Emeka watches the ensuing battle with a quiet interest, on one side are the spiders, with their strange milky shells. On the other there are these creatures, brutish humanoid’s with large and muscles. Unfortunately the monster men are outnumbered, and all though they seem to have a power of their own it does not seem enough to overcome.

He decides to watch, after all it is not his battle. The strong would win and the weak fall, that was the way of nature and Emeka had no intention of changing it any other way. He also wanted to observe the monster men, they seemed far more intelligent than the spiders. If things went their way in this battle he would allow them to become his soldiers. A first step in his conquest of this strange land.

However his observance was interrupted as one of his companions decided to intervene, the metal man Aron. Of course at that time the little girl Allison voiced her disapproval towards helping the monster men. Although agreed with the girl, he did not agree with her reason for approval. It was just that Emeka could not understand the need for it, what benefit was there to interrupt another’s fight.

Their actions had attracted the attention of both the monster peoples and the spiders. It seemed that the fates would once again force him into battle, not that he was too disappointed by the opportunity. Although monster men were weary of his companions and Emeka, mainly due to Allison’s words. He was sure that the spiders were definitely hostile due to Aron’s attack. Also since it was easier to communicate with the monster men, they were the obvious side to help.

“I seems I have little choice now but to help” he said

“I will close in on the spiders, as long as I have some cover” he said, hoping to provide some shape to their actions. A battle field required knowledge and control over ones foes and friends.

Emeka stood tall, his tall frame causing a looming shadow to stretch from his feet. As he drew strength from within him, it felt like a warm raging river, asking , begging for release. He pushed the river through his hands, causing them to glow yellow, as the air rippled around it from the heat. With a quick motion he picked up a rock, it instantly glowed red hot in Emeka’s hands. Then with a powerful through he shot the rock at the frozen spider.

Then with another surge of strength from his legs he began running to his side, parallel to the spiders. Each step pushed him faster, though he did not augment them with his fire yet. He planned to begin to pick up more rocks before action broke out once again. Once the spiders were sufficiently distracted, he would use his burst step to close in on the spiders.

Surprised by the new and potentially hostile new arrival, Nathaniel steps forward to quickly address the situation.

"My apologies. We are newly arrived magicians unaccustomed to travelling such foreign lands. We didn't mean to intrude." With a slight bow, he hold his left arm to his chest and his right hand facing down. After a moment he flips the hand upright and summons a small fireball above his palm and quickly snuffing it out. Nervous, he tries not to let it be heard in his voice. "We don't mean any trouble, but you may feel free to detain us if you don't believe so."

This would be a good time to learn some new things, but he expected he had to be careful on how he approached this. Not knowing how Vestus will respond, he can only hope everything will work out.

As me and the slime continued to walk into the town, I heard a sound from behind me. It sounded as though someone was talking, a girl at that. While I could understand what she was saying I couldn't seem to pinpoint just what language she was speaking which creeped me out a bit. Did I pick up on some new type of language when I was transported here? Either way this was either a very realistic dream or completely real. I turned around to try and get a closer look at the girl. Her... her skin appeared to be colored a slightly tinted blue. And I couldn't exactly tell from how far away I was, but it looked like she also had reptilian or fish-like ears and she also seemed to be carrying a short staff and some kind of knife.

I felt a wave of relief overcome me as I realized I wouldn't have to deal with her considering she seemed to be hostile, but I also felt rather bad about thinking like that and thought about helping out the two guys over there. I looked towards my slime who paused for a moment before continuing to pull me along as well.

"I see her Azorel, but it looks like they can handle it. If she was truly hostile she would have already attacked right?" Said the slime as it dragged me along.

A frown formed on my face even though I knew that the slime was most likely right. "B-but still, shouldn't we help out or something?"

"It looks like they can handle it though." Said the slime as it pulled me closer to the small town. "Probably."

That didn't make me feel any better, but thinking about it a little more why would we be teleported to a dangerous place? Surely this is some low level area like in an RPG right? So they're probably fine. Even though I figured this was true I couldn't help but turn back around to stare at the group of two once more before heading into the village.

Ugh. How could her knight be so reckless? Can't she see that she was risking her life for nothing? Knights should be valiant, but they should be valiant in saving innocent people, not... not orcs!

I'll have to scold her later. A good princess must keep her subjects in line!

