Ariamis had at first thought the acid was doing the trick right up until nothing started to melt or burn off of the Drider. That meant one tool down and a couple more to try if he got the chance, it already seemed to severely dislike fire though most living things did barring fire elementals who loved it. Well, as long as the barrier held up he had time to switch up his tactics which might mean pulling out the flamethrowers or maybe the coolant to see how well it could handle the cold especially now that it was soaked with liquid acid. That was right up until the barrier got injected with something from the beast and shattered leaving just him in the way of whatever attack was coming next.

"Oh shite..." The mechanist said before he went flying back into the ground with a thud/clang as the webbing pinned him.

This wasn't promising at all especially with the numbness he felt spreading into the skin where the webs touched. If he hadn't been wearing his adventuring gear this likely could have done much worse, his usual garb would have left him worse for wear for certain though he would have to free himself quickly lest he either get eaten or be useless if he was ignored which the latter seemed to be the case as he hadn't been torn into yet. He began tearing at the webs with his augmented hands while the claws started slicing through any webbing they could reach trying to get enough for him to stand up. It was yet another reason for him to be grateful for his handiwork in crafting his new limbs as they were very flexible and a fair bit longer than he was tall so they could extricate him very soon.

Just hope I'm not too late to help the others, must be after them since I can't see it from down here.

In what felt like an instant uninterrupted advance, its prey stood just before it almost helpless to defend herself. As it came close, the fiendish spider raised its two front legs and slammed them down at either side of De’Kae blocking most of the directions in which she could run. She then took a swipe at her using her long black claws and again. For those few second, De’Kae was subject to relentless attempts to strike her with those blade-like nails. Small droplets of acid also flew from its arms that were the remnants of Ariamis’s spray from earlier.

Before the hell spawn could swing again, it was struck by an arrow, digging into its shoulder. The creature gave pause to the attack when it was struck by another. The feathers at the ends of each arrow were all that could be seen through the creature’s long hair, but it was clear they had stuck into its flesh. Hissing, the creature turned its body slightly as more arrows began to strike. The spines that covered its legs and body deflected the majority of them, and it exoskeleton helped minimize the arrows that got through except for the few that pierced the softer body that sprouted from the spider’s head.

With one back handed swipe, the creature swatted De’Kae away ready to charge the direction the arrows were flying when the loud thumping of metal upon stone echoed closer. It wasn’t long after when the creature’s face was plowed into by the large metal man. As it continued to run, the creature was raised slightly off the ground, its rear legs dragging. Even though it stood over the machine by a hair, the spider was not able to stop its momentum. Screeching, the spider clawed at the suit of mechanical armor, unable to do much more than a scratch again the thick steel. Finally, the creature began to spit a web. It was a crude web, but it was one that could tie the armor’s legs together.

The extra resistance provided by the webbing was enough to slow the power armor enough for the creature to regain control of its legs. It started to climb around the suit, so it was no longer at its front. It was attempting the damage the armor using the sword like spines on its legs while also looking for a soft spot to attack. Crawling around so that the spider was at the armor’s back, it stabbed at the suit using its fangs. The thud of the impact echoed the chamber, but the most damage it was able to do were two small indents. The black venom the creature secreted did arguable more damage, leaving thin trails of corroded metal as the venom steams towards the ground. The stiff impact against the armor caused the spider to reel away in pain.

Defeated in the attempt to damage the suit, the spider decided it best to incapacitate it. It attempted to weave a cocoon around the armor. With enough layers, the webbing would be tough enough to prevent the suit from moving unless they were burned, or cut. Of course, the machine would also be free if it struggled enough, or aid had come to draw the spider away.

De'kae skidded to a stop as she was blocked by the spiny legs infront of her. Turning around, eyes wide and wet, she frantically summoned a barrier around herself to protect her from the relentless assault. It only lasted a short while, on the spider-beast broke through her barrier on the third strike. Several strikes dug into De'kae's flesh, and while her natural protective aura granted from her armor shield her from some of the damage, blood was drawn and lines were cut in her skin that began to bleed a deep red.

The druid elf sobbed out a scream and held her chest wound. She slid down and fell into a sitting position. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt and the edges of her vision were black. For a moment the beast halted it's assault and Kay raised a trembling hand to blast the creature while it was distracted. But with a casual back hand the elf was knocked up and away. With a small cry she crashed onto the ground. Unmoving except the rising and falling of her chest, her eyes were closed and De'kae was unconscious on her back.



Impact. The powered armor entered into a wrestling contest with the abomination, but with several more limbs and far more agility the creature began to outmaneuver Natalia. She had seen the archer fire arrows and the elf woman get batted away like a ragdoll, but the rest of her temporary allies were still functional. No reason, she estimated, that they would stop fighting now. If they did, the spider would almost certainly find them eventually. The most logical thing was to keep fighting and eliminate the creature. All the damage it did could be repaired over time thanks to help of nano-technology.

As it's spawn it's web, the powered armor through several punches. As it tried to create a cocoon, Natalia decided to cease an opportunity that may or may not have presented itself. A giant metallic hand grasped out and tried to wrap it's fingers around the body sticking out the top of the spider. The other hand moved to grasp any incoming legs that would attempt to prevent such a grapple. Her goal was to wrap her hand around that woman and squeezed until she burst like a meat balloon. With damage from the help of her allies, Natalia hoped to force the creature to flee, and then deny it's escape with powerful grasping hands. While the powered armor did not screech, it did rumble and hum with energy. While it had no evil eyes to strike fear into it's prey, it did have two dimly glowing, impassive orbs that one could feel scan and calculate their every move. These receptacles would meet the savage gaze of the spider, and they would not blink, nor would they look away.

