Ex
2 Days, 5 hours In.
“This didn’t go well. This didn’t go well at all!”.
The tactic they had employed with the first spider had only worked for two more of the smaller arachnids before a bigger one had decided to put a wrench in their plans.
It might have been a noise or maybe just bad luck, but just after they had moved the third dead hatchling through the barrier, a medium-sized Jumping Spider had made its way into the passage, pushing forward despite the tight walls that impeded its movement.
The moment the creature’s two frontal limbs had started pushing through the opening, trying to loosen it enough for it to move through, Alice had known the stealthy approach had just failed.
She had calmly inched forward until she was almost touching the side of the opening and had violently and repeatedly stabbed the legs of the creature until, with a sickening crunch, they had fallen down on the ground, oozing more blood on the already stained floor.
The monster had cried a pitiful shriek before it madly tried to retreat, its stumps leaving behind a large puddle of blood.
That single cry had signaled the start of the Second Siege of the Webbed Cave, as Alice had decided to call it if she managed to come out of there alive.
The spiders had rushed forward in a mad dash, only to be impeded by their own numbers and the shape of the tunnel. Alice smiled, there wasn’t a way to encircle them or catch them by surprise, only a frontal assault that would bring the frenzied creatures in range of the lone defender’s weapon.
Not that the arachnids were discouraged by the terrible terrain and cleverly laid defenses; they simply advanced, let themselves get funneled into a kill box, and died as they tried to bring down their prey.
After all, despite all the barricades and protections of the besieged, they all knew where the odds truly laid.
Alice hadn’t faltered upon seeing the wave of monsters, by now she knew how it worked and had started relentlessly stabbing creatures while simultaneously evading their clawed limbs.
After a few hours of incessant fighting, however, the girl realized she hadn’t taken into account two extremely specific details that would prove to be very vital in the following fight: the amount of blood contained within tens, if not hundreds, of very large spiders; and the fact that the passage sloped down, the smaller cave being on a lower level compared to the larger corridor.
The blood simply wasn’t draining.
At first, it was just a few puddles here and there, easily avoidable and, even then, a non-issue.
Four hours later, she was up to her ankles in bitter, dark blood and the onslaught didn’t seem to be stopping.
Personally, she wouldn’t have a problem before the blood started spilling in the hallway up front; the Spear Spiderlings, however, were low on the ground, barely reaching up to her knee.
If they drowned, there would be none to keep the barrier up and she would still die.
“Fuck! Will you just die please?” she asked while wildly swinging her claw-sword.
A long leg answered the question, the tough limb heavily impacting her torso as its claws loudly scraped on the chitin, tearing up the silken cover and sending her tumbling back, her ribs hurting at the impact but otherwise safe thanks to the sturdy armor.
She got up on her feet, dripping fluids and with an extremely pissed expression on her face.
She stabbed through once more, the broken leg collapsing on the ground, joining the many others that made the submerged terrain even more treacherous.
2 Days, 14 Hours In
*Crunch*
“No!” a frantic and mournful scream echoed through the hallway, over the skittering and hissing of the invading spiders, some of which had started trying to enlarge the passage itself, breaking down the limestone walls with the powerful impacts of their limbs.
The abdomen of the spiderling exploded in a mass of gore, its organs mixing with the shin-high blood Alice now waded through, the hairy limb that had delivered the blow retreating back to give way for a dripping maw of palps and mandibles that snapped on and on, trying to reach her.
Panting, Alice moved forward, ignoring the envenomed fangs barely missing her, in order to plant a spike of sharpened bone straight through the eye of the creature.
“Aestus!” She shouted, ripping it away and then planting it deeper, using the strength of her flowing adrenaline to push through the flesh until she was into the brain of the spider up to her elbow.
The monster collapsed, blocking the way for a few salvific minutes as the rest of their enemies started trying to break through it.
She dropped on her knees and searched in the blood with her good hand, the stump moving freely since the claw-sword had broken, snapped in half a few hours before by a dying spider.
She finally reached it, grasping the submerged shape with her fingers and raising it to the surface.
“Band-Aid… I’m sorry” she murmured in a chocked voice “I know you don’t care and would have probably eaten me in any other occasion but I’m sorry. I’ll fucking make them pay”.
