Chapter 15: Run
Unsure of what to do, Theresa and George turned towards each other, seeking any hint of their next move.
Seeing the same look from each other, they swiftly turned to the unconscious Chris.
"Well, we better get a move on huh," George spoke in a wistful tone, betraying the earlier shocked expression.
Theresa quickly went ahead and grabbed the gun lying in the dining area, whilst giving a look outside to the running spider. In a matter of seconds it would be upon them.
Knowing time was of the essence she gave her husband a sympathetic but stern look and said: "Lets go."
Moving with great haste the two of them, ran to the front door pushing it open and began sprinting making full usage of their improved physique combined with their legs imbued in mana.
Running down the hill they cast a look behind their shoulders. Their previous house standing in its stillness gave them a sense of reluctance and sadness leaving it behind.
Having bought the house 50 years ago, it was the place where they had raised their only child Jacob, celebrated countless holidays, and made a lifetime of memories. It was their home. Their one place that seemed to weather any storm and any difficulty they have had through the years.
Continuously gaining distance from it, they thought they might've made a mistake in leaving it, but now standing at the top of the house, a large creature with 8 shiny black eyes was gazing directly at them, giving no indication to its state of mind.
The sudden change to its seemingly calm posture at the top of the roof in comparison to its previously heavy sprint was nerve wrecking for the old couple.
They could tell by the distance they were facing the house that they soon would be on the road Chris had previously come from.
Still, the spider was simply seated at the top of the house not giving any sign of movement. It was giving of a eerie sense of intelligence not known for the creatures they had encountered previously.
It almost seemed to be mocking them, like a prey toying with its food. As if claiming their escape as a win and collecting the house for the reward
When they reached the asphalt road, they turned their head again to gaze in to the forest at the other side of the road. Having to run through the forest didn't give them the luxury of looking behind themselves as they needed to watch their steps in the process of not accidentally tripping or getting caught in something.
They couldn't remember the forest being so thick before, like it had suddenly grown in tremendous amounts in a short time. 'Must be the mana,' Theresa thought to herself.
As they swiftly made it to the entrance of the forest they gave one last look to the house.
However, as their eyes drifted to the top of the house dread began to creep its way up their spines like a cold, icy hand.
The spider wasn't lazily sitting on it anymore. Instead, it was now 15 meters up the air and descending at an incredible pace down the hill to George and Theresa's location.
Theresa had her mana vision activated as she saw its leap.
Although she offered only a seconds worth of time in her observation, it gave her a lot of information on the creature.
She noticed the completely black core, pulsing out dark mana in intense waves to its large legs. She could see how it was mostly relying on instincts when utilizing it.
Most likely it didn't do it knowingly, the mana simply moved with the spiders instincts. Although this gave massive outputs of force to the specific limb it was utilizing, it was a somewhat crude way of doing it.
Most likely its mana reserves would dwindle quickly in this manner. Still, there was no denying that it had a considerable larger mana capacity then them, even beating Chris in this area.
In the last couple of days they had figured a way for them to somehow gauge and put a figure for their capacity.
They simply looked at the amount of energy their mana was giving. If it was giving the amount of energy to supply a grown human, it would mean they had a mana capacity of 1.
In their case after continuously training and absorbing the atmospheric mana for the last couple of days, Theresa and George had about 5 in capacity, George being slightly behind Theresa.
Meanwhile, Chris had about 10 mana after absorbing the first spiders mana. Comparing to the spider he should be about 8 units short Theresa concluded.
Although she was very curious of how it procured this amount, considering she didn't expect the spider to meditate, Theresa thought such a phenomenon needed to be brought up another time.
Despite the dreadful feeling still lingering, Theresa knew they couldn't stop and pulled George's arm with her into the forest.
Seeing its pray jump away into the forest, the spider gave a loud screech as it landed where the three of them had just been, making a crater befitting its size.
Hearing the loud roar of the creature Theresa and George felt even more pressured and gave their all in their escape.
Their legs were pumping as they darted past trees and leaped over roots and fallen branches. The leaves and branches whipped at their face and clothes, but they kept moving forward with a urgency of the dread lurking behind their backs.
As if answering their awareness they felt a sense of foreboding and quickly side stepped between a couple of trees.
They barely caught a gaze of what seemed to be a white projectile sticking to the tree they passed.
With how compact the forest had become they thought they had slight advantage in maneuvering through it, considering their smaller size.
However, the spider didn't necessarily have to completely catch up to them if it could get them caught in its web. Which it seemed to have quite a good accuracy with.
Realizing this, the two of them began to increase their pace even more, forgetting about the balance of mana and brought it all to their legs, focusing entirely on increasing their speed.
Catching a small opportunity to look behind them, they saw multiple white projectiles coming their way.
With sweat dripping down their face and with their mana dropping lower and lower they continued to leap, dodge and sprint to the best of their abilities.
However as if luck had given out, George suddenly noticed he seemed lighter than before.
Fear gripping his heart he looked behind himself and saw Chris now being stuck to a tree upside-down with his feet connected by a white sticky web.
Looking a little further in the distance, he saw the spider marching just barely about a hundred meters away towards them.
It continued to shoot out the web projectiles when it ran, but now with one prey stuck in its mighty white substance it quickened its pace, the mana reacting to its ardor began pumping mana vigorously to its large legs.
