Demoness

by Harry Nix

  The three spiders had taken left, central and right up the cliff. The one on the left got within range the fastest and immediately Scarlet and I cast our spells. Bolt missed, hitting the cliff and dissipating harmlessly, but Scarlet managed to hit it with a Fireball that did nothing to slow its rush. If anything, it made it angrier as it screamed and sped up, piercing the rock face itself with the ends of its legs.

  “Stay on that one,” I yelled, then looked down at the spider coming up the central part of the cliff. It was within range in moments and I shot Bolt at it, this time scoring a direct hit. I was hoping the spider would be blasted off the cliff, falling backward and crashing to its death, but there was no such luck. Sure, it was shocked, but it had managed to stay gripped to the web, so at best I slowed it as well as damaging it a little.

  On the right-hand side, the spider that had sat in the center of the web came rushing up, and I cast Bolt but missed, the lightning shooting off into the forest. Lot, who’d been standing and gripping his ax, roared into battle, rushing towards the spider, swinging it like a madman.

  It was too bad that he hadn’t recovered his equilibrium from being poisoned, though. The spider neatly stepped to the side, kicked out at him, catching him in the ribs, and Lot went head over foot down through the brush, sliding halfway down the hill, lucky he didn’t break his neck or go flying over the cliff itself.

  “The fire isn’t stopping it,” Scarlet yelled. I glanced back and saw the spider on the left was now up with us. It was only slightly charred. It seemed the wet, matted webs and mud all over its body was blocking the rest of the Fireball’s damage.

  Meanwhile, the spider on the right was advancing towards us. I could only hope the one in the center was still shocked and we’d have some delay before it got its act together. The one on the right screamed and then dodged away behind a tree. The one that’d been hit with the Fireball then did the same, seeming to obey its command. I could see what they were doing. There were two of us and two of them, but once the spider from down the cliff climbed up to us, we’d be outnumbered.

  “Go for the clever one over here,” I said. Scarlet threw a Fireball, which splashed at the tree it was hiding behind, charring it but not doing much. I spotted the tip of a leg sticking out, so I shot Bolt at it, but the spider pulled it back before it could connect. The lightning Bolt hit the earth and then I heard a scream from behind the tree. It might’ve conducted through the damp earth, doing a little damage. I didn’t want to turn my back on the other spider, but we had to go on the attack.

  “Lot! Get up here!” I yelled out. I couldn’t be sure whether the barbarian had heard me. Maybe he had broken his neck falling down the hill. I heard a roar from down below, Lot calling back, but I couldn’t tell how far away he was. Scarlet waved to me and we split up, heading around the tree hoping to flank the spider. It must’ve anticipated this, though; it was clearly far cleverer than I’d imagined.

  I’d been so focused on it hiding behind the tree that I’d forgotten that they jumped out of trees. Hidden from us, the spider had climbed upwards and as soon as I’d separated far enough away from Scarlet, it leaped, flying out of nowhere, and crashed into me, its fangs digging into my shoulder. I went over, shooting Bolt in my panic and hitting nothing, smashing my face against a rock and sliding across the ground.

  The only thing that stopped me going off the cliff was falling into a depression one of the boulders had been in. In the crash and roll, the spider had come free from me though. It was immediately on its feet. I scrambled up, already feeling the poison blooming in my shoulder and the nausea gathering. I ignored the status effect streaming across my vision. I held up my hand for my staff, which snapped to it.

  I was expecting a Fireball from Scarlet, thinking she was too far away to do much and then was shocked to see a streak of red as she dived past me, intercepting the spider that had leaped in my direction. She must’ve caught it with the Echo Knife and sliced off one of its legs, and then in a miraculous application of the laws of random number generation, the wound transferred to another leg and sliced it off too.

  The spider was fast though, and even though it’d lost two legs, it turned and bit Scarlet on the forearm, digging its fangs in, while stabbing at her with other legs, quickly puncturing wounds. In under three seconds, she took eight wounds of her body, two in her thighs and a jet of red blood spurted out, shooting a few feet across the clearing. I hit Bolt, shooting it at the spider and managed to connect, but once again I shocked Scarlet who was touching it.

