by Andrew Rowe
“Not possible, I’m afraid. We require Vera’s assistance to expedite our research. And now that you all know my plans, I can’t risk you making contact with Katashi. You could tell him everything I’ve told you.”
Vera folded her arms. “And if I don’t want to help with your little research plan?”
Orden shrugged a shoulder. “That would be quite unfortunate — but I do have more rings.”
The smug expression on her face when she watched Vera’s fists clench was enough to finalize my decision.
I didn’t draw my sword. That would be a pointless gesture, one that might have triggered a response from her.
Instead, I offered her a final question. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance that we could convince you to surrender to us?”
Profeessor Orden didn’t even laugh this time. “Oh, Corin. No, there would be no chance of such a thing... You aren’t considering anything foolish, are you?”
I turned to Sera and said, “Signal.”
I’d always wanted to make that joke.
She didn’t laugh. She just spun, waved a hand, and said, “Wall.”
A wall of ice sprung up between us and Derek.
“Derek, break that wall!” Orden shouted.
I heard no response from the other side.
I reached into my bag, grabbed the return bell and charged it with mana, then rang it. I’d made sure that Vera, Jin, and Sera were in range.
Nothing happened.
That was when I remembered that Professor Orden had been drawing runes on the walls, presumably including anti-teleportation ones.
Vera turned and blinked at me. “Uh, that clearly didn’t work. Now what?”
I shoved the bell back in my bag. “Now we run!” I turned, opened the door to the spider webbed room, and stepped inside.
Sera, Jin, and Vera fell in right behind me.
I slammed the door shut. “Watch for the spider.”
Vera took a step closer to me. “Don’t suppose you’d be willing to lend me a weapon at this point?”
I rolled my eyes. “Just take the dueling cane off my belt, you should be used to it by now.”
She unsnapped the cane. “Great! Brings back memories.”
I sighed, reaching into my pouch and pulling out my etching rod. I knew Orden could teleport, but I could play the same way she did.
In the fountain room, I could hear something slam into the ice wall, but I ignored it and focused on drawing the anti-teleportation rune.
When something heavy slammed down behind me, ignoring it was harder.
“Uh, Corin, there’s—” Vera started.
“Great Spider,” Sera began. Her voice was barely a whisper. “I am a Summoner, and I wish to make a pact with you.”
Oh, Goddess, please let that work.
I finished drawing the anti-teleportation rune, slammed my hand into it, and shoved mana into the rune as fast as I could. I drew a second rune to make the door more resilient, charging it in seconds.
My hand stung with the effort of using so much mana that quickly, but buying us time was the best thing I could think to do.
“No pact, Summoner. I hungry.”
I spun around. Sera was holding her throat, looking ill.
I don’t know why I’d expected the spider to only be human sized, or maybe something reasonable like wagon sized.
It turned out to have a main body more like the size of a train car, with each of its legs a twenty-foot spike.
It perched on a web about ten feet up and about forty feet distant from us. From the look of those legs, it could probably cross the distance in a single jump.
“Jin, Vera, hold the door shut.” They moved to comply.
I turned my head to address the spider, reaching into my bag. “Great Spider, could we interest you in eating a delicious mana crystal instead of us?”
The spider clicked its mandibles together, then I heard a reply in my mind. “Eat you first, then eat your mana crystals.”
Okay, wasn’t expecting it to be that smart. New tactic.
I shook my head. “I’m afraid there’s a problem with that. There’s a really strong human in the room behind us, and she’s about to break in here and eat us before you can. Could I maybe convince you to seal the door behind us shut in exchange for a mana crystal? Then you can try to eat us after that.”
The spider’s legs bent.
That was the only warning we got. Fortunately, we were all looking right at it, and we had the instinct to scatter.
The spider hit the ground with a resounding crack, smashing the ground where we’d been a moment before. And then, to my surprise, reared up and.... fired? ... a gigantic web out onto the door.
I was a little pleased that it’d taken my idea, even if it had tried to crush us in the process.
I was less pleased when I realized I’d dodged directly into a web, and my legs were very firmly stuck against the gooey surface.
I wasn’t the only one in similar shape. Sera had it worse, having fallen backward onto a web. She was struggling, but her whole body seemed stuck.
Vera and Jin had gotten out of the way successfully, though, and they were both opening fire.
Jin aimed straight at the creature’s head, unleashing a hail of bullets. He hit repeatedly, and the bullets sunk in, but it was unclear if they did any damage.
Vera started running toward the other side of the room, deftly dodging bits of webbing, while firing the dueling cane at the spider’s center of mass. The bolts of mana seemed insignificant striking a creature of that size, but nevertheless it let out a hiss and turned toward her. Apparently, mana blasts hurt more than bullets, at least against giant spiders. Who knew?
I drew my sword and started cutting. That didn’t help much. The sword cut effectively, but it also got stuck almost immediately. After a moment of consideration, I pushed on the mana aura around the sword and managed to finish severing the first bit of web that way.
After that, I turned and slashed the air to push a wave at the webbing sticking to my other leg. That got it free.
I ran for Sera, still struggling against her own web.
