It was quiet, almost too quiet as everyone stood at attention waiting for the sounds of more traps being set off. You could almost cut the tension with a knife. Standing near the back of the crowd with Meira, Bjorn could feel the apprehension that invaded the group. No one had any idea what exactly they would face here. The only one’s in camp who had fought the spiders before were Bjorn and his friends. Everyone else didn’t know what to really expect to come down the tunnel. They had all been briefed on what to expect, but there was a massive gap in knowing what to expect and having experienced the ferocity of the snatcher spiders.
The way that the group was lined out was with all 25 guards in three lines across the tunnel entrance. The first row all had large heavy tower shields presenting a unified shield wall. The row behind were the guards who had longer handled weapons, they were the ones with the spears, halberds, and poleaxes. The next row back were the guards who had the shorter handled weapons, such as the maces, axs, and swords. Second to last was the line of conscripts. This line consisted of Rickie, Alaric, Chase, Bente, and Rypley. Their job was the fill in the line if there was ever a breach. The last line was less of a line and more a blob, it consisted of Tayla, Bjorn, Meira, Alya, and Laurel. Tayla’s job was to make sure nothing unexpected happened to the magic casters and ranged damage dealers in the back.
They all stood there and waited, and waited. 15 minutes passed without another sound coming from down the tunnel. Laurel pulled lightly on Bjorn’s pant leg. Understanding what she wanted Bjorn slowly took a knee allowing Laurel to whisper into his ear. “I know that my traps killed something for sure. I got experience, at least enough to get me a level. That wouldn’t have happened if my traps hadn’t been successful.”
Bjorn whispered back. “That is good to know, thank you. You should go and share that with Jenkins, I have a feeling he would want to know.”
Laurel gave a quick nod before she made her way through the gathered host towards Jenkins. He was standing in the middle of the arrangement, In the third row, and almost in the middle of that third row. When she got to him she did the exact same motion to Jenkins that she did with Bjorn. To his credit, instead of blowing up at Laurel, Jenkins knelt down and put his ear within easy speaking distance for Laurel. After almost a minute of speaking back and forth the man stood while Laurel made her way back to where the backline stood. Bjorn and Laurel briefly made eye contact before she averted her eyes and returned to staring down the passage.
At the half an hour mark the tension was starting to die down and people were standing to relax a bit. Jenkins turned back and made eye contact with Bjorn. “Captain gram told me you have access to light magic. Do you have any spells that can light up further down the tunnel?” In the quiet of the room Jenkins had to speak in almost a regular speaking voice to be heard.
“I have one.” Bjorn replied.
“Would you give us some extra light down this tunnel.” Jenkins said in a tone that was almost a request, but was more of a military command.
Disregarding the obvious command in Jenkins voice Bjorn began casting his simple light spell. When the pale glow faded and a ball of light had taken its place Bjorn held it aloft. The extra light from the ball of light wasn’t enough to illuminate the rest of the tunnel, but that wasn’t what Bjorn was hoping to accomplish.
Instead he drew his arm back and did a small flicking motion to get the ball of light to separate from its place, suspended 3 inches over Bjorn’s palm. In doing so the ball of light dislodged itself and flew down the tunnel in an almost perfectly straight line. The flicking motion was entirely unless Bjorn was able to control where the orb moved to with a thought of his mind. But some small childish part of his mind did the action anyway because Bjorn felt it looked cool. It in fact did not look cool.
The orb traveled its 150 feet and stopped moving, instead being suspended in the middle of the cavern. Due to supply issues and the short amount of time they had to get ready for this operation the camp only really had enough lamps to provide 100 feet of light down the tunnel. Jenkins asked for more lamps, but his request was denied, stating that other more critical areas needed the lamps.
Having the extra 50 feet of illumination helped give them an idea of what was happening. Which was nothing. Unfortunately for the contingent the tunnel traveled a ways further before it turned.
And so they waited, after 10 minutes the spell's time elapsed and the tunnel once again plunged into darkness. Once the light spell ran out of energy Bjorn cast his simple light spell again, and then again after 10 more minutes elapsed.
Finally after the fourth time casting the same spell Jenkins grew impatient. All together they had an extra 6 of the wall mounted magical lamps. Jenkins had them passed out to the third line of soldiers and then had them hold the lamps above their heads.
“Alright, let's head down the tunnel and find out what that noise was.” Jenkins' voice once again sounded loud in the still underground.