Saria hadn't expected mounting the beast to be so difficult. Along with the piercing spines that stabbed into her flesh like needles, it flopped around like a dying fish being roasted alive. She had it her head as it bucked her off, and even though she wore a helmet, the impact was hard enough that it knocked her unconscious. Within her short sleep, she saw dreams of fire and misery. Memories of her home, her part in destroying it all.

A strange series of mechanical noises awoke her from her nightmares. Looking around, there was indeed fire all around her. It seemed that the spider chose to ignore her, for the time being. A rare mercy, that an opponent was too distracted to deal the killing blow. It infuriated her, that she could be so careless. She was behind the spider now, its bulbous abdomen dripping silk.

That's unsightly.

She assumed that the creature was armored the same throughout its entire body, save the woman-growth that protruded from its head.

I suppose it's the only place it can be hurt. Seems like I'll just have to try again.

The spiked abdomen was unclimbable, so she opted for an easier approach–– running underneath it to reach the front. Its legs were long enough, so besides a stray spike or two, she was successful, save a few scratches to the armor. On the other side, she spotted a behemoth made of metal charging towards the spider-beast, like a god of iron ripped straight out of the legends. Their clash was one to behold, two titans brawling while others either helped or got out of the way.

Every fiber in her body strained to get into the fight, to take a swipe at the spider-beast while it was distracted. But any sane person in her situation would stand back and let them fight, lest they be struck with a stray limb or spider-web.

Die, beast! Saria jumped between the two titans just as they began to grapple, confident that the steel golem wouldn't crush her. Her sole concern was of the spider-beast; she'd take a swing at the fleshy head while it was distracted, and with some luck, end the fight.

She jumped, a red arc of blood trailing her sword as she drew closer to the beast.

Gonad was stretching out, joints popping as he did the splits. He was in evidently no hurry to help. It was against his code of honor to fight an outnumbered opponent, regardless of its power, and that besides he fancied they could handle this one. Still, he shouted vague encouragement.

"HRAH! Good job! Look for vitals!"

Forcing herself to calm down and not be reckless, to avoid harming the sword lady, Katelin realised that the back of her head hurt slightly. "I guess when the monster knocked me down I hit my head," Katelin muttered to herself.

Putting away her bow for now, Katelin made her hand cold and placed it on the back of her head to sooth it. Cautiously circling around towards the girl with leaf armor, she looked down at the girl. She had a few deep looking puncture wounds from the spider-mutant's spikes.

Head no longer hurting, Katelin looked up to see the spider trying to wrap up the giant armor, while the armor was grabbing at the monster. They weren't too close - green girl had been knocked quite far. Lucky for her it wasn't to the other side of the fight.

Katelin had once had an arrow in her leg, and a medic had used hot metal to close the wound to stop the bleeding. It had hurt so much she had fainted, but barrier girl was already unconscious. If the girl woke up, Katelin just hoped the girl knew she was helping, not attacking.

Carefully making a controlled flame, Katelin burned the wounds til they stopped bleeding.

After what seemed like an eternity of defending themselves, the unknowing champions thrust into a world where it was a sudden battle of life and death started to get a grip of their situation. The air of confusion never left, but was overshadowed by a strong will to live and to end the nightmare that had begun to do battle with them.

The monstrous abomination was currently preoccupied with the giant suit of powered armor. The mechanical body continued to attack the spider as it attempted to bind its movements using long strands of tough threads of webbing. As it used its multitude of legs to fight off the armor’s limbs and wrap its legs with silk, there came an opening where the suit was able to reach for the creature’s body. Using one of its forward legs, one second from the front, the creature attempted to deflect the grasp only for it to be caught by the armor’s other hand. Pings of spines being crushed underneath the suit’s grip as well as snaps from them breaking echoed nearby. The creature screeched using its long arms to attempt to redirect the hand that continued moving forward. The strength difference was in the armor’s favor. Even though the spider had incredible strength beyond what its feeble body would portray, the suit was still stronger. Even with both arms wrestling against the powered armor’s hand, it was able to solely but surely continue forward nearing to grasp at the creature’s torso.

Abandoning weaving it’s web, the creature starting using its other forward legs to push the armor away. IT was mildly effective as it pushed the spider out of the machine’s grasp more so than it pushed the machine away. If the machine had a little more power in reserve, assuming it wasn’t using its full strength, then the machine could leverage itself against the spider’s push and finally get a grip of the creature’s torso. As the grapple reached its peak a flash of red and steel appeared in between them. Too engrossed in the battle, the spider was not aware the new opponent had squeezed her way underneath the creature’s large body and leapt in front of her.

With a quick and effective slash, Saria sent a powerful blow through creature’s torso. Large strands of hair fell towards the ground. Thick blotches of dark green blood spattered across the spider’s head and parts of Natalia’s metal arm. The hair cut left a visible wound reaching diagonally from one side of the creature’s body to the other, blood oozing. The creature hissed, and whined stuttering as it did so resembling a whimper. It dug all its free legs into the ground, and pulled away from the powered armor it was just battling against. The armor acting like an anchor keeping its grip on the spider's leg, and the leverage the hell spawn created in pulling away as it did broke the joint. In this manner, the spider effectively pulled out the its own leg.

