Lesser Spider Matriarch

Just then, a powerful scent wafted from the depths of the cave.

Every creature still standing on the web could clearly feel the strands pulling in the same direction—something big had entered the battlefield.

"Pfft—pfft—" The Dragon Dogs freed themselves from their silk cocoons with corrosive saliva. As they shook the spider silk from their mouths, their red-glinting eyes remained fixed on the depths of the cavern.

A massive creature at level seven, one that had nearly reached the standard of an epic species, was approaching.

Before long, a gigantic Purple-Striped Spider that nearly filled the entire passage pressed toward the Zerglings from the depths of the cave, accompanied by a stream of little spiders that seemed to flow like water.

"The Lesser Spider Matriarch." Without waiting for the Overmind to ask, Elar spoke up. "A magical beast nearly at the epic-species level. Its appearance will make every spider fearless of death."

And just as Elar had said, not long after that powerful scent spread through the cave, nearly all the spiders within went berserk. The Giant Long-Legged Spiders seemed to lose all sense of their injuries as they began spraying silk again.

The little spiders that had been scared witless by the Zerglings and had nearly trampled one another in their flight were even worse. They began trembling all over as though drugged.

Having cast aside their fear, these little creatures that had previously been driven about and slaughtered by the Zerglings immediately displayed their terrifying numerical advantage. They pounced down from the rock walls and ceiling, burying the Zerglings almost instantly.

The Overlords were making emergency deployments, but the Overmind paid them little mind. The little spiders could not bite through the Zerglings' carapaces; no matter how numerous they were, they could not inflict any real damage. Most of the dozen-odd giant spiders had also been badly crippled. Fewer than half could still spit silk, and they could no longer weave a web that covered the entire cavern. Tangled up in close combat with the Zerglings, they could no longer stir up much trouble.

Through the senses of several Zerglings, the Overmind carefully traced the connections between the various spiders and the Lesser Spider Matriarch.

There were no signs of psychic control or any other extraordinary power. If it relied solely on pheromones, the Swarm could easily sever that connection—or even take control of it in reverse. Humans could use pheromones to manipulate insect behavior; the Swarm would only be better at it.

"Grah—" With a hiss, the Dragon Dogs broke into long strides, smashing aside every spider in their path as they charged toward the Lesser Spider Matriarch.

Along the way, quite a few Zerglings tore away the little spiders clinging to them, flipped upright, and followed behind the Dragon Dogs in a headlong charge.

The little spiders had never been as large as the Zerglings. With their complete disadvantage in strength, speed, and carapace, once the Zerglings started running, the little spiders were almost incapable of stopping them.

The Lesser Spider Matriarch was indeed enormous, but its combat strength clearly was not particularly impressive for its level. It put far less pressure on the Overmind than the Dragon Lion had before its further draconic transformation.

It swung its forelegs several times, yet only sent a dozen or so Zerglings flying—fewer, even, than the little spiders it crushed along the way.

The leading Dragon Dog leaped and darted sideways several times, evading the Lesser Spider Matriarch's attacks. Then, with a heavy thud—

The sharp horn at the side of its face slammed viciously into the carapace of the Lesser Spider Matriarch's cephalothorax.

With a crack, the Dragon Dog's horn sank in all the way to its base. The carapace in that area of the Lesser Spider Matriarch's body caved inward, and green fluid seeped from the radiating cracks. With two more crunches, the appendages on the Dragon Dog's back drove into the Lesser Spider Matriarch's shell. Like an excavator, the Dragon Dog began prying its carapace apart with savage force.

The Lesser Spider Matriarch had clearly never been injured much before. In pain, it immediately raised its front body and tried to sweep the Dragon Dog away with its other foreleg. Instead, it exposed the comparatively vulnerable underside of its abdomen.

The other Zerglings seized the chance to rush forward, embedding themselves one after another into its chest. Though they could not crack open a whole section of carapace like the Dragon Dog had, they still drove themselves into it.

At the same time, even more Zerglings fully lived up to their name, leaping high into the air before embedding themselves in its back.

The most successful Zergling even climbed onto the Lesser Spider Matriarch's head. It locked its forelimbs around the matriarch's chelicerae, then cleanly stabbed out the two eyes on its left side with the appendages on its back.

But this also drove the Lesser Spider Matriarch mad. It began wildly flailing its appendages, smashing into the cavern walls and rolling about frantically.

It was still a high-level magical beast, after all. At the very least, its strength was adequate. If it slammed into a wall, even a Zergling would be crushed flat. Combined with the interference of the fearless little spiders and another group of White-Striped Spiders that had somehow crept back in, the Zerglings began dying in batches.

Yet the Overmind was not worried about the final outcome.

Because the Dragon Dog was lodged right at the base of one of its legs, the Lesser Spider Matriarch's struggles could not affect it at all. By now, it had already pried away a large section of the Lesser Spider Matriarch's carapace and begun tearing into the flesh beneath.

At the same time, more than a dozen Zerglings gathered at the narrow waist connecting the Lesser Spider Matriarch's cephalothorax and abdomen, frantically chiseling away at it.

It only remained to see whether the Dragon Dog would eat the Lesser Spider Matriarch's brain first, or whether the Zerglings would split it in two first.

And by now, the reinforcements should have arrived as well...

Amid the chaotic beating of countless wings, a flock of Arrow Gulls so dense they nearly blotted out the light plunged straight into the cave.

Because they were flying too densely packed and there was too little room to maneuver in the cave, the Arrow Gulls could not harm the little spiders unless they pecked at their joints.

But the Arrow Gulls had not flown in to fight.

The moment they penetrated the battlefield, they rammed headfirst into the webs stretched across the rock walls.

The silk that could trouble Zerglings naturally could not be escaped by Arrow Gulls either. But they did not struggle much. They simply spread their wings and entered a state of death.

Before long, fungal hyphae began emerging from the Arrow Gulls' mouths and nostrils. Wherever the Creep touched, the spider silk melted away like spring snow.

Due to the lack of research into the key cell-activation receptors, the Arrow Gulls' tissues could not rapidly dissolve into Creep. The fungal hyphae could only use their dead bodies as seedbeds, and the conversion efficiency was not particularly high. But the cave itself was not large.

The webs covering the surrounding rock walls provided abundant organic matter as well. In only a few minutes, the environment changed from the spiders' home ground into the Swarm's home ground. The structures evolved on spider legs for walking across webs instead made it easier for them to scrape up and carry the Creep.

The Overmind rather admired the silk's extremely potent thread-pulling property. It just did not know whether that ability could be bestowed upon fungal hyphae.

By the time the final thousand-odd Zerglings ran into the cave, the battle was already drawing to a close.

The Lesser Spider Matriarch ultimately fell to the Dragon Dog, with nearly half its brain eaten away. Yet it did not die. An arthropod's head was not inherently a fatal weak point, and with the Creep's erosion and nourishment, its soul had not completely collapsed.

Most of the little spiders and all the Giant Long-Legged Spiders were left on the battlefield.

The remaining spiders retreated through a cave passage that descended almost vertically. The battle had completely entered the cleanup phase.