Exodus: The Assassin's Path 37 The Spider Queens

At the far end of one of the off-chute pa.s.sages, Q found a bit of black cloth soaked in fresh blood. There were signs of something being dragged, the smear of blood leading to a hole that Q could barely squeeze through. It dropped straight down perhaps 20 feet before ending in a large amphitheater.

He had expected more darkness, but instead it was a fairly well lit area. The flora and fauna of these caves seemed to create a dim sort of light, more so because of the luminescent sphere that he held. The entire cavern looked like one big toothy maw, with stalact.i.tes and stalagmites barring it's rocky fangs.

He had found her at last. A huge black spider with gold streaks hovered over her, spinning webbing around her feet. The exhausted girl was barely conscious. She was kicking her feet weakly, as she struggled to get loose.

"You dare touch her." A whispered voice filled with dreadful intentions. "You some sort of spider King?" He couldn't tell how badly Leah was hurt, but he knew one thing, he would bring her out of here no matter what.

The spider stopped what it was doing and turned slowly, Q could see intelligence in its eyes. The spider King advanced on him, leaving Leah on the ground.

"Its fine.. I can do this all day."

It stopped ten yards away and clicked his mandibles together loudly. The skittering of hundreds more legs told him that the upper level spiders were just the beginning.

"d.a.m.n..." There were hundreds more spiders closing in, all of them were big ones. "Well, I suppose just this once I might consider negotiations."

A laughter as cold as ice crystals sounded from above him. Slowly, a figure lowered itself down from the ceiling, until it stood next to the Spider King.

"There's always a Queen." Q muttered, gripping his Halberd tighter.

She had the lower half of a arachnid, her legs and body were armored with a dark carapace. Her upper half was a perfect female form. Snow white skin, full round b.r.e.a.s.t.s, dark hair and a beautiful face, as cold as winter. Her icy blue eyes watched him. "I don't see many options for you human."

"What do you mean? I've got hundreds of options. Depending on who I kill first."

"So interesting." A velvety feminine voice spoke from behind him. It literally made his heart race, it had a similar effect on the Spider King. A second Queen had arrived. This one was as white as fresh snow, silver hair and red eyes gave her a slightly demonic look. She smiled at Q, her fangs extending slightly over her lips. 'd.a.m.n.. this one wants to eat me.'

Q glanced back and forth between the two queens. "This some kind of turf war?" 'Sweet Mother.. I've dogs.h.i.+t luck today.'

"I don't know who you are, but I am Queen Moa. These lands and those above, belong to me." She gestured with her hand and dozens of large spiders started to move forward.

"I am.. not interested in listening to anything you have to say." The White Spider Queen raised a hand and a wall of white flame blocked the advancing spiders, they scurried away in panic. Three large white spiders stepped out from behind the Silver haired spider.

"Hmm four against perhaps fifteen? That isn't too bad." Q noticed that the wall of flames didn't burn away, 'gotta love spider mages.'

*blink*

Q gripped one of the big Stalact.i.tes with his legs, some thirty feet off the cavern floor. He drew both guns and blasted away at its base, it crumbled immediately sending him and the surrounding stalact.i.tes cras.h.i.+ng toward cavern floor.

*Return*

The stalact.i.tes impacted the cavern floor with a deafening crash, landing in the middle of Moa's forces. One of the larger stalact.i.tes landed on the left side of the spider king, crus.h.i.+ng three of its legs and pinning it.

A Spider King has been critically wounded.

*Blink*

*Backstab* Critical hit 3300 damage, bonus 3300 damage.

A Spider King has been slain, you are awarded 32000 experience points.

Q backed to where Leah was laying, standing over her he pulled his Halberd. One of the bigger White spiders stealthed, and then reappeared behind Spider Queen Moa, attacking her from behind. Moa screamed in pain and backed away.

*Blink*

Q appeared behind Moa.

*Backstab* Critical hit 2650, Bonus damage 2650

*Return*

Q noticed that two spiders immediately attacked the white spider who had attacked their Queen.

*Open Range Pistoleros* 534 damage, 745 damage, 764 damage, 660 damage, 450 damage, 748 damage.

*Blink*

*Backstab* Critical Hit 4870 damage, 4870 bonus damage

An Elite Spider has been slain, you are awarded 13400 experience points.