Even with seven legs, the creature was able to scurry away quickly enough that it would be outside Saria or Natalia’s range. Natalia especially since her armor was still covered in a fair bit of sticky webs. Hissing once more, the creature started to weave another rope of webbing, attempting to return to the ceiling once again to tend to the wounds it had just sustained.

Natalia wrestled with the creature, trying to end this fight quickly. But the spider creature was strong, almost as strong as her armor and twice as maneuverable. As it pulled away, defending itself from Natalia's attempts to grab the woman shaped growth, the sword wieler appeared and cut a strike across the creature. Reeling it intensely increased it's attempts to escape. It did so, but that cost of one of it's own legs. With a severing rip, blood spewed everywhere. The armor was taking far more acid damage than the engineer had anticipated, but if she could find a large source of steel or ore she could use her nano machines to repair it. The creature did manage to escape and scurried away, leaving the armor holding it's lost leg like a child who didn't get the right toy for Christmas.

The armor's head briefly turned toward Saria and scanned the woman, taking in as much as she could. She possessed powers that didn't register on ABI's database. Then again, neither did the spider. Either way, Natalia began to boot up her weapon systems. With the spider so far away, the fighters capable of ranged attacks could begin to damage it. Natalia was one of them. Using the neurolink she began to turn on the Toolboxes equipped on her underarms.

The two black devices on the outside of the machine's arm began to shift. Both of them began to take the form of a minigun. There was a shunk, and a clunk, and the powered armor banged it's knuckles together and the rapid fire cannon implements replaced the Toolboxes. Then the powered armor raised both of its arms toward the ceiling and let loose a thunderous stream of heavy machinegun fire toward the creature. Accuracy was nearly impossible to consider, but Natalia would be damned if she let the creature recuperate in peace. It would pay for it's disengagement with it's own blood. Natalia briefly considered the possibility of a kind of acid rain and began to move slightly away from being directly under the creature, though she failed to mention this out loud to her current compatriots.



There was a gap in the Druid Elf's memory. The last thing she remembered was being underneath the beast. Now, she was staring at the back of her own eyelids laying on her back, with a dull throbbing pain in her shoulder and midriff. And something else...a heat. Something sharp. She could barely feel it. The woman's left ear twitched and she slowly opened her large green eyes. The heat picked up. Suddenly, there was a rush of an unbearable agony. Katelin would watch as De'kae thrashed very briefly, gasping. Her fingers grasped desperately at Katelin's collar. De'kae's beige skin turned a ghastly shade of white.

"Aaaie- ieei-" She squeaked, casting a trembling glance toward the flaming piece of metal stuck into her open flesh. Then the clawing grasp released and De'kae went limp once more, her fingers trailing down Katelin until they rested on the floor. De'kae was unconscious again, her head tilted slightly upward and her mouth wide open, her large ears falling into a downward position.

Ariamis fumbled around until finally, the thrice-damned webbing gave way for him to get back to his feet and figure out where the fighting had moved off to. He was more than a little upset at how strong the stuff was but it made sense on reflection given the sheer size of the Drider that walked along them. It did give him an idea though for later if fire was too dangerous of an option and since he well knew acid had little to no effect it was time to change things up a little. Hopefully, in time to help bring the beast down quicker since it seemed even with the help of the golem, it was injured but not mortally yet while some of the other combatants who had actually decided to get stuck in were getting beat up badly.

The mechanist galloped along using his spare arms for some extra speed to get closer to where the spider was currently retreating back up with one fewer leg to its name. A good start however they were going to need more than that but the lady Artificer's golem had a few tricks it seemed deploying some intense gunfire at the creature, he wondered where she had disappeared to but that could wait until they were safer, the likes of which he hadn't seen before which excited him. He would most definitely be examining the construct in detail later as much as possible for new techniques and ideas should he find his way back home.

Focus...battle now learning later. He thought reminding himself of what he needed to be doing.

The dwarf raised his extra arms once again causing them to whirr as the module shifted again to a light blue one keeping the nozzles but closing them further for additional pressure so he could reach the distance towards the roof. Well, not so much the roof but the webbing above where he began spraying coolant making it slippery and quite possibly freezing the webs or whatever else got hit which he hoped would keep it from escaping the golem's and swordswoman's clutches so easily. He would resort to his flamethrowers if needed but in such a contained area no good would come of it but if he got the beast away from the others it would not be as bad.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Ariamis called up after the Drider annoyed at its attempt to retreat what it clearly started.

Progress was being made in hurting the horrendous creature. While a good number of their force were injured, some quite severely, those clad in metal armor rose up to further their attack. The fiendish spider was making its way up the series of webs towards the ceiling when the powered armor shifted the attachments on its arms into a more ranged focus. At the same time, the significantly shorter individual configured his own arms, to spray some sort of liquid that quickly cooled the air that surrounded it.

It barely made it up half way towards the ceiling when the demonic beast was surrounded by a series of white lines. The bullets fired from Natalia’s gun assembly could best be described as fast strings of light that could barely be seen if it wasn’t that there were hundreds of them. Unfortunately, the spider was too far up for Natalia to truly focus the spread at it, but plenty of them had manage to connect. The fast-moving steel easily penetrated the spider’s exoskeleton. The beast screeched, but continued to climb towards the ceiling.

As it did so, though, strange crackles echoed the chamber. The sheer height of the ceiling made some of Ariamis’s coolant to simply fall back towards the ground without reaching the webbing. Even so, he was able to coat enough of the webbing with it, perhaps not as much as he would have liked. In the end, what he did manage to coat had impact. The webs become brittle in the low temperatures and started to snap under the weight of the large monster that they were trying to support. As the webs began breaking, the hideous fiend dropped off from the webs it was climbing and landed upon the ground once again.

