Onyx and the rest trekked through the dense forest as the night grew darker and darker. He looked behind him to see if there were any signs that indicated whether or not the battle had started. He couldn’t see anything nor hear anything. Only a deafening calm and silence even the air was absent. Onyx gazed at the forest and wondered what might be lurking inside. Wildabeasts were a possibility, and not even having Tigris on their side would mean much if they found a whole pack inside. Wyverns were also a possibility. Large creatures covered in feathers and scales that spit a corrosive poison able to melt through anything as well as kill ten transformed animalists with one drop. He gulped and pressed on.

“It will be a while before we reach further in. I say we rest here for the night and continue in the morning.” Said Maxwell.

“No we keep moving. We have to put as much distance between us and Karana. We’ll rest later.” Onyx then turned to Maxwell before continuing. “Besides you came to us for protection not the other way around. So I expect you to follow my orders when I say so. Is that understood?”

Maxwell looked at the other legionnaires who carried a look of dissatisfaction in their face. “Yes sir.”

“Good to know the Herald knows her place.” Quipped Tigris as she bumped into Maxwell’s shoulder.

“What was that for?” Asked Maxwell for the aggressiveness of the animalist.

“That was for at least twenty. And if I were you I’d sleep with one eye open.” Said Tigris as she pressed forward leaving the others behind.

“Don’t sweat it kid Tigris won’t kill you. I will we will just torture really slowly before it happens.” Said Tykal as they kept moving forward.

As the group made its way deeper into the forest the trees grew taller and taller, but there was something else that was amiss. They hadn’t heard a single noise since entering the forest. Onyx heard Tigris sniffing the air.

“What is it?” He asked as he placed a hand on his great sword.

“Nothing not a damn thing. Whatever it is it’s masking its scent. I can’t trace it.” She said as she continued to pick up something.

“Maybe you two are just paranoid.” Said Tykal.

“Maybe…” Onyx began as he continued to scan his surroundings. “Let’s just keep going.”

Maxwell saw a firefly flying through the air until it suddenly stopped. She focused her eyes to see a small silver thread forming a large web. A spider walked along the web and began devouring the firefly. She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw that it was the girl called ‘Embry’.

“C’mon no time for sightseeing.”

“Yeah…”

As the group moved in they found a cave leading inside the mountain. Maxwell moved in front of the group to examine the cave’s walls. The group looked at her curiously as she traced her fingers across the wall. Her hand was covered in some sort of white, sticky substance; it almost looked like silk as well.

“Is that cum?” Asked Tigris disgusted at the substance.

“Obviously not! It’s… I actually don’t know what it is. It’s definitely organic. Some sort of secretion, but I don’t know what.”

“And already she’s using big words.” Quipped Tigris.

“In any case…” Maxwell began as she wiped her hand on Tigris.

“Ah great now I’ve got this shit on me!”

“Whatever secreted the substance probably lies inside. But given that I’m surrounded by a ‘brave’ squad of legionnaires that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Onyx looked at the cave entrance and the secretions that covered the walls. He sighed and walked through the cave. As they walked they heard skittering and chirping. Whatever it was that laid the secretions it wasn’t one animal, but several and they walked right through their nest. They reached a large central cavern with many tunnels leading in different directions and saw several dozen sacks covered in the white substance. They saw one of them move and wriggle.

“They’re cocooned. Oh no…” Maxwell trailed off.

Sounds of chirping and skittering were soon heard all around them, but they couldn’t see anything.

“Maxwell what is it? What are they?” Asked Onyx as he drew his great sword. “Everyone get ready.”

“Arachnids.”

“People speech!” Yelled Tigris already transforming.

“Spiders!” Maxwell drew a small cylinder. She pressed a button on it, and suddenly it became a javelin like spear.

“Glad to see that the escort can fight.” Said Embry as they saw numerous spiders ranging in size descend upon them.

Some were the size of one’s palm and others the size of a person. Tykal pulled out one of her bombs and threw it at the horde of spiders. As the bomb exploded the walls became engulfed in flames and several spiders began falling down as they were covered in fire. Onyx led the way through one of tunnels and urged the rest to follow him through. The group suddenly heard a loud howl coming from deep within the tunnels. The group ran through the maze of tunnels as a large horde of spiders got closer and closer. Tykal fired her crossbow at some of the larger spiders, but for each one she felled there were a hundred more ready to take its place.

“Tykal conserve your ammo.” Barked Onyx as they kept running through the maze.

