Crusader King-Chapter 124: Beneath the Statue(9)

His silver blade quietly entered the struggling abomination that was curled up around the tree, immobilized due to it's own size and incoherent movements with ease, sliding right through one of the eyes that seemed to not even be of true function once one looked closer at them, now surrounded by skin that reminded him of his own, just much bigger and of an ashen dark colour that reminded him of the scales the beast had before, the most likely reason for the colour of the skin beneath it.

The current of lightning still streaming through the shaft of the blade and searing the flesh of the thing that had once been a spider, his face contorted to a smile as he already realized that the spider would not be coming back from this, after all, from what he had seen the spider had a surprisingly good resistance to the heat of his sword that was even hurting him, but right now, it was failing to resist, and thought the materials wound be in a worse state, he was still certain that the materials would be of good enough for him to create his new arm.

And even if they weren't, right now he wasn't thinking about that, despite his higher rank he had struggled after having been surprised with an entirely new enemy, after having been bashed around like a ragdoll, after having followed the spider which he had definitely underestimated to the island which had been quite the obvious trap in hindsight, he quite clearly did not care anymore, he would however most likely regret this later on.

Either way, the monster wasn't exactly thinking about such thing, instead it's insides had begun to boil and it's skin had broken out in something Cades could only describe as bubbles under the surprisingly sturdy and heat-resistant skin that was now more of a curse than anything else, stopping the heat from escaping the body, at least the middle part which he had stabbed, the former one closest to the head, resulting in it quickly dying.

It took only a quarter minute of holding the blade in place, exuding the powerful lightning, his overload as he called it, through the tip and burning the insides, boiling them even, but after that the spider slowly stopped moving, the once mighty legs ceasing their struggle, the eyes that darted around, at least some of them, having turned glassy and having lost their mad glint that seemed to reside in the eyes of all beings inherent to this realm, the mandibles clashing together over and over again, probably creating a silent, frantic rhythm, finally stopping and the tongue that it had hidden beneath it all losing it's fortitude, falling down and letting go of even more of the black goo that had now stopped being excreted, as if having given up and already vanishing.

The legs were the first part to completely stop, the ones connected to the part he had just destroyed being the first to fall limply to the ground, like parts of a giant ragdoll, soon after the next pair of six legs followed, creating another splatter on the ground with the black goo rolling off of the body without leaving any mess, rolling off of the skin as it had always done, something that had just not been visible due to the sheer amount produced.

Finally, the tails stopped moving at the same time as the mouth and eyes finally dropped, the eyelids that Cades didn't even know it had now covering two of the beasts, the two eyes that sat right in front of the beasts, right at the best seating place to see him get ripped apart by the now limp mandibles that were still as sharp as always, and probably as sturdy too.

Then, after all was done, after the mighty beast stopped heaving destruction everywhere it went, Cades, still holding the now incredibly painful and hot blade in his left hand, a hand that would need him to use the regeneration blessing he had, something he had completely forgotten due tot he sheer roller coaster of the fight he had just been in, he threw his head back, stepping on one of the sharp stones without protection by his mana but simply not caring, due to the fact that his feet had already been seared by the black goo without him noticing, and added to that this goo had been searing from the heat given off of the lightning exploding within the body of the once-spider.

He just laughed, not loud, his shoulders heaved slightly as he watched the body of the monster that still bubbled from time to time, something that had definitely been caused by his own actions, and yet also something he truly hadn't expected to go on for such a long time.

It had been risky to do this, if the spider had attacked him during this he would have failed due to him having to hold the blade in place to keep on sending lightning through it's shaft and exude it at the silver tip, something that had basically immobilized him and would've served him to the monster on a silver platter hadn't it already been struggling and basically been defeated by it's own rash and foolish decisions, due to the same thing that Cades had almost been defeated by it.

Finally, he let go of his blade, with it silently falling down, the silver metal of the straight sword colliding with the glassy stones that were placed around here, sharp and as numerous as gravel, but just as he did he began to feel something in the very hand that he had just opened and closed to get rid of the searing hot piece of metal that had been constantly burning him.

He was already pretty sure of what the thing in his hand, a thing that was intricate and fragile seeing as he had just broken off a part of the spikes already, something he knew very well and yet something that was completely different each time he saw it.

It was an active, or rather, it was one of the stones that contained the actives that had helped him so much until now.