Chapter 9 Dark urges
The sound of a knife cutting through the earth approached. Soon, they saw three black-glass spiders. Each stood as tall as a fully grown adult human. Their bodies were inky black and as large as a bus, with eight legs like lengthy daggers — glistening and razor-sharp.
“Protect Elder Kennedy!” a clansman shouted. He and his squad of three leapt into the air.
Keeeeeegh!
The spiders shrieked. They were not stupid. Instead of waiting for the humans to land, they instantly shot forth silky webs.
Two of the men were caught in the air before they could even attack. In the same instant, two more spiders rushed toward the trapped warriors. Black bladed legs rose high into the sky and came down swiftly, piercing their heads before they could scream.
The remaining warriors thrust their weapons while deflecting the spiders’ attacks, aiming for the beasts’ waists and eyes. One warrior sustained a deep cut across his torso from a spider leg. His organs spilled out as he cried out desperately before collapsing heavily to the ground.
At that moment, slaves were running in panic, trying to escape. Some even attempted to slip between the spiders’ legs, but they were instantly nailed to the ground and died on the spot.
A bunch of keys flew from Kennedy’s hand and landed near Emeka’s foot.
“Emeka, open the shackles on him! I don’t want him to die before he’s useful! Hurry up!” Kennedy urged.
“But… he’s still-” Emeka gestured toward Vandal’s convulsing figure.
“He will be brain-dead soon and under my control,” Kennedy said, his face showing no patience.
As the shackles fell away, Vandal registered their release despite the overwhelming agony tearing through his body.
A cold, detached fragment of his mind had been forged in that pain , one that kept him sharply focused even as his body convulsed uncontrollably.
Deep inside, something fascinating was happening.
“The Mawrot essence and the golden-striped snake’s poison… they’re canceling each other out.”
A faint, inward smile touched his lips.
“Elder Ken, please follow me. We have to leave now!” a warrior wearing the Seven Clouds blue cloak said urgently. He was the one who had led the three-man squad.
The warrior placed his palm outward toward one of the spiders. A water bullet formed and shot from his hand, striking the spider on its head and sending it crashing to the ground. But before he could generate another blast, a spider leg sliced through the air and tore his neck wide open.
Vandal, standing nearby, was sprayed with his blood.
His eyes blurred from the blood. Suddenly, tiny cyclones formed in his pores, swirling madly. An air current containing a faint blue aura seeped into every pore on his body.
“I feel stronger… and my core is showing signs of compressing into an Echo Core. What is happening to me?” Vandal stared at his palms in confusion.
“Damn it!” Kennedy formed a chopping motion with his hand and slashed down on the leg of the spider that had just killed the warrior.
Keeeerrrrrgh!!
The leg was lopped off cleanly. The spider shrieked and jumped several paces back.
“You want a piece of me?!” Emeka shouted. He thrashed his whip expertly around the spiders, preventing them from closing the gap. With his other hand, he reached for Vandal and tried to drag him away.
“Boss, where do we go?”
“He has stopped convulsing,” Kennedy noticed. Vandal was no longer shaking.
“Give him to me now.” Kennedy took Vandal and slung him over his shoulder. He dug into his pocket, pulled out several vials of blue potion, and smashed them on the ground. A thick cloud of azure gas erupted.
The gas kept the spiders at bay. Something in the smoke prevented them from coming closer.
In that same moment, another warrior burst from the camp and thrust his weapon into a spider’s eye with all his strength. The blinded spider went insane and wildly brandished its legs, slicing the warrior’s waist and cutting him cleanly in two.
The absorption power of Vandal’s pores erupted again! A faint blue aura from the dying warrior’s body rushed into his veins. This happened so subtly that even Kennedy didn’t notice.
By now, fifteen spiders had revealed themselves. Their legs glistened with a red sheen from the killing spree.
Vandal was dumbstruck.
“My internal energy has peaked… my core has already solidified… I… I am directly reaching Stage Two Resonance… but how?!” Vandal was shocked at the rapid changes happening within him.
“I am no longer in so much pain.”
Kennedy focused his resonance energy from his Echo Fragment, compressing it into a thick serrated water blade. He timed it carefully before flinging the blade at the head of a spider distracted by the gas.
Khurrgh!
The spider yelped and collapsed, the water blade still embedded deep in its head.
Kennedy flung another water blade at the neck of a second spider attacking a warrior. The blade sliced through cleanly, beheading the creature on the spot. It twitched frantically before going still.
“Follow me, Faruk,” Kennedy ordered.
“Yes, Elder!” Faruk quickly leapt toward Kennedy, waving his weapon to block incoming slashes. He was a seasoned warrior.
“I need to escape now!” Vandal decided inwardly. He launched his clawed hand straight at Kennedy’s head.
“Boss! Look out!”
Kennedy sensed the attack before the warning. He quickly willed a shell of water to form at the back of his head. Vandal’s claws bounced off harmlessly like rubber. In that motion, Vandal rolled off his shoulder.
Landing on his feet, he took off running toward the direction of the spiders.
“Catch him!” Kennedy yelled.
Emeka launched his whip, aiming for Vandal’s legs, but Faruk was even faster. He held a large sword in one hand, his expression vicious as he smiled with yellow teeth.
Appearing in front of Vandal in seconds and launched his fist straight at Vandal’s face.
“Shit… if I block, I will be sent flying back toward that old man!”