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[color=black]Level:[/color] 4
[color=white]Experience:[/color] 18/40
[color=black]Currently In:[/color] The Under, The Basement
[color=white]Word Count:[/color] 2,225 (+3 Exp)
[i]Collab with [color=BC8DBF]Therion[/color] [@Yankee][/i]
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As he stepped through the door, Therion found that there wasn't much time for the other Seekers to join him before the entrance was closed off, rock slabs sliding in to block the opening. The room inside looked much the same as the previous few, only this time there were "locals" present as well, for lack of a better word. It was hard to say if they were monsters per se - there were a handful of grub-like creatures crawling along the floor, and two humanoids only a little shorter than Therion himself. They were completely hairless, nude as well as bald, with the flab of their stomachs hanging down well over their waist line. The two fatties turned towards the intruders, and though they lacked many facial features their expressions were obviously angry. With withered scowls the began stalking towards the Seekers.

Omori stepped out from behind Therion and opened fire on the larger enemies with the Boltok Pistol. [b][color=dcdcdc]"These must be where that smell is coming from."[/color][/b] He commented, using Mock on one of the Fatties. The red hands swarmed the bloody-teared humanoid before stabbing into it.

Though the bullets ripped into their soft flesh the attack stopped them for but a moment. They were back on the move soon after, steps slow and plodding. The red hands sticking into one of them caused a burst of flatulence from the fatty,  curling Therion's lip. 

[color=BC8DBF]"I'd say you're right."[/color] 

[b][color=dcdcdc]"Revolting."[/color][/b]

The stinging dagger appeared in Therion's grasp, and he flipped it over a few times before gripping it tight and diving in to melee combat. He followed up on the fatty that Omori had mocked, his blade carving through it. It's swings were slow and clumsy, unable to catch the cat burglar as he darted in and out of it's range. The second fatty grunted and tried going around for a piece of the action, but finding it's partner getting in the way of it's attempts the fatty instead turned it's attention to the child that had shot at them, lumbering closer with it's arms outstretched. 

 A grave mistake, honestly.

The monochrome boy was attempting to crush one of the maggot-like-things under his boot when he looked back up to see the other Fatty changing course towards him. He decided to meet it halfway, rushing up to stab it in the head, then fire a bullet through it's mouth.

Brutal and effective, the combo took the fatty down hard. It fell over onto it's back, twitching, with a new hole in the back of it's head. Suffice to say it didn't last much longer after that.

By the time its body melted into ash, its twin was succumbing to Therion's assault. Its movements were even more sluggish as poison coursed through its body and blood ran from its wounds. It was more disgust than anything else that kept Therion from getting close to it for more than the few seconds it took to slash at it in order to really finish it off, resulting in a slow death for the fatty. It collapsed, heaving, and released another burst of gas that drove the grub-like embryos in the room hop away from it. Then it, too, began to disintegrate.

Therion glanced over at Omori. He'd gotten a decent view of the other side of the small room, finding himself surprised at the kid's ferocity. A raised eyebrow showed the thief's surprise, even if it was hard to tell with the other side of his face covered. Around the, the embryos wiggled and jumped, but didn't make a move toward either of them.

Flicking off the blood and dust off his knife, the kid's attention turned from the disintegrated Fatties, to the surprised Therion, then to the Embryos. [b][color=dcdcdc]"Might as well clear the rest of these."[/color][/b] The doors hadn't opened back up yet, so this had to be necessary. Without another word he took to clearing out the larvae, stomping on and cutting them when they jumped.

Therion shook his head, not at Omori's suggestion but to clear his own expression from his face. Like any sensible person he'd been skeptical about taking a kid like this into danger, but after seeing him fight up close it was clear enough the Omori could handle himself at least. The thief joined the grub-stomping, and with the rather docile embryos dealt with and the entire room clear of enemies, a small cartoonish pair of hearts appeared in the center and the chamber doors finally opened. Perhaps not learning his lesson, Therion picked up the hearts. Thankfully he only felt the familiar relief of healing, soothing his self-inflicted burn. Of the doors their were only two: the one they'd come from and one ahead, so it wasn't like they had much choice on which way to go. A soft skittering noise filtered out from the room in front of them, and when they moved on it was immediately clear why.

Spiders littered the area, as big as golfballs. Their beady red eyes reflected the room's dim light as they ran every which way, over small piles of rocks and up the walls. They were small and fast, and there were a [i]lot[/i] of them, but if this was all they had to contend with in this room then Therion thought it would be piece of cake.

Omori however...

Once he saw the abundance [s]too many[/s] of arachnids, he nearly froze up. Luckily he was just visibly tense, an anxious, not yet fearful expression adorned on his face. He reloaded his gun with shaking hands and the intention to just [i]clear this stupid room as fast as possible[/i]. He began firing at the spiders, regardless of how he felt at the moment.

They were difficult targets to hit, given their speed and size. When the first spider was mulched by a shot, the rest of them turned their red gaze at the two people by the closed door. At once they zig-zagged over to the pair, much faster than the fatties or embryos.

[color=BC8DBF]"Hope you've got good aim,"[/color] he advised Omori, oblivious for now to the boy's plight. He stepped forward, swapping the dagger for his short sword. The longer reach of this blade cleaved through a pair of arachnids that jumped at him. They began to swarm.

Okay, NOW was the time to panic.

 The boy was doing his best to remain composed so his shots would line up more accurately, but the closer the swarm got too close to them, the faster he ran out of ammo. Omori wouldn't have time to reload as spiders began to leap at him, spurring him to run the other direction. At least it'd get some of the heat off Therion.
 
