EPISODE TWENTY-ONE:
SIMPLE MISTAKES, DEADLY CONSEQUENCES
The attack came so quickly that Vash barely felt the warning pulse from his Core. Already backing up, away from the Hollowmound Warrior, Vash barely avoided the scythe-like claw of the giant spider. A long slice opened up the belly of his leather armor, only grazing the flesh underneath. Wayfarer medallion pulsing, numbing the pain, Vash turned his backward stumble into a backward roll, getting some distance between himself and the warrior spider.
“They know we’re here!” Vash called, drawing his blades and immediately falling into the stance.
A chorus of hisses, clicks, and thumps of chitin went up along the previously silent webs. Vash’s enhanced vision picked out other warriors emerging from alcoves along the walls where they rested in the shadows. The workers tending the egg sacs either clustered protectively around their charges or descended to lower webs, legs working their spinnerets to make clumps of webbing.
. Vash thought, but could not consider the situation further, since that was when the warrior in front of him charged.
Low to the ground, fighting arms wide, the warrior scuttled forward with ground-eating strides from its long legs. Its large, bladed arms spread wide to prevent Vash from dodging.
Vash was prepared for that. At the warning pulse from his Core, Vash leaped into the air, pushing mana into to give him extra height and speed. Fast slashes from the spider passed a bare span beneath his feet, cutting through the air where his legs had been a moment before.
. Vash thought. .
The memory of the skeletons hanging in the alcoves in the first room, webbed up and desiccated, came to the front of his mind. The egg sacs in the webs above, heavy with ready-to-hatch eggs, also sprang to mind.
He came down hard, landing with one boot outstretched to smash into the warrior’s head, aiming for the eyes. The warrior dodged to one side at the last moment. Vash scraped the side of its head, scraping over one of the smaller eyes. He felt the wet pop of the eye bursting beneath his heel.
The spider hissed in pain, jerking back. Vash stumbled, but righted himself quickly. Light bloomed behind him and he risked a look back.
Zakarias and his servants removed the shutters from their lanterns, pushing back the shadows and letting everyone see what they were up against. Corwin and Jabez shook their glowmoss elixirs and tossed them out beyond the lamplight, making pools of light in the darkness.
“Vash!” Corwin called. He and Jabez taking up positions on either side of the scholar’s party. “Don’t get separated!”
Nodding, Vash took a step back. His Core immediately screamed a warning and Vash threw himself in the opposite direction. Balls of webbing struck the floor behind him, spreading out in wide circles before drying into solid strands. Vash glanced up, spotting two worker spiders in the webbing above. The workers were each already crafting another ball of webbing, mandibles clicking in excitement.
More workers were descending, finding strategic points around the hall, trying to box in the intruders. Hisses and clicks drew Vash’s attention. The warrior had shaken off the worst of the damage done to it, and was now carefully circling to one side. Movement to Vash’s left, and a second warrior stepped out of the shadows, moving in careful sync with the one Vash had already wounded.
“They’re cutting me off!” Vash called, trying to keep both warriors in front of him while simultaneously stay out of the range of fire of the workers above.
“Hang on!” Jabez said. “We’ll come to you!”
Behind him, Vash could hear the grunts and shouts as Jabez and Corwin went to work. The crushed-eggshell sound of spider carapaces cracking coupled with the clicking screeches of pain.
Vash could almost hear Byar’s words, remembering being pitted against three other skilled Eth Mitaan in sparring sessions.
Vash chose the wounded warrior as his first opponent. The spider was already down an eye, and having taken some pain from him might make it slightly more skittish. It had maneuvered next to a column outside of the ring of pale yellow light from Zakarias’ lanterns.
Without hesitation, Vash sprinted forward. giving him surprising speed. The other spiders had no chance to react, as they were focused on their own trap. Reaching the edge of the pool of light, Vash brought up . Colors faded and an icy chill ran through him. Time seemed to slow, his muffled footsteps sounding hollow and far away.
The wounded warrior brought its legs in and backed up a pace in surprise, turning its head from side to side, trying to see where Vash had gone. Vash changed course, moving to one side and springing off the ground to reach the column next to his target. pulled more mana, giving him the strength and agility needed to reach the column. Then, once his foot struck the stone surface, he pushed off, twisting through the air directly over where the warrior crouched.
Sound and color erupted into Vash’s world as he released and activated . The small sword in his right hand lanced out for the vulnerable joint where the spider’s head met its body. Greenish-white ichor flowed out of the wound as the sword struck home. Vash plunged the blade all the way to the hilt into what his Core was telling him was a vital spot. With his other hand, Vash wrapped his arm around the spider’s head, drove the dagger into the same joint on the opposite side of the head. With a grunt of effort, Vash twisted both weapons in opposite directions.
