by Hugo Huesca
So, he shook his head at Alder and whispered, “Wait.”
The Spider Queen ignored the exchange. She was busy hissing with anger. “You deny your Lordship? Is your goal to trick these humans? If that’s the case, we have nothing else to say to each other.”
“No, wait!” Ed hurried to say, realizing the Queen was about to attack him. “I am a Dungeon Lord, as your daughter said. But I have no idea what you all mean by Sephar’s Bane. That’s not my doing…I just arrived here.”
“Dunghill,” said Lavy.
“Shit,” agreed Alder.
“What?” whispered Gallio, his eyes widening in surprise and fear. “No way. You can’t be—you are lying! Arpadel is dead. The Heroes destroyed all he had left. There’s no reason for a new Dungeon Lord to come to Starevos. This place lacks the resources to create a powerful dungeon.”
You tell that to Kharon.
Ioan turned to aim his bow at Ed. “A reason? There is one if Amphiris is telling the truth—if he wants to release Sephar’s Bane among the outposts.”
The arrow shaft glowed an angry red. Ed recalled what that same magic had done to a spider warrior’s head, and his mouth went dry.
“Listen to me! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Ed inched closer to the runes. Could he manage to use improved reflexes again? He could feel a tingling numbness spreading across his back and hand where the spiderlings had bitten him, and his body still burned from the effort of killing the spider warrior. This time, however, the fever was not abating.
He wanted to see whatever new experience he had gained, try to buy a new talent like he had done in the cave, but he was sure that Ioan would shoot him the instant he activated his Evil Eye.
“So you say, Dungeon Lord,” said Amphiris. “But even the puny humans know that your kinship is built on lies and deceit. You say you just arrived in my forest? Maybe after making a trip to the Wetlands?”
Ed wanted to scream in frustration. He didn’t even know what the Wetlands were! Now even Alvedhra was pointing her bow at him. Her face was contorted by sheer, raw hatred. And Kes had shifted her stance as if ready to fight across two fronts; the spiders, and Ed.
“Edward,” whispered Lavy. “In a fight, everyone kills the Dungeon Lord first, unless they’re idiots. We need to leave.”
Not yet, Ed thought desperately. Vasil wasn’t done freeing Gallio yet. And even if he turned and ran, he had little doubt that Ioan would kill him instantly. Even if he managed to dodge the arrow, the spiders would give chase. He needed to wait, ready himself for an opportunity.
If it didn’t appear, he would have to create it. But could he really risk using the reflexes again?
“I have no idea what the Wetlands are,” Ed said. “If Sephar’s Bane is the reason you attacked me last night, you’re looking in the wrong direction. Let me help you find it, Amphiris. Stay away from Burrova, and we’ll look for it together.”
“You are a Dungeon Lord,” muttered Alvedhra in astonishment. “And now you’re asking the Queen to become your minion?”
“That’s what he wanted all along,” said Ioan, a grim expression on his face. “He must be part of Kael’s surviving apprentices. He evaded capture, struck a Lordship pact, and has been trying to build a power-base to leave Starevos. Perhaps what Amphiris is saying is true. Kael must’ve had a mindbrood’s egg hidden somewhere, and then this guy retrieved it. It makes sense.”
“Edward,” said Gallio, as Vasil finally managed to undo the last of his restraints and the Sheriff stood up, still wielding his mace. “Release your entire stat-line to me. I know what the Lordship talent looks like, I’ll speak on your behalf if you’re innocent.”
Ed flashed him a sad smile and stepped away from the Sheriff.
“Shoot him, Ioan,” said Kes.
Amphiris laughed. “Ah, to see my food play with itself fills me with pleasure! I must reject your offer, oh mighty Dungeon Lord. Nothing I saw during your fight with my warriors indicated you may have power worth following. Besides…I’ve grown to enjoy the taste of farmer’s flesh.”
“Klek, the runes, please. Don’t let them notice you,” whispered Ed. Without looking to see if the batblin did as asked, the young Dungeon Lord turned to face Ioan and the rest of the adventurers and activated his Evil Eye.
