I should be safe here for now, Feng Ming thought, resting against the wall at the entrance of the mountain canyon. He only had a moment to relax before a chill ran down his spine. He summoned his Magma God’s Spear just in time to catch a blow from an unusual weapon, a cane. Cold winds blew past him, filling the air with fog. He could barely make out a short, aged lady with spectacles behind the cane.
“You,” the woman said in a nasal voice, “are trespassing on private property. And I suspect that you are the one responsible for this destruction. Prepare to be eliminated.” The woman moved fast, so fast that she left behind an afterimage. Feng Ming staggered, swinging out randomly with his spear, hoping to deflect whatever strikes came his way, since he couldn’t predict them.
Clank. Clank. Clank. He deflected the first three blows with ease, causing the older woman to frown. Seeing her hesitate, he pressed the attack. The air around him became a blistering sandstorm, the earth beneath him a pool of magma. The woman disappeared, but this time, her afterimage was disrupted by the sand. He felt her through the sand, sensing her movements, not toward his side but above him. She struck down with cutting azure runes of wind that blew away the sand, exposing him to the her cane.
Feng Ming did what he did best. He threw his spear up at her, hoping to the heavens above that it struck true. It did just that, crashing against the woman’s chest. A shattering sound filled the air as a brooch, which had been fastened to a fashionable overcoat she’d been wearing, fell to the ground.
He held out his hand and caught his spear. He moved to rush in but paused, suddenly looking toward the north. She did the same. The smoke from the explosion, which had filled the mountain valley, was now just clearing.
“Drat,” the woman said in a deadpan voice.
A large figured appeared, complete with eight monstrous metallic legs and thousands of eyes. It roared, its mouth opening into row upon row of jagged golden teeth.
The sound hit Feng Ming like a sledgehammer, beating him down, eating into his qi and his vitality. He coughed up blood as he flew into the wall, several ribs breaking in the process. The monstrosity struck out with one of its massive legs, aiming not for Feng Ming but for the wall itself. It pierced into it, taking a large piece out from where the gouge had been. The large piece of rubble fell, and as it did, Feng Ming noticed something else.
Spiders. Spiders everywhere. They crawled upon the ground, the cliffs, and the beast itself. They crawled upon the Shattered Lands and the rock-covered corpses in the canyon. The woman cursed and swept out with her cane, sending blades and gusts of wind at the spiders that blew apart in sprays of silver metal, cutting down their allies, cutting down their endless allies, which were so crowded they barely had room to move.
They inched toward the fissure in the wall, and though the lady did her best to try repelling them, the larger spider, who emanated a life-leaching aura that made it difficult for even Feng Ming to breathe, let alone move, attacked her with precise strikes. She deflected the blows, which in turn allowed the spiders to surge forward.
“My king!” the woman bellowed.
Moments later, a figure appeared. It was none other than the angry king, Ji Lingtian. He threw his sword out to the massive spider, who recoiled as though it had met its worst nemesis.
“The Death-Spewing Blade!” the spider hissed, its mandibles chittering angrily.
“My ancestors banished you to the depths of that place, but it seems you’ve forgotten,” the king said, standing tall. “Life-Leaching Monarch, today, I will end you.”
“It seems it is you who’s forgotten humility,” the spider said. “I may not be able to breach this wall, but I can make you feel the consequences of encroachment. The miners you sent are dead, and you cannot stop my children from wreaking havoc in the city.”
“It seems you’re hellbent on this,” the king said solemnly.
“I would be a fool not to take the opportunity, when someone so willingly tore a gap for me,” the spider said. “I’ll make you wish your ancestors had finished the job all those years ago.”
The spider’s two front legs shot at the king, who sent out a storm of swords. They fanned out in patterns, deflecting the spider’s assault. Despite the creature’s massive girth, it wielded its massive, scythe-like limbs with lethal precision.
As the king deflected the limbs, he used the single golden sword he’d held at his side to carve away at the golden metallic shell on the spider’s body. He didn’t even bother attacking the eyes, as there were thousands, and each one was covered in a transparent membrane that granted them greater protection than the golden shell itself. The sword was extremely effective. In fact, it seemed to have been made to slay this creature. It tore a deep gash into the shell that didn’t recover despite the well-known regenerative powers of demons in their homeland.
That wasn’t to say the creature couldn’t fight back. While the king carved, it focused on spewing miasma. Feng Ming couldn’t breathe, but if he didn’t move now, he’d be completely paralyzed from exhaustion. Furthermore, the spider was spreading a thick, webby substance on the floor. Wherever it lay, the spiders moved more quickly. Even now, hundreds more of the foundation-establishment spiders swarmed past the desperate older lady as she worked to keep them at bay.
Looks like it’s time to bail, Feng Ming thought. He flew toward the crack, but just as he did, he heard a scream.
“It’s him!” the older lady yelled. “He’s the one who tore open the rift!”
The king
