Interlude 3 - Rip and Tears

Anak'si ran out of her hut, trying to understand what was going on.

There were Spawnlings and Hybrids running all around like chickens with their heads cut off, while screams and roars could be heard in the distance, coming from the northern border of the woods.

It didn't take a genius to understand that the nest was under attack. And while Anak'si couldn't be sure about who the attackers were, she strongly suspected that it might be the orcs.

She stood immobile for a moment, trying to decide what to do. For a moment she considered the possibility of rallying her forces against the invaders, but then, after considering all the possibilities, she actually decided to flee. Even if the current attackers were not orcs, the ensuing ruckus so near the orc fortress would almost surely give away their location. So, if the nest was lost anyway, it didn’t make sense to fight for it. It was more logical to just vacate the premises.

Still, the thought of having to abandon her home once again filled her with murderous rage. She really hated having to do so! Especially because this time, she had actually spent a lot of time and effort in preparing this nest in order to defeat the orcs! Moreover, she wouldn’t hear the end of it from the other Matriarchs! A lot of them were already questioning her authority, and having to flee once again could make them rebel against her, in particular those who were her elders and resented her position as the leader.

If they managed to survive and flee together with her, that is.

Anak’si carefully weighed her options. Sure, losing a bunch of Matriarch would be a significative blow to her forces, but if they died then there wouldn’t be anyone left to question her authority, especially since the Matriarchs who were in charge of the secondary nests had been handpicked from those most loyal to the Arachne.

An evil smirk appeared on her face.

Yeah, that was the most sensible course of action. After all, what really mattered was that she managed to survive herself. Only she was irreplaceable, after all. All the others would be a sacrifice for the cause of the Rantul race.

Having established her plans, Anak’si then started to put them into motion.

“To me!” She cried, calling the nearby Rantul. “Come here! Come to your matriarch!”

All of the nearby Spawnlings and Hybrids instinctively answered her call, gathering around her waiting for orders.

“You!” She said, pointing at one Hybrids. “Go search for every Matriarch you can find! Tell them to go fight the invaders! We must defend the nest! Go!”

The Rantul immediately scuttled away and as soon as he was out of sight, the arachne addressed everyone else.

“Take my things from my hut and follow me!” She said.

Without hesitation, they quickly obeyed and started gathering her stuff, without even thinking of questioning her orders. Anak’si couldn’t help but smile. You could say whatever you wanted about the lesser Rantul, but they sure knew how to respect their superiors.

As soon as the Arachne’s possessions had been taken out of the hut, the group started marching south in order to flee from the nest, with Anak'si herself leading the way.

She kept a brisk pace but proceeded with caution, occasionally stopping to check if there was anything dangerous around, but luckily it seemed that the battle was pretty much limited to the northern border of the nest. It was during one of these pauses that she noticed a smell of smoke in the air, and as soon as she did, she also saw flames flickering through the trees in the distance.

“They set the forest on fire!” She cried, stopping the rest of the Rantul in their tracks. “Get back! We can't go through here! We'll go to the west!”

And she was just about to resume walking when she heard the noise of something big quickly approaching from the north, breaking the webs and branches on its path. And as soon as she turned, she saw something huge and horrible emerging from the trees.

The creature had a vaguely humanoid shape, but there was nothing human about it. It was three meters tall despite walking in a crouched position, with shoulders so wide that it almost made him look hunchbacked, but despite its size it moved swiftly, using its incredibly long and muscular arms as well as its legs to walk, like a gorilla, and all of its limbs ended up in huge, sharp talons. It sort of looked like an obscenely jacked up sloth-monkey thing covered in green scales, a creature that Anak’si had never seen before… and yet she immediately managed to discern its species, since its head, which consisted mostly of a huge maw filled with sharp teeth and two small, beady eyes filled with fury and hunger, was actually rather familiar to her.

It was the head of an orc, and to her knowledge there was only one subspecies of orc capable of altering their appearance almost at will.

“An ogre!” Anak'si cried as the creature threw itself at her, diving right through her minions and sending them flying or trampling them as if they were dead leaves.

The Arachne lifted her hand, ready to defend herself, but before she could do anything a humongous black spider, even bigger than Anak'si herself, emerged from the shadows and intercepted the ogre. Sharp, scythe-like limbs covered in dark chitin moved too fast for the eye to see, cutting the ogre's legs and causing it to fall to the ground. The humanoid roared in pain, but before it could do anything else the arachnid swung its sharp limbs once again, chopping the ogre's head off.

Now that the attacker was dead, the black spider turned towards Anak'si, looking at her with eight small red eyes to make sure she was fine. All of the other Rantul flinched and took a step back under that cold, emotionless stare, but Anak'si just smirked and waved her hand to reassure the creature.

