Lucius had led the convoy on a twisting, maze-like journey through the city, something he could never have pulled off without his Sense Danger talent helping him find a safe route. He had done this to deter any attempts at tracking by the powerful hobgoblin leader. After all, Lucius had led a group of monsters to ambush its village, stolen all its prisoners, and made off with half a dozen of its best mounts. Oh yeah, he had also killed two of the village’s guards, but he felt like the hobgoblin leader would be angrier about the disrespect than the murder for some reason; it was just a hunch. Anyway, the terrifying summoner had every reason to hunt Lucius down and kill him painfully, so he was incredibly motivated to prevent that outcome. When he couldn’t think of any other ways to cover up their tracks, Lucius reluctantly began leading the group back to the area where Jack, Patrick, and Mary were waiting.
About halfway through the journey back, the convoy crossed over a small bridge. There was a river running underneath, and that gave Lucius one more idea. Halting the convoy, he led everyone down to the bank of the river, then one by one they drove the spiders into the shallow water. The spiders didn’t like it, but Lucius didn’t care—a little water wouldn’t kill them, hopefully. The humans all had to dismount to get the spiders to walk into the water, so they held the reins and walked alongside the spiders. Once everyone was in the water, Lucius led them along the bank of the river for almost a quarter of a mile before finally allowing them to get back onto the shore.
“What was that for?” James asked. He had been confused about the entire maneuver but waited until the end to ask questions.
“To hide our footprints and scent. If they can still track us after that, they deserve to catch us,” Lucius responded, finally feeling some confidence that the nightmarish hobgoblin wouldn’t be able to find them.
The group made their way toward James’ parents and Jack's location. The boy was visibly excited to be reunited with his family. Still, the rest of the journey wasn’t without issues. Lucius did his best to avoid danger, but the city was crawling with monsters, so sometimes it just wasn’t possible. Only a few miles from their destination, they ran into a group of oversized mutant rats. The creatures looked hideous and were the size of wolves. Apparently they were one of the creatures that the spiders considered prey, because as soon as the rats came into view, the spiders went into a frenzy rapidly attacking the rats. James tried to pull back on his reins and stop his mount but it was useless, so he just held on for dear life. Luckily the rats were no match for the spiders and the group decided just to wait for them to finish eating, then continued on their journey.
A half-hour later they finally reached their destination, Lucius had returned James to the exact location from which he had been stolen. Even before the group reached the building where their companions were waiting, the three had seen them coming and came outside to meet them. Mary and Patrick ran up to James with tears in their eyes, and soon a heartwarming family reunion was underway.
“Are you OK? Did they hurt you?” Mary looked the boy over from head to toe as she questioned him, as Patrick kept wiping his tear filled eyes and thanking Lucius.
“I brought it back in one piece,” Lucius said as he turned to face Jack, handing the magic shield back to him.
“I never doubted you, but could you explain who all these people are and why they’re riding giant spiders?” Jack asked with an amused expression on his face.
“Oh, yeah…” Lucius and James introduced everyone and explained the situation at the goblin village, as well as how everyone had been rescued.
"Those monsters all deserve to die." Mary said angrily as she looked at the miserable condition of the newly freed humans.
“We’d better not stay here for long. The goblins might think to look for us in the place they first took James,” said Patrick.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“We should find a place to settle down for a while; a lot of these people are in no condition to travel,” Lucius explained. “Somewhere big enough to fit the spiders too.”
The companions discussed their next move and decided to head toward the agricultural area at the edge of town. They could cover the distance relatively quickly. The area also contained large fenced-in areas and barns for animals, making it easy to defend and spacious enough to fit the spiders. Not to mention, there would be plenty of food if any of the crops still existed. Since everyone was in agreement, they waited for Jack, Mary, and Patrick to pack up their campsite before setting off toward the farm.
“He scared you that bad, huh?” Jack was listening to Lucius’s retelling of his encounter with the hobgoblin leader and could tell from the way he was speaking that the encounter had spooked him.
“You didn’t see the creature he summoned, it was right out of a nightmare. I’d rather fight two Abyss Queens at the same time,” said Lucius. “Anyway, let’s just hope we don’t run into him again.”
The group made their way out of the city to an area that contained sparse buildings, forests, and fields lined with various agricultural products like corn and wheat. They searched for a farmhouse and barn that was large enough to fit all the humans and stable the spiders. The group approached a large farmstead that looked promising. Lucius and Jack got busy searching through the house for any Abyss creatures. Once they were certain it was safe they brought the exhausted humans inside to rest and get any of their injuries treated by Mary. Meanwhile Lucius and Jack headed outside to check the barn.
Lucius pushed the large sliding barn door open and glanced into the darkness inside, he couldn’t see much of anything. Jack reached in and pushed up a row of switches on the wall, but nothing happened, the electricity had finally stopped flowing it seemed. The boys looked around outside until they found a can of oil, some rags, and a thick enough stick to use as a torch handle. Lucius lit the torch and made his way back to the barn door with Jack, casting the flickering light from the flame into the dark barn. Resting in the center of the building, wrapped around a stack of hay bales, lay a massive purple snake. It was at least 50 feet long, with a head the size of two large watermelons pressed together. Lucius instinctively activated his aspect the moment he saw the creature, and Jack raised his shield as he began to slowly back up. The light from the flame had woken up the beast, and it wasn’t very happy about being disturbed either.
“I’ll draw its attention; you kill it,” Jack said as he began knocking his hammer against his shield to attract the creature. The snake slithered slowly toward Jack, sizing him up and deciding if it wanted to attack. Apparently the answer was yes, because it started to arch its back and prepared to lunge. “Get ready!” Jack shouted.
The snake finished preparing and launched itself at Jack, who slapped his spiked shield into the side of the creature’s head before activating Mind Blast. The moment the snake was stunned, Jack leaned back and pulled his sledgehammer up in an overhand swing, smashing down on the snake’s head.
You have defeated Serpent Normalis, Level 5.
“Oh... Guess I don’t know my own strength!” Jack let out a relieved chuckle, and Lucius just shook his head.
“Looks like we’ll have plenty of food for the spiders. Let’s bring them in,” said Lucius before he and Jack led the group of spiders into the barn, locking the door behind them.
----------------------------------------
Back in the city, the hobgoblin leader was leading a large war party. Dozens of goblins and hobgoblins walked along the city streets, all following behind a pair of goblins that each held the leash of a wolf-like creature. If Lucius could see them, he would know that they were walking along the exact route he and the other humans had used to escape. The goblins had somehow found the strip of shirt that Lucius had ripped off and used to lure the turtle creatures into attacking the goblin village. How on earth they found the small strip of cloth and knew it was his was a mystery, but the goblins were obviously every bit as capable as Lucius had feared they were. The wolves led the goblins on a roundabout route through the city, going in a large circle and ending up right back where they had started. This wasn’t enough to deter them however, and the creatures soon discovered the real scent trail leading away from the circular route. They followed the path straight to the bank of a river, but after that no matter what they tried they couldn’t pick up the scent again. The two goblins responsible for tracking Lucius began cowering on the ground in front of the hobgoblin leader when they realized that they had failed. The leader slowly removed his stone knife from its sheath, as the goblins began begging and screaming the moment they saw the blade.