With a frown, Alison quickly accelerated and swooped down on the spiders and orcs battling.

"Rina! Thanks to you, I have to help these orcs! Why would you risk your life like that?!"

As she snapped at her knight - who might well be demoted to a lower position for this act of recklessness - she raised her hand, sending out a volley of shards at the spiders. Predator curled around her wrist, snapped at her limbs and lunged out, seeking the nearest spider to encircle and crush. She hoped Predator wouldn't get accidentally tangled up in one of those darn webs. That would sure be bad.

The orcs didn't look very friendly idea. She scrunched up her face and tried to keep her back to them as she sent Predator whipping in front of her to stop any spiders from getting too close.

Great. They have a destination and a goal. The road is set. John is temped to ask a question just how Darius died, but it didn't really matter. Outside was his corpse. Both creepy and fascinating. Standing over his own body, John examines the wound. "Looks like the wound tried to regenerate before I died. But I've lost too much blood before the regeneration could make a difference. Interesting..." Indeed, there were clear signs of regeneration. While it wasn't some kind of comic book instant regeneration, it was still there. Where his now black blood was splattered on the ground, the vegetation has withered and died, forming small patches of decay. Armor with acidic retaliation, decay-inducing blood, envenomed bone claws and minor constant regeneration - these are John's current capabilities, for now. And now, it was time to go.

Well I'm done here Darius. Lead the way.

@Laue
He didn't plan on stopping to examine John's freakish remains. The boy already learned from the events prior to that moment what John's body could do in the Cradle. Wasn't a pretty sight. So Darius turned his back on the body and kept walking. John could catch up on his own, but Darius was more focused on their goal. The shrine gradually disappeared from view as the teenager guided the bioengineer deeper into the specious, verdant forest. Darius remained withdrawn and vigilant on the path to the village from before.

Only a little further. As their location became more remote from the shrine, the boy thought of new ways to effectively retaliate defensively against John or any threat if he were ever so aggressed. If he wanted to survive, he would have to trust his instinct and be willing to kill when necessary. He had moral conflicts about the act of murder, but against the other nascent godlings Darius understood situations where it could not be avoided.

They pressed closer to the edge of the woods and the clearing by the village. Recalling correctly, the brunet kept his eyes peeled for the scene of his death where there'd be some charring from the explosion and perhaps something more sinister or gut-churning.

The two orcs remain in place for a moment, silently processing as Emeka and Alison perform their ranged attacks upon the spiders; Alison's shard volley is mostly dodged by the spiders, though two of them are struck by stray shards, one losing a couple of its legs, and the other having the shard lodged in its thorax and beginning to corrode as a result, whilst the frozen spider is struck dead-on by Emeka's attack, curling up in apparent death as its already-fragile exoskeleton caves in upon it. The orcs choose this moment to begin acting again, the fire wielder recovering a fair amount and launching more flame at the frozen spider to ensure its demise, whilst the frost wielder moves next to her ally as a defensive measure, sending a wave of frozen air out toward the other spiders. The spiders dodge the frost wave with respective leaps away from it, but it is clear they are now focused on the Dark-wielding Alison; the spider closest to her, in danger of being grappled by Predator, begins to lash out at the appendage whilst moving away from it, achieving a lucky gash with one of its claws, whilst the rest spew a wide net of webbing in Alison's direction, threatening to strike Rina and Aron too, and some of it falling in Emeka's path as he runs round them. The webbing passes through his upper left arm in the same way it did the orc, and he feels it go icily numb, the limb falling limp as the magic circuitry is damaged, though after the initial shock, he feels that he is still able to move it around, albeit with noticable difficulty.

All of a sudden, a group of three tall male humanoids walk into the clearing about a quarter of the way round from you, and jerk to a halt as they lay eyes on you, clearly unprepared for this sudden encounter. From what you can glean from their height and ear length at this distance, they appear to be elvish in nature; it occurs to Darius specifically that they may be similar to the elf-like warrior who so recently faced off against the dark elf and its demonic pet, though it also occurs to him that at that sort of distance from the sphere, the elf most likely perished alongside him. All three wear similar green and brown ranger garments to the elven warrior from before, though the bows on their backs and the swords in their hands are noticably worn, and the swords do not glow or emit excess power in any way. The apparent leader's clothing is slightly more elaborate than that of his companions, and he is the only one wielding two swords, but they otherwise appear very similar in both gear and build; the only noticable difference at this distance is that one has blond hair down to his neck, and the other two (including the leader) possess different hairstyles, the leader with his hair cut short, and the other elf allowing it to flow down to his shoulderblades.

