NOVEL WEB 1.18: Lady Mallica and the Spider Caverns
“Jade… what the hell did you get us into? You know I hate spiders…”
After walking through a mountainous area for an hour or so, we came to a large cave covered in several layers of webbing that looked like it had been made from enormous spiders. As we drew closer to the mouth of the cave, we heard faint chittering sounds within.
“Oh hell no! Nope. Nuh-uh. I’m out.”
Bray turned and started walking away, but Scythe stepped in front of him and put his hands gently on the large warrior’s chest. They walked a bit further and kept their voices low enough so that we couldn’t overhear what was being said. After a minute or two the two men embraced and kissed each other softly, before walking back to the rest of the group.
“OK, I’m good. I’m good. Let’s do this shit. I am so not going to like it, but I’m gonna do it anyways, yeah?”
We nodded to him and did our best to offer him as much encouragement as we could. I summoned 5 of my 15 total Warriors, 2 of 6 total Mages, and 1 of 3 total Priestesses. I walked up to the entrance and peered inside before turning to the small group I had summoned.
“Scout ahead, kill anything in your way that you are able, but fall back if you need to. If you come across any major forks in the path, be sure to mark which direction you take. Finally, if you come to any large open areas, remain there and wait for us to catch up with you before proceeding.”
The closest demon warrior pressed his fist into his chest plate to salute and nodded to me before turning and moving with the rest of the demons in his group. They hacked through the webbing covering the entrance and disappeared from view as they entered the cave. It wasn’t long before we heard the sounds of battle and I turned to the rest of the clan to strategize.
I closed my eyes for a second and ran through what I thought was the best course of action several times in my head. I considered myself very adept at strategizing battle plans and had spent countless hours playing a plethora of strategy games. I liked the challenge of always trying to be two or three steps ahead of my opponents, and this game seemed to heavily rely on that kind of forethought. I knew the rest of my clan was waiting for direction, but twists and turns within caves presented a lot of unknowns, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.
“Jade, you and Aeryn take up the rear with half your armies. Keep the other half in reserve for emergencies and so we don’t have too many bodies crammed into one place. Em and Judas, I want you guys in the middle using long range attacks as needed. Scythe, Bray, and I will take the lead.”
Bray looked ghostly pale and I could tell he was still scared about confronting any spiders.
“On second thought, Bray, stay in the middle with Judas and Emelia and cover them. Last thing we need is for them to get overwhelmed in close range.”
Scythe caught my eye and mouthed “Thank you” to me. I smiled at him and closed my eyes again.
Aeryn and Jade covering our backs with their summons. Jade can use Bone Walls to block off tunnels. Emelia and Judas are safely out of harm’s way while they attack from range. Bray won’t be of much use from a distance, but having him there will help keep me from worrying about Em and keep his fears in check. Scythe and I can take the front line; he’d probably be better behind me so he can provide healing support if needed, and in case I have to move quickly he wouldn’t be in my way. I haven’t heard anything from my other summons, and it still shows that they’re alive… What was the bounty for again?
“Jade, what exactly was the bounty for?”
She pulled out the piece of paper and read it aloud. I kept my eyes closed to picture everything in my mind.
“Bounty for Lady Mallica, a level 38 Spider Queen Hexmage. A substantial amount of additional experience and gold will be rewarded if one of her eggs is retrieved and returned to Fulkanus the alchemist.”
Hexmage? It may be more beneficial to have Scythe lead due to his increased magic resistance. I’ll also summon one of my priestesses to help keep poison and hex effects off the party. I think it’s still best to save my summons for when the fighting gets worse...
“Scythe, you’ll take the lead because your magic resistance is better than mine. Jade, I think I’m going to have you move to the middle so you can provide hex removal if needed. If shit starts to look like it’s not going in our favor, huddle up and summon the rest of your armies for defense. Stay together at all times; it’s easy as hell to get lost in some of these caves. Any questions?”
“Are we planning on going for one of her eggs? Personally I like the sound of ‘substantial amount of additional experience and gold.’”
“Depends on a lot of things. How big the eggs are, how the enemies react to us taking one, and other factors that may be important at that moment. I’d like to, yes. But if it’s not safe to do so we’re not going to put ourselves in harm’s way to retrieve one. Cool?”
Aeryn nodded and I looked to the rest of the clan for any other questions. After everyone seemed to give me the affirmative they were ready, I drew my sword and shield, and nodded to Scythe. I summoned one of my priestesses as we moved to the entrance of the cave.
“Stay behind me. Focus on healing and poison or hex removal.”
