The Hundred Reigns 282: King of Spiders (24) (Patreon)

Previous Chapter

Death rained down from the sky. 

Arrow-Snatcher could only catch one projectile at once, so Simon had to use a Chaos Wave to repel them all while Chrom Cruak turned a few of his metal blade feathers into a swirling shield. 

The rest of their allies were not so quick nor lucky. Though Dassein and Vouivre managed to weather the hail with their shield and thick scales respectively, each arrow hitting with the strength of a catapult, the weaker undead and golems on the ground might as well have been hit by a hail of cannon fire. Being landbound made them mostly useless against a quicker, flying opponent. 

The Ravenous began to resemble a pincushion too, though its defensive spells let the crew survive the attack. Granny tried and failed to dodge the arrows too. One struck her in the back with such speed that it went through her shoulder and came out on the other side, causing her to lose her footing and nearly fall off her glider, though she somehow managed to grab one of the wings at the last second and hang onto it. 

“Phew, Granny lives!” Granny Radhag rejoiced, a second before a red cross appeared on her chest. “She made it out in one piece—”

Algozoa crossed the vast distance between them in a second and appeared right behind her with a vicious grin on his face. 

Simon didn’t even have time to issue a warning before he bit Granny and savagely mauled her, his teeth ripping her torso off her hips in one brutal strike. He ripped her soul out of her body, though Simon proved quicker on the draw. 

“Soul Calling!”

He recalled Granny’s branded soul to him a second before Algozoa could devour it and caused her to manifest next to him as a ghost. He quickly sealed her in a gem and denied the Archer his meal.

“Dead, huh?” he heard Granny’s voice comment from within her new vessel. “Eh, my darling can make it work.”

I can prevent him from regenerating if I’m quick enough, Simon thought as he quickly stored the gem in his Inventory and issued new orders to his allies. “Anyone capable of shapeshifting, you must transform into something with only one Type! His damage somehow increases the more of them you have!”

Algozoa glared at him with malice from across the clouds. He could feel the hunter’s resentment weighing on him and manifesting on his chest in the form of a red warpaint cross sticking to his armor. 

Algozoa designated you as his quarry! All his attacks against you will inflict Critical Hits when possible, strike with greater accuracy, and trigger Endless Pursuit!

Do your worst, Simon thought as he took a page out of Gargauth’s book. “Goblin Nation!”

The password he had woven into Granny’s glider immediately triggered its self-destruct sequence. All of the bombs within the device exploded at once in a cataclysmic blast capable of destroying a castle’s tower.

The magical flames threatened to engulf Algozoa, yet they didn’t so much as caress his flesh. The monster crossed the distance between Simon and him in an instant, sidestepping the explosion and charging at his foe in a deerlike rush; horns first. 

“Voltobauta, teleport me!” Simon telepathically ordered his Necromancer ally while he drained cattle warriors to heal his wounds. “Now—”

Algozoa gored him on his horns.

Simon would have likely been outright impaled without his buffs and Wicked Angel’s considerable Agility boost, and even then he couldn’t dodge the blow outright. The sharpened horns dug into his left flank, tore through his armor, and sprayed Algozoa’s skull with acidic blood. 

Critical hit! Supereffective damage! Massive Physical damage! 

Algozoa shrieked from the poisoned blood on his skull, but his suffering provided little comfort to Simon. The horns remained stuck in his chest and continued to gore their way towards his heart. He grabbed one of the horns with a free hand in an attempt to use Timethief on the Archer, but immediately received an error notification. The Archer simply shrugged off the Slow status. 

The fact that some ailments could affect Algozoa didn’t mean all of them did. 

Simon landed a blow with his Underworld Hammer Technique in an attempt to shake Algozoa off him, but though he smashed the monster's skull with hellfire, it still wouldn’t let him go. His claw lunged at Simon’s throat in a flash of speed. 

I can’t dodge! Simon panicked as the blades reached for his neck like a guillotine. Chaos Wa—

Space bent around Simon, and he found himself on the Ravenous’ deck in the company of Shabram, Voltobauta, and the latters’ undead crew. The Dancer had transformed into a human, and the Necromancer was already in the process of absorbing his ghostly allies into himself with his Soul Resonance ability. Simon immediately used the reprieve to further drain his minions for health and mana. 

