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    But changed.


    She looked…vaguely human. She was lean and tall, like an Olympic runner with a humanoid form. But well-muscled, the kind of form you would find on short-distance sprinters, those that cleared 100 meters in bursts of speed. But her two legs were long and inverted at the knees. She had long hair and a human face, oval-shaped with a nose and lips that if taken in isolation, one could confuse for the palest of women.


    Alex’s brow creased. He spotted something odd about her arms at first glance – it looked like she had just had one on each side. But no, there were actually three on each side of her wrapped tight as one, the extra two hugging the main arm so tight they almost disappeared into it. These extra limbs, pressed against the main like intricate sleeves and left only the central hands free on each side. Her spare hands secured the main wrists, clasped tight light the cuff links, reinforcing strength and stability.


    Parts of Her skin was grey, or at least the very thin lines Alex could see beneath her bright white plates of exoskeleton. Her plates of chitin were uniform and symmetrical, ergonomic and aerodynamic. The plates looked vaguely like the sleekest of armour and made no sound as she twisted. The plates still held porcelain qualities - they were sturdy and thick but immensely reflective. Every inch of her was covered in bright white and glossy plates of chitin, in pure contrast to the usual black carapace of her kind. If she were in battle, she would’ve stood out amongst her kin like a beacon in the dark.


    Her many eyes opened, eight or ten—no, sixteen eyes. More than sixteen of them arrayed atop her head like a crown of stars.


    Her finger touched her new form curiously and the three moved to strike, but cautiously. Because Alex wasn’t sure how far her senses ranged, but he was certain that at least one eye was still looking at them.


    The Queen ignored their presence and spoke in resigned tones. She glanced at the remnant of her past form, her thorax, dying egg sack and its amalgam of living, dying, and dead eggs and grimaced at the sight. Some were devoid of life and consumed, others lay dead before her. Few remained undamaged. Dead eggs for a living mother. “I had only ever consumed the weakest and most broken of swarmlings before today. They had been the ones at fault, they were not true Arachnae. I would never have consumed assets or those of us who had proved themselves true members of our species.” Her voice quivered at every second word.


    It was clear for all to see that her metamorphosis had come at great sacrifice. It looked as though she held some semblance of maternal love for the swarm, in her own twisted way. “They will punish me for this.” She said.


    Alex was unsure what had happened, but he knew what he had to do. Whatever humanity she showed did not erase the monster he had faced moments ago and would not revive the lives of countless humans he had witnessed slaughtered by her hand and on her orders. he took the lead in their approach, his senses strained and wary of any sign of attack or enhancement from her evolution.


    She ignored them still and spoke in soft tones “With the first Queen, you would not allow us to live. You would not even trade your dead for our children.” She spoke softly, yet her voice echoed through the chamber to all present. The queen cradled the cord erupting from her stomach as one would hold the most cherished of treasures- of children.


    “you would not accept her peace.” She said. “You burned her swarm as repayment for her compassion and You forced us to hunt you. You forced us to fight.” she squeezed the cord tight.


    “And now you have forced me to take action from which neither I nor my swarm will ever recover,” Her pale hands squeezed, and the cord snapped with a dry crack, like wood breaking. All present tensed at the sound mid-stride, bracing.


    She took a step forward, and at the light from the bioluminescent Arachne that lined the walls dimm as they each tried their best to meld into the background, to be forgotten lest they become collateral. “my womb is broken,” she pointed, all of her eyes twinkling like stars- or are they glistening? Alex wondered as she continued. “Barrenhood is all that awaits me, I can no longer spawn more eggs, only consume them all for power as my sister did. But solitary power will not save us.”


    “After those eggs are born, there will be no more new members of the hidden hive.”


    Alex felt a cold tingle up his spine and judging by the way he sensed the hairs along the back of the girl behind him rise, she felt the same. Their steps turned into a racing charge.


    The Queen paused to inspect her new form and its segmented, bright white sections. It rippled and flexed as she moved, like a second skin more than rigid exoskeleton. A poor reward for a heavy price. “We just wanted to live,” she muttered, her voice low, yet heard by all, “is it a crime to be born? We did not ask for this.” she stepped away from the remnants of her past form at the words. It was then that Alex reached her and struck.