The hell spawn was angered by the constant attacks against it. It was wounded, and now that it’s attempts to flee were interrupted, it decided that it was either fight or die. Darting forward, it once again charged the powered suit of armor. No doubt as it reached closer, the gunfire would be more focused and able to easily mow the spider down. In retaliation to this, the spider released several large nets of webbing towards each of the powered armor’s arms. While the webs themselves would not be able to stopped the hail of bullets, the webbing would get stuck within the minigun firing and turning mechanisms to jam them or slow them down. Either outcome would give the beast just enough viability to reach it and attempt to dismember the machine one arm at a time. It could not win a straight physical fight, but if it continued to wrestle one arm using its forward legs and arms, and then continue to add more sticky webs to the ones still present, it could finally incapacitate it.

Natalia fired with grim satisfaction. Finally. The beast was unintelligent. It would attempt to put distance between the gunfire and itself. While that may slow down it's demise, it would be inevitable. It had no where to run. Perhaps the dwarf thought otherwise, and deployed his mechanisms to force the spider creature back on the ground. Natalia wasn't sure if this was right play or not. Perhaps, had it stayed up in it' webs, it would have found a way to escape from all of them.

It didn't matter now. The creature was on it's way. Hoping to end this fight quickly, Natalia levelled her machine guns and began to fire, only for the infernal webs of the animal to gum up the inner workings of the machine. Unfortunate. She could not retracted the miniguns into the Toolbox, they were stuck.

The engineer grunted as the spider slammed into her. It stuck it's legs against her Powered Armor and began to try to dismantle the machine. There were safe guards against this. Natalia's arm was sticking through some what of a roll cage in the chest of the machine. Were the arms of the Powered Armor to be ripped off, Natalia would automatically recede her real arms inside of the roll cage where she could continue to pilot the machine easily. But without an arm, the bare socket could be more easily penetrated, and more importantly she would not be able to fight as effeciently. If the arm was ripped off, it could potentially be reattatched thanks to nanotechnology- but not until the fight was over and the Powered Armor had a chance to collect itself.

Either way, it was only a matter of time until the creature was able to kill Natalia. The engineer registered this fact calmly. Her only chance was that her allies continue to fight it. Considering how easily the spider creature was able to limit anyone's mobility, any attempt to escape would most likely be futile. Instead, Natalia decided to once again try and crush the woman-shaped growth on the outside of the spider.

While the spider focused most of it's energy on her right arm, the Powered Armors left clenched fist came crashing down again and again on the spider, hoping to pummel it to death.



The Druid Elf was in a dreamless coma of which she would retain no memory. Katelin had managed to stop the bleeding. The holes cut in Kay's leaf armor would slowly begin to knit themselves closed. Sparkles of green energy crackled off the wounds. The burned flesh began to return to it's normal peachy color. The color began to return to Kay's face. The Druid Elf began to stir as the pain faded and consciousness attempted to return.

However, the phenomenon faded. Without direct access to sunlight, Kay had exhausted all of her powers. It would take a moment for them to recharge. As a result, Kay moaned painfully and once again went still, the injuries too dire to speedily recover from. The only sign of life was her surprisingly strong heart beat that feriociously, defiantly pumped blood through her veins, and the slow rising and falling of her chest as she raggedly breathed in and out. There was nothing more for Katelin to do, the small green and white shape on the ground was of little concern to the spider-beast now.

After initially being startled by the girl waking up briefly, Katelin was relieved to see the wounds closing. Katelin returned her dagger to a freezing temperature and watched, surprised, as the leaf girl's skin began to return to normal. "Going by these powers, she must be a sort of elf,"Katelin thought. She'd never seen an elf of any kind; only heard of them in stories, again, told by the knights. Some kinds live far to the north and others to the east.

Looking up at the action, Katelin watched the spider fall and then run at the armor. Katelin stood up, and started making a couple ice spears. When the spider jumped on the armor and they wrestled, Katelin got into a good position to throw the spears at the disgusting monster's humanlike head without hitting the armor. Katelin started throwing spears as fast and accurately as she could, forming a spear as one leaves her hand. Though a spear takes a few seconds to form, ice makes a nice painful sting on most things so this 'rapid fire' should do well. As making lots of spears takes a lot of focus, Katelin's vision seemed to darken at the edges, narrowing in on the monster. Katelin started screaming, "DIE, STUPID ARACHNID! DIE! DIE!!"The word 'die' was said many times.

Ariamis watched as a majority of the coolant missed its target but some did hit and as expected the webbing could not hold up under both the cold and weight sending the Drider crashing back down in front of them. It had taken great offense to being forced back into the fight especially with the golem so it charged once again spraying webbing ahead of it which appeared to stop the golem's weaponized arms in place. That was not good because it was able to go head to head with the beast in strength but they had injured it quite badly by the look of it so the rest of them might be able to finish it off while it attacked. The Lady Artificer would likely be quite happy to have the construct still intact after all and there was no reason for anyone else to sustain more injuries if they could help it.

