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Hall stifled a sigh of relief when they reached the square with the well in the middle. The house was indeed hard to miss, as it was the only one with flowers in front. It was as dark as the rest of the square, so the lady would likely be asleep.

Siegfried knocked at the door. As big as the house was, he feared he would have to shout to wake her up, but after a few seconds, he heard a faint rustling from inside.

Instead of the door, the front window's shutters opened, and the silhouette of a woman leaned out of it. "Ma'am, we excuse the late disturbance. We are from the city guard and would need to ask a few questions," Siegfried said while Bolverk moved the lantern to reveal her features.

She was an attractive, mature woman. Well-endowed while keeping a slim figure, as far as he could see from her upper body. Hard but feminine, angular facial structure with black, shoulder-length hair and dark eyes.

"Ah, don't worry, young man, I couldn't sleep very well anyway. My friends call me Trish. You may do likewise." Her voice was rich, and her tone educated. "Now, whatever could I assist you with, this late at night?"

Agnar didn't miss his opportunity to approach her first. Even with the lantern's weak light only partly enlightening her, he appreciated the sight up close even more. With his best smile and confident demeanour, he explained what they found out so far and emphasised their desire to ensure her niece's safety.

It was apparent that the lady wasn't entirely appalled by Agnar's subtle advances either. "Why, thank you for your honest concern. My niece, Shally, is currently with my parents in the northern district. I really needed some time—"

When Bolverk walked up close with the lantern — close enough to nearly light up the room inside — Trish's eyes narrowed and, before they could react, she threw her arms around Agnar.

They were hurled back inside the house as if an invisible force yanked on the strings of a puppet.

A dull thump sounded as both the guard's legs hit the window's frame in the process. His cry of pain joined Siegfried's shout, "Agnar!" and the metallic ring of their swords being drawn.

When they followed her through the window, the spacious room was empty.

Siegfried fought down the rising panic of losing Agnar to whatever nightmare took him, but Eirik lost all reason and stormed ahead as soon as the lantern revealed the only door leading deeper into the house.

"Wait, Rik'!" Siegfried shouted while they followed, just a few steps behind. "Ambush or traps!" he quickly tried bringing his friend to at least pay attention when he heard Eirik roar in anger in front of him.

The short reach of Bolverk's lamp showed wooden walls to both sides and barely reached the ceiling, nearly three times a grown man's height. But only darkness was in front — a long corridor — until the glow finally unveiled Eirik's form in the shadows, suspended in mid-air, flailing stiffly as if bound by chains.

"Goddess protect our souls!" Svana sent a quick prayer, her voice shaking in terror. Siegfried, spotting the fine thread even in the dim light, jumped forward and swung his blade in a horizontal arc to the right, freeing Eirik of part of his restraints.

In that instant, a black, pointed rod shot out of the darkness through Eirik's shoulder, missing its original destination as he swayed to the side. Trish's face became visible behind him, her jaw wide open, revealing her bloody fangs.

To everyone's surprise, it was Hall who had reacted in time and lounged at her head from Eirik's left, forcing her back before she could put those fangs to use.

Her initial attack failed, and now halfway in the light, she was being yanked back again. The pointed rod, which they could now identify as part of her body, was ripped out of her screaming prey.

"Eirik! Oh goddess, Eirik!" Svana cried, holding him up while Hall cut the rest of the threads. "Lean him up against the wall and guard him!" Bolverk bellowed, "Sieg, Hall, stay defensive. Those ropes stick!"

"Webs, Bolverk. She's a spider woman from the waist down, legs like spears, likely poisoned fangs, using her silk thread to manoeuvre quickly and eyes devoid of any white— could have night vision!" Hall explained short and fast as Bolverk hadn't seen her, standing behind Eirik.

Siegfried couldn't help but admire him for his clear-headed analysis and reaction to what they had just seen. Gone was the frightened boy he had seen on the way here. There was only grim determination in his eyes, a cold desire for vengeance that left no space for other emotions. Even though Sieg already faced a changeling before, this was something wholly different, and he was honestly shaken with fear.

Not fear for his friends, injured or killed already by the nightmarish creature, no, those worries were drowned by instinctual, animalistic angst in the face of a superior predator. The silken strands, spanning between the walls, just enhanced the feeling of being trapped in the lair of a monster.

