Dungeons and Ararchnids

"What?" Gisel gasped.

"The village has hired us to hunt down these spiders, and rescue their missing children," Lissa explained. "It's likely they are coming in from a newly surfaced dungeon."

"We're going dungeon delving?" I gasped.

"Yes," Rath went on. "Under the supervision of your mother and me. There are still spider attacks on the village happening at intervals, as you just saw. If we leave you here you may have to face them on your own. I believe you will actually be safer with us, even though we shall encounter more of them."

"Theo, prepare your spells, or whatever you do. Spiders, and their webs, are particularly vulnerable to fire, as a rule at least. However, if we enter a dungeon you need to be careful of the limited space, I do not wish to be fried."

"I shall be careful," I said, my mind racing through the spells I had prepared. 

"Gisel, you shall be up front with me. You are to stay close. Do not, under any circumstances, leave my vicinity. Do you understand?"

"Yes master." Gisel nodded.

"You should try and focus on the smaller spiders. You saw what I did earlier. Be careful of their front legs especially, but they also can have large pincers, and some types can be venomous. Avoid being bitten, although Lissa should be able to heal it, and I shall give you a vial of antidote. We only have two vials with us, so use them only if you really need to. Your throwing daggers will be less effective here, but if you do use them, aim for the main eyes."

"As you say master." Gisel bowed her head.

"Theo," Rath turned to me. "You shall be support, with your mother. Your task will be to ensure no monsters come up from behind us, and also protect Lissa. Remember to keep an eye above too, spiders tend to drop down on you. Watch your own rear as well. If you are casting spells, don't get excited and start blasting everywhere. Conserve your strength, choose your targets carefully. And don't hit us!"

"As you say mother." I nodded.

Rath took a deep breath, and looked at Lissa, who nodded. "Very well then, you have five minutes to prepare."

"Aye!" Both Gisel and I scrambled back into the wagon to get ready.

~*~

Ten minutes later we were heading east, through the village, towards the forested area where the spiders had come from, according to reports.

We had barely started off when two smaller spiders scuttled towards us. They looked the same as the ones Rath had dealt with earlier, but were only about the size of a large dog, although their long legs made them look even larger.

"Gisel, can you take these two?" Rath asked.

"Yes master!" 

Without waiting another second, my young friend drew both her daggers and leaped forward to meet the attack, a blade in each hand. Just as it seemed she would collide with the monsters, she dived to the right, and slashed at the spider with her knife as she ran along.

The beast let out a high pitched shriek, as the legs on one side were severed. It fell sideways, unable to move properly. Gisel didn't stay still, she did an impressive cartwheel summersault and slashed at the body as she passed over it upside down. 

"Impressive," I heard Rath mutter.

On the other side of the dying spider, she bounced once again, to land on the back of the second creature, and plunged both daggers into its head from above.

Chitin cracked, and with another squeal, the spider collapsed, ichor gushing from the deep wounds. 

Gisel sprang off and landed clear, swinging around in a circle to make sure no other threats were manifest. 

There were none. She nodded to herself, cleaned her blades, and sheathed them, as if killing dungeon monsters was something she did every day.

"Excellent work," Rath said. 

Gisel beamed.

"But don't get overconfident, those were babies."

"Understood master."

"You may as well collect the heartstones," Lissa pointed out the two crystals in the rapidly evaporating remains. "However, don't stop to pick up loot whilst we're in the middle of a fight."

"Of course." Gisel looked offended that Lissa would say something so obvious.

"Well, I've seen it happen," Lissa muttered.

If I was jealous that Gisel had been allowed to fight on her own, I was soon given the chance to prove my own mettle.

We were just outside of the village, walking through a field of some kind of crop, when three more large spiders appeared from the treeline, which was some distance ahead of us.

"Theo, do you wish to see to these?" Lissa asked.

"Yes mother!" 

I stepped forward and raised my hand. A ball of fire appeared above me. "Firestorm!" I shouted, more for the look of the thing than any need.

Bringing my arm down I aimed at the spiders, sweeping my palm in a horizontal line across their path. Intense orange spheres of fire, the size of tennis balls, materialised in the air above the creatures and then rained down, slammed into the approaching trio. 

The effects were gratifying beyond my expectations.

The first one simply blew up in an enormous explosion, creating a small mushroom cloud above it, and scattering spider-parts all around.

