Spirit Taming

Chapter 393: Shy's growth

Crim came from the edens end taming space and wrapped around Clark becoming a chest pierce and showing off that he had become even stronger. The dragon energy that crim had been absorbing lately had been enough to extend down to Clark's hips and even take a portion of Clark's shoulders.

Clark had called Crim out to help him defend himself during this battle. Especially since Clark would be calling the throwing needles back in place of the spear. The spear was too long and would not be able to take the best position in the passageway unless they managed to find the nest chamber that the glacial spiders used.

"Why does it have to be spiders? This is not the first time we have dealt with them." Isa was already fused with her ice maiden and unleashed an attack shooting a larger spike of ice at the glacial spider.

Unfortunately, the attack was nothing to the glacial spider's icey armor around its limbs. The spider just had to pull their limbs in and the ice spike shattered against its body. Isa was forced to retreat slightly to let Ralph dash forward. The sudden attack from Ralph was too much for the glacial spider to handle since it had blocked its own line of sight to defend.

As both one handed axes came down on the same spot, a large crack formed on the glacial spider's ice armor. One leg crackled as the ice fell away revealing the thin black limb. This was a massive gap in defense that the spider wanted to protect. Naturally, it lashed out to pierce Ralph with its other legs.

Brad was right there though, he had not sat idle. The iron shield and sword he had was not as good as the black iron shield and swords that his possessed helm had nearly fully absorbed. But they were tough. This was why no one was surprised to see that the legs hitting the iron shield didn't break the shield at all. Instead, the spider's ice armor seemed to crack a little more.

But that was all that was needed. Maria had already drawn her bow. While the ice brick passageways were hard for larger weapons to maneuver in, they were great for a ranger attack to remain far from danger. Maria just had to release a single arrow at the distracted glacial spider and the battle was over. Everyone saw the arrow pierce one of the spider's eyes and it fall defeated.

The arrow had pierced right through to the brain.

"Isa, store the body, that spider definitely alerted the others. We will have a harder fight if we wait here." Isa was already on the move without Clark saying anything.

"Those threads are also for the spiders to sense what's going on around their territory?" Grace raised this question while it appeared that Ella had already thought of that as well. The two were working together to record things now meaning that grace was learning to take a more observant approach. This was a good choice since Grace would be able to control wind and ice around a small area.

Potentially a larger area when she was stronger.

"That should be the case. That's why I am sure there were more, yup, right here. More threads that were coming off the glacial spider's body." The group saw the twenty threads spread across the floor. Now that the spider wasn't adding ice energy to them it was easier to spot.

"I can push ahead with Brad. he can defend while I attack. We did buy him two shields in case one broke." Ralph didn't have a half bad idea. The two of them would make a solid pair. Ralph as the harsh attacker and Brad as the impenetrable shield.

"We will lead with you two then. Maria will be the ranged attacker in pair with Isa. you two can cause a lot of stress. Devi, scout ahead and alert us if there are multiple enemies. This left Ella, Grace, Reese, and Jerold wondering what their roles would be if they were just going to be there doing nothing. But they also realized that Clark had not given himself a position.

"Jerold, you will guard Ella and Grace while they record the details of the glacial spider's homes. We won't be at the nest for at least ten minutes. I just have a feeling this tunnel is too slim for them to make a real nest. Reese, there are threads left behind, we need to gather them." Clark knew it was best to gather as much of the frost silk as possible.

It was valuable and could get damaged without the glacial spider's control of it.

"Shy, why don't you help too? You can control shadow threads so maybe you are good at collecting this too." Shy revealed herself after being released from the taming space. She hated being in there away from Clark but had been absorbing energy at a rapid pace. Now that she had worked so hard, she could control her shadow threads much better.

"Wait. the next spider we are going to leave alive." Clark had a great idea. He remembered that Shy should be able to puppet a beast easily. If she was as strong as he thought she was now, then it was the perfect chance to test the skill out.

As if she knew what Clark was thinking, he felt a sudden rejection from Shy. Upon looking at her and feeling the bond closely he realized that she didn't want to take control of a living glacial spider. "Why? You can't use the body of a defeated one the same… you want to use the body of the defeated glacial spider? Umm, Isa, get the body again."

The group watched as many shadow threads spread from under and around Shy. they were stunned to see them wrap around and pierced through the body of the glacial spider. In seconds black shapes and patterns appeared along the glacial spider's body as Shy was lifted up and came to sit on its back.

Small bits of darker ice formed a protective barrier around her which was a very interesting use of the glacial spider's innate typing.

'Due to high amounts of shadow energy, Shyama has awakened the secondary effect of shadow threads and puppeteer skills. The undead puppeteer skill has been awakened fully allowing control over a dead beast for a short time depending on the quality of the dead beast's body.

It is a very temporary skill due to the enhanced degradation rate of the body due to the shadow energy infiltrating the body constantly.'

"Shy awakened part of her innate skill because of the shadow crystals she has been absorbing. That's great! I'm so proud of you." Clark looked like a proud parent which made the group laugh a bit. "Ehm, well, we should get moving. Shy can only do this for a short while." Clark was very glad that the system had been able to answer the question pertaining to the skill that Shyama had used.

The movement of a dead glacial spider taking the lead put everyone at ease. They could feel that Shy was willing to protect them. Normally, people would find the sudden movement of a dead beast terrifying. Yet, when Shy had used the shadows to take it over, everyone had sensed a caring aura. One that desired to protect them.

It was just an instinct but it was the same feeling they felt in battle with each other defending and attacking to stay alive and defeat an enemy.

"The movements are choppy, Shy is great though." Maria fell in to line next to Clark as he grabbed and rolled up a piece of frost silk. She was sure that Clark was still trying to hide how happy he was that Shy was so powerful now.

"She can't do much. She won't be able to battle it out on equal footing. But she can use the body as a massive shield to let us get closer to the nest and stop the other spiders from moving. Shy knows that too. I am just proud of her." Clark had no reason to hide his feelings.

"It's good, when she retreats then we will have plenty of weak beasts to deal with. Help me and Lit get her poison on my arrows. I will have you at the ready to hand them to me." Clark didn't object at all. This was a great idea.

Between Brad and Shy blocking the glacial spider's movements, they would be able to fire arrows from the back. This would leave the glacial spiders numb and poisoned. After that it was the simple matter of taking them down with the group's better ability to move. A great reduction of danger.

Clark further used the poison that Lit was providing on his black throwing needles. He was sure that it would go a long way to help defeat the enemies that he threw them at. Especially since he was able to move around better using them due to not holding the weight of his spear.