Hal and Tai had encountered spider-like monsters upon entering the path. The abominations rushed at them with their eight legs, hoping to rip them apart, and they resembled enlarged spiders with huge hairy legs and black beady eyes.
Tai and Hal sliced each one and tore through the rushing mob as they continued deeper in the cavern; Hal could see Tai weaken, so he tried his best to be the one doing all the slaying instead of his poor friend.
He jumped back and sank the slaughter's gain deep into the spider's head, putting an end to it almost instantly.
As he jumped back to rejoin Tai
"What is the name of these monsters?"
Tai answered his words, slightly mumbled by his panting
"They are known as Black hairs, but they do reside in these caverns; in fact, even the food they feed on doesn't normally appear in these caverns"
Hal gritted his teeth 'How annoying?" He swung with the King's edge and released a slash that instantly cut all the spiders in their way. He grabbed Tai by the hand and bolted forward, following the slash
The two boys continued their fight against the never-ending flood of abominations, cutting and slashing away at the creatures until they reached an opening leading out of the pathway way
It was engraved with different markings of dragons and palaces, but Hal only got a chance to make a quick glance before he dashed through it
They ended up in a large room whose walls were filled with large crystals protruding from the walls. Hal looked around with the Owl's eyes, hoping to see any being that might be hiding its presence from him
He let out a sigh of relief as soon as he realised that they were not being stalked by any malevolent being
"We can rest here for a bit and talk about your situation?"
Tai nodded as he pulled back his sleeve to reveal the bulging worm-like structures that had spread all the way up to his shoulder.
Hal touched them and instantly pulled back; they felt like inflated balloons that could be popped by just a touch.
"It seems the situation is only going to get worse; this moving around is making the poison spread faster"
Tai shook his head, a determined look on his face.
"I told you not to worry about it, my ability says that I am not weak yet, and so I am not"
Tai's ability, Hal had tried making guesses about what it could be, so that he could have the pride of not needing to be told something to know it. He even dedicated ten whole marks to thinking about what it could be, and now this was the best time to present his results.
He had been examining Tai ever since they entered, and he realised something, the shape of his soul, where his sword always hit, and even the design of his eyes, now it all gave him one conclusion.
"So, about your ability, does it allow you to see one's weakness?"
Tai turned to Hal, astonished as he shook his head, saying
"Yeah, how did you know? As far as I am concerned, I have told no one about it yet, not even Elizabeth"
Hal had an internal celebration as a smile caressed his lips
"I took a guess, but I think we'd better get going"
Tai nodded briefly before his face suddenly turned dark. He stared at Hal's shoulder before summoning his sword and screaming.
"The Juzo red fang"
Hal turned to his shoulder and saw the spider readying its fangs to bite and pump venom deep into his bloodstream.
Tai quickly reacted and struck the spider with the side of his sword while avoiding striking Hal in the process, though the breeze that he felt made him quiver.
The tiny spider was sent flying as it crushed into the crystal floor and stood still. Tai tried racing towards it, but he held him back because even though it acted dead.
Hal could see spectres scattered everywhere they appeared, the tiny strings that were attached to the cave walls and were hard to see, but thanks to the soul flame they produced, he now knew their location. But one thought stayed in his mind.
If they are here, then it means their master was alive too. He looked directly at one of them until it stared back and tilted its head before all his senses switched to high alert.
He jumped out of the way as a huge leg suddenly punctured the ground he was standing on.
The tiny spider had generated a huge leg with a sharp spike at the end and red hairs growing on its black surface.
The tiny spider started to twist and turn as it sprouted more huge legs until finally its entire body expanded to reveal a huge spider, or at least something that looked similar.
Red hairs grew on its entire black body; it had see-through crystals growing from its abdomen, and from its mouth protruded multiple snake-like appendages that moved in a weird manner. Its mouth also had two long red fangs that dripped with crimson venom and red eyes that glowed as it cast its huge shadow over them.
Hal felt his soul sink. Were they really expected to defeat something like this? The creature lowered a bunch of its visible strings and revealed to them skeletons of past victims as if warning them that they were next.
"Do you think we can beat that thing, Tai?"
Tai chuckled
"It's a big target, so I bet we can"
The spider twisted its head and made its snake-like extensions come together and form a smile before they had an abnormal laugh escape its maw.
