The Dreamweaver's expedition crept through the rainswept woods, fanning out into a few long ranks that stretched far to either side. Scouts took to the trees overhead, directing spotters below with hand signs to maintain formation as they approached their target. On the ground, adventurers ducked around and under webs, moving as swiftly as they could without announcing their presence beyond the thunderous rain.
At the center of the long ranks was Lieutenant Ash Druga. The punctures in her chest plate had been crudely repaired by a matter manipulating ability, the jagged welded seams still visible. She was flanked by many of the expedition's strongest melee fighters, forming a wall of armor, blades and mauls. To the far right was Lieutenant Kerrick, and to the far left was Sergeant Cameron Cole; both led a mixture of scouts and ranged fighters, which included archers, mages, and a few less conventional adventurers. The Dreamweaver followed behind the formation, near the center but several yards removed from the front lines, where she maintained awareness of the field and mental contact with her subordinates.
Titus and Autumn followed behind Ash Druga, in the third and rearmost rank of the formation, a half dozen bodies off center. The front most line was reserved for the strongest, highest level fighters, decreasing in level to the rear and the sides. Eli, Victoria and Iris and joined Cameron Cole, near the far northwestern edge of the formation. Cameron had requested Eli by his side, while Victoria traveled above in mist-form. Iris blipped along amongst the ranks, unsure of exactly where she should be.
The floating marker which indicated the Matriarch grew larger as they approached, still twitching and skittering with activity. Mental messages from the Dreamweaver sent to her lieutenants announced it was time for phase two of the formation.
"We're near the edge of the web," her voice spoke in their minds, "the Matriarch has nowhere to go, and we're still undetected. Begin flanking maneuver."
At the signals from their respective lieutenants, Ash Druga's fighters slowed their pace, while Cameron and Kerrick's groups quickened theirs. The straight line of ranks curved into a C-Shape, surrounding the Matriarch from three sides as they moved ever closer.
The woods were beginning to thin, and rare glimpses of the stormy sky above grew larger and more common. Through one of these cracks in the canopy, Iris saw a large cliff face, jutting up high above the tree tops and disappearing into the grey haze of rain. It was off to their left, just beyond their formation. A few steps later, her view was obscured by branches and webs.
An arrow thunked into a tree trunk just up ahead, and all nearby eyes snapped towards it. The corpse of a spider was pinned by the arrow, spilling purple blood down the trunk. All around Iris, adventurers gripped their weapons tighter and tensed their postures for battle, but they didn't break ranks. A few yards and moments later an adventurer was tackled to the ground by a spider lunging from the shadows, but was quickly rescued by a brawler who swiftly grabbed hold of the spider's head before it could bite, ripping it backwards and tearing it roughly from the abdomen. The now purple-blood soaked adventurer was helped to his feet, and the formation continued on.
Elsewhere, there was an explosion, somewhere near the center of the formation, Iris guessed. A few arrows found targets in the webs nearby, and the red-glow of Eli's staff illuminated the woods to her right. One-by-one she saw black blurs emerging from within webs and behind trees, until almost all at once they became a horde. Ash Druga's battle cry overpowered the torrential rains and echoed through the woods as Eli's staff released a blast that splattered several spiders and Cameron tossed small lobs of clay which exploded into directional shrapnel that shredded spiders in their wake.
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Arrows flew overhead, bolts of blue, green and red magic flashed and exploded against spiders and trunks while beams cut arcs through the canopy. Iris ducked and blipped behind the rear lines where she could get her bearings without dodging friendly fire. She drew her sword from her bottomless bag and leveled it in front of her, eyes darting around for targets. A large male spider emerged from the trees, spearing an unfortunate scout through the chest with its leg. Iris felt the now familiar sensation of Victoria's cards giving her confidence and strength, and blipped.
Iris appeared beside Eli and shouted, "hit the big one!" then blipped again.
With a blast already charged, Eli swung his staff around to release a powerful bolt that slapped into the male spider where a leg met its abdomen. The blast ripped through, severing the leg to slap wetly onto the ground below. The spider stumbled, arrows pierced its eyes, and a green beam of magic sliced through two more legs. Iris appeared above it, kicking off a trunk and blipping again. She appeared again just above its head, sword held tip-down as she plummeted. The blade pierced through the creature's head, the tip glimmering out from the underside.
She held the hilt tight, clutching the creature's head with her legs as if riding a mount. It fell quickly and gracelessly. The thump rocked Iris forward, driving the pommel of her sword into her stomach as the blade was pushed up by the tough roots beneath the spider. She fruitlessly gasped as she tumbled forward, over the sword and onto the ground. She rose to her feet with grunts and a groan, staring down the lifeless jaws of the dead spider. She smirked at the experience points she knew she had gained, then blipped back atop its head, yanked her sword the rest of the way free, and searched for her next target.
Across the battlefield, Ash Druga twirled her hammer overhead and brought it down against the leg of a large male spider. The hammer cracked through the thick plating and crippled the leg, but she didn't stop. She continued with her momentum, spinning and slamming the hammer into the next leg as it stepped closer to balance. The spider stumbled, leaned and fell. It only touched the ground for an instant before Ash Druga's hammer found its head, crushing it into paste.
Behind her, three fighters took out the legs of another male. As it collapsed, Galt leapt through the air and brought down an overhead hammer strike. It exploded on contact, popping the spider's abdomen and showering everything around it in spider guts. Ash Druga turned in time for guts to splatter across her face, she released a quick, hysterical laugh, then held her hammer high and screamed a deep rallying cry.
Nearby, Titus intermixed spears of light between healing bolts. As his spear pierced through spiders and left them popping in its wake, his bolts found injured fighters and healed their wounds even as they battled. Autumn was just ahead of him, fully armored in molded bark with spear-pointed axe heads encasing either hand, molded from rocks she had been collecting since the last battle -- including a hefty donation from Iris's bottomless bag. Only her eyes were visible through a narrow slit in the helmet as she chopped and skewered spiders that came near Titus.
At the southeastern edge of the formation, Lieutenant Kerrick's forces had the highest concentration of archers, sword-and-board fighters, and dagger wielding rogues. There were few bursts of magic as spider fangs bounced off shields and blades sliced through legs. Arrows rained constantly, and rogues darted between targets sinking knives into heads and slicing open abdomens. Kerrick blended with the environment, invisible to the battlefield, throwing well placed knives from bushes and shadows to take down any spider that was about to get a lucky bite.
A male spider erupted from the shadows and scattered a row of archers. It was met with a flurry of arrows from other archers, peppering its body like needles. Kerrick dashed from his hiding place and ran up the side of a trunk as if it were ground. He kicked off, spinning in the air and releasing a hailstorm of knives as he flew over the spider's abdomen. The knives suddenly flashed red and shot downwards at triple the speed, piercing straight through the spider's abdomen and embedding into the roots below. The spider staggered as guts dripped and poured from its underside, then it collapsed. Kerrick landed deftly on a branch, taking only an instant to observe his work before refocusing on living threats.
From the northeast, a dreadful roar echoed through the woods.