We may never know how many atomic weapons were successfully used – if any – before the System intervened. While certain unfortunate circles continue to debate what exactly happened, I posit that no evidence of System intervention is needed beyond the continued existence of Lost Angels itself.

  At the time known as Los Angeles, or ‘The Angels’ in the long-forgotten Spanish language, this area was one of the largest and most prosperous metropolitan regions in the United States of America. It would undoubtedly have been targeted by not just one, but many of these devastating weapons, each powerful enough individually to wipe the city off the map.

  - Rufus Veres, Level 37 Verbose Historian, A Brief History of the System

  The new door opened on the wall directly across from the entrance. I approached it with my gun ready and saw that it led into another cave. Unfortunately this one was both narrower and darker than the first cave I’d faced. Even with my improved Perception, I could only see about twenty feet from the door, but the immediate area looked clear.

  I went through the door as quietly as I could, ready for anything. I paused a few steps away from the door, hoping my eyes would adjust to the darkness, but it didn’t help much. Outside of the small area illuminated by the light from the safe room, I could barely make out the ground a few feet in front of me.

  Frustrated, I backed up to the door and cast Light. The Cantrip formed a glowing ball of soft orange light over my head, lighting up the tunnel in front of me for perhaps thirty feet. It would be impossible to sneak up on any monsters this way, but at least I should be able to see them coming.

  The tunnel had a small uphill incline and occasional slight turns, but like the first cave there were no intersections or branches. After just a couple minutes of walking, I spotted something at the edge of the light that made me stop. A few strands of white were dangling from the ceiling and running over some of the rock formations. Webs.

  Not good Az, not good at all. I didn’t have any particular hatred for spiders, at least not any more than I hated any monster that wanted to kill me, but I still didn’t have any shoes on.

  I moved forward a step, then a couple more. I could see that the webs were getting thicker quickly, but there was no movement. The light just didn’t reach far enough ahead of me – even if I was able to lure the spiders out, I still wouldn’t be able to see them until they were almost on top of me. If they could run even half as fast as the scorp, I wouldn’t be able to react in time to do much.

  If I knew a proper Light Spell, I could send it out ahead of me, but all I had was the Cantrip. Actually, I had the Cantrip… and my shotgun. I infused Light and confirmed it had worked with Inspect. Then, I aimed into the dark ahead of me, trying to shoot as straight down the dark tunnel as I could, and pulled the trigger.

  BOOM! click-click

  As the echoes of the shot faded, I looked down the now-illuminated tunnel and saw small lights scattered around. It seemed as if my shot had partially hit one of the stone pillars just out of my sight, and now there were dozens of little globes of light, a few stuck on the pillar and more further down the tunnel. There were deep pools of shadow among the rocks where none of the lights reached, and webs everywhere.

  Then I heard a growing chorus of soft clicking sounds and a swarm of spiders raced down the tunnel towards me, each one a foot tall and covered in bristly hairs. Well, except for where some of them had shiny metal legs instead.

  My next shot blasted away several of the lightweight spiders as they swarmed over each other trying to get to me. The tunnel was now brightly lit, and I could see dozens of spiders approaching. I switched off the infusion and unleashed my remaining three shots as fast as I could work the gun. My shots cleared away a group of the monsters, but the others were rapidly closing.

  I started moving backwards as I frantically reloaded, thankful for my earlier practice. I still only had three shells in my gun when I tripped over a rock and went down hard onto my back and side. The shell that was in my hand went flying off and I almost dropped my gun, but I was able to hang on and wrench my body around so that my gun was pointed at the swarm. I ripped off two more shots before they were on me, jumping through the air from a dozen feet away.

  I screamed as I batted the first one away with my gun, scrambling to try to get to my feet. More landed on my legs and I thrashed, kicking out wildly and even rolling over, crushing several of the creatures underneath me with awful squelching sounds. My barrier broke in moments, and I could feel fangs tearing at me, trying to get through my baselayer to the tasty flesh below.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Two more spiders landed on me every time I managed to kick one away or bash one with my gun. It felt like I was on the ground for an eternity, kicking and bashing and occasionally rolling over and squishing spiders. I’m pretty sure I was still screaming and thrashing for a good minute even after they finally stopped coming, but eventually I realized that the only thing moving was me and tried to gather my wits.