As the first line started to pick up their massive tower shields a thought crossed Bjorn’s mind. “Corporal, why don't I cast my simple light spell and have the orbs affixed to the front of the shield wall?”
Jenkins paused for a moment before turning towards Bjorn. “That is because I had no idea you could affix your spell to an object. If you would be so kind as to do so. I would greatly appreciate it.”
The ranks of troops split to let Bjorn make his way towards the front of the line. “I also would appreciate it if you would let me know about any potential use your magics have. I am not a spellcaster, so I don't know how your spells work. I would order you to give me a detailed list of what your spells can do, but as I understand it that would be extremely rude.”
“I will try to be more forthcoming with any benefit I can provide.” Bjorn said with a touch of anger in his voice. He was annoyed at Jenkins' reaction to Bjorn’s assistance. After all, first he was basically press ganged into helping the city fight off the spiders, next he was given an ultimatum to either brew potions for the guards or they would take all of the potions from their group. They would have plenty of success in doing so, as the guards outnumbered them two and a half to one. Then lastly Jenkins gave Bjorn attitude for coming up with a solution that gave them a better chance to spot any rogue spider they came across.
It was at that moment that Bjorn vowed to himself that if he had the chance to save Jenkins' life he would not do so.
With Bjorn's internal thoughts unbeknownst to Jenkins he continued. “Hurry up, we don't know if something is crawling along the passage towards us.”
His words had an effect on Bjorn as he stood there and grounded his teeth. Bjorn quickly applied 4 balls of light to the 7 shields that comprised their front line. After he moved back to his position in the formation.
The way Bjorn moved back into position drew Meira's attention. She could see his angry expression, the clenched fists, his tight back, and the slow deliberate way he walked. “Are you alright?” Meira whispered to Bjorn when he retook his place next to her.
Through clenched teeth he replied. “Later.”
With their formation being able to see better Jenkins gave the order to start advancing down the tunnel. Slowly they made their way forward, making sure to not drop their guard whatsoever. As they advanced every person was on edge as they scanned the darkness in front of them, or they scanned the walls and ceiling for any tell tale sign of a spider.
Their movement forward was almost excruciatingly slow. What took them ten minutes of light walking before now took them half an hour. Three times they stopped so Bjorn could refresh the lights on the front of the shield wall. All the while everyone was on high alert.
When they got to the tunnel where Bjorn and Laurel boobytrapped he cast another simple light spell and sent it careening down the tunnel. Near the end of where they laid the traps something had changed. On the ground lay a spider's corpse. It lay on its back and had 5 legs curled up towards its center. The remaining three legs laid scattered across the ground periodically. This spider was larger than the one that Bjorn, Alaric, Meira, and Tayla had fought, by a good margin. The first spider they fought was 3 feet long from head to spinners. This one was 4 and a half feet long.
Everyone stood there in silence looking at the spider. While they looked past and saw no spiders further down the tunnel they decided to make their way back to camp. Just as slowly as they had moved forward they made their way backwards one slow step at a time.
When they made it back to camp Rypley had an idea. “Why don't we put one of our spare lamps at the corner of the tunnel. That way we get ourselves an extra 150 feet of vision.”
Jenkins only had to think about it for a second before he ordered his men to leave one of the lamps behind while they made their slow retreat. “Good idea, I don't know why I didn't think of that. Honestly foolish of me. Must be the lack of sleep.”
Shaking in anger Bjorn was about to say something when Meira's hand reached out and she placed it on his arm. “It's okay, later.” before she used his arm to guide him back further into camp. They found a secluded corner in camp and Meira sat with her back to the wall. She then motioned for Bjorn to sit next to her.
“Alright what is going on with you?” Meira asked. “You slapping out that sprite, then you getting mad at Jenkins. What is happening? You normally aren't so angry, you normally are a happy person.”
The silence between the two grew as Bjorn started to work through things mentally. She neither pushed or prompted Bjorn any further, trusting him to answer when ready. “I don't fully know why I am losing my temper lately.” Was his only reply.
“There is something going on in your mind that is affecting you so negatively. I want to know what it is and how I can't help.”
Taking a deep breath Bjorn let it out slowly. “I still don't know, but I guess it has something to do with how helpless I feel. Don't get me wrong this world is a wonderful place, but I keep finding myself in positions where I have little control over my life.”
“Like how we were basically forced to be here and aren't allowed to leave?”
