Chapter 10

Creepy Crawler

-Andrew-

Screeching filled the air as I grabbed James and pulled him down beneath the counter. I brought my head just above the lip of the countertop to get a view of the window, allowing me to see shadows moving in the distance; although I couldn’t make out the direction they were headed. I glanced at James only to see him unsheathing his new dagger, treating it as new toy. Shaking my head, I brought my attention back to the front of the store. My stomach dropped, seeing a dozen shadows moving quickly towards us; terrifying shapes growing with each passing breath. A harsh cackle met my ears, bringing me to my senses.

“James, we have to run!” I whispered harshly.

“Mmhm.” James said, distracted by his dagger.

I glanced to the side door behind the counter, hoping it led somewhere safer. I let go of the counter top, crouching as I moved towards the door. A crashing sound brought my attention back to the storefront as we reached the end of the countertop. A pair of green creatures, similar to the one James had killed stood in the doorway, eyeing the room maliciously.

“Boomses come from here.” One said

The other simply pushed him aside, making his way around the store, eyes moving in every direction. I turned my attention back to the door, pushing frantically from the bottom. I winced each time the door budged, causing a muffled grating sound to fill the store.

“Found you, little one!” The closest creature said, grinning.

“Aaaand hide!” James announced, disappearing.

I scrambled to my feet, thinking of my wooden cudgel and causing it to appear in my hands. I swung my arms in front of me, holding the cudgel up with a firm grasp. Movement on the countertop caught my eye, as a jar of feathered-looking pens scattered from the force of unseen feet. The creature nearest the counter brought my attention back to it as it drew a nasty looking dagger, not unlike the one James now had. Without hesitating, I reached out towards the creature, opening my hand while focusing on my new spell.

“Smite!” I said through gritted teeth.

A bright white light shot out from my hand, arcing towards the creature in the form of a hammer. The creature flew back several feet, white light slamming it into the racks of clothing behind it. The room returned to its previous dark state, leaving me and the other monster temporarily blind from the sudden flash of light.

“Piiisss off! Aaargh!” The creature said, crashing into racks near the door.

“Aaaand seeeeeek!” James yelled.

I blinked my eyes furiously, bringing the room back into focus. The creature flailed around the front of the store fervently, doing its best to dislodge the knife now stuck in its back. It pulled its own dagger from its sheath and swung towards James who had been dodging the creature’s flailing limbs. My insides froze as my hand reached out towards James, willing a shield around him. A white dome flashed into existence as the creature’s dagger struck, bouncing its hand back the way it came. James didn’t waste a moment, as the green-skinned monster was forcibly turned around from the rebound of its own swing. He leapt forward, grasping the hilt of the dagger protruding from the creature’s back and yanked it loose. The monster howled in pain as it stumbled forward, James stabbing it wherever he could reach. As the creature’s legs finally gave way to the ground, James buried his dagger in its back one last time.

I felt a rush of excitement and accomplishment flow through me, causing goosebumps. James reacted similarly as he stood up. He turned to me, now grasping the hilts of 2 daggers and smiling childishly. Shouts from behind James brought us both back to reality as they closed in on the front of the storefront.

“James let’s go!” I yelled, shouldering the door open.

James ran towards me, narrowly missing an arrow as it flew past and into the shop. He continued through the door I’d opened, leaping into the alleyway. I followed, throwing the door closed behind me as I ran in the opposite direction of the shouts. We continued down the alleyway, not bothering to look back at the mayhem behind us. I gave a quick glance in both directions as we reached the street behind the store, continuing without much of a pause. Movement and fighting down both sides of the street caught my attention, bringing a sense of enormous danger with it. I pushed forward into the next alley, fear driving my legs and terror forcing me to look ahead.

