Kapitel 12: Spider Queen

They continued their Journey to SA/NT Border, where Alfredo said they'll stop there to have a quick break, eat something, and go to the bathroom. They didn't want to waste their time doing anything else.

Driving to the SA/NT border went smoothly, the journey was only interrupted by four fights between beasts along the way. It took about 4 hours; the road and surrounding area had been littered with beast corpses making it difficult to traverse quickly. There were a few unique beasts that Lachlan had never seen before, unfortunately, his eyes can't scan dead beasts.

Along the way, they even managed to hear a few stories from Alfredo, about what he was before the evolution. Turns out he was a mechanic, a rather good one at that. He had started his own business and everything, so his life was quite relaxed.

He's also experienced much in life. He told the kids to do everything they can while they're young since they might not get the chance to get it when they're old. Alfredo's learnt a bunch of skills, surfing, skiing, paragliding, parachuting, and a few more. He said that you never know when those skills will come in handy.

During their travels they've even gone past a large number of ant corpses, fortunately, the ants didn't grow too strong, but just through the sheer number of them, it's not an underestimate to say they could take down an elephant with maybe 5 of them. Of course, elephants have probably grown to be bother enormous and strong.

When they got closer to the SA/NA border they began noticing something, a common beast was constantly appearing, dead. The beasts' corpses laid on the road with bits and pieces scattered across the shrubbery, painting the dead grass red.

It was a spider, the body was black, its body was 1 metre long and roughly half a metre wide, while its legs were also 1 metre long. It wasn't the strongest beast they've seen, nor was it the weakest. However, what they found strange was the number of them in this area.

It was almost as if they've just come across a hive of them. Similar to bees or ants, there were just piles of them.

Not to mention the fact that they all looked the same, aside from a couple here and there that looked much stronger, all their features were similar. If they were to think of it as a hive, the stronger ones were the 'generals' that led the weaker ones. Meaning there could be a queen.

Their corpses were everywhere, hundreds of them are visible, there could be thousands in the shrubbery. There were a few other beast corpses in the mix, most likely what the spiders were fighting.

A more specific beast seen was the ant, which meant it was a war between an ant nest and a spider hive. Something they didn't think was possible.

Stopping at the SA/NT border they realised something was very wrong. There were human corpses scattered across the ground, not many but they were there, they were dead amongst other beasts. That was until they noticed the tattoos on the human corpses that they determined most of the beasts other than spiders were tamed.

Parking the car and getting out, Alfredo and Jack had already summoned their beast. The stench of all the corpses assaulted their nose, however, after everything they've been through their bodies was beginning to adapt to such smells and horrendous sights. However, they still had to use their willpower to not throw up everywhere.

Their gazes monitored the area, Adam and Chloe were on the left side of the car staring through the window, trying to notice if there is anything abnormal. While Alfredo and Jack were outside on the right.

Walking to the sheltered area they noticed another spider, larger than the rest, much larger, possibly double the size. It looked similar to the other spiders in the area, probably their leader. It seemed the spider was dead, not surprising after seeing how badly wounded it was.

All its legs had been smashed, there were bats and broken beer bottles stabbed into its eyes. It seemed that it had its fangs ripped out. Looking around they determined its opponents were people, rather desperate people that were looking to kill it.

Walking up to investigate it they noticed some other details. There were human and beast corpses near it. Most likely, these people were the ones that might have come for revenge or just came here to get rid of the dangerous creature.

However, looking behind the creature, they noticed a bunch of eggs. Almost all of them had been smashed, except one.

There was a human next to the eggs with a baseball bat. The large spider most likely fought him last, as its leg was still inside the guy, right through the chest. His bat was facing not towards the large spider, but the last egg.

Looking at the last egg everyone noticed there was something different about it. Not only was it slightly larger than the rest, but it also had some grey patterns on it.

Alfredo wanted to destroy it, he could already determine that whatever spawns from that egg will be similar to the large spider in front of them.

However, before he could do it, Lachlan's brother, Adam was standing in front of it, protecting it. A fire of determination could be seen in his eyes as he stared straight towards Alfredo.

"What are you doing boy! It's dangerous if another beast spawns out that egg," Alfredo said in a harsh voice, he couldn't comprehend what the boy was thinking, it was almost like he was being controlled.

"I won't let you destroy it!" Adam shouted back, he was stubbornly not moving out of the way.

Alfredo frowned and was about to try and convince him to step aside, but Adam interfered and explained why he won't move, "I won't step aside. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel a connection with this egg".

