Eight-Legs

Eight-Legs is the second installment in Tribal Fables.

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A long, long time ago, when the four Siblings still rules over all the spirits in unison, life was easy and all could travel without fear or danger from the deepest reaches of the Nether to the highest Ends of the sky.

But one day, a dark spirit, as old as the siblings and as grand in its might, came to inhabit a mountain pass in the middle of the Overworld, preying on wayfarers and dragging them into her lair.

This spirit had eight elongated legs and eight eyes as crimson rubies; its fangs dripped with lethal venom, and its dark magics wove webs as strong as diamond, capable of holding even a Ravager.

Mother Eight-legs, this spirit was called; a manifestation of the Hunt, who had but one desire: to entrap and slay as many victims as possible.

So perished many hapless travellers who chances upon her hunting grounds, and many met their demise in those dark web-ridden tunnels afore the monstrosity's presence became known.

Yet, as the pile of corpses grew, the darkness that had taken root in the area became known and many a spirit ventured forth to test their mettle in combat with loathsome opponent.

So it was that one day, four adventurers set out to fell the foul creature. Each believed themselves to be able of besting any foe, for they had great courage and many talents.

One of them was a fire spirit, a great arcanist and swordsman, whose enchanted blades had cloven many a beast asunder in his potion-empowered hands.

The second, a free spirit of the wind. She was known to be the fastest in the land, and her arrows hit their mark from hundreds of blocks away.

Another was a sage water spirit, whose trident skills belied a stormy wrath under the tranquil surface she presented.

And last was a humble Earth spirit, who had journeyed from his village carrying but his trusty axe, to end the demon that had been a bane to the nearby settlements.

So they came, four as one, to the beast's lair. And no sooner had they arrived than the mountains shook, for Mother Eight-Legs approached in all her savage killing intent.

The spirit launched her webs at the companions, seeking to bind them and end the fight forthwith. But the fire spirit rose his sword, and shred the magical lacings with playful ease.

Hissing furiously at this defiance, the demonic spider attacked the heroes with her fangs, seeking to deal a mortal wound with her toxins.

Yet the water spirit but laughed, and summoned milk to wash away the effects of the venom.

Now in outrage, her eight eyes blazing with fury, the beast sought to climb up the cliff wall and gain a vantage point to pounce on the insolent spirits.

As soon as she had ascended, however, she was met with a surprise: the Wind spirit greeted her high upon the mountain, having flown there on elytreous wings, and now help the giant arachnid at bowpoint.

The fight was not yet over, however. With a piercing screeching, the broodmother summoned her spawn to assail the adventurers, and hundreds of spiders and cave spiders and silverfish and bees descended upon the battlefield.

Quickly, the three spirits became overwhelmed, with arthropods swarming in and attacking from every side. Only the lowly Earth spirit was left to face the murderous archdemon face to face.

"Behold, meek one, and tremble!" the spider boasted, "for this is the hour of your doom! When your friends fought me valiantly, you showed no feats to match theirs! I take it that you are the weakest of them, and thus I shall devour you first!"

But the Earth spirit met her gaze without fear.

"Weakest? Nay, you are mistaken, for I am the strongest of our group, and mightier than all the others together," he replied.

"You lie, foolish one! If you truly were so strong, you would already have struck me down!" hissed Eight-legs incredulously.

"But it is you that deals in foolery, little bug, for I can show you how vast my strength is. I merely wanted to enjoy the spectacle longer so I would not grow bored, which is why I haven't slain you yet. But to prove my power..."

The Earth spirit took a block of sandstone and give it to the spider, telling her: "First show me your strength and demolish this with your eight hands, and then I shall show what I can do with one!"

The spider grumbled indignantly, but met the challenge, and all of her eight hands chopped away at the block, annihilating it in less than a second.

"Not bad," admitted the Earth spirit, "but still weak." As he said that, he grasped the block in his hand and called upon his magic to revert the stone into red sand, which poured out of his grasp as though he had reduced the sandstone to dust instantly.

"Bah!" protested his foe, "this is merely a trick! Stone is your element, but on wood, your "strength" would be useless."

"Unwisely you wag your tongue at me, insect, for I have the power to squash you in my fingers if I so desire. Behold then, another display of my strength!"

So he approached a great tree that grew on the edge of the battlefield, a giant that reached al the way to the skies and the building limit before the End.

"It would take even you days to chew through this, but I shall vanquish it in the blink of an eye," he claimed.

So he raised his axe, and activated the ancient woodcutter secret technique of Tree Feller. And behold, faster than the human eye could see, the tree was gone, dropping countless logs around them!

At this, Mother Eight-Legs grew fearful, and panickedly shouted: "No, this must be some sort of trick! I am certain that in true combat, you would fall before me at once!"

But the Earth spirit stepped forwards, and an ominous cry arose as he activated Skull Splitter. And although he had snuck throughout the field, avoiding combat, he said: "If that were really so, hen how do I stand before you now, unscathed by your or any of your spawn?"

In terror, the spider took a step back, weighing her option. But in her haste to retreat, she forgot her surroundings, and her step landed straight in the yawning chasm betwixt mountains that lay open behind her.

She plummeted down, her last screams wailing throughout the pass as she failed to gain a hold on the mountainside, and finally fell to her death. Hearing this, her spawn scattered, leaving the four spirits victorious and the land saved from her evil terror.

But to this day, one can see her spawn plagueing the countryside: spiders hunting without mercy as their mother once did, bees tending to their nests with the ferocious protectiveness she once had, and silverfish ambushing travellers in old strongholds.