  Just as I was cursing my only spell that I had, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and barely managed to roll out of the way as the other spider jumped out of nowhere, passing a whisper over my head. I actually heard its mouth clacking as it tried to bite me and could smell the horrific sour yeast of it tinged with smoke from Scarlet’s Fireballs.

  Remembering how I had detonated a spider before, I ran towards the spider that was holding Scarlet, snapping away at her, intending to shove my staff in its mouth and cast Bolt. Something hard and heavy hit me from behind, and there was a moment of black before I opened my eyes, spat out some teeth and struggled to my feet to find I’d been crushed up against some boulders. Lot was back, grappling with the spider, but Scarlet was on the ground foaming at the mouth. There was another spider on its back some distance away with a gaping wound in its side but struggling to its feet. I had no idea where the third one was.

  The pain from the poison had spread now down my arm, making it useless. Even the act of getting to my feet turned my stomach and I threw up. I was down to a quarter of my health and if the poison effect on me was any indicator, I’d be dead soon. Despite how badly this was going, I rushed in again, heading for the spider with the wound in its side. There’s no need to change what works and so I shoved my staff into the wound and cast Bolt. It didn’t go in as far as the last time I’d done it, but it was enough, the lightning exploding inside the spider and killing it. I turned, weaving like a drunk, and then felt a surge of energy as gold writing burst across my vision.

  Level up!

  I’d hit level three and although I felt like I was about to die, the burst of warmth from the leveling up cleared my head somewhat. I staggered my way towards Lot, who’d dropped his ax somewhere. He saw me coming and threw the spider off him just as I cast Bolt, hitting it dead on. It wasn’t enough to kill it but certainly enough to slow it for a moment. Lot found his ax, which had spun a few feet away, and came racing back at the spider as I smashed it with the staff.

  If we’d just had a few seconds, we would’ve destroyed it, but then the third spider came out from behind the tree, darting across and sinking its fangs into Lot’s leg. It was vicious and crazed and actually tore a hole in the muscle. Lot went down still holding his ax and it looked like he nearly hit himself on the way to the ground.

  I cast Bolt over and again and every time I ran out of mana, I used the staff as a weapon itself. It was somewhere in this frenzy an Inkball flew past me and hit the spider in the eyes, blinding it. Ori had made it to the top of the cliff and was unharmed.

  “Ori, choke that spider,” I yelled, pointing at the one that was attacking Lot. Ori liquefied and shot across the clearing like a bullet, hitting the spider that was attacking Lot and wrapping around its legs, avoiding the red mold that had burned him last time. I turned back to continue bashing that other spider and then Scarlet crashed past, nearly knocking me over, Echo Knife in one hand and graveyard spike in the other.

  “Sorry,” she slurred as she began stabbing into the spider. I joined her, holding back Bolt so I wouldn’t electrocute her and it was the work of moments to kill it. Then we went to help Lot who had managed at least to get the spider off him. Ori hadn’t quite gotten to its mouth but had managed to constrict enough of its legs to significantly slow it.

  Scarlet hit it with a Fireball, searing away some of the red mold on it, and the spider screamed something at us that I swear for a moment sounded like stop, maybe
please. But it was too late. Lot smashed it in the mouth with his ax, taking out two of its fangs in one blow. Scarlet stabbed it with the Echo Knife a few times, but only opened one mirror wound and I hit it with the staff, finally puncturing into the side of its body.

  It must’ve caught some vital organ. Just like that, the three spiders were dead, but it looked like we were too. Ori was the only one who wasn’t poisoned. I was nearly dead; so was Scarlet, and Lot was looking horrible. He threw up again before managing to stand upright.

  “Lot stop poison,” he said pointing down at the temple. I was too far gone to think much about what it was he wanted, so I just nodded as I stumbled after him and we followed him down the hill. As we went I could feel my heart speeding up, the poison seeping its way in. It was like my blood itself was thickening. I soon found myself beside the statue of the minotaur and Lot was on his hands and knees scrabbling amongst the webs we’d cut off him. He suddenly cheered and held up a bottle. It was grayish-white and blended in with the webs which is, I guess, how we missed it.

