Cal was not good at combat. He found the adrenaline exhausting, the events confusing, and the entire affair vexing. If nothing else, combat required a great deal of sweating. Already, much to his embarrassment, Cal perspired more than your typical elf.
When the giant flaming spiders tumbled out of the ceiling tiles, Cal froze.
It was Gwen that reminded him of his new ability to use his staff. “Cal, don’t just stand there, use your staff to clear a path, so I don’t have to fight!”
She was tossing spoons into the mouths of spiders, who had to pause to spit them out before continuing their attack. It was surprisingly effective.
Perkle had pulled a tack hammer off his belt, which then telescoped into two other bigger hammers. With a complicated series of maneuvers, he was able to bring the biggest hammer down onto a spider and he splatted it across the floor.
But a second later, his gadget belt was ripped from him, webs from the ceiling stole his hammer away, and Perkle was yanked up into the ceiling.
Helga let out a scream, her Intimidating Roar, which scared the spiders, forcing some to roll into a ball while others scrambled away. Riding high on Hurricane, she sped down into the cubicle farm. She was heading toward her desk, where her weapons would be. But would she get to them before the worm thing ate her? Hidden in webs and darkness, the gargantuan creature roared and went crashing through more cubicle walls, sending desks flying. It was going for Helga.
“Kronke! Help me save Perkle!” Gwen tossed a spoon into the face of another giant, flaming spider.
One opened its mouth to breathe fire, but Gwen managed to dodge it. She pivoted and tossed her rope and managed to grab Perkle’s feet, which were peeking out of the ceiling even as giant spiders up there were wrapping him in webs.
And burning him in the process.
Cal wanted to save the little guy, but to do so, he’d be risking the lives of his team. They had to retreat. And fast. Helga roared again, keeping a dozen spiders at bay, while Kronke turned from fighting the worm monster to slicing through spiders with his scythe, trying to get to Gwen.
Using his staff’s Minor Shielding, Cal created a ruby red shield six feet high and two feet wide. He sent it careening through spiders down the corridor, giving them a way out.
“Team Six! We are leaving!”
Cal didn’t pause, he ran after his shield wall, kinda impressed with himself. He could run and shield at the same time.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
He heard Perkle’s squeal, and he turned.
Helga, on Hurricane, came charging out of webs and the ruins of cubicle farm. She was bashing away spiders with her two-handed crowbar. Her musket and her bandolier of ammo hung from her shoulder. She was still in her dress, so that meant she’d managed to grab her weapons but not her armor. Not even her Spirit Llama sweater. That was a problem. Kronke didn’t have armor either.
Meanwhile, Gwen and the troll had a hold of her magic rope and were trying to pull Perkle out of the ceiling.
Until the gnome couldn’t take it anymore. “Lemme go! You’ll pull my legs off. Run for the breakroom! You still might have a chance!”
That huge worm thing in the cubicle farm tossed aside desks, crushed chairs, and toppled filing cabinets—Cal’s personal filing cabinets! Reorganizing all those files was going to take forever. Oh, the humanity!
Helga hooked her crowbar around Kronke’s arm and pulled him way. “That’s enough, boyo. The spiders might not eat him right away. We might have time to save him with both legs rather than save him with one.”
The paladin roared. “But Perkle is Kronke’s friend!”
Gwen had full control over her magic rope. She released Perkle and then shoved the troll. “Friends don’t pull the legs off their friends. Come on! Cal did something useful for once!”
They all ended up sprinting down the hallway, with Cal’s shield wall pushing through spiders or smearing them across the wall. Once dead, they were no longer on fire. They did stink, though. Like outhouses on fire.
Kronke had put his Pink Reaper away. “Kronke not cut off Perkle’s leg, Pinkerton. You so bad, Pinkerton. Yes, I know spiders taste good. But don’t taste better than cookie!”
Gwen hissed while she ran. “Great, Kronke is talking out loud to his pet scythe that suddenly has a name now. That’s probably fine, right? I mean, it’s only an evil weapon crafted to eat souls. Shouldn’t be a problem I wouldn’t think.”
“Not souls.” Cal protested. “It turns all Apothos into Morta for the user. Or, in this case, Aer for Kronke.”
Abruptly, Cal’s shield wall faded, giving the surviving spiders the opportunity to burn them, bite them, and kill them.
Cal and his team were about ten feet from the breakroom.
One spider ran forward and threw himself off the ground. He went flying past them and hit the wall next to the door. Another jumping spider did the same thing.
The wallpaper started to smoke. The webs were fine. In fact, the walls were probably not bursting into fire because of the webs. They acted as some kind of fire retardant. Cal had no idea how that could work, but he hoped to live long enough to cast his Triple A spell and find out.
“Flying spiders?” Gwen shrieked. “That is not fair!”
The troll paladin retrieved his scythe. “Flying, flaming spiders, Gwen. They have Aer Apothos. Kronke know. Pinkerton tell Kronke they are yummy.”
Kronke smacked two spiders out of the way, clearing the path. Gwen sped into the breakroom, then Helga and Hurricane. Cal was about to dash inside when a web caught him.
He panicked as he felt the burning. The web was on fire!
Kronke, though, severed the silk with a swing of his scythe and then tossed Cal inside.
A second later, the troll was inside the breakroom. They slammed the door. But the wood started burning, the walls smoking, and the entire place seemed seconds away from turning into a deadly inferno.
They’d lost Perkle. Could the Gadget Gnome survive? It wasn’t likely.
Cal’s grief was shelved for the moment because the room in front of him exploded into chaos. And there’s no chaos quite like breakroom chaos.