The other two were slightly less impressive, but no less effective, as the monsters collapsed under the impact of my attacks, and burst into flames. More high pitched screeches met our ears as they literally melted in front of our eyes. 

"Oh, that was so satisfying," I said, lower my hand, a wide smile on my face. It was almost a relief to finally be able to let loose.

"Holy shit," I heard Rath say, under her breath. Then, in a louder voice. "Good work little one, but please don't use such force at close quarters. We'll all be incinerated in a forest fire."

"Oh, yes." 

Parts of the woodland nearby were smouldering. Luckily it didn't seem to be spreading.

"I will use wind magic next time," I said. I had developed a spell I called Wind Blade, which I was eager to try.

"Let's keep moving," Rath said. 

We headed over to the smoking craters that were all that was left of the spiders. I picked up one of the heartstones and put it in my bag as we went by. Then I frowned. Had the bugbear I killed in the woods dropped a stone, or was that not a dungeon dimension monster? No, it had not melted. So that was a demon monster then. I resolved to clarify this later.

For now, we approached the treeline, and Rath slowed our approach. She drew her sword, and Gisel pulled one of her own blades out. No doubt she was leaving the other hand free for throwing.

Lissa and I dropped back, allowing the front line to get clear.

"Ready?" Rath asked, without looking back.

"Go," Lissa responded.

At a slow and wary pace, we entered the woodland. Immediately things were harder. The sun shining through the foliage above meant visibility was impacted, and of course, the trees themselves blocked our view.

"To the right," Rath said, suddenly. 

Gisel, who was beside her, on that side, swivelled and rushed a few steps forward, directly underneath a medium sized spider that had leaped out of nowhere. Copying Rath's technique from earlier, she ran forward with her dagger raised, slicing the underside of the thing. 

It screeched, and fell to the ground, to be finished off by a thrust from Rath's sword.

Stepping around the body, which was already melting, Gisel took her place by Rath again. Both fighters stood still, scanning the area for a moment, before moving forward once again. Lissa and I followed.

Several more spiders attacked shortly after that, one from the rear, which Lissa put down with some kind of light arrow spell I'd never seen her use before. 

From then on, the going became tougher, with the creatures approaching from all directions. Still, they were spaced apart and we weren't overwhelmed, and none of them were very large. Rath and Gisel sliced and diced efficiently, working together as if they had been doing it for ages, whilst Lissa and I covered their rear. Lissa blasted them to the right, and I took out any from the left. I used another variant of my fireball spell, which fired a small, compressed, ball of fire that exploded on impact. It had the advantage of not setting a huge area ablaze, whilst at the same time being efficient in mana. I was able to fire off several shots rapidly as well, and two or three seemed to put an attacker down fairly quickly. Still, larger spiders were going to need something else.

Oh, I had named this one Fire Bullet. Maybe I was imagining it, but I think my spell names were improving. 

"I think there's some kind of structure ahead," Rath called back, after about ten minutes of fairly heavy going. "We should…"

She was cut off as all hell broke loose. 

Spiders, including a few huge ones, suddenly erupted from everywhere. 

The four of us were pressed back, into a group, each of us facing a different direction. I let loose with a combination of Fire Bullet and my other new one – Wind Blade. I'd had the inspiration for these from the time with the bugbear. That time I'd blown a hole through the thing with a ball of compressed air. Wind Blade compressed it too, but into a kind of sharp boomerang shaped blade, which, so I found, sliced through spider very efficiently, sometimes taking two out in one go, if they were lined up. 

Even so, I had to reduce the size of the 'blade' and spit them out in an almost machine-gun fashion, as the beasts lurched forward en-masse.

"Gisel!" I heard Rath scream. 

Glancing back I saw Gisel had been wrapped in a mass of sticky thread, which had almost fully engulfed her. Even as I watched, she was yanked into the air, pulled by a line thrown from a different type of spider, a green one, that was perched in a tree.

I swung about, and let off a stream of Fire Bullets, trying to cut the line, but was abruptly interrupted, as my own body was engulfed in web. 

"N…" I started to cry, trying to move, unsuccessfully, as the mass of grey threads wrapped around my head, cutting off sight, sound and, more urgently, air.

"Theo!" I heard Lissa scream, as I struggled to breathe. "We'll…"

I heard nothing else, and my world turned grey, and then black, as I lost consciousness.