The last of the spiderlings had ignored her in the meanwhile, instead moving to add even more silk to the drenched barrier, now considerably drooping despite the new anchors reinforcing it. Those had been Band-Aid’s doing, the tiny Spear Spider moving forward to repair it while she was still fighting. It had been a stupid move, and yet a necessary one.
She let the carcass vanish underneath the blood, instead taking the chance to pile some of the severed limbs and carcasses into a heap where the last spider would be able to breathe some more.
“I’ll fucking kill every single one of you” she snarled as the carcass in front of her erupted in a shower of gore, a dripping spider emerging from within.
“Aestus!”.
Somewhere Dark
The swarm of spiders marched through the maze of underground passages they had colonized over the course of many generations, their spiked feet plinking loudly on the stone, scaring away the smaller critters the Nest allowed to roam the passages.
The tunnels they were traversing were fairly wide, on account of the large Spear Spider walking among them, her spikes crushing the tender limestone as if it was dirt, leaving deep bores on the floor as she progressed.
Chillushrith was annoyed.
It had been a long time since she had walked these roads and she had grown far too large to be comfortable in them. She wasn’t used to the humid and narrow passages of the upper layer, their tendency to split up and connect randomly had always exasperated and confused her, even in her youth, sometimes causing her to need to go back, tracking down her own steps to find the right way in the dedalus.
I would like to know why Mother sent me to go and get this phantomatic creature that might cure her. Eisor has always been far more comfortable in these damned antways, her and her perfect memory.
And on top of that, the little one is here acting all smug, as if he has already cured Mother.
The little one in question was walking at the front with the vanguard, leading them through the passages with ease and contentedly clicking all the while. Sometimes, he disappeared into a too-narrow gap and she was forced to literally break through the stone with her spears, the calcite crumbling under the powerful thrusts.
The ground was growing wetter and slicker as she moved upwards, feeding all sort of molds and bacteria that some of her sisters would be very happy to study in depth for far too long.
She wasn’t the type. Even in her hatchling days she had been focused on the bigger side of things, so much so that she sometimes got into quite messy situations and had to run back to Mother for help.
Like that time with that damned beetle for example.
She hissed softly in annoyance; the spiders close to her scurrying away in a hurry, trying not to get in the way of the notoriously temperamental Thinker.
Her memories of that long gone past only served to make her present more bitter, her regrets aching like a wasp’s puncture in her abdomen.
Their species had been growing so much, establishing satellite nests all over the system of caves as they fought for the right to expand and become the true owners of that marvelous underground world. All that work; interrupted in a moment by the Anathema.
If I had been stronger this wouldn’t have been necessary. Instead, She had to go Herself to make up for my mistakes.
After that day most of their new nests had to be abandoned, her and her sisters now focusing on finding a cure. Uselessly.
Sometimes, over time, as every single one of their ideas, trials and experiments had failed, with Mother getting slowly worse after every molt, Chillushrith had almost come to hope for Her death, for a quick way out of an illness that didn’t seem to have a chance at getting better.
Every time, she would push away the thought, chastising herself for her lack of loyalty towards the one who had given them everything, but every time the nibbling desire would come back, stronger and stronger as time went on, as she looked at Mother crawl out of another molt, hobbling on her remaining limbs, a shadow of her former self.
And now another hope for Her to cling to? For both of them? It was almost cruel.
Chillushrith dearly hoped for the little one that it wouldn’t be a fluke.
She stopped in front of yet another tight passage, the low ceiling taunting her with its stupid shape.
“Motherdammit” she clicked, a metallic limb already cutting into the stone.
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“The first one who says something will be sent to Ricee’s chambers”.
2 Days, 20 Hours In.
The last one had died a few hours back, pierced through by a random leg pushing to break down the rapidly weakening web.
She had knelt and ripped off one of its fangs, planting it into the limb which had once again sprayed a fountain of blood, its owner soon collapsing due to the paralytic venom.
She had enjoyed watching it get chewed through while it was still alive, its brethren too frenzied to listen to the small hints of reason they had once possessed.
The larger spiders, stuck outside of the narrow passage by their bulk, had taken the place of the smaller ones and had started slamming their powerful limbs onto the stone blocking them, their hits breaking off entire slabs of material as they expanded the crevice and moved closer and closer.
She knew that would be the end, but she honestly couldn’t bring herself to care.
2 Days, 22 Hours In.
The bottom of the web had simply sloughed off; its sodden, tattered threads unable to hold under the continued onslaught of the spiders.