The horde of spiders split evenly, part peeling off to chase after Omori. Those that stayed around Therion found a formidable opponent, the swish of his sword easily cutting swathes through their numbers. The spiders that kept low to the ground in order to fit at his legs fared better than their jumping companions, who were cut down before they could make contact. There may have been a lot of them, but individually they were weak enough to be crushed under a boot - and the eradication of them continued on.

With the spider crowd around him more or less dealt with, Therion glanced over to see the progress of thinning out the rest of them.

Omori was busy hacking away wildly at his share of the swarm. A couple of the spiders managed to cling themselves onto him, dealing contact damage. He hissed in pain. [b][color=dcdcdc]"[i]Getoffgetoffgetoff!!![/i]"[/color][/b] He haphazardly stabbed at the spiders, practically turning them into a shish-kabob on the blade of his knife. 

On the other side, a sharp bite to his side brought Therion's attention back to himself. They spider horde that was nearly depleted had, somehow, grown again to include dozens more of the pests. It was almost like all of the work amounted to nothing if they just kept crawling out of the woodwork. 

[color=BC8DBF]"Is there no end to them?"[/color] he groaned, brushing the spider off of him and pinning the sword into it's squirming body until it turned to ash. If this was how it was going to be, then he didn't want to waste anymore energy on swinging his weapon around. He prepared to cast Wildfire, intending to use it to fend the spiders off and, hoping they reacted like regular spiders to fire, herd them in one easily slash-able pile of bugs. It went as expected, and he splashed the fire around to force the fearful creatures away from himself. As he hastily tried to herd them into a corner, mostly failing, something caught his eye.

There was one spider that looked a little different, larger than the rest by about three times. It was hanging out by the small pile of rocks in the room, ducking away whenever Omori got close to it. It appeared scared, but more importantly - it was spitting out the smaller spiders. So that was why they didn't seem to be making a dent in their numbers.

[color=BC8DBF]"Hey!"[/color] Therion called to get Omori's attention, jerking his chin toward the baby long legs. [color=BC8DBF]"Get that thing!"[/color]

The boy's head snapped to the culprit behind the eight-legged abominations. Was that thing afraid of them? If chasing it on foot only prolongs their time here, might was well kill it from afar! Finding an opening to reload, Omori juggled between fending off the spiders and shooting the Baby Long Legs.

Omori found the larger spider to be a much easier target compared to it's brethren. Hunched in it's hiding place as it was, it didn't have much room to get out of the way of the bullets. The first crashed through some of it's legs, sending it tumbling to the ground. It tried to skitter away on it's remaining legs, half-dragging it's body away from the monochrome kid. A few more shots and it crumbled, stopping the spider production. 

A flare of orange fire from the other end of the room signaled Therion carrying out his plan and wiping out the spiders around him, after which point he joined in taking care of the group that was still after Omori. He used his sword to kill them one by one, shaking the wrist of the hand he'd cast his fire from to rid himself of the lasting heat. 

Not willing to waste any more ammo, Omori took out the remaining spiders with his knife. When the room was finally cleared the boy could finally breath easy, letting his posture slouch as he took some deep breaths. His irises were still whitened. Was that some indication of intense emotion?

[color=BC8DBF]"...are you okay?"[/color] Therion asked, having picked up the single coin that appeared in the center of the room before turning back to Omori. The spiders hadn't been [i]that[/i] dangerous, yet the kid looked pale as a... well, wait, that was how he always looked. But he did seem tense, scared even - which had the thief on edge.

 [b][color=dcdcdc]"'Mfine."[/color][/b] Omori blinked, his eyes were back to their normal color. [b][color=dcdcdc]"I...really hate spiders...."[/color][/b] Was his explanation. He glanced down to the ash covered knife. It was starting to get worn out.
 
Ah, Therion had heard of that before though he didn't recall the word. He had the inkling that it was a little more than 'hate.' Irrational fear of spiders, though in some cases said fear would probably be pretty rational. He watched Omori calm himself down, remembering that he'd felt the same way earlier when they'd fallen into the Chasm - that gut-churning, bone-chilling feeling.

[color=BC8DBF]"We managed to get rid of them all,"[/color] he said, an awkward attempt at comforting the boy. Indeed, the only thing left of the spiders were ashes and their tiny floating spirits. All that was left to do was put the experience behind them. [color=BC8DBF]"And we can see if there are any more in the next room before we go in."[/color] 

They looked through the newly opened door and found not spiders, but something far more disgusting. [color=BC8DBF]"Nope, not going in."[/color] 

Omori couldn't help siding with him on this one. His face contorted into faint disgust. [b][color=dcdcdc]"Of all things."[/color][/b] He looked around the room to see if there were any other ways to move forward-

Then flinched at the sudden reappearance of the Knight. They seemed to have picked up the coin, if the faint glimmer of gold in their hand meant anything. Unfortunately due to the rooms being locked off mid-battle, the small bug wasn't exactly able to help much when it comes to fighting. They glanced down at the coin, then handed it to Omori. He might make more use of it than they could.

 [b][color=dcdcdc]"Thanks?"[/color][/b] The boy said. The bug nodded, then looked into the next room to see....sentient dung. It didn't look like either Omori or Therion were willing to go in, so that just left the Knight to clear it out. Nothing they couldn't handle, right? The pale bug dashed into the next room, primed to strike.
 
Therion raised his hands, happy to let someone else tackle the foes in there. The door slid shut without him inside, and locked on the other side all they could do was wait and regroup with the other Seekers.