Chapter 60

“Dima!” I called out, squinting against the darkness looking for him. The candleflames around me hung sullenly in the air, their light barely seeming to penetrate the gloom. The sound of slow, steady rain began again, noisily pattering against the canopy above, drowning out the smaller sounds of the forest. The drops that penetrated through to fall upon me were fat and heavy, and my robes quickly began to soak through. I searched my immediate area, certain that if Dima had been killed or knocked unconscious, I’d be able to find him. The trees were dense, but not so dense that I wouldn’t be able to see someone ten or twenty feet away, especially not the pale and bushy-bearded giant.

I looked up from the ground, and suddenly realized that all of the trees around me looked the same. No damage scarred the trunks in my sight, no broken branches marred the bushes, and no great furrows in the ground betrayed that a battle had taken place just moments ago. I swept my gaze around a second time, searching again for any trace of Dima or the creature, finding neither, even when I focused on my newly enhanced senses. Instead, all I could feel was a strong presence, a purple-black film that clung to everything in my sight.

I could see slender, darker threads reaching out across the forest like an enormous web, shivering slightly with every step that I took as if sensing me. I grimaced, shaking my head against the distraction and called out again. “Dima! Alex! Cenna! Ella!” Only my own words echoed back, faint and distant enough that it almost sounded like someone else’s voice. I gritted my teeth, feeding more energy into the candleflames to try and brighten my surroundings, pushing them out farther from myself to illuminate more of the dark forest. As one of them passed between two slender trees, a sudden spike of movement tore it out of the air, an enormous claw rending through the magic and sending the sparks sizzling down onto the forest floor, quenched instantly by the heavy rain. I threw myself behind a tree trunk as the claws swept down again, this time shredding through the underbrush where I’d been standing a moment before, another attack rending the trunk I sheltered behind.

I quickly scampered away from it, throwing myself over one of the dark threads and rolling into the protection of a larger oak, feeling it shiver against my back as claws tore through much of its’ trunk in a single swipe. It creaked heavily, groaning under the weight of its’ own branches as if clutching at its’ own innards. Silence fell again, except for the heavy groan of the tree, and I stilled myself to listen for other attacks. My candleflames had returned to their previous energy as soon as I stopped feeding them, dimming back down into wavering points of light that hung between the trees like will o’ wisps.

I slowly pushed more energy along the thread of intent that bound one of the lights, flaring it up brighter and brighter for a handful of seconds before it, too, was consumed in a sudden attack. I bit my lip to stay quiet, but couldn’t help grinning. It seemed to have trouble discerning between me and my lights, and when I put enough energy into them I could bait it into attacking. I remembered the glimpses I’d gotten of its’ enormous face and broad head, and the fact that it had no eyes that I could see. I only had to mull it over for a moment before deciding that it must see using magic, like I could do now.

I dragged the sodden sleeve of my robe across my face to wipe away the sweat, the heat slowly becoming sweltering as the humidity rose. It wasn’t as hot as my flames, much less one of the firestorms I’d used to rest in before, but the way the damp clung to me nonetheless made me feel stifled. I struck upon an idea as I stared out at one of my candleflames, chewing my lip as I mulled over how to make my plan work. I knew I could gather a fairly sizable amount of energy before it would be detected, but I wasn’t sure it would be enough for my needs. At the very least, it should be a nasty surprise for the next time the beast came knocking; I needed to move quickly while I still had its’ attention. As long as I could keep it focused on me, the others could gather together and prepare to fight back.

The shadows danced erratically as three blazing orbs swam through the trees, snapping branches and setting leaves alight as the crystalflame orbs sped along. I knew they wouldn’t make it far, but they didn’t need to; perhaps twenty feet from me, they split up into three different directions, and I was pushed to my limit trying to make them dance and weave to deny the creature an easy kill.

As it popped up over a particularly large fallen tree, the creature struck, a glimpse of long-taloned fingers rending the air with a whistling shriek, grazing the orb with its’ first strike, before a second hasty strike caught the tumbling orb and ripped it apart. The energy within detonated like a grenade, showering the area around it in light and heat. The sodden vegetation refused to ignite, but I didn’t need it to; the other two orbs were looping around for me to try and gauge how much damage the first had done. Another swipe destroyed the second, drawing a loud shriek of pain from the Forest Stalker. The third orb lunged toward the movement, revealing two missing 'hands’ on the beast even as it shot in for a terminal strike, exploding against the long, segmented body of the creature. It tried to twist away from the attack, shifting its’ upper body effortlessly aside, but more and more of its’ centipedal length heaved into view, legs sprouting endlessly from it, before there was simply too much of its’ body in the way to miss, and it vanished in a burst of flame.

I bit back a cheer as I began conjuring three more, pouring energy in as quickly as I dared as I felt the trees begin to heave behind me, branches rattling violently from its’ enraged charge. I sent the attacks scattering back toward it and leapt around the tree, about to run away from it for an instant before I felt a sense of vertigo. I was charging toward the creature, the torn bark of the tree my left hand had been resting on suddenly a few feet to my right. My orbs scattered away uselessly in different directions, striking trees and bushes far off-target from the monster itself. I could see the black threads churning around me as if the darkness of the forest had become its’ web, the grid of strings tightening as they closed in on me.