The warrior spider’s head popped off in a gush of ichor and strange-looking innards. The spider shuddered, its legs curling in on itself in its death throes. Vash leaped from the creature’s back, narrowly missing being hit by the webbing of workers who now could see where he was.
Vash dodged to one side, his Core thrumming a warning. The surviving warrior brought its scythe-claws down in a deadly, stabbing motion. The chitin struck sparks from the stone floor and left foot-long gouges behind. Hissing in frustration, the spider sidestepped to bring Vash back into its line of attack. More globs of webbing rained down from above, forcing Vash to bob and weave to avoid losing movement in one or more limbs. The warrior spider warily closed the distance and tested Vash’s response with feints and sudden slashes with its scythe-claws.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
The feints were easy to avoid. The familiar thrumming of his Core meant Vash had a heartbeat or two to respond before the spider could actually attack. Behind him, Vash could feel Corwin and Jabez moving but being blocked by other faint mana-shapes. Likely more Hollowmound warriors from different parts of the chamber. Their low mana capacity made them difficult to track using , and his danger sense would not go off until an attack. Vash batted away a sweeping slice from the warrior in front of him. The attack was a test, so it was easy to sense and deflect.
Vash thought, taking another step back toward Corwin and Jabez.
Vash’s Core raised an alarm immediately as he took that last step. A sound of tearing webbing and the sudden presence of another large figure were all the warning Vash had. He was shoved roughly to the ground as a massive creature landed on his back. The impact with the flagstones knocked Vash’s breath out of him, and he lost his grip. The small sword flew from his hand and skittered across the stone floor. He held on to the dagger only because the fall had left the weapon trapped underneath him.
Instinctively, Vash pushed up against the ground, trying to get back onto his feet, but several hundred pounds of hard chitin and hissing fury held him pinned. Vash reached out for his sword, lying a few feet away, but a scythe-claw came down on his shoulder. One serrated extrusion punched through his armor at the shoulder. Vash screamed as pain exploded and he felt a warm wetness blossom on his under tunic. Immediately his Wayfarer medallion spread a cooling numbness to his shoulder, trying to dull the pain. It was only somewhat successful. Vash writhed beneath the spider’s claw, trying not to do any more damage to himself, while also desperately working to get loose.
The spider ground down on Vash, mandibles clicking. It pulled him backwards along the floor, leaving a trail of blood. The first warrior followed, but the one holding Vash reacted with a lunge and a hiss, and the warrior slowed, looking indecisive about whether Vash was worth the fight.
Several nearby announced the smaller workers dropping from the webs above. Two immediately darted to Vash’s legs, and he felt them encase him in their webbing. Vash kicked out, trying to free himself, but he couldn’t get the right leverage and soon his ankles were bound in webbing.
Vash thought, desperately.
He painfully wriggled himself until he could get his dagger out from under his body. It was a long dagger, but wouldn’t do a great deal of damage against the warrior holding him without precision attacks. Hopefully, he could do enough damage for it to back off, though.
The workers had made it to his knees, and the warrior continued to drag him backwards. He felt the lip of some sort of pit or hole in the ground.
Vash thought.
Vash grunted and stabbed upward with his dagger. The first few strikes thunked against the spider’s carapace, doing little beyond scratching the black and yellow body. The warrior seemed unconcerned, continuing to drag Vash slowly back into its hole.
Taking a deep breath, Vash focused. Craning his neck, he looked up at the bottom of the warrior above him. He could see the small head and clicking mandibles just above his own head. Focusing on his target, Vash pulled on his Core. He didn’t have a Talent in mind, just needed the extra boost from the mana stored there.
A rush of mana flowed into him, further numbing the pain from his wound and lending strength to his body. Vash pushed up against the floor, driving the spider’s weapon leg up. There was a fresh bloom of pain as the scythe-claw slid and tore further into the meat of Vash’s shoulder. Vash ignored it, focused on this one chance.
Vash brought his dagger up in a wide arc, stabbing deep into the head of the spider. He felt the thinner chitin give beneath the force of his blade, pale green spider blood dripping down his hand and arm. The spider made a hissing shriek, immediately pushing back away from the source of its pain. Vash lost his grip on the dagger, but the spider also pulled its scythe-claw free from the wound in Vash’s shoulder.
Rolling to one side, Vash suddenly found himself in the clear. The warrior spider had stumbled back into its hole, Vash’s dagger protruding from one side of its face. He had stabbed through two eyes and a mandible hung halfway off the creature’s face. It shook its head in anger and pain.