The petite demon stood on her tiptoes and kissed my cheek before moving behind me. Once we all made it through the thick webbing on the entrance, I looked around at the narrow caverns around us. There were several dead spiders the size of a Doberman lying on the ground. It was hard to see much due to the lack of light, but as I focused my eyes my demon vision made the room look like it was brightly illuminated. I knelt down and inspected one of the spiders while I summoned two of my demon mages. The creature’s outer skin was made of a thick chitinous substance that would probably provide a large amount of defense. I looked into the four black orbs of its eyes. Even dead the thing looked menacing. Its long fangs dripped with poison that sizzled as it dripped onto the cavern floor. I stood up and instructed the mages to keep fire spells lit in their hands to provide the party with adequate lighting. Long strands of webbing hung down from the ceiling. Being attacked from above would make things a bit more challenging, but as long as we stayed together everything should go according to plan. I was about to inspect the area a bit more, when I saw that my summons that I sent ahead dropped to just one warrior and a priestess. Whatever they had encountered had killed them swiftly, and I did my best to ignore the chill that ran down my spine. We located the path my scouts had taken and moved quietly. Every scrape of metal on the stone floor beneath us echoed through the walls loudly.
So much for the element of surprise…
As we descended further into the caves, I saw Scythe ready his sword as the sounds of heavy footsteps came towards us from ahead. The remaining priestess and demon warrior came around the corner, covered in blood and dirt. The priestess behind me rushed forward just as the warrior collapsed to his knees, using his sword to keep himself from completely falling over.
“What happened?”
I watched as the priestess cast a healing spell on the other, and then both of them started healing the warrior.
“Lots of spiders. At least… 60 or so. They were guarding what looked like an egg laying chamber. The closer we got the more savage they seemed to get. We started to retreat and got cut off by more spiders. I’m sorry mistress, we-”
I held up my hand to silence him, and pursed my lips.
“You did as you were instructed and performed your duties admirably. We’re going to proceed the way you came cautiously. Do you think you can lead us back there?”
He nodded and stood up. I looked back at my clan and saw the looks on their faces. Braylon was practically trembling, and I motioned him over.
“Bray, do me a favor, I want to see the strength of their armor. Cut this one in half with your axe.”
He gulped and lifted his axe. It whistled through the air as it swung, and split the spider cleanly in two. The swing seemed effortless, and met with little resistance. The chitin may protect against arrows and glancing blows, but direct attacks cut right through the armor. Bray noticed this as well, and took a moment to slice through the remaining bodies. I could tell that this seemed to help ease a bit of his fears, and he gave me a thumbs up. We moved back into formation, and continued our descent.
We moved at a slow deliberate pace. I was surprised to not see a single enemy, but figured they were all holed up in the nearby nest. My demon warrior stopped and pointed to a mass of tangled bodies covered in a thin layer of webbing, I looked and saw it was the other members of the group I had sent ahead surrounded by dozens of spider corpses. I placed my hand on Scythe’s arm to stop, and I inspected the area.
“The ground is covered in several layers of webbing that I’m guessing are very sensitive to any movement. The second we step foot ahead, they’ll know we’re there.”
I scanned all over the cave walls to our sides and a ways behind us, I noticed several small holes high up that the spiders probably used to ambush their prey. I walked back to Emelia and pointed to the closest hole. One of my mages moved closer to the wall so she could see and Emelia’s eyes opened in surprise.
“I didn’t even see that. That’s what they must have used to ambush the scouts.”
“Can you seal them? They run the length of the wall on either side for about… 50 feet.”
She smiled and went to work. While she did that, I summoned all six of my demon mages and had them backtrack to fill any holes or side caverns they came across. It didn’t take her long to seal each one with several feet of incredibly dense ice, and she walked back over to me when she finished filling the last one and gave me a small curtsy.
“All finished, Mistress Allexus. Anything else I can do to serve you, m’lady?”
We both giggled and I rolled my eyes.
“I had my demon mages backtrack and do the same thing along the way. Let’s get with the others and we’ll figure out what to do next.”
While we waited for my mages to return, we formulated a strategy for the upcoming battle. After sealing any possible ambush tunnels, it left us with only one direction to focus our attacks on. Up ahead the cavern seemed to bottle neck, and we’d use that to keep the numbers of spiders rushing us at once to a minimum. I summoned 9 more warriors and had them stand shoulder to shoulder to fill the width of the cavern. When my mages returned, I had Emelia, Jade, Judas and my mages take up positions at the top of the small incline so they could look down and attack anything from range. Keeping Bray on defense near the mages ensured any spiders that managed to make it through our lines wouldn’t be too much of an issue, and it would keep him out of the worst of it. Directly in front of the ranged group was Jade’s skeletons, another layer of defense for that any attackers would have to make it through. Five priestesses stood between the skeletons and the next line, which consisted of Aeryn, Scythe, and me. Finally, the 10 warriors I had summoned and 5 of Aeryn’s stood as our front line. Once I saw that everyone was assembled, I motioned for the front line to move down the incline onto the web covered floor.
