Of course his blood trail leads me to the sewers, a thousand blights on my divine forsaken luck, I could always abandon him here. Just then a scream pierces the world, it carries the sound of a soul breaking. It reminds me of when the priests told parents that their children died, an echoing heartbreak with the knowledge that nothing will be the same.

I turn another corner in the sewer, I swear I'll kill Asher. How dare he get himself captured. And how dare he defile my ears with his screams, of course I can't walk away after hearing that. All at once I see it, a hole surrounded by webs. I stay out of the way and prepare. I check that all my knives are present, insecticide handy, and that my lanterns shutters are shut. I sit in the darkness and start a "working". I fuel my feeling of safety in darkness into my mental image of Chrosi deity of the void. I blink rapidly adjusting to my new night vision and set forth.

A walk of thirty feet almost took the same amount of minutes as I gingerly place my feet around webs. I may not know much but spider webs tend to be sticky and let the spider know my location. I enter a vast clearing and I see my target Asher wrapped like a newborn in spider silk. He hasn't noticed me yet, Instead he seems to be looking at another bundle. I focus and see a desiccated corpse of a man with fist size spider's crawling across his body and into his sunken eye sockets and slack mouth. I peer around the chamber and see three other bundles, two small kids and a young lady. Thankfully no signs of the spider are apparent and I rush to Asher. Hopefully his size reduces the effect of the venom otherwise I'm going to have a pit of a time moving four people.

----------------------------------------

I am going to die, eaten alive, sucked dry Just like that poor man. Again I struggle at my bonds but I only manage to tear one string. More importantly the bulbous protrusions pulse on my silken grave when I move. I fear if I move too much they will hatch and I'll die, eaten alive, sucked dry just like that poor man. How many times has my mind been stuck in this loop being unable to think of anything else. Suddenly movement that's not from me, I flex my arm and breath deeply, another scream will do. My mouth is clamped shut, covered. I can feel the fleshy digits blocking my mouth and nose. It's only time until it bites and my death comes. Wait? Fleshy? I snap my face to the side and see my savior of my bound and doomed self. I look at my savior, no, goddess and I see the tell-tale signs of magic. The pattern is focused on the face with cat eyes overlaid over her regular eyes and an empty circle on her forehead. The color is peculiar, It is what I can best describe as 'Radiant Black' like if pitch black could glow. The empty circle seems to draw me there. Is something there? The more I look the more I can make out. And the more I make out the more my head throbs, but I can't help myself I must know. I am roughly slapped by my savior.

I pull my eyes away and realize how intense my headache is even through the numbing venom of the spider. There is something there that hurts to see so I will not, instead I take in the lady as a whole and realize, I know her it's the bar girl 'Freja' or something like that. I watch as she takes out a powder and dust's it across the egg-sacs and I feel the vibration of life extinguish, then she produces a knife from nowhere and starts slowly cutting me free. I feel the elation of freedom. I drop slightly to the ground and stand up feeling some extra responsiveness in my body. It jitters both from the adrenaline coursing through it and the paralytic venom. My body seems to come to a homeostasis between the two opposing chemicals allowing me my movement while keeping my injuries suppressed. I follow the "Bar girl" as she approaches the child I saw earlier. I keep an eye out on the two sleeping spiders curled on the far side of the wall while she repeats her ritual of freedom on that poor child.

I pick up the poor paralyzed child and start gingerly walking to the exit when I turn and see "bar girl" is still walking in the parlor towards the spiders. What is she doing? I try to shout "no" but it comes out like a harsh whisper due to my damaged vocal cords. I set down the child near the entrance and quickly dash to the "bar girl" and grab her arm. We are ten feet away from the pair of spiders now. She looks at me confused and points at the small spider. I shake my head and say "no". This seems to infuriate her as she looks at me like I am dog shit at the bottom of her new shoes. She yanks out her hand from my grasp, says something in her sharp language and spits at my feet. Why? What's wrong with me wanting to get out of here surely she doesn't plan on slaying those spiders herself? I see as she gets within lunging distance and takes out a pouch and ready's the knife same as when she freed me. Then my fear-addled mind puts the pieces in the correct holes she thinks those are people like I did. My adrenal gland pumps itself dry as time seems to flow and my pain bleeds back. I run forward as she spreads the powder on the two spiders who respond in kind with a chorus of rasping screams.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Even with my Adrinalan sustained body taking me twice the distance I am still too late as the small spider's "face" splits and bites down on the girl. I look her in the eyes as she loses bodily control and drops her items. I dive at the dagger and pouch on the floor, grab them and roll in one smooth action. My body responded perfectly to every switch of elevation, every small intention and every last second adjustment.

When I popped up I was under the smaller spider who's fangs were still embedded in my savior. I stab, focusing on where the joints meet the body. I hit one just right as the hemolymph gushes out. Followed by a strong hit on my left side.

I roll to my feet and see one of the spider's legs is permanently curled in. I stare at the spider's two large front eyes seeing the same hate I spotted in that damnable bunny. Spurned by rage I rush at the singular spider then I feel an instinct to jump to the side and follow through.

My previous location is taken up by the larger spider who snuck around me. It again lunges at me with the same lightning quickness that only bugs can produce, still I manage to dodge. This pattern is repeated twice with my nemesis missing me by fractions. It rears up its two front legs and pounces on me, seeing no other escape I dive under the spider and smash the bag of powder along its underside with the bag getting caught on a small slit.

I leap up from my roll and try to get a full look at my surroundings. I see the smaller spider stumbling toward me no longer bleeding from its legs. I can't count on bleeding it out if it can staunch its own flow, but still it is slower. The large spider is rolling around trying to get the irritant out of its body.

Behind the injured spider is my paralyzed savior staring at me with her moving but conscience eyes. I rush at the spider and it flinches and acts. I am forced to take a diving leap over the spider as its magical marking glow and a large volume of webs shoot out of its abdomen.

I pick up the "bar girl" under my arm and start running to the cave entrance and consequently the kid dodging one more net of sticky silk.

Finally reaching the kid, I bent down to pick him up when my body sends two strong pain signals. One if from my re-broken left arm, injured from that hit or my rolling around and a burn on my right calf. I look down and see something on "bar girls" belt a lantern!

My solution to my own one-armedness is to carry both of the paralyzed prisoners under the crook of my right arm like luggage and make it to the exit of the cave. I look back and see the smaller spider still approaching me slowly stumbling every few steps. The larger spider, however, is righting itself.

I drop both of my rescuers roughly to the floor and take out a lanterns, smash the glass with the hilt of my dagger and throw it in.

The web, and by extension the entire cave catches to an explosive degree I am blown back almost into the sewage water. But I managed to right myself avoiding a fecal faceplant. '

I stare at my handy work. The webs burned bright and quick, spiders slower. They lay there curled up into themselves releasing sporadic popping noises as they are boiled by their own exoskeleton.

With the fight over I feel all my accumulated injuries and pains hit me all at once, followed by a numbness as the venom reasserts itself. Before I lose all bodily functions I place the kid and Sonja on the wall and sit next to them. Calming down I face Sonja and lose all muscle control.

Just before I lose all consciousness I see a boot thump in front of me.