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Energy Eater - Chapter 157 - Spider Chimera
🕑 Added 2025-08-13 22:20:31 +0000 UTCOnce we got ready to fight, the witch seemed to get even angrier with our mere existence. She snarled and let out a shriek that caused all the people that she was controlling to step forward. Now they were no longer just shuffling but instead rushing in our direction, clearly with the intention to hunt us down. Their bodies mutated, or maybe they were already mutated. They changed into strange amalgamations of flesh and chitin.
But despite the terrifying visual, those creatures were not all that strong.
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Human Spider Chimera - Tier Zero
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Rodenti Spider Chimera - Tier Zero - Saturated
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That was the same level as the one creature who attacked me. But honestly, I couldn't imagine something like these beings at tier zero. They were too powerful. That one attack didn't feel like something that someone who just got the System would be able to use. There was a good chance that he couldn't really use the System and instead it was just taking advantage of the particles. Because of that, maybe instead of getting skills or things like that, the creatures only gained physical prowess.
I glanced back at the chimera that attacked me only to realize that the spider legs that slammed against the side of my body were now bent in strange ways. With thick dark red blood was dripping out of the joints. Maybe the power behind the attack of that creature wasn't just because of its own power, but also because of something else.
I tried to focus a bit more on all the creatures, and I could tell that there was something else going on. Behind them, there was a sensation of particles moving around, clumping together and coalescing in a specific area. This area was more or less in the witch's direction.
'Sys, what are the odds that the witch is empowering those creatures?'
[System is unable to confirm the witch known as Nithera, The Witch of the Night Trance, is using any skills that would enhance the power of these creatures. However, System can confirm that such a skill is within the realm of possibility. Even if, in order to perform on such a level, it would be highly conditional.]
"All of you, die!" the witch screamed as the monsters lunged at the people in the village.
The one that attacked me, the woman that devoured Jacob, the creature charged at me once more. I quickly ducked under the incoming tackle, being sure not to be hurt by any of the spider legs, and at the same time used {Elemental Imbuement} to cover my staff with fire. Since that felt like the most dangerous element for the spiders and the witch.
Instead of the regular effect where the edges of my weapon would ignite without hurting me, this time the fire was different. The metal pieces on the edges of the staff were now glowing orange with the heat. But I didn't have enough time to properly understand what was going on. Instead, I thrust my weapon, slamming the chimera's spider head on the back as the creature had failed to land on me.
The moment the metal parts of my staff connected, sparks flew out, and the fire tried to cover the head of the beast. It was almost as if I wasn't simply hitting it with a hot piece of metal, but as if the metal was melting and trying to splash at my target. Yet I couldn't feel any difference in the weight of the staff, meaning that it wasn't actually losing anything. Only the flames and the particles attached to them.
The attack, which didn't have any special skills attached to it aside from the {Elemental Imbuement}, made the chimera fly in the air and land on the ground head first. It very quickly tried to get back up, this time using the spider legs to move, ignoring the human body completely. The motion it made was also strangely unnatural. Not that it was natural before, but it didn't seem like the creature understood how to use its own body.
The last thing I noticed about it was the fact that the monster now had its eyes open. Both the spider eyes and the human eyes. But they were all glazed over, and I wasn't even sure if this creature could see or not.
I only had a brief moment to analyze the monster. I was already swinging with {Formless Swipe - Emperor}. My attack completely obliterated the two heads of the creature, both the human and the spider one. But I felt like this was much easier than I was expecting. As if there were something missing from this creature.
Before I could understand what, another one came rushing towards me. A Rodenti that started running on two legs, then went to four, then another eight legs sprouted from its back as the creature awkwardly ran in the air, being carried by the spider legs. Just before reaching me, the Rodenti opened its mouth and the head of a spider burst forward, its pincers already trying to catch me.
I tried to use another {Formless Swipe - Emperor} to get it out of my way, but the creature, even after letting my staff hit it, didn't change course. This forced me to duck under it in hopes of not being hurt by its charge.
Due to the speed at which this chimera was moving, it wasn't able to stop to grab me, but it did hit my staff with its pincers. That only happened to the metal parts that were still burning, causing the creature's pincers to ignite in flames. Following that, I saw something hit its head just before it exploded in a shower of stone shards. Recognizing that as one of Michael's arrows, I turned to the next monster.
Which was already on top of me. This was another human turned spider. The legs coming out of its arms and the torso having a hole in the middle from which a spider head stared at me. Once more I saw the creature dashing in my direction, and I tried to duck under it, but this time the spider wasn't as fast. It used its legs to form a cage around me and started to kick me with the human legs while the spider head tried to bite me.
The Pelt of Frost saved me yet again as the pincers tried to bite into the thick of my cowl. But from the bottom of the legs, two fangs appeared, almost as if they were the feet of the person who was part of this grotesque figure. They slammed down, one of them missing but the other catching my thigh.
I yelled in pain and quickly triggered {Body Regeneration}. Michael called my name, but his voice was drowned out by everything else. Even if it wasn't, I couldn't pay attention to that. All my focus was on trying to get the creature away from me, using the heated part of my staff to melt the eyes of the spider head in front of me. I felt the creature give a little bit, but only for a moment. It shoved itself forward, and I felt the fang almost reaching the bone of my leg.
However, that didn't last long as the eyes suddenly shot up. At the same time, the pressure I was feeling from above lessened significantly. When the creature lost most of its strength, I was able to easily push it away using my staff.
