ESKARINA

The Queen continued to yell in pain while Nova stared at her. He was trembling slightly, and I couldn't tell whether it was from pain or his fear of spiders. I couldn't tell what I was feeling either. Shock from his revelation or fear that I was now in a room with not one,but two Revenants.

Large,black and red tendrils slowly began to emerge from Nova's wound's. They wrapped themselves around his broken limbs before it pulled everything back together. Nova's right leg and left arm were now partially covered in what seemed to be black muscle.

Nova took a breath and raised his sword, ready to face the arachnid Queen. In a flurry of movements Nova dashed forward,closing the distance between him in the Queen almost instantaneously. He sliced at her legs,his sword burrowing through her flesh and cleanly dismembering her leg.

Another yell came from the Queen before she retaliated with a quick swipe of her claws which caught Nova off guard. Her claws dug into Nova's rib cage.

Nova grimaced then drove his sword into her hand,forcing her to withdraw her claw. As she did so,Nova lost his grip on Nightmare,with the sword remaining lodged in the Queen's hand.

She fell back a bit with Nova running towards her as fast as he could despite his injured leg. His limbs were  being held together,although only barely, by the pitch black muscles, which allowed Nova to at least limp toward her,yet he did so with blinding speed.

Again the Queen struck out with her claws. Nova ducked beneath her strike,evading her strike with ease and as her arm passed,he grabbed Nightmare's hilt and tore it out.

Nova's attack left a gaping wound in the Queen's elbow. In response,Nova was hit with an enormous backhand which sent him flying. He landed violently,with the muscles which kept his arm somewhat intact tearing. He yelled out in agony,his body tumbling as he came to a screeching halt,dust flying everywhere.

The Queen slowly approached him,her teeth growing larger as she approached,venom dripping from them by the gallons. As each drop of her venom hit the floor,it would leave a black mark, with a small amount of steam rising with each impact.

Her venom appeared to be acidic. I watched as Nova tried to stand on his feet,only to get knocked back down by the Queen's many legs. She kicked him with such force that Nova was sent careening into the walls of the cave,becoming trapped in the black webbings.

Spiders soon began to emerge from the hole where Nova and I came from,massive arachnids each of a different size all came to surround Nova,who froze in place. Some began to crawl, and as Nova struggled, a few revealed their fangs.

"No!" The Queen yelled. "I get the first taste my babies."

Paralyzed with fear,I could hear Nova's breath quickening.

I had to help. Even if I had no chance of fighting that arachnid bitch,I couldn't just stand around.

Reaching back for my bow,I drew on the bowstring and fired and arrow straight for the arachnid Queen's head. However,my arrow passed through her as if it were nothing.

The same happened with the Revenant I had hunted before.

My weapon was ineffective. The Queen's focus shifted to me,her beady eye's spied me from across the room.

"How heroic. Kill her my babies." She ordered.

With her colony now beginning to submerge on my position,I had to act fast.

Think! Think Eskarina!

I got up to my feet and raced across the room as quickly as I could,trying to recall all Nova told me about the spiders.

See those big guys? They're just the babies, that big fucker above us is just a little kid.  They react to sound and vibrations in their webbings.

They react to sound and vibrations in their webbings.

A torch lit in my head and I drew an arrow from my quiver,nooked it into my arrow before firing it to the far corners of the room. The arrow smacked into the mess of interconnected black webs and in an instant,all the spiders forgot about me and began making their way towards the sound. The Queen's attention turned to them as well.

"What are you doing you fools?! Kill the girl!" She yelled,however none of her children seemed to be responsive.

Nova tugged and pulled at the webbing,freeing his head before he bashed it against the Queen's nose. She stumbled back,caught off guard by Nova's unorthodox headbutt. Nova kicked and struggled,with the colony now moving to their new wriggling prey.

I need to buy him time.

