Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

An arahtazthat was no small beast, easily taller than a two cows stacked atop one another and even larger in width and length, but compared to the regular ahltaizth, they pitifully small, thieving a single bit of their tentacles was enough to substantiate dozens of the underbelly crawlers for a long time, not to mention that the floating beasts quickly regrew what was lost without a problem, but there were few ahltaizths in total, so even when a single one went away, it caused some problems.

Although rare, the beast worshippers had lived long enough to observe many of such events, and when that happened, it was common for arahtazthats to climb on land to find something to bring back and feast upon, many died trying as they were not adapted to deal with the creatures there.

Communing with them from up-close was an uncommon occurrence, and so was hunting them down, the three men observed the abhorrent creature, its physical appearance one they would not dare criticise before their animalistic friends as they would no doubt disagree with such a concept.

However, arahtazthats were spider creatures, their eight legs bent and crooked, moving around with a combination of awfully slow steps and sudden acceleration, skittering across the grass with deceptive haste.

Bodies coloured a sickly brown and bearing reflective spots as though wet and glistening under the emerald light, randomly placed strands of hair that had the talent of making one's spine feel like it was slithering around, worst of all perhaps, was that instead of an abdomen, it's chest just gave rise to a second head, like they were actually two spiders having been melded together in some horrific experimentation.

Whether or not each head was somewhat independent or if both had the same thoughts, they did not actually know as it seemed to fluctuate from beast to beast, making them even more unpredictable.

All that mattered however, was that this being possessed sixteen eyes as result, virtually possessing no blindspots.

Remaining hidden, the group prepared themselves for combat, since the whole point of their hunting trips was to fight and grow stronger through it, they would be confronting this abomination head-on, and also refrain from blasting it to pieces or pushing it off the edge, a hunter needed to bring back its prey in good condition.

The latter part was meant to not offend their benefactors, but it was also true that not making use of easy ways was certain to make the confrontation that much more tense and difficult.

The Arahtazthat simply poked around for a few minutes, uncertain where to go from there, the pregnant ahltaizth had left just before the stock of food it was feeding from ran out, no other choice but to climb up nearly immediately to grab something, with some luck, a fat beast would fall to its chelicerae which would last until the soon-to-be mother came back.

But this spider had never risen to the top of the floating island, in fact, none ever had as their life cycle was much too short for them to be caught in this situation more than once, as far as they knew, the whales were immortal and they were nothing but feeble existences that could survive, but never thrive outside of their success as an overall species.

One was pretty prone to getting turned into a red shadow when trying to take a tentacle for themselve, one fling and it was all over for them, so they reproduced a lot to make up for it.

Getting used to the sensation of soft grass, taking in the vibrant colours that whilst not absent below, were definitely omnipresent here, looking for a good path to take as navigating woods and forest was not a part of the beast's skillset, so directly walking into this cramped, unknown environment would be idiotic and dangerous.

Before it could spot any passage, three, small figures appeared, surrounding the spider, one in the front, two in the back, small creatures that worked in a group, nearly instantly appeared in the way after the beast had emerged, this was a cause to worry.

Clearly, the little animals were not afraid in the least, so the arahtazthat did not yet act, observing the top-dwellers with curiosity, acidic venom bubbling within.

Thanks to its physique, the spider had no backside, only two fronts and sides, striking from behind as another attracted attention was a strategy ineffective against it.

One of them made a sound, the one with scars across his face, another making another set of noises as a result, definitely a response, they were communicating and it definitely seemed complex.

Faking a charge at the lone one, he didn't budge at all, one in the back, carrying some sort of object began moving, spinning said item around at a constant speed, only for it to seemingly blink out of existence for split seconds.

The third manifested a confusing matter, the spider did not know what this was, but fearfulness was inspired, and thus, it decided to come back later and retreat right now, suddenly setting all eight legs into motion.

The edge was just within reach, and yet, it was a wall that greeted the beast, a wall of condensed earth that just appeared out of thin air, all three moved at once.

Forven launched blades of wind using the sword, it was not the weapon he had fought with before, having unfortunately been lost at some point, so this blade was not quite adapted to circulating wind mana, or mana at all actually, he had to be careful with the usage he made of it.

Melding invisible winds with clearly visible ones, the spider received a few cuts, clearly not a very tough creature, when your main problems could render you to liquid by just swinging past you, defences were quickly put to the side.

Both heads fired rapid blasts of acid, the beast demonstrating shrewdness as it did not aim all of them directly at its aggressors, launching some at the ground instead, not only forcing all three to be careful about where they dodged, but also forming puddles that may not be deep but could still have one disappear entirely after stepping into them.

A stream of flames emerged from Alosfit's palms, despite not understanding what fire was, the beast hastily shuffled away nonetheless, finding itself in a conundrum as it was stuck between a wall, a forest it would get stuck into very easily and unknown creatures possessing strange powers.

It should be capable of scaling that wall with ease… But instincts told otherwise.

Whilst stepping away from the flames, Filiusorci had already gotten close, wielding a a warhammer manifested from earth, body enhanced with mana, he struck one of the beast's legs, the thick limbs rupturing into a geyser of reeking blood, its owner trying to catch the champion of earth in between its maw all the while swiping at him using both closest legs, which included the wounded one.

The mage just let himself sink into the earth, throwing his weapon away before doing so, the weapon exploding into a blast of shrapnel, one piece lodging itself into one of the spider's many eyes.

More blades of winds befell its body, enduring burns for the very first time, with a stifled shriek, the creature crooked its legs and leapt into the air, flattening its body at the highest point, trying to glide right over the wall and somehow try to latch back onto the island's underside to make an escape.

But the winds were not to its favour, and instead, was carried in the opposite direction, right where Filiusorci emerged from the soil, manifesting a spike.

Stuck in mid-air, the arahtazthat was impaled right in the center of the two linked abdomens, four more spikes erupting to skewer both heads and the center of each stomach area.

Neither of the three moved close until several minutes after the sensation of experience flowing in reached them, knowing that those who faked their death could actually replicate the sensation.

"This was easier than expected" remarked Forven.

"Do you think this is tasty?" questioned Alosfit.

"Let's think about how we'll drag this thing back beforehand, alright?" Filiusorci stroked his beard, they had been worried about the acid but their prey had had escape on its mind since the very beginning, unwilling to face multiple unknown creatures that seemed wholly unafraid.

Which was natural, but this meant that the spider had died without ever actually showing what it was capable of when going for the kill.

"Though, I heard that their venom can actually be refined into booze" he added after a few moments.

Today might not have been a difficult experience, but slaying a retreating enemy was a new experience, at least.

"Sounds good!"

"Did any of you bother to ask the girls if they would join a hunt, by the way?" Forven spoke as he used magic to try and lift the heavy beast little by little as Filiusorci formed a platform beneath its corpse.

"They said that they wouldn't mind…" replied Alosfit, each of his palms against the backs of his fellows, fueling an augmentative spell into them to assist.

"...But not today because all the ladies decided to gather in a warm pond, or maybe it was for another day? Anyways, they are busy"

"Why did you stop Forven?"

"Nothing- Just thought about something for a moment…"