by C E Keene
It was beautiful and disorienting, because those walls stretched beside, in front of, and eventually behind them. The only anchor was the floor, which was more like frosted over rock, and the ceiling, which hosted a surplus of icicles just waiting to shake free and impale one of them.
When they reached the first fork inside the cave system, Arheis lifted his torch to one direction first, then the other. Something caught his eye in the second--an icy shape that wasn't quite as reflective as the walls.
He moved toward it, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. It seemed wise to go for his weapon, and so Arheis shifted the torch to his left hand, reaching for his spear with the right.
"What the hell is that?" Higrem asked as they came upon the shape.
It almost seemed like what Arheis might describe as a crystalline pod. There was a white tint to it, and it was made up of geometric shapes and perfect angles. Easing ever closer, he held the torch up to it. The outside began to melt, revealing a thick membrane beneath that he could just barely see through.
Lifeless eyes stared back at him, round and sunken into an animal skull. A mouth was open in a cry of fear or pain, hooves raised up to try and defend in the creature's last moment.
"God, I think it's a sheep," Arheis said, unable to take his eyes off the pitiable thing.
"I believe you are right." Galen hesitantly touched what Arheis was beginning to understand was an icy sack.
The kind a spider might use to contain its prey while it prepared for the feast.
"I guess we're on the right track."
He pulled away from the sheep in its icy prison and started down the passageway.
"Shouldn't we free it?" Mira asked, standing in front of the sack.
"I think it's already dead…" Zindar approached as well, his torch melting it a little more.
"I'd rather be certain."
She held her torch to the sack, letting the flames eat away at the icy barrier and burn through the membrane. Zindar did the same on the other side, and Arheis watched as the exterior of the prison melted, forming a puddle that ran toward his feet.
The sheep was free, and he moved to catch the thing as it fell like a lead weight. It was young still, its horns not fully formed. The wool was damp from the melted ice, its body cold to the touch. Arheis felt for a pulse behind the forelimb--where an old vet he'd had told him to check on his dog before she passed--and was shocked to feel the thready thrum of one.
"It's still alive," he said, passing his torch off to Higrem and shedding his cloak.
He wrapped the sheep in it, trying to rub warmth into its limbs. Slowly the animal seemed to reach the other side of what Arheis could only assume was some kind of cryostasis. He was working on its head when a soft, confused bleat sounded from it.
"Let's get it out of this cave," he said, carrying the crying animal back the way they'd come.
"Put your cloak over its eyes." Higrem--who he thought for sure would protest this diversion--was actually being helpful.
Arheis did as he suggested and the frightened animal quieted.
When they reached the mouth of the cave, he searched for a solution to the problem they'd created for themselves. They had nowhere to put the sheep or anything else they found. Galen had the solution.
"There's a large overhang here," he said. "I can bring some rocks down to block off the area, and we can get a fire going outside of it. It should keep the creature warm enough without running the risk of it burning itself."
With Galen's magic, it only took a few minutes to do that. And thanks to the lit torches, the fire was easy, as well. The whole thing was set up in no time, and Arheis carefully deposited the sheep, taking his cloak back and exchanging it with the Celir hide.
The sheep bleated endlessly, the sound growing muffled as Galen settled a rock in place to keep it contained.
> Your reputation with the village of Haig has increased!
> Your quest The Ice Queen Cometh has updated.
You found a sheep frozen in the caves. Search for any other livestock and bring them back to Haig for an additional reward.
Livestock recovered: 1/?
The boost and the quest were nice, but it was also good to know that his companions apparently felt the same way he did about letting innocent creatures suffer. Yes, they all killed beasts to make a living, but only the ones that were causing problems. This poor sheep hadn't done anything other than wander away from its herd at the wrong time.
Heading back inside, they took the right fork and continued on. There were two more icy prisons, both of them filled with sheep the Stirandi was holding for later.
One was already dead, unfortunately. Whether from shock or just the extreme cold, there was no pulse at all when they thawed it. Arheis warmed the animal, remembering a phrase his mom had muttered when watching a few choice medical shows: He's not dead until he's warm and dead.
But the creature hadn't made it, and they were forced to move on. Fortunately, the other sheep was still alive, and this time just Galen took the animal out of the cave, returning after a little while.
> Livestock recovered: 2/?
"The first one seems calmer now that there's another sheep with it."
"Good," Arheis said, "we can get them back to the village in the morning."
They pressed deeper into the cave, the ice walls covered in thin, crystalline threads. They were fascinating to look at, each seemingly made up of hundreds of tiny fractals, and Arheis found himself wondering if they'd be able to harvest some of that once this was all over. It seemed like really useful material.
A few more forked paths led them toward a large chamber that he could see in the distance was filled with the membrane they'd found inside the sack.
"That has to be her lair," he said, slowing his pace.
The last thing they needed to do was throw away the element of surprise, if they still had it.
In the distance, Arheis began to hear a sharp, scraping sound. Worse than nails on a chalkboard, it was like someone biting into a Styrofoam container, the sound getting progressively louder with every new barrier their teeth hit.