    Alex slid toward the queen on both feet. He crouched low mid-stride and performed a tsuki, a penetrating thrust aimed at the queen''s neck with the intention of a swift end. The girl followed some distance behind and rocketed into the air, careening down toward the queen with the stolen bronze sword clasped in both hands. John stood back, gawking.


    The queen stood in complete disregard for her opponents, distracted by her loss. And Alex sought to capitalize, to end it in one fell swoop.


    The remade Queen reflexively tried to jump back and twist away, but Alex barrelled into her. Her left hand clasped onto his wrist and halted his blade from piercing her neck. He dropped the blade and caught it with his left.


    Her hand clasped his wrist, his free hand clasped a blade and hers did too. A struggle ensued.


    A swing, a duck, a parry, a strike, and a block. Evenly matched. They continued, tied together in combat.


    “One hundred years in hiding and many more in battle, ruined.” She said, mid-swing. “The first consumption will always trigger an evolution, usually once the entirety of a being is consumed-” She swung her blade and Alex ducked “We usurp the essence of our first meal. Their qualities-“ Alex stabbed upward and the queen leaned back to evade, her grip on his wrist unshaken as the flat of his blade kissed her chin without injury. “— their soul is stored within us, diluted. and a portion of their traits are passed on to us, an echo if you will-” She tugged at his wrist to throw him off balance, but Alex steadied his footing and swung again. “It is our ‘Source’, that’s what we call it. The source of our being.” She flipped over him, still holding onto his wrist. She spoke in mid-air as if she was stood on ground “-It forms the core of our being and alongside our arachnid core and remains throughout all evolutions; whether it be keen reflexes and intuition, or lost memories.” Alex swung at where she would land and tugged back to yank her from the air. She twisted so his blade passed below and landed on her hands and feet. Just one hand touched the ground, though. The other still held Alex’s wrist in a death grip. “-In rare cases, fragments of martial mastery are transferred between an arachnae and its first consumption,“ she continued.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Alex pulled and swung. She rose and locked blades with him while still holding onto his wrist like a vice on iron as they struggled, their evenly matched strength at an impasse.


    “Do you know from when and for whom the first half of my core was formed?” She asked between grunts and pulls. “She died in one of the Great Wars, the greatest of them, some say. Her swings were magic and none could beat her honourably, not knights, not masters of aura, not even kings.”


    So she just wants to talk? Why? Alex wondered. He couldn’t allow this to continue. He pulled with all he had and she didn’t move, She pushed with all she had and he didn’t budge. Of course they didn’t. She had his strength and was using it to delay him. “-My source was among their best.” She grunted. “And we claimed her, used her to create what you’ve forced me to become once more.”


    “She was called the ‘God of Duels’.”


    John sucked in a breath at the name and went pale, muttering about a legend of the black wars who disappeared 200 years ago. Alex could barely hear him.


    “And they called me the ‘Death of Men’.”


    The queen spoke her forgotten name and swelled with pride despite the melancholy that bathed her tone. John paled even further, seeming to lose strength in his knees. “We’re doomed.” He said.


    For a heartbeat they stood in stalemate, locked by blades and clasping hands, until the drifter girl fell from above on both with her sword swinging. The queen raised the golden sword in her free hand defensively in response and Alex saw the blade glow.


    “How-”


    The drifter girl’s bronze sword stopped in mid-swing. It didn’t slow down, and it was not blocked. It simply… stopped moving, losing all momentum as if some force had pressed pause on the world. The girl‘s body did not receive the same treatment. Her eyes widened as she realised she was falling into a suspended blade and she turned in mid-air.


    Too late. She crashed into the blade and spun to roll on the ground, groaning. The spin had saved her.


    A huff of annoyance. The Queen pulled Alex’s wrist and swung her blade, Alex threw up his sword to block the blow.


    Hard. As hard as he could hit. But that light, a Skill? Impossible. How did she do that?


