by Hugo Huesca
He tried to stand up, on instinct, and he felt the stabbing pain of another spiderling bite on his back. He rolled on his back, shook away the critter, and opened his eyes in time to see a bunch of surviving spiderlings, some of them still smoking, rush straight at his face.
Before he had time to even think of using his improved reflexes, someone jumped over his head, sword at the ready. It was Kes. The mercenary’s face was frowning with focus, and she didn’t appear to fear the spiderlings at all. Just as the first of them jumped at her, she screamed:
“Cleave!”
And her sword shot through the air like a living projectile, neatly slicing the spider in two and then switching directions mid-air in a way that defied physics, arcing back and down the path where it had come from, reaching another spiderling who was just barely leaving the ground, slicing it in an arc of blue goo, and then yet another slice at a third critter.
Ed could feel the air around Kes’ body rise in temperature, like the mercenary was surrounded by a mirage. He had the faintest idea that the amount of energy she had expended would’ve been enough to floor him.
Instead, she didn’t even wince. She followed her first attack with another two cleaves, killing six spiderlings and breaking the momentum of their charge. This time, her jaw clenched with the effort, and a pearl of sweat danced down her forehead.
Ed stood up, groaning, helped by someone’s arms. He realized it was Alder, whose eyes were glued to the scarred ground where the two fireballs had destroyed the spiderlings.
“You’re insane,” the Bard whispered at Ed. The both of them watched as Kes and Alvedhra stepped forward, with Ioan and Lavy retreating back near Ed, Alder, and the others.
The two women made short work of the remaining spiders, so fast it wasn’t even a battle but more of an execution. Alvedhra’s scimitar wasn’t the best weapon to deal with the small critters, but she moved in short, precise bursts that anticipated the spider’s movements perfectly.
She knows them well, Ed realized. She had clearly fought them before, just like Ioan.
A few seconds later, only a couple dozen spiderlings survived, and they retreated back to the tree-line, still screaming in that unnerving way of theirs.
Ed, Lavy, and Alder watched them go, the three of them panting and trying to regain their breaths.
“How many did we kill?” asked Ed. A few steps in front of them, Kes and Alvedhra were chasing down the stragglers and eliminating those that were left.
“How many did I kill, you mean,” Lavy said. “I have no idea, but only ten experience points for all that is a scam!”
Alder looked at her like she had gone insane, but Gallio cut him off before the Bard could speak:
“You still earn experience for killing spiderlings? Well, if you survive the warriors you’ll earn a lot more than that.”
“What—?” started Lavy, but then the three of them turned to see the spot at their backs that Gallio was nodding toward.
While they were focused on the spiderlings, the spider warriors had approached them from the path the adventurers had taken in the first place.
Ed counted two groups of three black, hunched shapes the size of a San Bernardo, heads covered with many eyes and crowned by a horn sharp like a short sword, and clicking mandibles oozing yellowish saliva. They approached the adventurers without the hurry of their smaller versions, with the countenance of a pack of wolves about to surround their prey. The sight of them sent shivers down Ed’s back. There was no way, no way he could take that many—
Someone tugged at Ed’s trousers. He looked down to see Klek’s grim expression staring back at him. The batblin was carrying Ed’s spear, and Klek offered the weapon to him with an encouraging gesture.
“You can do it, my Lord,” Klek whispered. “You can do anything.”
The sight of the batblin’s child-like faith in him was so unexpected that Ed almost laughed. Instead, he caught himself in time, nodded vigorously at Klek, grabbed the spear that was being offered to him, and said:
“It’s gonna be a piece of cake, Klek. You’ll see.”
The batblin’s ears rose at the weird expression, but Ed had no time to explain. He had to put on a good show for the batblin.
He charged at the nearest group of spider warriors, Gallio and Vasil at his sides, roaring madly at the monsters like he knew what he was doing.
14
Chapter Fourteen
The Hunted
Gallio was the first to reach the spider warriors. His mace gave him little distance between himself and the powerful mandibles of the monsters, but he swung it with such force the spider had to jump back on pure instinct to avoid having its face crushed to a pulp.
