Chapter 41


    Jalel’s jaw had dropped when he saw what she held. It only took him a second before his face twisted in a strange mix of desperation and greed, rage, and hate, and their newfound acquaintance pulled out his dagger. He dropped his bag without even thinking while simultaneously lunging forward toward Ath and pulled out some sort of white potion.


    Riven’s eyes narrowed, and it was as if time stopped as she stood unaware of the impending attack.


    “Ath, move!”


    In an instant, Riven had rammed his foot into Jalel’s chest—expelling the air from the man with an abrupt wheeze and sending the man off course. The potion that Jalel had been about to throw smashed against the ground, blinding everyone momentarily with a loud pop of sound like a sh-bang. Riven cursed and blindly mmed his staff into Jalel’s chest, managing to hit him straight on. The man grunted, scrambling back across the ground, trying to get to the weapon that’d loudly ttered against the stone.


    It took about ten seconds for everyone to recover. Riven blinked rapidly to clear his head, Ath screeched irritatedly while trying to rub her eyes, and the man on the ground groaned and coughed.


    Ath was confused and disoriented by the st, but she began tough at Riven’s disy of violence when the light cleared, and she slipped the stone back into Riven’s pocket. “I would have been fine, Riven. This man is far too weak to kill me, and even if I died—I’de back. Though I do appreciate the sentiment…you didn’t address me by my <span ss="italic">royal title! Address me as <span ss="italic">Princess, you peasant ve!”


    “I was worried about the stone!” Riven snarled and angrily kicked the downed man in the gut while he ignored the crazy arachnid demon nearby. He’d certainly felt that this guy was…off. Jalel had seemed desperate, untrustworthy, and all-around shady since the first conversation Riven had with him—but to see the miracle stone and go on the offensive to attain it…


    </a>Jalel had just sentenced himself to death. Why would he have been so utterly stupid? Was he truly that desperate to obtain something of value for his debts? Jalel knew he was weaker than Riven and Ath were, but he’d acted so brazenly Riven simply couldn’t understand. Had he really expected to snatch it and run? Or had he been nning to stab Riven first on the way to the spider?


    “That stone belongs to <span ss="italic">me!” Jalel half screamed and half gasped, short of breath after the kick and clutching at his stomach. He was half-mad with envy as he picked himself up and narrowly rolled to dodge a close-range flurry of spinning red des that crashed into the wall behind him, eyes growing wide before howling his rage and swinging in an arc to take Riven’s head.


    Two thin tendrils of crimson from the leeching totems mmed into the man, catching him in the chest and neck and causing him to scream and miss his swing. The threads of red magic pulsed, drawing out his life force by the second as Jalel began to writhe about.


    Though Riven himself was somewhat of a novice at fighting in hand-to-handbat, the spider was not. In a blur of legs and fangs, the Blood Weaver mmed into Jalel with a screech as she sank her teeth into his arm wielding the dagger. Necrotic venom began to slide into his veins as Jalel gave a high-pitched wail, reeling back as Ath kicked off while simultaneouslytching onto him with her blood webbing and spinning in an arc around the man’s body to trip him.


    The next moments were a blur of motion as Ath whipped back and forth, managing to wrap her webbing around Jalel numerous times before he was restrained enough that she could just roll him repeatedly with her legs as her spinnerets went nuts. Before long, only Jalel’s strained face remained open to the air as his entire body was wrapped up in a red cocoon.


    “You fucked up,” Riven hissed at the horrified man with a malevolent sneer as Ath finally finished her wrapping job and hopped off proudly.


    “May I eat him now, Master? May I?”


    Jalel caught his breath with a panicked expression while still being pressed up against the bloodied wall, groaning in difort as Riven’s arm shoved his face into the stone.


    “I didn’t mean anything by it… I swear by all the gods. I reacted on instinct—”


    “Instinct?” Riven asked mockingly, picking up the knife Jalel had dropped and pressing the de farther into the man’s neck to draw a slight amount of blood. “Instinct to grab it from her without warning and attack us? Fucking liar.”


