Treachery, Part Deux

As you approach the Lair, you hear noises up ahead through the trees; you start to move faster. The scene that awaits you chills you to your core. The Lair is surrounded by a thick swarm of black, hairy bodies, frantically trying to tear their way inside. You give a furious bellow, and charge into the fray, not even pausing to analyze the situation; Dana is danger.

Again you take your enemies by surprise, and there are several alarmed hisses as the black spiders realize they are under attack. However, unlike last time, there are no forest spiders to support you. In fact, it seems there are more of black spiders here than there were attacking the forest spiders. Had that been just a ploy to draw you away from Dana? No, Drux barely knew she existed. He had probably hoped to kill two birds with one stone, wiping out both you and the forest spiders at the same time. You might have been flattered that Drux sent the majority of his forces to take you out, if it weren't for the fact that the little buggers were currently trying to kill you.

Your headlong charge causes you to penetrated deep into the mass of spiders, which quickly closes back around you, gleefully swallowing you whole. Intent on reaching Dana, you ignore your perilous situation, and keep pushing through the mob. Your progress is not easy. Spiders fling themselves at you, attempting to strike at your arms and head; others endeavor to pile themselves on top of you or attack your legs, hoping to bring you down to the ground, where you can be swarmed; a couple of them even try to use web to stick you in place or trip you up. None of it stops you.

Your mind has a sole thought: reach Dana. It becomes your mantra, cycling over and over in your head as your vision narrows to the Wall of Thorns in front of you. You barely notice as you absentmindedly shake arachnids off you and crush them beneath your feet. You pay no attention as your Vine Lash flings spiders into the air and shears of limbs. You don't even feel the accumulation of lucky strikes that make it past your armor and leave you dripping translucent, green ooze. There is only you and the Wall.

Despite their fervent effort, the spiders cannot prevent you from making it through. At last, you make it to the Wall of Thorns, the ranks of spiders surrounding you noticeably thinner. You wait for the Wall to open, but it doesn't. You don't understand! You have to get through! Dana needs you! Frantic, you try to claw and push through, but you can't. The briars are too thick.

Fear and frustration meet within you, and from them something new and terrible is born. You turn back to the spiders. Mindless, red fury wells form within, filling you with the urge to rip, tear, kill. In that moment, the spiders before you become the physical representation of a world that has abandoned, forgotten, abused, tortured and kept you down. Now, it threatened to take everything from you; the world must pay.

When the slaughter starts, there is no blackout, no veil of red, no memory loss, it isn't even remotely like a dream. You remember everything with perfect clarity. There is no pain, which makes sense; the spiders are already dead. How can something dead hurt you? It can't. So logically, nothing the spiders do can actually cause you harm. Your job is just to remind the stupid arachnids that they're dead, so they'll stop even trying in the first place. You love your job. Every strike, every blow, every twist, every snap sends beautiful sensations up your arms and legs. The feeling of the spiders' bodies breaking beneath fills you with a savage joy that calls for more. You feel powerful; nothing can stand against you, nothing.

Time loses all meaning as the slaughter progresses, until eventually, there are no spiders left. There aren't even corpses, the bodies magically whisked away as soon as the spiders die. You stand there for a while just staring at the empty forest, your body covered in clear, green fluid that flows judiciously from several wounds. You can't quite understand where all the spiders went. Why aren't there more for you to kill? What were you supposed to do when they were all gone? After several long minutes spent looking around in confusion, you finally remember your original purpose: Dana! You turn and stumble over to the Wall of Thorns, urgency forcing you forward despite the raw pain that fills you with every step. To your relief, this time the Wall of Thorns opens before you.