He glanced at Nyx, and even though he didn’t know all of her cards—or most of them, for that matter—he suspected she had a way to get to the Bristleback Spider Queens, too.
Throm was the problem. His war hammer, coupled with his new Shattered Earth card was incredibly effective against the smaller spiders, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep the massive horde at bay by himself. The mercenary would eventually get overwhelmed.
Flynn hated to consider the option, but there were times when the best course of action was to flee. Live to fight another day, and all. At least, that’s what he’d heard.
Throm had a different idea. “I’ll lead the way,” he said confidently then turned his head and flashed a mischievous grin. “All you have to do is keep up.”
The mercenary smashed his war hammer into the mass of spiders, squishing half a dozen then looked at Thunderbough. “Cover our butts.”
The Eldersloth grinned and nodded. “Your… butts… are… safe.”
Throm nodded. “Alright then. I’ll take point.” He glanced at Flynn and Nyx. “You two take the flanks.”
Flynn nodded and was mildly surprised that Nyx did the same without any comments or complaints.
The mercenary nodded again as he swiped his war hammer at more of the spiders while Flynn and Nyx did the same.
“Follow me,” Throm said then stepped into the swarm of Bristleback Spiders and unleashed his Shattered Earth attack.
The ground exploded in front of him, sending spiders flying and clearing a patch of ground immediately in front of himself. He stepped into the opening, swinging his war hammer like a scythe, keeping spiders at bay.
Flynn moved into the opening on the right side of the mercenary, stabbing with his sword and smashing with his battle hammer. Each strike skewered or squashed a spider, but he was far less efficient than Throm’s battle hammer.
On the other side of the newly formed wedge, Nyx sliced and stabbed with her glaive. Each strike obliterated a Bristleback Spider, but like Flynn, her attacks were generally only good for one monster at a time. Her weapon and fighting style was perfect for facing single, powerful foes, but she lacked the ability to do mass damage to a large number of smaller creatures.
As the trio moved into the sea of spiders, Thunderbough moved into position to cover their rear, turning the wedge into a diamond.
They moved slowly, both because of the Eldersloth’s speed and the mass of spiders that fought them at every step.
Throm’s mighty swings cleared space ahead while Flynn and Nyx’s weapons lashed out relentlessly with precise and deadly strikes. Thunderbough was an impenetrable wall who blocked countless attacks before sending spiders flying with powerful swings of his clawed arms.
Stormfeather rained down lightning from above, clearing out spiders whenever they seemed on the verge of overwhelming one of the fighters on the ground.
By the time they reached the halfway point of their slow surge toward the Bristleback Spider Queens, they were all covered in gore. Thunderbough used his Super Slow Mo special ability to give them a twenty second breather, but fighting was even more intense after that because the localized time bubble had given the spiders outside a chance to build up.
Flynn wiped spider gore from his face as he surveyed the horde of monsters that surrounded him on every side, his weapons never stopping their relentless assault.
A sinking feeling started to form in the pit of his stomach. They were only halfway to the Queens and he feared Thunderbough’s summoning would expire before they reached the Epic level monsters. That would leave them exposed on the back side, allowing the spiders to overwhelm them.
“We need to move faster,” he declared between attacks.
Throm nodded and started moving faster. His powerful strikes leading the way. The rest of the group followed his lead.
Flynn kept an eye on his familiar to make sure Thunderbough didn’t fall behind. The sloth kept pace, though, proving the value of the Speed related cards Flynn had shared with him.
They were still fifty yards from the Spider Queens when Stormfeather disappeared from the skies above, his summoning having expired. It was almost certainly his imagination, but Flynn thought he heard the queens chittering as if laughing.
An image of Thunderbough rolling through the remaining spiders and smashing into the central queen filled Flynn’s mind. He glanced at his familiar, nodding agreement to the sloth’s plan, then told Nyx and Throm, “Follow us!”
Thunderbough curled into a ball then rolled forward, slowly at first but then suddenly exploding with speed.
Flynn followed his familiar, activating his Bull Rush special ability, just like Thunderbough had.
Spiders were squished or sent flying as they passed, and the pair crossed the distance to the middle Bristleback Spider Queen in an instant.
The sloth ball slammed into the large spider queen, staggering the monster. Flynn was there a moment later and activated his Double Double special ability. His sword and battle hammer smashed into the spider’s legs, severing or shattering all four on the right side of the spider.
The large monster squealed in pain and anger as it started to fall.
Thunderbough unrolled himself and slashed out with both clawed hands, his slow but powerful strikes leaving six long gashes in the falling spider’s body.
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Out of the corner of his eye, Flynn saw a streak of blue and Nyx was suddenly leaping through the air, glaives in both hands. She came down on the Epic level monster and drove both weapons into the spider queen’s head.
Shrieks of rage filled the air as the central queen collapsed, and Flynn realized the sounds were coming from the horde of spiders. He instinctively raised his hands to cover his ears to keep the deafening sound out.
A descending spear nearly skewered him.
Flynn rolled away from the attack just in time and sprang to his feet to see that the spider queen from the adjacent hill had leaped into the battle. A quick glance toward Nyx showed him that the third queen had attacked her. Thunderbough was nowhere to be seen having returned to his home realm when his summoning expired.
“Keep the small spiders at bay,” he shouted to Throm who was already battling the horde of smaller monsters to keep them away.
Flynn dodged to the side to avoid another spear-like leg.
He knocked the next attack aside with his battle hammer, his Hammer Shield ability making the motion instinctual. His short sword severed the leg just below the first joint.
The Bristleback Spider Queen howled and glared at Flynn, and for the first time he studied the Epic level monster he faced.
Two large black eyes glared at him from a large head covered in bristly hair. A row of six smaller eyes below the larger pair seemed to take in everything around them. Two large fangs below the eyes dripped venom, and mandibles twitched in anticipation of the creature’s next meal.