“That is exactly like what I am talking about. I don't care about the city, I don't care about the people here. Why do we have to be here and help them save this city? Blackrock Bay was only a means to an end. Why do we have to stay and help defend them?”
“We have to because they hold the power.” Meira said.
“And there lies the issue. For the first time in my life I have some measure of power. I have magic, I have strength that I never had in my past life, and I have skills that I never had. I never knew how to fight, I never needed to do so to survive.” Bjorn broke off his rant and sighed. “I guess I am just mainly frustrated at the fact that even though I am the strongest I have ever been, it still isn't enough.”
They were sitting side by side and looking forward, Bjorn turned and looked directly into Meira's eyes. “I swore when we got away from the gnolls that we would never be slaves again. Tell me, how is this any different than being slaves?”
Meira thought about it. “I don't know, some part of me deep down says that it is different. I just don't know how to put that difference into words.”
“I don't think it is any different. Sure we have our magics, and our weapons, but we aren't free to do with them what we want. Sure we could leave, but I am not confident that we could find a way out of here before we were caught and killed or imprisoned. So leaving isn't an option, so we just have to stay here and fight for a city with no promise of being compensated?”
“I guess so.”
“That doesn't sit right with me, if they expect us to fight for their city they should reward us. That isn't the case.”
Bjorn put his back to the wall again and fell quiet. Meira filled the gap. “they did compensate us, you and I both got more spells. Our spells would have cost us each several gold which we don't have. Tayla might with her extra money, and Alaric got his awesome hammer.”
“True, but that wasn't a reward for us to fight down here, that was a reward and apology equally. The reward for giving them the means to know about the snatcher spiders, and to apologize for how we were treated for us revealing the danger. No, our pay wasn't out of anything they feel they owe us, it was to make them feel better about their actions.”
“You have a point, but can you honestly say that without our participation then less people will die? I can honestly say that Blackrock Bay has a better chance to survive with us here. I personally don't want to condemn the thousands that live right above our heads to death because we didn't want to fight a few spiders.”
“You are right, with us here some people are less likely to die, but that is because we take on that risk in their stead. Is our lives worth losing just to slightly increase the chances of the town above us surviving? I don't have an answer, I wish I did, but I don't.”
Meira laid her head back against the wall they were sitting against. “I don't have an answer for you, only you can answer that for yourself. As for me personally, I am happy to make that choice. Almost everyone who is down here has made that choice and they are happy with it.”
“That's just it, if they had presented me with the choice I think I would have been fine making it, and I would have made the choice to leave. The only reason we tried to leave was because of Alaric. If the choice wasn't made for me, I think I would have been fine being down here, but as it stands we don't have that freedom. Because of that we are more or less slaves.”
“That's fair, but why is Jenkins the center of your anger? He is just trying to do his job.”
“It is the way he is going about doing things. I am angry at him because of the ultimatums he has given us. ‘Either hand over all of your potions or we will take them.’ The only thing that stopped him was Alya, and that was because she let him know that we can make him some. But it didn't truly stop him, it turned his ultimatum into brew us some potions or we will take your potions. He is a little tyrant and I hate them. If he had asked, maybe I would have made him potions without it bothering me. But so far he seems to be going about everything in such a way to belittle us.”
“I understand that, it feels like he doesn't respect us and just views us as a tool.” Meira commented.
“Exactly! He is a little tyrant that has been giving power over us without our consent and he seems to be exercising that power in such a way to alienate us. His men are nice in their own right, but Jenkins treats us as if we are expendable, and that we are lesser than anyone else down here.”
“We did try to leave town after all, when we knew we weren't supposed to do so. Because of that we had to be escorted to the guardhouse to ensure our cooperation. I have little doubt that he knows about that and views us as lesser because we were trying to run in his eyes.”
“And that aggravates me, we shouldn't have to cooperate. We are being forced to help defend something we don't care about. We have no vested interest in seeing this city survive. Because of that we are being punished by someone given temporary power over us. His choice to treat us as a stain he has to live with is completely unjustified.”
“Yeah I agree, it isn't fair, but it is how things are playing out. All we have to do is endure it and survive, as we always have.” As she said that her hand fell on top of where Bjorn's had been laying uselessly at his side. “When this is all over we can leave and move to bigger and better things. We have each other as we always have, I know Alaric feels the same, and I am almost certain Tayla does as well. She may have her issues, but I think she finally feels at home with us. I think it is something we all have been searching for, just a place to belong.”
