Chapter 150: The Broodmother (4)

The kills came, and the more he got, the stronger Reidar became.

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 115.]

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 116.]

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 117.]

Reidar had shared his summoning skills with his Rift-Sprites, but not all of them. So, it made sense for the monsters to send those who didn’t have the summoning skills forward. That was what they did.

The Dread-Spinners still killed hundreds of monsters, but hundreds more manifested to replace them. It was a war of attrition that Reidar knew he was going to win, especially because his mana was getting replenished.

The Mana Siphon perk pulled energy from the ambient mana through his summoned creatures as if they were all weaker versions of the Guardian Shade. With thousands of creatures active, the effect was noticeable.

Lena stood beside him, watching the carnage unfold. “I’m the only one not gaining anything from this.”

Reidar glanced at her.

“Want a skill?”

“Yeah… At least I will be able to do something aside from giving tips.”

Reidar activated Skill Sharing and passed her Summon Primal Pack and Summon Rift-Sprite Contubernium.

“Summon what you can,” Reidar said. “It won’t be much, but it’ll contribute. You’ll get C.L.A.S.P. for every kill we make, although not much.”

“It’s better than nothing at least…,” Lena said, nodding.

A pack of spectral wolves materialized below, joining the fray. Then a small group of Rift-Sprites. It wasn’t much, but at least Lena was not going to be left out.

Lena’s notifications started appearing.

“I could give you Circle of Renewal too, if you want,” Reidar said. “It’s a healing spell with an area of effect. You could move around the battlefield, healing Jake’s and my summons. This will give you more C.L.A.S.P. points.”

Lena stared at him like he had lost his mind. “Are you insane? I’m not rushing down there. That’s suicide. One spider gets past your summons, and I’m dead.”

Reidar shrugged. “Fair.”

They turned back to the battle. Jake stood beside them, his face pale but focused. His mana was recovering too, slower than Reidar’s but enough to act in case his help was needed. Though his creatures were getting destroyed left and right. They were too weak, although stronger than before since Reidar killing all those monsters made him level up ten times due to the level disparity.

The Dread-Spinners killed everything within reach—knights and sprites. But the numbers were too much.

However, as they feared the numbers, Reidar and the others feared their powers. The contubernium were stronger than normal rift sprites, especially because they gave access to different elements, such as lightning and ice, but they were still lower tiers compared to the Dread-Spinners. It wasn’t just a matter of levels.

The monsters were killing so many of his summoned creatures that, for a second, Reidar thought they might not be able to kill the Broodmother.

But the elemental barrage never stopped. Fire melted carapaces. More monsters died.

[Level 124 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

[Level 127 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

[Level 122 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

The kills mounted. Then Lena noticed movement on the rooftops. The Rift-Sprites had spread through the buildings.

“Reidar,” Lena said. “Look.”

He followed her gaze. “They’re in position.”

Reidar nodded. “We can start the attack on the theater then.”

Lena, Jake, and Reidar watched the man’s summons settle into place, lining the edges of every building, their eyes fixed on the web-covered structure in the distance.

“Do it,” Lena said, and Reidar gave the order through his Hive Mind.

The Ember Rift-Sprites opened their mouths. Fire gathered in their throats, glowing brighter with each passing second. Then they unleashed it.

A thousand fireballs arced through the air. They struck the theater’s webbing, igniting it instantly. The Gloom-Web burned fast. It was organic, flammable, and designed to trap prey but vulnerable to flame.

Fire spread across the structure. The wooden support beams caught fire next, and within seconds, the entire building was engulfed in infernal flames.

The stone blocks the spiders had added cracked from the heat. The webs holding them together disintegrated. Entire sections of the theater collapsed inward, crushing whatever was inside. Reidar didn’t receive notifications, or better, if he did, he could not distinguish them from those he got for killing the Dread-Spinners below.

One thing was certain, though; he didn’t kill the Broodmother. That thing was still alive, and she most likely wasn’t appreciating what they were doing.

Reidar watched the notifications continue to scroll.

[Level 129 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

[Level 121 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

[Level 130 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

He counted the numbers. Eighty Dread-Spinners were dead, but 140 remained.

The theater was burning. That was what they had to focus on at that moment. Then the nest started collapsing until it did. And still, the Broodmother had not gone out.

“It’s a pity,” Reidar said, “that we had to attack the theater before killing all the Dread-Spinners.”

It was just a matter of time before the broodmother came out.

