Mind Spiders

This time I ignored the voices. I couldn't let myself become emotional every time I thought of my life on Earth. Mourning was important but this wasn't the time or the place. The other two would ask a nonsense question every few minutes. Since we couldn't hear the voice that was talking to someone else, it meant that the spiders were using a psychic ability. There were ways to circulate aura or mana to protect your mind. But it was taxing to continuously do so.

Now that we knew what to look for, we could make out the spiders at the edge of our visibility in the light fog. Their legs were long and slender, dark in color with pale joints. The bodies were bluish white with black stripes. There were several groupings of eyes across its body, each with dozens of dark orbs. They seemed to know when we were looking at them. If I protected my mind I could watch them, once I dropped the protection they moved further into the fog.

As the night wore on, I began to spot more and more spiders. Eventually they didn't try to hide in the fog. A few would come close before scurrying back. They were testing us.

"We might need to strike before they do." I said.

"We're too close to their lair. Once we start to attack others might join them." Lariss said.

"Since we don't have a choice, let's head into the nest and find Dagfinnr." Aspasia said.

"It's still too dangerous. These seem to be the scouts and hunters. In the lair we might come across larger ones, possibly even a queen." I said.

"I don't think we're going to have much of a choice." Lariss indicated the three sides that the spiders were starting to press in on. The fourth side led back to their lair.

"Or we force our way through." I circulated my Lydos aura with my lighting mote.

"Why are the two of you so set on abandoning my comrades?" Aspasia said. She was starting to move towards the lair.

When I looked at Lariss, we had the same thought. She had been in the forest longer than us with less protection, especially when we found her. Her mind was being affected with paranoia that could turn into hostility. We barely knew each other making it easier for her to doubt us. If we didn't head into the lair with her, she'd just go herself. Would we let her die?

"Let's see how easy these things are to kill first." I said.

With my Speed spell active, I lunged forward and used a Moonlight Lightning Slash. I was aiming for its body but found my slash hitting the outer side of its legs. It immediately fled back into the fog. All around us the spiders began to shriek, their mandibles began to clack together creating a harsh discord of noise.

"Be careful when you aim. They're affecting our perception of where they are." I said.

Based on the sound, there may be more of them around us than we thought. A few started to become a little more daring by coming closer, hunching down ready to leap. An arrow from Lariss discouraged them. They seemed to be a very cowardly bunch.

"Aspasia is that feather still working. If so, start leading the way. Lariss, keep them off our back." I said.

We made our way back towards the lair. When we arrived at the outer edge, I sent a Firebolt to the first decent grouping of webs that I found. It burned away easily. The next grouping of webs I used my Lydos aura infused blade to the same effect. As long as it isn't too thick, I'd be able to manage.

The further in we went the denser the webs were. We began to come across small sacks made of web. I cut one open to reveal a mummified wolf-like creature. Another I cut open was mostly bones. Aspasia gained a determined look when looking at them.

We also started to get to webbing that was thicker. I could still destroy them but it took longer as more and more spiders were surrounding us. With Lariss having trouble keeping them at bay we had to slow our pace as Aspasia and I joined in thinning them out.

Then we came to a grove with larger web sacks attached to the trunks of the trees; a few of them were wriggling. The feather was now pointing towards one on the far end. As we made our way towards the sack, I started to Firebolt the tops of the sacks that were moving the most. Aspasia started to pull at the sack with her bare hands getting stuck in the process. There was a desperation on her face.

"Calm down before you get yourself killed. You need to burn the webbing away." I said. Lariss and I put our backs to her and focused on keeping the spiders at bay.

After a deep breath, her hands glowed with holy light and started to melt the webbing away. A glance showed a gaunt brown haired young man taking shallow breaths. Tears were running down Aspasia's face as she cast a Healing spell. He looked better but wouldn't be able to help get us out of here.

"Give him some of these." Lariss tossed her the nutrient and energy pills.

After she fed them to him he was able to open his eyes.

"Aspasia, what? Where are we?" Dagfinnr said.

"It's okay. I found some allies to help get you out of here." She replied.

