The creature's piercing scream made the entire cavern tremble, releasing a terrifying wave of crushing mana.
[Status penalty inflicted – Fear: All stats are reduced by 15%, concentration and accuracy are also affected.]
The beast advanced slowly, each step heightening the tension and dread of the adventurers present. Zem, despite the unbearable pressure of the situation, analyzed the possibilities coldly and quickly. He immediately understood the gravity of the danger: this creature was clearly superior to them.
A mutation like this far exceeded the dungeon's initial predictions. They should have faced only a Spider General, but what stood before them was infinitely more threatening: a Spider Prince, clearly the result of an unforeseen mutation.
"Even for the three of us, bringing down this monster will be extremely difficult," Zem murmured gravely.
His gaze slid over the fifteen or so remaining adventurers, estimating their level to be around 80 or 90 at most. Zem immediately understood that their support would be limited.
"We should flee immediately through the entrance we used and come back with stronger reinforcements," Zem declared urgently.
He turned to his brothers, ready to give the signal, but before his voice could even leave his lips, several gigantic boulders were violently hurled into the air.
"No!" Zem shouted, powerless.
The rocks crashed down heavily on all the entrances, causing violent explosions. When the smoke cleared, every exit was completely blocked, trapping them definitively inside the cave.
Zem cast a dark look at the monster. He could have sworn he saw a subtle, evil smile form on its monstrous face. Not only did the creature possess exceptional strength, but it also displayed a terrible intelligence.
"It seems we don't really have a choice anymore," Élias said in a resigned voice, his sword erupting violently into flames.
"Exactly," Veid confirmed, making a whirling wind surge around him.
"If you want to survive, join us immediately!" Zem shouted to the adventurers, as lances of water appeared around him at once.
The adventurers grasped the urgency of the situation at once and rushed toward the three brothers. At the same time, the Spider Prince launched toward them at blinding speed. Zem then sent his aqueous lances to cover their advance.
The three brothers also moved quickly toward the struggling group, seeking to minimize the distance between them. The monster passed through the barrage of water lances with no apparent effort, dodging each projectile with staggering agility.
"Damn it!" Zem swore.
The creature suddenly came within range of a straggling adventurer and was about to brutally eliminate him when a wall of flames conjured by Élias narrowly blocked its lethal attack.
Flaming swords then came crashing down on the Spider Prince, forcing it to retreat temporarily before resuming its frenzied charge. Its incredible speed allowed it to pass through the incessant attacks with frightening ease.
Once again, the creature drew dangerously close to another adventurer. Élias hastily raised a second wall of flames, but to his great surprise, the man stopped abruptly.
"What are you doing? Run!" Élias shouted in panic.
Without warning, the man's head slowly detached from his neck, falling heavily to the ground as his body collapsed in a pool of blood.
"How is that possible…?" Élias stammered, stunned.
He then caught sight of a thin, transparent thread retracting toward one of the monster's legs, understanding with horror that the creature had used these almost invisible threads to get around his wall of flames. The other adventurers, witnesses to this massacre, sped up desperately to try to reach them.
Suddenly, the Spider Prince's eight arms moved all at once, launching a rain of threads as solid as steel. Veid immediately tried to stop them with several walls of wind, but the threads passed through these barriers with ease.
Roaring savagely, the creature hurled its threads with redoubled ferocity, completely ignoring the flame and water defenses raised by Élias and Zem. The ruthless threads, swift and deadly, brutally severed the legs of one of the adventurers. He screamed in pain before being cut in two with an atrociously clean slice, his body collapsing in a bloody explosion.
Unable to effectively block these fearsome attacks, four more adventurers were quickly pierced and sliced apart before reaching the safety of Zem's group, bringing the number of victims to five.
At last, once they had regrouped, the adventurer who seemed to be their leader turned to Zem, his face pale and taut with anxiety:
"And now, what do we do?"
"Even if you fight at our side, the chances of defeating this creature remain extremely low," Zem declared in a grave voice.
"Then what do you suggest?" the adventurer replied, his voice tinged with anxiety.
"Take five men with you and try to reopen one of the blocked exits. We'll hold it here as long as possible," Zem ordered with determination.
"All those who can use ranged attacks, like mages or healers, stay in the back to support us! As for melee fighters, stay close to them to protect them!" Élias added immediately.
With the orders given, Zem, Élias, and Veid moved forward together, side by side, to face the Spider Prince. They were aware that the slightest lapse would lead to their certain demise. The mana around them suddenly intensified, vibrating with power and resolve.