It wasn't coming from the chamber, though, which at this point was only a handful of steps away. That shrill, piercing sound was coming instead from practically everywhere else. All around him, to the sides, above, below.
He was forced to cover his ears, holding his torch dangerously close to his head. Light cast across the tunnel and he heard what sounded like glass breaking as a sea of small, spider-like creatures burst from the icy walls, launching themselves at Arheis and his companions.
No one screamed--somehow--but there were a few exclamations and strings of profanity, some of those coming from Arheis. Too surprised by the attack to do anything of substance, he flailed with the torch. Spiderlings caught fire easily, the flames almost seeming to melt them.
"They're weak to fire," he told the others.
"They're weak to everything," Higrem said with a grunt, cleaving through a whole swathe of them, their crystalline bodies shattering on contact.
Arheis, Mira, and Zindar used their torches to fend off the hoards. Higrem stuck to his sword, and Galen was able to manipulate them directly thanks to their inorganic structure, flinging them at the walls, crushing them with a phantom gesture of his hand.
When the last of the spiderlings were dead, there was no notification of XP or any indication that they'd managed to defeat a foe. Maybe those were just too small to count, or maybe they were weird golems.
"Well that was something," Arheis said, lifting his torch and holding it toward the chamber to see if anything had changed.
It hadn't. The room still looked large and empty. The perfect boss arena. Unusual for an Apex game, but he wasn't going to complain.
"Ugh, I can still feel them on me," Mira said, shuddering.
Arheis shuddered too, trying to suppress a chill. And then another. Now that the adrenaline was running its course, he felt like someone had pu
mped cold saline through his veins. It was chilling him from the inside out, and he realized all too late what had happened.
Patting at his neck, Arheis found a series of bites. The skin there was freezing.
"Shit," he said. "They injected us with something."
His companions were already figuring out the very same thing.
"We can't stay like this," Mira said, her teeth chattering again. "It's too much. We'll have to--"
Before she could finish that sentence, the sound of glass shattering rang out from the chamber ahead. A crystalline cocoon hung from the ceiling, suspended by that strong webbing. It had already dropped once, like one of the prince's fancy chandelier's losing half its supports. It dropped again, this time all the way to the floor where it shattered to reveal the Stirandi.
"It looks like we don't have a choice," Arheis said, reaching for a spear his fingers didn't want to grip.
The beast that appeared in the center of the chamber was definitely spider-like. It had a round, flat head and a bulbous body, with a series of prismatic eyes reflecting back at the Hunters. Two of its legs were arced in front, the joints reaching high above the beast, tapering down to spindly hands. The other legs--of which there were six in total--looked more like spider legs, covered in thick fuzz. Arheis tried to identify the biggest threat, fixating on the large, gnashing mandibles up front.
"We have to end this as quickly as possible," Arheis said. "Let's get a trap set up."
"On it," Zindar said, darting to the other side of the room.
The beast watched, but didn't immediately follow, so Arheis took the opportunity to get its attention. He was prepared to go for his shield, but that would mean giving up the torch and his only source of warmth. Considering the fact that he was already shaking and couldn't feel the tips of his fingers, that sounded like a horrible idea.
The game apparently agreed.
> You are extremely cold. Dexterity is now halved, and remaining at this temperature will slowly drain your health and stamina.
Gripping the haft of his spear with his palm more than his fingers, Arheis threw an experimental poke at the creature. It'd only been watching him before, but now its mandibles snapped open and it grabbed his spear, pulling hard.
It was all Arheis could do to pull back, his fingers not wanting to get a proper grip on his weapon. It took Higrem swinging his sword down onto the Stirandi's back to get it to let go.
The spiky ice crystals that made up the spider-beast's carapace shattered, revealing the vulnerable body beneath. Good. Higrem and Galen could bust up the crystals, then everyone else could go to town on doing actual damage.
Arheis gripped his spear tight and thrust it forward, toward the exposed area on the creature's abdomen. His shaking rendered the strike wide, but before it even came close to hitting, something strange happened.
The "fingers" on the beast's forelimbs began to move in an intricate dance, and suddenly the spiky carapace reformed, with the tip of Arheis' spear sliding off of it.
> Your attack is deflected!
He was left wide open, unable to move quickly enough to defend himself when the Stirandi used its forelimbs to vault forward, its mandibles slamming down, rending through Arheis' leather chestpiece like it wasn't even there.
> Stirandi strikes you for 37 points of damage.
> Stirandi strikes you for 10 points of cold damage.
He staggered backward, having just enough presence of mind to wave his torch in front of him. The beast was driven back, but not as far as he would have liked. Arheis had to scramble to avoid the stab of two more limbs that had formed icy spear tips on their ends.
"We'll have to work in tandem," Galen said, motioning to Zindar, who'd finished setting up a simple electrical trap near one corner of the chamber.
"Break the carapace," the Pruvari said, "I'll be ready."
Galen did so, the crystalline structure shattering so fiercely that the beast actually staggered. But when Zindar leapt at it, his fingers fumbled with the one blade he managed to hold in the hand not carrying the torch. He managed to grip the weapon, but not quickly enough to do any damage before the carapace reappeared.
