Neil

Looking into the spiders lair my limbs suddenly felt weak, breathing deeply my nose was filled with the rank smell of death, it was so strong I could literally taste it.

Reaching forwards I slowly found the remains of a wooden door, intact but with so many holes it looked like a piece of swiss cheese, it still hung on a single remaining hinge. I closed the door, not that it did much good, a solid hit would easily knock the door off the hinges.

Still it did provide some cover and it helped me feel a little better.

Walking backwards into our room I looked back at Talass who had a terrified expression on her face.

“Alright I guess we open the secret passage and head back the way we came? We might be able to catch up to Kallix and Renther.” She said softly.

“Are you joking? If we go that way, we would be walking straight into every spider that was chasing us, and I don’t have enough mana left to fight them all. This is the best we’re going to get right here.”

“Are you insane? Did you see those eggs?” she whisper yelled.

“Of course I saw the eggs, so what? They’re eggs! Are you afraid they’ll roll at you? Bump into your tail? Every spider is out there looking for us, and we’re in here, we slip out, find out way into the forest and escape.”

“Even if most of the Kaljag are outside the queen will still be here, some of the animal bundles were still dripping so those are fresh which means the eggs could hatch any moment, and the Kaljag who were hunting us? They could be returning above ground even as we speak, we could run right into them as we escape.”

“There are risks but it's still a better idea than going back into the tunnels where we know the gigantic spiders are. Look this is your expedition and I’m just the muscle so if you really want to go back into the tunnels I’ll follow you, but you better be certain that’s the best way to go.”

Talass’s lips compressed into a thin line as she considered what to do before nodding at me. “You’re right, better to go away from the Kaljag that we know are there. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Hate spiders?”

She gave me a level look, but didn’t bother to respond.

“Alright do you still have any other poisons available? Anything you could put on this?” I asked gesturing to my spear.

Talass hesitated for a moment before nodding.

“This is the strongest poison that I have.” She said removing a small waterskin from one of her belts. “I only have enough for one dose so it may be wasted on a Kaljag.”

“Take this, use the poison if you need it.” I said handing her the spear. “and just give me a moment.”

Both hands free I took a moment to concentrate on my soul trying to judge how much more unrefined waste mana I could purify before I would collapse. My soul however felt different than normal, like it was coated in a thick layer of oil. Probably the taint. It made it difficult to judge, but I guessed I was about two thirds full, if we had another protracted battle I was done for.

“Ok, just had to check something. Let me take a quick look in this room for anything useful and we should get going.”

“What could be useful here?” She asked gesturing to the room.

Looking around I had to agree. There were only smashed pots and rotting wood in the room. I took a look at the pots and managed to find one that was still mostly intact but that was all.

“Here this is what I needed.” I said picking up the single mostly intact pot.

“A pot? Why?”

“Holding water in the air is tiring, if I hadn’t had to do that I would still be able to use a lot more magic. I should have filled my largest canteen with water to use as a weapon.”

“What’s inside of it instead?”

“A health potion, I have one in each of my water bottles.”

“So if you had water you could use more magic?”

“Yeah, I do have some water but not very much, a larger source of water would be best, but every bit would help.”

“Here, I have this as well.” Talass said handing me a waterskin that was half full.

Opening that I poured it into the pot filling it half full, giving me about a liter and a half worth of water. Not a lot but it would save me some effort, and if I could save most of it, it should help a lot.

Nodding at each other we exited the small room into a large circular cavern. A glowing fungus gave off a soft light which was enhanced by the night eye potion giving us enough light to see the spiders lair clearly.

Most of the eggs were older than I had thought, their occupants had hatched long ago. Small holes in the sides of the eggs showed where the baby spiders had burst out. Some however, maybe a few dozen were still unbroken, and they pulsed gently as if the eggs themselves were breathing. Near this clutch there were more of the hanging animals and all of them dripped bodily fluids onto the ground.

I had expected there to be more spider webs, but aside from the cocoons holding food for the eggs, and some older webs that had fallen to the ground there weren’t too many webs that I could see.