We passed street after street as we ran, only changing directions once alleyways ended in stone walls. Sounds of battle could be heard down every street from either direction, forcing us to continue our travel behind buildings and through abandoned shops and houses. The buildings grew larger as we ran and streets became wider, making everything feel farther away. Houses turned into mansions with gated yards and shops turned into grand stone storefronts, filled with expensive-looking goods. I could make out massive outlines of buildings not far away; sounds of fighting in the same directions. James nudged me as we turned the next corner leading towards one of the massive structures in the distance.

“Something is following us!” James panted, loud enough for me to hear.

“Is it more of those green monsters?”

“No. It looks like a giant spider.”

My eyes widened, heart skipping even as it raced from the strain of our run. I pointed to the grand building that drew closer with each passing street.

“There have to be people in there!” I yelled.

I glanced behind me as we ran, finding nothing but a large empty street, illuminated by small pools of light cast from lanterns hanging on metal posts. Sounds of battle drew nearer with every step as we approached a large domed building with statues of robed figures guarding the entrance. I pointed to the right of the building, away from the entrance where a large group of creatures and men were fighting. James fell in behind me as I ran to the right, heading towards the alleyway between the last row of buildings in front of the large domed structure.

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As we entered the alleyway, James pulled ahead of me, growing obviously more confident in his ability to defend himself. I tried to make out our way ahead from behind James, but the alley was much darker than the lantern-lit streets of the city. As my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I began to notice thin ropes connecting the buildings in a network, growing more intricate the further we ran. James noticed the ropes as well and I followed his gaze as it went upwards, tracing the ropes as they wound up to the top of the buildings. Fear began to set in as I slowly realized we were looking at an endless amount of webbing, not ropes. A sense of cautious fear seized my attention as rough, angry voices carried down the alley in front of us. Several shapes grew in size as we approached the middle of the alleyway, causing us to slow to a snail-like pace in an abundance of caution.

“Ssstupid Drider!” One said.

“What’s it doing?!” The one in the middle asked, angrily.

The three shapes struggled, caught in a large group of webs in which they couldn’t escape. Their struggling violently shook the network of webs, causing the webbing above us to sway back and forth with each movement. I silently reached out to James, grabbing his shoulder to retreat the way we came. My breath caught in my throat as a large spider-like figure appeared above us, its bulbous body with spindly legs moving easily down the webbing towards the three figures; Its upper humanoid body swaying naturally with each movement. As the drider reached the center of the alley, it dropped on all eight of its spider legs as its upper body turned towards the three figures caught in its web.

“This is why I hate Goblins; Always ruining things and too stupid to realize when they’re dead. You are getting in the way of me and my prey.” The drider said with disgust.

The drider took the heads off of all three goblins in one smooth motion, sheathing its blade before I could blink. Blood-covered webbing split apart, allowing the goblins’ bodies to fall to the ground, taking a fair share of webbing with them. The drider tapped the floor with its two front legs, studying the ruined network of webs in front of it. I moved my hand to cover James’s mouth, shaking my head in hopes that James wouldn’t make any noise. Backing away slowly, an overwhelming sense of danger gripped me, causing my body to shake involuntarily.

“Speaking of prey, I’m due for feeding and you two will suffice.” The drider called over its shoulder.

I froze, fear causing my skin to tingle with goosebumps. I removed my hand from James’s mouth and halted my retreat, not knowing what to say to James. My mind raced for options, knowing we had no hope of winning against this spider-being. Going back the way we came would put us in equal amounts of danger and the path forward held at least some promise of safety within the large-domed building.

“Run!” I yelled.

“Hide…” James whispered.

Time slowed as I willed my wooden cudgel into existence, grasping it firmly with my right hand. I raised my left hand, focusing on my smite spell, willing magic to hit the drider’s lower half. I felt the magic welling up in my chest, my hand glowing the longer I held the spell. The drider responded with ferocious swiftness, turning its bulbous body towards me as its own hands began to glow a bright pulsing red. It raised both hands towards me as I released my smite spell, focusing on throwing every ounce of magic I could conjure towards the spider-like being. Red sparks shot out of the drider’s hands releasing an endless stream of red bullet-like magic that flew straight towards me; some arcing wide. The white hammer of my smite spell was much larger than I had previously cast and it flipped, head over handle towards the drider, sending red bullets into the buildings on both sides.