And once again, the Stirandi got a low-effort counter-attack, spearing Zindar with twin strikes from its legs.
"Shattering it isn't giving us enough time," Mira said.
She fumbled with her crossbow, trying to hold it in one arm. The beast focused on her, its mandibles gnashing, a line of sharp web shooting outward from its mouth. She barely managed to dodge.
"Cover me," she told Arheis. "I'll heal you when I can."
Using his Provoke ability, Arheis swiped the torch as close to the spider creature as he dared. Those creepy, multi-faceted eyes all turned to look at him and it crouched low, its legs folding before it sprang up, clinging to the ceiling above him.
Ice rained down in sharp formations, Galen managing to divert some of it, Higrem taking care of the rest.
While Arheis was "distracting" it, Mira managed to load her crossbow one-handed, holding the tip of the bolt over her torch until it began to glow red. She launched it straight at the Stirandi's head, and the unholy shriek it let out shook Arheis' bones.
Layers of that icy carapace melted away--and stayed melted. Zindar even had enough time to leap up and get in a slash just above the creature's eyes.
"Good thinking," he called to Mira, who was already bridging the distance and looking over the damage the beast had done.
Before she could manage to do anything, the Stirandi dropped from the ceiling. They sprang apart, Arheis dropping his spear as his fingers went numb, but managing to hold onto the torch still. Mandibles snapped at Mira, catching her shoulder.
"Hold your torch out," Higrem said, performing a slide to get past the beast as it reared up.
Arheis did so, holding onto it with both hands. The cold felt like it was making his heart slow, but he could still feel it pounding as those eyes focused on him again. Higrem's sword took such an agonizingly long time to heat that he considered just pulling back, but finally the man pulled his red-hot sword away, meeting the Stirandi head-on as it prepared to attack.
He cleaved through two legs and the back of its carapace, the sword cutting through it like butter, managing to take a hefty bite out of the beast's body.
"Lure it into the trap," Zindar said, his own voice shaking along with his whole body. "Let's finish this before we all f-f-freeze to death."
Arheis was the best equipped to do it. He didn't even bother to pick up his spear, unsure he even could at this point. Instead he thrust the torch forward, right into two of the Stirandi's eyes. It screeched, lashing out at him with its mandibles snapping.
He was barely able to get away, the move catching him on the thigh, piercing cold spreading outward from the impact. Arheis forced his muscles to work, sprinting toward the trap. The beast followed him, but it was bound and determined to take out everyone in its path. Legs stabbed out at Galen, one of them catching him in the stomach. Zindar was knocked back and pinned in place by a spray of that crystalline web.
Arheis just barely managed to make it, having to all but throw his body just to the side of the trap, since he didn't trust himself to have the dexterity to deftly avoid it. The Stirandi followed, raging. The trap was tripped, and electricity arced through the beast's body, rendering it immobile.
"Now!" Arheis called. "Give it everything you've got."
They all attacked at once. Arheis and Mira held torches to the carapace. Higrem sliced through flesh and cleaved bone. Zindar broke free from his webbed prison and dual wielded his torch and blade combo. And Galen collected the icy formations the spider beast tried to throw at them and sent them all back, the spears sticking into the Stirandi's body and shattering on impact.
It was a messy, chaotic way of dealing with an enemy. But in the end, it worked. Higrem thrust his blade beneath the Stirandi's chin and it slumped, finally falling to the ground, defeated.
> You have s
lain Stirandi!
> You have gained 50 XP.
When it was over, Arheis felt… cold. So very, very cold. All he wanted in the world was to wrap himself up in a blanket and sit by the fire with a steaming cup of hot cocoa. All he seemed capable of doing was falling asleep.
> You have taken 5 points of cold damage.
> You have taken 5 points of exhaustion.
> You have taken 5 points of cold damage.
> You have taken 5 points of exhaustion.
But something tugged at his consciousness. His eyes snapped open, and he saw someone actually was tugging at him. Mira was pulling him along, her torch abandoned.
"I can't f-f-feel my hands," Arheis said, realizing he'd dropped his torch, as well.
"I know. We have to go."
He was all but dragged out of the caves, his body and mind playing a tug of war over whether or not he was going to stay conscious. Arheis barely registered warmth when he felt it, until a pinprick sensation spread like fire through his limbs. He grit his teeth, his whole body shuddering as warmth slowly returned.
When he finally realized where he was and what was happening, Arheis was sitting in front of a fire, a stone "house" penning in the nearby sheep, his cloak wrapped tight around him, a pelt draped over his head and shoulders.
He was shoulder to shoulder with Galen and Higrem, and Mira was trying to rub sensation back into their hands. When she reached Arheis, she looked up at him with worry in her eyes.
"Smells like sheep," he said of the Celir pelt that was draped over him.
She choked out a laugh, obviously caught off guard, and shook her head. "If you're well enough to complain about that, I guess you're not in danger of freezing to death."
The game reflected the same sentiment.
> You are no longer cold.