There was no way they could approach the cave guardian without him noticing. From where it was standing, it could see anything that emerged from the forest.

  And it didn’t fail to see Matheus and Rick walking to its direction.

  The turtle opened one eye as they approached and stared at them, as if daring them to come closer.

  Well, here goes nothing.

  Matheus took another step.

  Before his foot was fully on the ground again, the creature got up and roared in challenge.

  “Get ready,” he said to Rick, holding his knife tight.

  The giant turtle started running to their direction, slowly increasing its velocity, then it jumped, retreated all its limbs and became a spinning shell, coming at them with full speed.

  “Oh fuck,” Matheus let out as they dove to the side, getting out of the way. The turtle pivoted and kept its momentum, trying to run them over again.

  “That wasn’t on the plan,” Rick complained as he barely avoided the crazy shell.

  “Just keep dodging!” Matheus yelled back. Even with his increased constitution, being hit at this speed would probably break some of his bones.

  Fortunately, the turtle finally stopped spinning after a few rounds and got up, walking on two legs to their direction. It came to Matheus first, jaw wide open. He fell back a few steps, barely avoiding the monster's sharp teeth as its neck elongated and almost doubled in size trying to bite him.

  He ducked and tried slashing back, but the turtle's head had already retreated and he had to avoid a scratch from one of the creature’s big feet. It was moving surprisingly fast, and even though Matheus was managing to keep his distance and was attacking back, he either missed completely or failed to penetrate the creature's resilient shell.

  Rick tried hitting it from behind, only to face the same problems. His sword couldn’t go past the turtle’s defenses.

  Matheus aimed a few bubble balls at its head, but the distraction wasn't enough for him to manage to hit any of the creature’s limbs.

  Just as he’d imagined, they couldn’t hurt it head on. Its extremely hard defense was the guardian biggest advantage.

  “Now?” Rick asked, coming to his side.

  “Now!” he yelled back, clapping his hands and unleashing a powerful sound wave.

  The effects still made his whole body shake for a few seconds, but Matheus reckoned it was worse when you weren’t expecting it. The cave guardian retreated with disoriented steps, clearly dizzy. It wouldn’t be stunned for long, only a few seconds at most. They had to act quickly.

  “For honor!” Matheus shouted, while they both abandoned their weapons and threw themselves at the turtle.

  The monster stumbled, incapable of standing on its feet with their extra weight. It fell on its back, and they both fell together with it. As soon as they hit the ground, Matheus took the boulder from his inventory and placed it right on the top of the guardian’s body.

  The turtle roared again and started flapping violently, desperately trying to move.

  It couldn’t. It didn’t have enough strength to rotate with the boulder holding it down.

  It was trapped.

  “We did it!” Rick exclaimed.

  “Not yet, We still need to kill it,” Matheus said, not able to hold the grin on his face. It had worked just like he’d planned.

  “That's easy,” Rick said, while slashing at the turtle’s stretched neck.

  It retreated all its limbs back to the shell before the sword could get to it, and Rick hit the ground, losing the hold of his sword and launching it a few meters away.

  Matheus sighed. If he’d picked the astral blade sub-skill, he probably would have been able to reach the monster inside. His electrical stab had been useless in this fight.

  Still, he liked the ability to electrocute his enemies, so no complaints there. After they kill the cave guardian, he will get a new spell anyway. Another weapon to his increasing arsenal. Would be nice to have a more direct attack or a better way to protect himself. He was definitely lacking a shield.

  Speaking of shields, maybe he could keep the monster’s shell and use it to build some type of armor? That would be amazing. It was at least worth a try.

  Well, he was getting way ahead of himself here. The monster was still right there, furiously trying to move the boulder.

  In the corner of his eye, Matheus saw Captain was already walking to their direction, even though he’d asked him to wait hidden by his backpack until the fight was done.

  He knew he couldn't really talk with the cat, but ever since he'd been bonded as his familiar, he could swear Captain could understand what he wanted of him. They had a deeper connection he knew wasn’t possible with normal animals.

  “I'll try to stab it”, Rick said after retreating his sword.

  “Alright, be careful,” Matheus said, while going to meet Captain. “I asked you to wait”.

  “Meow,” replied his familiar in an urgent tone.

  Something was wrong.

  “Radar,” he said, getting Captain and putting him on his hood.

  There are 8 monsters in a fifty meters of your position.

  “Oh no.” Matheus turned, to see one blue spider emerging from the forest. Then another one.

  He didn’t wait for them all to appear.

  “We need to go, now!”

  “Go where? Inside the cave?” asked Rick, still trying to kill the cave guardian.

  He paled when he saw the spiders.

  “Back to the forest, c’mon,” Matheus said, pulling him. He would have to abandon his backpack for now.

  As they ran, they saw two more spiders appearing and blocking their path. Had they spread over in order to block their escape? Matheus gulped. They were hunting them like prey.

  “What now?” Rick asked.

  “We have no choice. We need to get past them before the others close in.”

  Rick said nothing, but nodded and they both ran with their blades raised. If Matheus got lucky and managed to electrocute them, they had a chance to flee.

  The spiders started glowing slightly and a blue mist appeared from nowhere, slowly but steadily advancing towards their direction.

  Suddenly he started feeling extremely cold, and with horror he noticed ice was forming wherever the mist passed.

  “It’s some kind of spell,” Matheus said, retreating. “Don’t let it touch you.”

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  With no other choice, they ran back to the glade.