    She was—fast. But only as fast as he could be. Still, She came at him like lightning and they fought—until she jumped and kicked out with both feet. With one wrist still locked in her grip, Alex could only raise his remaining limbs and blade to block it. An impact, and the powerful blow sent him back some distance, though he landed without issue. The queen watched him from afar, both of her hands bare and disarmed. Alex had kicked the gold sword out of her grip as her blow connected.


    John still stood back, gawking. Alex rose from his crouched position and saw the Queen-


    With her back to them, although Alex knew too well how she could see them through other means if she wished.


    She looked regretful and forlorn. Staring with sadness at the remnants of her womb while feeling at the cord that had connected her to it. Then she turned and stretched both of her arms wide, summoning her bronze and gold blades. The swords flew into her open palms with a slap.


    She took a step forward, eyeing them as she crouched and all present with a blade shifted at her movement, raising their weapons instinctively.


    “Now I am a Queen of nothing.” She muttered the words, closed her eyes and took one deep, long breath. Then she tensed with her new legs and leapt.


    Through the air she soared, a streak. Alex charged to meet her in turn, his sword held low in preparation for an upward swing. The queen, gripping her bronze sword, swung it downward. The sword elongated, slicing a path through the ceiling before descending towards Alex with unstoppable force.


    Her speed and strength had been limited, constrained. She had been Barred from the system''s influence. Barred from its boons. She moved through the air with speed and strength that perfectly aligned with Alex’s.


    She was slow, even.


    Alex could see her swing as clearly as if it was his own. He raised his blade to deflect it, and at the point of impact her blade shone brighter.


    Her bronze blade carved through his blade as it would through butter.


    Alex’s eyes widened in shock. He threw himself from the path of her descending blade, spinning around to land on his feet. His blade lashed out without thought as he spun, aimed unnervingly at where his senses told him the Queen''s head would be. She was bent over, having finished striking the ground, her sword still embedded in the cracked stone floor. She’s vulnerable- he thought.


    mistakenly.


    Her gold sword swung at an angle that would break human shoulders and blocked his blow with perfectly equal strength, then she rose from the ground and kicked and Alex’s world lurched. His world spun not from nausea but from flight- her kick had sent him flying as his kicks could send her.


    Alex could still sense the structure of the world around him as he tumbled through the air. Though it spun to his eyes the world remained stationary to his senses. He landed on his feet like a cat would and his bones creaked, bruised and most likely fractured, but not broken.


    A red circle painted a bloody tattoo on his shoulder, but he felt no pain. He rolled the joint and a thin disk of skin and muscle tissue fell to the ground with a wet smack. A perfect cut.


    The queen frowned. She had been intending on cutting him in half. “So, we fight without the new magics. A pity,” was all she said.


    Alex winced as the cold air of the chamber embraced his open wound. In the instant his blade had broken he had almost attempted to use his ‘Boundless Dodge’ skill out of instinct, forgetting he was as stymied and removed from the system as she was. It would have been his end if he had attempted it.


    The ground was cracked beneath him in a line that smashed through the far wall, reopening the door that sealed them in. The line traced the path of her blade, stemming from the impact of her strike, and cut so deep into the earth it gave glimpses of other sections of the cave system, where Alex saw distant dark figures of arachnae battling far below.


    Alex couldn''t hide his shock. His skill ‘Duel of corruption’ had erased the system''s influence on them both, it had created a field without the system. A domain that separated and clung to them even as they left it. He could see it now, faintly, the air was more vibrant wherever they moved and mana was wrenched free from the system’s control wherever they ventured. He had banished it completely. They had no skills, no feats, no classes and equal stats.


    She was still moving at his speed. Still swinging as fast as he could. So how did she do that? How was her sword glowing? How had her strike caused such decimation?


    “How did I do that without the system?” She spoke as if reading his thoughts but merely sensed his expression. Alex’s arm was shaking as he stared into the chasm her swing had created. “You caused this, I think.“ She said. “This return of the old magics. It’s all because of you.” The Queen looked disinterested by the notion of it, though. Detached.


    “That was not a skill.”