  “Stop Lot poison,” he said and unstoppered it. He sipped a third of the bottle before holding it out to me with a shaking hand. I understood what he was doing, but it also seemed a bit stupid. Maybe only one of us should drink it, not all three, and immediately my selfish thought went to me because I could bring Scarlet back from the dead if I needed.

  The thoughts came and went in a blur as I remembered Scarlet frothing at the mouth and screaming as she died in pain. I couldn’t let her go through that again. I drank a third of the bottle, the mixture inside tasting sweet like honey dissolved in tea, before passing the bottle to Scarlet, who drank down the last of it.

  I felt my stomach-turning. I thought I was going to throw up, and I ended up on my knees doing that thing you do when you’re drunk trying to talk your stomach down. I didn’t want to throw up what was, hopefully, an antidote. I came to some time later, my face pressed in the dirt, feeling like I’d been kicked in the head. Everything was aching, and it felt like my brain had swelled two sizes too large and was threatening to crack my skull.

  I looked up and saw Lot sitting across from me resting up against the legs of the centaur statue. He nodded wearily to me and waved his ax. Scarlet was doing a little better; she was at least on her feet, but slightly swaying as though she was standing on the deck of a ship. I looked around to find Ori making his way back through the webs carrying green fruits in his hands. He dumped them on the ground where there was a pile, maybe five or six of them.

  “That’ll make you feel better,” the demon said. I shuffled my way across to the pile and picked up one of the fruits. Although it looked like an unripe mango, when I broke it open the flesh inside was white and smelled like coconut. It was also far sweeter than I was expecting, like it was saturated in sugar. Despite my stomach threatening to throw it back up a few times, I managed to swallow it and did start to feel a bit better. It wasn’t long after that that all of the three of us were on our feet again. The spider’s poison had worn off and my health had somewhat recovered.

  “We need to get out of here before more spiders come,” I said.

  Lot shook his head and pointed the ax into the doorway of the temple.

  “Lot treasure,” he said.

  I looked around wondering whether I’d see any spiders coming.

  “We need treasure,” Scarlet said and started walking towards the temple.

  “Okay. Ori, grab any fangs you can find,” I said.

  Ori picked up a rock from the ground and went scurrying over to the nearest spider, the one that had been crushed against another boulder. It had died in the intervening time, its mouth hanging open. The little ink demon started bashing the rock into its fangs trying to get them free.

  I caught up with Scarlet and then Lot joined us as we made our way to the temple entrance. The sick smell of yeast came wafting out of it, and I clutched my staff in my hand, feeling pain running up my arm and into my shoulder. It wasn’t numb and useless anymore, but this was certainly far worse, a pain that seemed to deepen with every minute. My health was slowly going up and not down, so I could only hope that that meant there’d be no permanent injury and soon I’d recover.

  We walked into the temple. Well, blundered is probably a more accurate word, considering none of us were looking for traps or any of those typical things you would find in a game. We got lucky; there wasn’t anything like that. There was only another spider missing two legs, over in the corner on its last breath. In the back of the temple was a single old wooden chest sitting up on the dais, the side of it streaked with red mold.

  “Help please,” the spider gasped. The red mold on its body had liquefied and trickled to the floor and seemed to be pouring out of its mouth. It had been my imagination before that the spider had spoken, but I hadn’t been sure. There was no mistaking this though; the spider was clearly speaking to us. I didn’t get a chance to say anything back. Lot took two steps, swung his ax and cut it in half.

  “Lot kill!” he said and grinned back at me before giving me a thumbs-up. I wearily gave him one in return and then walked towards the chest. There was no lock holding it shut. As I got closer, the stench of that yeast grew stronger,

  “We should watch out for traps,” Scarlet said about fifty years too late. I pulled the top of the chest open. Inside was a lump of ore laced through with green, the Shimmer Ore that we’d seen being carted around the city. This one was covered in red and so was the inside of the chest, the mold vivid and alive. It was though the chest had been almost air-tight, only allowing a little of the mold to grow out through a crack and down the side of it. Now that the lid opened, it immediately began to die and liquefy, running off the piece of ore and trickling to the bottom of the chest.