The Mechanist saw spears of ice rapid flying in from across the room into the spider which would likely hurt it quite a bit as well as the screaming to possibly get its attention if it could even be diverted. Giving a moment of thought the Dwarf rushed forward towards the sides where the carapace had been sundered by the golem's ranged might, he wanted one of that kind of weapon badly, clawed arms poised to stab and slash. He had another trick up his sleeve figuring it might take something serious to put the Drider down in such an enraged state so he started discharging power from his core into the blades of the attacking arms giving them a nice shocking effect as he tried to use his range to stay away from the spines though he would likely still get cut up regardless by the points. If he could put some shock into the innards of the beast it might slow it down a bit or very badly hurt it, hard to tell since this was an impressive specimen, but they could not let up for they would die otherwise.

The sound of aching metal echoed the room as the spider wrestled with the mechanical armor. Despite being a great opportunity to swarm the beast, its collection of sharp spines made it difficult to approach, and its hard carapace made it near impossible to penetrate with ranged attacks. Even so, several warriors started to join the battle be it to end it, or aid Natalia.

The more the hell spawn fought against the pneumatic force of the machine’s arm, the more difficult it became for Natalia to maneuver it. When she attempted to strike the creature using her other arm, the spider crawled partially over and around the armor so it was positions behind it. Using its forward legs, the spider pushed against the machine, using its long arms to grip that of the powered armor to pull it against shoulder trying to bend it backwards. The arm held strong, but as the seconds went by it started to give. It wasn’t much, but sparks were flying.

Before the spider could rip the arm off, if at all, Natalia was able to regain some of her strength, pulling it back into place. New sounds of solids striking metal rung from the armor. Spears made of ice began to strike the spider and armor. Most of them were able to hit the spider, few of them hit the creature’s torso, grazing the creature’s skin, leaving thin trails of blood. Only a couple were intercepted by the armor as they grappled, leaving no damage whatsoever. It wasn’t much of a distraction, but the extra damage loosened the spider’s grip on the armor’s arm. To better fight the armor, and to deflect the frozen assault, the spider positioned itself so that it had a weaker grip on the armor’s right arm, but in return used it as a shield against further icicle attacks.

Now lower to the ground, the spider felt a new threat approaching. Several spines alone the creatures remaining legs and body stabbed at Ariamis as he charged forward, a new tool equipped upon his artificial arms. Even with the reach his arms provided, the distance between him and the space the creature’s leg once occupied was still too great to be completely safe from the creature’s spines. The creature ignored the dwarf more or less out of necessity to deal with the power armor and ice spears. That was a decision the spider soon regretted as when the blade pierced the soft spot left by the creature’s leg, it started to tense up. It lost all grip it had upon the armor freeing it from its clutches.

No long wrestling again the surprising strength the creature had the armor lurched to the side. It was only a moment, but a moment was enough. The spider was not completely immobile, so it was able to kick away the dwarf with one of its needled legs slashing through some of the leathers he wore. It stopped the electrocution, but it was for naught. With a well-aimed hurl, Katelin had managed to strike the creature in its head, the female human head that grew from that of the spider’s. The screeching started to fade, and the body slumped forward, spear still imbedded through the creature’s eye. For a second, the spider moved mindlessly back and forth, its spines scratching anyone who was still near the body of the fiend at the time before it, too, fell onto the ground. Its legs creaked as they began to curl inward pushing the spider’s body to fall onto its side.

There was a pause of silence now that the hissing and screeching had stopped. There was no scuttling of the massive creature shifting across the floor, nor that of metal clanging against metal. The monster had been defeated, while the spear in its head showed to be the killing blow, there was a large puddle of green blood at its base. Perhaps it had bled out and the spear finished it off. Regardless of what had done the most to dispatch the creature, it was dead. Some of those who were not part of the main attack cheered, relieved that the creature was now dead. However, before they could resume questioning where they were a new sound filled the chamber.

The ground rumbled. Then it rumbled again. Soon the entire room began to shake violently. Cracks began to grow along the floor. Dust showered from the ceiling. From the center of the room, the earth beneath the champions began to dip. The room was collapsing, or at least the floor was. The floor gave way, and everyone started to fall towards new areas unknown. It was dark, making it hard to see just where they were falling towards. Within seconds of the floor disappearing, the champions’ fall was broken by a cool wave of water. There were several splashes of water as bits of ruble, rock, and the warriors hit the surface. The lifeless body of the spider also hit the water, creating a large wave. As it did so, wherever the spider touched the water, its body dissolved into nothingness. Some of the champion’s were able to swim to the surface, other could not. Regardless, a large piece of the floor that collapsed beneath them soon struck the water. The wave it created was enough to drive all of the champions towards the shore, safe from any possibility of drowning.

Recovering from the fall they just took the warriors were able to look around at their new surroundings. The new chamber they were in was the exact same size as the one they were. The difference was the ceiling was now twice as high since the floor giving away made the two rooms one. The floors were still made up of uneven stone bricks, the walls were still separated by large columns jutting halfway out, and the walls in between the columns housed carved pictures of various battles of unknown origin. Looking back towards the body of water where they landed, they found that the farm end of the room looked to had collapsed, streams of water flowing from the rubble into the large lake where a huge chunk of the floor looked to have been dug out. The lake was deep, and took up a large portion of the room. The water was crystal clear, surprisingly so considering the amount of debris and dust that fell into it. Even from the blood of the spider and injured warriors, the water was free of any and all contaminates. The warriors themselves seemed to have been cleaned of any blood that had dried upon their persons leaving no trace of having ever bled, though their injuries remained. No evidence of the spider could be seen, either.

At the edge of the lake there were several meters of shallow water with the deepest edge being only being about a meter tall before it dropped off suddenly towards the deep end. Within the shallow waters grew very strange trees, their roots embedded into the rock. The trees were not that tall, with low hanging fruits colored an appetizing pink shaped like pears. The trees gave off a sweet smell, and while no one had seen these specific plants before, there was no itch of danger coming off of them.