At the same time, spikes of dirt emerged from the ground and slammed into the monster, causing it to fall backwards away from me. {Body Regeneration} was already doing its magic, closing up the wound on my thigh. Now it was much more effective than ever since I reached tier two. After all, this was supposed to be a Tier 3 skill.
I rushed away from this group of creatures that seemed to be focused on attacking me. Quickly managing to get far enough away so that I wasn't going to get swarmed by them. On my run, I noticed something. I wasn't the only one using fire to deal with those creatures. A few of the people of the village and the Rodenti took some of the torches and used them as weapons to push the creatures away.
Instead of just getting some better weapons in the process, waving the torches open to the creatures was doing something else. The creatures would stop, then start shaking their heads, and their eyes would close as if they were being woken up by the light. When they did so, their movement changed a lot. It became sluggish and awkward.
That's when it hit me. Nithera, the Witch of the Night Trance. Just as Wistra was the Witch of the Silken Fortress, the name was more than just a name. It also told us what the witch was doing. It told us why and how she was able to use her powers.
Snapping my head around once I arrived back with the group of people, I looked for the one person who might understand what I was thinking with just a few words. Riley was using a few silk strands to capture one of the human spider chimeras and toss them to the side while maintaining them trapped in the strings. However, they weren't being as successful since the chimeras were able to break free from almost any binding that the Novice Silken Witch Apprentice was able to create.
"Riley!" I called. They quickly trapped another chimera before looking back at me before I said, "The Witch of the Night Trance. Night Trance!" I repeated.
They gave me a confused look for a moment before their eyes went wide. "Night trance? Hang on."
They spread out some silk around them, and after a moment, the silk started to glow in a strange bioluminescent light. Riley grabbed one of the strands of silk and rushed towards the middle of the swarm of monsters that was approaching us. They ducked under a couple of the Rodenti spiders and jumped on top of one of the human ones.
When they were smack in the middle of that group of monsters, Riley activated {Thousand-Loom Dominion}, letting the strands of silk wrap around everything around them, capturing pretty much all the monsters. Just three of them were free, three who were already closer to the houses of the village.
Following that, the Novice Silken Witch grabbed the silk that had just been created with the hand that had the glowing silk wrapped around it. All of a sudden, the entire clump of webs, including the ones created by {Thousand-Loom Dominion}, started to glow. That glow was strong enough to wake up the chimeras that were sleeping.
The moment that happened, the chimeras lost most of their power. Because of course they did. After all, we were dealing with the Nithera, the Witch of the Night Trance. In other words, we were dealing with a witch that gained more power once people were asleep. My best bet was that, thanks to some sort of spell or skill, the witch was controlling the sleeping chimeras in order to make them even more powerful.
That was why the particles were moving towards the witch. That was why those monsters were so powerful despite being at tier zero, because their power wasn't their own. Instead, the witch was giving them power. But, like the System said, this was something very situational. There were specific requirements necessary for something like that to happen. Likely, the monsters not being awake. Maybe even being inside a spell circle that she spent who knows how long making.
With the weak chimeras, even the humans without a System were able to kill them quickly. There were a few people who had perished in the combat, but now we still had the numbers, and all that was left was the witch.
She stared at us, biting her teeth so hard that blood started to bleed. A strange purplish green liquid oozed out from the corners of her mouth.
"I'll make sure you're all dead when I open my eyes again."
That felt like a very strange way to say she was going to kill us, but it wasn't as strange as what happened next. The Silken Witch stopped flying. She closed her eyes and just dropped from her position. We all watched as that winged person plummeted towards the ground, but just in the nick of time before she crashed on the floor, she shifted, pointing upwards towards the village.
In a flash, the Lumerin passed through me, Riley, and even Astrid, arriving at one of the houses behind us. While my companions were still processing what happened, the witch moved so fast that a couple people that were in her way were bisected by her wings. We may have been able to deal with the chimeras, but now all of their power was channeled into one single entity, Nithera, the Witch of the Night Trance. And that made things much more complicated.
#### Author's Note ####
Some times, you don't have to kill the adds.
In games, shows, or even in books, what was the worst mid fight curve ball you ever saw?
Also, sorry everyone. I said on discord this chapter was coming yesterday but I ended up doing a 14 hour shift on a side gig and couldn't finish it properly. I hope to make another chapter before the end of the day.
Comments
Lillith Ophidia
Final boss of the first shadow hearts game, its a horror rpg where if you go out of your way to do a bunch of things you unlock something that is basically a personification of hope. It gives you absolutely busted buffs when you use it. You get to make your way through a bunch of difficult fights, made easy by this thing and its stupid op buffs only to reach the final boss, the only enemy capable of casting dispel, who uses it as basically a reflexive action when you use buffs at all. You are fighting semi-literal god and he can turn off hope as a free action
Perizou
Answering my own question. Sekiro's Guardian Ape.... I am still traumatized. Edit: I remembered another one that lives rent free in my head. In Legend of the Dragoon (1999) you can transform into a dragoon knight. It's a massive gimmick of the entire game, with special moves, summons, and even magic locked behind being a Dragoon. In one of the last fights of the game, the MC (Dart) loses that power and you have to fight an enemy without it. Now, I don't know if this is because I was a kid back then and didn't even try, but I believe you can't take Dart out of the party. So yeah, one of the last and hardest boss fights in the game they remove your more powerful tool.