"It doesn't seem to think so, though I do think it wants us to be the next meal"
Tai scoffed
"Bring it on; I'm going to make a sweater out of you"
Tai bolted forward without warning and swung with his blade, only for the spider to suddenly shrink to the size of a dog and slam him with the side of its legs, throwing him into the side of the wall
"Tai!"
Hal did not have to say much before it was his turn. The spider was upon him, ready to deliver a poison-filled bite into his neck, when a sword flew and knocked it out of the way.
The spider shrank and disappeared. Hal tried finding it with the Owl's eyes, but it seemed the spider was stopping him from tracking it somehow.
The Spectres began to move as a string attached itself to his hand and pulled him. He was slammed all over the walls as he tried to cut into the strings, but to no avail, and he was then slammed into the ground.
The spider, still in its tiny form, laughed again as Hal located it at the centre of the cave. He stared at it and smiled.
"Marked you"
Tai burst through the illusion Hal had set up for him and almost slashed through the spider, but it was agile, it jumped and delivered a blow to him, stabbing him in his chest as it did
Tai was sent flying again, but this time he struck his sword in the ground and stopped himself from slamming into the wall.
The spider looked around for Hal, who was now out of sight, and sent its spectres flying around looking to make contact with Hal.
It also turned, but Tai was gone, only to feel its strings tremble as the two boys were upon it, ready to drive their weapons through its tiny form.
It roared and grew to a large size before jumping to the ceiling
"You think being there will save you?"
Tai pointed his sword at the ceiling before tossing it at the spider, but to its surprise, he missed it looked down at the master mind Hal and growled as he saw him point.
It looked at where the sword hit and saw the area crack before the ceiling collapsed, bringing down the abomination.
Tai and Hal used the falling debris as stepping stones to manoeuvre from the ground and end up on top of the falling crystals.
A strong silence lasted for a while before the spider's leg penetrated the ground and struck Hal in his chest, but for some reason didn't tear through. But it didn't need to, as the force it used still had Hal reeling as he struggled to catch his breath.
Hal gritted his teeth as he shared his pain with his opponent, causing the spider to roar with pain as it burst out of the debris, turning its eyes to Hal.
Hal lifted his middle and index fingers to the spider and smiled, making it roar with anger. Hal chuckled as Tai suddenly appeared and cleaved off one of the spider's legs.
"You never learn, do you? I'm not the threat, just the distracter. The real threat is the man hiding behind the veil of my illusion"
The spider looked at him with a semblance of reason and understanding before the see-through crystals on its back glowed, and then spider silk burst forth from them and formed a cage with only one entrance.
Within its cage were its spectres, floating around as strings ready to catch anyone who dared touch them
Hal took a deep breath and summoned his blades by his side
"Let's make this swift, shall we?"
He entered the cage and stood next to Tai, who was unable to be seen by the spider for now, at least.
"How are your soul flame reserves?"
"If I keep going like this, then not so good, and can you manoeuvre through this?"
Tai scoffed
"Who do you take me for? Just watch me, I already know this cage's weakness, just make it shrink a little for me, blue eyes"
He knew that Tai could not see spectres, but these were in their physical manifestations, so his ability would do just fine.
"You got it, circles, but why are we calling ourselves by nicknames again?"
Tai shrugged right before he pushed Hal away from a sudden attack from the spider. He did not have enough soul flame to use another King's edge, but if there was anything he had learnt from Elizabeth and the duke, always to be versatile and capable of evolving at a moment's notice.
Hal dug his foot into the ground and neutralised the force pushing forward before swinging forward with the slaughter's gain and cutting off its leg.
The spider stumbled as it used two of its spectres to chase after Hal while the others stayed back to detect Tai.
Hal ran headfirst into the strings as the spider released webbing from its glowing crystals to capture Hal. He cut the first in half and had to pull back.
"Corrosive, cunning spider"
He decided it best to evade the attacks and distract the spider until Tai got closer, the two spectres attached themselves to his hand and flung him up towards the sticky webbing above.
He coated his blade in soul flame and cut the strings, but he continued flying up to the webbing as he found himself stuck to the wall. He used the king's edge to cut the web holding his hands.
And then that holding the rest of him as he fell towards the spider, ready to drive his dagger through it, only for the spider to shrink.
Originally, he was unable to see it after this, but now that Hal had marked it, he felt the spider shiver as he turned to gaze at it with his glowing eyes.
The spider panicked and started to enlarge again, but was met by a kick that lifted it off the ground and then a punch to the back that sent it right onto Hal's Slaughter's gain.