Despite my anxiety, the next thirty minutes passed without incident. If Cassandra is right, we must almost be at the warren’s entrance, I thought, beginning to believe we would reach it without mishap.
A slight shift in the sand to my right caught my eye. What was that? I wondered. But I didn’t look, hesitant to take my eyes off the hills leaning down balefully.
We were in a particularly narrow pass between the hills. Despite the sun overhead, the overlooking slopes cast long shadows across the ground. It was an ideal spot for an ambush and I, like the others, anxiously scanned the surroundings, studying every nook and cranny for hidden enemies.
But the ground underfoot was safe. Wasn’t it?
The sand twitched again and, no longer able to ignore the movement, I darted a quick look at the ground. My eyes widened as realisation struck. “Watch out—”
My cry came too late.
From either side of us, two blurred shapes burst out of the ground and leapt onto the party in a shower of dirt. It’s the spiders, I despaired. Despite our care, we had still been caught off guard.
Michael managed only a half-strangled cry before he disappeared beneath the giant spider attacking from the left. John on the right was quicker, and managed to raise his spear in time for the leaping monster to skewer itself on the sharpened stick.
I swung left, rushing to Michael’s aid. The spider was stabbing down with its razor-sharp limbs on the downed spearman. Before the spider—the size of a large dog—could turn my way, I slapped my hand onto one prickly leg and unleashed flare.
The raging inferno boiled out of me and directly into the creature. The spider shrieked, and its brown skin turned an angry red at the point of contact. To my immense relief, none of the flames spread out of the creature to endanger Michael lying helpless on the ground.
Behind me, I sensed the three women converge on the second spider. Pinned by John, it made for an easier target. But before I could get a sense of how the others were faring, my foe dug out its other limbs from Michael and struck at me instead.
I tried to dodge the incoming attacks, but since I was hampered by my need to keep my right hand firmly clasped onto the spider, I was unable to duck out of the way.
The forest of limbs descended upon me, each sharper than any murluk spear. I clenched my jaw to cut off the shriek that threatened to erupt as the attacks bit through my armour and into my torso.
Aaargh, that hurts, I swore. I rode the pain and refused to let go of the leg I held trapped. I bashed once at the spider with my shield, then ducked my head behind its meagre shelter as the spider struck again in retaliation.
I rode the second wave of attacks better. Using my shield, I managed to fend off at least half the spider’s limbs while I continued to pour ravenous dragonfire directly into its body.
Already I could tell my dragonfire was not as effective against the spider as it had been with the murluks. A murluk would have been ash by now. The spider, though, was still very much alive.
But I was already committed, and I dared not loosen my grip on the monster. Doing that would expose Michael to my flames, and I still couldn’t control it well enough to be certain it wouldn’t burn him, not when he lay so close.
The spider battered me with its limbs for a third time, and even though I foiled half its attacks, those that got through shredded my armour with laughable ease. Grim-faced, I ignored the rivulets of red spreading across my torso and held on.
As I had hoped, eventually the white-hot fury of my dragonfire proved too much for my foe to endure and it turned to flee. No you don’t, I thought. I wasn’t going to let it go that easily. I tightened my grip around its leg and hung on.
The spider yanked hard at its leg, desperate to free itself. I smiled a bloody grin and wrapped my left arm around it as well. The creature had already lost. It just didn’t know it yet.
The spider grew more frantic, and in its panic it even managed to drag me a few feet across the ground. But with both my hands wrapped around its leg, escape was impossible.
It only took a few more seconds.
Then, inevitably, the spider collapsed in on itself and its life drained away. A Trials message floated into view.
You have gained in experience and are now a: level 13 Trainee.
I rolled onto my back and cackled, the sound more than a little disturbing. For a moment, it was all I could do to lie still while my chest heaved and I gasped for breath.
I was a mess. Again. My health hung dangerously low and my armour had been cut to ribbons. Not to mention I seemed to be bathed in blood, much of it my own.
At a cut-off cry from nearby, I lifted my head. The others were still battling the second spider. The creature remained pinned on the end of John’s spear. While it struggled to escape, Tara danced around its waving limbs and struck at will.
Firing arrows at point-blank range, Laura and Cassandra were doing their own fair share of damage, while John manoeuvred his long spear to make sure the spider couldn’t escape.
They seemed to have matters well in hand, I thought. Summoning my mana once again, I cast lay hands on myself. Under the spell’s touch, my wounds closed over. I rose to my feet, still a bit unsteady from the blood loss but otherwise hale. I limped over to Michael.
The spearman lay unmoving, and for a moment I feared the worst. But his chest moved up and down. He was alive. I heaved a sigh of relief and inspected his body carefully.
Despite his comatose state, Michael had sustained very little damage. Unlike me, I thought, chuckling. I had come far too close to dying.
On his neck, Michael bore twin puncture wounds. He’s been paralysed, I realised. Setting my hands to his torso, I healed Michael of his few injuries. Lay hands failed to remove the paralysing effect of the spider’s bite though.
I scratched my head worriedly. Would Michael be alright? Had the spider’s toxins done more than paralyse him?