It was over nearly as quickly as it started. Spider Queen Moa retreated to her ceiling nest, most of the larger spiders were dead or trapped behind the flame wall. Q glanced over at the other Queen. She had four black spiders Mezzed, she kept them like that and motioned for her subordinates to finish them off.

Q ignored them and knelt next to the apple princess. He pulled up Leah's head slightly and forced his only bottle of Cleanse between her lips. She coughed weakly, but then swallowed the contents. Q bent down and kissed her forehead. "Good girl."

Q picked her up in his arms and looked back toward the the Silver haired Spider Queen. "You going up after her?"

The silver hair swayed from side to side as she shook her head. "No, we are retreating, you should do the same."

Q started out at a trot, as he was exiting he noticed a tiny skeleton wearing a pair of goggles. It's skeletal arms were clutching a backpack to his rib-cage, Q stopped long enough to sling it over his shoulder before leaving.

Up through the lower levels he ran, he glanced back once and saw that the white spiders were also heading out. "You should hurry," he called back.

A few minutes later they reached the surface. Q didn't stop, up the side of the steep bank, he grabbed Scorch's lead and continued to run.

He was a half a mile away when the first explosion shook the ground. This set off a series of explosions that lasted several seconds. Under the intense tremors he was knocked off his feet.

Q held Leah close while s.h.i.+elding her on the ground. A golden light flashed near him and a s.h.i.+mmering Crystal Chest appeared in it's midst.

*Ding* level 36

*Ding* level 37

System Message: You have eradicated the spider presence in Fora and earned a new t.i.tle, Arachni Nemesis.

Arachni Nemesis

All damage to Arachnids

is multiplied

by 5.

Additional Effect: Incoming damage

from arachnids is halved. All critical

damage is tripled.

System Message: You have removed the Arachnid presence from Fora, please designate credit.

"Removed the Arachnid presence from Fora? I don't think so." Q looked up to see the White Spider Queen and her three guards advance toward him.

The Queen stopped a few yards away, there was no sign of aggression in her movements. "You should go ahead and claim the credit Q."

Q stared as the air around her slowly rippled. Q felt as if his chin were dragging the ground.

"Still catching flies?" Sinful Jinn grinned at him.

"d.a.m.n it girl!" One of the big white spiders changed slowly into Rhapsody. "I wanted to mess with him a bit, I thought you said you could hold it"

The stealth spider slowly morphed into Mojo, she knelt down next to Leah. "Holding four illusions, a fake fire wall and doing crowd control, I'd say that was pretty amazing." She took out some items from her bag and began cleaning Leah's wounds.

Jinn blushed slightly but then scowled at Q. "You have friends you know!"

"Fora Development Group," Q said aloud.

World Broadcast: The Fora Development Group has destroyed Spider Queen Moa, and removed the Arachnid Monarchy from Fora.

System Message: New Faction Options are available.

"Arachnid monarchy? d.a.m.n, I thought it was just a bunch of spiders." Q finally looked at Jinn, both her and Rhapsody were watching him. "I'm sorry, I will try to rely on my friends a bit more in the future."

Rhapsody smiled and nodded, she threw an arm around Jinn's shoulders. "So how come your spider was a smoking hot demon queen, while we looked like poor cousins?"

Mojo was helping Leah sit up, her color was steadily getting better. "I would ask that Question too Jinn."

"Well, there can only be one Queen, right?" Jinn looked at Q, 'did Mojo just tease me?'

"I'm curious as to how you managed to find me?" Q looked back toward the caverns, a ma.s.sive crater had formed.

Jinn and Rhapsody ignored him and knelt next to Leah, concern on their faces.

A voice spoke from behind him. "I put a mark of execution on you four days ago when I tried to kill you. It lasts for a week or so. We used it to find you."

The fourth spider in the group was a young woman with light brown hair and amber eyes. About time she showed up, Q thought to himself. "You are Crimson Rose?"

She nodded at him.

"Mark of execution? Is that part of your TAP Cla.s.s skill set?" Q thought she looked more like someones little sister, then an end game a.s.sa.s.sin. She definitely needs a better name.

Again she nodded.