    Riven drew Jalel’s head back and abruptly mmed it into the wall again with a violent thud—leaving a trail of Jalel’s blood after releasing his pressing hold. “Now that I know I can’t trust you, it’s lights out, buddy. Anyst words?”


    “No!” Jalel interrupted after a quick yelp of pain with a desperate, wide-eyed shake of his head. “I do not want it! I was going to destroy it!”


    </a>Riven remained unimpressed, tightening his grip on the back of Jalel’s hair, and he nced up at Ath, who sat watching silently by. “You just said the stone was yours, but let’s pretend you’re telling me the truth. Why would you destroy it?”


    “It is evil!” Jalel inhaled sharply as the freezing venom started climbing up his neck, ncing over at the glowing orb cupped between Ath’s arachnid paws. “You have read the description, yes? Innocent souls have been sacrificed to wield its power! Demonic energy is a taint upon thend—you and your kind will all burn in the hells forever for your sacrilege! You will rot with them if you don’t forsake the Unholy pir!”


    Jalel managed to spit at Riven with a look of contempt, his facade entirely gone now. Instead, a look of malice and hatred that Riven felt was rather misced ovepped every aspect of the other man’s features.


    A loud <span ss="italic">thud sounded from above them, and the wall shuddered slightly, bringing Riven’s attention away from Jalel. Small rocks and pieces of debris began falling from above, and Riven took a couple steps back to get out of the way with Ath scrambling to the side. Then there was a loud and eerie screech from above them in the mist.


    The three of them remained perfectly still, and Riven could feel his heart beating ever faster.


    “Untie me!” Jalel hissed as he began to frantically struggle within his bindings. “Please! Please, I did not think before I acted; just let me go and I’ll let you take everything I’ve collected while here!”


    The strange cry came again, this time still up above—from the other side of the alley…with the soft pping of wings apanying it.


    “SHRREEEEEEE!”


    The scream was a mixture of both bird and man as a winged, semihumanoid creature dropped down from the sky tond in the path behind them. Taloned ws were present at the end of its stork-like feet, with wings where its arms should have been. Otherwise the torso, abdomen, and head were all more or less human. Thick plumes of brown feathers covered the head just above the eyes, spreading along its neck and along the rest of the body with a strange grace to it. Long, carnivorous teeth spread out in a grin as it eyed them hungrily from catlike yellow eyes, and its abdominal muscles contracted repeatedly while grunting in a crude and beast-like chuckle.


    <span ss="bold">[Juvenile Harpy, Level 3]


    Another one, simr to the first but disying a prominent set of breasts to signify its gender as female, dropped down on the other side toward the statue. The tips of this one’s feathers ended in silver edging, and as it spread its wings, it took a long step toward them with those insanely long legs. Talons grasped at </a>the air hesitantly, as if it didn’t know whether or not to strike yet, and it let off a cunning smile while thinking about its next meal.


    <span ss="bold">[Juvenile Harpy, Level 4]


    Then they moved into action.


    “SHIT!” Riven swore loudly and backpedaled frantically, narrowly avoiding a swift jab from the male harpy as it struck out with its left foot. The talons came within an inch of his face like the strike of a mantis as it hissed at him.


    He hit the wall, rolled onto his side, and fumbled for better footing before blocking another strike with his staff. “GET FUCKED, YOU OVERSIZED CHICKEN!”


    A st of ckting erupted in front of him and swallowed the creature, burying its Unholy needles into the harpy as it lurched back and screeched in panic while frantically pping and tearing away from the magic. He activated the Blessing of the Crow, and his body reacted with a noticeable boost in speed as red sparks trickled along his skin—and he ducked a counterstrike before mming his staff into the outstretched thigh of the harpy for a solid hit.


    A multitude of crimson discs sted into the harpy’s chest a secondter as he conjured Bloody Razors, and the creature screamed in fury to fall back and tend its gushing wounds while a third harpy charged in. It dived in fast from above, bowling Riven over and causing him to drop the staff as he stutter-stepped. He rolled over twice and gripped at the knife he’d picked up—starting to charge up a Blood Lance along his right side and shing at the new harpy’s wing when it blew up a dust cloud to blind him.