“Jamie, are you alright?” asked Tara, running up to me.
I turned around to face her. “Yeah.” I gestured down at my blood-streaked body and tattered armour. “It looks much worse than it is.” Or it did so now anyway.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have left you to tackle that spider on your own. But I saw you take hold of it… and after how you handled the murluks… I thought—I thought…”
“It’s alright, Tara,” I said, stopping her flow of words. “You made the right call. I got the better of the damned thing—eventually.” Beyond Tara, I spied the carcass of the second dead spider and John limping over to join us. “Need healing, John?”
The big man smiled. “Please.”
I set my hands on the lieutenant and healed him. His injuries weren’t bad either. It seemed I had borne the brunt of the damage in the battle. You’re not a damn tank, Jamie, I berated myself.
I realised that, if in future I wasn’t more careful, I would kill myself with flare.
Now, wouldn’t that be funny.
✽✽✽
Much to everyone’s relief, Michael recovered from the spider’s bite a little later, though his face was as pale as a sheet. It turned out, he had seen and heard everything. The paralysis had locked his limbs in place, but left his mind unaffected.
I spent the time lying on my back, recuperating while the other four inspected the two corpses. The spider I had burned hadn’t turned to ash as the murluks had. The murluks’ own vulnerability to fire had probably been responsible for that, magnifying the damage they sustained manyfold.
John and Tara had turned over one of the corpses on its back. The spider seemed to weigh very little. Laura and Cassandra were inspecting the corpse, running their hands over its limbs and scrutinising its skin with their eyes less than a few inches away. The pair even went so far as to sniff the darn creature.
I scratched my head in bemusement. What are they up to? Curious, I rose to my feet and joined them. “What are you doing, Cassandra?”
/> The redhead flicked her eyes away for an instant from the spider to glance at me. “Call me Cass,” she said. “We’re inspecting it with anatomy.”
Anatomy was a combat Discipline that advanced analyse, increasing the degree of information it provided, including a creature’s strength and weaknesses. It provided other benefits too and could supposedly reveal an enemy’s vulnerable areas in real-time during combat. How, I was not quite sure. “Doesn’t the spider have to be alive for you to use the skill?”
“No,” she said, sitting back on her haunches. “In fact, it is much easier to apply it this way. My skill in the Discipline is still too low for success to be certain on living enemies.”
“You find out anything?” asked Tara.
“It has a paralysing bite,” said Laura. She forced open the spider’s mouth and gestured to the two mandibles protruding out. “But we already knew that. The bite itself does minimal damage, and the paralysis will wear off after about a minute. But the effect can be reapplied with repeated bites. It’s how the spiders consume their prey, I imagine.”
Beside me, I felt Michael shudder. I sympathised. Being eaten alive would not be a good way to go.
Laura rubbed her hands across the creature’s patterned torso. “The spider’s skin is tough and resistant to piercing, but its bones are light. Crushing weapons will be the most effective against them.”
I pulled out my sheathed club. “Like this?” At Laura’s nod, I handed over the weapon to Tara. She would make better use of it than I could.
Tara nodded at me gratefully. “Anything useful we can harvest from the creatures?” she asked the two hunters.
“There is still some silk in this one’s spinnerets,” Cassandra answered. “And the skin will be useful too.”
“Good, then let’s load the bodies onto the sled,” Tara ordered.
Michael and John saw to it. Joining them, I used analyse on the dead spiders.
The target is a level 30 brown spider scout. It has no Magic, meagre Resilience, is gifted with Might, and has low Craft.
The spider’s meagre Resilience explained its low health pool and why I had been able to kill it, even though it was far beyond my own level.
Staring thoughtfully at the corpse, I began inspecting it just like I had seen the two sisters do.
You have uncovered a brown spider Technique: paralysing bite. Your skill in anatomy has advanced to: level 2.
It worked, I thought happily. I would have to make sure to similarly inspect any other slain foes in future.
“Jamie! Stop playing with the bodies,” Tara shouted irritably. “Let’s get moving, and everyone make sure you watch the damn ground. Let’s not fall for the same trick twice.”
Chapter 25
390 days until the Arkon Shield falls
Cassandra had been spot-on about the location of the warren’s entrance. After travelling only a few dozen yards farther, we drew to a halt at the base of another hill.
A large hole had been dug out in the ground, and judging by the cobwebs stretched across its width, it was unmistakably the entrance to the spiders’ warren. Eight feet tall and about three feet wide, it was large enough for us to walk through upright—and suspiciously unguarded.
“You really want to go in there?” Tara asked.
“I do,” I said firmly. “The spiders are physically weak. And we know how to kill them now,” I said, gesturing to the club she held in hand.
Tara eyed me doubtfully, though she didn’t contradict my words. Laura rejoined us just then, bearing an armful of the small branches she had left to scavenge. We would need light inside. With a quick burst of flare, I lit each of the torches.
Then without further discussion, we descended in a single file into the warren. It was dank, dark, and mouldy inside and large stretches of cobwebs draped the sides of the gently sloping tunnels, further cementing my conviction we were in the right place.