Waves of heat poured out of his gaze while the world gained an eldritch taint. He saw how the adventurers gasped in surprise, anger, and fear. Before Ed could speak, Ioan let his arrow loose.
There was a flutter of purple-and-pink robes and the arrow exploded mid-flight, releasing a cloud of sulfurous smoke.
Gallio rushed at him, his mace held high, but he stumbled when a very surprised drone appeared in another cloud of smoke, right between the Sheriff’s legs. As Gallio fell, he brought Vasil down with him.
Then, the spiders charged at everyone, their horns aimed low, their eyes glinting with hate.
“Runes!” Klek called, and Ed’s palm shot toward the small hand that clasped the two stones. He grabbed them just as he began running, followed by the batblin.
“Retreat!” Ed called at Alder and Lavy. “Fucking run!”
“Nimble feet!” Alder said, also sprinting, holding his wooden lute high. The air seemed to dance around him, to glitter, and Ed could hear a frantic musical beat right under his ears.
His legs, his entire body, was suddenly well rested and itching to go for a run. Even the numbness in his back seemed to recede. He moved faster, as if he was in his best physical condition, and Lavy, Alder, and Klek seemed to be caught by the same effect as well.
They were outrunning the coming spiders, they were outrunning the adventurers, they were moving faster than any other creature in the forest.
A woman screamed just as Ed reached the treeline that his friends had just disappeared into.
Cursing under his breath, he turned back. Alvedhra had fallen under the charge of a now dead spider warrior, and she was completely covered by spiderlings that bit mercilessly. Next to her, Kes was desperately trying to free her, but she clearly didn’t dare use cleave and risk hitting the Ranger.
Vasil, Ioan, and Gallio weren’t running anymore, but they were fighting against the remaining warriors, clearly overwhelmed, while spiderlings surrounded them all and Amphiris and her daughters circled them from afar, their backs ready to spew web at them the second their guards lowered.
Ed stopped for half a second to calmly consider his options. He looked back at the edge of the clearing, felt the effects of nimble feet slowly recede as the distance to Alder grew.
He rushed back into the fray. He tossed his spear aside, grabbed a rune in both hands, and aimed it straight at the spider warriors.
“Fireball!” he roared, and arcane destruction erupted from his hands.
15
Chapter Fifteen
The Mercenary
The twin explosions sent tumbling monster and men alike, and the impact made Ed’s bones shake inside his body. Torn spider legs and charred chitin rained and peppered his shoulders and head.
He didn’t stop to see if he had killed the spider cluster, instead he rushed at Alvedhra, who was still half-covered with spiderlings.
With a roar that was half a battlecry and half a scared whimper, he kicked at the spiderlings, trying his best to keep them away from the Ranger and to make them stop biting her.
Kes had fallen near her, and she wasn’t moving. The mercenary had hit her head on a rock, and red blood was marring the surrounding grass.
“C’mon, Alvedhra!” Ed urged her as he grabbed a furious spiderling and crushed it between his hands, ignoring the sickening crunch and the even more sickening splash of blue gore that followed. “Move!”
The woman’s head was red and bloated and covered in tiny bites like chickenpox. There was yellowish foam frothing from her lips, and her eyes were misty and distant.
Ed looked back and saw that the spiders were the first to recover. Amphiris was alive and unharmed, along wi
th her daughters. The runes had killed half the spider warriors and a score of spiderlings. Thanks to Ed’s rune, the adventurers were still alive, since aiming for the Queen would’ve allowed the other spiders to finish the party off.
But Vasil wasn’t moving, and Ioan and Gallio were just coming to. The Sheriff stumbled blindly across the grass, looking for his mace.
Piercing pain shot through Ed’s neck. He roared and caught the spiderling that had managed to clutch at his leather jerkin.
He had never been more angry and scared in his entire life. He held the critter by its mandibles and tore it in half.
All of Ed’s body was pleading for him to run away. The other spiders were already stumbling back up, and their rage made his look like a temper tantrum.