“Your Majesty!” Shabram immediately began a graceful dance targeting Simon. “Refreshing Grace!”

Regen and Haste status! All your stats have been buffe—

Algozoa appeared over the deck before the notification could even complete its message, and roared. 

The very same high-pitched wail he had used in the cavern earlier erupted from his lungs like a bomb, blasting apart the Ravenous’ deck and tearing the ghost-ship asunder. Everyone was thrown overboard by the shockwave, Simon included.  

Medium Wind damage! Supereffective Demonslayer damage! Buffs removed!

They were all thrown into the void below, with the ghost ship being torn in half. Simon used his wings to adjust his flight, and Voltobauta finished transforming into his batlike monster form, but Shabram found herself falling towards the ground below. 

“Shabram!” Simon shouted as he flew after his non-flying comrade. He moved like lightning in an attempt to catch her, but a flesh arrow aimed at her from above. It seemed to move like lightning even for an Haste-empowered Simon, and it hit its target before he could reach her. The projectile exploded with power greater than a Nova spell and blasted Shabram to pieces. 

I’m really sorry, Shabram. “Soul Calling.”

He told himself it was necessary to deny Algozoa a free regeneration, that she was dead anyway, that this was a temporary inconvenience since he would revive her as an undead anyway, but ripping out Shabram’s soul to place her in a gem still felt wrong somehow. Since when had this become second nature to him?

Algozoa reappeared a few dozen feet away from Simon, though he was no longer grinning. His frustration at being denied a regenerative meal was written plainly on his ghoulish visage. 

So that’s ‘Endless Pursuit,’ Simon realized as he prepared a Darkflare. He can instantly catch up to anyone he has designated as his quarry. 

The Archer had learned his lesson about Simon’s poisonous blood and elected to fire at him from a distance. Flesh arrows surged from his arm at a frighteningly quick rate of roughly one every two seconds, each of them fast as lightning. The first projectile collided with Simon’s Darkflare in a mighty detonation that spread fire and shadows across the sky, with the others chasing after him with relentless speed. 

Simon struggled to outpace them even with Haste, and switched out his current ring for a Strength for Speed one. The world became a tunnel of light as his Perception struggled to keep up with his increased Agility, but he managed to detonate the remaining projectiles with Hellfire Gaze. 

The Archer attempted to escape Simon’s efforts to close in, but barbed black chains surged out of nowhere and caught Algozoa’s arm by surprise before he could retreat. These bindings resembled Simon’s Tier I Shadowchain spell, but thicker and made of blackened bones. They dug into the bastard’s flesh and restrained all of his limbs, to their caster’s delight.

“That’s for my ship,” Voltobauta hissed angrily as he flew towards them. “Nightmare Chains.” 

Unwilling to let the opportunity go to waste, Simon followed through with Hellfire Gaze. Flames surged from his three eyes and hit Algozoa’s face, incinerating the flesh off his head and melting his eyes in their sockets. The Archer’s shriek of pain and surprise was music to Simon’s ear. 

“Keep him immobilized!” Simon shouted at Voltobauta while he kept turning up the heat with a Strength for Spell ring. Vouivre, Dassein, and Chrom Cruak were rushing to their side to reinforce them, with the dragon queen having regained her natural wyrm form upon realizing her immense Beast-powered bulk wouldn’t help against a much quicker opponent. “Just a little longer!”

Algozoa shrieked once again, and the island screamed along with him. 

The sonic boom shattered Voltobauta’s chains and freed the Archer, right as the once-sleeping volcano’s top cracked open and began to vomit out a plume of smoke and debris into the air.

Simon felt a weight being lifted off him a second before the red cross on his chest vanished and reappeared on Voltobauta’s belly. Algozoa dodged Simon’s Hellfire Gaze in an instant and closed the gap with the Necromancer, horns first. 

They struck true, and then phased through him without shedding any blood.

