My breath rasped and my shoulders slumped in relief. I’d done it. I’d won. I’d lived. Okay, my leg hurt but I’d call that a victory and--

Loot corpse?

I staggered in surprise at the sudden notification, and almost fell off the boulder. “What the fuck?”

Loot corpse?

Sure. Yes. Loot that bastard.

TREASURE! 1 foam bead. Collect more foam beads to construct a pearl bead, which affords minor healing to those with gems.

A white bead appeared in my domain and the pain throbbed harder in my calf as my adrenalin faded. I considered the bead--‘the foam bead’--but not for long. If one didn’t help me heal, if I needed more, but I didn’t care about that right now.

Because if that spider was venomous, I was dead anyway.

I tried to remember if I’d ever read how to tell if a spider had poison. I didn’t notice any ‘black widow’ type markings, but that didn’t mean anything with a monster. That incredible leap had reminded me of jumping spiders, and they weren’t venomous.

Of course, that also didn’t mean anything with this spider.

I poked at the corpse with the tip my club. Barbed legs flopped everywhere, but the weirdest thing about the creature--other than the size--was its spiky exoskeleton. I was pretty sure that wasn’t like any spider on Earth.

So what was it? I looked closer and--

INTUIT: Juvenile Thornspider, Level 1

Oh!

Okay, so that’s what ‘Intuit’ meant: an identify function. Which wasn’t nearly as good as Spidey Senses. Although at the moment I was pretty done with spiders.

I read the notification again. A Thornspider, sure. But ... juvenile?

“Oh, shit,” I whispered, as I realized.

If that was a juvenile, I’d hate to see a fully grown adult.

And that, of course, was exactly when I noticed them: three more thornspiders creeping across the meadow toward me. The new ones didn’t have bodies the size of my head, though. No, they had bodies the size of my torso. With eyes as big as dinner plates and ‘thorns’ like dagger blades.

INTUIT: Thornspider, Level 2

INTUIT: Thornspider, Level 2

INTUIT: Thornspider, Level 3

I beat ass out of there, scrambling from the high boulder to a lower one, then leaping to the ground.

My leg blazed with agony but that didn’t slow me down. There came a time when your fear overruled your pain, and that time was when three fucking monster spiders were stalking you.

I raced through the maze of boulders, almost losing my footing, smacking my shoulder against the rocks, pounding forward. My breath rasped, my lungs strained. I sprinted past the mossy hummocks, toward the green-barked trees with the burls, following the curving path.

Racing for my life for the safety of the temple veranda steps.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw two of the thornspiders already in the air, leaping toward me. Red patches flashed as bright as fiery death. Fuck! Fuck. I threw myself off the pebbled path, crashing through bushes, veering away from the temple.

Away from the spiders, but also away from safety.

One spider blurred past overhead, five feet above me, having aimed to intercept me farther along the path. A moment later the other slashed down at me while still in the air, reaching one jointed leg too far sideways. A claw sliced my shoulder but the rest of spider continued past, to land ten feet away.

I shoved through the trees. Leaves and branches slapped my face and I veered again, dodging a tree trunk, trying to zig-zag in case the thornspiders leaped. I needed to reach the safety of the veranda steps but the fuckers were between me and the temple so I just kept running blindly, trying to keep my distance.

As I burst from the trees, I caught motion to my right. Another spider crouched there, preparing to leap.

I hurled my club at it then dove leftward. I slipped on wet moss, sprawled to the ground and almost rolled into the pond.

I caught myself at the edge of the water and froze for a moment when I noticed the spider still crouching, still watching. Then I rose to my feet. Slowly. Terrifyingly slowly. Because some instinct told me that if I moved too fast, the spider would pounce.

The spider watched me, with too many eyes glimmering in the dying light.

I sidestepped slowly.

The spider took a step toward me.

I sidestepped slowly.

The spider stalked closer--and two more spiders crept from the trees.

I sidestepped ... and the spider rushed me.

