Seeds of Discordia

Liam sprinted as fast as he could away from the area that Silent Saboteur was in. He had a couple of reasons as to why he decided to sprint away. Besides the obvious of trying to get away from Silent Saboteur, he had felt the Danger Sense that was a mild warning start to grow more and more.

At first when he had noticed it, it was right before he used Shadow Double to distract the group of Lunar Tyto Albas. It had crept up his spine and almost made him jump the gun on his makeshift plan to distract and trap the creatures. He had to clam his nerves down a bit so that way he didn’t rush it, but the moment he had thrown the flask, that was when the feeling his Danger Sense had screamed at him. He didn’t wait to see the results after throwing the flask, but instead started running so he wouldn’t let the Poison Mist catch up to him.

He started slowing down as he felt his Danger Sense start to lessen again. He could feel his heart pounding against his chest as he tried gasping for air. Luckily for him, the shadowy mask that appears over his face each time he uses Spirit Weave doesn’t restrict his breathing. He could take in gulps of fresh air as if it weren’t there. He didn’t know how that worked, but he wasn’t going to complain.

As he took in a few breaths of air he glanced at his stamina bar and decided he needed to refill it a bit since it was under half way. He also wanted to test a theory he had started to form as he breathed through his mask. He pulled out a Weak Orange Stamina Potion and pressed it against his lips with the mask still on. He couldn’t feel the glass touching his lips and as soon as the liquid pressed up against the shadowy mask it stopped.

He moved the vial away from his lips and stared at it. It looked like he was able to breath just fine, but anything that wasn’t air couldn’t get through the mask. That was a strange thing to him. He pulled the mask down enough that he could allow the liquid to enter his mouth. He was now curious if it only let fresh air in or any kind of air. Of course, that was something he didn’t want to test right now since he wasn’t sure how deadly the Poison Mist Noxi made chasing him would be.

After finishing the potion and placing it back into his inventory, Liam looked around to get a better idea of his surroundings. The cover from the crown of the trees was starting to get thicker and denser making the light from the full moon disappear. He stared forward and noticed the distance was getting even darker than where he was. Even though every bone in his bone screamed that going farther in this direction was a bad idea, he also had a feeling that was where he needed to go to reach the end of this test.

He decided to enter this darker part of the forest with some caution. While he had Dark Vision thanks to his racial trait, it wasn’t at a high enough level where it could see everything in the dark. He slowly moved his head from left to right, making sure he didn’t miss any details that gave away a potential ambush.

The more he walked and scanned his surroundings, the more he started to notice something. Even though he subconsciously knew the area was pretty dark, to him, the whole area and everywhere he looked, looked to be dimly light. No changes in the darkness happened. He stopped and was confused. He gently pulled his goggles off of his eyes to see if there was a difference and was shocked. The area around him grew much darker. What was a slightly dimmed area like the moment where it was still light right after the sun had set was now an almost pitched black similar to dark night with a crescent moon.

He placed the goggles back on and thought about this discovery. It was good to know this now. This meant that areas he couldn’t see that well due to his Dark Vision being too low, could be resolved thanks to his goggles. He thought about the effects his goggles gave. While he was starting to understand the meaning behind some of the effects there was still one that he wasn’t sure about.

+ 25% to detecting unusual creatures or people hiding in the shadows. That’s what it had said in the description. He could take an educated guess on the latter, but the former was a mystery. What did it mean by unusual creatures?

Liam’s ears suddenly twitched as he heard something not too far away. This sound brought him out from his thoughts and made him go on alert. He looked around and peered as hard as he could for movement or unusual areas. The noise sounded like a high pitched chittering mixed with little ticks against wood.

Liam’s brows furrowed as he tried to think what that noise reminded him of. However, he wasn’t able to think much about it because a similar noise came from his left. Then another to his right.

The hairs on the back of Liam’s neck started to rise as the entire area was filled with the noise of ticking against wood and high pitch chittering. The noise at first was faint, but as more and more joined at separate times it grew in volume and pitch. Liam didn’t like this. He was getting a very bad feeling the more the noises grew.

He decided that going forward from here would not be the best idea and took a step back. However, the moment he took that step back, the noise stopped, and an eerie silence filled the area surrounding him.

Liam wasn’t sure which was creepier, the noise from before or the eerie silence that screamed in the back of his mind something bad was about to happen. Liam’s body suddenly tensed as he felt something slowly coming down from above him. He readied himself in case he needed to fight or flee, but as soon as the creature appeared in front of him his eyes widened, and he felt his body freeze in place. Hanging in front of him face to face with a misty black spider with the body size of a medium sized dog and legs longer than his own arms.

