Rise of the Blood Weaver - Chapter 87 (Patreon)

Arlo saw it. 20 metres deep within the cave was a bloody, monstrous battle. All the way at the back, was a long, thick snake. It was unlike any snake Arlo had ever seen before. Its entire body was covered in lustrous white scales with black lines scored throughout. Two, small curved black horns rose from its head. Its forked tongue lashed outwards in a threatening, hissing display.

There were 5 attackers who were scaled humanoids that looked like lizardmen. Unlike the snake's smooth scales, theirs was rough, and spikes covered the majority of their limbs. They all stood at around 6 feet tall. Arlo could tell that they weren’t weak.

They turned around at the noise at their flank. Their eyes widened when they saw Arlo and the others hanging on to the outside of the pillar. One of them turned. Only for the long snake's tongue to lash out like a whip. It coiled around the lizardman waist and with a flick, it swallowed the creature whole.

Without waiting, Arlo summoned Vyr. He appeared in the mouth of the cave.

A stalemate was created. The lizardmen didn’t know whether to face the snake, or head toward the strange, faceless humanoid. Finally, the stalemate was cancelled when the lizardman on the left charged straight for Vyr. It seemed that it deemed Vyr as lesser than the snake. It was a mistake.

Approaching Vyr with rapid, slapping footsteps, the lizardman brandished its weapon; a curved machete with holes bored into the blade. Swinging it overhead as hard as the lizard possibly could, it aimed to split Vyr in half.

Vyr raised both his arms and crossed them. Thickened blades of blood emerged from his forearms. He blocked the savage oncoming blade. Sparks flew. Vyr didn’t budge. Instead, it was the lizardman who had taken a step back.

Ordering Vyr to attack. He moved in a flash. His natural blades sliced into the lizard's throat. In an instant, he replied with another attack. This time, a blade to the monster's heart.

[You have slain a Tier 2 Monster, Spiked Lizardman.]

| Your blood becomes stronger.

Then all hell broke loose. The snake attacking from behind, and Vyr attacking from the front, it wasn’t long before the lizardmen were completely annihilated.

The snake had received a gash down its side, but it wasn't enough to threaten its life. More than that, was that the wound was healing visible to the eye.

Regenerative abilities, Arlo thought with a grimace.

He was about to ask if Merc was going to join Vyr in the battle when he heard monstrous noises coming from outside. Arlo frowned, turned around as Vyr protected his front, and gazed down below. Hundreds of monsters of all different shapes and sizes and tiers were fighting their way up.

Arlo moved his vision to the horizon. Only a deep, dark orange remained. Dark was approaching. They only had minutes left of daylight left before they were plunged into the all consuming darkness.

“Justin, Arlo, focus on killing the snake,” Merc said. She turned her back to the snake and brandished her massive sword. “Elian and I will keep the monsters from entering this cave. Don’t worry what happens behind you. Kill the creature before the Sand Surge approaches.”

Understanding their situation, Arlo nodded with brevity.

He turned to face the snake. The moment he did, the snake sent an attack of its own. The long, forked-tongue, was now smothered in sharp-tipped spikes. It grabbed hold of Vyr’s arm. Arlo could feel the pain. Blood dripped, yet Vyr was still as expressionless as he was before. As if he didn’t feel anything at all.

But that was a lie. Although Arlo only caught a glimpse of Vyr’s left eye, he saw something with. Anger. It was so vague, that perhaps if Arlo wasn’t the master of the Blood Soldier, he would have never spotted it at all. But he did.

Vyr moved with more force than usual. Instead of panicking, like maybe a human would while under the vice grip of a Monsters tongue. Vyr instead coiled the fleshy tongue further around his arm. Like how one would bundle up a rope from their elbow, to their palm. Because of that, he walked closer to the snake.

With hatred flashing through the snakes slitted, green eyes, the spikes from its tongue grew taller, thicker. To the point that they had even pierced Vyr’s arm, and appeared on the other side.

Once Vyr was 5 feet, and just as the snake was opening his mouth to consume him, Vyr raised his free  arm. He swiped it down faster than he had ever done before. The air swished as he sliced straight through the fleshy, spiked tongue like a hot-knife through butter.

In an instant, the tongue retracted its spikes as it flopped to the floor. It still wriggled and thrashed.

Before the snake could react, Vyr charged the last few steps, and rammed a blade into its opened maw. From the roof of its mouth, to its small brain. The mighty lustrous snake fell.

[You have slain a Tier 5 Monster, Lustrous Venom-fang.]

| Your blood becomes stronger.

“Holy shit,” Justin said. “I didn’t even have to do anything. What rank is that bastard?”

“High,” Arlo said in shock. He gazed at Vyr’s back. He was so fucking cool. He wanted to be like him.

Then, Arlo felt the entire world tremble. The sound of a harrowing wave approached. It was the sound of silence. Arlo turned around. In the distance, a wall that reached the heavens was quickly coming their way, engulfing everything in its path.

And then darkness consumed them.

Golden light pierced the veil. Justin had summoned his lantern Remembrance. A moment later, the wave slammed into the pillar. Arlo, Vyr, Justin, and all the others were sent flying backwards from the impact. Arlo slammed into the dead snake's body. It was surprisingly soft and supple. It had broken his fall.

Arlo clambered to his feet. From the mouth of the cave, whatever monsters had somehow managed to cling to the pillar when the wave arrived, entered. They look shaken up. Like they had just experienced a traumatic event. Arlo didn’t blame them. When he was almost caught in that Sand Surge, he almost shit himself.

Black spears emerged from the floor, skewering their brains in an instant. Justin had made a move.

With the monsters dead, Arlo inched closer to the front of the cave with Vyr right behind him. He looked down. He didn’t have to look far as only 10 feet below the cave, was where the tsunami had stopped.

Arlo stumbled backwards. “Holy shit,” he said, crashing into Vyr. “That was close.”

Merc frowned. “Yeah… next time, we climb higher.”

“No shit,” Elian said with a nervous smile.