  “No treasure Lot,” Lot said, glaring down at it. He went walking off out of the temple, leaving me and Scarlet standing there.

  Although I didn’t feel much like touching it, I already had the red mold on me and apparently had suffered no serious harm, so I picked up the piece of ore and stuffed it in my bag. It was heavy in my hands but became weightless once inside. I had no idea whether this was really treasure, what value it could have, but I could take it back to Lady Trang, see what it was worth. I assumed there’d be blacksmiths around the place; maybe I could smelt it down and use it to make a weapon or a charm.

  There was no point in investigating the rest of the temple, so Scarlet and I went over to the spider. With two quick jabs of my staff, I managed to get its fangs out, which Scarlet carefully picked up from the ground and dropped into my bag.

  “Why do you think it said help please?” Scarlet said as we went shuffling out of the temple like two war veterans carrying lifelong injuries.

  “I don’t know,” I said. I didn’t have a good explanation, but there was an unease churning in my stomach. Outside was the work of ten minutes to collect the rest of the fangs. I offered half of them to Lot and he waved me away and then seemed to pull out of nowhere a handful of them that he must’ve gathered before he’d been captured.

  It was getting late in the afternoon and even if we went at full speed, we wouldn’t be back at Bron until dark. We didn’t wait for more spiders to arrive so as soon as we collected the fangs we got out of there, marching back through the forest, probably not taking as much care as we should’ve, but thankfully there were no spiders waiting for us on the way back.

  Over the hours back, we at least managed to recover. The pain in my body faded and we sped up, eventually getting back to Bron just after dusk. Ori was the only one who was still reasonably clean. Me, Scarlet and Lot were covered in spider blood and dirt and smelled like that horrible yeast. Although I knew it wasn’t true, I swear I could feel it seeping up out of the bag.

  There was a door guard; he looked like he might want a bribe, but then he took one look at Lot and just waved us in. We soon found ourselves in a thoroughfare with people taking a wide berth around us. Lot held his hand out to me and I shook it; he
then did the same with Scarlet and also Ori, little ink demon taking one of his fingers like a kid shaking hands with an adult.

  “You sure you don’t want some of these fangs?” I offered.

  Lot shook his head.

  “Lot alive. Lot thanks,” he said, then he gave me a salute with the ax in his hand, looking like he was about an inch away from taking off his own eyebrow, before wandering off down the street whistling merrily, as though he hadn’t just come close to death.

  Although I wished nothing more than to find a place with a bath to get clean and eat some food, we still had no money. I brought up the map and found the location where we were to turn the bounties in. We went walking through the streets of Bron and although I was tired, I managed to keep eye out to make sure we weren’t being shadowed or about to be jumped. If I was a criminal intent on taking things from people, I’d look for weary adventurers back in town to collect their bounties.

  Thankfully, the roads we traveled didn’t lead us to some dingy part of the city but over to another part that seemed reasonably well off, a few blocks away from The Glove. We encountered hard-faced guards who let us pass as soon as they detected that I’d taken the quest, using a device that glowed a golden yellow when they ran it over my hand.

  Soon I found myself in front of a man sitting behind a desk in an open-air warehouse, feeling slightly intimidated by the fifteen or so guards gathered around holding swords and crossbows.

  “My name is Wolfe. Always happy to meet new employees willing to help us with our spider problem,” he said. He was a small man with a widow’s peak, and even though he was sitting behind the desk, I felt a kind of coiled tension in him, like a snake ready to strike. I nodded hello and then carefully took the spider fangs out of my bag and put them on the desk. I had twenty fangs in total, which meant he dropped two gold pieces on the desk in front of me. I scooped them up and into my bag and nodded wearily to him before he put up his hand to stop us leaving.