  I’d managed to keep them away from my face, and my helmet had protected my head. The rest of me wasn’t so lucky, as I had been bitten in at least a dozen places – mostly on my legs and body with a few on my arms. I could feel the bites oozing blood and I groaned as I struggled to a seated position. I was covered in blood, guts, and bits of spider. I’d been poked by the occasional metal leg, too.

  Fucking cyborg-spiders! This day just keeps getting worse and worse… maybe scorp-pincer haircuts aren’t so bad after all.

  Every bite was burning and I was worried that I was poisoned. I Inspected myself and saw that I was down to 13 health and missing a quarter of my stamina, but at least my barrier had started recharging.

  I need to get back to the safe room and heal before another monster finds me and follows me in. I managed to crawl a few yards away so that I wasn’t sitting in spider goo, and slowly reloaded my shotgun and refilled my bandolier. I had plenty of mana at the moment and was in no condition to go looking for any of the shells I’d fired.

  I was painfully getting to my feet when I heard noise from down the tunnel.

  tick tick tick tick tick tick ticktick

  “Oh Wasted hells!” I shouted, my voice momentarily drowning out the sounds. I hadn’t gotten any Essence from all the dead spiders yet, so I should have known I wasn’t safe.

  There was one spider left, and it was huge – taller than the scorp and even uglier, with much longer legs. With all the glowing Light-infused pellets scattered around I could see it in more detail than I wanted or needed. Its far-too-many eyes glowed red in the light, its bristling hair looked like a coat of spikes. It moved through the many shadows with fluid, terrifying grace. The giant rach was less than a hundred feet away as I aimed and squeezed the trigger.

  BOOM! click-click BOOM!

  My first shot was a direct hit, but I saw the flare of its barrier absorb my shot. My second shot was nowhere close as the spider leapt through the air, flying at an angle and landing halfway up the left side of the tunnel. I managed to put another shot into it and saw a flash that I hoped meant I’d broken its barrier before it jumped across the tunnel to the other wall, now more than halfway to me.

  click-click BOOM!

  I caught it with at least a partial hit on the legs, sending it tumbling off the wall. It rolled into a ball as it landed, its legs protecting it from the fall and from my last shot, which tore chunks off a couple of legs and knocked it back down briefly. I didn’t seem to have hit anything vital though, as the monster started to climb back to its feet. I fled, running back down the tunnel towards the nearby safe room as I heard the ticking sounds of the spider’s many legs.

  If I can make it to the safe room, I can hold the doorway and it will only be able to come at me from one direction!

  I could see the doorway ahead of me and I was getting close when all of a sudden the sound of the steps behind me ceased, and a moment later a heavy weight smashed into my back, shattering my barrier instantly and throwing me forward. I crashed into the side of the doorway, my helmet bouncing off the stone, saving my consciousness and my life.

  I barely managed to hold onto my gun as I fell through the doorway and stumbled across the room, catching myself with my hand on the far wall. I slid to the ground, my body shaking with adrenaline and fear, and fumbled a shell out from my bandolier and into the loading port.

  tick tick tickticktick

  I racked the shell into the chamber and aimed at the doorway. The spider didn’t come through on the ground like I expected. Too wide for the doorway, it solved the problem by swarming up onto the wall and around the right side of the opening, coming through sideways with its feet clinging to the wall. I fired reflexively, meaning to shoot it in the face, but instead catching it on the legs. It retreated back into the tunnel, and I could see that it was injured but still moving. I pulled another shell from my bandolier with suddenly clumsy fingers.

  My hand was shaking and I missed my reload, the shell dropping from my fingers and rolling away as the spider righted itself. It started to move closer slowly, dragging several legs, as I reached for another shell, wondering why I felt like I was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion. My vision narrowed to just my hand, as it moved in slow motion towards the gun in my lap.

  Trembling, I needed two tries to get the shell into the loading port. Pumping the forearm took an eternity, actually lifting the gun a seeming impossibility. The last thing I saw was the injured spider squeezing itself through the doorway and the wavering, unsteady barrel of my gun as I lifted it with the last of my strength.

  BOOM!