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“Thank you for listening, you don't know how much it means to me.” Bjorn said as he pushed himself onto his feet and held his hand out for Meira to take. “Come on let's go see what they are up to, they probably are getting into some sort of trouble, at least if i know Tayla she is.” Meira took his hand and he pulled her to her feet, they then started walking back into camp while talking about small things.
The next two days drug on. Bjorn’s time was split three ways, brewing, eating, and sleeping. Alya and Bjorn started working on making stamina potions for each of the guards, again at the ‘request’ of Jenkins. They were once again told to brew potions or they would take all of the potions from the conscripts. So not really given a choice they started the brewing process for stamina potions. When he wasn’t brewing he ate and then slept. He and Alya staggered their sleep by about 10 hours. That way one of them was always making potions.
They were fortunate because of their alchemy abilities. Jenkins had everyone else take turns watching the tunnel in 8 hour shifts. Each shift consisted of 5 people, usually a mix of guards and conscripts. It was never all 5 conscripts at the same time. Jenkins made sure that each shift had more guards then not. In this case everyone was assigned a shift all except for Bjorn and Alya, the corporal decided that their skills were ‘better suited elsewhere’.
Twice each day a pair of runners would make their way into camp and would give a progress report. The main force was fighting against the spiders and were slowly making headway. The spiders were surprisingly proficient in military tactics. Instead of throwing themselves fully into the fight they would fight until tired or wounded and then retreat if they could. The exact same thing that the humanoids did as they tried to advance further into spider held territory. According to what they knew about the spiders their actions were highly unusual, by all accounts they were normally unthinking beasts that would throw their lives away trying to kill their opponents if they were caught outside of a body.
Stories came through the runners of people fighting who got drug into the spiders camp and within an hour were seen trying to sneak through the humanoid combat line to sow chaos. Each time the spiders failed to succeed with that gambit. Instead when they came within easy ambushing distance the spiders would often burst forth from the bodies trying to attack and take down their assailants.
They also brought news that of the side tunnels three had been attacked so far. Two were successful in stopping the spiders from breaking free. One was unfortunately lost, and today they broke a small group off of the main army to reclaim the tunnel and search the surrounding tunnel to find any stragglers. In the evening of the second day word came down that they were able to retake the tunnel and re-secure it. The small garrison was a total loss, they were also stationed with 30 people and by the description they think every single one of the bodies was accounted for. The difference between the bodies found and what the spiders normally did made chills run down their spines.
Normally the spiders inject a venom that liquefies their prey’s bones and then they drink that slurry. This time the corpses were actually torn apart, and small chunks of flesh could be found scattered all over camp. They were not able to find any trace of bone though, so it was hard to tell how many bodies they actually found. The sheer brutality of the scene was hard to look at. At least that is how the messenger described it.
Each time the runners showed up they went into the tent to be briefed by Jenkins on the situation of the camp. They would disappear for 15 minutes to half an hour each time as they exchanged reports, and gave out messages. When they left they normally left the tent putting papers into their satchels. Apparently they were requests for additional supplies or additional men.
The worst part of all of this was always being on high alert. It didn’t matter what they were doing, every single unusual sound set everyone on edge. It didn’t matter if you were quietly eating, or in a quiet conversation with someone else, or even relieving yourself. They were in an intense cave system under the ground, that was a recipe for odd sounds to sound periodically. Each and every single time the sound of rock hitting rock, or there would be a groan, or even the sound of something scraping on something everyone in camp would snap to attention. By the end of the third day people's wits were starting to fray from the constant vigilence.
On the second day a guarded wagon made its way into camp and started offloading food and other supplies. They offloaded enough food to feed the 30 plus strong force of militia, more herbs, more lamps, and a hundred other small things that they needed in camp to survive. All in all they took roughly half of all of the boxes that filled the back of the wagon.
One thing that was a surprise was Rickie. As it turned out he actually was quite a proficient chef. Most of the food that they ate was dried, hardtack. When the wagon came into camp on the second day one of the boxes they offloaded was a large cauldron and spices. It was rather unexpected, as they figured that it would be useless in camp. Rickie proved everyone wrong though, that night he set to making a rather savory thick stew that everyone got a large portion of. Most everyone ended up wanting seconds, Rickie was prepared for that outcome, making more than enough for everyone. The only ones who didn’t get a second helping were the people on duty watching the tunnel. As it turned out the people of the Eld understood that overeating led to drowsiness.