  There was no way out of here now, not without fighting. Should they risk one of the caves? Matheus didn’t want to get into an ever worse position. It would be too easy to get cornered inside.

  They retreated as the spiders approached. The cave guardian screamed in fury, probably enraged by so many getting close to his caves. A few of the spiders got to the trapped turtle and conjured the same mist, freezing him.

  They stroke and his shell shattered, leaving a defenseless glob of creature.

  The widows lunged to eat and started devouring their prey.

  You’ve killed the cave guardian.

  You’ve completed a quest! Return to the city master.

  At least that was taken care of. Now, what the fuck should they do?

  Even while they ate, there was nowhere for them to run. They were blocking the only way out.

  “We fight by the entrance. Don’t let them bite you, or you’ll get paralyzed.” Matheus said, still trying to come up with a plan.

  It didn’t take a full minute for them to devour the whole guardian. As soon as they were finished they started advancing, still hungering for more meat.

  One of the spiders lunged at him, and Matheus used the opportunity to unleash a wave of electricity. It jumped from monster to monster, hitting the 3 closest to him. Before he could finish them off, another one went for his leg, making him jump away. He splashed it then retreated, seeing one more trying to circle him.

  He watched as the spiders he’d hurt got up and resumed their approach, mixing with the others from the group.

  They were all still alive, and now all his abilities were in cooldown. All he had was his knife and a few more bubble balls.

  Rick slashed at any spider that approached, discouraging them to throw himself at him. His higher reach let him deal with the spiders much better.

  Still, it wouldn’t matter. Soon they would be completely overwhelmed by them.

  “There are too many of them!” Rick exclaimed, as one spider suddenly jumped to his direction, fangs exposed.

  He instantly reacted with his sword, cutting the monster in half. It would have been extremely impressive if his momentum hadn’t carried, making him stab the earth, his blade embedded deep.

  “Shit. Shit!” Rick said, trying to unstuck his sword from the ground.

  A widow threw himself at him and he had no other choice but to leave his weapon. The monster conjured the blue mist again, and Rick stumbled back just in time to avoid being frozen.

  The sword was completely enveloped by the mist.

  In seconds, it had become frozen as ice. And with a sharp trust, the spider shattered it into hundreds of small pieces.

  “My sword… I can’t believe it,” Rick said in shock.

  “C’mon, we need to keep moving,” Matheus said, splashing and stabbing a spider trying to get to Rick by surprise. He managed to thrust his blade right in the middle of the creature’s eyes, killing it instantly.

  They retreated further, their breaths visible in the unnaturally cold air. Now that Rick was unarmed, Matheus was the only one holding the spider's advance.

  Still, the monsters weren’t rushing it. They avoided taking unnecessary risks, knowing well they had no need to.

  “Matheus, there’s nowhere to go!” Rick said with urgency.

  He turned, realizing with horror Rick was right. The cave they entered was barely a few more meters deep. They were trapped.

  Suddenly Captain jumped from his hood and crashed into a widow coming from the ceiling, using his distraction to get to him.

  “No!” he yelled in panic, seeing both animals tumbling on the ground. He tried to help but two other widows came to him, barring his path.

  Matheus watched in horror as the spider managed to bite his familiar, who howled in pain. It scratched back at the spider’s head, turning its face into a blood mess. Captain got away limping, looking at him.

  Behind the cat, another widow came leaping, fangs sticking out.

  Rick threw himself in front of the attack and slapped the spider so hard it went flying away.

  When the monster hit the wall, it exploded in gore.

  That had been a strong hit. What was his level with that skill?

  “Ma-matheus…” Rick said, falling on his knees. His arm had turned into a deep blue, and every second more of the cursed color spread through his body.

  The same started happening with Captain until they both fell on the ground, unconscious.

  He managed to get past the widows blocking him, cutting a leg of one in the process. He positioned himself in front of his paralyzed, defenseless allies.

  He waited, panting. He couldn’t let the spiders get closer. Matheus was the only thing keeping them from dying.

  He couldn’t fail.

  The remaining spiders advanced, eager to finish him off.

  One lunged at him and Matheus cut its face with a swift motion of his knife. He slashed at another, and splashed one trying to get to Rick

  He kept circling his fallen allies, striking at everything that came closer.

  Two of the monsters jumped at him at the same time, and he stabbed the ones closest and unleashed a powerful electric current. They stumbled back, hurt but still not dead. Another spider lunged, but he hit it with a bubble ball and kicked it away.

  Exhaustion started taking over his body. Matheus struck at everything that approached, slashing, stabbing and splashing like a madman. His mana was almost drained, and he had to make every shot count.

  The monsters had him cornered, and Matheus was almost out of tricks. They were advancing together now, coming from all sides.

  He clapped his hands just in time, throwing them all away.

  Unfortunately, he was also too weak to resist the trembling on his legs. He fell on his hands, painting.

  “C’mon, don’t give up now,” he said to himself. “There are only three. You can handle three.”

  He needed to get up. He could already see some of the spiders moving again in the corner of his eyes. He needed to keep fighting.

  He wasn’t over yet.

  He got on his feet again, ready to strike at the first monster who got close.

  An arrow came from nowhere and pinned one spider to the ground. Then another, and another one.

  In seconds, they were all dead.

  “It seems I’ve arrived just in time,” Sophie said, coming from the entrance smiling.

  Before Matheus could answer, he fell one more time and darkness took over him.