The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 48 - Spider’s Tunnel (Patreon)

                                                                                             Alexander North

I grimace as I walk through the smaller, ice-coated tunnel, thinking about how exactly I’m gonna be walking back to meet back up with the others. Or rather, to be specific, if I’ll have any armor or even clothing left by the time I finish with the spiders.

Because it’s entirely possible that I won’t. And I don’t like the sound of that.

As if reacting to my thoughts, I begin to see several of the smaller spiders scurrying about. But the moment they see me, they begin rushing in my direction, just to be crushed by my gloveless hands with ease.

My grimace grows worse as I see the small, droplet sized areas of my armor that the tiny spiders’ insides splashed on. Despite my attempts to keep the critters at a distance.

I continue down the tunnel for what feels like ages, killing more and more spiders as I go, with their numbers seemingly growing along the way. But eventually, I find myself stopping at the sound of a loud screech. One noticeably different from the spider queen’s.

The heck is that?

Another screech sounds after the first, with this one being the same as the spiders.

Are there more than o-

My thoughts cut off as I round a bend in the tunnel to find an oversized rat chewing on a spider’s corpse.

Oh.

Guess I found where those rats ended up.

Wait a second… how is it able to tell where the…

My eyes widen as I notice the rat’s eyes being completely different from how they were before. Now they have the same black eyes with a blue ring inside them as I do.

Is this a different type of frozen one rat, or did they evolve in the limited time it took me to get up here?

Because if it’s the first option, then it’s not too bad. But if it’s the second…

Also, if I had to guess now that I’ve seen the rat, I’d say the spider queen is probably fighting some sort of stronger, evolved rat. Because every other frozen one seems to have a stronger version, so why not the rats too?

I glance back in the way I’d come for a second while wondering if I should head back now to report to the captain, or if I should just keep going. But the rat suddenly turns its head towards me and lets out a little squeak that sounds way too cute to be coming from a large mutant rat. It then sprints after me so quickly that I find myself instinctively backing up and almost tripping over my own feet.

Holy shit that’s fast!

I quickly turn my trip into a back flip to regain my footing a few feet behind me, albeit feeling my feet go straight through the ice coating the ceiling of the tunnel in the process, before I reach back to grab my sword and swing it around to meet the rat’s claws. A loud noise akin to metal clashing on metal resonates between the blade and the creature’s claws, making my eyes widen in shock.

Just what are this thing’s claws made out of?!

Despite the obvious hardness of the claws though, they don’t actually have that much force behind them, and I end up shoving the rat away with my sword. I then rush forward and pierce my sword straight through its brain before it can get back up from the ground.

I frown at the creature after absorbing its energy.

Just how many frozen ones exist now anyways? Because if the energy is mutating every living being above a certain level of intelligence… then could there theoretically be just as many different types of frozen ones as there are different species creatures in the universe?

That thought sends a chill down my spine, but I push it aside and continue making my way through the tunnel for a bit anyways. Until I run into both rats and spiders this time.

Despite my presence though, neither of them are paying any attention to me. In fact, they’re acting like I’m not here. As if they were mortal enemies or something and had to finish each other off before paying me any mind.

Not really sure about how to take that, but whatever.

I take this time to study the creatures.

From what I can tell, the rats’ fur, which is tipped with little shards of ice, is capable of shredding the ‘skin’ of the spiders like tissue paper. They also have incredibly hard teeth and claws, but not all that much strength. And while they are incredibly fast, so are the spiders. It’s just that the spiders seem to trade durability with their suicidal body fluids and their sharp claws.

It’s rather interesting to watch, to be honest. But at the same time…

I wait for the spiders to all be finished off – their bodily fluids not having any effect on the rats in the same way as they don’t affect me – before I rush in to finish off the few remaining rats.

I’m starting to be glad to be here right now. After all, their little feuds with each other is leaving a lot of corpses for me to drain the energy out of.

A loud screeching shriek echoes through the tunnel, along with another loud squeaking shriek, contradicting my thoughts entirely. I then feel the tunnel beginning to shake slowly, then faster and faster until chunks of ice begin to crash down from the ceiling around me, signaling this as a good time to head back.

And that decision is only amplified as a good one when I see an enormous rat spanning a meter in height and two and a half meters in length straight up pushing the spider queen in a charge through the tunnel, dragging it along the edge of the tunnel in my direction.

Yeah, no thanks.

I immediately begin to run away as if there were no tomorrow. Because there might just not be one.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord Invite

Top Web Fiction

Table of Contents