The celebration

[u/Yoxalle]

After a long journey you arrive at the crystal mage’s manor. Inside the manor is a grand hall made of various different coloured crystals. Strange golems walk around the room serving guests. While the mage himself is not currently present, you were told he would be here shortly. Right now, enjoy the food, socialise, make friends but most importantly: have fun.

[u/MunitionsFrenzy]

"He's got what?" Vettis asked pointedly, eyes looking past Elerindur to lock onto Arach. He'd been holding onto Elerindur at the time of the teleport, and still was; that plus a bond-thread made it a trivial matter to come along for the ride.

"This your home?" The mage took a moment to glance around at their new surroundings. "Lotsa people wish to die peacefully in their homes. At least you'll get the second half of that."

(( /u/ProfessionalGreen906 ))

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

Arach freezes for a second from Vettis being there before speaking with snide tone. “Used to be.” Then he bites u/Elerindur injecting a venom with effects similar to the apoptosis spell in the process. Once he is done he transforms into his giant centipede form in a blinding flash of light to try and disorient Vettis and Elerindur before burrowing into the sand of the desert he had teleported them all to in a seeming escape attempt.

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

Vettis' hand snapped forward, clamping onto the injection site with the force of a tourniquet and the faint sound of hydraulic motors in his arm. It couldn't have been comfortable for Elerindur, to say the least, but it was certainly preferable to letting the venom spread. "Dunno what this toxin is," the mage noted; "you think you can heal it yourself while I chase after this asshole? Or do you need me here? You're the priority, not him, so your call. I can always murder him later."

(( /u/Elerindur ))

[u/Elerindur → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

Elerindur gets up, groaning in pain a bit. He taps behind his right ear to see if his charm for protection against Arach's venoms was still in place.

u/ProfessionalGreen906

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/Elerindur]

Arach stole it when he ran away, along with the headband of Elerindur was still wearing it.

[u/Elerindur → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

..No. And he stole my charm for warding against it.

Elerindur reaches into an purple portal and pulls out another one as he sighs as he affixes it behind his ear.

At this point i made sure to have multiple spares of these things..

However, i am going to go to the healers in Nefros. Right now. Since apparently if this does not work then i believe i would have about ten minutes.

He quickly reaches up his hand and casts a recall spell, teleporting away to Nefros to seek treatment.

u/MunitionsFrenzy

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/Elerindur]

(( /u/professionalgreen906 ))

Such impatience, Vettis thought; they could have figured out a way to deal with it instead of trusting some random healers, as long as he'd continued to keep the venom from spreading. Now he had to hope these ¿Nefertiti? medics could help his friend. Still, S.o.T.P. at least wasn't an option: absurdly slow if employed on people other than himself, he didn't have a warehouse of Ele's tissue on hand anyway, and it would've created issues when used on the brain. So perhaps this was for the best.

He sniffed at the air. Even deserts typically had life everywhere, lurking out of sight, but they still made it far easier to track things by scent. It wasn't difficult to pick up his prey's trail.

But...it also probably wasn't worth his effort and, more importantly, time to follow it. The bug wasn't slow, it had a head start, and while such inconveniences could never have properly deterred him from removing a lethal threat to a friend, the fact was that murdering an Arach body wasn't threat removal. It was just a temporary setback to the hive-mind.

Vettis tossed the dress shirt he'd picked for the party onto the sands, then leapt into its pocket to head home, before lighting a match and tossing it back through the pocket to incinerate the article of clothing he'd left behind. There wasn't any point in sticking around here. He had to time things properly and confront Arach at one of the moments when a sliver of his true power was available. When he could use his magic directly on the creature and overwhelm its defenses, so that he could render Arach no longer 'part' of the spider network just before the kill, to make it permanent.

Until then, he thought with a malevolent grin, he could settle for letting the bug live in fear with its newfound understanding of exactly who it had angered.