Chapter 10 - Queen mother

The people in Ambrossos seemed to be completely frightened. I couldn’t understand why, but they would even run away if I tried to come closer and ask them a few questions. Only a merchant seemed friendly enough and offered some potions and armor for sale. I bought some potions, then took a little rest and once my muscles were less exhausted I exited Ambrossos and continued my gruelling journey to Delphi.
The grounds around Ambrossos were the same as everywhere else I’ve been. Every creature seemed to try and kill me. Soon I could see those horrible looking arachnos again. Gladly there were no deathweavers among them, but still they seemed very aggressive and were fighting back till their last breath.
Soon I understood why that was. I came face to face with their Queen. The Queen arachnos was massive and of bright green colour. She sent a couple of her bodyguards to take me out. They were tougher than ordinary arachnos, but still no challenge for me. I felt like I was remembering my former strength quicker and quicker now.
When arachnos Queen’s bodyguards were defeated she had no choice but to attack me herself. She breathed a horrible cloud of poison right at me. Knowing how deadly it can be I quickly ran out from the vile cloud and attempted to flank her. It was hard as she was pretty agile for such a massive beast.
In addition to that she also managed to momentarily give birth to little spiders that would attack me as soon as they would be born. Knowing they were just amateurs I tried to ignore them most of the time and was trying to stab the Queen as many times as I could. Her exoskeleton was quite tough, but Patroclus’ short blade could penetrate it if I applied enough strength in the stab.
Soon she breathed another cloud of poison at me. I rolled out of the way and then performed a war wind, which killed many of the little spiders and even scarred her face. She got angrier after that. I knew that to control anger is very hard and only very skilled warriors can use it for the good, while others would lose their concentration once they become angry.
I could tell her lack of concentration now as she would miss me a lot often with her strikes and in fact it seemed like I didn’t even need a shield there anymore. I flanked her in no time and managed to perform a few killer stabs that brought her down to the ground for good. Her blood spilled through the land and everywhere it flowed the life there instantly ceased to exist.
Feeling itchy after those poison clouds I drank a potion and it made me feel better. I then grabbed a block of wood, set it on fire and began burning the arachnos nest for if I hadn’t the new pests would hatch very soon. The fire spread through it quickly and once the whole nest was on fire I could proceed to Delphi.
To get there I went through numerous hills and a big swamp full of those grotesque turtles. None of them stopped me of course and after a couple of hours I reached Delphi. It seemed to be under attack by a gang of maenads. I entered the city walls and could see the guards fighting off those maenads. Some maenads felt great threat from me and so attempted to attack me. They however underestimated me and soon many of them were lying on the stone floor face down.
After defeating the whole gang the guards thanked me for the help. Now I needed to go and see the Great Oracle of Delphi.