"Well, that's all in the past now Crow. You've completely erased any debt between us." He glanced down at the Redhead who was now sitting up. "In Fact.." He reached into his inventory and took out the Executioners Ax he had taken from her. He held it out.

"You are returning it?" She was so surprised that she didn't think to deny the nickname. She didn't know what to think about him. In three days, he had grown at a stunning rate. She agreed with his methods in the caves, and felt more at ease knowing he wouldn't show mercy in a fight.

"What happen with those caves Q'Ikah?" Mojo wrapped a heavy blanket around Leah's shoulders.

"Those were the explosives Remmy and I had initially used to set up a kill zone during the Orion attack. After I recovered them, I left them in my pack.." Q smiled to himself, blowing s.h.i.+t up was kinda fun.

Crow hadn't been there for the Orion raid, but she'd heard some of the details. "You never planned on letting the spiders go?"

"Not for one second, I had been setting those charges all night.." Quinn mounted Scorch and bent down as Mojo lifted Leah up to him. 'Way stronger then someone her size should be.'

The rest of the group mounted up, Mojo had the Crystal Chest on back of her horse. They set out at a comfortable walk.

Mojo and Q rode side by side. Crow was a short distance behind them and the two friends let them have some s.p.a.ce.

"Hey Jinn.. every notice that Mojo calls Q, Q'Ikah?"

Jinn nodded, "know what it means?"

Rhapsody shook her head, "maybe it means s.h.i.+thead."

The two women laughed loudly causing Crow to glare back at them. Rhapsody stuck her tongue out at her. Q may have made nice, but Jinn and Rhapsody weren't so easy.

An hour later Q sat outside Leah's tent, Grace had been with her for quite some time. Finally, the tent flap opened and she came out.

"How is she?" Q had wanted to walk in several times but he had held himself back.

"She's doing really well, just needs a bit of rest." Grace's eyes looked a lot more confident since she had joined Raven.

"Any treatment concerns?" Mojo held the crystal chest in her hands.

"None, she needs a bit of sleep. I've healed her wounds, and given her an ant.i.toxin for the spider venom." She stared hard at Q. "Don't you need some also?"

"No, I got lucky and nothing bit me," Q said with a straight face. 'I just wont tell Mojo about that... or the horseback riding.'

"Let's get some rest then, we'll open the chest later." Mojo stepped close and hugged Q with her free arm. "You have to get back?"

Q nodded, "not right away, but soon. You still up for a trip to Zohai when I return?"

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it," Mojo walked away without saying anything else.

Q watched her leave, "d.a.m.n, I forgot to thank her."

Q made a quick trip to the river and cleaned up a bit. The stickiness of spider ichor was on everything he was wearing. After a few minutes, Q finally he returned to Leah's tent.

He stared at her from the entrance, his throat tightening with emotion. 'I should stay closer to Raven until we are more seasoned.' He sighed heavily and started removing his armor. He dropped all his TAP Gear on the floor, except for the pants. "Edit TAP Gear, Change Pants to flannel shorts.

He easily slid into her bedroll. It was actually cozy. He wrapped her in his arms, letting her head rest against his shoulder.

He felt himself getting a little drowsy, 'hey... I thought you couldn't take naps in TAP, a side effect of the poison maybe?'

The sound of someone crying woke him from his light sleep, two arms were wrapped tightly around him, as she cried softly. "I knew you would come.. even when I was really scared. I never once gave up, ....cuz I knew.."

He stroked her head gently. "You were very brave."

She stopped crying after a few minutes and then raised her head up, touching her lips to his.

Q smiled at her,"snotted me.. just a little."

"Oh sorry," she grabbed a cloth and wiped her tears and nose before settling back against him and kissing him again. "Better?"

"Yep... only, that was my s.h.i.+rt."

She laughed at him as she snuggled closer. "I'm sleepy but I want to... thank you properly.. some rest first, then a bath. I'll be at my best then." She covered a small yawn and lay her head against his chest.

"I'll wait til you fall asleep, then I have to head out for a bit."

"To the outworld," She asked?

Q nodded.

"I'm still going with you when you get back" Her eyes closed gradually as her breathing deepened and slowed.

Q smiled against her head. "Wouldn't have it any other way Miss Fintree"

"Log Off Tap." He whispered.