Vasil reached his side an instant later and his spear scratched the mandibles of the second spider, leaving a long, pale blue gash on its side. The spider roared and tried to charge the man, but Gallio jumped at it, using Vasil’s back as leverage for a half-roll. The Sheriff stepped on the monster’s head before it could react, and the mace swung down in a blur of steel that ended with a direct hit to the spider’s forehead.
There was a meaty crunch. The spider’s horn broke, sending chitin flying everywhere, and the exoskeleton of the creature caved just under the horn’s stump, ruining half of its eyes and spewing blue goo everywhere.
The spider screeched in agony and collapsed, throwing Gallio in front of the other two spider warriors. The creatures tried to pounce on the man, but Ed and Vasil were already upon them, driving their spears into the soft flesh of the spiders’ mandibles and eyes, forcing them back. Gallio recovered and rolled back into a standing position.
“Excellent hit, boss,” Vasil said while taking out an eye from his spider warrior.
Ed saw out of the corner of his eye how the other group of three spiders were engaged by Alder, Lavy, and all the others. There was a violet, arcane flash followed by one of Lavy’s taunts.
All good over there, he hoped. Let’s focus on dealing with these.
His spear hits lacked the strength or the technique to pierce the chitin of the spiders, which was as thick as armor, but he followed Vasil’s methods and aimed his strikes at the faces of the monsters while trying to secure Gallio an opening to deliver a killing blow.
The spider warrior in front of him screeched when Ed’s strikes got too greedy, and its mandibles crushed the wooden shaft of his spear in the blink of an eye.
Ed stared at the splinters of his weapon as they fell, and at the charging monster—at those mandibles aimed at his belly—and he jumped back. Gallio immediately sprang forward, his mace covered in spider blood, forcing the monster back.
“Sword,” the Sheriff suggested.
Ed nodded and clumsily drew the iron weapon. His next thought was, How the hell do I use this?
The two spiders had changed tactics and circled the three men, trying to find an opening in their formation. They didn’t know that Ed’s sword was as effective as a stick on his hands, which bought him time to think.
He risked a quick look at the other group and saw how Alvedhra and Ioan were using their scimitars to swipe at the spider’s legs. Their three monsters were still alive, but all were already lacking one or two legs, replaced by blue stumps.
Good enough, Ed thought. He stepped forward and swiped at the legs of the spider closest to him. The monster jumped back, dodging the iron, and bent its midsection mid-jump, aiming its back at Ed’s face.
Oh, shit, he thought as a string of white goo flew at him, fast, too fast for him to react—
A hand pushed him away, and he barely managed to stop himself from falling. He swatted at the second spider who had approached the opening, and his sword managed to strike a solid hit on the monster’s right foreleg. The leg came off neatly at the middle, and the spider toppled down over Ed, its weight hitting him like a sack of bricks. They both stumbled to the ground in a heap, snapping mandibles too close to his face, hairy legs trying to pin him down, blue goo and web spraying all over h
is body…
Ed screamed in panic as a line of hot, gluey web fell on his face, and his eyes widened when the mandibles finally found him in the confusion and shot toward his neck—he barely had time to activate his improved reflexes.
Time came to a standstill as the mandibles stopped in their path, now slowly threading the air like it was honey. Ed realized he was still screaming, but the sound of his voice was slowed. The spider’s midsection was pinning him down to the ground, stopping him from rolling away, but his sword arm was still free.
He pushed against the ground with his other shoulder, gathered all his strength, and shot his sword point-first into the mouth of the spider, right in the middle of its mandibles. He felt resistance when the iron found flesh, and then his wrist registered the sickening movement of the sword when said flesh gave way. Spider blood sprayed in blue droplets while Ed’s sword kept going and going, deeper into the spider’s mouth, whose eyes were just now widening with surprise, though not yet registering the pain of being pierced.