Walking a quick circuit around the cave I saw that there were two exit passageways at either end of the cave and 3 more doors as well. Quickly walking from doorway to doorway I heard something that put a smile on my face. A slow rhythmic dripping sound.

I quickly entered the room and walked to the back corner and saw a slow steady drip of water slowly grow on the ceiling, hang there for a minute getting fatter and fatter before falling and landing in a small puddle on the ground.

Forcing my mana into the puddle on the ground I moved most of it into the pot doubling the amount of water I had, I then added the rest of the puddle into my water skin. About three liters in the pot and one more in the skin.

Running out of the room I almost ran into Talass who was standing outside of the door looking towards one of the passageways. “I got some water!” I told her before she could say anything.

She didn’t respond which I thought was strange, until I looked at her face and saw that it was frozen stiff in horror and she was looking past me.

Dropping the pot I infused the water with my mana as it fell. Just as the pot shattered I held the water in the air just inches above the ground. Throwing the cannonball sized ball of water in the direction Talass was looking in I grabbed her and pushed her back. Looking in her eyes I saw as they widened in surprise as if she had forgotten that I was even here.

“Go!” I yelled as I shoved her away.

Behind me I felt my mana and the water strike something that was far closer than I wanted it to be, the water splashed away.

Turning to face the threat I pulled back as much of the water as I could and reformed it in front of me, I only managed to hold onto about half of the water and I was cursing myself for not forming the water into a spear, or at least a cone shape. Then I saw it and I stopped cursing my hastiness and cursed myself for not running back down the secret passage when Talass had suggested it.

The spider in front of us was closer in size to an elephant than a bear, and I wondered if the ones I had seen earlier were juveniles given the size difference. Its legs were longer than I was tall, and they led into a torso roughly the same size as a family sized sedan, on the torso were at least two dozen eyes above a stinger that looked sharp enough that it could give a tank a flu shot, towards its back its torso extended in a distended, distorted mess. It was almost three times the size of the spider, lumpy and covered in a thick goo, if I wasn’t mistaken it was an egg sack, and in front of it I stood with a ball of water the size of a basketball.

“Fuck.”

It was currently picking itself up off the ground from getting smacked in the face by my first attack which was probably the only reason we were still alive.

Forming the water into a baton sized spear that had a sharp tip on each side I sent it hurtling to the spider's face.

The weapon pierced its flesh easily enough and passed through leaving behind about 10 percent of its water as it went. Moving to my left I backed up shouting in English as I went.

“Hey fuck you spider bitch! Come here look at me!”

From the corner of my eye I could see that Talass was still not moving, her face still a rictus of fear. Of all the times for her to freeze it had to be now.

Pulling the water spike back towards me once it passed through the spider I felt it enter and exit the spider easily enough. Stopping it front of my face I got splashed with some blood and viscera when the water jerked to a stop. I sensed that the spike had lost another chunk of water inside of the spider. In-between piercing its carapace and passing through its internal organs small amounts of water simply scraped off and were left behind inside the monster.

Doing some quick math and guess work I figured I would be able to attack nine more times before I was completely out of water, and if I lost concentration I would be lucky to get that much.

Sending the water towards the spiders' eyes I hoped to hit its brain or something equally important, unfortunately as the spear passed through it and the monster continued towards me I had no such luck. I couldn’t even be certain its brain was behind its eyes, or that it had anything that I would even consider a brain. For all I knew its brain was spread out through its body.

Losing another small amount of water I decided I would need to change my strategy if I wanted to get out of this. Punching it full of holes wasn’t going to work and I was too tired to try and change the shape of my water while it was inside of the creature.

Pulling the dart back to me I turned and started running as soon as it punched through the spider's body. I now had only three quarters of the water I had started with left. Running towards the spider I dove low and dodged a wild lunge from the spider but landed poorly on the ground. A quick roll later and I was on my back crab walking backwards away from the spider, my right hand held in front of me as I gestured with it to help me control the water.

