by A. C Carter
The rest followed, warily. Arilee swiped away her scroll and ducked under the branch. In her haste, her hand slipped. The ground quickly rushed up to meet her before reaching and catching herself on a nearby tree. She brushed off a small spider that started to crawl on her hand and untangled its web from around her. She brushed herself clean of the lingering feel of the web.
She looked up to see everyone suffering something similar. All around her, spider webs entangled the group. Except, Scout Thomas who pressed ahead. Scout Thomas looked back over his shoulder and disappeared around the next bend.
"Try to keep up now." Arilee heard through the trees. She struggled to keep up.
“Over here,” she heard again. This time seeming to come from the other direction.
She struggled through the overgrown path, moving branches and swatting through spider webs. The corrupted trees here were thorny and twisted. The other three in her group were having just as much trouble as she was. She brushed a small spider off her glove.
“You’re almost there”, she heard again through the trees.
Arilee wondered why Scout Thomas was acting like this. She wished she confronted him earlier. Now she was just mad and frustrated.
As Arilee almost tripped over another root, she decided she hated nature. She hated all the spiderwebs. She definitely hated these woods. And she was pretty sure she hated Scout Thomas too. She could not wait to catch up to him, she thought angrily to herself.
Suddenly, a loud branch snapping ahead brought her into the present.
She retrieved her bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. “Scout Thomas?” she said in a hushed voice. There was no response.
She turned back to the others, “I think something is up ahead.”
The group stopped and readied their weapons. Arilee carefully approached the bushes. The quietness of the dark corrupted forest was raising the tension in her body with every footstep. She neared the bushes, noticing they were covered in a thick layer of spiderwebs. Then, there was another rustling of leaves and branches from the otherside of the bushes.
Arilee gently used her bow to carefully part the bush to see through it. As the bow touched the spider-web covered bush, Arilee felt a strong pull. Arilee yanked back on the bow to pull it free. Managing to get it free only for a second, the small tendrils of the web reached out and pulled the bow back into its grasp. In a flurry, the small strings weaved itself over the bow and Arilee’s hand with it. It began to pull.
“Help!” Arilee screamed, panicked.
Slicks and Chip sheathed their weapons and hurried over to Arilee. Arilee thought quick. Using the arrow in her other hand, she began to saw at the web. As soon as the arrow touched the web, little web strings reached out and started weaving around the arrow. Arilee watched in horror as the web weaved its way up her arm and around her body. Arilee was being pulled into the webbed bush.
Slicks and Chip, not knowing what to do, grabbed Arilee by her shoulders and tried to pull her out. As they pulled on her, the web pulled harder. In one quick heave, it pulled Arilee all the way into the web, wrapping her completely.
“Get back!” she tried to scream.
But it was too late. While Slicks and Chip were trying to help Arilee, the web was slowing making it way towards their feet, unbeknownst to them. It lashed out and wrapped around them as fast as it had grabbed Arilee. In seconds they were halfway covered with a strong silky thread.
“Don’t sssstruggle.” said Slicks to Chip. “It makes it go faster.”
Chip stopped struggling and lay still. The pace of it weaving around him slowed tenfold.
Leela watched in horror as her group was strung up. She drew her sword, confused as to what to do. She knew she could not go near them or the web would get her too.
Then, from the darkness of the forest behind her, she heard a series of loud stomping footsteps. A stampede of footsteps.
Leela turned around, and started backing towards her trapped friends.
“Goddess protect me.” A large shining bubble grew around her.
The footsteps neared. She watched a pair of hairy, thin, spiky insect legs stepped from the darkness. And then another, and another, and another. All 8 legs of the owner of the web. It was as tall as Leela. A giant spider. Its large body was the same greyish purple of the corruption. The sharp, venom tinted fangs clicked together as it sensed its prey in front of it. Then, two more large spiders, though slightly smaller than the first, emerged from behind it.
>Giant Corrupted Spider, Level 5<
>Lesser Giant Corrupted Spider, Level 3<
>Lesser Giant Corrupted Spider, Level 3<
Leela thought fast. She was trapped between the Spiders and the Web. She couldn’t kill them all by herself. She didn’t know how to free her friends. She needed more time. She looked at the thorny branches and trees around her. She knew what to do.
The spiders began to walk towards her.
“Goddess, may your roots grow strong. Entangle!” She said. Praying for this blessing, she placed her glowing hand against the roots under her.
With a flash, the light from her hand shot down into the roots, and surged through them like electricity. They rumbled through the ground, lurching towards the spiders. The dirt spewed upward as they erupted around the legs of the spiders. The thorns sinking deep into the arachnids, holding them in place.
Arilee watched her groupmate struggle in their desperate situation. She needed to help. She knew Leela couldn’t win this on her own. The helplessness of their situation was sinking in on her. She couldn’t do anything with her hands trapped in this web. Her bow still in one hand, the arrow in the other. She thought to herself. Fire could burn the webs. But Chip couldn’t do his fire spell without bringing his hands together. Those roots would only hold a few more seconds. Arilee thought about the arrow in her hand. She had an idea, but it might hurt.
“Encanto Arro Fiur.”