For a brief moment they stared at each other. Liam held his breath not sure what to do. A cold chill ran down his spine as a black inky liquid dripped out from the creature’s mouth. As soon as the liquid hit the ground it dissipated into a puff of smoke. While Liam stared at the creature he felt something familiar yet foreign to him. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he wasn’t able to think much about it as it let out a loud screech.

More loud screeches echoed all around him from above, dragging his attention from the creature before him to the tree branches above him. The sight he witnessed made his blood run cold. The entire crown of trees all around him wriggled and squirmed from the massive number of black spiders that moved about while staring at him.

“Fuck me,” Liam cursed softly as a ripple washed over him in the air from behind.

A playful giggle bounced through the air as an amused feminine voice replied, “I would highly recommend you don’t. She has been known to eat those who mate with her.”

Goosebumps spread across Liam’s arms and neck as he heard the voice. Even though he didn’t want to take his eyes off the creature before him, Liam slowly turned around to see Lady Arachne staring at him with a wicked grin.

“I must admit,” the short woman started. “I didn’t expect you to get passed Silent Saboteur.” She brought a hand to her chin as four of her spider limbs from behind her stretched out. The top two stabbed a branch above her and raised her body a bit as she looked down at Liam. “He must have used you as training for his young owls. I heard some of them have been acting quite haughty as of late. Hopefully, you created a big enough blunder that their egos have been flattened a bit.”

Liam wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t sure what to do either. He had gone from an Owl hunting ground and right into a spider nest. He knew he was screwed but didn’t realized how screwed he was until she appeared.

“Tell me Little Kitten,” Lady Arachne started back up as she grew tired of his silence. “Do you fear spiders?”

Liam felt a cold chill run down his spine as the sounds of the massive amounts of black spiders above him started moving around. That made him take a quick glance up at them and to his horror they were moving around in a more agitated way. They crawled over each other, trying to get into a better spot as they moved out a bit more from the edges. Some tried snapping at others while others looked to be stabbing their sharp claw-like legs at the others who tried biting at them.

 His Danger Sense slowly flared more as he looked back at Lady Arachne. He tried to recompose himself as he chanted the words Calm the Storm in his mind while breathing out slowly. When he felt his nerves calm down enough he responded, “A couple here and there aren’t that scary. A pool of them above my head though…” Liam pointed up as he gave her a grimace to emphasize his next words. “That’s nightmare fueled atrocities right there.”

Black inky liquid dripped in several different spots around him. As they hit the ground they puffed out into a small cloud of black smoke. Liam then pointed at those spots and added, “The inky black liquid turning into…” A sudden thought popped into his mind as he realized why the puffs of black smoke seemed familiar. He then looked back at Lady Arachne and asked, “You’re shitting me.”

With a straight face, Lady Arachne tilted her head to the side. Her voice, though, betrayed the faux look of confusion she was trying to go for as she asked with an amused tone, “What’s wrong?”

Liam narrowed his eyes at her and asked, “These spiders have Shadow Magic don’t they?”

A wicked grin formed on her face as she tilted her head to the other side and replied, “You could say that…or you could say…”

Liam felt a ripple suddenly wave out all around him, cutting the woman off.

With a frown the woman stated, “What’s the harm with answering his question? He has Shadow Magic himself…”

Another ripple echoed all around him.

“Fine,” Lady Arachne sighed with some irritation. She looked back at Liam and said, “Let’s leave that question for another time. For now…my little cuties are hungry and restless. Try not to get captured.”

As soon as she finished her words, Liam felt his Danger Sense flare up worse than when the Poison Mist was released. His entire body was covered in it as he realized how dangerous of a situation he really was in.

 Half of the eight legged horrors shot out strings of thick black webbings right at him. Liam jumped backwards in time to dodge the stream that flew right for him. He then spun around and bolted as fast as he could as the massive amount of spiders made their next move.

Behind him he heard Lady Arachne’s voice call out, “Good Luck.”

As Liam ran, he jumped to his left and right, dodging more streams that were shot at him. A few times he had to stop at a dime to not collide with a spider that tried jumping right on top of him. Each time one fell, he would halt his forward momentum to either juke left or right or spin around one of the nasty buggers that decided to try and bite him the moment they landed.

As he did this, he noticed the wave of creatures moving along the branches above him. Even though a majority of them had either fallen down or jumped down, there was still enough to fill the crown, making it seem that their bodies were the tree leaves themselves.

Not wanting to give them a chance to catch up to him or try and trap him, he made a decision he wasn’t entirely happy about. He wanted to save some of these for future fights, but he felt that the situation he was in warranted the use of the items he had recently made.