It didn’t leap, it just ran, but goddamn that thing moved fast. Eight legs blurred. A bestial horror scuttled at me and I shouted and dove backwards. Into the pond. Not a great plan, but I was scared and hurt and unarmed and fighting a monster spider, and I didn’t have anywhere else to run.

A second after I hit the surface of the pond, the spider hit me. Fangs snapped at my neck but I blocked with my left forearm. So the fangs sunk into my flesh. Chill water sloshed over my face and I punched the eight-legged fucker in the underbelly, again and again, jamming my wounded arm deeper into the fangs to keep them from pulling back and ripping my face off as claw-tipped legs and sharp thorns tore into me.

We rolled over and over, sloshing deeper into the pond and my mind groped for ...

Something.

Some handle.

Some edge.

Some weapon.

I felt it, so close, right there, just out of reach.

A claw slashed my side and I grabbed a thorny leg with my hand and tried to snap the spider’s carapace--and I wasn’t even slightly worried about underwater monsters. Not at all. At least not until something grabbed my ankle.

I gulped a breath a moment before a shadowy strand of creature dragged me underwater.

Dragged both of us underwater. The spider didn’t like that. Legs thrashed against me in a frenzy, then the spider pulled free and floated awkwardly upward.

I couldn’t see shit in the dark, muddy water. I jerked my ankle and ... nothing was holding it anymore. No creature, no shadowy strand. I had no idea what that had been, but I stayed underwater and swam toward the other bank. I was a good at swimming: born and raised in a beach town. Soon I crawled up the muddy shore ... and a whole fucking row of monsters loomed above me.

I almost wept before I realized they were statues. Waist-high stone statues of humanoid hippos and lobsters. I gaped at them for a moment, then jerked my attention back across the pond. After a moment, I spotted one injured spider crawling from the water, but the other two were nowhere in sight.

Which meant they were hunting me.

I crawled up the stone steps onto the shrine, hoping to hide among the statues. Or at least dodge among them. When I reached the center of the platform, which was blacked by fire, I was surrounded by statues.

And two thornspiders watched me from the ground past the edge of the platform.

One to my left and one in front of me, just beyond the shrine steps.

I had nowhere to run. I was shivering from the water and bleeding from a dozen cuts. Most of the wounds were weren’t as bad as my calf or my forearm, but they were still painful. Plus my left palm was torn up and something was wrong with my lower back.

I looked for a weapon as I rose painfully to my feet--a rock, a stick, anything--and didn’t see one.

The thornspiders circled, staying beyond the ring of statues, outside the steps leading to the platform.

I turned in place, trying to watch them both at the same time.

One darted a few steps forward, then flinched backwards. The other did the same. They circled, darted, flinched ...

And didn’t approach. Like they couldn’t get me. Not as long as I stayed at the top of this little stone shrine platform.

“‘The safety of the steps,’” I repeated, from the quest. “These steps, too! You can’t get me. I’m safe. Ha!”

Then I collapsed. Physically, emotionally--in every way.

That night was cold and horrible. I was shivering, sniveling mess. I thought I’d never sleep, trembling there on the hard stone, with nothing to cover myself but wet clothes and misery. At some point, though, I must have drifted off into fitful rest. Just for an hour or two, before dawn touched the treetops.

In the morning, everything remained absolutely horrible. Still, the sun eventually warmed me, then dried the clothes I’d draped across the statues. My wounded arm burned and I couldn’t put much weight on my injured calf, but I hadn’t died to venom, so ... I decided to call that a win.

Go me. Another victory.

I dressed in my mostly-dry, still-bloodstained clothing, then walked in small circles around the shrine platform, trying to work off some of my aches. Walking made them feel worse, though, and I caught a few glimpses of thornspiders lurking in the bushes, which didn’t help. On the bright side, I realized that if I stood beside the scaly-ostrich statue, I could see the courtyard gate, like twenty years away down the wide path. I could even see through the gate, to the forest on the other side. I didn’t know why that felt like ‘the bright side,’ but that glimpse of the outside world comforted me. Like there was more to this new life than a nightmare.

And things couldn’t be worse out there than in here, right?

“Wrong,” I said aloud.