# Arachnid Onslaught

The heavy, rhythmic *thumping* grew louder, echoing down the pitch-black exterior tunnel and reverberating off the newly excavated walls of my Gauntlet. It didn't sound like the frantic, disorganized scuttle of the centipede swarm; it was synchronized, deliberate, and undeniably menacing.

Through my 360-degree awareness, I extended my "radar" to the absolute limit of my domain, which now encompassed the two murder-hole rooms and the central tunnel leading up to them.

The first shape breached the perimeter of my awareness.

It wasn't on the floor.

The creature was clinging effortlessly to the ceiling of the main tunnel, moving with a horrifying, disjointed grace. It was the size of a large wolf, its bulbous abdomen glistening with a sickly, iridescent sheen. Eight long, multi-jointed legs tipped with razor-sharp chitin slowly navigated the rough basalt, entirely ignoring gravity.

**[System Tag: Abyssal Cave Spider - Lvl 3]**

A spider. Of course. The Depths wouldn't be complete without giant arachnids.

But this wasn't a lone scout. As it moved forward, three more spiders crawled into view, fanning out—two on the walls, one on the floor. They moved in eerie silence, save for the heavy *thump* of their massive bodies shifting weight and the dry scraping of their hooked feet finding purchase on the rock.

They were bypassing the foundational logic of my defense. My caltrops, my acid vent, and my pitfalls were all designed for enemies constrained by gravity, enemies forced to walk on the floor. These creatures could simply crawl over the ceiling, completely ignoring the traps, and drop directly onto Kael's head. Or worse, crawl past Kael entirely and drop directly onto my core.

Panic, a cold and thoroughly human sensation, threatened to override my systemic calm. I violently suppressed it. *Adapt,* I ordered myself. *A fortress that cannot adapt is just a tomb.*

The lead spider on the ceiling reached the beginning of the Gauntlet, moving directly between the two murder holes where my javelin skeletons lay in wait.

"Fire," I pulsed the command down the tethers.

From the narrow vertical slits in the adjacent rooms, two bone javelins shot out with startling velocity. The skeleton on the right aimed perfectly, driving its spear directly into the spider's bulging abdomen. A horrific screech—a sound like tearing metal—erupted from the creature as a spray of thick, viscous white fluid burst from the wound.

The spider lost its grip on the ceiling and plummeted, slamming heavily onto the stone floor of the tunnel.

It wasn't dead. It thrashed violently, its eight legs kicking, trying to right itself. But hitting the floor was its fatal mistake. Now, it was in the kill zone.

"Again," I ordered.

Two more javelins zipped from the murder holes, pinning the struggling spider to the ground. It shrieked once more, violently spasmed, and then began to dissolve into gray motes of light.

**[Entity Slain: Abyssal Cave Spider (Lvl 3)]** **[Life Essence Absorbed: +25 DP]**

The first blood was mine, but the spiders were intelligent enough to instantly recognize the threat. The three remaining spiders halted their advance. They didn't retreat, nor did they charge mindlessly. Instead, they pressed themselves flat against the tunnel walls, outside the optimal firing angle of the murder holes.

Then, they began to weave.

Thick, ropey strands of white webbing shot from their spinnerets, attaching to the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. They moved with terrifying speed, crisscrossing the strands. Within seconds, the entrance to the Gauntlet was choked with a massive, chaotic barrier of incredibly thick webbing.

They weren't trying to break through; they were trying to blind me and block my projectiles.

One of the javelin skeletons threw its weapon at a spider partially visible through the web. The bone javelin hit the thick silk and stopped dead, hanging uselessly in the sticky fibers. The webbing was acting as armor.

Behind the barrier, I heard more thumping. The main force was arriving. Dozens of them.

*If they bunker down and fill the tunnel with webbing, they’ll effectively neutralize my Gauntlet and slowly crawl their way to the core,* I analyzed rapidly. I needed to clear the webbing, and I needed to do it before they established a permanent beachhead.

I checked my mana gauge: **[Mana: 25/25]**

I had a full tank. I needed area-of-effect destruction, but my acid vent was located entirely too far back, near Kael. I needed a telekinetic solution.

I focused my will on the ceiling of the tunnel, directly above the massive web barrier the spiders were building. The stone there was relatively smooth, lacking the jagged stalactites I had used to kill the centipede. I couldn't drop a spear.

But I could drop the ceiling itself.

I targeted an area roughly ten feet wide, visualizing a massive, heavy slab of basalt detaching from the bedrock. I poured my mana into the command, feeling the agonizing, draining pull on my core.

*Crush them.*

**[Mana: 5/25]**

The expenditure was massive, but the result was apocalyptic. A deafening *CRACK* echoed through the dungeon as tons of solid rock sheared cleanly away from the tunnel ceiling.

The spiders underneath didn't even have time to shriek. The massive stone slab slammed downward with the force of a meteorite, instantly flattening the three spiders and utterly obliterating the intricate web barrier they had constructed. The shockwave vibrated through my core, sending a cloud of pulverized rock dust billowing down the Gauntlet.

**[Entity Slain: Abyssal Cave Spider (Lvl 3)] x 3** **[Life Essence Absorbed: +75 DP]** **[Biomass Absorbed. New Blueprint Unlocked: Sticky Webbing]**

The dust began to settle, revealing a huge pile of rubble blocking the center of the tunnel. It wasn't an airtight seal, but it was a massive obstacle.

And from the darkness behind the rubble, the true nightmare emerged.

The swarm wasn't deterred by the loss of their vanguard. If anything, the scent of crushed kin seemed to drive them into a frenzy. Spiders began pouring over and around the fallen stone slab like a hairy, multi-legged tidal wave. There were dozens of them—level 2s, level 3s, and a few massive level 4s that looked like armored tanks.

They flooded into the Gauntlet.

"Fire at will! Target the largest masses!" I commanded the javelin throwers.

The two skeletons in the flank rooms turned into a blur of motion. As soon as the magical quivers synthesized a new javelin, they hurled it into the mass of arachnids. The tight confines of the tunnel made missing practically impossible. Javelins tore through chitin and abdomens, pinning spiders to the walls and floors. The air was filled with a horrific cacophony of shrieks, the wet tearing of flesh, and the rapid-fire notifications of the System.

**[Entity Slain...]** **[Entity Slain...]** **[Entity Slain...]**

My DP counter was spinning like a slot machine, flashing wildly as the life essence flooded into my core. But the sheer volume of the swarm was overwhelming the localized firepower of the Gauntlet. The spiders were climbing over the dissolving corpses of their kin, pressing forward.

They reached the end of the Gauntlet and spilled into the V-funnel chokepoint.

Here, they encountered my primary defense. The caltrops tore into the underbellies of the floor-walkers, slowing them significantly, but the spiders clinging to the walls and ceiling bypassed the spikes entirely.

They converged on Kael.

The skeletal general didn't flinch. As the first spider—a massive level 4 beast—lunged from the wall, mandibles dripping with venom, Kael swung the Bone Greatsword.

The impact was devastating. The heavy bone blade didn't slice; it crushed. It slammed into the spider's head with the force of a battering ram, caving in the chitin skull and sending the creature careening violently into the opposite wall.

But two more spiders dropped from the ceiling immediately behind it, landing directly on Kael's armored shoulders. They frantically bit and tore at the iron-chitin plating, trying to find a weak point to inject their venom. Skeletons were immune to poison, but the sheer physical force of the mandibles was beginning to crack the armor.

I panicked. If Kael went down, the swarm would instantly flood the core room.

I couldn't use the acid vent—the acid sprayed indiscriminately, and while Kael's armor was tough, a prolonged bath in corrosive fluid would melt him just as surely as it melted the spiders.

I needed to slow the swarm down, peel them off my general, and give him room to swing that massive sword.

I opened the **[TRAPS]** menu and located the new blueprint I had just unlocked.

**[Sticky Webbing: 15 DP per 5 sq ft. Deploys a concentrated burst of highly adhesive spider silk. Slows movement speed by 80%. Highly flammable.]**

I targeted the walls and ceiling immediately in front of Kael, right where the funnel was tightest.

**[30 DP Deducted. Deploying Webbing...]**

The system didn't require a physical spawner for this. Twin bursts of thick, white silk erupted from the stonework itself, instantly plastering the narrow walls and the ceiling overhead.

The spiders charging from behind hit the webbing at full speed. They were accustomed to their own silk, but this was a densely concentrated trap. Several level 2 and 3 spiders slammed into the walls and became inextricably glued to the stone, their legs thrashing wildly as they tried to free themselves. The ceiling-crawlers suffered the worst fate; hitting the sticky patch caused them to lose their momentum and drop directly onto the caltrops below.

The unrelenting pressure on Kael suddenly vanished as the swarm piled up behind the webbing barrier, struggling to navigate the sticky trap.

Kael reached up with his free hand, violently ripped the two spiders off his shoulders, and hurled them onto the caltrops. He raised the Bone Greatsword high above his head and brought it down like an executioner's axe, cleaving one of the trapped beasts entirely in half.

The line had held. The trap had worked.

But I could see the webbing starting to tear under the combined strength of the struggling spiders. It was a temporary reprieve, not a permanent solution. The swarm was still massive, the Gauntlet was overflowing, and my mana was down to a dangerously low 5 points.

I looked at my DP counter. Thanks to the slaughter in the Gauntlet, I had amassed over 400 Dungeon Points. I had capital. I needed heavy artillery, and I needed it now.

I opened the **[SPAWNERS]** tab and scrolled down, looking for the Tier 2 options I had unlocked during the last wave.

There, sitting at a staggering 200 DP, was exactly what I needed to break the siege.

**[Stone Golem Spawner]**

The Abyssal Spiders wanted a war of attrition. I was about to introduce them to the brutal reality of superior siege engines.