It was a technique they had perfected since childhood, nourished by their shared dream of donning a knight's armor and facing the most fearsome monsters.
Fire, water, and wind burst forth violently around them before exploding into three columns of energy fiery red, deep blue, and emerald greenreaching the cave's ceiling. When the light faded, each of the brothers wore a magnificent armor corresponding to his element: Zem in deep navy blue, Élias in blazing red, and Veid in brilliant green. Their armors, imbued with their respective elements, seemed alive, undulating with intense energy.
Zem shouted with unshakable determination, activating his skills at once:
[Steadfast General: A general's determination increases the caster's and allies' stats by 10%.]
[Provoke: You provoke enemies, who then more easily target you.]
[Rallying Cry: All debuffs and abnormal states are canceled or partially reduced. A 3% bonus to the caster's and allies' stats is applied.]
As they dashed forward, the ground cracked under their feet so powerful was their movement. In immediate response, the Spider Prince sent from its eight arms threads as sharp as razors, swift and precise.
Élias tried once more to burn these threads, but his flames were not enough to destroy them.
"Damn it!" he swore between his teeth.
Advancing toward their enemy, the brothers were forced into a defensive stance, dodging or parrying by a hair's breadth the slicing threads that hissed through the air around them. A thread brushed Veid's armor for an instant, which cracked at once, revealing how lethally dangerous each attack was. Fortunately, the armor quickly regenerated the damaged part.
Once close enough, Zem, at the head of the line, launched several water slashes at the creature, but it defended itself with frightening agility, instantly forming a shield of threads to stop his attacks. Élias and Veid followed with their own assaults, but once again, shields sprang up to block their combined strikes.
The three brothers exchanged a brief, knowing look. A coordinated rain of fire and wind slashes allowed Zem to get close enough to deliver a direct blow. His blade, charged with mana, aimed at the creature's torso, but one of the monster's arms easily blocked his attack. Zem reinforced his blade with even more water but was forced to retreat hastily when several threatening legs brushed his face, shattering his helmet and tearing off a lock of hair.
The Spider Prince, distracted by Zem, was suddenly struck by several wind and fire attacks, letting out a cry of rage despite the slight damage taken. In response, it deployed from its abdomen numerous threads, forming about twenty sharp swords that now floated around it.
"Damn it, it was only playing with us until now!" Zem exclaimed in horror.
"Veid, are you planning to use your Bestial Form?" Elias shouted urgently.
"No, that would consume too much mana on top of the elemental armor!" he replied, staring at the new threat before him.
Now they had to face not only the eight slicing threads, but also these deadly swords. Each strike split the air with surgical precision, destroying and cutting up the ground around them.
"This is a real nightmare!" Élias screamed, realizing with despair the magnitude of the danger.
Dodging the threads was no small feat already, but when they were combined with the swords, the task became almost impossible. The situation grew more and more complicated, and their armors began to take numerous heavy hits. The three brothers were now covered in bruises and deep wounds. Gashes multiplied across their bodies, and each movement grew more painful.
But that wasn't all. A new urgency presented itself: their mana was quickly running out. Maintaining these armors required a colossal amount of energy, but they could not afford to dispel them. Without them, one of them would already be gravely wounded, if not dead. And in this fight, where every mistake could be fatal, it was impossible for them to take a break to recover mana.
Time was working against them, for once their mana was exhausted, their armors would disappear on their own, condemning them to a certain end.
The area around them had become a veritable battlefield. Injuries accumulated rapidly on their bodies, slowing and weakening them. The fight grew increasingly difficult, but finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the long-awaited support arrived.
A rain of elemental attacks, coming from the remaining mages and archers, swept over the creature. Although it managed to protect itself partially, this finally offered an opening. Three rays of light blue, red, and green crossed in a dazzling explosion, striking the Spider Prince head-on. Meanwhile, the healers began to regenerate the brothers' mana and tend to their wounds, offering them a glimmer of hope.
They had aimed at the monster's only vulnerable point—its head. When the smoke cleared, they could see a heap of threads on the ground, while the Spider Prince's two eyes were pierced, letting a dark purple blood flow.
But before the three brothers had time to savor their small victory, a heavy silence fell over the cave. A flow of mana even more intense than the first time crushed them with all its power.
Behind the creature, about twenty thread-swords sprang forth, and the threads in the Prince's hands went from 1 to 3. It was the moment when everything seemed to tip irreversibly.
At that moment, only one word could describe the situation for Veid: "Horrifying."
