†††Siegfried†††

Siegfried had watched Hall from the corner of his eye ever since they left the market square. There had been a change in the boy's movements, a shiver that didn't reach his face, so Sieg wasn't sure if it was fear or excitement.

At long last, they reached a square with a well in the middle, just as the farrier described. The house was hard to miss, as it was the only one with flowers in front. It was as dark as the rest of the square, so the lady would likely be asleep.

Siegfried knocked at the door. As big as the house was, he feared he would have to shout to wake her up, but after a few seconds, he heard a faint rustling from inside.

Instead of the door, the front window's shutters opened, and the silhouette of a woman leaned out of it.

"Ma'am, we excuse the late disturbance. We are from the city guard and would need to ask a few questions," Siegfried said while Bolverk moved the lantern to reveal her features.

She was an attractive, mature woman. Well-endowed while keeping a slim figure, as far as he could see from her upper body. Hard but feminine, angular facial structure with black, shoulder-length hair and dark eyes.

"Ah, don't worry, young man, I couldn't sleep very well anyway. My friends call me Trish. You may do likewise." Her voice was rich, and her tone deeper than Sieg had expected. "Now, whatever could I assist you with, this late at night?"

Agnar didn't miss his opportunity to approach her first. With his best smile and confident demeanour, he explained what they had found so far and emphasised their desire to ensure her daughter's safety.

Apparently, the lady wasn't entirely appalled by Agnar's subtle advances either. "Why, thank you for your honest concern. My little darling is currently with my parents in the northern district. I really needed some time—"

When Bolverk walked up close with the lantern — close enough to nearly light up the room inside — Trish's eyes narrowed, and before they could react, she threw her arms around Agnar.

They were hurled back inside the house as if an invisible force yanked on the strings of a puppet.

A dull thump sounded as both the guard's legs hit the window's frame. His cry of pain joined Siegfried's shout, "Agnar!" and the metallic ring of their swords being drawn.

When the party followed through the window, the spacious room was empty.

Siegfried fought down the rising panic of losing Agnar to whatever nightmare took him. He turned to signal Eirik, but his friend already stormed ahead as soon as the lantern revealed the only door leading deeper into the house.

"Wait Rik! Ambush or traps!" Sieg shouted. Adrenalin pumped through his veins when he heard Eirik roar in anger, and the group rushed through the door.

The short reach of Bolverk's lamp showed wooden walls to both sides and barely reached the ceiling, nearly three times a grown man's height. But only darkness was in front — a long corridor — until the glow finally unveiled Eirik's form in the shadows, suspended in mid-air, flailing stiffly as if bound by chains.

"Goddess, protect our souls!" Svana sent a quick prayer, her voice shaking in terror.

Siegfried, spotting the fine thread, even in the dim light, jumped forward and swung his blade in a horizontal arc to the right, freeing Eirik of part of his restraints.

In that instant, a black, pointed rod shot out of the darkness through Eirik's shoulder, missing its original destination as he swayed to the side. Trish's face became visible behind him, her jaw wide open, revealing bloody fangs.

Siegfried recoiled on instinct, but a blade swiped at Trish from Eirik's left, forcing her back before she could put those fangs to use. It was Hall who had reacted in time.

As her initial attack failed, Trish retreated back into the shadow as quickly as she had appeared. The pointed rod, which they could now identify as part of her body, was ripped out of her screaming prey.

"Eirik! Oh goddess, Eirik!" Svana cried, holding him up while Hall cut the rest of the threads.

"Lean him up against the wall and guard him!" Bolverk bellowed, "Sieg, Hall, stay defensive. Those ropes stick!"

"Webs, Bolverk. She's a spider woman from the waist down, legs like spears, likely poisoned fangs — think she's using her silk thread to manoeuvre quickly!" Hall explained briefly as Bolverk hadn't seen her, standing behind Eirik.

Siegfried couldn't help but admire him for his clear-headed analysis and reaction to what they had just seen. Gone was the frightened boy he had seen on the way here. His eyes showed only grim determination, a cold desire for vengeance that left no space for other emotions.

Even though Sieg had already faced a changeling before, this was something wholly different, and he was honestly shaken with fear.

This wasn't some disfigured humanoid brute but a natural predator, superior in almost all ways to a human. The silken strands spanning between the walls just enhanced the feeling of being trapped in a monster's lair. Every fibre of his being told him to turn around and run.