Liam opened the flap on his potion pouch that rested against his leg and pulled out two small flasks. He threw one to the area of trees on the ground to his right and another to his left where a massive wave of the Shadowy spiders had started flowing down from. After running pass those spots he reached for two more and threw them up into two different areas of the massive pool that swam above him.

He didn’t need to turn around to see if the flasks of Weak Magnetic Shockwave that he threw against the two trees and the two Weak Implosive Heatwaves he threw into the pool of spiders above him had any effects. The screams that accompanied the sounds of fire exploding and lightning crackling were all he needed to hear.

He wanted to believe that those four Chemicalized Creation flasks were all he needed to use to stop his pursuers, but the loud angry hissing and screeches that mixed with the ticking sounds of thousands of claw-like legs told him that all he was able to accomplish at most was make them a bit wary of what else he had while slowing them down a bit.

As Liam picked up his speed he could feel his Danger Sense start to move about his body. What once had covered his entire body now covered only his entire back. The feeling the ability gave him had lessen a bit compared to how it felt earlier, but not by much. Instead, it told him that they were no longer surrounding him.

Liam felt some relief and believed he was going to get away. He felt some hope as a light caught his attention off in the distance. He wasn’t sure if that was the finish line or if it was just an opened up area. He’d take either or at this point. He just wanted out of this spidery nightmare. He didn’t want to admit it, but while he didn’t have a problem with a single spider or two, a group of shadowy, ink drooling spiders that came in assorted sizes was a different story.

He just needed to get to the lit up area. Then he felt that he would be done with these damned creatures. He picked up the pace as he pushed himself as hard as he could. He was almost there.

 As the light of the new area was coming closer and closer with each step he took, he realized that his Danger Sense had started to calm down some. He felt his body start to relax a bit as he let thoughts of victory start to fill his mind. That was until he ran right into something his sight didn’t see.

The collision between him and something invisible caught him off guard as he felt something suddenly snap. The feeling was around his waist. Since whatever he had hit didn’t stop him, he paid it no mind. That was his first mistake. Not too long after that, he felt the same sudden snapping feeling happen again. And again. And again. These times it was against his chest and biceps, legs, and even his forehead. His second mistake was he didn’t stop to think what it was as he kept feeling like he was running into something repeatedly.

He couldn’t see what it was, and he believed it was going to be nothing. However, after a few times of slamming into something he couldn’t see, he started to notice his speed had started slowing down. He felt his body tense as he continued pushing as hard as he could. However, the harder he pushed the more his lower half of his body started to slow. He looked down to see if he could figure out why this was happening, but he couldn’t see anything.

He wasn’t sure what was going on, but as he moved his legs he felt something was sticking and weighing his legs down. He tried to think about what it was that could do this, but the images running through his mind reverted to molasses or a giant pile of taffy or gum. As he thought this he didn’t see the rock he was coming up to. His left foot kicked it, causing him to stumble and spin.

As he spun around while leaning forward, his body suddenly came to a halt. Well, his body hadn’t completely halted. It felt like his bottom half landed on something springy as his body half bounced back and forth while remaining in the same spot. Confused as to what was going on, Liam remained leaning forward since his upper half didn’t feel like it was trapped on something like his lower.

“What the fuck?” Liam questioned as he tried moving his legs. No matter how hard he yanked or pulled, his legs were pulled back to the same spot, causing the rest of his body to spring slightly back and forth. To his right within arm’s length and slightly ahead of him was a decent size boulder.

A malefic giggle echoed all around him causing him to look towards the direction he had just came from. “Just so you know, you wont be able to free yourself. You, unfortunately, are snared in my little trap.”

“You’re little trap?” Liam asked while heaving and coughing a bit from running so hard.

“Yes, the darkness helped with hiding it, but allowing me to show you what you weren’t able to see,” Lady Arachne stated as she snapped her fingers.

All of a sudden thin black strings revealed themselves all around him. The things he had ran through, the very same things that his lower half was stuck to, were shadowy spider webs. He was literally stuck to a giant spider’s web.

Vibrations started to echo throughout the web, causing Liam to look up and around him. A shudder ran throughout his body as he witnessed multiple spiders slowly moving across the web. They didn’t come closer to him. Instead, they just spread out and stared at him.

Liam looked back at Lady Arachne. More spiders appeared behind her and sat there staring at him. He then asked, “So what now? Do we just hang here until Noxi’s Poison Mist reaches us or do we stop here?”

