The armies are at the gates, and war could break out at any second.
Daybreak has come, but the Alliance of Light feels anything but bright. The rising sun only makes their hearts colder, gloomier. Mordor’s legions are pouring over the mountains, a black tide ready to swallow the land whole. Only now does the Alliance realize what kind of horrifying 'gift' Sauron has been preparing in secret these past few years.
Let’s not even talk about the Mountain Giant—it’s just sitting there, ten kilometers out, like a real mountain. Gandalf was right: this thing can’t move freely forever. The volcano keeps pumping magical energy into its body, storing it up. But even with a nonstop supply, it needs a whole day to charge up, and then it only gets a few minutes of action. It’s basically the magical version of 'charge for two hours, talk for five minutes.'
Of course, all that ridiculous energy consumption comes with unbeatable siege power. During those brief moments it’s active, the Giant is basically invincible.
Everyone knows they can’t let that big guy get moving again. They have to find a way to take it out while it’s still resting!
The wizards are all scrambling to calculate and divine a solution, while Liu Xiaoying throws every trick she’s got at measuring and evaluating the situation. Thanks to a mix of magical methods and cutting-edge tech from Eternal Night, they figure out the Heart of the Mountains is hidden inside the Mountain Giant, probably right where its heart would be. The Heart itself is pretty much indestructible, but if they can pry that gem out of the big rock, the Giant will just turn into a giant pile of useless building material.
But the problem is—
“The problem is, how do we pry that stupid rock out?” The generals are bickering. “We can’t even get close to it!”
Yep, the Mountain Giant is surrounded by an endless swarm of spider-mutants. Only now do people get a good look at them: they’re all basically built from the same mold—upper bodies of different creatures slapped onto the lower bodies of spiders. The host creatures vary, so the spider-mutants end up with all sorts of differences.
The ones made from women are smaller and more slender, about the height of a grown man. They don’t wear armor, but their upper bodies have a layer of exoskeleton covering the important bits—who knows how tough it is. Their bellies are swollen, their silk glands are super developed, and they can whip up webs and shoot them out in no time. At mid-range, that’s a pretty handy crowd-control move.