A deep moan disturbed the silence. Bolverk immediately recognised it. "Agnar! He's alive!"

Siegfried's blood froze cold as the moan turned into a wail. Without a word, he pressed onward, the dim glow of Bol's lantern hardly keeping up as he cleaved through the webs that dominated the corridor.

Sieg ignored the door to his left — the monster was too big to pass through it without alerting him. Agnar's voice came from the front, and nothing would hinder him from that path.

The scuttling noise of the monster's legs against wood finally stopped him in his tracks. Trish could only move silently through her web, of course. That body had to have a lot of weight.

Sieg tried to make sense of her unexpected movement. There was a short space to the right of the hallway that lacked any webs. Maybe a trap. Or maybe an opportunity. He gripped the pommel of his sword hard, waiting for the abomination to show herself.

Trish dropped from the ceiling above, intent on skewering Sieg with her legs. Only Hall's shout of warning and Siegfried's own lightning-fast reflexes allowed him to dive to the left — fast enough to avoid certain death, only one pointed leg scoring a deep gash down his right thigh.

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The higher threat was that several spider threads stopped his dive, trapping him like a fly in the net.

Bolverk swung at her from the left, aiming to slash into her unprotected torso or at least an arm. She turned on her eight quick legs and rammed her massive lower body into him, throwing the heavy guard against the wall like a puppet.

Sieg's sword arm was caught in the net. All of his strength amounted to nothing in the sticky embrace of Trish's spider silk.

The monster raised a single, deadly appendage, a victorious grin on her face, as a shadow entered Sieg's perception from the right.

†††Hall†††

Hall had been following Siegfried silently. He crouched through the right side of the corridor, where no webs were spun.

When Trish attacked, Hall used the distraction to jump on her black abdomen, stabbing his sword at the supposedly softer meat. It bounced off it with a clang.

He had realised too late that all of her lower body parts were covered in chitinous armour, not only the legs.

When Trish reared up, he pushed himself off into a backflip to land on his feet instead of his head, narrowly missing another of her sticky strings.

Hall was furious with himself. He should have trusted Bolverk's experience when the older guardsman went for the upper body. He could have ended this.

With Bolverk out cold and Siegfried immobilised, their sinister foe could put her full attention to the youngest guardsman. She leapt forward, front legs high and ready to pierce her prey. Instead of backing up, Hall rolled to the side, passing under a horizontal string and staying within the sphere of light.

Trish hissed in disappointment. "I see you are not as unobservant as the other two."

Abandoning her strategy, she reared up on six of her legs, staying at a height that left her vulnerable upper body out of reach. She used the front appendages like a spearman from behind a shield wall, raining down quickly powerful thrusts from above.

Having to parry or evade the deadly onslaught while also minding the position of the webs behind him took all of Hall's concentration.

Even though he had trained like a man possessed for the past four years, his body couldn't keep this up for long. Quick, decisive strikes were his forte, not prolonged battle. His movements became sluggish, the attacks ever closer to connecting and even glancing blows left trails of blood as the sharp-ended chitin scraped down his arm through the leather.

Sheer willpower kept him on his feet and pushed his limits to the brink. Sweat dripped from his brows when, unexpectedly, Trish's advance stopped, and her focus changed.

A tall figure, clad in dark leather armour, rushed past Hall. They ducked under the first strike from the left and countered the other leg with a shattering blow of their blade, chipping off part of the iron-hard chitin.

Lacking the immediate threat to his life, Hall finally gave in to exhaustion and dropped to the floor with a thud.

He watched in astonishment as Siegfried parried, evaded and countered with nearly inhuman speed. A metallic clang every other second and chippings of chitin flying from Trish's underside were his only clue that Siegfried scored a blow between the scraping sound of his sword deflecting her legs.

Trish leapt forward again with an ear-splitting screech of fury, trying to pin Siegfried down, but this time he was ready. With a swiftness that belied his heavy build, Sieg jumped aside, deftly avoiding a string and cutting another before touching the ground. He lunged straight at her again before she could lift herself up and out of reach.

Trish's eyes widened, and in a desperate attempt to escape slash, she pulled on a string connecting her abdomen to the wall, jerking herself backwards.

She managed to preserve her life but still received deep cuts in both her arms as she shielded her chest with them. The half-spider, half-woman hit the wall and climbed backwards vertically, screaming at Siegfried with boundless hatred as he gave chase.

She jumped from the wall, arms and legs spread wide to negate any chance of him evading while in full charge.