I fired my arrows at the arachnids, landing a clean headshot on one,which sent it falling to the floor,writhing and kicking before its crumpled and withered as the arachnids life left its body.

I fired once more,hitting one in its thorax,knocking it off balance. It fell to the floor,confused.

Nova had managed to pry his left arm free,and with Nightmare,he sliced through the webbing with relative ease. He fell to the floor and quickly sprinted away from the black webs,avoiding the swarm of spiders which he narrowly avoided.

The Queen let out a loud cry before she darted for Nova.

A tendril of sorts sprouted from just above Nova's lower back,rocketing up towards the ceiling where it lodged itself deep into the webs. Not long after,it yanked Nova upward,allowing him to easily avoid the Queen,who passed harmlessly beneath him. The tendril retracted,going back into Nova's body which made him enter a free fall state. Landing on top of the Queen's thorax,he drove Nightmare in as far as he could until the blade protruded from beneath the Queen,dripping with  blood.

She screamed and tried her best to cleave Nova off of her with her claw.

Nova ducked and weaved,all the while keeping Nightmare firmly lodged into her thorax.

Nightmare was suddenly set ablaze, a deep black flame began to burn from the blade,which made the Queen scream in pain.

Nova withdrew Nightmare then slashed the blade downward,sending blood flying in all directions as he severed part of the thorax from the Queen's body.

He sliced up her legs,carving through her legs and severing each one,one limb at a time. Tendrils burst from Nova's shoulders and burrowed themselves into the Queen's final arm,twisting and turning before ripping it off. She yelled for a few seconds before Nova's boot silenced her.

He rested his right boot firmly against her throat,directing his blade towards her.

"I should kill you. We were sent here to end you after all."

"How? I did not sense another one of my kind. You are a Revenant like myself."

"I'm nothing like you." Nova said.

He applied more pressure,then looked toward the black webbings. The Queen's children were all sitting quietly,with some dangling from their own newly spun webs.

"You're half arachnid,but you are half Revenant too..."

"Tho vat?"

"Hm? Sorry it's really hard to hear you under my boot."

The Queen managed a small scream before she choked. Nova applied pressure just as she screamt.

"Point is...your babies won't eat you because they think you're their momma...but now Mommy doesn't have her thorax...or her spider legs...just her human body."

"I'm alveavy bleedhing to deaf you fuck!"

Nova lifted the Queen up onto his shoulders,with her screams causing some of her children to become wild.

"Unhand me!"

Nova tossed the Queen onto the web then quickly took a step back.

"You said your babies haven't eaten in forever,they can eat you now. You won't go hungry anymore,your kids will be set up for months feeding on your corpse. Win-win."

Nova backed away,leaving the Queen to scream and struggle uselessly against her webs. Her children slowly surrounded her,fangs bared and ready. They then dug into her,one by one hundreds upon thousands of spiders began to feed on the Queen.

Nova backed away very slowly before he fell into my arms.

I had half a mind to simply leave him there...he was a revenant himself after all. I could have just tossed him onto the webs and left him,but instead I brought him with me. Too many questions would be raised if I simply left him there,and knowing Nova it would be even worse for me if he survived and came back to find me.  Nova and I left the cave,where the sun shone brightly now. The dense fog from before had come and gone,which made me wonder how long we'd been trapped in that tunnel.

Nova collapsed,bringing me down to the earth with him. I found him on top of me,glaring down towards me.

"Eskarina,you tell anyone what happened in that cave besides that we killed the Revenant, I will end you. Are we clear?"

I replied with nothing more than  slow nod.

"Good. Now help me back up."

"You're the one whose on top of me."

Nova climbed off, and after he hooked his arm round my neck once more,we started off into the wood.

"How do we find the others?"

"I'll find them. You just focus on the walking. I'll direct you."

"If you say so."

As much as I wanted to ask Nova how he would do so,I kept it to myself. Too many questions could land me in hot water, plus I was far too tired to ask any.

What a day.