At that moment the monsters in the other sacks started to break their way out. Even after we had taken up a defensive position, I continued to strike the other sacks. Once Lariss saw what I was trying to do, she joined in. They were a mixture of creatures resembling forest animals. There was a deer with dozens of eyes and a jaw that split in four. One was a rabbit the size of a cow with large fangs and sharp claws. A wolf shaped creature had lizard scales instead of fur, that one started spitting venom once its head was free.

The spiders started to spread out to keep the other monsters in place. A few weren't able to break free before the spiders resealed them in webbing. Those that did either ran or started attacking the spiders. Just as I wanted, it took the pressure off of us.

When Dagfinnr was free we began our own retreat. He slowed us down and had to lean on Aspasia for support. We came upon three spiders dragging a large sack. Arrows pierced the spiders causing them to flee. As we ran past I sliced open the sack. A bear-like creature with extra arms and crooked antlers started to emerge.

"Hold up, I think we might be headed in the wrong direction." I saw the webbing was starting to get thicker. A roar came from behind us followed by the shrieking of the spiders.

"Well with what you released, we can't head back the way we came." Aspasia said.

"Who are they? Where is Otho and Wigand?" Dagfinnr said.

"I'll explain when we're safer." She replied.

Without much choice we had to continue on. Soon everything was covered in thick webs, even the canopy of the trees were strands of spider silk rather than leaves. There were small fleshy sacks the size of a human head on the trunks of the trees.

"Oh no, I think we've found their nest. We need to get out of here before a queen or a guardian shows up." Lariss said.

"That might be too late." There had been a chill in my heart since the voices had begun. That started to drastically increase when we entered the nest.

To the side of us a spider larger than a horse was lowering itself to the ground. It let out a shriek higher pitched than the other spiders. When its mandibles scraped against each other, they sounded like metal scraping against metal and let off sparks.

Spectral shields from Aspasia's Prayer of Warding surrounded me as I charged. Flame arrows flew past me towards one of its many groupings of eyes. I swung my sword at one of its legs and found myself striking air. That same leg raised up and came down towards me. My buckler glowed red with my Osgar aura but the impact never hit the buckler. Pain shot through my leg as the sharp end of the spider's leg slash through it.

My counter also didn't connect. I dropped my Speed spell and used the mana from my core to reinforce my mind. As I did, the location of the spider shifted in my vision. Backing away I applied an Earth Paste to stop the bleeding in my leg. Lariss and Aspasia distracted it for a moment until I was able to charge back in.

Even with the Lydos aura, my sword wasn't able to cut through its legs completely. Without my Speed spell, it was able to move its body out of reach every time I tried to strike. Moving through its legs I saw groupings of eyes all over its body leaving it without a blind spot.

"Everyone cover your eyes." Aspasia must have realized the same thing as me. I did as she said, backing away from the spider.

Even with my eyes closed, the flash of light that came was harsh. The tone of the spider shrieking changed to pain. When I opened my eyes, specs of light danced around the spider. I aimed my Moonlight Lightning Slash at its closest leg joint. It sliced most of the way through and the lower part of the leg started to hang limply. Continuing forward I focused on the underside of its body.

With several deep wounds on its body it started to crawl away.

"Wilmaer, down." Lariss said.

I dropped to my knees. The power of the spell could be felt behind me. Over me a line of flames surrounded by lightning burst forth. The queen was burned across its top as arcs of lightning coursed through its body. Back on my feet I went to work hitting the joints in its legs. Once it was down it was easy to pierce it's head.

"Lariss, can you get the queen into your bracelet?" I knew there was not much room in my ring for its size.

"You'll need to give me a minute." She said.

Around us the smaller spiders shrieked and scraped their mandibles at us. Any that were brave enough to try to take revenge were killed either by my sword or Aspasia's Bolts of Holy Light. Once the large body of the queen was in Lariss' Storage Bracelet, we continued onward. Even after the sun came up and we didn't stop until we were far from the spider's lair. Only after Dagfinnr couldn't go any further did we find a place to rest.