Alas, evading was never Siegfried's plan.

He used his momentum and strength to throw his own sword. The blade pierced Trish's sternum and went through until the hilt hit her breastbone, the force halting her mid-air.

The weight of her armoured rear cracked the wooden floor.

Blood spluttered from the spider-woman's mouth as she stared with unbelieving eyes at Siegfried, who yanked out the sword and decapitated her in one swift motion.

'Impossible' was the word that hung in Hall's mind as he stared at Siegfried in awe. "How can you even move like that? You must be as fast as those of the Red Brigade…"

"No, he's not," Bolverk replied, limping into the light. "He is at the pinnacle of what a human body could be capable of, both in movement and reaction speed. But he is still human. An enforcer could have rushed by that monster and slain her in the blink of an eye."

"Regardless," Hall turned to Siegfried again, "thank you for saving my life. I could have died there any moment… I barely held on with defending and no chance to counter at all," he admitted bleakly.

Siegfried eyed the nicks and dents in his sword with a grimace before sheathing it. "We were lucky that Bol has such a thick skull. I’m sure that thing thought him unconscious," he explained, ignoring the spluttering of the older guardsman.

"And we were lucky to have a swordsman like you with us," Sieg added with a respectful nod. "While I was trapped in that web, I saw you fighting that horror of a changeling. Not only your skill but your resolve. You never gave up, never wavered, no matter how hopeless the situation."

Siegfried offered his arm and pulled Hall to his feet. "You are more than qualified to have our back, and I'm sorry I thought less of you before," he stated.

Hall was flabbergasted. He fished for words in his mind, but before he could voice them, Bolverk interrupted.

"If yer two are done with lickin' each other's boots, we still have one injured and one missing!"

†††Siegfried†††

Brought down from the high of the fight again, Siegfried nodded somberly.

With each step they took down the corridor, his heart grew heavier. The immediate threat was dealt with, but the next sight of horror awaited them just ahead.

Held up by strings of web was Agnar's breathless body. Riddled with countless small holes, bleeding to a puddle on the floor. Two deep holes, the size of the changeling's fangs, were visible at his neck. Black ooze was covering the wound — likely a paralysing poison.

Bolverk visibly fought with his tears as they stood before their friend of many years.

Siegfried cut him down, and they allowed themselves a moment of silence. "We still have to check the rest of the house… at least find the children's bodies if there is anything left."

"Yer right, Sieg. Svana should've bandaged Rik by now, and they'll be fine. Watch yer steps — could still be traps further in." Bolverk replied, his raspy voice full of grief but also grim resolution. They ventured farther into the house, and checked each room until they reached the basement.

The spider webs were so densely spread that they looked like a white wall of cotton. "Guess we found the true lair…," Siegfried muttered before they started cutting their way through the net, cautious of more surprises.

When Bolverk cried out wordlessly, Sieg feared the worst. "I'm coming, Bol!" he shouted.

"Stay where ya are, boys! Everything's okay over here… I just found our missing people. No need for you to see this." From how sick even the seasoned veteran guard sounded, both Siegfried and Hall opted to follow the advice. "Well, our job's done here. Let's get out of that hellhole."

"Wait, Bolverk! I found something here" Hall's voice came from the far side of the basement. When his companions reached him, he had already drawn his sword. "Eggshells from at least seven different eggs." He calmly explained.

"They are fresh. How could a being like her even get pregnant around here?" Siegfried asked.

"The boy…" Bolverk said. "And afterwards, he was food for her first brood. What a shit show."

Hall fought against the bile coming up his throat. "There is an opening in the wall behind. The stone stairs are full of dust and several tiny prints leading out. Should we follow them or leave?" he asked Bolverk, who furrowed his brows, lips pursed in distaste.

This wasn't their job, and they had already lost Agnar. But a bunch of spider monsters growing up somewhere in the city were an immense threat. As he surmised that their poison wasn't lethal but only paralysing, they could be dealt with while still young. "Stay vigilant," he responded, drawing his own sword.

They followed the stairs up into a shack at the back of the house above the ground. It was empty except for a few tools, and there was no space to hide. The tiny pricks in the dust continued over the wall to a small window. Opening the door, they walked out onto a more prominent street of cobblestone, leading in three directions between the buildings. "Shit…" Bolverk hissed, sheathing his sword. "We pick up Svana 'n Rik and take the fastest route to the next guardhouse. Need to get word to the uppers."