The spider was following me slowly, either my dodge had surprised it, or it was naturally cautious, either way its hesitation was giving me the time I needed.

I changed the water from a small dart to a long thin whip and slashed it back and forth at the spider's face, aiming for its eyes with my new weapon.

I managed to cut two of its eyes with my first slash and the second slash caught another one, but my next two cuts only left shallow gashes on the spider's chest as it reared back. Seeing an opportunity I tried to cut the spiders face again only for it to jump back a short ways and swing its stinger in a quick motion that caught my water whip dead on. The water splashed over the spiders head and face with all the effect of an exhausted Porn Star after a long day of shooting.

Even if I could control what was left of the water it wasn’t enough to any amount of damage.

Rolling away from the spider I scrambled away from it on all fours until I ran into a stone wall. Having literally ran into a wall I looked up at the monster that had followed me. “Talass, use the poison!” As I shouted I looked towards Talass. What I saw wasn’t good, despite standing the fact that she was off to the spider's side and was being completely ignored Talass was nonetheless not moving. I couldn’t spend much time looking at her but from what I could see she had a white-knuckle grip on her spear, and she looked at the spider with terror in her eyes.

Well then, I’ll just have to do this myself.

The spider lunged towards me, but I was already rolling out of the way warned by my skills in dodge and the spiders own body language.

The stinger struck the wall and a chunk the size of my torso was knocked loose from the wall.

Rolling through the spiders legs I weaved between two of its clicking and twitching legs before finally standing up and turning to look at the spider queen.

She pulled back from the wall and looked at me, her legs bent as she prepared to leap towards me. With no water around me, and no other options I reached to my newest affinity.

This affinity had always been there when I used magic. Whenever I focused on it it seemed to try and fade out of focus, but it was always there. Whenever I used any magic the affinity always leached into the spell. I had noticed that my spells were more powerful when the new affinity was being used.

As I pulled on the affinity and immediately I felt like fire was spreading through my veins. My vision sharpened, I could see the individual hairs on the spiders legs swaying in the gentle breeze, I could even smell the cloying smell of death coming from the sacks on the ceiling. Even my body felt energized, looking at the spider I was pretty sure I could punch the damn thing to death if I wanted to.

Instead I gathered the affinity in my hand and pushed it towards the spider, there was an explosion of pressure in front of me moving forwards like a wave, it caught the spider on its side and part of the monster simply exploded outwards having been turned into dust. I threw my hands up in front of my face, the feeling of energy running through my veins lessened when I released the affinity and I slumped down a little exhaustion catching up to me.

When the dust settled I saw that three of the spider queens legs had disappeared leaving only short stumps waving in the air pathetically. The spider turned away from me clearly having decided that we were too much trouble to bother with eating. I gathered half of the remaining affinity in my hands before sending it towards the slowly retreating spider queen.

Now that I new what to look for I could see what was happening more clearly. The wave of energy swept away from me and hit the side of the spider. It didn’t slam into it like I expected, instead it was almost a gentle caress this time. Wherever the affinity touched the spider simply turned into dust and began floating away. When the wave finished a chunk the size of a medicine ball was missing from the side of the spider.

It squealed in pain and scrabbled away from me even faster, feeling like a god I walked around the front of the spider wanting to use the last of the affinity on its face. I just managed to see its sucker flailing wildly when I heard a horrible ripping sound, the egg sack tore free from the back of the spider as it tried to escape from me. Looking at the sack I saw shadows moving over the material and for a second I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Then it hit me, the baby spiders were coming out of their eggs.

The affinity in my chest had gone from a blazing fire to a warm candle, drawing on some more of it I almost collapsed as I felt like something stabbed my soul. Deciding that it was time to get the hell out of there I ran towards Talass to see her staring at the spiders with a terrified expression on her face.

Standing I ran over to Talass who had in a panic run straight away from the spiders, into the small room that I had gathered the water from.