Large chunks of brick and mortar sent clouds of debris as they flew from the wall; red bullets screaming as they deflected in every direction. I focused my magic on creating a shield around myself, in doing so, dropping my concentration from the smite spell. The white hammer exploded in a shower of sparks as red magic bullets continued their trajectory, screaming like mad fireworks. My shield snapped into existence as the magic bullets announced their arrival, causing loud booms reverberating all around the shield. My heart thumped uncontrollably as I brought both of my arms into an x in front of my body, pushing towards the drider.

“You dare cast your weak magic at me?!” The drider screamed.

My shield began to shimmer, cracks forming like spiderwebs all around it under the force of the endless magic bullets. It was everything I could do to keep the shield from shattering as I pushed forward towards the drider. Spiderweb cracks receded from the shield as I renewed my efforts into holding it together, then grew once more as the red magic bullets doubled. Exhaustion crept up within me with every bullet that smashed into my shield, sapping me of strength. I dropped to one knee and braced myself with my cudgel-wielding hand against the cobblestones, ready for my shield to break at any moment.

“You think to hide from me? I am one with darkness!” The drider yelled.

Magic bullets stopped abruptly as I raised my head, allowing my shield to drop. The drider reared up on its back four legs, its front four stabbing into the cobblestones with loud crunches. It moved its hands around its body, firing single shots of red magic bullets as it moved around haphazardly; Its bulky body doing it no favors for mobility. The drider screamed furiously as the end of one of its supporting legs crumpled, blue and purple blood flowing freely from the fresh wound. As it teetered backwards, I noticed the same blood flowing from dozens of small wounds along its underbelly, dripping onto the cobblestone of the alley.

My heart stopped as James’s frame slowly appeared, shadows receding from his small body. He was a whirlwind of sloppy limbs stabbing in every direction, causing damage wherever he could reach. The drider, having now lost two limbs, compensated by placing its remaining back limbs along the wall and moving its front limbs down, bringing its body low to the ground and wall at an angle. The drider, now having access to James with its upper body, unsheathed both of its blades. I reacted quickly, reaching out with magic and placing a small shield around my brother. The shield snapped around him as one of the drider’s blades swung outward, the force behind the blade causing it to become lodged in the shield.

The difference in our strength and magic became more and more apparent with each swing as my shield could not fully deflect the blows. The drider cut through the shield like a wheel of cheese with little effort, draining my magic with each swing.

“James! We’re going to lose if we keep fighting! Cut through those spiderwebs!”

James halted his attacks and jumped backwards, laughing with delight.

“I love this game!” He called.

He faded away once more, webs swaying as he worked his way through them with his blades. With James gone, the drider returned its attention towards me, snarling in anger. I stood up and began running towards the spider webs, using James’s freshly cut path through the webs as a marker.

“Not only do you have the audacity to fight me, but you run?! Filthy weak creatures!” The drider screamed.

“Stun!” I yelled.

A red bolt shot from my hand and collided with the drider’s upper body, winding around it like lightning. The drider spasmed; what was left of its spidery legs twitched and curled inwards towards its body causing it to fall onto its upper half. I ran past it, not bothering to wait around to find out how long my stun spell would last. Each step brought me closer to the end of the alleyway, spiderwebs swaying as I zigzagged through the openings James had cut. I paid careful attention to each of the large strands as I wormed my way through the cut webs, careful not to let any touch me. The webs began to move harshly which made dodging the curtain-like openings much more difficult. Movement caught my eye as I ducked under a rough swaying curtain of webs, causing my heart to leap into my throat.

The drider clawed its way easily through the webs, its damaged limbs drawn up, dripping blood. I rounded the corner of the alley, bursting into a sprint as the grand domed building snapped into view.

“James ruuuuun!” I yelled.