Jarblack, the spider king, rode through the industrial district of the Gnomish colony. His two hundred or so riders stretched out in a vast horde, flushing down the tunnels in an ocean of gibbering goblins and chittering spiders. He grimaced in pain as he stretched his injured leg. He was showing the wound was beginning to fester; he had told the warchief so. But Garblac, the warchief, cared little for battle field injuries and had sent him off to find wherever their oldest brother had apparently managed to turn the power back on. Jarblack's horde of riders slowed to a halt. The spider king pushed through to the front. He had no need to shout to his men to move; his spider was the largest, and the mounts of his rider were intensively new to move out of her way.
"What's the hold-up?" He yelled to the front rank as he joustled his way through. as his veil of the tunnel in front of his horde cleared, Jarblacked nostrils filled with an awful stench. A mix of sewage and rotten concrete filled the tunnel. He did his best to pinch his long goblin nose closed. The effect was of little to no use. He nudges and mounts forward, allowing himself to peer into a room just beyond the archway leading out of the tunnel, searching for the source of the smell. A large tank was fastened to the wall on the other side of the chamber. A brownish substance was gushing from an open hatch in the tank floor. A number of bloated goblin corpses floated in the half-foot-long brown-looking pond that had pooled in the chamber lower floor section, unable to drain into the tunnel. Jarblack let out a dark chuckle. “Looklike these idiots drowned in shitboys. Ignore them and keep moving,” he yelled to the horde of riders stepping into the archway. He gestured for his riders to move ahead of him.
As the last of his riders passed the archway, he joined the very back of the unit. After following them for a few moments, the lighting crystal that lined the ceiling turned back on. the riders on the ceiling, causing shadows to flicker over each of the crystals as they crossed the new sources of light. The horde let out yelps and roars as the power came back on. Jarblac smiled. Now that his brother had turned the light back on, it would only be a matter of time until he would finally be able to find a healer and dealer with his leg.
******************
It had been twenty minutes since Snorri had fled the crystaline power station. After first reaching the hanging lift platform, he sprinted to the operator’s chair and was met with disappointment. The lift had still refused to move. Even with power, the lift was designed to carry at least a dozen gnomes. Careful weight sensors installed into the vast machinery on the levels above locked the lift into position. The theory being that unless a dozen gnomes were bored, there was no sense in wasting the power necessary to lift the vast weight of the platform itself.
Snorri had spent the next fifteen minutes locating several large barrels of some powdered crstaline substance and heaving them up onto the platform. As he had heaved the last of the heavy wooden barrel onto the platform, he had wiped the sweat from his brow and pulled himself finally back up into the operator's chair.
Finnally, Snorri reached out and clasped the platform activation lever, holding his breath. somewhere high above him in the upper mountain, gigantic gears and cogs whirl into heavy but precise movements. A dull mechanical rumbling echoed down the tunnel, and Snorri’s platform finally began to rise. He knew the ride to the residental district would only take ten minutes or so, but he did his best to maintain his guard as he ascended through the tunnel. scanning the shaft-carved walls as well as keeping an eye on the console's control panel for any warning lights that could flicker into life at any time.
******************
Jarblack hissed in frustration as once again his horde of riders came to a halt as they fanned and threw another ornately carved archway ahead of him. Once again, he pushed his way through his riders and into the chamber beyond. He was astounded. The chamber he now entered seemed to be lit by massive glowing crystals, but as he turned his eyes to take in the chamber occupants, he began to understand why his horde had come to a halt. The goblin warriors of Arrablac, the ventor, threw out the chamber. as if cuaght mid-battle by a streak of lightning. He quickly crossed the chamber. The vast spider mount easily chitters over the corpses of his brothers unit. Jackblac brought his spider to a halt and slid down from his saddle on the creature's midsection.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He looked down at his brother's headless corpse. poking with his spear absentmindedly while he flicked his eys around looking for its head. After a while, he reached down among a group of crumbling, heavily armoured corpses and pulled his brother's head from when it had come to est. He stared at the head, waiting exspectantly. After a few seconds, the eyes flickered open. “BROTHER!” the head screamed at him. “KILL THE SNORRI. That way, that way," the eyes of the head wildly gesturing to one of the chambers exits before falling limply closed. Jarblack climbed back up onto his mount, stowing away his decapitated brothers heads in one of his saddle bags. He waved his spear towards the tunnel that his head had gestured towards.
"Well, boys!" he yelled to the horde of his riders who had been shuffling into the chamber as he had been searching for his brother's corpse. "I don't know what this snorri is, but you heard the head. FIND THE SNORRI AND STICK IT TO DEATH.”
**************************
Snorri listened as the platform continued climbing its way through the lift shaft. By his estimation, he had been moving for maybe six or seven minutes of the ten-minute journey to the residential level; it wouldn't take much longer now. Listening to the dull grinding of the lift machinery as the platform climbed. He began to hear a sound echoing up from down below him. The sounds of screaming goblin voices mixed with another sound that Snorri thought sounded familiar but could quite identify.
“Snorri,” came Arcop’s voice in his head. “They are coming,” the spider warned him. Snorri got up from the operator's chair, leaning over the platform guard rail, to peer down into the darkness of the sharft below. As the platform rose, he was able to catch the glinting of goblin weapons and the vast, dark carapaces of hundreds of spiders racing up the tunnel walls towards him. He had maybe a minute or two before they would be upon him. How had they been so stupid as to presume they would be able to pursue him vertically? Snorri swung his back pack from his shoulder. He finally pulled out a few of the gadgets he had crafted up earlier.
With a slight panic, Snorri ran to the corner of the platform and hastily pulled himself up the heavy chain. Climing to the point where the platforms heavy chains met, Snorri rammed the metal cylinder into the first line of the large central lift chain that was pulling the platform upwards. After making sure the object was fully lodged in the vast chain's final link, he gripped the final gadget, a metallic disk with a bright red gem in the center between his teeth, and began to climb as fast as he could up the chain as it pulled the platform upwards. Snorri knew he didn't have long before the spider reached the platform.
Snorri chanced looking upwards and was sure he could see the lights of the residential ditrict lift station, maybe two hundred metres above. The chittering sounds grew louder. The chain Snorri was climbing shook violently as the first of the spider-riding goblins managed to jump from the shaft wall and land on the platform. Snorri hung from the chain, maybe fifty metres above the platform. He grabbed the disc from his mouth and pressed the red gem hard with his thumb. The gem pulsed with a red light three times. After the third light had blinked away, Snorri dropped the disc, letting it fall towards the goblins on the platform below. He shielded his eyes.
The gadget Snorri had lodged in the chain earlier and was expelled with a bright blue light and a wave of force. There was a violent grinding of metal as the weight of the platform pulled at the now-deformed link of the chain. With a loud, sudden snap, the chain link gave way. The platform plunged into the darkness below with a grinding, shrieking sound. After a few seconds, there was a boom as the platform smashed into the floor at the lowest point of the shaft. A wave of heat and a flame rushed up through the shafts towards Snorri as he swung from the chain. A single goblin scream echoed up, throwing the shaft towards Snorri as he finally reached the residential district’s station. A familiar chime echoed through his mind.
LEVEL UP! Strength Level Five: Achieved!
NEW SKILL: Stone Piercing Shot
YOU ARE NOW LEVEL NINE.