8

Since the lightning wasn't enough to deal with the bigger ones I decided on a response of pure savage violence. Ripping them apart at the joints as if cardboard was what was holding them together. Grey innards, and blood flew all around me. The smell of burnt hair saturated the air as the lightning arching down my body burned the blood, and guts that managed to land on me. My murderous intent lashed out with enough force to make the small spiders flee, and the bigger ones hesitate.

All the humans here including my bonded were crouched low under my belly. Practically laying on the ground. They couldn't stay here. More spiders were coming, and one of them was giving me the chills. I inhaled as I filled my lungs with far more mana then necessary.

I chose to breath fire this time. Lightning might burn things, but not as well as fire did. Fire was the quickest way to clear the path. I dropped my neck, straight out, and angled toward the rock face. Letting loose a column of fire that was nearly bigger then my whole body.

Enough power shot out of me in that instant that my throat became raw, and felt as if it were burning, but it worked. My flames scorched everything in that direction in a straight line. Creating a clear path to the wall that was ten feet wide, and completely clear of enemies at the moment. I looked under my belly at the humans I was protecting.

"Move now," I snarled with a slight rasp to my voice.

Two of the three that had never heard me speak before looked very surprised. Calen on the other hand didn't look like he had enough energy to look surprised. I whipped two spiders away from us with my tail as they tried to come at us from behind. My three bonded ran into the path I created without the slightest bit of hesitation. The two carrying Calen weren't so quick to move.

Seemed like they were trying to be gentle with the man.

"You two are taking too long," I opened my jaws as my teeth slipped back into the gums.

Snatching Calen from them easily by his midsection. The taste of blood on my tongue was heavenly even though it made me want to gag. The bleeding had slowed, and his heart beat was weak. He wouldn't survive with out some sort of treatment so I started inhaling through my nose, and exhaling light element with each shallow breath. It wasn't enough to treat him completely, but it should help him start recovering at an accelerated rate.

I kept the humans in front of me as much as I could. Keeping Calen's allies alive had to give me some sort of bonus points when we got out of here. I slapped a few more spiders aside. Ethan, Jax, and Savannah were holding their own easily enough. If that big one made its way over here we'd be in trouble.

I shoved Calen's buddies forward with the back of my hand. I couldn't exactly yell at them for moving too slow, and questioning me since Calen was still in my mouth.

{Ethan} I took advantage of our strong connection to get a clear message through {Get them moving. We need to move faster. There's something dangerous coming our way.}

"Move faster," Ethan wrapped his ability around them both, and yanked them both up with him.

I closed the distance in half a breath. Calen started regaining consciousness. I could smell his fear as he tried to push my mouth open weakly. I dropped him out of my mouth, and caught him with my right hand.

"Stop struggling," I growled at him, "We don't have time to discuss this, and I don't have time to babysit you." I wrapped my tail around him, and shoved him into the saddle, "Hold on."

Calen was still too weak to hold on on his own.

"Ethan," I snapped loudly, "Get him strapped in properly. I don't have time to worry about him falling off." I looked at Calen again with a growl, "He'll owe me for this one."

Ethan smirked slightly as he climbed up to help Calen strap in. He liked my irritation at Calen for being so close to me. Ethan started defending Calen for me so I could focus on protecting the other four. My long coiled body allowed me to attack a large amount of the area around me, but it also had negatives. There was a lot more of me to attack.

Having my mouth back was nice. Now I could use breath attacks again. The ground shook under the big one's long stride. It was too close. Yet I didn't see it above the ground.

That meant it was below us.

{Ethan take him to the others now} I didn't have time to say anything else as the ground beneath me caved.

My wings flared instinctively as the ground beneath me vanished. Ethan managed to borrow my power in time, and leap clear of the collapse with Calen. There was maybe a hundred feet of solid rock before the space opened up into a massive cavern. Big enough for me to extend my wings, and take flight. This whole space was crawling with more spiders then I could count.

Climbing the pillars to the roof where the big one had punched a hole. Soon there would be an army pouring through that hole to where my friends were trying to flee. I circled back to the hole I'd fallen through, and forced the winds to gather under my wings. Pushing myself forward as fast as my wings could bare. Shooting back up the hole at breakneck speed.

Nearly slamming into the massive spider walking up the side. I slammed my feet into the wall of the hole, and half leapt half climbed my way past her. She noticed me climbing up the wall. I circled away from her while she circled toward me. I picked up more speed.