[Chapter 26. Chittering Halls]

  Instantly, the world shifted.

  The open sky and forest air vanished, replaced by a heavy stillness that pressed against his skin. The chamber he appeared in was vast and circular, carved from dark, uneven stone that looked as though it had been gnawed rather than cut. Thick white webbing clung to every surface, layered upon itself until the walls resembled cocooned bones.

  The floor was a tangled lattice of fibrous strands that stretched and resisted under his boots, each step producing a faint, sticky pull. A dim, iridescent sheen ran through the webs, reflecting the weak light of pale moss growing in patches along the stone. The ceiling disappeared into darkness far above, giving the space an oppressive depth that made the chamber feel larger than it should have been.

  Then he noticed the movement, spiders crawled through the webbing in unsettling silence. Dozens of them, ranging from fist sized skitterers to hulking forms as large as dogs, their swollen bodies brushing against the silk as they moved. Their clustered eyes glinted faintly, all of them fixed on him. As he looked at one of them a small translucent window opened in his vision.

  `Well that's new. Must be because of the system or it's unique to dungeons.′

  In response to the stares he felt from the spiders, Searanox's smile widened, he shifted his weight forward and raised his left arm.

  Three assault drones and a single defensive drone materialized in flashes of blue light. The assault drones hovered into position, their red lenses pulsing faintly as their cannons primed. The defensive drone projected a semi translucent barrier, a curved wall of hexagonal plates shimmering softly in pale blue as it locked into place before him.

  One goblin spiderling dropped from the ceiling without warning.

  Its mottled carapace blended almost perfectly with the stone and moss, its grotesque forelimbs extended as it fell toward him. One assault drone fired, a single red beam cut through the air and struck the creature mid fall. Its body detonated into light, and a spray of smoking black fluid splattered across the floor with a wet hiss.

  The chamber froze, for half a heartbeat, the spiders stopped moving. Then the entire mass surged forward, mandibles clicked while Legs scraped against silk. The sound filled the chamber like rain made of bone. The assault drones opened fire in unison. Rapid fire crimson beams carved through the advancing swarm, punching tunnels through bodies and webs alike.

  Spiders dropped where they stood, their carapaces splitting and collapsing into smoking ruin. The beams did not slow, did not waver. They simply erased everything in their path.

  Searanox watched all this without expression, less then a minutes later the chamber was silent again. The floor was littered with scorched fragments, punctured stone, and slowly dissolving remains. Wisps of smoke curled upward, carrying the bitter smell of burned chitin.

  `One in the back, two in front. Shield at will.′

  The drones repositioned instantly, flowing around him as he moved deeper into the tunnels. The air grew colder with each step, the scent of decay thickening until it clung to his throat. The webs became denser, brushing against his clothes and skin, their sticky fibers tugging with every movement.

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  He mapped the tunnels instinctively, the layout assembling itself in his mind. The drones advanced with him, their lenses sweeping the darkness, their presence a quiet reassurance of lethal force. As they reached a fork where the light failed entirely. He dispatched drones down both paths, their sensors probing the black ahead. From the left tunnel came a sound that made the smaller spiders seem insignificant. A deep chittering, layered and resonant, vibrating through the stone itself.

  So he turned left, the defense drone followed him without command. Catching up with the drone that had flown ahead, the other that gone right was on its way back to him; after finding itself in a dead end, with a dozen or more spiders, that waiting in ambush sent the assault drones left. The defensive drone hovered before him, its barrier glowing faintly as he followed.

  The tunnel opened into a vast chamber. cocoons lined the walls from floor to ceiling, swollen and pulsing with a sickly green light beneath their translucent silk. The air was thick with moisture and rot. In the center of the chamber waited something larger. The spider was immense, its body plated in iridescent black armor that reflected the chamber light in oil slick colors. Its bloated abdomen was a pale yellow hue, many eyes burned with a dull glow as it reared back and screamed, the sound piercing enough to vibrate in his bones.

  The cocoons began to writhe, silk tore open as spiderlings spilled forth, their chittering rising into a shrill cacophony. Searanox bared his teeth while the assault drones unleashed hell. Crimson beams sliced through the swarm, vaporizing spiderlings by the dozen and igniting the webbing around them. The chamber filled with the stench of burning silk and scorched flesh.

  `Intercept.′

  The defensive drone surged forward. Its barrier flared as webs and globules of acid splashed against it, sizzling and evaporating on contact. The massive spider stood its ground, spewing silk and corrosive fluid alike, its armor shrugging off the frontal assault. The assault drone fire failed to pierce its carapace. As a sudden pain flared at his ankle. He looked down in a flash of alarm, expecting acid. Instead, a smaller spider clung to his boot, it bitten right through the boot and into his flesh.

  Searanox crushed it without hesitation.

  The larger spider lunged, its bulk scraping beneath the barrier. Several hexagonal plates flickered and went dark as the force pressed against the shield. He activated Overcharge targeting one of the assault drones.

  One assault drone repositioned, slipping behind the massive spider. Its twin beams flared up for a second longer before it fired point blank into the creature abdomen. The armor ruptured, leaving two glowing, cauterized holes punched clean through its body. The spider screamed once more, a shrill, broken sound, before collapsing inward. Its legs spasmed briefly, then fell still. Searanox stared at the corpse.

  `That was... easy. I expected more. Then again, if someone shot me through the heart, I would probably die too.′

  The chamber was a ruin of burned silk and shattered bodies. His gaze drifted to the cocoons, curiosity stirring briefly. He stepped closer and touched one. The silk was warm, almost soft. He tore it open, the silk tearing like toilet paper under his fingers.

  A young man spilled forward, alive but barely.

  His eyes were wide with terror, his body slick with viscous slime. From his mouth, the tip of an insect leg emerged briefly before retreating back inside.

  "That is fucking rancid. And the smell." He recoiled, while gagging.

  `Shoot each cocoon.′

  The assault drones complied, red beams tore through the remaining cocoons. Inhuman screeches erupted as the spiderlings inside were incinerated before fully emerging. One by one, the green glow faded until only scorched silk remained. Silence returned once more, he looked at his Status noticing that he was already below half his TP.

  Without a motion or thought the drones disappeared in their typical cloud of blue sparks. It took roughly twenty minutes before his TP were full, before he summoned the same drones as before once more. In which he tried to loot the corpses of the spiders, but he didn't know how or what would be even be useful. To not waist any time Searanox then turned away from the corpses and continued onward, the drones falling into formation behind him.

  The tunnels stretched ahead without end, stone and silk swallowing all light. The air was cold and unmoving, heavy with the lingering scent of scorched webbing and damp rock. He walked forward without hesitation, deeper into the gloom, where whatever waited next was already listening.