Seeing Hall standing next to him, all muscles straining in anticipation instead of fear, calmed Siegfried enough to let some logical thoughts through. A boy, barely of age, having the courage to stand with him while Sieg himself was shaking like a leaf in the wind. He should defend those weaker than him, not drag them down. He was faster and more adaptive in combat than any human he knew. As long as they could wait for her in the light, he should be able to deflect her spear-like legs while Hall could stab her from the side as before.

Suddenly the silence was disturbed by a deep moan. Bolverk immediately recognised it. "Agnar! He's alive!" His reflexive elation turned into conscious terror as the dull wail turned into a blood-curling scream of pain. If she didn't kill him yet, she wouldn't kill him soon… and she would keep him screaming to force them deeper into her trap.

Neither Bolverk nor Siegfried could stomach the thought of Agnar's fate, trap or not. They rushed forward, thundering war cries on their lips, helping them to drown their reason, drown their rational thoughts, which would cause them to turn around and flee.

They cut down or evaded the seemingly random strings, which stretched in all directions while they ran as fast as the sphere of dim light in Bolverk's hand allowed. Neither of them even realised that Hall followed behind them.

Neither of them noticed that their own cries were the only sound left in the corridor.

Trish dropped from the ceiling above Siegfried, intent on skewering him with her legs. Only Hall's shout of warning and Siegfried's own lightning-fast reflexes allowed him to dive to the left— fast enough to avoid certain death, only one pointed leg scoring a deep gash down his right thigh.

The bigger threat was his dive being stopped by several spider threads, trapping him like a fly in the net.

Bolverk swung at her from the left, aiming to slash into her unprotected torso or at least an arm. She turned around on her eight quick legs and just rammed her massive lower body into him, throwing the heavy guard against the wall like a puppet.

Hall used the distraction to jump on her black abdomen, stabbing his sword at the supposedly softer meat, bouncing off it with a clang. He had realised too late that all of her lower body parts were covered in chitinous armour, not only the legs.

When Trish reared up, he pushed himself off into a backflip to land on his feet instead of his head, narrowly missing another of her sticky strings in the process.

Hall was furious with himself. He knew he should have trusted Bolverk's experience when the older guardsman went for the upper body. He could have ended this.

With Bolverk out cold and Siegfried immobilised, their sinister foe could put her full attention to the youngest guardsman. She leapt forward, front legs high and ready to pierce her prey. Instead of backing up, Hall rolled to the side, passing under a horizontal string and staying within the sphere of light.

Trish hissed in disappointment. "I see you are not as unobservant as the other two."

Abandoning her strategy, she reared up again on six of her legs, staying at a height that left her vulnerable upper body out of reach and used the front appendages like a spearman from behind a shield wall— raining down quick and powerful thrusts from above.

Having to parry or evade the deadly onslaught while also minding the position of the webs behind him took all of Hall's concentration.

Even though he trained like a man possessed during the past four years, his body couldn't keep this up for long. His movements became sluggish, the attacks ever closer to connect and even glancing blows left trails of blood as the sharp-ended chitin scraped down his arm through the leather.

Sheer willpower kept him on his feet, pushed his limits to the brink. Sweat dripped from the boy's brows when, unexpectedly, Trish's advance stopped, and her focus changed.

A tall figure, clad in dark leather armour, rushed past Hall, ducked under the first strike from the left and countered the other leg with a shattering blow of his blade, chipping off part of the iron-hard chitin.

Lacking the immediate threat to his life, Hall finally gave in to exhaustion and dropped to the floor with a thud.

He watched in astonishment as Siegfried parried, evaded and countered with nearly inhuman speed. A metallic clang every other second and chippings of chitin flying from Trish's underside were his only clue that Siegfried scored a blow in between the scraping sound of his sword deflecting her legs.

With an ear-splitting screech of fury, Trish leapt forward again, trying to pin Siegfried down, but the guardsman was nearly as agile as Hall. He jumped back over a spider thread and cut another behind him before his feet even touched the ground. He lunged straight at her again before she could lift herself up and out of reach.

Trish's eyes widened, and in a desperate attempt to escape the horizontal slash, she pulled her own string through her abdomen.

She managed to preserve her life but still received deep cuts in both her arms as she shielded her chest with them. The half-spider, half-woman pulled herself back to the wall and climbed backwards vertically, screaming at Siegfried with boundless hatred as he gave chase. She jumped from the wall, arms and legs spread wide to negate any chance of him evading while in full charge.

Alas, evading was never Siegfried's plan.

He used his momentum and strength to throw his own sword. The blade pierced Trish's sternum and went through until the hilt hit her breastbone, the force halting her mid-air.