At the far side of the room, opposite of the lake, the wall remained bare. There were no columns, uneven stones, or engravings of a battle. Polished, but not shiny the wall was smooth. At its center sat a double door, tall in that it almost reached the edge of where the floor from the previous room once was. The sheer size of the door was evidence enough that it was not designed for the hell spider to use. The door appeared to be made out of some strength synthetic material resembling metal, but was not. The final note was that there were two vertical pull bars, human height next to each other on either door. Outside of this door, there appeared to be no other way out of the room.

At the moment, there appeared to be no threat, no reason to fight. Whether planned or not from the mysteries that brought them to this world in the first place this seemed like an opportunity to relax, recoup, and reevaluate their situation. No one knew what would come next if anything, so it was best to rest now before something new approached.

Natalia struggled within the armor, the effort causing her to grit her teeth as she pushed against the force. But the odds began to tip in the humanoid-warrios favor. With the help of some nearby allies, the spider was losing it's grappling contest. And a well aimed spear penetrated the woman-spider's skull and send her screeching to her death. Victory was theirs.

But no sooner could Natalia consider their next move did the floors beneath them began to crack and give. They plunged into dark oblivion. Natalia was confident she would be able to survive a considerable drop, but fortunately for those around her they landed in water not long afterwards. The Powered Armor made a tremendous splash and it quickly sank to the bottom. Fortunately, it was only about halfway beneath the surface and she stepped foot onto land. The armor was damaged, but her readouts were blank. That would have to be fixed. During whatever event transported her here the powered armor was completely rebooted, something that hadn't happened since it was first built. She would need to take a moment to do so.

In the mean time, ABI needed to come online, which should be doable from within the Powered Armor's chest. The armor stood blankly on land, staring at nothing, arms at it's sides. The engineer inside mostly detatched from it, moving her head away from the eyes. Sitting back, she looked for a panel. The inside was well lit, thanks to the light blue glow of her artificial heart. The inside was comfortable enough to move around in once detatched from the limb rigging, but Natalia's leg was mostly immobile. However the part for her bad leg was completely sealed off. Only a person with a missing leg could operate the machine, since all three limbs needed to be inside their respective sockets in order for manual control to occur. Opening a panel she began to work to bring on the Powered Armor's AI. Having quickly surveiled the environment, she surmised it was worth the risk for now to retract into the suit. Besides, it would take only a moment to get back into battle position, and the Powered Armor was still hooked into the base of her skull via the subdermal implant. Currently, she and the Powered Armor were seeing the same thing in their minds eyes. The Powered Armor was an extension of herself.

In a matter of moments, ABI would be online. For now though, the armor was once again a statue, with Natalia hid invisibly inside.


Kay didn't move except for that of the whims of gravity. Her expression remained that of a deep, trouble sleep as she ragdolled onto the water's surface, submerging with a slap. There was a brief moment where the water threatened to enter her lungs, but was luck or design would have it, a large chunk of rock hit the surface and pushed the unconscious Druid Elf onto the shore. Soaking wet, hair stuck to her face, long ears drooping onto the sand, De'kae lay on her side, wetly rasping. The blood had been washed from her wounds, which were now pink instead of vibrant red.

A moment passed, and De'kae began to spurt out water from between her lips, coughing miserably. Retching, Kay rose to her hands and knees and crawled a few more feet onto the beach before falling down once again. Rolling onto her back she breathed in deep, holding back a sob. Throwing the hair out of her face she glanced around to groggily take in her new environment. Though she wasn't paying much attention to what was there as much as what wasn't. The spider-beast was gone. What a horrifying experience, she thought. Her heart was staggering back to beating a million miles a minute but for now the danged had passed. Flopping back down onto her back she place a hand on her heart and tried to regain her breathe. The darkness at the edges of her vision had vanished. She had survived, for now. Her memory was barely there. There was the spider. A brief, gravitiless sensation, impact, then blackness. Something hot. Then, something wet. Now she was on the beach.

"Great Mother Tree..." She exclaimed in a language unknown to anyone in the group, the tongue of her homeland.

Ariamis grunted as he was tossed back not quite sure how may spines had cut or stabbed him but enough that he would need to patch himself up, his clothes too most likely. He was getting a bit tired of hitting the floor after that one and it didn't feel great this time even if his metal contraption took some of the impact. The Dwarf was pretty certain he would have to hammer a dent out of it later once the battle was over because that spider hit harder than he was expecting. He'd be feeling it later almost certainly but for now, he just had to get back up to help, or at least he thought so until the Drider made a horrible screech then went quiet. That should have been a relief as he looked over to the skewered head of the beast with one of the ice spears but the rumbling and cracking below him was the other shoe dropping on a nice conclusion to the fight.

[color=saddlebrown][i]Ya got to be kiddin me.[i][/color]

The Mechanist hit the water and was quite displeased by the sudden cold flash as well as the fact he was kind of sinking quicker than he figured. He scrambled a bit but once he got his claws flexed out and rotating it helped him swim a bit better onto the shore. He looked around for the spider but nothing was left of it apparently after hitting the water. He could thank the gods for the once he got situated but he noticed at least a couple other adventurers had made it ashore quickly. It appeared to be the elf and lady Artificer so that was good and they were accounted for.

"Glad to see we made it out of there in one piece. I was getting worried there for a moment." Ariamis said doing his best to smile though wincing as he walked over closer. "Anything I can help with?"

