As I stepped out of the blackness, I found myself on top of a wall. The fogwall closed in at the very edge of the wall on either side. The wall itself was scarred. A massive boulder had wedged its way into the stonework and cracked it right down the center. Ancient ladders still leaned against the walls; and old, rusted hooks still embedded themselves in the stone parapets. There had been a battle here. I could tell that by the discarded arrows still strewn about, and the slight discoloration of the otherwise white, marble-like stone, yet there were no bodies I could find; save for a stray bone or two, bleached, and chewed.
Piles of stone sat near the ladders; some larger than the others, and barrels full of arrows
I looked over the walls where the ladders had been set up. It overlooked a hilly plain that stretched down as far as I could see. The skeletons of trebuchets and other siege weapons still sat on top of some of these hills, and the faint outlines of hastily made camps sat on top of others. The ground near the wall was pocked and scarred, and stuck on the blades of the longer grass, there was a strange substance that looked like unspun wool fluttering lazily like an unfurled flag.
I glanced to my right, and to my left while leaning my head off the side of the wall. It stretched on for as far as I could see. The walls were massive. Dozens of miles in length, at the very least. How did such a city fall? From primitive siege tactics like this? I shoved one of the ladders off the wall with my foot. It fell through the fogwall and broke apart as it collided with the ground.
I glanced over to the other side of the wall. The city that I had just been in lay tens of feet beneath the wall. The roofs nearest to the wall were caved in with massive boulders, or halfway burned down.
About 50 feet in front of me along the wall, a tower jutted out to overlook the battlefield. A light flickered inside one of the arrow slits as if a flame danced on the other side.
“What’s the goal here?”
Kill the enemy 0/1
Destroy the altar 0/1
Only one enemy? Easy.
I approached the door and peeked inside of the arrowslit and peeked in. There was no fire now. Just a dark, dank room. Was I just imagining it before? I pulled my head away and reached and pushed in the door. The towers were quiet. Beyond the arrowslit across the room, the fogwall undulated. I looked around. Along the walls, weapon racks sat half empty. Rusted swords and spears sat in the spaces that were occupied, along with a couple of unstrung bows. Where was the enemy? On the top floor? At least the bright light bleeding in through the small windows would be enough to guide me up.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
As I turned toward the spiraling staircase, I stopped. Hanging from the ramparts above, among a thick curtain of gossamer were dozens of shrunken cocoons like those that you would find hanging on old spider webs. They spun around with the current of air I had brought in by opening the door. I gripped the spear in a shaking grasp, and slowly moved up the stairs. A voice, chanting some sort of prayer in a chittering tongue, rose from the top floor of the tower.
“Lakir, akor, mik Roki.” The chittering voice chanted over and over again, in a low, reverent tone; hissing every syllable.
Step by step, I climbed up the tower toward the second floor. My footsteps echoed off the stone walls, no matter how much I tried to soften them, so whatever was up there, knew I was there, yet still, the chanting continued until I was about three-quarters of the way up. My legs burned, and my heart thumped. I held the spear out in front of me.; The wooden shaft shook in my grasp, as I struggled to catch my breath, and regretting that I wasted the wish I had made on something as stupid as new teeth.
The darkness stirred above, as a pair of orange-red lights peered down at me. Another pair joined them. And then another, and another. Forming an almost triangle of lights peering down from the floor above. They flickered and moved like flame...no, not lights. Not flames. Eyes. Something hard slammed against my gut, and my legs left the ground. In the blink of an eye; those eyes were mere inches from my face, as the pointed, chitinous leg of a horse-sized spider pressed against my stomach; pushing through the protective barrier of my Repel. The light bleeding in through the arrowslits glimmered off the creature’s exoskeleton; a dark blue, bordering on black was reflected back.
I pushed back against its weight, and with a guttural roar, stabbed the spear forward. Green fluid poured over me as the spear point found purchase into one of its bulbous, orange eyes. Blood? I didn’t know. It lessened the weight on my chest; the protective ward now shattering away from my body like struck glass, so I grabbed hold of the spear shaft with both hands and pushed with another guttural cry. Inch by inch, the creature retreats off of me, and, with a final hard shove, it stumbles backward a step, and I manage to push myself to my feet.
My lungs were on fire, and my heart thumped as if I were on the verge of a heart attack I reached through my pocket and grasped my wand. I pull it out, and point it forward, as my arachnid foe struggled to shake the spear lodged in its head.
“Gnomes, servants of Gob the Magnanimous, I beseech thee to bombard my enemies.”
The upside-down triangle glowed a bright yellow, and a look brick a step up dislodged itself completely and flew toward the spider; slamming into its face. It retreated again.
“Gnomes, servants of Gob the Magnanimous, I beseech thee to bombard my enemies.”
The same brick flew forward and slammed into the creature’s face. It retreated another step, and I pursued. It had managed to make it all the way up to the second floor by the time it finally shook its head enough to knock the spear out of its eye. It turned and tried to escape by climbing the wall and taking refuge among the gossamer canopy strewn about the rafters above.
“Oh no you don’t.”
Summoning the last bit of strength still in my body, I lunged forward just in time to be able to grab hold of one of its hind legs. It struggled against me, but it was surprisingly light. I planted my feet against the wall and shifted all of my weight downward, and with another roar, pulled it off the wall, and slammed it on its back to the floor.
Its legs kicked up. One connected with my stomach, and lifted me off my feet with the force. Something cracked in my body, as all the air was nearly driven from my lungs. It kicked up again. A searing pain spread through my face as its long, pointed leg cut through the flesh, fat, and muscle of my right cheek, slammed against my gritted teeth and didn’t move an inch further.
I hiss loudly and stomp as hard as I can on the creature’s thorax, and grab hold of both of its hind legs before stomping down again. And again. With all of my weight, I stomp. Its smaller legs cut crimson ribbons through my legs as they tear through the denim of my jeans. I stomped down again. Chitin cracks, and the thorax caves, and I stomp down once more. Until its body is nothing but mush beneath my feet.