I heard a crack as something smashed into the door near us.
Derek. He’d gotten through Sera’s wall and he was coming for us.
Resh. I’d hoped we’d have more time.
Jin and Vera continued pummeling the spider with shots, but it reared up again and blasted a vast web in Vera’s direction. She managed to throw herself to the side, but it still caught her on the left arm and leg, dragging her backward with the force of the expulsion. She hit the back wall, stuck in place.
I slashed in the air, making the now-familiar gesture to project waves of energy to cut Sera free. She fell backward and hit the floor when the final piece of webbing fell away, then I helped her extract herself from the mess.
Another thud against the door, and another.
Derek’s fist broke through and stuck on the webbing, and I rushed forward to try to grab at the ring — if I could have pulled it off, maybe I could have freed him — but he retracted his arm too quickly.
The spider continued barreling toward Vera, too fast for me to catch up. I made a couple slashes in the air toward it, managing a hit against a leg, but that barely seemed to slow it down.
Jin paused to reload.
The spider reared up, ready to jam a spiked leg right into Vera’s chest.
“Wall,” Sera whispered, pointing a hand and bursting into a coughing fit.
The wall of ice shot upward from the floor, catching the spider’s front legs and pushing them upward. The spider fell backward, chittering, and I heard a voice in my mind.
“No! Stop! Food mine!”
I grabbed Sera with my left arm and began to push her forward. We needed to move. “That was great, Sera. Stay with me.”
She nodded, leaning heavily on me, and coughed again.
Resh it all, I need to do something.
“Sera, switch swords
with me for a second.” We swapped blades, and I felt comforted with the familiar weight of Selys-Lyann in my hand.
I slashed at the air and pushed on the weapon’s aura, making a wave of cutting ice. The frozen blade cut deeply into the creature’s hindquarters, drawing visible blood and beginning to spread.
That caught it’s attention.
I stepped forward, letting go of Sera briefly, and unleashed a torrent of cuts.
I’d never tried pushing the slashes rapidly with this weapon. It turned out it didn’t work as well with the one I’d made. The sword’s aura was undoubtedly stronger, but after I pushed the ice away it took a few seconds to reform around the blade.
The end result was that I ended up firing out tiny, insignificant spikes of ice. They hit, but not for any significant damage — and then the spider was barreling toward me.
I heard the door behind us crack again. There were several holes in it now. The rune was slowing Derek’s progress, but he wasn’t going to take much longer.
The spider’s leg came down faster than I expected, and with all my attention focused on attacking, I failed to dodge.
Sera shoved me out of the way.
I stumbled, but didn’t fall. The gigantic leg smashed into the ground where I’d been a moment before. For a brief, horrifying moment, I thought it’d pierced Sera instead of me — but when I saw her on the ground nearby, she wasn’t bleeding. It’d glanced against her, but her barrier had stopped the blow. I could see thick cracks in the barrier, still visible around her.
The problem was that Sera wasn’t getting up.
She was conscious, but the sword had fallen from her hand, and she was only slowly pushing herself from the floor.
Another spider leg was going to pin her before that happened.
I didn’t have the strength to stop the leg from falling, even if I hit it as hard as I could.
Sera, on the other hand, was light.
I turned my gauntlet toward her and sent a burst of transference force into her. The blast slammed into her side, flipping her over and pushing her ten feet across the floor. That looked like it hurt, but the spider’s leg hit the ground harmlessly instead of pulverizing her.
Another leg hit me from behind a second later, slamming me into the ground.
There was a sharp jolt of pain in my back, accompanied by crushing pressure.
I heard a crack and felt another surge of agony.
I really hoped that wasn’t my spine buckling under the pressure.
I coughed, dropped my sword in the surge of pain, and shuddered helplessly on the floor.
I heard a hiss as the pressure relaxed. Instinctively, I rolled the moment that I was free. I was still moving when the leg came down again, smashing against my side and shattering the feeble remains of my barrier.
My phoenix sigil kicked in, the stronger barrier managing to prevent the leg from crushing me until the creature hissed and withdrew its leg.
I looked up, finding the source of the brief respite. Jin was kneeling on top of the creature’s head, repeatedly driving his dagger into the creature’s skull.
I had zero idea how he’d managed to get up there, but he seemed to be doing some damage, until it reared up and threw him right off.
I crawled to Selys-Lyann, my back flaring with agony with every motion. With the sword in my grasp, I tried to stand, but my legs failed to respond. They were feeling rather numb, too. Even if the creature hadn’t snapped my spine like I’d originally feared, it might have done some damage.
Arms seemed to be working, though. So I threw the sword.
Normally, throwing a sword is a terrible idea. Swords aren’t balanced for throwing at the best of times, and doing it without the benefit of working legs was even more difficult.
Fortunately, I didn’t need to hurl the weapon perfectly. I just had to get it airborne.
I was an excellent shot with my gauntlet.
A blast of motion hit the sword directly in the pommel and carried Selys-Lyann into the spider’s neck. It sank in down to the hilt.
I’d been aiming for the head, but hey, close enough.