Voltobauta had turned intangible at the last second, causing Algozoa to harmlessly rush through him. The Necromancer moved behind the Archer and then blasted his shoulder with ectoplasmic energy. Algozoa’s bow arm went limp with a crack. 

The pirate king had lived up to his word and had trained accordingly. 

Algozoa shrieked like a cornered animal, with Vouivre, Dassein, and Chrom Cruak catching up to them. The dragon queen acted the quickest by pointing her claw at the Archer and casting her Spacetime Anchor, having likely misunderstood his ability for standard teleportation rather than a more esoteric ability. She stood corrected when he marked her as his quarry with a glare and swiftly appeared in front of her. 

However, Algozoa didn’t engage the dragon at all. He turned his gaze toward Chrom Cruak, marked him, and then shifted next to the undead in an instant. The mummy king immediately attempted to skewer him with his spear, but Algozoa had already repeated the process with Dassein before he could complete his motion.  

While Algozoa could only mark one target as his quarry at a time, the bastard constantly switched victims the moment he spotted a new target in his line of sight, jumping from one person to the other in a long teleportation chain in an attempt to break their encirclement. Simon had to admit it was a rather clever application of his ability.

However, no beast nor demon could outrun the Rider.

“Meteor Chariot!” Dassein shouted as a shroud of fire enveloped him and his Hastened manticore. They became a blazing comet soaring after Algozoa and tackled him across the sky, with the fighters falling towards the waters around the Dead Island. 

Dassein used a novel Technique to prevent the Archer from escaping his grip: not letting him go under any circumstance. His manticore continued to bite and claw at the Zodiac Fiend even after he tried to use his sonic scream to shake the beast off. 

They eventually crashed into the foggy sea, the waters turning to steam around the point of impact. 

Simon and the others quickly flew over the area, but the eruption’s tremors had agitated the sea’s surface. Stormy waves and ethereal mist did not provide good visibility, and Algozoa’s miasmic presence suddenly went quiet. 

He’s using his camouflage again. Simon turned to Voltobauta, as the Necromancer’s Perks let him detect the living and the dead. “Where are they?”

“I sense them to the west…” Voltobauta pointed at a spot. “There.” 

Dassein and his manticore rose from the waves, with the former bearing claw marks on his armor and the latter having a clipped wing. The feline clutched one of Algozoa’s legs in its fangs. Simon sighed in relief at seeing them alive. 

“Where is he?” Chrom Cruak asked immediately. 

“Close,” Dassein replied as he fed a healing potion to his manticore in order to repair its broken wing. “We mauled him good, but he cut off his own leg to escape.”

“I can no longer sense him,” Voltobauta admitted with a hint of annoyance. “I can’t even smell his blood. Rather frustrating.”

“Algozoa has significant camouflage abilities in his base form, which he likely retained in his current state,” Simon warned his allies. “He might be preparing an ambush.”

“I will smoke him out,” Vouivre assured him as she charged her dragon breath and unleashed a deluge of flames at the sea. Clouds of steam arose from boiling waters, with Dassein’s manticore hurriedly taking flight to avoid being cooked alive. 

Simon healed his wounds by draining more of his minions, reapplied his buffs, and looked around for any sign of the Zodiac Fiend. Algozoa was in terrible shape and unlikely to have fled far, not to mention that Simon had laid quite a few traps just for this occasion. He had set mines in the water, snares on the beach, and whatever landbound golems remained were ready to intercept the monster on the shores.  

An explosion soon echoed not too far from their position. Algozoa had likely triggered an undersea mine they had set up there. Simon and the others immediately rushed that way when the atmosphere abruptly changed. The immense pressure of Algozoa’s Domain snapped to nothingness in an instant, stopping the rise of thorns and bramble across the island. 

Domain cancelled. 

What? Simon struggled to believe the notification, but the demonic magic in the air had indeed vanished. What’s going on?

A telepathic message reached him, its sender echoing his confusion. “The Domain is no longer active,” Elsa warned him through the Brand of Sloth. “Did you kill that creep?”

“I’m not sure, but stay on your guard and away from the water,” Simon admitted. Another tremor shook the island as its volcano began to vomit fire. It wouldn’t take long before the entire island sank beneath a deluge of magma. “What’s the situation on your side?”

