Nightmare Game
Copyright© 2025 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 96
Without a second’s pause, Bennett unleashed Lion’s Roar.
The Human-Headed Spider pinning him flew back, hurled by the blast.
He pivoted, forcing back the nearest spiders, then spun toward Wesley and the others.
His quick thinking paid off. Before the spiders could strike, his roar sent them tumbling.
He didn’t linger, sprinting toward his companions.
He knew the spiders outside the roar’s range would soon pursue. Maximizing the skill’s effect was his only shot at buying time.
The spiders ahead lay sprawled, stunned for a few precious seconds.
Bennett gauged the timing, then whipped around.
As expected, his roar blasted several spiders closing in from behind.
But that was it.
A few leapt over his head, landing in front.
Before he could react, a crushing force slammed his left side, sending him flying like he’d been hit by a truck.
He hit the ground, coughing blood, a searing pain ripping through his waist. His vision darkened, blurring.
His hand touched his side, coming away slick with blood.
Wesley wasn’t faring better. Following Ethan’s orders, he shielded Hazel while herding villagers to safety.
Facing a swarm of spiders, his face paled. Wordlessly, he brandished a scavenged bamboo pole, holding them at bay.
His desperate stand only delayed the inevitable. A spider tackled him, pinning him down.
The rest chased the fleeing survivors.
Bennett, grounded, felt his strength ebbing.
Perhaps it was the nearness of death, but his senses sharpened, vivid.
He saw Madam Arachne, possessing Mia, grinning with malevolent glee.
He saw Wesley crushed beneath a spider, his pole snapped in two.
He saw Hazel, tears streaming, clutching the floral crown, running with villagers, spiders closing in.
He saw a spider looming over him.
Then, a breeze brushed his face.
Bennett’s lifeless eyes sparked with hope, his body suddenly weightless, as if riding the clouds.
He’d felt this before, in Everspring Meadow—Oliver’s Extreme Speed carrying him.
His heart surged. Ethan and Oliver were back.
In a blur, he found himself with Wesley, Hazel, and the villagers, dropped before the Blackgold Tree statue.
Oliver collapsed, sprawled out, gasping, face drained. “Goddamn, nearly ran my heart out.”
As the group caught their breath, Ethan gently took the crown from Hazel, placing it on the statue.
He pulled out a white blindfold.
“No...” Madam Arachne’s voice erupted, a hysterical scream, stripped of her former poise. “No, no, no!”
“Kill him! Now!”
At her command, the spiders charged.
But Ethan had already tied the blindfold over the statue’s eyes.
The statue ignited, its black surface flaking away like charred embers, swirling in the air.
Beneath lay a smooth, porcelain-white figure, radiant and serene.
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