After a moment of hesitation, the blond elf sheathes his sword and pulls his bow from his back, nocking an arrow in preparation for a fight; the leader holds a hand out to stop him from going too far, then turns to the two humans and calls out: "Alright, you two... creatures... who and what are you?"

"Captain! One of them... he... it bears the Blightmother's taint!" the long-haired elf calls out, instantly setting the other two on edge; now the bowman draws the string back on his weapon, yelling "Don't move or we'll shoot!" at John and Darius, whilst the long-haired elf makes to perform the same action with his bow, and the captain gets into a fighting stance. Whatever this "Blightmother's taint" is, they are all clearly willing to fight if further signs of it are shown, though an apparent degree of uncertainty remains for the time being.

@Laue
Three figures appeared in the clearing before the godlings. Tall. Longer ears.

Elves.

But they did not appear so nonchalant as they did agitated. Darius' muscles tensed with trepidation, and he took a more defensive stance just as the elves themselves did. They, clad in ranger outfits similar to the one from before, were interrogative and hostile; John and Darius were not welcomed so openly, the distrust of other entities in the realm more apparent to Darius in that moment. A quick study of the group allowed Darius to identify who was in charge. Their weapons were noticeably worn and weaker, especially in comparison to the great sword that Grant drew from nowhere earlier. However, that fact did not change the bold and convicted stances that the elves took against the godlings. I really hope these guys mean well.

"Alright, you two... creatures... who and what are you?" The forest was still, but the trees were watching. A hint gave Sterling the warning. If he played his hand incorrectly, he would be dead again. That loss Darius could not afford, not after he just recovered from the last... 'setback.'

"Captain! One of them... he... it bears the Blightmother's taint!" The sense of alarm spreads instantly before Darius can even react, and the pall of danger descends over him and his acquaintance even sooner. The conflict escalates. Think, Darius, think... A tough fork in the road that Darius did not prepare for demanded that he act in defense or face fate. Please please please, pleeeeeease. There by the trees he hesitated, and he looked to John as if John could offer the boy any help. That glance was all for nought; John hadn't encountered these elves before, and allowing John to act instead would lead to complications.

Darius fired his own shout in reply. "I don't want to fight you!" His knuckles turned white. A wall would be real nice right now, wouldn't it?! He could picture one in his mind that would come between the two groups and protect Darius from their fire, even if for just a moment. In the moment, he didn't really quite think anything else would be more appropriate for the dilemma.

Rina let out a little eek and ran back further into the trees as a burst of webbing fell towards her. Aron took a more controlled step back narrowly avoiding the webs and deciding to counter attack. He gestured and a clump of earth rose from the ground and turned into the shape of a spear. It looked remarkably more dangerous when Aron tapped it and liquid metal flowed over it and hardened, leaving a lethal looking shine. A simple push and the spear was sent hurtling at a surprising speed towards the center of the nearest spider's body, it seemed things were going well with the orcs helping. "Go get 'em" Rina cheered now safely several trees back.

Vestus was speechless at the appearance of the odd looking humanoid creature that looked quite attractive.

He simply jumped backwards and he stood there for a few seconds with his mouth slightly open.

He finally found the will to speak and he cleared his thought and straightened himself up.

"Yes we are just wandering magicians as he said we are we just wandered into these parts and we are sorry if we have offended you in any way!"

Vestus spoke clearly and truthfully as if they actually were what they were saying that they were.

He was worried that the strange woman would attack them but he also was hoping that they would be on friendly terms.

Humanoid creatures looking just like Tolkien's elves approached them, none too friendly. Darius was quite nervous seeing them, were they the cause of his death? Either way, this was quite something. Elves. Pointy ears, tall, lean and armed with bows. This raised some questions whether these elves are based on human fiction, or is human fiction based on this world somehow. Nevertheless, John was hatching a plan in a case this all goes awry, and Darius probably did as well. If worst comes to worst, John gets to test his latest idea. If it works like he thinks it works, he will be able to make short work of these three assailants as well.

"Captain! One of them... he... it bears the Blightmother's taint!" That phrase sent all of the elves on edge. Blightmother? Interesting name for the deity that stole them away from Earth. It was obvious the little bitch goddess had her secrets, but why she would be called Blightmother of all things.

John waited a bit for Darius to start talking - after all, John isn't a very good socialite, talking he does for a living. But that wasn't happening, and they don't get anything out of killing those elves - the two can't remain outcasts forever. John raised his hand in the air, trying to adopt a non-threatening stance. "Listen, we were taken away from our home world and just awoken here with powers we never had before. And now we have strangers pointing arrows at us. This... Blightmother... took us against our will and brought us here. We know nothing of this land. You want answers, we want answers - that exchange would be easier without the imminent threat of violence."

Just in case, John was ready, hopefully Darius was too. The encounter with the Bear humbled John, as he seriously considered the possibility that these three elves were pretty much Legolas, or worse. Either way, if a fight breaks out, there's nothing they will be able to do about it.

"'Your home world'?" The elven leader stares at John with an incredulous look on his face. "What in the Goddess's name are you-"

"So you're saying you're from beyond the Great Barrier?!" The long-haired elf, the one who had warned his leader of the "Blightmother's taint" earlier, scoffs. "Did you think we're gullible children?! There is no world past the Barrier! Not even the gods themselves-"

"Wait a minute..." the third elf says. He looks at John, and his eyes narrow. "You say the Blightmother gave you power; that much is plausible, given her twisted experiments. But what about your friend? Unlike you, he shows no signs of corrupted Life magic, as far as I can see."

"Yes..." The leader murmurs. His expression becomes hesitant, as though he's unsure whether to attack or not. "I feel pure elemental magic from you... boy," he says, looking at Darius. "And we all know that if the Blightmother had gotten her hands on you, your magic wouldn't have been pure. She'd have turned you into one of her demons..."

"Captain, they're just trying to fool us!" The aggressive, long-haired elf hisses. "The only good demon is a dead one, and we should just shoot-"

"But the boy isn't a demon," the third elf says. "Shouldn't we-"

"Yes," the leader says, and nods, seemingly having made up his mind for now. "And they haven't attacked us, unlike every other demon we've seen in the past weeks." He slowly lowers his weapons, but his muscles are still tense, his body language suggesting that he's ready to draw his weapons again at a moment's notice. "So we won't attack you, creatures, if you do as we say," he says, looking at John and Darius. "You can start by telling us what you are, and where you're from. Your clothes aren't like anything we've seen before, that's for sure."

These elves considering the some sort evil, tainted creatures. Demons? The little bitch deity was considered evil around these parts. And of course, both John and Darius were pawns in some grand scheme of hers. But pawns either get sacrificed or promoted to a more powerful piece, and John counted on the latter happening.

One of the elves mentioned "corrupted Life magic", which implied some sort of system, categorization. Also Darius' power was considered "pure elemental". So human-like, to establish a connection, trying to put life into neat little drawers that make sense. Even these bow armed primitives displayed rudimentary analytical skills. That relaxed John, as willfully ignorant people is something he can't stand, like anti-vaxxers back on Earth. So stupid, in face of overwhelming evidence. Thankfully, at least these three show a possibility of someone intelligent around here, well intelligent for the level of their current development.

Eventually, the elves lowered their bows, yet still tense, waiting for answers. My name is John, and the man here is named Darius. We are both from a planet... err... world called Earth mainly inhabited by creatures like us - humans. He started slowly lowering his hands. "One day I go to sleep just like every day, and get a very vivid dream in which a strange, shape-shifting female gives us instructions. From what I understand, she wants us to defeat and absorb six powerful beings of this land to be allowed to go home. And then we woke up in a building back there." He points towards the approximate location of the temple. "Back on Earth we have no magic and we certainly have no Gods or Goddesses, not real ones anyway. So I hope you understand that we know absolutely nothing about this land, the inhabitants and it's customs. John raises his hands a bit, observing them. With these two hands, he will forge his legend in his world, in time.

"Do not be alarmed, I will slowly show you what powers I created for myself. Make no mistake, back in my world my knowledge of the human body was nearly unmatched. I simply conjured up what I thought would give me the best fighting chance against the strange bear that attacked us." He spoke, as he very slowly activated both his claws and his armor, once again raising his arms in the air to appear as non-threatening as possible. After all, any kind of surprise or secret should be taken care of right here and now. "There it is, my claws and armor. Could you explain what this corruption is even supposed to be?" John said as he reverted back.

@Laue
Thank. God. John decided to pull some weight on his own, and that took some burden off Darius. What John had told the elves seemed at least momentarily convincing, turning confrontation into conversation—a change that Darius exuberantly accepted.

Then, he himself was addressed.

"But what about your friend? Unlike you, he shows no signs of corrupted Life magic, as far as I can see."

"I feel pure elemental magic from you... boy." The leader of the trio was surely convinced. Pure elemental magic, eh? Darius understood that to mean that he possessed a power that was untainted by the moral compass and an art unto itself, something that couldn't arise out of good versus evil and emerged merely from nature. He must mean the whole... Darius stared at his hands contemplatively. Ice and water... thing. That realization set to work in the elves, and their body language softened to the normal vigilance of any warrior. Anything crazy could still get John and Darius killed, but the elves and the demigods had reached at least a delicate agreement.

Sterling nodded along with John's words, staying true to the facts of the matter. A few ideological differences between him and John showed through, but Darius declined to bring them up or fight them. A petty squabble anyway, considering the current state of affairs. John offered to demonstrate his abilities to the elves, an act that Darius felt ambivalent towards and anxious about, mostly for the reason that it was John's corrupted Life magic that the elves found so wrong between them and that a display thereof could break down the level of diplomacy they had just achieved. Darius, however, kept his mouth shut.

The demonstration was finished, but before the elves could react, and John could get to the next matter, Darius interjected, "I suppose I will demonstrate the power I have been given." The wording showed humility, but any wise man would recognize that Darius intended to clear the air of suspicion or at least reduce tension by delivering a testament to the truth. For the sake of posterity, he reasoned. The young man stepped a little further away from John and the elves to allow himself room to show what he was capable of. From the earth he shaped ice into a column a little shorter than himself, something of a parlor trick but indicative of a higher power. It nonetheless lent itself to what Darius could do, and from there, John carried on.

What ensued was a peculiar argument. Elizabeth's claim of "I suspected it was an enemy" was rebuked by "this is a safe zone, right?", while "she started it" was left uncountered. Ultimately, Elizabeth's words succeeded in making me uncomfortable about the situation, leading Elizabeth to utter an insincere apology to keep my negative emotions from reaching herself by stemming them.

"...and you won't do that again?" I asked.

"I can't promise that. What if some monster tries disguising itself as one of us? But I'll check if it's not that damn slime first." Elizabeth answered, self-righteous as ever. I nodded in response - it was probably all I would get.

Looking around, I noticed entire minutes have passed. There was no sign of the others. "And now it appears our friends - allies are gone. We should probably find them, it could be dangerous to be alone." The significance of what I said took a little moment to get to me - along with the beginnings of panic. They were, however, cut short by Elizabeth's voice.

"I can easily find them." she said, sniffed at the air a few times, then ran to the doorway. I followed to the best of my ability, managing to keep up with her, if only barely.

Fortunately, it appeared that the others barely left the shrine, facing off against a single person on the edge of the woods.
"Stay. Let's see what happens before we do anything." commanded Elizabeth, then added "I just got scolded for acting rashly, after all."

The spiked tentacle swells and writhes, lunging wildly at the spiders. It meets the spirit-webs immediately, and Alison lets out a scream of rage and frustration as Predator dissipates into darkness once more. She pounces forward, gauntlet slamming into the spider nearest her, then lets out a flurry of black shards from the palm of her right hand at point-blank range.

Behind her, she feels something tug at her leg sharply, and twists as she falls on her butt, Predator instinctively whipping out behind her, only to explode into wisps again as it gets tangled in webs. Alison extends her wings, pushing off the ground and heading into the skies while spraying shards in a radius around her to keep spiders away.

So you think you can attack Rina and get away with it?!

Something snaps inside her mind, and the shadows scream around Alison as she immediately swoops back into the mass of spiders, landing with a loud crash, shards firing everywhere, the bulk of her armor swiveling to crush and maul. Predator slips out, striking and stabbing where she can find gaps between the webs.

She feels something hollow in her body, a silent warning that she's running out of energy, but she ruthlessly quashes it.