He clenched his jaw and summoned six drones out of thin air. The forest was filled with ley lines, but he didn’t care about that. He commanded four of them to help him free Alvedhra of the remaining spiderlings, then sent the other two to distract the spiders away from the other adventurers.
The drones weren’t useful as fighters, but the extra pairs of hands were incredibly helpful, and a couple times the spiderlings went after them instead of Ed or Alvedhra. When that happened, the drones disappeared in puffs of smoke, as even a weak attack was enough to destroy them. But Ed simply summoned them back, fighting against exertion, sweat dropping off his forehead.
After what could’ve been seconds or minutes, the Ranger was reasonably free of spiderlings, and Ed’s arms and legs were covered in blue gore.
“Good. Now carry her,” he ordered the drones. “You know where our dungeon is? Get her there, I’ll follow you.”
His other two drones had been destroyed. He summoned them again, dropping one of them by a spider warrior’s legs and the other one near Gallio. “Hand him his mace!”
Ioan was back up and was filling the warriors with arrows, but his quiver was running empty.
They needed to start running. As did Ed.
He stumbled toward Kes’ body, fighting against the paralyzing agent coursing through his veins. He wanted to buy the resist poison talent, but he was aware that poison and venom weren’t the same thing, and the stupid-fucking-talent clearly said only higher levels of it had resist venom as an option.
“Kes! I can’t carry you and run, you need to wake up,” he urged the woman. He shook her as hard as he dared.
The mercenary’s eyes opened and focused on Ed’s. She scowled. “Get those drones away from her!”
Her hands searched her hips for her dagger, so Ed jumped away. “I can’t do that. We need to get away, now!”
As if to punctuate his words, Vasil, Gallio, and Ioan were already pulling back. Ed’s two drones near them had been destroyed again. Gallio was screaming something at Kes, gesturing furiously at her to get up and come with them, while the spider warriors tried to surround them despite their wounds, and the spiderlings began again to pool across their big sisters’ feet. Amphiris and her daughters marched in Ed’s direction.
It was too much. Ioan and Vasil ran for their lives, and after one last, desperate look, Gallio did the same.
“You want to infect her,” Kes spat bloody saliva at Ed’s boots. “Don’t you? That’s why you came with us.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Ed said. “Shut up with that!”
What can I do to make her believe me? Anything he said, Kes would believe was a lie. He had no time to reason with her, no time to prove to her that whatever conceptions she had about Dungeon Lords didn’t apply to him.
So, he didn’t. He extended a hand to Kes as black mist spread across the space between their bodies. “I am not lying. I won’t harm Alvedhra, or you. I offer you a pact as proof; accept it and come with us, or die here and leave her in my hands.”
Kes eyes widened. She shook her head, jumped back on her feet, looked at the coming spiders and then at Alvedhra’s figure as Ed’s drones carried her out of the clearing.
“A pact! Now? You truly are a monster—” she said. Ed sighed and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Kes called. “I—I can make a condition, right? Promise she won’t set foot in any of your dungeons. Only then will I become your minion—”
“Sure, sure, now fucking move!” Ed growled. His gaze was fixated on Amphiris. She wasn’t charging him, but strolling leisurely his way. Why?
She fears I still have runes left. Smart. She would charge when he ran.
The pact with Kes was struck, and the mist united her and Ed, who barely noticed it. He was sure that, in any other situation, he would’ve been deeply touched by the mercenary’s concern—hell, she thought she was sacrificing herself—for Alvedhra, but right now—
Both the mercenary and the Dungeon Lord ran for their lives, with the giant, horned spider and her daughters following behind.
“Dungeon Lord!” called Amphiris from somewhere behind Ed and Kes, “Come back! It’s not polite to leave a Queen hungry!”
The mercenary and Ed reached the edge of the trees, with the four drones that carried Alvedhra still moving through the foliage. Ed stopped for half a second, looked back at the spider Queen, and told her:
“We’ll meet again, Amphiris. You can bet your life on it.” He flashed her a nasty smile.
Then, without an ounce of dignity, he followed after Kes.