He ordered the rest of the Rift-Sprites to focus on the Dread-Spinners so that few of them would remain in the end.

Lena nodded. “But if we had waited, she might have come out on her own before we could do any damage through the theater.”

The fire grew hotter. Another section of the ceiling caved in, sending debris crashing through the burning structure.

More of the Dread-Spinners died.

Then they heard it.

A screech.

Not the high-pitched shriek of the Dread-Spinners. Something deeper. Louder. Reidar’s eyes locked on the theater. The Broodmother was coming to kill them all.

The burning theater groaned, and then the entire front wall bulged outward.

A segmented, barbed leg, thicker than a tree trunk, slammed down on the cobblestones, cracking them like glass. Then another, heaving the rest of the colossal form into the open air.

It was a horror of chitin and spines, dwarfing the Dread-Spinners that still scuttled below.

“Brace yourselves,” Lena said, her eyes locked on the Broodmother. “We might be forced to flee soon…”

<Dread-Spinner Broodmother – Level 145>

“145… Jake, you said 140.”

“I did! She was one-forty! I swear!”

But they all knew why there was this level discrepancy. The Broodmother had increased her level, likely by consuming the monsters her spawn brought her or simply waiting while absorbing mana.

The second, more immediate observation was the Broodmother’s condition. As she fully extracted herself from the wreckage, thick, acrid smoke rose from patches of her carapace where the chitin was blackened and cracked from the fire.

Worse were the several deep, oozing gashes that marred her body. One of her eight legs was bent at a sickening angle, and a large fragment of a stone pillar was lodged in the joint of another. The collapsing roof had clearly taken a brutal toll on her.

“Our plan worked,” Lena said.

“It did.” The Broodmother let out another ground-shaking screech, this one full of palpable rage and pain.

“The question is, would this be enough?”

She shook her massive body, dislodging a cascade of burning debris, and fixed her multitude of glowing red eyes directly on their position atop the distant building.

The Broodmother took a lurching step forward, then another.

The remaining Dread-Spinners kept killing the group’s summons and parted before her as their queen advanced toward her tormentors.

Reidar looked at Lena.

“SHE IS COMING!”

Reidar’s heart hammered against his ribs. “Run! Now!” he roared, already turning and shoving a stunned Jake towards the doorway.

Lena was a half-step ahead. Reidar followed her through the stairs. The building shook as the Broodmother’s steps got closer to the already precarious building.

“Faster!”

At that point, Jake pumped his speed up through his trait. Both Lena and Reidar couldn’t see him anymore.

They hit the bottom of the stairwell as soon as the broodmother reached the building.

The front of the building was inside a cloud of dust and flying stone.

A thunderous crash and the shriek of tortured metal came from above. The ceiling directly over the stairwell collapsed. Reidar felt the impact through his feet.

“Out! Out! Out!” Jake was already at the far door, holding it open against the gale of dust-filled wind howling through the new opening.

“Which way?” Reidar asked.

Lena pointed left, toward an area relatively free of summoned creatures. “There!”

A chunk of marble the size of a car slammed into the floor where they’d just been standing, sending cracks spiderwebbing through the foundation.

“SHIT!”

Reidar didn’t look back. They needed to get across the street and get some distance from the monster.

Then he ordered his summons to attack the monster queen.

“STOP HER!”

Reidar summoned his Primal Pack, and the enormous wolves materialized. Without hesitation, he mounted the lead wolf, while Lena and Jake scrambled onto the other two.

“We have to stay in the area!” Reidar shouted. “My creatures are here. I can’t re-summon them!”

He didn’t have enough mana now.

Lena and Jake exchanged a glance, but there was no time to argue. The wolves took off, sprinting across the ruined street as the Broodmother lumbered after them, her wounded leg dragging behind.

In the meantime Fireballs struck the broodmother’s carapace, injuring the creature more than she already was.

The group, in the meantime, reached the western end of the plaza. The summoned creatures were between them and the broodmother. The battle against the Dread-Spinners was still in full swing.

The Broodmother, while trying to reach Reidar, kept going through the sea of monsters.

[Level 129 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

[Level 121 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

[Level 130 Monster Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnid defeated.]

…

“What do we do?”

The three watched as the monster queen limped forward, one leg dragging uselessly behind her. Yet her eyes burned with pure hatred.

Jake stared at her, fists clenched. This was the thing that had slaughtered his parents. The one who’d probably eaten them. His chest tightened, but he didn’t look away.

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