Ice began to spread rapidly from the wound. The spider toppled forward, rolling on the ground with a crack, seemingly trying to dislodge the weapon without success.
Within another few seconds, the creature’s entire head was ice, and it fell still.
I was jubilant, but I still couldn’t stand.
Sera rushed over to me, one hand still clutching at her throat. She offered me a hand. I accepted it and tried to get up.
That was a mistake.
I’d never felt pain quite like what I felt in that moment. It spread from the middle of my back where the spider had hit all the way up and down my spine and into my legs.
I may have screamed.
My vision went red.
When I could see again, I felt Sera wordlessly slip a ring onto my hand.
I sent a surge of mana into it, felt the warmth spread across my back and legs in an instant.
It still wasn’t enough. I laid there for several seconds, tears forming in my eyes, before Jin managed to pick me up and throw me over his shoulder.
“We need to go.” To emphasize that, he began moving at a jog. Every impact he made against the ground sent another surge of agony through my back, only to be countered by a wash of warmth from the ring.
I didn’t know how long it would take the ring to do its work, but for the moment, I was more helpless than I’d ever been.
Glancing from side-to-side, I saw Sera and Vera moving along with us, and that Derek had busted nearly a dozen holes in the door. The pieces of damaged door were getting stuck on the webbing, so he was being forced to pull the stone pieces out before advancing. that was probably the only reason he hadn’t caught up to us already.
We passed by a newly-formed stairway, one that had soundlessly grown in the center of the room into a hole in the ceiling.
If the stairs had gone down, we might have nearly been safe, but nothing was ever quite that easy.
Jin carried me to the doorway of the next room. I couldn’t see it well from my angle, but I could tell it was open now.
“Vera, go back and get Corin’s sword. We’re probably going to need it.” Jin instructed her. I’d never heard him sound that commanding before.
“Got it,” she replied simply, running back toward the spider.
“What am I missing?” I asked. “What’s in the next room? I can’t see it.”
“You’re not going to like it.” Jin replied.
I winced as he shifted his stance. “Just tell me, we’re not exactly in great shape either way.”
“Statues shooting jets of fire.”
Oh, goddess resh it all.
I thought back to how both Jin and I had been ‘incinerated’ in the test involving fire-breathing statues and closed my eyes.
Last time I’d used Selys-Lyann to try to shield myself with ice, I’d nearly killed myself that way.
“There’s a door on the other side,” Jin continued, “But there’s also a central floor tile. I think it might be another stairway, if we can get there and trigger it somehow.”
I couldn’t think of a way I could get us there safely.
We all had barriers or a shroud, but if the flames were as intense as the ones in the test, our protection wouldn’t last very long. And Jin couldn’t possibly be mobile enough to dodge flames effectively while carrying me.
The demi-gauntlet? Useless here.
The Jaden Box? No one useful to summon and we had an anti-teleportation rune on the room anyway. Maybe the box would have overpowered the rune, but I didn’t have any good summoning options available either way.
Selys-Lyann couldn’t make walls of ice like Sera could. The aura was designed to cut and spread, not form barriers.
If she wasn’t so exhausted, if she was a bit more powerful, Sera could have made this trivial—
And maybe, just maybe, I could make her strong enough
.
I tilted my head toward Sera, wincing at the renewed pain. “Sera, just how confident are you that we’re actually siblings?”
She raised an eyebrow at me, her lips twisting toward a frown.
“Asking for a good reason. I have a waterskin containing a liquid from the tower that I think is probably an enhancement elixir of some kind.” I closed my eyes. “Okay, not the time for secrecy. It’s how I got my attunement. I drank this water, I saw the goddess, and my attunement appeared. Then I saved some of the water and put a preservation enchantment on the waterskin.”
She lifted a hand to her mouth, and I heard the sickly scrape of ragged laughter before she broke into another fit of coughing.
“Anyway, the important part is that the preservation enchantment isn’t as brilliant as I thought. It contaminated the liquid inside with some of my mana. And drinking something with someone else’s mana in it is dangerous. Potentially fatal. But if we’re siblings, your mana type might be close enough to mine—”
Sera looked straight into my eyes, took a deep breath, and then extended her open hand.
I understood.
“The waterskin is in my belt pouch. I don’t think I can reach it.”
Sera moved to my side, opened the belt pouch, unstoppered the bottle, closed her eyes, and began to drink.
And, within moments, she began to glow.
I hadn’t turned my attunement back on.
As she continued to drink the fluid, her aura flickered yellow, orange, red, yellow — and began to spark.
She bent over forward, retching, but only threw up a mouthful of ichor.
And, as I watched, that ichor froze into ice.
Sera stood up, reopening her eyes.
They were ice blue without the faintest hint of white.
I’d never seen anything close to it.
Sera spun at the sound of another crack from the doorway, lifting a hand. “Wall. Wall. Wall.”
Her voice was strong again, unwavering, as the broken section of the doorway was filled with ice. More walls sprung up behind it, thicker than the ones she’d conjured before.
Sera turned back to me and shivered before speaking again. “We should go. I will forge a path.”
Sera took one more drink from the flask, grimaced, and restoppered it. Then she put it back in my pouch.