The arrow in her hand began to burn. She could feel the heat building up inside her web-enclosed fist. She grimaced in pain.
In a second, the arrowhead burst into flame. And then only another second later, the web caught fire.
The web around her hand quickly burnt away as the fire followed its threads. She was finally able to open her hand and drop the burning arrow. It burnt a hole straight through the web as it fell into the roots and branches on the forest floor below.
The corrupted wood caught fire quickly and spread. The fire worked as an instant repellant to the encroaching Spider Web.
Arilee dropped to the ground, and rolled quickly away from the building fire. She grabbed the Enchanted Arrow and ran to let Slicks and Chip free.
“Hurry Arilee!” Leela cried.
Arilee turned to see the roots beginning to unwrap the spiders. With one last effort, she knocked the Enchanted Arrow into her bow, grimacing through the pain as she took aim at the group of Spiders, and loosed. The arrow landed in a subsiding Entangled Branch. It took burst into a flame.
For the final second of Leela’s Entangle spell, the Spiders were wrapped in thorny, fiery roots. The two Lesser Spiders let out final death squeals and collapsed onto the ground. The final Giant Spider, enraged and now free, charged Leela.
Leela braced herself but her small, frail frame was no match for the hurtling beast. It rammed into her, launching her back and into a tree. She sagged down to the burning forest floor.
Chip and Slicks quickly pulled themselves to their feet. Chip pointed his staff at the Spider and an arc of electricity shot out. For a second, the Spider stopped moving, paralyzed from the jolt. Slicks looked at the burning branch above the Spider, and with all his might, he threw his sword at it. It sailed through the air, crashing into the burning branch. It snapped, falling onto the paralyzed spider.
Wasting no time, Slicks readied his Shield in front of himself, and Charged the Spider. His shield slammed hard into its head, snapping its fangs off. While holding his shield against the Spider’s face, he grabbed his sword from the burn
ing log on-top of the Spider, and drove it down deep into its head. The Spider squealed and thrashed, but Slicks held himself steady. He drove his sword deeper. With a crunch, the Spider stopped.
Slicks turned to see Arilee helping Leela up and move her to safety. Chip was running over to check on her as well.
“Are you alright?” Chip said, worried.
“I am okay. Luckily I casted my Protect spell first. It absorbed most of the damage.” Leela said, straining to smile. Her cheeks were covered with ash and she looked in pain. “I can heal most of this away. After I heal Arilee’s hand of course. Is there anything can do about the spreading fire?”
“I think I can use my Frost Spell to counter it.” he said, forming a ball with his hands and sucking the air out of them with his lips. A blue light began to form. He extended his palm toward the fire, and a blast of frigid wind and little ice shards began to blast out from it. Chip walked around their area of the forest extinguishing what remained of the fire.
To the groups surprise, hidden deeper in the now-burned-away web were 3 other dead bodies caught in the web. From the looks of it, there was a Wood Elf with dark hair, and two humans. One with blonde hair, and the other with red. All three were wearing the Overlord’s colors. Slicks used his sword like a spatula, and flipped the bodies over. No one recognized the first two, but the last one made the group gasp at what they saw. It was Scout Thomas.
“I don’t underssstand”, said Slicks. “This body ssssmells like its been dead for dayssss.”
“I don’t either.” replied Arilee, shaking her head in disbelief.
Just then, they heard another branch break in the distance.
Arilee quickly bent down and grabbed the Elven-engraved daggers from Scout Thomas’s belt. “Grab what you can from these bodies and let’s get out of here before more things show up. Fast." She looked around. "The fire looks like it burnt away a path over there. It’s heading in the direction of the lake.”
Leela kept watch while Arilee grabbed some potions from Thomas’s belt. Chip took one of the soldiers leather armors, while Slicks took a sword from the other soldier. Arilee saw Slicks pause and knock on the soldier’s Steel Breastplate. He then stripped off the breastplate to replace his own shoddy one.
“Okay, we can take a closer look at what we got once we’re too safety. It’s not safe here. Follow me.” said Arilee.
Everyone nodded and they followed Arilee down the newly opened up path.
***
A Surprise Visitor
Chapter 18
After the group had been walking for a short time, they stopped to rest on a gathering of fallen trees. The sun was beginning to get lower in the sky. Slicks leaned himself against a sturdy looking tree. Chip tossed his pack on the ground and collapsed into a sitting position on a downed tree.
“I’m exhausted. Can we make camp soon?” he said, bringing a flask of water from his bag..
Chip passed the water to Arilee. Arilee, tired, accepted it and sat down next to him. “Soon. We should be close to the river. We still have some time before dark.”
Leela came over to Arilee. Arilee noticed a small limp to her walk. “Arilee, let me see your hand. Does the burn still hurt? Let me cast my healing spell on you.”
A Dialogue Scroll appeared for Arilee
Dialogue Scroll
-
Accept Healing
-
Decline Healing
Arilee looked up at Leela, who was still covered in ash and soot.
“You should use it on yourself first Leela. You did take a big hit from that big nasty spider.”
The first option appeared selected.
