Chapter 3: A Colossal Menace


High above, stalactites quaked as the giant spider shook itself off. Its eight swollen eyes searched for the source of the vibrations that had disturbed it.

Below, still escaping its notice, Ori readied herself for the battle ahead, and for the spider's wrath. Despite the spider's size and the potency of its venom, Ori felt optimistic. She had bested greater foes than this by herself, and today she still was still rested and strong. This confidence all fell apart, however, when she realized she had no spirit links. Death here was permanent. The spirit tree was no longer focused solely on keeping her alive, and therefore, Ori no longer had the luxury of a second chance.

She glanced to her right, towards Coryn. He was looking up, amber eyes filled with shock at seeing a large corruption for the first time. He adopted an instinctual defensive stance, widening out his profile. Ori knew from experience that this was a mistake.


Brain still half asleep, the spider identified Coryn as the greatest threat and crawled towards him. The small guardian was just an afterthought, at least until a blast of white energy shook the spider's fat body. Ori had damaged the spider with his blast, but she could not use her full power with Coryn standing so nearby. The spider shuddered from the impact, the mutated flesh surrounding it boiled away slightly. It lowered its head towards Ori, giving her a look of pure malice.

Ori screamed for Coryn to take flight, but had no time to look. She had to shift her attention back to the snapping fangs of the monstrous corruption. She backflipped away from the spider's lunge and, praying Coryn was safe, unleashed a volley of spirit fire from her paws. The glowing bursts of light arced straight into the spider's face, but the beast barely flinched. It must have been the element of surprise that enabled the first attack.

The spider raised its mandibles and spat a glob of steaming, acidic puss at Ori. Ori simply stepped to the side and returned fire, but she knew the spider would tire her out before she could deal any real damage…

Suddenly, from the darkness, Coryn slashed down from the skies, severing one of the spider's legs in a sudden burst of speed and agility.

"LET'S GO!"

Ori cheered Coryn on as he struck again at its abdomen, his claws leaving long gashes in its exoskeleton. The spider shrieked, but it was so intent on killing Ori that it barely slowed down. It raised one of its surviving legs up and brought it earthward in a deadly slashing attack. The strike would surely have extinguished Ori's light had she not leaped back with perfect timing. Practice had payed off.

The ground shook and was thrown up all around her, but she now had time to retreat and figure out a way out of this horrible situation.

Ori glanced around as she ran. In the chaos, the gate to the swamp had closed. Or... had someone closed it? The only other gate was blocked by the spider's body as it tried to swat down Coryn. The way out seemed to be by destroying the spider, and that was no easy task...


Meanwhile, overhead

Coryn flew erratically through the air, trying to find an opening in the spider's guard. He was not expecting the corruption to be as vicious as this. He tried to summon a decoy or use any of the magic Sien had tried to teach him, but it was to no avail. He snapped back to reality in time to dodge an acid spray from the spider's maw. It splattered on the cave ceiling behind him, too close for comfort.


Ori

At that moment, Ori felt the spark of an idea. As she watched Coryn dance around the giant spider, she asked herself: how could such a monstrosity be destroyed? Only one foe had stood up to her spirit flame like the spider… How had she defeated her? Just as she had when Kuro had barred the way, Ori looked up . She scanned cave, tuning out the sounds of battle and trying to focus… There! It was a boulder, teetering on the brink of oblivion. It looked like it should have fallen years ago, only connected to the ceiling by a thin weave of rock as it was...

Ori smirked slightly. She had little doubt she could bring it down on the corruption. A blast to break it off would take some concentration, but it would probably end the spider; at least partially crushing it. The issue came with making it up to the cave ceiling. She scanned the wall for a safe path up, calculating her jumps up, but finding nothing.


Coryn

Above, Coryn was paying a high price for each of Ori's seconds out of the fight. He looked around: "Were was Ori?!" he asked himself as he flew. The wind whistled in his ears as darted through the cave, dodging the spider's predictable attacks. Now that he had gotten over his initial shock, he had been convincingly strong in the fight, but apart from his first strike, he could do little to slow the spider down. Suddenly, pain flared through his left wing. A single drop of acid had landed on him, and it seared his feathers. He shrieked in pain but did not let it break his focus.

Suddenly, pain flared through his left wing. A single drop of acid had landed on him, and it seared his feathers, burning away at him. He shrieked in pain but did not let it break his focus. He trusted Ori, and wanted to buy time for her, whatever she was doing.


Ori

Ori watched the fight in dismay. It looked like if it was allowed to drag on, there would be no real contest. Ending it early would be a challenge, she would have to scale the cave walls, and there seemed to be no safe path up. The spider would probably just pick her off.

Ori considered trying to climb the spider to reach the outcrop. On second thought, she dismissed it. It seemed was too dangerous and stupid to be anything but a last resort. She realized that she needed Coryn's help, and his help seemed to be in short supply.


Above

Coryn was slowly losing the battle for the skies. The spider was so large, it was impossible to focus on all of its instruments of death. His wingbeats and his mind were starting to stall as he struggled to dodge the numerous projectiles thrown up at him. He spun to the right to avoid one of the spider's spiny legs and countered by raking his claws across the spider's eyes. He pulled out of his dive just as the ground rushed up to meet him. The spider lashed out in a half-blind fury. One of the spider's shots flew true, and Coryn raised his wing in a last-second attempt to protect his body.

Ori was watching in horror as her last hope of victory was about to go down in flames.

She dashed forward, desperate to try and distract the spider or do anything to save her brother.

Coryn braced himself, anticipating the pain. Hopefully, Ori had made it out. He had just enough time to stare death in the face before it hit him.

Light and fire starburst in the air as the spider's shot detonated, and then dissipated.

High above, the rock shook and shuddered. Ori stared into the sky, wide-eyed with awe and sadness. A pitch black comet crashed towards the ground, and all Coryn was aware of was the whistling of wind around him, and then the cruel pain of landfall…


Did someone say that Ori and the Blind Forest lacked bosses?

Edit: Sorry for the massive delay in uploading this, I took it down for maintenance and basically discovered a million writing errors. I also added more to the second half, so now it's split into three chapters. Ch 4 on the way