Alfredo gave up and ran towards the egg, he assumed that the worst might of happened and Adam was indeed being controlled.

Seeing what Alfredo was doing Adam pounced towards it and grabbed it in his arms, his expression quickly changed to a rather painful one.

"Ah!" Adam quickly shouted before dropping the egg, surprisingly it didn't break. Examining Jack everyone noticed his arms were bleeding. Looking towards the egg they realised it was covered in small and fine hair, razor sharp, probably to protect it.

Adam's blood was quickly being sucked up by the egg, almost like it had found a delicious treat. Very quickly all the blood had been absorbed, that's when the egg began to wiggle. That wiggle got more and more violent.

*Crack*

Looking towards the egg everyone quickly realised it was hatching, Alfredo ran towards it to smash it but once again Adam stepped in, protecting the egg.

Alfredo was about to push Adam out the way before Chloe and Jack both grabbed his arms, telling him to trust Adam. Although they weren't sure what Adam was talking about, they could trust him, at least this one time.

*Crack*

The egg had finally finished hatching. What came out was a small spider, well small compared to the spiders they came across. It looked exactly like the dead spider, just a miniature version of it. Its body was 30cm wide and 70cm long, its legs were all 60cm in length.

The small spider that didn't know what was happening quickly hid behind Adam's legs, granted it was still very visible, it didn't seem to know that. The spider stared towards Alfredo who looked like would kill it.

The spider was still able to sense danger, its natural instincts didn't change and it could say for certain that Alfredo could easily kill it.

Lachlan quickly analysed it.

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Name: Desert Spider Queen

Age: Infant

Attribute: Darkness

Grade: Normal

Innate Talent: 3rd Grade

Level: 1

STR: 10, AGI: 10, VIT: 30

INT: 10, PER: 5, WIL: 5

Weakness: Fragile Body, Low Resistance to Fire

Strengths: Strong Poison

Quick Growth: Bathe it in the blood of an adult or elder Spider Queen, doing so will allow it to reach the Adolescence growth stage instantly.

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Lachlan was shocked again, by the small difference with this spider status, it had some insane stats for a baby spider, stronger than or probably had the same strength as most adult humans. Not to mention it could grow quickly, something Lachlan hadn't seen before, but to be fair, he also hadn't seen an infant beast before.

Lachlan didn't know how he would be able to convince them to bathe it in the blood of the adult Spider Queen, so he just did it himself. No one had noticed that Lachlan was planning something, their eyes were still locked onto the spider behind Adam.

Lachlan placed Sarah on the ground slowly and gently right behind Chloe, he made sure no one noticed him. He knew that the spider's carapace was strong so he needed a weapon, that was where the bat was going to come in handy. He bent his legs and launched himself passed Alfredo.

Running up to the Spider Queen corpse Lachlan had grabbed the baseball bat and ripped it out of the man's hands. Spinning around, he quickly smashed the head of the spider. Due to a large amount of damage previously done its body was very much weakened with many dents in the carapace.

The head popped off easily and flew past Adam. The spider corpse faced Adam and started to spray blood everywhere. As the blood was targeted towards Adam, he ended up getting drenched by blood and smelt horrible.

Everyone death stared Lachlan for getting their clothes dirty. But before they could scold him they started hearing a strange noise.

*Crack*Crack*

Everyone looked towards the small spider, it seemed its body was going white and dry. Before they realised it, that white and dry skin began to tear, and bit by bit a larger and stronger looking spider came out of the dead skin.

This time the spider was 1.2 metres long and 1 metre wide, all eight legs were also 1 metre wide.

Chloe quickly realised something else and almost had a panic attack until she looked behind her and saw Sarah there. She had thought Lachlan decided to ditch Sarah somewhere, fortunately, that wasn't the case.

Lachlan quickly analysed it to confirm whether it worked or not, but just judging by the looks of it, it worked.

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Name: Desert Spider Queen

Age: Adolescence

Attribute: Darkness

Grade: Normal

Innate Talent: 3rd Grade;

Level: 1

STR: 20, AGI: 25, VIT: 30

INT: 15, PER: 10, WIL: 5

Weakness: Fragile Legs, Low Resistance to Fire

Strengths: Strong Poison, Has the ability to birth loyal spider soldiers

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Reassured that it worked Lachlan look towards his family, they were staring at him. Lachlan already knew what was to come from this, and he decided it would be best for some people to know. Keeping this secret to himself was getting difficult. Not to mention it could come in handy when convincing them in what actions he takes.