For the first time in two days everyone slept easily that night. With their bellies full with delicious stew it didn’t take long for most everyone to drift off to sleep.
Loud snicks and cracks of thunder echoed through the halls as everyone jolted awake early in the morning on the third day. Inhuman wails echoed soon after. Groggily Bjorn slowly sat up, he had been in a deep restless sleep when the sounds stirred his consciousness. It took a second for his head to clear and for him to register what that sound meant.
In a flash he was at full alertness as he looked around trying to see if anyone else needed to be awakened. Bjorn shared a tent with Alaric who was already stumbling to his feet trying to grab his shield and hammer from where it lay next to his bedroll on the cold hard stone.
One thing that Jenkins had ordered was for everyone to be ready at all hours of the day. Because of that order everyone had to wear their armor at all times. At first it was an annoyance, as Bjorn wasn’t use to wearing the slightly bulky and heavy ringmail. By the time the third day rolled around though he was considerably more used to moving around in the unwieldy armor. So when he rolled out of bed he barely even noticed anymore.
Pushing himself to his feet Alaric had grabbed his shield and hammer. With his hammer in his belt he had moved to strapping his arm into his new shield. “Come on, don’t dilly dally.” Alaric said to Bjorn as he flailed around trying to untangle himself from his bedroll. Alaric’s words were punctuated by the sound of the traps continuing to be set off.
Finally free Bjorn and Alaric made their way out of their tent and joined the stream of people pouring towards the tunnel entrance they were guarding. Rather quickly everyone had made it into place and they stood there at attention ready for whatever came their way. The sounds of traps being set off and the accompanying sounds of suffering just made everyone more and more apprehensive.
When the sounds ceased to echo down the tunnel Jenkins thinned his lips and barked an order. “Hold steady, I think this is it. I think they are going to try and break through finally.”
Even though his words seemed obvious to everyone standing there his calm voice had an effect on his troops. As his words sounded out over the frightened guards Bjorn could see them standing straighter and squaring their shoulders. There was a sense of calmness that radiated off of Jenkins.
Jenkins looked around at this assembled force and eventually he locked eyes with Bjorn. When he did, a notification popped up in the middle of Bjorn’s vision.
You have been invited to join war leader Jenkins warband. Do you wish to join? Yes/No.
Unsure of what was happening Bjorn mentally clicked yes. As he did so Bjorn’s vision completely changed. In the lower right hand of his vision Bjorn saw 10 names with his being at the very bottom of that list. A few other notable people who were on that list was Jenkins himself at the top of the list. To the left of his name was a little star symbol. Others were Bjorn, Meira, Rickie, and Tommin, Jenkins right hand man in camp. The other 5 people on the list were other guards that Bjorn hadn’t really taken the time to get to join their names, so he wasn’t able to put faces to the names he saw. Most people had a symbol next to their name, Bjorn did not.
Warband leader Jenkins has assigned you to the role of scout. Do you wish to accept this role? Yes/No.
Mentally clicking ‘yes’ the lack of a symbol changed and Bjorn got an eagle eye symbol appeared next to his name. When the symbol appeared next to his name Bjorn’s vision changed once again. Now when he was looking he was able to see the names, and levels of each person in the warband. Looking at his surroundings he noticed that each of the warbands members had a green outline surrounding them, with Jenkins having a purple outline.
Turning toward Meira he was about to ask a question when she put one of her fingers to her lips. “I’ll explain what I know about the Warleader skill to you later.”
Once again Bjorn’s vision changed slightly as a small winged staff appeared next to one of the band members' names. When it did, the names in the lower right hand corner of his vision all gained a full small red bar next to their names. Once again when he looked at individual members of the warband the same red bar appeared over their heads matching the small one in the corner of his vision.
“It’s their health.” Meira said quietly as understanding dawned upon her. She was undoubtedly correct as Bjorn looked around.
You have been affected by your Warleader's aura. His aura has a calming effect on all of those affected. Your nerves have been settled and you have a 20% increased chance to keep your cool in high stress situations.
Everyone who is not within the warband, but is instead within its sphere of influence of the aura will benefit from a lesser effect of the aura. Instead of a 20% chance, they will only have a 10% chance.
So many questions flooded through Bjorn’s mind. Just when he thought they were getting used to the oddities of this world something else comes along and upends his understanding. Once again Bjorn was struck by how video games like this world was at times.