The threads and the swords resumed their deadly dance, this time faster and more lethal than ever. Their first target was the support group. Zem, Élias, and Veid tried to protect them, but they were far too busy avoiding the attacks themselves. The threads and swords began to target them mercilessly.
The rear-guard adventurers trembled in terror as the threads and swords advanced on them relentlessly. They gripped their swords, pouring all their mana into each one, hoping they could cut or block the attacks. But their swords were pierced as if they were paper. In a fraction of a second, their bodies were impaled, exploding into several pieces, spilling a torrent of blood onto the ground.
The mages who tried to protect themselves with their spells were annihilated in the same way. Their entrails flew in different directions, their bodies dismembered and torn apart. In less than thirty seconds, more than a dozen adventurers were killed, their corpses strewn across the ground, turning the cave into a veritable slaughterhouse.
The three brothers, for their part, were still caught in a flood of incessant attacks, each one capable of killing them. Their bodies were at their limit, their armors wearing down before their very eyes. With each passing second, the wounds multiplied. After only a minute, their armors no longer regenerated properly, a sign that they were running out of mana and that the end of the battle was near.
Suddenly, a shout rang out. It was the second group of adventurers who had gone to reopen an exit. Zem briefly turned his gaze toward them one of the tunnels had been cleared.
"Élias, Veid, explosion!" Zem cried, mustering all his will to launch their ultimate attack.
His two brothers, narrowly dodging the attacks, began to gather their mana. They summoned all their power and determination. Two gigantic tornadoes of fire and wind formed, then fused to create a monstrous whirlwind.
The tornado headed for the Spider Prince with devastating force, almost masking the creature in an infernal vortex. The creature tried to protect itself with its threads, but the tornado sucked them in, forcing the Prince to move constantly to evade. However, the tornado tracked its every movement.
Suddenly, a third tornado formed behind it, this one made of water. The creature was caught in a pincer, unable to escape this devastating storm. Zem and his brothers rushed toward the exit with what remained of their strength.
The tornadoes collided violently, causing a thermal shock so powerful that an explosion of steam shook the entire cave. The heat and pressure nearly made it collapse.
Exhausted and wounded, the three brothers rushed toward the exit, where the remaining adventurers were waiting for them. Zem crossed the entrance, followed closely by Élias, then Veid, who was visibly the most exhausted. But at the moment he was about to get out, a sword plunged brutally into his belly.
"Buy us some time, inferior being!" spat the adventurers' leader.
Zem and Élias realized too late what had just happened.
"What are you…?" Zem began, but he didn't have time to finish his sentence.
The ceiling suddenly collapsed, and Veid was thrown out of the exit. The entrance was immediately sealed deliberately by the adventurers' leader.
"Let's go, he'll buy us time!" the leader ordered, without a backward glance."
A blade, appearing without their noticing, found itself under the leader's throat, the cold steel brushing his skin and freezing his breath.
"Kuh… What are you doing?" he stammered, perplexed, surprise and unease plain in his eyes.
"You really dare ask me that after what you just did?" Zem retorted, his face twisted with black rage.
"What? I just tossed your slave so he could buy us time," the adventurers' leader replied, shrugging with chilling cynicism, as if the sacrificed life had no importance.
"That's right, but come on, what are you doing?" another adventurer protested, indignant but too cowardly to act alone.
In a single motion, they all drew their weapons, surrounding Zem and Élias, judging that the threat to their leader had become intolerable.
"He was our brother!"
"Your brother? That… thing? You've lost your minds!" shouted another adventurer, his voice quivering with fierce disdain.
"That's right, you can very well buy another one to fight with you!" added a third, his tone cold and offhand.
"You see? His life has no value. They're only tools, inferior beings, destined to serve us!" the leader sneered, a cruel smile on his lips, sure of his superiority.
Every member of the troop now stood ready to pounce on Zem and Élias, convinced that, despite their wounds and exhaustion, they could crush them.
A tense silence fell over the scene, as sharp as Zem's blade. After this brief moment of tension,
Zem answered in an icy voice:
"If his life has no value, then neither does yours."
There was no warning. Zem's sword sank into the leader's throat, severing the trachea in a rush of hot blood. The man collapsed, vainly trying to stem the hemorrhage by pressing his neck with trembling hands.
"You're insane!" an adventurer screamed, rushing at Zem in a fit of blind rage.
But a flaming sword pierced his head, cutting him down on the spot. Zem's and Élias's faces remained closed, impassive, frozen by pain and determination.
Only then did the adventurers realize, too late, the extent of their mistake. They screamed, tried to defend themselves, but they were all killed within seconds, swept away by the brothers' desperate fury.