“That’s a dead end!” I yelled to no avail the Lamia having apparently lost all sense. Chasing after her I slammed the rotting door closed and latched it just in time to stop the small yet quick spiders from following me into the room.

Talass was in the far corner near the slow drip of water. Her tail was coiled underneath her and her arms held the spear in front of her as it shook in her grip.

Approaching her I shoved the spear aside as I grabbed her shoulders “Talass! We need to get out of here, we don’t have much time.” I said trying to sound calmer than I was.

She looked at me shaking her head no.

“We have to, we’re trapped here, and I can’t carry you ok? I’ll keep them off you, but you need to follow me.”

“Alright.” She said. “But you need to keep away from me.” She said sounding still panicked.

I turned back to the doorway and to my horror I saw that dozens of small spider legs were poking through the small holes in the door. The only reason they hadn’t started streaming through already seemed to be because there was simple too many of them and they were getting in each others way.

I had one last charge of whatever this affinity was left, and then I probably had just enough energy left to either make some water or manipulate water, but not enough to do both. As a water drip landed on my head I got an idea.

Channeling the affinity into a thin rope I sent it up and immediately had to shield my face from the dust that was shot into my face. I wormed the magic upwards and more and more dust landed on me.

“Where is it?” I said out loud getting frustrated. Pushing the water up further I was finally rewarded when the drips of water turned into a steady trickle. Using the last of the magic I enlarged the rope to as big as I could, just as I finally ran out of magic.

As soon as the spell finished the water began shooting out in a deluge.

Not even bothering to collect all of it I simply formed a hollow cylinder of water near the ceiling and aimed the stream towards the spiders.

The impromptu water canon blasted the spiders back, the underdeveloped spiders not able to stand up to the water pressure.

When they had all been pushed away I gathered up a volleyball worth of water and pulled Talass with one hand, realizing what I was doing I pulled at her with my other hand as well making sure to not lose my concentration on the water. She followed me, practically slithering on my heals as we went. When we got to the doorway we saw the queen spider limping towards us on her five legs. Making a quick decision I formed the water into a long whip and flung it at its second and third legs. When the water hit them I enveloped both legs in the water, I then squeezed. A cracking sound echoed through the cavern a second later as the spider finally fell to its side with a squeel, its three remaining legs scrabbling uselessly at the ground.

“Right let's get the hell out of here.” I said bringing back a baseballs worth of water, that being all I could control right now.

Talass rushed forwards practically dragging me forwards as it was all I could do to pick my feet up and put them in front of each other. Fortunately Talass’s fear and astonishing upper body strength allowed her to drag me along with her easily. At least until we stopped suddenly.

I looked up in a daze and saw that Talass was also looking up. Straight up through a small shaft into the a blue sky.

The shaft was probably 20 feet long, and if we could get to it we might be able to climb up it. Unfortunately I wasn’t tall enough to reach it.

Talass however was.

Letting me go she forced herself upwards on her tail into the hole, I had just enough time to feel betrayed when she grabbed me with the end her tail and she pulled me up along with her, in my shock I lost control of the water and dropped it on the ground.

Putting my arms in front of my face I managed to not get too badly scratched up by the rocks and dirt and before long we were breathing fresh air again. Looking around I saw we were in front of a mountain near a small stream that was being fed from run off from the mountain itself.

“We’re trapped there's nowhere to go!” Talass cried out beside me.

Looking around I saw the trees were all coated in thick webs every direction, except one.

Pointing at the stream I asked. “Can you swim?”

Talass nodded yes and helped me to the water. Plunging us head first into the water she held onto me as her body writhed and forced us through the water. I couldn’t see how fast we were going with my head buried in her shoulders, but the feeling of the water whipping by me told me it had to be pretty fast. The cold water gave me a second wind and kept me from passing out, but that was about all. Physically I was spent.

We surface for air every minute or two, I actually had to struggle the first few times to let Talass know I needed to breath. Before long however we found ourselves in a forest, not a single spider web to be seen.

Laying on the shore we both gasped for air, wet, cold, exhausted, but still alive.