    Coughing and removing himself from the debris, he briefly caught sight of Ath as she battled two more female harpies with silver coloring. The arachnid was fast…remarkably fast, and was dancing in between them or up the sides of the walls while spraying shards of sharpened bloody webbing akin to magically infused needles. She hissed and spun, dodging a taloned strike and wrapping the extended leg up with more webbing to yank and pull the harpy off bnce beforeunching herself at the harpy’s throat and digging into it with her fangs while the other harpy was knocked back with ribboning crimson lights as Riven’s unfinished totems fired totch onto new targets.


    Another nearby screech brought him back to his own battle when his currentbatant was joined by the harpy he’d injured earlier. Crimson razor discs still stuck out of his enemy’s chest and acidic burn marks from where the snare had caught it showed easily. It charged him with bloodlust. Talons, wings, and sharpened teeth were used in conjunction as the harpy used its slightlyrger size to try and bully him, and he was doing everything he could to dodge when its leg shot straight toward him like a snake’s strike.


    </a>*RIP*


    He cried out as the harpy’s talons dug into his back. The monster’s talons wed at him three times with quick, consecutive motions that left deep bloody cuts through his robes and along his ribs.


    “Riven!” Ath cried out, forcing herself to disengage from the two females to let them turn their attention on the totems, which were continually leeching life with little red threads as Jalel screamed, thrashed, and sobbed in his cocoon. He was being eviscerated by a fifth harpy that’d dropped from above to eat him alive. The creature was gorging itself on his innards, and hey helpless within Ath’s webbing, but the arachnid didn’t even spare him a nce as she rushed past to help her master.


    Rivennded on the ground and rolled, his enhanced speed allowing him to dodge a second strike and unleash his charged Blood Lance right into the second harpy that’d lunged his way. The right wing waspletely torn off at the shoulder in a spray of bone, feathers, and muscle—sending the new harpy backward into a spinning crash against the far wall as debris from the structure tumbled onto it after thence had made contact.


    But even while Riven conjured another four Bloody Razors, his spell missed due to the frantic casting. The infuriated, injured male he’d originally hit tore into Riven’s back again—only withdrawing with a hiss when Riven mmed his dagger desperately into the stork-like leg of the striking creature to leave a good-sized gash.


    The harpy pped its wings and raised into the air after that and prepared to dive when strings of red webbingtched themselves up onto its wings from below and yanked down hard—mming the harpy into the stone ground with a squawk. Sharp fangs sank into its side to inject necrotic venom, the spider hissing ravenously while Ath clung to its body. ck areas of rot quickly began to spread, and the harpy screeched and wed at Ath, panicking as the side of its chest began decaying until it managed to get ahold of one of Ath’s legs with its teeth.


    Chomping down hard and ripping the spider off its chest, the male harpy flung the spider into the females that wereing over from destroying Riven’s totems and feeding on Jalel.


    Riven’s scream of rage caught their attention as two more snares flew toward the harpies, one capturing the damaged male to take it down and the other snare just falling short of the females after having miscalcted the distance. “DAMN IT!”


    Ath spun in the air, locked onto the wall with another strand of webbing in a legendary disy of agility and pulled herself just out of reach of the females’ talons as they struck. Yanking herself up the webbing and onto the wall, Ath whirled. The arachnid then began firing more shards of condensed needles from </a>her webbing, burying the projectiles into their flesh while scurrying across the side of the wall as the two infuriated femalesunched themselves airborne to give chase.