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My vision swam, the trees seeming to warp along with the threads, and every step felt like it took me in a different direction. Angrily, I reared back and slammed my foot down where two of the threads looped together, and a burst of flame burned them into wisps of darkness that reformed a moment later. A hurled fireball blew against a tree, setting the trunk reluctantly smoldering and shattering a few more threads. Everywhere they closed in around me, I attacked, explosions and torrents of flame scattering against the almost omnipresent web of darkness.

I closed my eyes against the bright flare of an explosion, relying on my instincts to guide me away from the onrushing monster, the vague sense of life and darkness around me still ‘visible’ despite my closed eyes; not much, but just enough to avoid crashing into any trees or stumbling over any roots. I paused for a moment, sweeping my senses around, and felt where the threads were gathering, a knot of writhing darkness clutched in the gaping maw of the monster, reeling in the threads with its’ enormous pedipalps like a weaver working a loom.

I paused for a lingering instant to charge up an attack, hurling it like a baseball into the fleshy maw of the Forest Stalker. It didn’t reach the mouth, one of its’ limbs sacrificing itself to detonate the projectile some distance away, but it was still close enough that it severed several of the threads at once. It was at that moment I noticed a most curious thing.

As the threads burned away, a patch of the forest near me changed, the trees not nearly so dense, the forest not nearly so dark; even as it swept up new threads in its’ grip and began to weave them together, it closed like a window into another reality, the very sight itself stitching back together. An illusion.

I suddenly felt it pressing down against my mind, like threads entwining my thoughts, dense and sticky, shrouding my sight from my mind. At the instant of recognition, I felt my Willpower flare, shattering the illusion in an instant and returning me to the gloomy forest of before. I groaned as I felt myself constricted, something so tight around me I could barely move or breathe. It wasn’t until that it began burning in my rage that I realized I’d been entirely cocooned in webbing, my flesh sore and loose from soaking in the venomous juices. I screamed as I forced my eyes open, venom like acid blurring my vision, heaving up thick, bilious fluid from my lungs. I lurched toward another enormous cocoon and shoved my hand into it like a knife, grabbing onto the edges and tearing until the liquid spilled out in a huge gush, sizzling where it began melting the vegetation. Dima lay within, his eyes glassy and muscles slack, though his chest still rose and fell slowly as if struggling to breathe.

The next cocoon I stepped toward split open just before I could touch it, and so great was my surprise that I couldn’t even move to defend myself; luckily, Alex stepped out of it, brushing a powdery white substance from themselves, the sac seemingly emptied of venom. “David!” She shouted. “It’s an illusion! What you’re seeing isn’t real!”

“No shit!” I shouted back. “I burned my way out of it.” I moved gestured toward Dima, and Alex moved to him as I started trying to pry open the next sac I saw.

“Of course you did. The fire mage burned something. Shocking.” Their sarcasm didn’t have its’ usual bite, too much worry and concern betraying their tone.

“How did you get out?” I asked, sparing a glance over as I dug my fingers into the sticky silk and began shredding it away.

“I’m immune to most poisons. Including whatever hallucinogen made you all start screaming and running around. I tried to tell you guys but no one was listening by that point.”

Ella came out swinging as I tore the web away from her, a howl of rage on her lips as she burst forth from it, too much of the venom clouding her face for her to see what was around her. “Ella!” I shouted, trying to avoid her nearly drunken punches, only for Alex to dive in instead.

Their hand came up as if about to punch Ella in the face, only to squeeze down at the last moment and throw a fistful of some kind of powder at her. Alex lunged backward again, gracelessly tumbling away before the medicine she used could kick in.

Ella clawed at her face for a moment and began spitting curses and literal venom, gagging and retching as she fell to her knees. “Oh, oh what the Hell was that. What did you put on me!” Her sudden return to sanity – and surprising lack of violence – made sense a moment later when the smell hit me.

Even Dima sat up abruptly, some of the leftover dust on Alex’s hands enough to rouse him from his slumber with foreign curses. Alex and I began to tear Cenna out of her cocoon a moment later, though my eyes watered just from being close to whatever alchemical substance had been used to awaken the barbarian.

A few moments later, all of us were clear and conscious, free of the cocoons and their webbing, our clothes soaked in acidic venom; it was strong enough to do its’ work eventually, but in the meantime merely itched and burned our skin. Movement at the edge of the clearing drew our attention back to the battle at hand as the body from my vision drew itself upward, many limbs shoving aside the trees around, talons ripping them up at the base and clearing space around itself. The beetle-like wings were spread wide, the image of four huge eyes a phantasm of the shifting colors and iridescent shells, rustling as the shuttered wings slid together and the body reared itself up with a throaty hiss.