“Damn it they’re getting closer!” Yelled Lyo.

“Any bright ideas?” Asked Onyx.

“Just one.” Tykal lit on of her bombs and threw it behind them.

The group felt the cave beginning to shake and several stalactites fell upon some of the spiders. Some of them were large enough to block the passage completely, but the smaller ones were able to move through the cracks and crevices. Maxwell used the tip of her spear to kill one of them. She brought the tip of her spear with the dead spider closer to her for inspection.

“Hmm…” She hummed as she inspected the spiderling.

“What is it?” Asked Lyo.

“They’re carnivorous which means their poison causes complete and partial paralysis. The smaller ones cause numbness and partial paralysis as opposed to the bigger ones.” Maxwell stepped on another small spider before continuing. “In any case I wouldn’t let any of them bite my spinal cord or head.”

“Why?” Asked Onyx.

“You’d probably die given that the poison has affected your nervous system causing it to shut down.” Maxwell looked at Tigris that had a confused look. “Don’t let them bite your head or back, and you’ll live.”

“Why not just say that?”

“We should get moving.” Said Maxwell as she led the way through the tunnel with the rest in tow.

The group moved through the tunnel noticing large cobwebs covering the walls. They had not encountered any of the larger spiders only much smaller ones. They reached another cavern with cocoons, but these seemed to be a lot newer. The group saw one of the cocoons wriggling and moaning. Onyx pulled out his knife and cut open the cocoon to reveal Reik. Reik coughed and began vomiting some type of white liquid.

“Ugh… What? Where am I? Onyx?” Reik began as he tried to get his bearings.

“Reik? Damn… No time to explain. Where’s the rest of your team?”

“They’re… The cocoons.”

Onyx and the rest began cutting the cocoons open revealing Helga and Judeau still alive. They found a fourth one by the name of Parish that seemed to be unconscious. Onyx checked for a pulse to his relief he found one, but it was weak. He began hitting Parish’s chest with his hands trying to bring him back. Onyx raised his hands above his head and before he could bring them down Parish’s stomach exploded. His insides crawled with many more spiders.

“Holy shit!” Reik screamed as the spiderlings kept crawling and skittering out of Parish’s body.

“Spinnetod, a harvesting arachnid, if this happened to your friend then that must mean we are close to the central colony. And that means that the large howling we heard was from the mother of all of these spiders. She is probably somewhere down that tunnel.” Said Maxwell as she looked at Parish’s body and the tunnel leading out of the cavern.

“Well, shit!” Yelled Tigris. “Remind me again whose bright idea it was to take the tunnel?”

“Your Sovereign Knight told me that the tunnel was clear. It probably used to be, a long time ago that is, but they must have moved here recently.”

“Hmm…” Onyx hummed thinking about what to do next. “Is there no other way through?”

“The matriarch’s chamber will probably have access to a direct tunnel that leads outside. Given that her physiology does not allow for her to take any such ventures. And the hunting spiders bring food to her directly. That being said the only way out is through the matriarch.” Maxwell explained.

“Two actually one of them involves dying.” Said Helga as she began to take the lead. “Anyway kid are we infected with the same shit as Parish?”

“Hard to say… Maybe, maybe not. How long ago were you captured?” Asked Maxwell.

“A few hours ago… seven or eight maybe.” Said Judeau.

“A spinnetod’s egg producing cycle is five to six hours long. We did encounter other cocoons when we walked in, but you never know.” Answered Maxwell.

“Well then I guess that settles it. Let’s go and fight our way through the matriarch.” Said Onyx.

The upside was that they now had three more to their number; the downside was that they still had to fight their way through hundreds if not thousands of more spiders to get through. Not to mention the matriarch itself, and the fact that she probably had her best hunting spiders near her at all times. Nevertheless they pressed on hoping that they would at least escape with their lives if they couldn’t kill the matriarch.

They stopped by the entrance to a large cavern. They could see the matriarch feeding on what appeared to be a horse. The matriarch resembled the spiders in shape, but she had this large sac dragging behind that was at least twenty meters long if not more. They saw several of the hunting spiders bringing in more food for her. The hunting spiders were the size of a person and had a chitinous carapace exterior that seemed quite tough, their legs had a sharp claw at the end that made it easier for them to climb walls and were used to drag their prey back to the matriarch. One of them turned to look their way. The group hid hoping not to be discovered, but their heightened sense of smell was enough to discover them.