Sensing the sudden halt from George, Theresa stopped as well to see what happened. What she witnessed gave her a widen eyed look.
With despair beginning to crawl its way into their bodies they looked to each other as they had done a hundred times before whenever they needed support or just had a need to confirm their own resolutions.
As if that look was all they needed, Theresa and George made a quick change to their stance and brought forward their weapons. Theresa using her last amount of mana to charge the gun in her hands almost fell with the sudden drop in energy, but still held on and kept the pistol aimed towards the creature leaping its way through the forest on its eight legs.
George brought forward the tactical knife Chris had earlier and readied himself to infuse it with his mana when the time was right.
The two of them moved swiftly to the unconscious Chris and stood before him, ready to risk their lives to protect the man that had done the very same barely half an hour ago.
Seeing its prey stop and move back towards it, the creature felt a tremendous amount of eagerness envelope itself. To think the prey had comeback to be served on a platter.
The spider nearly drooled from anticipation and gave of a huge burst of power from its leg as it reached 20 meters away from the trio. It seemed to blur in the motion as it propelled itself forward, breaking the thick tree it used as a springboard in two.
In their sudden sense of calmness, Theresa and George expected such a move. However, the spider was still a lot stronger than the two of them, giving them little time to react.
As the spider drove its front legs towards George as the target for its first onslaught, he quickly imbued his knife in mana and gave off a upward slash filled with the intent of sharpness simultaneously with a reflexed jump to the left.
George felt the blade hit the target and penetrating the large leg. Though to his hopelessness, the spider when it landed yet again made a crater in its landing, forcing him in an unbalanced state owed by the slight tremor in the ground.
The spider still feeling the blade in its leg made a swing upwards with its limb. Hitting George to the face, he flew above Theresa standing a couple of meters to his left.
The attack being heavily imbued with mana and the already strong legs of the spider he was sent sprawling in the air, unconscious by the impact of the head-blow. He hit a large tree just five meters further from Theresa's position giving of a loud bang with the collision almost breaking the tree.
Theresa watching as her husband was thrown like a ragdoll brought a sense of anguish and pain. Instead of the hopelessness George felt, these feelings grew to the extreme and resulted in an uncontrollable rage towards the perpetrator.
Losing control of herself to the unbridled anger, a strong sense of lust was also born. A lust to eradicate. A lust for blood. A lust to kill.
The mana answering to the strong will, gave her a crimson red aura as she began to shot of the mana imbued bullets.
The spider on the other hand had reeled itself quickly back after the quick exchange with George and was ready to fend off the last target.
Instincts taking hold of it as the first bullet was shot made it bring its hairy legs in defensive manner, protecting the skull. The bullets bounced off the creature, however it came with a heavy cost.
The mana of the spider having reacted to the intense protective intent dwindled the remaining mana it had, making it feel a strong sense of fatigue.
Theresa with one bullet left, shot towards where she thought the head would be and saw as a wound was opened up through the two front legs.
Seeing the spider slowly move backwards as if beginning to fall to its back, washed her with relief and alleviation.
However, as she was about to relish in her victory a white substance hit her straight in the chest making her fly through the air and stick to a tree just beside George.
Despair clouded her every being as she brought her gaze to the spider now moving slowly towards her, looking almost as helpless as the three of them. Having used up the last of its mana it had completely exhausted most of its energies. Now with a very small amount it simply dragged itself towards them, still keen on tasting the flesh of its prey. It had won.
Seeing her last bullet stuck to the tree behind the spider as well as a small cut wound on the creature's head, she was overwhelmed by a bitterness she had never experienced before. 'I missed..'
Looking to her right she saw George sitting with his back resting to the tree. She tried to reach out for him, but her upper body was completely drenched in the sticky web, giving off only a small nudge as she tried to move. Silent tears streamed down her face. She wanted to hold her lovers hand one last time, to hear his voice, to see his loving gaze. However, her time had come.
'Seems old age does catch up even if you somehow revert to your younger self,' she thought with a self mocking smile.
With their lives before the mana wave, they thought to have witnessed what life could offer. They were after all 92 years old, having lived for so long had made both her and George prepared for their timely death.
However, regaining their former youth and seeing the sudden change in the world gave way for a sparkling new emotions of excitement and anticipation. The mix of this missed sensation, as well as the fear of it all, made quite the exhilarating feeling. Though, it seemed fate had decided for it to be a short lived experience.
As she could begin to see darkness looming over her, she thought the spider must've come upon her already. She felt its shadow encompass her begging for it to give a last look before sending her off to the after life, but she refused to watch the grotesque creature anymore than she had already had.
She simply found solace in not having to watch her George be devoured first. So she continued to stare at him for comfort in her final moments.
With a glint of a black flash she closed her eyes in acceptance.
She waited, one second, three seconds, five seconds. 'Anytime now', she thought.
10 seconds. Theresa confused dared to open her eyes and looked towards where she thought the spider should stand.
What she saw instead made her baffled and bewildered. The large creature was standing just in front of the tree Chris had been stuck to. Its upper body was slightly tilted forward revealing a figure standing in the middle of its two parts.
The person was clad in what looked to be a thin dark energy covering every part of them, a long thin black blade in one hand and as if noticing her gaze, the figure quickly shot a gaze towards her revealing two shining azure eyes.
Recognizing those beautiful eyes, she felt a mixture of feelings. Hope, relief, joy, gratitude and to her surprise, fear.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone