Legends: The Emerald World

The emperor opened his eyes as he had just ordered the spider to stop exploring the place and head immediately into the solitary confinement cell to find the beast woman. This asylum won't last any longer, he could see it, the dreadful presence approaching from the horizon.

That thing was probably drawn to the bloodshed of the battlefield outside, it's coming down to check on the area like a shark smelling blood in the ocean. Albeit they were as intelligent if not smarter than humans they can't speak their language, it's the same way humans can't speak animals' language.

That fiery aura was unmistakable, and having it be just of the supreme rank meant the beast was still fairly young and naïve. Usually, the emperor would be relieved that it's not something stronger, but in his current condition, a mortal of the higher stages is a big enough disaster, let alone facing the coming tyrant.

The smell of ash, sulfur, and pumice filled the air on the mountain chain as smoke rose into the sky.

'Please hurry, little spider. Get this job done and I promise that I'll keep tamed for the rest of my life.' He held his breaths, carefully watching what the spider was seeing as it crawled on the walls, eventually reaching the beast woman's cell.

The solitary confinement cell was one large empty stone room with no windows or furniture. Old murky water filled the ground, causing the place to smell worse than sewers. The only access was one tiny hole in the ceiling that they dropped prisoners from. Since the hole was in the middle of the ceiling, it was impossible to get out without a rope or a ladder.

Inside the cell he could see the beast woman curled onto herself like a cat, conserving heat as she seemed sleeping. She'll die from the freezing cold before hunger or thirst can get to her. And even if this was summer and she could survive, she'd get eaten alive by rats when she started starving and lost all of her power.

That would've been the case had she been human, but she wasn't. The emperor could already see traces of blood on the murky water, before going to sleep, she must've had a decent meal. Those ears and tail indicated that she was a cat beast woman, and she must've feasted upon one of the many fat rats around.

As the spider slowly dangled from the ceiling, it suddenly lifted its head up as she sensed something. The emperor paled as the spider saw something horrific, another large spider almost twice its size, approaching her with fangs dripping with poison.

{Notice: Your tamed [Black Cupboard Spider] is engaging in a battle with an old spider of the same species.}

'What?' He had never faced such a thing before, tamed monsters and beasts get very often into fights but this still seemed stranger than the other notification. That voice even identified that it's facing the same species.

The emperor's small spider swung back on its web, barely managing to unleash a new thread at the ceiling and dodge the spider's fangs. By the time it landed, the larger spider was already above her, biting down.

That large spider seemed like a massive monster from the spider's eyes, especially with its explosive speed that reminded him of high-ranking beasts.

'Dodge!' His instincts kicked in as this was now like a regular fight among tamed beasts. The emperor's thoughts surged in the tiny spider's mind, making her dodge at the last moment.

As the emperor got a close look at the large spider's wiggling fangs, he realized that even if this fight was between two tiny bugs by human scale, to his summoned beast, she was facing a deadly foe. One wrong step and he'll have to start again, and he doesn't have time for that.

The large spider tried to bite the emperor's spider once more, but the little one dodged again, avoiding the fangs, and slipped between the large spider's legs, running beneath the large spider's belly.

The large spider unleashed a large cobweb to block the tiny one's escape path, but the emperor was quick to predict such a move and had the little one dodge with perfect timing. He had a plan but didn't know if it would work. The most useless tamer skill that he only found useful to play tricks on his students in the past might be a lifesaver in this battle.

In combat, a tamer is usually weaker than his monsters. That was the main reason tames existed, to make other creatures fight for them. It didn't make sense to use this skill in a real fight, but this was a weak spider bullying his even weaker spider, probably seeing her as easy food.

The main ability for tamers is siphoning their beast's power to use for themselves, those who tamed salamanders could summon fire, and those who tamed fanged beasts could crow claws and fangs. But what most people don't know is that ability works in reverse, a tamer can grant his power to his tamed beast.

The emperor's thoughts flashed in the spider's mind, one last gamble. She either does it or ends up as food. 'Punch it!'

The tiny spider jumped over the large spider and swung one of its legs down, which was in fact upward toward the ceiling as they were hanging upside down. The moment the spider's small leg hit the large spider's body, that spider's body flattened against the ceiling from the sheer force of the hit.

The small spider had used the emperor's strength as a human to crush the large spider. Even his scrawny and malnourished body was still powerful enough to kill bugs.

"Yes!" The emperor gasped, almost jumping into his cell. The other prisoner thought he was finally going insane from starvation. But unknown to them, his little friend had just survived a deadly battle.

{Notice: Spider gained a new skill [Master's Sync] With this skill, it can use the tamer's power in combat.}

{Notice: Spider gained a new skill [Shared Thinking] with this skill, it can use the tamer's brain to process thoughts.}

{Notice: Spider leveled up to level 2. Stats increased.}

'Confused at the rush of notification, the emperor tried to process what had just happened, just for a random thought to shatter his chain of thoughts like a thunder boom.'

'BOOOYAAAAAAAAAA! See that, sister! I won, I won…oomph! Oomph!' The tiny spider was dancing on the ceiling, her thoughts seeping into the emperor's brain, no they were processed into human-level thoughts in his brain.

The emperor was baffled, bewildered, and even more so, confused. Such a thing had never happened before in his life, that was a spider, a bug…it was thinking, using his brain…

'You! Notice voice, what's going on!' He growled in his head. He was able to ignore the voices so far, but not after witnessing such a thing.

'Talking me to, flesh houseframe. Sister is dead, servers her right, she tried to eat me right after we hatched…I was celebrating…but I guess a houseframe won't understand that.' The spider giggled and the emperor had a puzzled look on his face.

'Now you can talk back?' He growled.

'Me? You're the one who suddenly started talking! I was just following some feeling up my stomach, but now you're speaking…I've almost had my large butt chomped by my sister, you know all of my organs are in there, right?^ She complained with a tired voice.

'Forget about that, we'll talk later. The cat woman; we need to wake her up. We don't have time, this place will get destroyed soon.' He yelled at her and the spider sighed like an exhausted worker getting yelled at by her employer.

'Fine, she's right below me…' When the spider looked down, she saw the cat woman staring straight at her with glowing green eyes.

'Mommy save me!' She cried, her voice shocking the emperor's mind.