After all that was Nero, her Deathstalker bodyguard, and she knew for a fact that she had nothing to fear from him. The spider was bound to her by her strongest magic, and his utmost priority was to defend her at any cost.

Without a sound, the Deathstalker disappeared once again into the shadows, though the Arachne could still feel his reassuring presence nearby.

However, one look at the mangled body of the ogre was enough to make her feel uneasy again.

“So the ones who are attacking us are really the orcs!” She thought. “This ogre here must have modified its body to climb the mountains in order to reach the nest quickly and undetected. Clever.” She grimaced. “I still wonder how did they find me... but for now, it's better to focus on escaping.”

“Let's go!” She shouted, once again taking the lead of the group. “There is no time to lose! We have to get out of the nest!”

The group followed her to the west, keeping away from the flames that were spreading from the south while simultaneously trying to not get too near the northern border.

On their way out, they were attacked once again, this time by a group of three ogres, all sharing the same sloth-gorilla like appearance of the first one. But this time Anak'si had expected them and was on her guard and reacted immediately, using her magic to defend herself. As soon as the humanoids appeared, she moved her hand and the surrounding webs suddenly started moving as if they had a life of their own, throwing themselves at the attackers like a swarm of snakes and entangling them. This didn't actually stop the ogres, who immediately started tearing apart those webs with their huge talons, but the distraction allowed Nero to take them by surprise and kill them with utmost ease.

After that brief interruption, they finally reached the border of the nest without any further inconvenience, getting out of the woods and into a small rocky plateau that led straight into a deep ravine. That would have been a dead end for most races, but luckily all Rantul were perfectly capable of walking over vertical surfaces. Even better, the group could hide at the bottom of the ravine while getting away, and after that they would have no problem reaching one of the secondary nests.

“And then I'll make sure to make the orcs pay!” Anak'si thought with rage. “I'll go to the Dark Heart and find a partner for Nero and make them breed, so that when I'm back, I'll have a whole army of Deathstalker with me! Let's see the orcs try to stop that!”

She walked out of the woods, leading the group toward the border of the ravine, but when she was halfway there she stopped, as a sense of dread filled her head, coming from above her. And immediately after, something huge, winged and clearly dangerous dropped from the sky, landing right in front of her.

For a moment the Arachne panicked, thinking that the thing in front of her was a dragon, since she could see a couple of colossal, bat-like blue wings, but then she noticed that the body they were attached to was actually humanoid. However, that did nothing to calm her down. Quite the opposite, actually, because she recognized that creature. She had seen him during a battle a few months before, and though she had seen him from a long distance, it was still unmistakeable . It was Blueskin, the oni who ruled over the orcs, and one of the most dangerous beings in the Caligare Forest. A threatening aura oozed out of him like a miasma, and the arachne had to force herself to not immediately flee, knowing well that having the oni behind her was even worse than having him in front. But the other Rantul did not possess her self control, especially since they were already panicked and confused, and obeying their animalistic instincts they scattered back into the woods, dropping her belongings to the ground in order to run faster.

“Greetings!” The Oni said cheerfully in the language of the Rantul, while his wings quickly atrophied and retreated inside of his body. “I assume you are the one they call the Pale Matriarch, are you?”

“Yes.” Anak'si replied cautiously. She was a bit surprised that Blueskin had spoken in the language of her species, but she tried not to show it. Instead, she studied him to discern any possible weakness. By human standards, the leader of the orcs was very handsome, gorgeous even, with a perfectly toned body and strong but pleasant features that somehow perfectly complimented his more exotic oni traits, but there was something unnatural and artificial about his good looks. He also looked completely calm and carefree, but the arachne could feel power and barely restrained violence radiating from him like heat from a stove.

“Good!” Blueskin said with a smile. “I've been looking for you for quite some time! Who would have guessed that you would be so close to my home, eh?” He let out a cold chuckle. “Anyway, you don’t need to worry. Though initially I intended to just kill now, now I’ve got a proposition for you.”

“Is that so?” Anak'si asked. “What kind of proposition do you have for me?”

She struggled to keep herself calm and level-headed. She had no doubt that the Oni was ready to attack her at any moment, and while she was confident in her own power something told her that a direct one-on-one confrontation with the Blue Terror would not end in her favor. However, she had an ace up her sleeve, in the form of Nero, who she sensed slowly approaching the oni's back, and this knowledge managed to calm her down a bit. There was nothing in the Caligare Forest that a Deathstalker couldn't kill if they had the element of surprise, and if she managed to gain enough time for Nero to get into the perfect position, then the leader of the orcs was as good as dead.