She had been forced to erect a barricade of severed limbs to block the gap, the smaller spiders already trying to push forward, going as far as lowering down under the surface of the pool of blood they were fighting in, trying to ambush her.
The first time it had worked, the monster erupting from the liquid with a powerful jump and slamming into her, the carapace creaking as its fangs bit down into it, trying to reach her flesh.
She had fallen down into the blood, her head pushed under by the frenzied spider as it redoubled its efforts to kill her.
Her nape had hit the hard ground beneath, the painful shock causing her mouth to open and the dark, murky fluid to rush down her throat and into her airways, her eyes seeing only shades of green and black in the festering swamp she was drowning in.
Alice had started thrashing, using every ounce of strength she had left to push away the spider attempting at her life.
In her frantic movements, her hand had found something soft and round and she had almost instantly grasped it, desperate for any hold in her frantic fight for oxygen. And then, without even realizing what the thing that she was grasping was, the drowning girl had simply squished, a warm and gooey feeling immediately enveloping her fingers as the weight on her chest was finally lifted, allowing her to raise her head from the deathly waters.
She had gotten up on her knees, choking on the horrid humors as her foe clawed at its own face, its ruined eye only adding further suffering to their personal River Styx.
Alice forced herself up on her feet before finishing off the monster, planting her last bone spike in its head and stumbling forward to prevent the other monsters to enter the cave.
The larger spiders had almost reached her web, the passage now almost wide enough for them to try their luck on the stubborn prey that refused to die.
She opened her arms, looking straight in their eyes as she welcomed them.
Chillushrith walked through the dripping passage with only the little one in front to lead her way, she had changed the swarm’s formation now that they were reaching their objective, it wouldn’t do for her to show up last.
She had been meaning to ask her guide how long it would take to finally see the advanced nest when he suddenly stopped on its tracks, his eyes on a thin thread of silk that laid strewn on the ground.
The little one started trembling under her eyes, plinking erratically around the passage.
What is the matter little one? she asked, annoyed at his shenanigans.
The tiny male finally turned to her, frantically clicking a panicked message.
The nest is lost.
She sprinted forward, her powerful legs making short work of the hallway, soon reaching yet another low-hanging ceiling; her swarm behind her.
Go forward. Secure the nest at all costs. Kill everything aside from our kin and the target. She ordered.
The little one was the first to react, sprinting forward, soon joined by the rest of the force, skittering through her legs and soon disappearing down the dark passage that prevented her from reaching her goal.
As soon as they were all gone, Chillushrith raised her frontal spears, their gleaming metal somehow turning into a malleable fluid that flowed under her eight eyes, changing shape until the sharp limbs soon turned into her favorite weapons. She experimentally swung the elongated, 2-meters-long sickles in the air, producing an almost whistling sound as it cut the air, and feeling the knowledge of many years of practice come back to her mind.
When she felt satisfied with her form, Chillushrith swung both weapons in a single, fluid motion through the air and into the stone of the passage.
An instant later, a crisp sound echoed down the hallway as a two-meter-long slab of limestone detached from the wall before it crashed into rubble on the ground.
She wouldn’t fail twice.
2 Days, 23 Hours, 30 Minutes In
The two largest spiders were mere centimeters away from her, hammering at the last few chunks of stone keeping them out of the flooded cave and away from the lone survivor contained within.
Alice was sitting down on a pile of severed body parts, resting her trembling arms and legs after the strain they had been subjected to in the last few hours; her breaths were deep and regular as she waited with her eyes closed, her ears following the progress of the demolition.
She reopened her eyes only when the first anchor of the web detached from the shuddering wall, causing the barrier to droop to the left and offering her a better view of what was coming.
Behind the two rampaging brutes, crowding all visible space both on floor and walls, were the remaining Jumping Spider, barely holding back from simply rushing in and ripping her apart.
Alice stood up as another slam shook the walls, this time causing a large block of limestone to crumble into the bloodied swamp with a sonorous splash, spraying her already filthy body.
The rest of the anchors finally failed; the barrier that had protected her, holding on for so many hours against the relentless assault, finally sunk down in the stygian swamp she had been fighting in for almost three days.
She stood up, her tired legs almost buckling under her weight, her eyes staring at her foes straight on as her only hand grasped the last weapon she had available, a very special spider fang.
Seeing the collapse of the hated silken veil, one of the hatchling squirming in the hallway decided to be brave and push through, dexterously swerving around the limbs as wide as birch trunks, trying to get to her first.
Alice got ready, her eyes tracking its maneuvers, her knees bent and her ‘dagger’ primed for its move. The hatchling had just gotten low on the ground and her improved hearing had just started perceiving the rising pressure in its legs when one of the same limbs that had been breaking off walls of solid stone unexpectedly changed direction, crushing its head and torso in an instant.
Apparently there was a pecking order to be respected.
Just as it happened, the last sliver of stone keeping the monsters out of the enclosed space was turned into powder and the first of the engorged spiders stepped into the water proper, simply crushing the severed limbs hidden underneath the dark surface.
Alice didn’t move as it advanced, conserving energy and simply waiting for its attack, ready to make the most out of her smaller frame and hopefully quicker movements.
The spider stopped after a couple of steps, its eight eyes stuck on her two. A few of her heartbeats later, it raised its two frontal arms, their tips almost reaching the lateral walls as a deep intimidatory hiss flew out of its envenomed maw.
She held still.
The creature seemed to be at a loss for a few seconds, then, it slowly got closer to the small thing that had held off and killed so many of its kins.
When it started moving, Alice tried to strike before it got too close, raising her weapon towards its large spherical eyes. However, to her dismay, her legs had decided in that moment to give way, causing her to fall down in the gore once more, her knees splitting on the hard stone beneath.
A moment later, before she could even react, she felt the firm pressure of the spider pedipalps on her sides as she was raised up in the air, held in front of the horrid visage of the creature.
Without hesitation, the weary, injured girl slammed Band-Aid’s fang into the left palp, cracking the chitin and causing a dribble of blood to flow out of the wound.
The spider didn’t drop her, only squeezing her more, causing her breastplate and the ribs beneath to creak in protest.
The meter-long fangs of the creature extended, dripping transparent venom in the ichor beneath as they were readied to pierce through her body.
Alice closed her eyes, expecting the pain that would finally end her for good.
She waited. And waited.
She reopened her eyes to see the creature stuck in the same position, immobile.
At first, Alice thought it an effect of the envenomed dagger, that its paralytic substance had had an effect on the large monster.
Only when it started moving, still holding her aloft, out of the cave did she notice the thin strand of shadow that extended from the darkness in the hallway up to its head.
With her just dangling from its palps, the creature entered the passage, giving her a perfect view of the swarm of Jumping Spiders silently streaming out of the corridor, their movement almost mechanical now compared to a few moments ago.
Every single one of them had a thin strand of shadow connected to its head, already disappearing, blending with the darkness of the passage.
She didn’t wait to see where her new chaperon was leading her, instead slamming the fang over and over into the palp, trying to sever it like she had done many times in the hours before.
Somehow the spider ignored her stabs as if they were nothing more than pinpricks, carrying on, out of the contested hallway and into the nest proper.
As they reached the main routes, Alice could see more spiders stream into the swarm, walking on floor and ceiling alike until everything she could see was spider.
The creatures streamed out of the webbed crevice and into the main cavern, the echo of the water droplets instantly drowned by the sound of fighting.
From her elevation, Alice could see the swarm pick up into a mad rush, slamming against a steady line of Spear Spider, the smaller arachnids holding off the frenzied attackers with deep thrusts of their spiked limbs and well-timed lines of silk that impeded the enemies’ advance.
As time went on, however, the fight became less balanced. For every Jumping Spider to die, another one seemed to take its place as the endless horde kept emerging from the conquered nest, the Spear Spiders, in the meanwhile, didn’t have that luxury and every loss further reduced their numbers and ability to fight.
While the larger spider moved to join the fighting, Alice hadn’t been idle, the makeshift knife finally cracking the chitin enough for the pedipalp to start giving way.
She had started trying to extricate from the weakened grasp when a movement in the gleaming line of rescuers caught her eye.
A very familiar spider fluidly danced around a larger monster, stabbing it through the nape with one of its sharp limbs before quickly climbing on it. From its elevated position, it then launched a long line of silk into the legs of one of the advancing larger spiders, causing it to stumble and fall down on the ground, squishing its smaller brethren with a crash of broken limbs.
In the meanwhile, the palp finally lost all its strength and Alice fell heavily on the ground, the impact sending waves of pain to every wound in her body.
She scrambled back, barely avoiding getting crashed by a leg, but managing to move away from the stream of monsters.
Everywhere in the large expanse echoed the sounds of the fight, soon joined in by the slithering, buzzing and skittering of the other inhabitants of the dark environment, each one eager to join the fray and earn one more meal.
Alice ignored them, her eyes fixated on the line of familiar spiders trying to hold their ground; what at first had been a balanced line of defenders, was now rapidly getting encircled by their numerous foes.
From her position she could see the Jumping Spiders moving around the line, avoiding the stronger fighters to pick at the weakest links, taking them off one by one.
Their behavior was strange, so unlike the way they had fought during her personal siege, uncaring of tactic or reason. Now, they were organized; almost careful in their way of fighting, moving as one from one side to the other.
As If they had a single mind. Or were controlled.
Her mind went back to the shadowy thread that had suddenly appeared on her besiegers, how they had suddenly left her alone and moved as one to join the others.
The shadow thing leads them.
She looked again at the surrounded Spear Spiders now fighting for their lives.
And she leads them well. They are not going to survive much longer.
Alice got up on her unsteady feet, stumbling slightly as her trembling muscles did her best to hold on with the last ounces of energy in her exhausted body.
She started moving towards the barely visible ledge that lead to her base, to safety.
And yet, even with a safe haven almost within the grasp of her hand, her eyes kept traveling to the hordes of fighting spiders, to the shape of Skitter that sometimes emerged over the other spiders, climbing on them and fighting off the attackers.
She bit her lip, stopping on her tracks; in front of her was survival and safety, behind her lay unknown, mixed with a big dash of death. She kept walking, the bone ladder of the ledge now in sight.
Then, a memory of a moment not long ago came to her mind, that of a spider dragging a stupid girl away from a hallucinogenic death and escorting her back home.
Skitter did that just to get me to cure its mom, let’s not be emotional when it’s undeserved.
“But you have a debt” whispered back the irrational part of her mind, the one that also wanted her to avenge another tiny spider.
Goddamnit.
She turned back; her legs somehow steadier now that she had decided to risk her life for literally no reason.
2 Days, 23 Hours, 45 Minutes In
A millipede emerged from the darkness, stepping into her flaring cone of light and trying to bite off one of her legs. She jumped over him, leaving him flailing behind as she moved towards the swarming spiders.
This time, the rushing monsters reacted, a few of the smaller ones leaving the swarm to dash straight at her, their legs leaving thin gashes on the ground.
She dodged the first two, launching herself on the ground to her left as they sped past her, soon impacting with the millipede that had decided to follow her and starting a brawl with far too many legs.
That left her contending with the last hatchling, which had been slower than the first ones and was now attempting to bite her head off now that she was prone on the ground.
She managed to roll away in time, her breastplate creaking on the floor but protecting her from most of the sharp rocks as the spider clicked in annoyance, moving to follow her.
As she got up on her feet, panting hard, she didn’t miss the way it had started clicking and moving normally, as if it was now itself once more.
It tried to jump her once again but this time she was ready, Alice timed her move just as the powerful hind legs of the creature pushed it off the ground, sailing towards her torso and face. She dropped down, raising her dagger just in time for it to connect with the being’s abdomen, parting it in the air and showering her with a new layer of spider’s gore.
She ignored the struggles of the dying arachnid behind her and proceeded towards the main stream of her foes, thinking of her options. They weren’t many.
Like a few seconds before, from the swarm moved out a separate group of spiders, ready to finish her off, and this time they were serious about it.
Five medium-sized spiders were moving to surround her, advancing silently on the stone.
Behind her, one of the two hatchlings had finished off the millipede and was now creeping towards her very bright shape.
“Well fuck” she said as she calculated her odds.
Then, a crisp sound reverberated through the stone and into the expanse proper as a part of the closest wall collapsed on the ground, revealing a huge gleaming spider wielding two-meters-long metal sickles, which started barreling towards the incessant stream of Jumping Spiders.
As if in a carefully choreographed spectacle, most of the swarm turned as one and headed towards the shining behemoth, trying to bring it down with sheer numbers.
As the spiders surrounding her moved, Alice caught sight of the thin, black threads, leading them towards their new objective.
She forcefully averted her eyes from the rushing monsters, heavily dimmed her own light and started following the line in the darkness.