Tykal began throwing several bombs at the matriarch hoping to kill her and the nearby hunters. Several of the hunters caught the bombs as they jumped, but died from the blast as they landed. Reik’s group armed with nothing more than combat knives retreated and held the rear whilst Onyx’s group pushed forward. The matriarch howled and as her howl echoed throughout the cavern signaling the rest of her children to come to her aid. Onyx swung his sword from left to right cutting off the legs of one of the hunters. Tigris stomped her foot against its carapace barely able to crush the creature. Lyo slid across the ground angling her spear upwards as one of the spiders jumped at her. She managed to pierce through its underbelly where the armor was most vulnerable.

Tykal unloaded an entire magazine into one of the hunters, but was barely able to make a scratch. She adjusted her aim and concentrated her fire at the eyes. She was able to blind the beast when Embry plunged her word inside its mouth killing it. Reik, Helga, and Judeau kept an eye on their backs ensuring that no spiders attacked from behind. That would soon change as the sounds of skittering and chirping along with howling from the matriarch filled their ears. It wasn’t long before the rest of the spiders joined the fray.

“Onyx we’re surrounded!” Cried Reik as a few spiders attacked them.

“Damn it all! Tykal how many bombs do you have on you?”

“Five.” She answered as she aimed her crossbow towards the tunnel entrance.

“Give me one. Lyo, Embry hold them off. Tigris on me let’s kill these bugs.”

Onyx let Tigris lead the charge as more of the hunters jumped at them. Tigris grabbed the leg of one of them and swung the spider onto another one sending them flying to the cave wall. Onyx swung his great sword at another hitting the spider’s underbelly as it tried to jump him. They both got close enough to the matriarch to set off the bomb. Onyx pulled out a match and lit it using Tigris’ chest plate then he lit the wick on the bomb and threw it at the matriarch. The two immediately retreated trying to get as much distance between them and the blast as possible. Finally the bomb exploded and chunks of the matriarch began flying everywhere. The group began to retreat through the tunnel at the other end of the cavern as the rest of the spiders began following their trail.

Judeau felt his insides in pain. Reik looked at his friend who was beginning to lag behind. “Judeau what’s wrong we have to keep moving.”

“Reik it… Agh… Kyah!” Judeau’s chest burst open as dozens of spiderlings crawled out of his disemboweled corpse.

Helga grabbed Reik’s arm and the two kept running. Reik saw a large spider beginning to spit out some type of white spit that felt sticky. The white string caught Helga’s leg and forced her to fall down. Reik looked at her as she helplessly tried to cut the string with her knife to no avail. Onyx looked at Reik who ran away. Onyx tried going back for Helga, but the spiders were too many. A spider the size of a full grown person jumped at Helga while she was down, and tried to bite her. Helga felt several bites on her legs, and her strength soon waned. Onyx saw the spiders overwhelm Helga, and began feasting on her. He rushed back to meet the others outside.

He saw them all trying to catch their breath. He walked towards Reik, and punched him in the face. “You fucking bastard!” He yelled as Reik fell to the ground.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Asked Reik.

“You left her back there to die. You could have saved her instead…”

“Instead he opted to leave her behind so that the rest of us could escape. If she would not have stayed behind we would still be chased by the spiders. Now let’s go we still have a lot of ground to cover.” Maxwell explained.

Onyx put a hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Speaking your ideals is easy. Living and dying for them is hard. Are you sure you wish to stake them now?” Maxwell pressed the button on her cylinder drawing out the rest of her javelin spear.

“C’mon Onyx let’s go before the spiders catch up with us.” Said Embry who tried to keep Onyx at ease.

Onyx sighed and led the way. “Ostrava Village is not far from here. We’ll go there and rest for a spell.”

“Lead the way.” Said Maxwell as she sheathed her spear.

“Fucking kid.” Muttered Reik under his breath as he followed the rest.

Apollyon held up her spyglass as she saw the team exit the cave. She looked at her brother Sethos who was busy sharpening his sword.

“Are you sure it’s them Apollyon?” Asked Sethos as he sheathed his sword.

“I’m sure it’s those two. They are the ones he wants.”

“Hmm… They sure don’t look like much. This is going to be really easy.”

“You will regret saying that.”

“Oh come now do you think he can do anything about it?”

“Never back an animal into a corner. Let alone one that has teeth and claws as sharp as him.”

Sethos let out a chuckle. “Well now I can’t wait to prove you wrong.”