My System has a Glitch

The rotting tree slowly broke apart, crumbling like a sand castle. Its withered branches crashed into the water and its trunk was split in two, with each one part falling in the opposite direction.

The web dissolved and the rotten bodies fell like into the water, shattering on impact.

A million of sweat beads covered William's face as he searched around for the spider, he looked from crumbled trees to deadbodies and in all the chaos he couldn't find a thing.

There was a lump rising in his throat, a fear he couldn't stomach. This creature was a complete rogue, it could be anywhere, it could move into any space. The more he thought about it the more sweat washed passed his eyes.

The waters were restless, all the fighting had made it so and the wind had no grace to it anymore, it blew so heavy they feared their location would be revealed to the other players or worse, to the spider.

'How small could it have gotten?' William wondered.

He looked up and saw the loot resting peacefully on green webs with the impaled man's blood still dripping off it.

"Is it really worth all this?" William thought to himself.

He could see a part of the web had been damaged but it still the loot seemed secured.

"This wasn't in the encyclopedia?" One of the players cried.

"All of this is a lie, they're tricking us, we don't stand a chance, we're all gonna die."

"Calm down Ryo, we can't lose our heads."

Ingrid turned away from them and walked to William. She stopped just behind him and said,

"William, I think we're going to need more than a couple grenades to kill that thing.

"Yeah," William said, his eyes still fixed on the raging waters. "I think so too."

William took a deep breath to calm himself. He was standing on the edge of the tree leaning on the cover of the leaves. From this vantage point, he was invisible to any one from on the outside but still he was worried the spider could have other means of sensing its prey.

He took in another deep breath and calmed himself well enough to think then he turned and looked at every one on the tree top.

The trunk was broad enough and the branches were spread out in such a way that they had enough room to walk on.

Willam looked at the man that had the grenade. "So why are you still here? only a moment ago, you were also eager to leave? "

The men weren't very happy with being teased, still they were a bit ashamed and scared and could find the words to say in response.

William smiled and said, "I understand. Now, do any of you have a landmine I can borrow?"

This was the second time he was asking and this time he was trying to be nice.

The men looked at each other and one of them nodded to the other and the other one whispered in the other one's ear.

Then they looked at each other as if transmitting their thoughts through the look in their eyes and William watched them wondering what would come next, then the they turned to him and said,

"How much do you want for it?"

William burst out laughing and the men just watched him, Ingrid smiled and chuckled as William's laughter grew.

William paused and looked at them and they could see that shine in eyes were coated with tears his laughter had forced out, the glee on his face made them feel like complete idiots, they couldn't understand how he could laugh at such a delicate time.

"Are you really serious?" willaim said to them. They looked at each other unsure if they still were.

Oh my god you are you serious, william buried his face in his arm, what's wrong with you people, you both saw what the spider did.

"So what!" One of the men cried.

"Hush! keep your voice down," William pleaded.

"Whatever, We've got to look out for ourselves, we'll die if our time runs out, we'll die if the spider gets us. What does it matter, all I know is, you aren't getting it for free."

William sighed and scratched his head, Ingrid caught his eyes and she nodded at him, which reminded him of the men's odd behavior earlier. He smiled at her as he had understood what she was trying to pass onto him.

Now William got very direct and serious with them, his eyes narrow and he spoke to them like his words were decrees written on stone.

"Now listen boys, the reality is that we're gonna die unless we kill that thing. There's no two ways about it, no one will leave here unless that thing's dead."

"What I want is for the two of you to go up there and get the loot and when the spider comes to stop you we'll kill it with your explosives and if we manage to kill it, then we can share the spoils between ourselves. So what do you think?"

The men thought it over for a moment and said, it'll be even right, we'll split it evenly.

"Now fellas," William said. "You know this isn't a socialist arrangement, you'll get out as much as you put in."

"So we'll get as much as you say."

"Yes it just so happens I'm god around here."

They didn't receive this statement well. They looked at each other and continued debating his idea in a hushed tone. William smiled as he watched them, they were acting out his play.

He knew they would resist being bait if they didn't stand the chance of getting the loot and he knew if he succeeded in killing the spider they would escape with loot.

So in a twisted he encourage them to steal it, to cheat him which would only cause doubt in their mind and him playing a very tough and direct character would only make them thing he was a very dangerous man, willing enough to take on a giant spider and the kind of man you wouldn't want to steal from.

Ingrid had turned to keep a look out in case the spider resurfaced but instead she saw her brother in the distance slowly walking towards a corpse.

'What is he doing?' she thought.

"So we're all in agreement?" William said and the men grudgingly agreed. William put his hand out and said with a smile on his face, "Now give it to me."

William, Ingrid called out to him in a frightened tone, he turned around and saw the worried look in her eyes and before he could ask her what was wrong, she turned her face towards a branch by her far left and William followed her gaze.

The man behind him turned pale and could barely keep calm but Ingrid stood as still as she could and slowly turned her face back, told him and asked nervously.

"Is that it!?"

William watched a spider as it crawled up the branch and he couldn't deny it did look like a miniature version of the large spider complete with the green body and the red spots but he wanted to be optimistic for her sake as she, no matter her close it was to her, afterall it could just be a regular spider.

"I don't know," William said in a whisper. "Just Slowly move away."

She slowly moved towards and the spider behaved just like any other one would, minding its business as it made its way up the branch then it turned around just when she was so close to him.

it stopped and she stopped, they looked at it and couldn't shake the feeling that it looked at them, then in a flash it leaped out the branch and it jumped at them and the spider that had been the size of a pebble grew to the size of a hand.

*****

Nod hid behind the trees and ducked for cover as part of the crumbling tree landed a few feet from him. After the impact he quickly went to look for the body of Grim, he knew where he landed after m the spider flung him.

He found the man slumped on a low bridge that had broken his fall, half of his body was in the water and the other half bleeding into it. The closer he got the more he could hear low groaning coming from the dying man.

He got very close to the body and cradled the man's head.

'Grim can you hear me?' Nod could see the man recognized him; he had blood spilling out of his mouth and a gaping hole through his belly.

"Can you hear me!" Nod could see he was barely alive and his will was almost gone. The temptation was clear, what had brought him here wasn't the desire to help a friend but to steal, to take advantage of the opportunity before he died and his Guide collapsed.

"I'm sorry but you won't need this any more," Nod tightened his grip on the man's head and he infiltrated his guide. He could see into it and could sift through it like a Loot box.

Nod cleaned house but there was very little time left to take, his guide was collapsing, the spider attack had eaten away his lifespan and left him with a handful of dying minutes.

Nod watched the man's time count down, he had about a minute left to live, so he thought about it and decided to spare him the agony. He took the little time he had left and sunk the body in the shallow water.