“Well, I am in need of your ability, so I was thinking of forming some sort of alliance.” Blueskin replied. “You're the one that can control the Brain Spiders, aren't you?”

“How the hell does he know that?'' Arachne thought, but she tried to keep a straight face. For a moment, she thought to deny that affirmation, but she decided otherwise. After all, she wanted to drag along the conversation and the Oni was soon going to be dead anyway.

“Yes, I am.” She confirmed, as cautiously as she could, staring at her opponent to gauge his reaction. “How do you know that?”

“Ah!” The oni smirked. “What do you take me for? Some of those stereotypical big bad evil guys that spill out their whole plan as soon as they think they got the hero cornered? Sorry sweetheart, but I'm not telling.” He paused for a second and then added, in a more serious tone: “Anyway, I came here because I need the Brain Spiders for my plans, and that means that I need you, apparently. Surrender peacefully and agree to help me and in return I'll guarantee your safety.”

This time, Anak'si couldn't keep some of her confusion from showing on her face. Blueskin wasn't talking like an orc, or like a member of any race of the Caligare Forest. He was talking like a human, and one from her old world at that!

“Is he a reincarnated human too?” She thought. “Or did he learn about those things in this world? If he is... well, that would explain why he's so different from the rest of the orcs. He did make his appearance in this world as the same time I did, after all.”

For a brief moment, she wondered if she could have Nero stand down and earnestly try to talk things down with Blueskin. After all, if he really was a reincarnated human, she could tell him of their common origin in order to find some common ground and maybe even form an alliance.

But this thought only lasted for a brief moment before her suspicion and pride kicked in. After all, even if the Blue Terror was actually a reincarnated human, that didn't automatically make him trustworthy, and besides she really didn’t like the idea of sharing command with —or even worse, being subservient to— someone else. It was better to just let Nero kill him.

Still, in order to make things easier for the Deathstalker, she pretended to be interested.

“Let's say that I do as you ask. What guarantee do I have that you’ll keep your word and you won't harm me after I’ve helped you?” Anak'si said, trying to sound scared and cornered, but secretly getting ready for the moment when Nero would attack. The spider was nowhere to be seen, but she felt its presence getting ever so closer to the oni.

“Well, you have my word of course. Scout’s honor!” Blueskin grinned. “Besides, your power to control spiders would be really useful for my future plans. So it’s in my best interest to actually leave you unharmed.”

Nero reached the right position, just a few meters from the oni, and was preparing to attack. Meanwhile, Anak'si just kept talking, trying to further distract the Blue Terror.

“Those are not really solid guarantees, as far as I'm concerned.” She said drily.

“They should be!” Blueskin replied, starting to sound annoyed. “Listen here, honey, you got no choice. Either you surrender now, or I will...”

At that exact moment, Nero threw himself against the oni, moving almost too fast for the eye to see, and protruding his scythe-like limbs towards the oni’s neck.

And yet, somehow Blueskin managed to avoid that attack. Reacting to some kind of instinct or foresight, he jumped to the right, barely dodging the chitin blades aimed at his vital areas. However a few attacks still partially connected, biting deep into his flesh and causing the oni's dark green blood to spray everywhere.

Blueskin grunted, but even then he didn’t let the surprise or the pain slow him down and he started to transform into a shape more suited for combat. The scales that covered his skin got thicker and his claws grew longer , while his wounds closed immediately, leaving nothing but a faint scar behind. Nero, however, did not let him complete his metamorphosis, launching another series of attacks that forced the oni on the defensive and opened many small wounds on his body.

The Blue Terror growled in anger and tried to put some space between himself and his opponent, but at that moment Anak'si also joined the fight to support her bodyguard. She pointed her right hand against the oni and shooted a thick, silvery and ethereal web from her palm. The web flew in the air like a projectile, hitting Blueskin in the legs and binding them tightly, causing the leader of the orcs to trip and fall to the ground. Nero was immediately over him, slashing and stabbing the oni's flesh with his chitin talons like some sort of living blender.

Blueskin growled in pain and frustration but he still managed to raise his arms, protecting his head from the attacks aimed at his head and neck, but still the Deathstalker's assault was so relentless that he couldn't do anything else..

Then, all of a sudden, the oni opened his mouth and his tongue, now long like that of a chameleon and with a dark stinger on its tip, darted out like an arrow, piercing one of Nero's eyes. The spider shrieked and momentarily interrupted his attack, allowing Blueskin to grab one of the Deathstalker's legs and throw him a dozen of meters away.

The two opponents immediately got up, but this time it was the oni who went on the offensive, growing two times his original size and trying to tear the spider apart with his now oversized claws. However, the Deathstalker was still the faster of the two, dodging the powerful but clumsy attacks of his opponent and retaliating with powerful slashes, but sadly none of those attacks were enough to stop the oni, who simply ignored and regenerated any wound he received and doubled his efforts to grab his enemy. From the looks of it, it was the Blue Terror who held the advantage due to his supernatural toughness and regeneration, and it was only a matter of time before he managed to catch Nero and put an end to the fight. That is, unless something else intervened to tip the scale of the fight in the Deathstalker's favor. And that was exactly what Anak'si did.

While the two opponents had been on the ground, she had taken the time to conjure another web, spinning the ethereal threads into a long and thin whip, and as soon as she saw her bodyguard in difficulty she used her newly created weapon to attack the oni.

The whip slashed in the air with unnatural speed, letting out an eerie hiss on the way, and suddenly Blueskin howled in pain, as his right arm had been completely cut off. Nero immediately capitalized on that distraction, renewing his relentless offense.

Meanwhile Anak'si attacked once again, cracking her whip at the oni's head, but this time he narrowly managed to dodge and the attack slashed through a big boulder instead, cutting it neatly in two as if it was made of butter. However that attack wasn't a complete waste, since Nero took advantage of the distraction to inflict numerous deep wounds on his opponent’s torso.

The arachne found herself smiling with confidence and excitement.  The Blue Terror had greatly underestimated her by coming to face her alone, and now he was about to pay with his life for that mistake. And after he had been removed, dealing with the rest of the orc army wouldn't be too hard.

It seemed that things were finally going to get better, after all.

She prepared to crack her whip again, this time aiming at the oni's legs, when suddenly something hit her from the side, throwing her off balance and causing her attack to miss the target completely.

“What the...” She started to curse, but then she shrieked in pain, as something cut deeply into one of her legs. She immediately turned to face the attacker, but when she glanced in the direction from which she had been assaulted, she saw nothing. Instead, something cut deeply in one of her hind legs, causing her to scream once again.

For another few seconds, Anak'si tried to turn towards her mysterious enemy, but they kept circling behind her, taking advantage of her huge body to keep themselves in her blind spot.

“Ah, so that's how you want to tango, uh!?!” The Arachne thought with fury. “Let's see if you can dance with this!”

She quickly gestured with her hands, and suddenly a silvery sphere materialized over her head, before exploding in a circle that sprayed webs all around her, finally managing to hit and entangle her attacker. Anak'si, her face deformed by pure, unadultered fury, finally had the time to turn to face that mysterious assailant, and when she did she found herself in front of one of the most peculiar creatures she had seen in her time in the forest. Despite it being clearly an ogre, it was the most human and feminine one that the Matriarch had ever seen, having shapely proportions, more delicate traits and even being much smaller than the rest of its kin.
The female-looking ogre held a shortsword in its right hand and was currently trying to use it to cut the webs that entangled it and when Anak'si gave a look at that weapon she realized that it was covered in black blood... her own blood.

Feeling her mind filled with murderous fury, the Matriarch lifted her hand, creating another ethereal whip to deliver the killing blow with. That damn ogre bitch had dared to harm her, and nothing short of death would suffice as punishment for such an indignity! She would cut that detestable creature in two!

But before she could actually do it she felt a shrill shriek of pain coming from behind her, followed by a nauseating crunching sound.

With a sense of dread slowly replacing her anger, Anak'si turned around and what she saw sent chills of terror and panic down her spine.

While she was busy dealing with the female ogre the fight between Nero and Blueskin had continued and just a few moments before it had reached its conclusion. The oni was covered head to toe in grievous wounds in addition to his missing arm, but still he was standing victorious, holding the headless corpse of the Deathstalker with his remaining hand and loudly chewing something in his now oversized maw. From the bite marks on the spider's exoskeleton, it was pretty easy to deduce that his head must have been bit off by the Blue Terror.

The oni finally gulped down his meal, and as he did so he seemed to almost swell with energy, his wounds immediately closing and his bloody stump starting to bubble and grow until it regenerated into a new arm.

“Burp!” Blueskin belched and threw away the rest of Nero's body. “Ah! That hit the spot! This spider's aura was really amazing!” With a satisfied smirk, he turned to Anak'si. “Thanks for the meal! It really hit the spot!”

The oni's threatening aura, which had already been exceptional before, had now increased further, and now it was so strong that the Rantul Matriarch actually found it difficult just to breathe in front of that terrifying presence. Her instincts were screaming at her to run away, but her body was paralyzed by fear.

