Asunder [litRPG] Chapter 7 (Patreon)

Thane kept his center of gravity low as he stepped out from the hallway and into the room.

Three large spiders stood across from a girl slightly shorter than Thane. She held a long dagger in each hand, and several dead spiders laid on the ground beside her, purple wounds leaking from their bodies. He scanned the information bar above each of the monsters’ heads.

<Brood Scout – Level 5>

They were all the same type and level, and they weren’t as strong as the UniBunny he’d fought earlier that day. That was good news, at least.

The girl was breathing heavily, and there were more than a few wounds on her body. He leather armor had been turned to rags. The last three of the monsters chittered, advancing on her slowly. They’d clearly learned from the mistakes of their fallen companions.

Thane stepped raised a hand, channeling his mana through his body. The energy twisted to his desires like an obedient dog.

“Soul link,” Thane said.

A line of energy thrummed into being between him and the girl. She spun, her eyes widening in surprise at the sight of Thane. The rightmost spider chose that moment to attack. It lunged forwards, letting out a chitter as it lashed out with its fangs.

In an impressive show of reflexes, the girl tumbled back, narrowly avoiding the strike. Thane didn’t spend time admiring her abilities. He pointed his other hand at the spider that had attacked her and activated Drain.

A small burst of dark energy crackled around the spider’s head. Warmth tingled at Thane’s fingertips. At the same time, the girl’s posture straightened ever so slightly. Thane doubted that the healing from the spell had actually much of anything, but she should have been able to tell that he was on her side.

The spiders, realizing that their advantage was thinning, charged at the girl. She dove out of the way, slashing at the nearest one’s legs and eliciting a hiss of fury from the creature.

Thane cast drain on it again. The Brood Scout stumbled, its wounds starting to take a toll on it. The girl ducked past another two attacks from the other creatures as she leapt forward and thrust her blades into the weakened creature’s head.

It slumped to the ground, dead. Thane cast drain on the next spider, once again feeling the tingling sensation as the small amount of healing energy coursed through his body. The spider snapped at the girl, this time managing to clip her on the upper thigh.

She bit back a curse and staggered, as a thick trail of blood started to pour down her leg. Thane cast drain on the creature again, stepping towards it and raising his hands into the air to look larger.

The two remaining spiders glanced in his direction. Thane cast drain on the same spider once more. This time, the dark energy crackled much louder than he’d ever seen it.

Critical Strike! [5% + 1.8% from Luck (18)]

The spider staggered as a rush of energy entered Thane’s body. Only a portion of that passed through the Soul Link, but it was enough to stem part of the woman’s bleeding.

Thane could feel his mind getting muggy. A small blue warning blinked into being in the upper left corner of his vision.

Mana running low: 35/100 remaining.

“Damn this weak body,” Thane cursed. The weakened spider lashed out at the girl. She redirected the strike with one of her daggers and slammed the other one into the side of the spider’s head.

It slumped to the ground as the last remaining creature leapt at the girl. Thane cast drain on it, but the dark energy barely affected the creature as it flew towards her.

The girl abandoned one of her daggers in the fallen spider’s neck. She threw herself to the side, just barely rolling out of the way as the large arachnid slammed into the ground where she’d been standing.

Mana reserves exhausted.

Soul Link blinked out. Thane gritted his teeth. He needed to get some sort of weapon if he wanted to be useful for more than a minute in any fight.

The girl shifted her weight to her good leg, holding the dagger protectively before her. The spider chittered and started to crawl towards her. Thane grabbed a small stone from the ground and lobbed it at the creature as hard as he could.

It hit the spider in the side of the head. It hissed and turned to look at him. The girl leapt forward and slammed her dagger into its head. The spider let out a hiss of pain, thrashing to throw her off. She held on for dear life as it whipped her back and forth.

Thane dashed across the room and ripped the girl’s dagger from the corpse of the other spider. He then dashed over to the two struggling combatants and thrust the blade into the side of the spider’s head.

Its legs spasmed and it collapsed to the ground. The room fell into silence, only broken by Thane and the girl’s breathing as they caught their breath. A series of notifications blinked up at the corner of his vision, but Thane ignored them. He pulled the dagger free of the spider and tossed it at the girl’s feet.

She didn’t bend to pick it up. She kept her eyes on Thane as she worked her dagger free.

“Who are you?” she asked. Her voice sounded young, but it was surprisingly steady for someone who had been moments from bleeding out.

“Thane.”

“I didn’t mean your name,” she said. “How did you get here? Did you follow me inside the dungeon?”

“No,” Thane said. “Someone who cares about you asked me to give you a hand.”

“And I do appreciate that. However, I’d really like an explanation as to how you got here if you didn’t follow me in. There have been stories of adventurers getting killed by other people that want to steal their reward.” She cocked an eyebrow. “And who would my secret admirer happen be?”

Thane’s skin prickled. He irritably waved his hand.

“I know, I know. No telling,” he said under his breath. “Just consider this a gift. Someone decided it wasn’t your time to die today. Don’t ask me more – I won’t say.”