Time resumed its normal flow just as the spider’s entire body shook wildly, tearing the sword away from Ed’s grip with such force that it sent a jolt of pain through his entire arm. The mandibles of the creature hit the ground next to his neck, and its entire body collapsed in a convulsion of death and agony, with most of the weight pushing Ed into the ground and pinning him there.
Ed fought for breath, looked away from the convulsing, smoking creature, and saw how the remaining warrior charged straight at him. Vasil tried to pierce the spider, but the strike merely scratched its torso’s chitin, and the creature ignored the guard in favor of the defenseless Ed.
“Agh!” Ed said bravely while trying—and failing—to push the dying spider away from his body. The other one reached him in a single second, its horn aimed down, straight at Ed’s torso, where it couldn’t possibly miss.
An arrow, suddenly, was sticking out of the spider’s head, eliminating one of its eyes. The shaft was glowing with pulsating red energy, and it exploded in a miniature explosion of the fireball spell, a stream of force driving down into the spider’s flesh, tearing chitin and muscle apart like they were paper, taking out a chunk out of the spider’s head. Ed saw how the life left the charging monster’s remaining eyes as it toppled to the ground, momentum making its corpse slide mere feet away from his own face.
In the end, Ed was left staring face-to-face at several rows of dead eyes.
“Fuck you, Murmur,” he whispered. Soon, Vasil was by his side, helping him push the weight of the first spider away from his torso. Ed took a deep breath when the weight on his lungs was alleviated, and he stood up.
“Quick, help me free him,” Vasil told him while he rushed to Gallio’s side. It had been the Sheriff who had pushed Ed away from the web attack, and for his troubles the man was now glued to the glass, covered head to toe in the white strands. He was trying without much success to break free, and Ed could see Gallio was only succeeding in gluing himself further.
Behind Gallio, the others had managed to fell one of their spiders, and the surviving two were covered in blue cuts and missing several limbs. The monsters hissed at Kes and Alvedhra while the two warriors threatened them with their swords, forcing them back. Alder and Lavy were right behind them while keeping their distance as not to interfere.
Ioan was a few feet back and was nocking a new arrow to his bow. He nodded in Ed’s direction before shooting at the surviving warriors.
“We actually won,” muttered Ed while he and Vasil worked as fast as they could to cut away Gallio’s webbing using their daggers. Klek soon joined them when the batblin sensed the clearing was safe enough for him. Ed handed him another dagger and the three of them were half-way done freeing the Sheriff when the two remaining spider warriors disappeared back into the tree-line. Four spider warrior’s corpses littered the clearing, along with the broken remains of countless spiderlings. “We made them retreat.”
Next to him, Alder groaned at Ed’s words.
More figures entered the clearing, moving so silently their approach had to be point out by Gallio’s frantic, web-covered muffling. Ed turned in the direction the man was pointing at with his only free hand and discovered that Amphiris had joined the battle, followed by her two daughters, four fresh spider warriors—plus the two that had retreated—and all her remaining spiderlings, which flowed around their mother’s legs like a living tide.
“We must run away,” said Klek, his former confidence all but forgotten. “We must run away now.”
Then Amphiris spoke with a guttural, inhuman voice that sounded, to Ed, as if thousands of invisible spiders were crawling into his ears. She said:
“Well, well, well. The prey saves us the trouble of hunting for it and even brings my children a worthy feast. Tell me, oh meal, which one is the Dungeon Lord that hides among you? The smell of Sephar’s Bane has marred the entire forest for weeks, but you’re carrying it with you.”
The sight of the spider Queen and her overwhelming forces had as much an effect on the seasoned adventurers as she had on Klek.
Kes turned to Ioan and told him, “You said she would never attack with her entire cluster!”
The Ranger ignored her. He was drawing another arrow while chanting two quick words that added a red, pulsating energy to the shaft.
“She shouldn’t,” Alvedhra answered the elf without drawing her gaze away from the spiders. “This is not how they hunt.”