“That would’ve been threatening if you weren’t running for your life,” the mercenary told him when he reached her side.
“I’m just getting the hang of this ‘ancient traditions’ deal.”
They had the advantage in the forest, at least against the huge Queen, who would have a hard time charging at them in the reduced space between the trees. The princesses, on the other hand…
“You know where we’re going, right?” asked Kes when they reached the four drones.
The drones were dragging Alvedhra rather than carrying her, and the unconscious Ranger had her hair covered by broken branches, her face marred by cuts and swelling, and enough mud to double as camouflage.
“No,” Ed admitted. “The drones…know the way.”
I hope.
Neither of them dared to waste time looking back to see if they were being followed. They were getting away from spider territory, and that had to be enough. Ed had no time to worry about his friends, or about Kes’ party, he had only time to push his legs forward another step, and another, his lungs burning with every breath of cold air.
The venom and the exertion of using his improved reflexes repeatedly were taking a toll on him, making him barely able to run on par with even the stunted walk of his drones. It was clear that Kes could’ve left them behind, had she wanted to. But the woman’s gaze was focused on Alvedhra, and Ed had little doubt she was willing to make a last stand defending the fallen Ranger if it came to it.
“Hurry up,” Kes told him. “Make them run faster!”
The drones hissed at her and gestured obscenely.
That’s pretty much all they can do, thought Ed, who had no breath left to talk with the mercenary.
Behind them, the sound of crunching branches and chitin brushing against bark reached them clearly. How close? A mile, or a foot?
Ed’s legs felt as if they were made of lead. He willed himself to keep moving.
He had only one dagger left, the other lost in the clearing along with his spear and his sword. If it came to a fight, he’d have to do with chucking drones at the three spiders.
It would have to be enough. He hadn’t come all the way to Ivalis to die to a goddamned trash mob.
He had killed his fair share of horned spiders in IO! To his character, they had been barely more threatening than a batblin cloud; a way to farm experience between towns or dungeons.
No, it would not do to let them kill him.
But how long could he keep this pace? How much had he run already?
His heart was beating madly inside his chest, spreading fire through his veins and lungs, but he had little doubt his limits were approaching. Yeste
rday, he had been a retail employee, his only physical activity being the rare morning run.
Jogging through a city was a different experience than running for his life in a dark, humid forest while being chased by monsters.
A branch scratched his face, leaving thin lines of pain across his cheek. Ed grunted a curse and flicked the sweat away from his eyes.
Next to him, one drone fumbled its grip on Alvedhra and fell to the floor, where it disappeared in a small cloud of smoke. Kes saw it and, cursing loudly herself, reached for the Rangers’ shoulder, then with a grunt and a pull, hefted her onto her back. Alvedhra whimpered pitifully.
“Hold on,” Kes told her, “we’re almost there.”
You don’t know that, thought Ed, but the mercenary might not have been lying. The trees weren’t as clumped together now, and the branches and roots weren’t attacking his face and feet as much. Light filtered easily through the leaves, and the sounds behind him were, perhaps, growing quiet.
Then, Kes screamed, and she disappeared from Ed’s view, the Ranger leaving with her.
The scenery changed all of a sudden, and the ground disappeared from under Ed’s feet. He plummeted down in a heap of arms and legs, flailing frantically, falling, sliding on hard soil with sharp rocks meeting his skin all the way down.
And then, the sliding stopped. Ed was lying flat on his back against the trunk of a tree, his head spinning madly. He groaned, hugged his knees, and fell against the ground. He dug his fingers into the soil and tried to drag himself. He had to keep moving. The spiders, they were coming, they—
“Alita’s tits, Ed’s alive!”
Ed heard a familiar voice growing close to him. Was it Mark? Hell, he would be happy to open his eyes to find Ryan. Anyone without mandibles.
The young Dungeon Lord shook his head to clear it and opened his eyes. His gaze took a second to adjust to the extra light, and he turned his Evil Eye by instinct. He recognized this part of the forest. It was rockier, and the terrain was scarred and peppered by hills that extended toward the horizon.