“We successfully teleported to the safehouse on the beach, but the arrow rain hurt Borsh good. He’ll make it unless we help him along.” He could hear her chuckle on her end of the line. “We do need a new carpet.”

“We’ll steal some merchant-prince’s rug,” Simon replied as he spotted bloody chunks rising out of the waters; severed horse legs, entrails, and half a skull topped with antlers. It can’t be…

“He’s… dead?” Voltobauta sounded utterly befuddled. “The mine blew him up?”

“Impossible,” Vouivre replied, squinting at the remains. “I haven’t received any experience.”

“Fidelle says the scent matches,” Dassein argued as his manticore smelled the remains. “Something’s odd.”

Simon searched around the waves for an explanation, and swiftly noticed a worrying detail: while the parts indeed appeared to belong to Algozoa, one sizable chunk of meat was nowhere to be seen. 

“Where’s the torso?” Simon’s hand tightened into a fist. “The torso is missing.”

The answer came twofold; in a dash of pain rippling through the Devil Brands connecting him to Borsh, and his lover’s panicked call for help. 

“He’s here!” Elsa warned him through telepathy. “Out of the water!”

“Damn it!” Simon shouted as he hurriedly summoned a teleportation gem from his Inventory and shattered it. “The safehouse! The bastard played possum!” 

Algozoa had cancelled his own Domain and shed half his body as a decoy to sneak away from the main group!

Simon teleported halfway across the island, right in time to see Borsh Fleshmonger’s head ripped off his shoulders and a noseless maw drinking his soul. The beach was stained with blood and broken parts from shattered golems which had proved utterly ineffective at slowing down the mighty Zodiac Fiend. 

Algozoa had shed the lower part of his body and grown humanoid legs, becoming a bloody parody of a giant. Consuming Borsh’s lifeforce healed his bow-arm but failed to fully close all of his wounds, leaving his skull partly exposed beneath his flayed face. His hand kept Hector pressed against the sand as the Executioner hacked at his arm, while Elsa slashed his talons with her daggers. 

Algozoa glared at Simon the moment he teleported in, and immediately marked him with his cross. 

Simon immediately attempted to blast him with Hellfire Gaze, but the Archer threw Hector in the line of fire. The Overlord immediately moved to the side and avoided harming his retainer, which proved to be a mistake. Algozoa closed the gap between them in an instant and sucker-punched him. His claws tore out Simon’s third eye in the middle of his chest in a shower of blood. 

Physical damage! Supereffective demonslayer damage!

However, the weight of the blow paled before the metaphysical pressure that followed in its wake. Reality warped around the two of them, a shadowy barrier of miasma enveloping a portion of the beach. Elsa, Hector, and the newly teleporting Voltobauta vanished behind a wall of bramble and thorns. 

Simon soon found himself alone with Algozoa in a black forest resembling the Domain in which they had once dueled, but thicker, with a thorny canopy so thick no sun could ever pierce through it. The ground was covered in bloody mud smelling of rot and death. 

Algozoa, the Devourer of All, has trapped you in his Abyssal Domain! Teleportation is no longer possible! Algozoa is always aware of your location, and all his attacks will inflict Type-supereffective damage!

Simon thought the Zodiac Fiends were forced to keep their Domains open when empowered by Abraxas, but Algozoa had just proved him wrong. The Archer had elected to duel him one-on-one in a private territory rather than fight a doomed battle against his entire party. 

“No more packs…”

The voice was so soft that Simon almost mistook it for the wind. “You… you can talk?”

“No more swarms… no more running.” Algozoa licked his fangs in anticipation, a ghastly grin plastered across his burned face. Maybe it was Abraxas’ power increasing his intelligence; or he had always been capable of speech, but considered it beneath him until today. “You and me…”

He raised his bow arm at Simon.

“Predator and prey.”

The Archer fired an arrow straight at his face. 

I couldn’t agree more, Simon thought as he anchored himself to the ground and tossed Flaymace to the side to free both of his hands for his next maneuver. Prey.

“Arrow-Snatcher.”