Dialogue Scroll
X
Accept Healing
-
Decline Healing
Stats Scroll
Relationship with Leela + 1
3/5
Leela’s smile beamed. “No, no. It’s really okay. You were so brave back there. And you saved everyone with your fire arrow.”
Chip exploded into the conversation. “Brave! Leela, you stood against three of those things. By yourself!”
Leela smiled shyly. “It… it was really nothing.” She carefully took Arilee’s hand, that had a small cloth wrapped around it. “I have enough energy left to heal us both.”
A small glowing light appeared throughout Leela’s hand that was holding Arilee’s. It slowly flowed from her hand into Arilee’s hand. It seemed to swirl around until it settled, and faded away.
“Now don’t move just yet. That was a bad burn. This spell can heal surface level wounds but burns can sometimes leave deeper damage.” said Leela, who began digging through the pouch on her belt. “I have an ointment in here that will keep the remaining irritation down.”
After finding a small white bottle, Leela poured a liquid onto Arilee’s hand and rubbed it in. “Now use this every morning for the next three days. You should still be able to use your hand but there will be some minor discomfort until the medicine runs its course.” Leela’s voice was very straightforward, without the usual lightness to it.
Arilee nodded, slowly flexing her hand. It felt good, she thought to herself.
Then, Leela placed her hand on her chest, and another glowing light appeared, and it flowed from her hand into her chest. It spread throughout her body, in the same way it spread through Arilee’s hand, then slowly fading.
“Feel better?” Arilee asked.
“Yes my body feels much better, but my mind feels tired from using so much magic today. A different type of tired.” said Leela, smiling again.
“Let’s keep moving then so we can make camp soon.” said Arilee, standing up from the log.
Chip and Leela got up from sitting and grabbed their belongings. Slicks stood up from his leaning position and joined the group on the path.
The group continued along through the corrupted woods for another half mile until they heard the sound of the river again.
“Oh thank the gods. We’re not lost after all!” said Chip as heard the rushing water.
“Have some faith in our new fearless leader.” said Leela.
Arilee chuckled and smiled. “I don’t know about all that.”
Slicks tongue began to flick the air wildly again. “Goblinsss. Coming towardsss us from the river.”
Arilee signaled for the group to get low. She pointed to a grouping of tall bushes just off their path they could stay hidden against. They quickly and quietly moved over. She whispered to the three.
“They don’t know we’re here. If we stay hidden, we should be okay.”
The group crouched behind the bushes, waiting for the Goblins to pass. As the Goblins neared, they could hear a multitude of footsteps. Arilee prayed they would just keep walking past. She peeked through the bushes to try to get a look.
Coming down the path, she saw a grouping of 6 goblins emerge from around the bend. These were not armed with the same type of crude spears, swords, and daggers like the Goblins from yesterday. They had sharp steel weapons and heavy, thick chainmail. Strangely, a tall, thin human figure was leading them. As they came down the path, Arilee could notice one distinctive feature about him. He had red hair.
"It's Scout Thomas." Arilee whispered under her breath in shock.
He was leading the Goblins and talking to them, but Arilee could not decipher the words at this distance. Arilee signaled to the group to stay put. Making sure to stay hidden, she got on her hands and knees and crawled forward. She settled behind a large series of tangled roots.
From her position, she could hear Scout Thomas talking.
“The bodies are up this path. As I said earlier, I only need the Half-Elf. You all can have her companions and whatever else is trapped in the web.” His voice was different. It was deeper. Articulate. Authoritative.
Arilee could not think of why he was looking for her. She tried to readjust her body to hide more, but her foot slipped, breaking a twig as it moved through the dirt. She froze.
>
Scout Thomas signaled for the Goblins to stop. “Did you hear that?”
The Goblins looked around aimlessly. Scout Thomas scanned the forest, lingering on her position. Arilee could almost feel his eyes on her. For a brief instant, she thought his eyes shimmered.
But then he moved on. “Must have been nothing. Can’t hear anything with how loud you goblins are. Let’s keep going.”
A Goblin snarled. “ You said there is tasty Elf flesh yes?”
Scout Thomas sighed. “Yes, there is an Elf there.”
That was the last Arilee heard as they left around the bend. She waited an extra few minutes before returning to the group.
Chip was the first to speak. “Holy gods. That looked like Scout Thomas.” asked Chip.
“Yes it did. But it didn’t sound like him anymore.” responded Arilee, her brow furrowed in thought. “We should keep moving.
It was only a few dozen meters until they found the river bank and the original trail that Scout Thomas detoured them from. Looking down the path and the river, Arilee could see the lake at the far end.
Exhausted and tired, the group continued to the edge of the lake. Arilee walked to the shoreline. The sun began its descent below the treeline and the forest had a golden glow to it as dusk began to sit in. The treeline grew sparse and then ended a few meters from the shore of the lake. The lake was at the foot of a medium height cliff. The trees ran right up to its edge and reached the top of the cliff. The lake itself was being fed from what Arilee guessed was a ten meter tall waterfall.
Slicks walked next to Arilee. “I don’t ssseeee a cave.”
Chip walked up, out of breath, said “I don’t either.”
Leela scanned the lake. “Maybe it is in the cliffside.”