The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

I checked the ground, finding Bane’s prints leading onwards on the main path. We ignored the side tunnel and continued on until we came to a widening in the tunnel, as the five by ten-foot tunnel grew out to a cavern dozens of feet across at the narrowest, and the ceiling hung high overhead, covered in spiderwebs.

I skidded to a stop. The clattering of the rest of my group as they caught up was more than enough to ensure the awakening of the few giant spiders I hadn’t already woken with my own arrival. I looked up at them as they slowly lowered themselves down, ranging in size from the size of my hand to over a dozen feet tall, long legs flickering and twitching as they shifted on their webs and lines to surround us.

“Back away, slowly…” I whispered, looking up at them, well aware that with the limited light given off by the magelights behind me, the rest of my party had no idea what was coming.

“What is it?” Miren squeaked as Stephanos grabbed her arm, having seen a hint of movement in the darkness.

“Spiders…” I replied, and just as I was about to throw a Firebolt into the webbing, in the hopes of injuring them and killing a few, I saw a cocoon in the middle twitch and thrash.

On the floor, directly below it, lay a pair of spears, and I knew I’d found Bane. Dozens of smaller spiders crawled across his thrashing, thick-webbed cocoon, and I could see blood stains coloring it. “…and Bane.” I whispered. I saw the way the spiders gathered themselves, and I yelled in warning.

“Back! Get back!” I shouted, shoving the party, and they fell back quickly, but not before several spiders shot their webs at us, with more being released repeatedly.

Instantly, it became a mess of screaming faces, yanking arms, and flashing weapons as we all tried to cut the dozens of strands that hit us, yanking us off our feet, even as smaller spiders jumped across the room or fell from above us.

I felt the pain of tiny bites on my neck, the back of my wrist, on my cheek…

Beware!

You have been poisoned. You will lose one (1) point of health, and one (1) point of stamina per second for the next ten (10) seconds.

Beware!

You have been poisoned. You will lose one (1) point of health, and one (1) point of stamina per second for the next ten (10) seconds.

Beware!

You have been poisoned. You will lose one (1) point of health, and one (1) point of stamina per second for the next ten (10) seconds.

Beware…

I felt the bites as they continued, and I saw the notification flash up, the poisoned warning getting my attention straight away, as I realized just how dangerous this was.

I had one spell that I could use here, but didn’t have anywhere near the time to cast it, considering how long it took for ‘Cleansing Fire’ to activate. Ten seconds wasn’t long, but when a single mispronunciation would cause the spell to backlash and harm me more, and I had dozens of poisonous spiders covering me, I didn’t have the time or control to cast it.

I had one chance, and that was to embrace my new ability.

I pulled my mana in, and shoved it into my muscles, my tendons, my…

“ARRRRRRRGH” I screamed, as my body was suddenly flooded with vitality. It felt like I’d had a pint of strong espresso injected into my brain directly, as time seemed to slow around me. The Drow I’d faced before had been stronger and faster than me, until I’d boosted myself.

The spiders weren’t, they weren’t even close.

There were lots of them, but they were only dangerous as the ambush predators they were, especially when facing me in my newly enhanced form.

I spun my naginata through the air, a touch of mana spared to flare it to life and imbue it with fire as I cut through all but one of the cords holding me.

I smashed down with my other hand, swatting the spiders that covered me, feeling them explode in tiny pops of gore, and when my feet hit the ground, I felt the last connected web yank on me, trying to pull me back up, even as other spiders readied themselves to fire another salvo of webs at me.

I grinned up at the spider connected to me, and I gripped the thick webbing with my left hand, yanking…hard.

It came loose from the wall where it had crouched. It’d been bracing to pull me up, not prepared for a tug of war with a being far stronger than it.

It fell forward, legs windmilling as it tried to secure itself. Its thrashing legs hit a second spider and pulled it free, the chitinous forelegs punching deep into its unfortunate brethren, who immediately counterattacked, sinking its fangs into its supposed attacker.

I was moving now; I’d cut the cord connecting me to the spider that was battling for its life against another of its own kin, and I started to dance. I jumped and sliced, cut and tore through webbing, my people falling free.

Lydia cursed as she smashed down nearby, but yanked a potion out and chugged it, even as Arrin fell nearby, his FlameShield spell being a nasty surprise for the spiders that had covered him, and even more so for the ones that fell all around him. He quickly drank a health, then mana potion, and started running around giggling as spiders fell, bursting into flames as they hit his shield.

Barrett grabbed Stephanos as I freed him and started dragging him from the room, Arrin leaped up and grabbed onto a spider easily ten foot tall that had landed nearby, and as he grabbed handfuls of coarse hair, pulling himself upwards, his FlameShield burrowed into the creature, killing it in a gory explosion of superheated chitin.

I spun and jumped, my health and mana dropping steadily, as well as my stamina, but as my blade