“Come back here.” A shorter girl whispered to herself as she was wading through the lake. Several vials were floating in the water as the girl retrieved them one by one. These vials were her livelihood and she would be damned if she would lose them in a place where it would not be easy to acquire more. Upon reaching her the last one, she swam back to the shore, plopping down upon a fallen boulder to reorganize them into the various pockets, belts, and holsters that covered her person. She was not prepared to be dunked down several meters into the water, or else she would have made sure her wares were more tightly bundled. This girl was dressed in a wool shirt, a soft leather jacket covered in pockets, and thick woven pants also covered in pockets. She also had several belts, at least two around her waist, one coming around from shoulder around her torso, and a few strapped around her legs. These belts had pouches, pockets, and holsters. Her clothes clung to her body since they were still soaking wet. Her long amber hair was coarse, and tied into a braid, but several loose strands stuck to her face, getting into her green eyes. She moved them away as she tried to relax from swimming.

Sighing, she took a look around the new place they had all been dumped. The lake looked to have been carved out with a giant spoon, the far wall collapsing into it. She leaned back and looked over her shoulder towards the polished wall and large door. That was likely her only way out. Kicking at the water, the girl turned attention to the elf dressed in green who exclaimed something in a foreign language. She recognized her because not only did she look like an elf, a species that was only speculated in legend from her world, but that she was able to control magic, another foreign concept only speculated from her world. Excitedly, she hopped from the rock and ran towards her. She tripped over some debris along the way, but she quickly recovered before she fell into the water.

“Hey, you!” she shouted, still sprinting towards the elf, a few more seconds, she was standing over her. “Hey. How did you do that? That Magic thing I mean, with the walls, and the blasts. You know the ones. The ones like pew pew. Are your ears real? I mean of course they are, but…” she caught herself.

“I mean, my name is Amberelle, what is yours? Wait, do you know what I am saying?” Amberelle took a small step back to give De’kae some room. In all the adrenaline from the battle, frantic retrieval of her vials, and spotting that elf-like persons do exist, she forgot the think about the potential language barrier. She could have sworn that she heard De’kae speak before, but was unsure for certain since the words she spoke just before were ones Amberelle never heard before. In fact, Amberelle was definitely not certain because during the entirety of the fight with the spider, Amberelle hid. Or rather, she looked for a way to escape, hiding behind other warriors, and avoiding the fight all together. Since the others were able to eventually dispatch the beast, she figured that she would be safe not having to participate herself. Now that the fighting was over, she felt it was safe to meander and explore.

As for the other warriors, some recovered and were communicating among themselves, trying to figure out what had happened and where they were. Another exclaimed that the hanging fruits from the trees were delicious. So far, none of them had approached the door, but many of them knew that it was likely their only way out. Despite what any one person was doing, they were each curious to some degree about the others trapped with them. Such drastic changes in appearance and statue unlike what many might have seen, it brought more questions about what exactly was going on.

De'kae looked numbly up at the woman who had accosted her with her overt friendlyness. Maybe she could just pretend like she didn't understand her just to make her go away. Kay's head hurt and she was in a bad mood, coming off of a terrifiying, life threatening experience, with mortal wounds just freshly beginning to heal.

Kay didn't move, continuing to lay on her back. Her legs felt like they were made of wet paper. The Druid Elf was also still soaking from the fall. A thousand pounds of weight lay ontop of her and there was no way she could to even attempt to struggle against it for now.

Kay closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them she glanced back up at Amberelle and smiled wearily. "Yes, I can understand you. Yes, my ears are real. And I've known how to make my hands go pew pew ever since I learned it as a little girl. It's called the Life-Weld." She explained with a flat, annoyed voice.. But Amberelle here was just trying to make friends. She seemed nice, really nice, actually. Kay imagine they could be good friends. Manners cost nothing, she reminded herself.

"Sorry, Amberelle, I...I'm in a bit of a bad mood. There was a giant spider, you see, and it attempted to maul me to death. That's why I'm just going stay down here for a little bit and...vegetate. Or something. I don't know." She brushed a wet strand of hair out of her face, still laying on her back.

"My name is De'kae, by the way." She stretched out a pale limb in an vertically inclined attempt at a handshake. "My friends call me Kay, so you can call me that, too." She smiled warmly.



ABI was online. Natalia nodded to herself, satisfied with her work. The inside of the Powered Armor thrummed to life as the heads up display and various indicators flashed to life. Now she had a much greater understanding of her enviroment. And, most important of all, her trusted companion, ABI.

The Powered Armor, previously an unmoving, stoic monolith, suddenly moved with a lot more character. It glanced around, confused, and brought a metallic hand up to scratch it's bald head. Natalia's memories were instantly transferred into that of the machine's via the subdermal link.

"Oh, man. We're in a little bit of trouble, huh, Nat?" The Armor spoke with a chipper, American accent. It was speaking aloud, clearly enough for anyone nearby to hear it, like an obnoxious tourist having a loud conversation with her friend over the phone. Natalia's voice was hollow, tinny, and quiet, only audible for those who pressed their ears against the torso of the Powered Armor.

"Yes." Natalia responded.

"It seems like we've been transported to some kind of...weird, alternate dimension. Could this be a result of the veil anomaly being broken? That would kinda suck, huh? We almost saw the stars." ABI said, wistfully disappointed.

"Almost." Natalia responded flatly, staring at HUD readout about the temperature of the local area.