“Well, I mean you could try and struggle. You could try and free yourself, however I don’t think you have what it takes to get free so I guess we can just wait here until he makes his way here,” Lady Arachne answered. She then looked behind her and said, “It could take some time, but he’ll get here sooner or later…”

Liam noticed she looked like she was listening to something. A frown formed on her face. She looked to her right and said as quietly as she could, “No you guys can not eat him…I know he’s trapped, and he did some damage to those little cuties…No this is a test not a mission.”

Liam didn’t know who she was talking to nor did he like what he was hearing. He wasn’t sure if she could keep all these spiders under control after listening to her argue. He didn’t want to find out either. He needed to get free. He tried to think of what he could do to free himself.

“I don’t care what you think. You will listen to me, or I will put you in your place,” Lady Arachne stated.

Liam felt a ripple echo in the area as his danger sense started to light up once more. However, instead of it all around him it was coming from a spot close to the woman’s left. He knew if he didn’t do something he could end up getting hurt.

He looked around and when his eyes fell upon the boulder not too far from him he looked at the angle his Danger Sense was coming from. The angle was perfectly lined up for him to use Gravity Force Push. He looked back at Lady Arachne and noticed she was still arguing with who or whatever it was she was arguing with. Her attention wasn’t on the group of spiders that were slowly making their way pass her.

Feeling like she wasn’t going to be able to keep all the spider in line, Liam started to chant in as quiet of a whisper as he could he said, “Hinderances and obstacles blocking my path, weighed down by the law of Gravity. Reverse and move away from me, allowing the way to be clear. By the law of Gravity, I forcibly reject you. Gravity Force Push!”

Lady Arachne’s attention fell upon the three figures that thought were being sneaky. She was about to reprimand them but stopped as she felt something strange fill the air. She turned her focus on Liam and watched as the boulder he reached out and touched start to hover a bit in the air. She was curious and amazed at what was going on in from of her. She had some speculations about some of the possible magics he could have, but Gravity Magic was not on the list she had on the young man.

She watched with amusement as the boulder flew fast and slammed into the three rebellious Shade Stalker Spiders. Their bodies flew with the boulder as it slammed hard against them. She turned her head to get a good look at how far they had flown. She was impressed. Gravity Force Push was not a spell that could be received at a low level. While the level one could get it at wasn’t high, the amount of time one had to put into leveling the magic was quite a lot.

She turned her head back to look at Liam and was going to compliment him, but stopped as she watched him finish throwing some kind of liquid on the spider webbing around him.

She opened her mouth to ask what he was doing, but stopped once more as she heard him chant, “Come forth heat of flames and burn the pyre before you. Become the tool that will help. Light and Burn!”   

Light and Burn? Why would he use that… Lady Arachne started to think until she watched the liquid, he had thrown in certain areas, catch fire. The heat and flames that lit up on the spider web suddenly snapped.

Lady Arachne’s eyes widened with surprise. She then watched as Liam broke free from his trappings and ran for the lit area. She decided not to chase after him as she was both impressed and surprised with the young man. Not only did he show he was capable of protecting himself from the three Shade Stalker Spiders that tried to eat him, but he was resourceful enough to find a way to break free from the spider webbings.

“Are you just going to let him go like that?” a deep voice asked.

Lady Arachne turned to look at the branch that the portly man stood on. A group of Lunar Tyto Albas flapped around him, causing the Shade Stalker Spiders to move away.

“While its not entirely high talent impressiveness that I was hoping to see,” Lady Arachne started to reply as she turned to watched Liam disappear into the clearing. “I think he deserves this win due to his resourcefulness alone.”

Silent Saboteur let out a deep chuckle. “So, what I’m hearing is he impressed you enough to shock you into not retaliating?”

The short woman shook her head. “Think what you want. The test isn’t over yet. There is still one more he needs to get past.”

This made the bigger man stop laughing. He then let out a sigh as he said, “To be quite honest I was hoping he wouldn’t have to go up against her. She…has ways even I don’t quite agree with.”

Lady Arachne giggled a little bit. “I don’t see how. They are quite common abilities. Anyone could use the combinations she uses if they had the imagination.”

“I know,” Silent Saboteur stated. “That still doesn’t mean I have to agree with how she uses them.”

“Okay, okay,” Lady Arachne stated with a wave of her hand. This gesture told Silent Saboteur that she was done with the conversations. She then snapped her fingers causing all the spiders to rush towards her. As soon as they reached her feet they dove down, disappearing from sight. After the last one disappeared, the dark area underneath her quivered three times before settling down.

“Let’s go see how this plays out,” Lady Arachne stated as Silent Saboteur followed her.