I am the Princess of Shadows. Die, evil scum!

"Demon!" The particularly aggressive one out of the three elves screams as soon as he sees John manifesting his claws and armor. "Die, spawn of the Blightm-"

"Stand down, Agrellon!" The elven captain barks, while physically putting a hand on the younger elf's shoulder to restrain him.

"But captain!" The elf named Agrellon shouts back. "That thing-"

"-hasn't attacked us," the captain finishes the other elf's sentence. "Again, that's better than every other demon we've seen! And that's not even considering the other boy! I'd give them a chance, at least for now. What do you say, Syldric?"

"I... I agree with you," says the third elf, Syldric, though sounding quite uncertain. "But... Their words aren't making a lot of sense, captain."

"Indeed they aren't," the captain nods, and turns toward John. "You heard him, stranger. You say that you're from one of the Planetae? The wandering star-cities where high-ranking angels live? Yet you claim that your home has neither magic nor gods? I hope you realize how absurd and contradictory this sounds..."

"Captain, he... he mentioned a prophetic dream involving a shapeshifting female," Syldric says. "If he's really been brought here from another world..."

"Hmm..." The captain thinks for a moment. "Can you tell us more about this woman in your dreams, stranger? What was she like?"

---

"'Wandering magicians'? 'Newly arrived'?" The sea elf girl's eyes narrow as she faces Nathaniel and Vestus. "And just how the hell did you 'arrive' on our island? I see no other ships beside that damn pirate ship!"

Then her head sharply snaps toward Azorel's direction, when she hears him stepping on a tree branch. An instant later, almost too quickly for his eyes to see, a red-hot knife has embedded itself in a tree trunk to the right of Azorel's head, barely missing him by a few centimeters. The knife is connected to the sea elf's fingers by a thin strand of some bluish green substance, and its heated blade is already causing the wood to emit smoke.

"Think you can sneak past me?!" The girl snarls. "Now tell me where you're from, or your skull gets sliced open like a hot knife through butter!"

Primitives. Great. Just great. Reverting his body back to normal, John was considering his words carefully. These superstitious morons obviously have no concept of celestial bodies, let alone the fact that some other places can be different. Best course of action was to describe the wench, unfortunately John was quite bad with descriptions.

"At first, she appeared young woman in her early to mid twenties, with blue eyes and long white hair. She was wearing a white bodysuit which had many glowing lines of blue and purple, forming circuit-like patterns. She also had angelic... uhh... bird like wings which looked like they were made of pure, white light. She also was glowing."

"Then after telling me that she has given me this power, she changed. Her hair turned black, the glowing lines on her clothes became red and purple, her wings became bat-like and quite dark, and her eyes turned red. "Many forms of power come at a price. And the price for yours... is your freedom." That's what she said to me. Apparently, she wants us to kill the powerful beings of this world, take their power as our own and to challenger her pantheon... and her, if we ever want to go home. Does this make any sense for you? Because it does not for me. And most likely, my buddy here had the same dream."

Pain burned through his arm, a kind of formless sudden heat taking over. He had just grazed a part of the shimmering webbing that the spiders had spun in response to Allison’s attack. Slowly the pain in his arm ebbed leaving a kind of numbness across it, causing it to respond to him sluggishly. He wouldn’t be able to rely on it, but it was an acceptable loss in return for better positioning.

He could sense that the spider he had targeted earlier had succumbed to its wounds, it lay on the ground cold. However the monstermen unsure of the status made attempts to ensure that the spider was truly down. A stupid move all in all, it would have been far more helpful if they had focused on the alive spiders. They had wasted crucial time doing something completely redundant.

It would seem that they would require some amount of training. His allies on the other hand had successfully managed to attract the spiders’ attention. The creatures had spread out somewhat, to reduce collateral damage from Allison and Aron’s attack. It also allowed Emeka a chance to focus on one of the spiders at a time, all he had to do was make sure to place himself in such a way that If the spiders were to retaliate they would have to chance hitting the spider in trouble.

Spotting his prey, a spider on the corner of the formation, Emeka ground his foot into the earth and blasted off fire exploding behind his feet. Now rocketing towards the spider from the flank, he collected his strength into his still working right hand. His fist glowed all the more brightly, its warmth bending the air around it. Then added with his momentum and heat, he punched the spider with a surge of strength as soon as he was in range.