We’ll keep moving forward until we reach the bottle neck. We’ll hold there until the enemy's numbers thin enough for us to proceed. If all goes according to plan, this should work.
Spiders poured out the cavern ahead of us. There had to be hundreds of them. My demons readied their weapons and shields, and our clan did the same as the first wave made it through the narrow passage. The large spiders crashed against the wall of shields and armored demons, and attacked relentlessly. The spiders continued to stream through the bottleneck, and several started climbing the walls in an attempt to pass the demon warriors. Ice spikes suddenly jutted out in front of the wall climbers and impaled those close enough to be struck. Eventually the wall of demons faltered as they couldn’t hold back the sheer weight of so many spiders pressing against them. Scythe was the first to engage the ones who made it past, and his sword sang as he swung it again and again. Aeryn and I moved together and we attacked in sync. When I failed to notice one of the creatures going for my legs, Aeryn bashed it with his shield. In turn I sliced through the spider jumping from the ceiling who was intending to land on him. I double checked my MP and saw that I had blocked enough small attacks with my shield to restore a decent amount. I glanced back at Emelia and nodded to her. She created a massive wall of ice at least 5 feet thick that completely blocked the cavern. We made short work of the remaining enemies, and took a second to catch our breath and regroup.
I looked down and saw that several of the spiders had bitten chunks out of my armor and one had managed to penetrate through it and into my skin. I removed the segment of armor and inspected the wound. My reddish tinged pale white skin was starting to turn a mottled brown color around the bite, but I was pretty sure being a full blooded demon left me mostly immune to the effects of the poison, as I hadn’t taken much HP damage. Scythe and Aeryn had not been so lucky; Jade and the priestesses were kneeling beside them casting various healing spells, but I could tell that they were in a great deal of pain.
I used the last of my MP to resummon all 15 of my demon warriors and ordered them to guard the wall. As I motioned one of the priestesses to come over and inspect my arm, Bray walked up to me.
“I’m done being a little bitch, Allie. Pull Spence and Aeryn off the front and I’ll take their place. I may be deathly afraid of these damn things, but I’m not going to stand around and let others do the fighting for me.”
I nodded and smirked at him.
“There’s nothing little about you, Braylon… but you’re still a bitch.”
“I’ll be your bitch any day, Lady Allexus… Yeah… That sounded better in my head.”
We both laughed and he moved to join my warriors.
After the healers had used over half their MP to get Scythe and Aeyrn back to full health, I had them retreat back a bit after Aeryn summoned all 13 of his warriors.
“Allie’s the boss guys. Follow any command from her like it came from me.”
They saluted him and he ran back to his sister. I quickly spun on my heel and turned towards the wall of ice as I heard it start to crack. We all readied our weapons and I turned back to Emelia. She flicked her wrist and the wall exploded forward and rained razor sharp shards onto the swarming spiders.
“For all the little bitches out there… CHARGE!!”
We all laughed nervously as we moved to attack the oncoming horde. We fought wave after wave after wave of spiders, and still more surged through the narrow passage. I could tell that Bray was having a hard time keeping up with the sheer amount of enemies surrounding us, and if we didn’t do something soon we weren’t going to hold out much longer.
I used the miniscule amount of MP I had regained to summon 8 warriors, and moved back a ways. I unequipped my armor and used my [Stoneflesh] ability. I sprinted forward and attacked anything that came into range as I pushed through the horde. My circlet activated so many times it started burning my skin from the constant stream of energy pulsing from it, and I growled in anger as I felt it shatter and fall to the ground. I checked the timer on my [Stoneflesh] and saw that I had just under 25 seconds remaining. After a few more steps I made it through the narrow passageway and into the vast chamber beyond. Large glistening eggs were scattered around the room and I flew up a bit above the sea of spiders. 15 seconds remained as I dove towards the closest egg and snatched it out of the goopy mixture it was in. It was like I had flipped a switch in the spiders, as they all moved at once to attack me. I tried to fly up again, but so many of them pressed into me that they kept me weighed down. Running out of options with only seconds to spare, I did the only thing I could think of… I summoned my master.