I needed Ann’s input on the magic weapons so we just used earth magic to bar the door so she could look around as well. The door had a lock but needed a key which we didn’t have. She explained that generally the larger the magic crystal and the rarer the material the wand or staff was made out of, the better it was.

I didn’t have an identify skill or knew any magic spells that would let me identify things so had to rely on her knowledge. We looked at several before she found one that she thought would work the best with what spells I knew. The type of crystal and material also influenced how it would affect spells evidently.

It was similar in length to my spear but instead of a spear tip, it had an orange-colored magic crystal held in place by an intricate metal arrangement. The metal was silver in color while the shaft was a grey. She picked out one for herself as well although her crystal was red.

Lin had found some magic arrows which supposedly had different effects while Nix scored a magic bow. They looked jealously at each other’s finds but soon continued hunting for more treasures. Lux had found a large magic sword while Torg was inspecting an enchanted shield.

After looking around for a while we ended up throwing anything that looked interesting in our bags. We could decide what to keep and who got what later. We were burning daylight and there were plenty more shops to explore. As we were just finishing up, a loud thump came from the front door.

We all stopped and looked at each other. Nix quietly made her way to the nearest window to look out as a second thump sounded and shook the door. It seemed like we had been too noisy in our excitement over the magical weapons. She looked out and grimaced at what she saw, while motioning us to use the back door.

The thumping picked up in pace and volume as we all retreated to the storage room in the back of the store which had a second door that exited to the alley beside the building. “What is it?” Ann whispered. “A giant bear, I would rather not fight it if we don’t have to.” She whispered back. Fighting a bear inside the store would be a problem.

Lin slowly opened the door and peeked out. “It looks clear.” She whispered as she ducked out. We all followed her and quickly shut the door as the sound of the front door could be heard splintering into pieces. We followed the alley down a few blocks to put distance between us and the bear. We ducked into a nearby store and stayed quiet, listening for any sign of pursuit.

After waiting nearly 30 minutes and not hearing anything we figured the coast was clear. The store we hid in was empty of threats but full of decorative items that the rich might like. There were fancy mirrors, lamps, some paintings, and other things I wasn’t really interested in. We didn’t stay very long before leaving the store for greener pastures.

We made sure to be quieter this time, having to remind ourselves that we were in hostile territory. The streets may look wide open and safe but danger could be lurking around any corner. Speaking of which, the next street we turned down was full of webbing. I cursed under my breath, trying not to be too loud.

The webbing was like what we had seen previously. It covered the entire width of the street and the surrounding buildings. I nervously searched the rooftops but couldn’t see any spiders. I was sure they were hiding somewhere so didn’t let my guard down. We didn’t feel like trying to get through it at the moment so turned around to go down another street.

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A loud roar startled us and we all looked in the direction it had come from. Standing upright in the middle of the street was a giant bear. It must have been at least 8 or 9 feet tall. Presumably it was the one that had tried breaking into the store, but I didn’t know how it had found us. It had green tinged fur similar to the jungle wolves and wicked looking claws.

I sensed some movement behind us and cursed as spiders started appearing, seemingly drawn by the bear’s roar. Now we had a giant bear in front of us with webbing and giant spiders behind us. Nix and Lin started shooting arrows at the bear while Torg and Lux roared back at the bear and charged toward it. We had to get past the bear as getting through the webbing would take too long.

Ann and I turned around and started shooting spells at the spiders to keep them back while the rest of the team handled the bear. Unfortunately, there seemed to be more spiders than last time and they just kept coming. “This isn’t looking good. We have to get out of here!” I cried. Ann was about to answer me when she was hit by webbing which knocked her to the ground.

I swore and put up the largest flame wall I could manage. Hopefully it would last long enough for me to get Ann untangled. The webbing had stuck her arms to her sides and glued her to the ground. I took out my magic sword and started cutting. I managed to get her unstuck from the ground but was having trouble getting her arms free since I didn’t want to injure her.

My flame wall was keeping the spiders back for now, but it wouldn’t last much longer. I spared a glance at the bear to see Torg being thrown, skidding on his back by a swipe of the giant bear. The arrows from Nix and Lin didn’t seem to be doing much. Lux managed to get a few cuts in but it was taking too long. We needed to get rid of the bear before the spiders swarmed us.

Ann was still too tangled up to run properly or to cast spells. I threw her over my shoulder while using my free hand to reinforce the flame wall. Unfortunately some of the spiders were starting to go around the wall by traversing the nearby buildings. I ran toward Torg who was just getting back on his feet. “Take care of Ann for me.” I said as I passed off Ann to him so I could concentrate on the bear.

Nix and Lin had switched to firing arrows at the spiders sneaking around the flame wall to keep them contained. I ran up to get in range for my spell as Lux was sent flying. With him out of the way I had a clean shot and used earth spikes to stagger the bear before raking him with my flamethrower spell. “Now’s our chance, everyone get out of here!” I yelled, keeping the flames going on the bear.

The bear was howling in pain but wasn’t going down yet. Torg rushed by carrying Ann while Lin and Nix helped Lux get back on his feet. He seemed to have injured his leg and was limping. The girls helped support him as they moved toward a side street past the bear. “I’ll meet you back at the inn, now get out of here while I hold them off!” I yelled, continuing to shoot spells at the bear and spiders who were now getting around the flame wall.

Ann was yelling something, but I couldn’t make it out and had to concentrate on the fight. I managed to put the flaming bear between me and the spiders and was backing down the street. The bear was down on all fours now and shaking its head back and forth. The flames didn’t allow it to see much which had allowed us to get around it.

I wouldn’t be able to keep up my attacks much longer as my mana was just about spent. The bear finally collapsed and seemed to be out of the fight which left the swarm of spiders. Did I mention I really hate spiders. The flame wall was starting to go down again which let even more spiders through. I was able to take out the nearest ones and then made a run for it before I got overwhelmed. I ran for a different alley to lead the spiders away from the rest of the group.

I barely dodged a stream of webbing before ducking down the alley. Cold sweat poured down my back as I kept running as fast as I could. If I got hit by webbing that would be it for me. I was running blindly, twisting and turning down alleys in the general direction of the large castle. My plan was to circle back after I lost my pursuers but sometimes plans don’t work out the way you think.