But surprisingly, even after we had advanced a few yards into the warren, no spiders burst out of its depths to defend their home. I had expected us to be assaulted the moment we entered. Yet in the first twenty yards, we encountered no opposition.
What’s going on? I wondered. Something about this doesn’t feel right.
Presently, the entrance tunnel that so far had continued unerringly straight into the earth’s depths with neither twists, turns, nor side tunnels opened out into a large cavern, ten yards in diameter.
As we spread out across it, I spotted three other exits leading deeper into the warren. If we are going to be ambushed, it will be here, I thought. “Be careful—”
I broke off as a flood of Trials messages filled my vision.
You have discovered: a lair. Your skill in lore has advanced to: level 9. Name: Brown Spider Warren. Age: Infancy, less than thirty days old. Designation: Unclaimed. To claim this lair, defeat all its guardians.
Warning: You have entered the Brown Spider Warren with a party of six. The maximum allowed party size for this lair is five. Reduce your party. Time remaining before the warren is destroyed: 2 minutes.
“A lair,” I breathed in awe.
The others were also studying the messages that appeared before them, their expressions confused. “What is a lair?” muttered Tara.
“A lair,” I explained absently while re-reading the Trials messages with avid interest, “is similar to a dungeon, but differs in two notable ways. First off, they usually only contain a single type of creature, and secondly they can be claimed, whereas a dungeon cannot be.”
Silence greeted my words.
I closed the Trials message and turned to face the others. They were staring at me. “How do you know all that?” asked Tara finally.
“I read the Trials Infopedia.”
“Infopedia?” asked John.
I glanced across the five. “None of you are gamers, are you?” Their blank looks were answer enough. It was also clear they didn’t even know of the wiki’s existence. But now was not the time to explain. We didn’t have much time to get organised.
“I’ll tell you about it later. The important thing is that one of us needs to leave.”
But Tara was shaking her head. “No,” she said. “This is more than we bargained for. We all need to leave. We will reassess matters after we’ve reported to the commander.” She swung away, heading towards the entrance.
“Wait, Tara,” I ordered.
She turned around, surprised by the tone of my voice.
“I don’t think you understand what this discovery means,” I said. “A lair can be an incredible resource for the Outpost. If we claim it, the creatures spawned here will belong to the settlement.”
Tara stepped back towards me. “You mean they will be… domesticated?” she asked slowly.
“Something like that,” I replied. “It will take some work to mature the lair to full ally status, but to begin with the spiders from this warren will be neutral to the settlement. And,” I continued, seeing that she was beginning to be swayed, “the longer this lair is left unclaimed the stronger it will grow. At the moment, it’s still young. Now is our best chance of claiming it.”
Tara chewed her lip while she considered my words. It didn’t take her long to decide. “Cass,” she ordered, “you head back to the Outpost. Report directly to the old lady. Tell her what we found and what Jamie has surmised.” She glanced at me. “And make sure Captain Marcus is present when you do.”
I looked questioningly at her.
Tara’s lips curled down. “Like you, Marcus is a gamer,” she said. “He will make sure the commander understands the import of your words.”
So Tara knows I am a gamer, I thought. Yet strangely enough whatever dislike she felt towards gamers didn’t seem to extend to me. But it was not a topic to broach at that moment. Nodding agreeably, I swung back to study our surroundings.
We could not stay in the cavern long. It was too open, and we would be quickly overrun if the spid
ers assaulted us here. But which of the three exits do we take?
As Cass hurried out of the warren, another Trials message dropped open in my sight.
You party has been reduced to five. Lair run will begin in: 30 seconds.
I frowned as I read the message.
The countdown timer sounded ominous. While my knowledge had seemed to impress the others earlier, what I had told them was nearly the sum total of what I knew of lairs.
Yet the little I did know, pointed to the Trials itself exerting some form of control over a lair’s creatures. Why else had the spiders not attacked us when we entered the warren?
How the Trials achieved its dominance over a lair’s inhabitants, I had no idea, but its latest message also supported the notion. I couldn’t be certain what the Trials meant by a ‘lair run,’ or by the countdown timer, but if I had to guess… I would say we were about to be attacked.
“Tara,” I called. “When that timer runs out, I expect the spiders will swarm in through those three tunnels coming from deeper in the warren.”
“What numbers can we expect?” she asked, seeming to believe my expertise greater than it was.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But the lair is still in its infancy. We likely won’t face too many.”
Tara, thankfully, did not question the vagueness of my response. “Let’s back up into the tunnel we entered from,” she ordered. “Michael, John, plant the torches somewhere in the cavern. We’re going to need the light. Laura, you’re in the rear. Shoot over our heads when they come. John, you’re with me in the front—”
“No, Tara,” I said. “I have to be up front to use flare.”
She hesitated only for a beat. “Alright. John and Michael, you two behind us. Just like in the spear wall, stab over us into the spiders. Try to pin them in place with your spears.”
A chorus of “yes, ma’am” followed Tara’s orders, and we fell quickly into formation, retreating to where the entrance-tunnel fed into the cavern.
Overworld (Dragon Mage Saga Book 1): A fantasy post-apocalyptic story Page 22