    Riven scrambled for his staff, pain searing across his back with the effort while he mmed the gnarled end of the wood into the struggling harpy caught in his snare like a club. He struck again, and again, and again—sending blood sttering across the pavement as he huffed and heaved. When he finished it off and the harpy finallyy still, he looked up to see Jalel’s dead eyes staring at him with mouth agape in horror. One of the harpies even continued to feed on the guts of the corpse. Another dead male, the one that Riven had hit with his Blood Lance,y buried in rubble with one of its wings torn off and lying nearby. Ath was keeping the two female harpies upied as she danced along the walls overhead and managed to catch one in a quickly constructed web while hopping across the short distance between walls of the alley, and Riven had decided to try his luck by taking out the monster feeding on Jalel’s remnants by charging up another Blood Lance when he felt ws m into his back again. The strike also seemed to draw mana from his body, almost like a leech would blood—and he felt physically depleted in an instant.


    He screamed and was flung forward onto his face, feeling his muscles literally being torn out of his back as parts of him went numb while others lit up like they were on fire. He gasped and hit the ground, managing to turn and see a muchrger harpy standing over him that’d flown in from above. This one, though still a juvenile male by the system’s standards, was more muscr and a good two feet taller than the others with feathers dipped in orange at their ends.


    <span ss="bold">[Juvenile Harpy, Level 7]


    <span ss="bold">[You are experiencing Amplified Bleeding. This is a damage-over-time effect.]


    The monster sneered down at him, drawing up the piece of his back it’d torn out with one taloned foot and chomping down to chew and swallow it secondster. Then it let out a loud, screeching hiss. “SHHHHRRRRREEEEEEEE!”


    Riven’s head spun, his quivering hands tried to keep his grip on the staff so he could bring it around to protect himself, but he quickly realized he didn’t have the mana to cast a snare. How was that possible? The earth beside him jolted when yet another silver female harpynded beside Riven with a hiss, and his heart sank.


    The hissing female came in closer, baring its teeth as it kicked the staff out of his hand to bounce against the ground a couple yards off. Riven’s breathing wasbored, but he spat blood at the creature in an act of defiance. “Fuck you, you bastard chickens!”


    </a>He was going to die here.


    Riven closed his eyes and grunted in agony when he felt another chunk of his back get torn out byrge, hooked talons—squinting them shut to mentally deny the pain and trying to hold back the tears that wanted toe. In some ways, death would be wee…it’d stop the agony, at least. But it was still a hard pill to swallow, knowing that he’d wanted to do so much more and had spent so little time doing things he enjoyed in life.


    “Sorry, Allie…”


    His most treasured memories shed before his eyes as he realized that these were probably thest moments of his life. The time when Riven had gone with his little sister to the mall and she’d bought him caramel apples with what little money she’d earned as a waitress that day. The time they’d gone to see the animals at the zoo, and how he’d let her feed the brightly colored fish after picking up some quarters they’d found by chance. Spending long nights walking through Chester’s Grove when they were at their worst, a park in the city with a swing set he’d push her up high in.


    Then the memory of when their mother vanished finally came…how Riven had spent days looking for her and how he’d filed numerous police reports only toe up empty-handed. His mother had been Riven’s world, and suddenly that world had shattered. The final memory of visiting Chester’s Grove to swing on that rusty swing set one more time before visiting the tree at their favorite spot with Allie… Their mother had always taken care of them since their father had disappeared. How was he expected to go on after losing both his parents? But he couldn’t just give up; he had to get out of here and look after Allie. His sister needed him.


    He hadn’t believed in an afterlife, but he hoped he’d been wrong now with the system in ce and the things he’d learned after integration. He wanted there to be a heaven, because if there was…maybe death wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe he’d get to see his mom and dad again after all…because if that was true…then this would all have been worth it. He’d not been able to make the life for himself that he’d wanted, but at least he’d met Ath. It just turned out that this strange new world had unexpectedly decided to treat him unfairly…and he’d simply not been cut out for it. Not that it was any different from his old life.


    Simply put, life just wasn’t fair—and that was a pill he had finally decided to swallow.


    A warm sensation in his pocket began to grow as he epted the finality of it all, and he lifted his eyelids just enough to see therger orange harpy raise his taloned leg overhead with a malicious grin unbefitting of a nonhuman creature. It just looked…wrong, out of ce, and warped. Riven just barely had enough time and willpower to nce down at his pants, where the warmth was beginning to spread, and in that moment—the world went ck.