“I'll tell you what!” The Blue Terror continued cheerfully. “To show you my gratitude for such a fine meal, I'll renew my offer in spite of your… uncooperative attitude! Surrender now and agree to serve me and I'll spare your life! However, if you try anything funny again, well...” His smile got unnaturally wide. “Well, I think I've still room for seconds!”

Anak’si trembled. For the first time since he had been reborn in this new world she actually felt helpless and vulnerable, all of her pride and ambition drowned in a sea of pure, abject terror.

“I… I surrender.” She stuttered with a shrill voice. “Please! Don’t kill me… I’ll do anything you want! Anything! J-just d-don’t kill m-me!”

“Very well.” The leader of the orcs nodded. “In that case, for starters, free Tiny-Sneaky from your webs”

“Tiny-Sneaky?” The Arachne asked, a bit confused.

“My lieutenant.” Blueskin explained with a sigh, and he pointed at the female looking ogre still enveloped in Anak’si’s ethereal webs. “Her. And do not try anything funny, or you’ll win a one-way ticket to the town of My Stomach!”

“Yes. I understand.” The Matriarch said, and at a wave of her hand, the webs that tied Tiny-Sneaky simply disappeared.

The ogre immediately got up, nodded gratefully in Blueskin’s direction and put her shortsword back in its sheath, and the oni returned the nod.

“Are you alright, Tiny?” The Blue Terror asked.

“Yes, I am.” The ogre replied. “That web was nothing. It just slowed me down.”

“Speaking of slow…” The oni said, with some disappointment in his voice. “What took you so long to intervene? I was almost starting to get worried for my life!”

“I needed to get as close as possible  to make sure I would actually hit her.” Tiny-Sneaky shrugged, and gave Anak’si a hard stare. “The Pale Matriarch is dangerous. If she had caught me before I got close enough, she would have probably killed me.”

“Fair enough.” Blueskin nodded. “Can’t really fault you for being careful.” He paused for a second, and gave Anak’si a pensive stare. “And speaking of careful…”

Without any warning, the oni threw himself against the Arachnei, grabbing one of her legs and ripping it off with casual ease, causing the arachne to shriek in pain. She immediately tried to run away, but the Blue Terror was faster and seized another one of her legs, ripping it away as well.

The Rantul Matriarch howled, falling to the ground in shock as tears filled her eyes.

“Wait! Wait!” She cried. “W-what are you doing!?! You said you wouldn’t harm me if I did what you t-told me to do! You p-promised!”

“Nah, that was my first offer, and I really think you refused that, unless making your spider bodyguard attack me was your way of saying I Surrender.” The oni explained, in a sardonic tone. “My second offer, the one you actually accepted, was that I would spare your life. And I’m not killing you. I’m just making sure that you won’t run away at the first occasion… and without legs, it’s certainly difficult to run, isn’t it?”

“N-no!” Anak’si cried. “Please! D-don’t do that!”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Blueskin smiled encouragingly. “I’m not gonna rip off all of your legs. I’ll leave you three of them, so that you can actually move around on your own. After all, it’d be a bother if I had to always carry you around.”

“Wait! Wait!” The Arachne raised her hands to stop the oni. “I have something to tell you! Something important!”

“Oh yeah? What is it?” The oni asked, seemingly amused.

“I am… I am a reincarnated human from Earth!” She cried, her voice broken by pain and hiccups. “And… you are one too, aren’t you? You must be! You speak too well for an orc!”

Blueskin paused for a moment, giving a brief look at Tiny-Sneaky, but the female-looking ogre didn’t seem to react at all to this revelation, and after that he nodded in response.

“Well, good deduction there!” He smirked. “You’re right on the money. I am —or rather, I was— a human in my past life. But I can’t see how that is relevant to our current agreement.”

“I mean…” Anak’si tried to think of something quickly. “I mean that we don’t have to fight. You know that I’m not a monster, so you can trust me! There is no need to...” She paused, gulping hard. “No need to rip off my other legs.”

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong.” The oni replied with a mocking smile “I’m not gonna trust you just because we share a common origin. In fact, that makes me trust you even less.” He paused, and then added.  “Besides, I already suspected that you and the Crimson Devil could be reincarnators like me. Exceptional members of their species, born and risen to power about at the same time… it doesn’t take a genius to see the similarities. But thank you for confirming it to me anyway. As a token of my gratitude, I’ll leave you another leg… at least with four you will be able to walk more or less properly!”

“No wait…” The Matriarch tried to interrupt him again, but this time time the Blue Terror didn’t stop.

The desperate screams of the Arachne echoed around the mountains, while behind her the Rantul nest slowly burned to the ground.