Ed resisted the desire to scream at them. To base their entire battle-plan on a she shouldn’t was idiocy!
She could speak! She was intelligent, not a wild beast like her children appeared to be, and so she was capable of acting in ways other than her normal.
And now she had them surrounded, and she knew there was a Dungeon Lord among them.
It was Gallio who spoke first, as soon as Vasil managed to free the Sheriff’s mouth from the splash of web that covered it.
“There’s no Dungeon Lord here, monster. Haven’t you heard? Kael Arpadel is dead. You’ll find no new master in Starevos.”
“Please, don’t provoke her,” Alder suggested. He and Lavy had been slowly drawing near to Ed and Klek, no doubt getting ready to turn tail and run.
“A new master!” Amphiris half-roared, half-laughed in that hair-splitting voice of hers. “What need should a queen have with a master? No, Inquisitor, my cluster is not looking for ownership. It’s looking for revenge.”
“That’s why you have been attacking Burrova’s farmstead?” asked Kes. “For vengeance? You’re in need of a history lesson, Amphiris. Sephar’s Bane happened a long time ago. Maybe you’re just afraid of the dark.”
At the mention of Sephar’s Bane, the spiders grew restless, their clicking gained a furious note, and some of their warriors had to contain themselves from rushing at the mercenary.
“Please, don’t provoke her,” Alder said again.
“Puny mammal,” Amphiris said with a dismissive click of her mandibles. “You understand nothing of ancestral memory. You have to rely on Bards’ songs to remember the past. You may think you understand spiderkin, but you’re merely a snack to me. Of course I remember the smell of the Bane that killed my mother and her mother before her…and it’s smeared across everyone here.”
At that, Ed saw how almost everyone recoiled in horror, Alder and Lavy, Klek, even Kes and Alvedhra.
“You lie,” said Alvedhra.
“You won’t live long enough to find out,” said Amphiris. Then, she nodded to one of the two princesses by her side. If the Queen was the size of a war horse, towering well above Ed, the princesses were at a point in between the Queen and a warrior, with horns sharp as short swords and chitin marred by old scars.
One of them took a couple steps forward and her horn pointed at Ed. “That’s the Dungeon Lord, Mother. As sure as you are our Queen. He’s the one who killed your brood in that cave—he has the smell of kin-death all over him.”
“I see, Laurel,” said Amphiris. “
Excellent.”
“Edward?” asked Gallio, half-turning in the restraints of his web prison. “What is she talking about?”
Ed tried to shrug at him, but the gesture came without heart.
“No way,” he heard Ioan say. “He doesn’t even have two hundred points of experience. Is the Dark One really so desperate that he’s willing to recruit weaklings?”
Just ignore him, Ed’s brain suggested. The Queen was approaching, followed by her court.
They were almost clumped enough for the remaining two fireballs. Why was Gallio not using them?
Ed realized why when his gaze fell on the Sheriff. He had indeed tried to grab them, but the web tugging at his arms had caused the two stones to slip out of his grasp. They had fallen a couple feet away from him, and his struggle had glued him in a position from which they were unreachable.
“Dungeon Lord,” called Amphiris like a dignitary from one kingdom crossing the field to meet another. “You have unleashed Sephar’s Bane on my domain. For this abomination, you will die, after your body is used to feed my brood. But let it be known that Amphiris, Mother of Spiderkin, respects the ancient traditions! You have a right to a last speech. Waste it with tricks, though, and it will be gone.”
Ed looked carefully into the eyes of everyone there. They were clearly out-gunned by the spiders, but if only he could reach the runes, that could change…
He raised his hands, as if in surrender, and stepped forward, away from Gallio and closer to Amphiris’ brood, but also closer to the two runes.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Ed, don’t get any closer,” Alder said. “I have this Bardic utterance that’s handy in retreat. I’m going to use it so we can run away.”
Not yet, Ed thought. They would be leaving Gallio to be devoured, or worse. And the man had saved Ed’s life. He had taken the shot that was meant for him.
