowl. “Enough chatter. Let’s get this done with.”

“What do you want?” Vir said as an all-too-familiar feeling of dread snuck its way up his back.

“Oh, not much. Not much at all. You see… We just need you to die.”

Note: I'll prob have some art for the Rachna in the future. Will post it up when I do!