It was a truly horrifying sight.
Another barbed leg suddenly shot toward Flynn, and his sword deflected the blow, the blade sparking as it hit the sharp tip at the end of the leg. His battle hammer smashed into the leg with a loud crunch.
The queen howled again and scurred back several steps. The front most legs on each side of the spider hung uselessly, one having been severed and the other broken.
The large monster suddenly lifted the front part of its body up and its abdomen curled under its body. Flynn’s brow furrowed as he watched the bizarre movement. Then a thick strand of webs shot forward faster than he could dodge.
His Hammer Shield ability saved him from getting a web in the face, but strong corded webbing wrapped around his arm and battle hammer. The spider pulled back and nearly pulled Flynn off balance.
The monster’s fangs wriggled excitedly as the large monster slowly started reeling in its catch.
Flynn planted his feet and pulled against the corded web, but the Bristleback Spider Queen was too powerful and he was pulled forward. He tried cutting the web, but his sword did little to no damage.
The young man forced his mind to calm as he was dragged toward the large monster and quickly formulated a plan.
He let the queen continue to drag him forward as his feet scrambled, trying to find something to brace himself on. When he saw a partially exposed rock, he sheathed his sword and grabbed the web with his free hand, happy to find that it wasn’t overly sticky.
When he reached the rock, he braced his feet on it and pulled back on the web both with his bound hand and his free one. He called on the power of his Strength of Arms card.
Card Name: Strength of Arms
Rank: Advanced
Class: Enhancement
Power comes in many forms and is something that many people strive for but few ever truly obtain. The Strength of Arms body enhancement card grants physical power to the wielder to enhance both mundane abilities and other card powers and skills. At Advanced rank, Strength is significantly higher than any normal human being.
Flynn’s muscles tensed and he could feel the rock his feet were braced on start to shift, but for a moment he stopped the inexorable pull.
Then he suddenly yanked on the web that was pulling him forward and used it as a slingshot to propel him forward, leaping into the air as he did.
Flynn was suddenly soaring toward the Bristleback Spider Queen.
He released his grip on the web with his right hand and sent his battle hammer into the one space he had on the dimensional storage bracelet Nyx had made for him. The weapon extricated itself from the web without issue.
Flynn immediately resummoned the battle hammer into his free hand and activated Crushing Blow as he sailed toward the monster, ready to smash it’s head into oblivion.
Unfortunately, his strength had been too great, and he sailed over the monster’s head.
Instead of smashing the queen’s head, Flynn came down on the creature’s back and smashed his battle hammer into the joint between the spider’s thorax and abdomen. The connector between the spiders two halves crumpled and the monster shrieked in pain as the back half of the creature dropped to the ground.
The spider web loosened and dropped from Flynn’s left arm as he tumbled off the back of the spider.
He landed on his feet, switched the battle hammer back to this left hand, drew his sword, and spun to face the Bristleback Spider Queen in one fluid motion.
The large monster struggled to stay on its feet as it tried to turn to face the young man while half its body dragged on the ground, useless but still attached.
Flynn dashed forward and sliced through a leg with his sword and smashed another with his battle hammer.
The double attack toppled the Spider Queen who could no longer stay balanced on its feet. The monster fell onto its side helplessy. Several quick blows from hammer and sword ended the creatures struggles.
A moment later, the air was pierced by a high pitch keening. Flynn looked toward the third Bristleback Spider Queen and saw Nyx standing on top of the unmoving monster, her glaive stabbed down into the creatures head.
All around them, the smaller spiders were screeching, but they had stopped attacking.
That didn’t stop Throm from squashing them with his war hammer, and the area surrounding the mercenary was soon devoid of living spiders. None of the remaining creatures appeared to be interested in attacking.
The trio looked around them where hundreds, if not thousands of Bristleback Spiders still remained.
Just as suddenly as the screeching had started, it stopped.
Then the spiders started running away, scurrying in every direction except toward the corpses of their former queens.
In a matter of moments, the battlefield was devoid of any living spiders, and everything was silent.
That silence was broken a moment later by Throm. “Silk and fangs, that’s a lot of loot!”
Flynn knew the mercenary had just gotten the same message he had.
Your party has defeated 3 Epic level Bristleback Spider Queens.
Your party has defeated 64 Elite level Bristleback Spiders.
Your party has defeated 6,247 Advanced level Bristleback Spiders.
Each monster must be looted individually. Looting may be done by anyone involved in the battle.
A countless horde of cards and card fragments materialized above the sea of dead monsters that stretched all the way back to their campsite hundreds of yards away. They were mostly grey in color, but there were some copper and silvers, too.
There were also three gold fragments, one above each of the three slain queens. That’s where Flynn turned his attention first.
“You take two, and I’ll get one,” Nyx said. “You and Thunder did most of the damage to that first one.”
Flynn was not going to turn down an extra Epic rank card fragment. Each of them was the equivalent of 125 Basic rank card fragments and would go a long way toward leveling one of his cards up to Epic rank.
So would the two thousand plus card fragments that would be his share of the loot.
The three gore covered warriors got busy looting monsters. Despite the fact that the spider gore was dry and cracking by the time they finished looting, Flynn, Nyx, and Throm were in high spirits when they finished collecting their loot.
Flynn’s was happy that his card pouch was once again full. In fact, it was overflowing and he had to put a large portion of the card fragments he’d looted into the pockets of his saddlebag. Overall, he’d collected just over 2000 Basic rank card fragments plus 32 Advanced and 14 Elite rank fragments. He also looted 5 Basic rank cards and the two Epic rank card fragments from the Bristleback Spider Queens.
“I think it’s time to level up,” he said with a smile.