As soon as the warrior had shrieked, the worker spiders scattered. Some were already climbing back up the webs, but all had moved well out of range of the thrashing warrior. Vash was alone in an empty space, conveniently close to where his short sword had landed. He grabbed the hilt of the blade and quickly sliced at the webs binding his legs together. The webs parted easily under his sword. Within moments, he was free.
Struggling to his feet, Vash took a blow to the chest that knocked him back several feet. He managed to stay upright and keep hold of his sword. The warrior that he had faced earlier advanced out of the shadows. It had struck him a glancing blow from one of its scythe-claws and was now preparing to leap onto him for the kill.
The spider had reared back, legs curled and ready to spring, when a large sword sliced its head off. The spider thrashed wildly, but Corwin stepped out of the way and gave it a savage kick, sending it rolling off to one side.
Workers launched themselves at the big warrior, but he sidestepped each attack and hacked through their bodies with savage precision. Behind Corwin was Jabez. The dwarf charged the warrior that Vash wounded, spinning on his heel and delivering a powerful blow with his war-hammer. The warrior’s body cracked, green blood oozing from multiple rents in the creature’s carapace. Jabez grabbed Vash’s dagger from the slumping spider, then turned to the group.
“Move! More are coming!”
Vash looked up. Jabez was right. Above them there was rampant activity in the webs. Workers were rapidly descending from the shadows. Motion closer to ground level caught Vash’s attention. Holes in the floor covered by detritus and webbing moved aside and more warriors crawled out of them, sluggishly at first, but rapidly shaking off their stupor.
Zakarias and his servants jogged past Vash, forming up behind Jabez and Corwin. In passing, Vash glimpsed Zakarias grinning like a child at the circus.
Vash thought, hurrying to catch up as well.
A worker leaped out of the webs towards Vash, cutting off his thoughts. Vash whirled and sliced through the spider. An awkward attack, but it got the job done, lopping off three of the spider’s legs. The creature landed and flopped on the ground, unable to right itself and leaking blood all over the floor.
In a tight knot, the Wayfarers and the scholar moved across the room. Jabez and Corwin made quick work of any spider that got too close. Even the warriors kept a careful distance from Jabez’s hammer. The dwarf’s speed and skill amazed Vash. He could feel the subtle thrum of Jabez using Talents, but they came so fast that it was hard to tell one from another.
After a few moments, which felt like hours, they reached the stairs down to the next level. Vash looked down and saw an open doorway, but it looked as though the thick wooden door was still intact. “Get down the stairs! If we can get the door closed, we might be able to brace it!”
There were no arguments. Vash led the way, taking the stairs two and three at a time. Beyond the doorway was a dark corridor, patches of glowmoss illuminating it sporadically. Webs hung in the corners of the hallway, but not like the ones in the chamber outside.
Vash thought, ushering Zakarias and his servants past.
Corwin descended the stairs backwards, slowly moving away from a pair of workers. The smaller spiders chittered and lunged. Corwin stabbed one in the face, then kicked it off the blade when it started twitching. The second worker leaped into the air, trying to land on Corwin from above. Corwin merely reached out and grabbed the spider out of the air, just below the mandibles. With a grunt of effort, Corwin crushed the carapace under his hand. Spider blood flowed over his fingers and its legs curled in on itself. Corwin tossed the dying spider aside and quickly descended the stairs.
Jabez was right behind him, a wounded warrior spider limped forwards, still trying to get to the dwarf. It had obviously taken a heavy blow to the side. One scythe-claw dangled uselessly, and pale blood seeped from cracks in the creature’s armor. Jabez backed down the stairs slowly, careful not to underestimate his wounded foe. Reaching the bottom, the warrior made one last effort, slashing out at Jabez with its good scythe-claw. Jabez deflected the attack, and the spider hissed in pain, the tip of its claw breaking off. The warrior backed up out of Jabez’s range, and the dwarf took the opportunity to back quickly through the door.
Vash and Corwin heaved the heavy door closed, rusted hinges squealing in protest. Finally, the door closed with a hollow boom that echoed through the empty corridor. A rusted, but still solid, metal-banded crossbar was on the floor behind the door. Corwin heaved the heavy bar into place, sealing the door.
For a moment, none of them spoke. They merely panted and tried to recover. After getting his wind back, Vash looked up, spotting Zakarias looking around the corridor with mild interest. Lip curling in anger, he strode forward, getting into the scholar’s face.
“What part of ‘’ did you not understand?”