"I'm sorry, Nat. I know how much you wanted to see them. Maybe they are through those doors over there, huh?" The Powered Armor levelled a massive finger towards the door.

"Potentially." Natalia responded.

The armor turned and stared at Ariamis. "Well, hello! I don't think we've met, huh? At least we haven't said our names. My name is Abi! I'm a big giant robot. I think you already met my friend Natalia before! Big blue circle under her shirt, missing a leg, kind of creepy dead looking eyes?" The robot waved and then flattened her palm, making an 'iffy' gesture by rotating it from side to side. Speaking of dead eyes, the small white glowing slits that made up the optics of the machine had little, simulated eyelids that expressed a surprising amount of emotion.

The inventor on the inside of the machine let Abi do her thing. She was programmed to be sociable, friendly, and empathetic. She felt her weight shift around as the AI moved the suit of her own will. Natalia had brought up a holopad on the inside of the armor and began tapping through various readouts. As she suspected, there were no nearby Wifi connections, nor could their location be identified via GPS. They were obviously deep underground. But Natalia believed they were in an extradimensional space. Various kinds of science, unknown to her, were being used by her compatriots. Things similar to magic. She couldn't be sure, but she was assuming she had been taken to an alternate dimension.

“Life-Weld? That’s an awesome name. I can’t believe that something like it even exists.” Said Amberelle in a near shout, obviously excited. She seemed oblivious to De’kae’s attitude as she continued. “No no no no no no no no no no. No. I understand. That was a pretty frightening sight, the arachno sapian, or whatever you might call it. I have to tell you that when you went down, I thought that was the end. So, please rest, not like I have any authority in the matter.” When De’kae held up her hand, Amberelle grasped onto it dearly with both hands and initially shook it vigorously, then stopped herself, let go with one hand and finished with a much softer shake. “Heh heh, sorry.”

Amberelle plopped down into the water next to De’kae, bringing her knees up to her chest. “Say, I know it’s not likely, but do you have any clue where we are?” she asked softly, completely different from her unrealistic overly excited demeanor prior. “I have a feeling that the door there is not an exit. It’s too grandiose for it to be in my opinion. But since you can use your life-weld, I thought that perhaps you might be able to conjure up something that might help figure what’s going on.”

It was a strange place. The consensus seemed to be that no one knew how they had come to be here. Other parties discussed what they were doing before they ended up waking in the room with that monstrosity. Not a single person even remembers going to sleep, only waking up in the huge chamber that was once above them. Outside of the carving that were along the walls, there weren’t much of a clue. More and more attention was brought to the door, and a small gathering of champions went to investigate it, but so far none had attempted to open it. Perhaps they could listen to see if any sounds could be heard through it, or see if any of the seams had a gap they could peek through. Be it looking at the door, the mechanical suit of armor, each other and their differences, or the lake, no one seemed to be any closer to figuring out what exactly was happening.

Kay smiled warily. "Well, it all worked out in the end." The elf said. She interlocked her fingers and lay her hands across her belly, staring up at the ceiling of the room they were just in, far, far above them. The water covered her legs and every once in a while lapped up to just beneath her shoulder blades. It felt nice, and natural, and De'kae was always comfortable in nature. She trusted it, and it trusted her.

She had figured the enthusiasm wasn't all there was to this woman, this Amberelle. The alchemist sat down next to her and went quieter, more worried. Her extroverted persona wasn't a fake, nor a facade, if Kay were to guess. But right now, perhaps she was playing into that part of herself a little more. Just to keep herself in high spirits. Kay thought she was alright at reading people but she tried not to judge or act on these guesses. They could be wrong, and she liked to be surprised.

Kay smiled sadly. "Unfortunately, Amberelle, I'm clueless. The only thing I can tell is that we are farther from my home then I have ever been. And I can only assume that we are just as far from your home, too. The greater, more...cosmic applications of the Life-Weld are unusable without the rituals and places of my people. Right now, it's greatest use is that of combat, though I'm pained to reduce it to such a base tool of violence."

After a moment she summoned the will to move. Sitting up with a grunt, she raised one knee and rested her elbow ontop of it, propping herself up with her other hand. She looked out across the lake. Perhaps it was artificial, but the water on the shore sang the same song as it did in Druid'ia.

She turned and blinked at the large doors Amberelle had mentioned.

"Exits and entrances are, at least in my experience, entirely based on perspective. One person's exit is another person's entrance." She commented. De'kae glanced back at Amberelle. The Druid Elf wiped some of the wet, black hair sticking to her own face. Color had slowly returned to her over the course of this conversation. Now she stood to her feet. The ravines carved out of her flesh and clothes had woven themselves together. There was a lightness, the scars were still there, but they would heal in time.

"Forgive the platitude. The others seem to be investigating the doors. Maybe I'm biased, but I'm going to ask those trees for answers." She pointed at the swamp trees she had just now noticed upon standing up. Stout stems, pink, pear shaped fruits that reached to the Earth, and a sweet smell. De'kae approached the tree and cupped one of the 'pears' in her hand, not plucking it from the branch but merely observing it.

"Metaphorically speaking, of course. Trees don't talk." She added good-naturedly. Then she quirked an eyebrow. "...I mean, they might, here." She laughed. "Who knows?" She reached out to a branch of the tree and sent a pulse of Life-Weld energy through it. It was to become attuned to the tree. On her home, this would allow her to know if the fruit it bore were poisonous, how long it had lived, whether it were planted here by mortal hands or guided here by the whims of nature, or the Mother Tree.