Once the carnage was over, Zem and Élias rushed to the rocks, beginning to clear them with their bare hands, nails broken, fingers bloodied by the effort. A voice suddenly broke the silence weak but firm ringing from the other side of the wall.
"Leave me… and go."
It was Veid, whose voice trembled with a painful calm.
"What? What are you talking about? There's no way we're leaving you here!" Élias burst out, panic in his voice.
"Don't move, we're coming!" Zem cried, throat tight.
On the other side, the steam generated by the explosion slowly dissipated. A menacing silhouette then took shape in the mist: that of the Spider Prince—huge, terrifying, wounded but not gravely.
"Leave me here, I will buy you time," Veid repeated in a gentler, resigned voice.
"Stop talking nonsense! We still have healing and mana potions—we're going to smoke that bastard!" Zem insisted, refusing to accept reality.
Veid smiled, despite the creature drawing inexorably closer.
"You know very well that it's impossible," he said, acceptance and sadness glinting in his eyes.
Zem and Élias, unable to hold back their tears, understood they were going to lose their brother. They redoubled their efforts to clear the passage, their sobs mingling with their cries of frustration.
The creature advanced on Veid, merciless. He felt tears running down his cheeks not because of fear or imminent death, but because of his brothers' distress and the certainty that their adventure was coming to an end.
Yet he felt strangely at peace. Memories of their childhood rose to the surface days running in the fields, bickering, laughter, sword training. Adventures in dungeons, fights against monsters. And stronger than anything, the love of their parents and his brothers, warming his heart, slowly dispelling the fear.
"Zem, Élias… I want you to join the knights of the kingdom of Sigma," Veid murmured, his voice laden with emotion.
"What? Absolutely not! You know what they do there!" Zem protested, anger mingled with pain.
"Listen to me. I've been thinking about it since the moment we received the letter. There, you could help many more people. Save people like me, as you did for me," he explained, each word weighed.
"But…" Élias tried, throat tight.
"Save and help those who can be saved that's the only thing I ask of you," Veid insisted, his voice broken but determined.
Zem and Élias bit their lips, powerless, continuing to claw at the rock, despair in their eyes.
"Thank you… Thank you for being my brothers. Thank Father and Mother as well. It was a short, but very beautiful adventure," he breathed with a trembling smile.
Gathering his last strength, Veid stood up despite the searing pain and slowly pulled out the sword lodged in his bloodied belly. In bad shape, his body trembling, he channeled all the mana he had left, ready to sacrifice himself.
"Go now!" he shouted in a broken but authoritative voice.
Devastated by sorrow, Zem and Élias froze for a moment, eyes full of tears, torn between the fear of losing their brother and the duty to survive.
"Go!" he shouted even louder, one last time, his voice resounding like an implacable order that left no room for doubt.
Reluctantly, hearts heavy and souls in pieces, Zem and Élias finally obeyed. They began to run, fists clenched, stifling their sobs. They didn't want to flee, but they knew that if they died here, Veid's sacrifice would have been for nothing.
Left alone before the monster, Veid wiped his tears with the back of his hand, a courageous smile on his lips. He faced the creature with unwavering dignity and determination, ready to give everything he had left.
Without the slightest hesitation, he released his true nature. His body began to grow, his muscles to swell, while a low rumble escaped his throat. His human silhouette gave way to that of a massive bear, with shoulders broad as ramparts, covered in a dark brown coat.
A creature as noble as it was impressive, breathing raw strength and the ancestral authority of beasts. His eyes shone a light green, while the ground trembled under his steps.
[Skill Created: Brother Until the End.]
[Brother Until the End: All your stats are temporarily increased by 150% for 1 minute and 30 seconds. At the end of this time, your body and mana circuit will be irreversibly damaged by the mana surge. Your heart will stop, and your body will explode.]
"Could there be a star watching over me…?" he murmured with a gentle smile, accepting his fate with unexpected serenity.
The creature, massive and menacing, was now barely ten meters away. Veid drew a deep breath, sensing behind him the retreat of Zem and Elias, their presence growing distant.
"Activating skill: Brother Until the End," he declared in a deep, solemn voice.
Suddenly, his body flared with a brilliant green light, every fiber of his being vibrating under the brutal surge of mana. His skin cracked in multiple places, glowing fragments seeping through, while a wild energy lit up his veins, ready to devastate everything.
He took one step, then another, feeling the overwhelming power flooding him.
"Here we go… one last adventure!" Veid cried, a heroic smile fixed on his face as he charged toward the creature, ready to give everything in this final battle.