The weight of her armoured rear cracked the wooden floor.

Blood spluttered from the spider-woman's mouth as she stared with unbelieving eyes at Siegfried, who yanked out the sword and decapitated her in one swift motion.

'Impossible' was the word that hung in Hall's mind as he stared at Siegfried in awe. "How can you even move like that? You must be as fast as those of the Red Brigade…"

"No, he's not," Bolverk replied, limping into the light. "He is at the pinnacle of what a human body could be capable of, both in movement and reaction speed. But he is still human. An enforcer could have rushed by that monster and slain her in the blink of an eye."

"Regardless," Hall turned to Siegfried again, "thank you for saving my life. I could have died there any moment… I barely held on with defending and no chance to counter at all," he admitted bleakly.

Siegfried sheathed his sword and moved before the sweat-soaked youth. He went down on one knee, put an arm on Hall's shoulder and regarded him with a look of honest respect.

"It is I who has to thank you, Hall." The boy's eyes showed only confusion. "While I was trapped in that web, I saw you fighting that horror of a changeling. Stronger, faster and more resilient, superior in every way compared to you. And you fought to the last breath, not giving up, not wavering no matter how hopeless the situation, you have not let fear or even desperation conquer your mind. Your peerless bravery was what inspired me to finally overcome my own fear without having to resort to anger or desperation. Your unparalleled valour was what let me fight at my best after Bolverk cut me out of the webs. I thank you, Hall, and apologise for ever thinking any less of you before."

Hall stared, flabbergasted for a moment. Before he could answer anything, Bolverk interrupted. "If yer two are done with lickin' each other's boots, we still have one injured and one missing."

Brought down from the high of the fight again, Siegfried nodded somberly. With each step they took down the corridor, his heart grew heavier. The immediate threat was dealt with, but the next sight of horror awaited them just ahead.

Held up by strings of web was Agnar's breathless body. Riddled with countless small holes, bleeding to a puddle on the floor. Two deep holes, the size of the changeling's fangs, were visible at his neck. Black ooze was covering the wound— likely a paralysing poison. Bolverk fought his tears as they stood before their friend of many years. Siegfried cut him down, and they allowed themselves a moment of silence.

"We still have to check the rest of the house… at least find the bodies of the children if there is anything left."

"Yer right, Sieg. Svana should've bandaged Rik' by now, and they'll be fine. Watch yer steps— could still be traps further in." Bolverk replied, his raspy voice full of grief but also grim resolution. They ventured farther into the house, checked each room until they reached the basement.

The spider webs were so densely spread that they looked like a white wall of cotton. "Guess we found the true lair…" Siegfried said before they started cutting their way through the net, cautious of any more surprises. When Bolverk cut a particularly dense webbing, he cried in alarm as a blackened body fell out in front of him. "Bolverk!" Siegfried shouted. He couldn't see him through the webs as they all cut their own way to cover more ground.

"Stay where ya are, boys! Everything's okay over here… I just found our missing people. No need for you to see this…" and from how sick even the seasoned veteran guard sounded, both Siegfried and Hall opted to follow the advice. "Well, our job's done here. Let's get out of that hellhole."

"Wait, Bolverk! I found something here" Hall's voice came from the far side of the basement. When his companions reached him, he had already drawn his sword. "Eggshells from at least seven different eggs." He calmly explained.

"They are fresh. How could a being like her even get pregnant around here?" Siegfried asked.

"The boy…" Bolverk said. "And afterwards, he was food for her first brood. What a shit show."

Hall fought against the bile coming up his throat. "There is an opening in the wall behind. The stone stairs are full of dust and several tiny prints leading out. Should we follow them or leave?" he asked Bolverk, who in turn furrowed his brows, lips pursed in distaste.

This wasn't their job, and they already lost Agnar. But a bunch of spider monsters growing up somewhere in the city was an immense threat. As he surmised that their poison wasn't lethal but only paralysing, they could be dealt with while still young. "Stay vigilant," he responded, drawing his own sword.

They followed the stairs up into a shack at the back of the house above the ground. It was empty except for a few tools, and there was no space to hide. The tiny pricks in the dust continued over the wall to a small window. Opening the door, they walked out onto a more prominent street of cobblestone, leading in three directions between the buildings. "Shit…" Bolverk hissed, sheathing his sword. "We pick up Svana 'n Rik' and take the fastest route to the next guardhouse. Need to get word to the uppers."