Soon the screeches and the loud noises of the traps being set off stopped. “Everyone be ready!” Jenkins called out.
They stood there in silence for around 5 minutes before they started to hear a slight skittering sound. The slight sound suddenly grew in intensity and it was getting louder, fast. Everyone prepared for the fight they knew was finally coming and set their weapons. The first line set their shields, the second line rested the shafts of their weapons on the shoulders of the soldiers in front of them, allowing their spears and halberds to rest on top of the shield wall as well. The remaining lines all hefted their weapons, everyone was present.
“They made it through the traps.” Laurel called out. “I stopped getting experience. Either the force stopped coming, or they triggered all of the traps.”
As she spoke Bjorn looked down on the gnome woman. Before his very eyes he could see her body change slightly. She grew slightly taller and her almost lanky frame filled out slightly. He could see her arms and legs grow tight as her muscles became leaner. Finally her entire body looked to become lighter as she looked to become lighter on her feet and slightly more graceful.
The quizzical look Bjorn gave her made her dart a quick glance at him before her entire focus returned to the roof of the tunnel as she couldn’t see over all of the larger people arrayed before her. “I gained two levels.” She stated simply.
This was the first time Bjorn saw for his own eyes as people allocated their stat points from their level ups. For a lack of a better term, it was amazing to watch someone else’s body change so rapidly and dramatically that he was able to see it with his naked eye. He absently wondered if that was what he looked like when he allocated his stat points as he turned his attention back to the tunnel.
They didn’t have to wait for long before spiders came spilling out from around the corner. They were running on every available surface, the troop of soldiers stood in horror as they watched spiders come by the dozen.
“Hold steady.” Came Jenkins' calming voice.
Soon Bjorn started to focus on individual spiders to use his identify ability on them. When he did so each individual spider would become outlined in red, and the level of the spider would be on clear display.
Jenkins quickly gave Bjorn a surprised look, but he didn’t notice. He was focused on the incoming wave of spiders.
Meira was the one to draw the first blood. She started to cast a spell that she hadn’t cast before. As she started to chant a pale yellow glow surrounded her hands and her eyes changed color to match the same yellow glow. Her entire eye became the same color as the glow that filled her hand. As the chant continued a thin layer of mist started to condense around her hand. Above her hand a small ball the same color started to condense. The mist was being drawn into the ball creating a swirling vortex look. When she finished her chanting she pushed her hand forward and the ball shot forth from her hand. It traveled down the hall and when it neared the end of the tunnel the ball abruptly stopped as if it ran into a wall. From there the ball rapidly expanded and soon it covered the entire tunnel in a thick mist.
Something didn’t quite feel right to Bjorn, he wasn’t able to put his finger on it at first, but soon he understood it. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he could feel the static electricity start to build in the air.
Once the ball was on its way Meira quickly followed it up by casting a second spell, this one was faster to cast and soon she finished. Just when Bjorn began to feel the static build up a shimmering wall of pure condensed air sprung up in between her first spell and the blockade. Effectively blocking off the tunnel and cutting off the stream of spiders momentarily.
As this was going on their few other ranged fighters didn’t stand still. Alya shouldered her crossbow and began to shoot her heavy blunted bolts at the spiders. She wasn’t a good shot but it didn’t matter in this situation as the amount of spiders made it almost impossible for her to miss.
Bjorn also hadn’t been stationary. When the sound had stopped Bjorn had cast a new spell for him, bark skin. He cast it upon Rickie as the man’s almost naked body looked like a prime target for the spider's fangs to sink into. With the spell still having a two and a half minute cooldown he waited for the spiders to come into view.
As soon as he saw them round the corner Bjorn began to cast another new spell. A small ball of white light streaked with a vivid red condensed around his hand and he shot it into the ceiling above their heads, aiming right for the middle of the blockade. The white and red ball collided with the ceiling and stuck fast, bathing the surrounding area and everyone in it in its soft reddish light. Everyone got a prompt.
You have been bathed in a strengthening light. The effect of your strength attribute has been increased by 5%
As he watched it seemed like everyone’s muscles grew ever so slightly as the ball of light bathed the area in its pale light.
Immediately after finishing his strengthening light spell Bjorn began casting a third new spell. He mentally targeted one of the spider's in the lead and started chanting.
Half way through the chant Meira's first spell started to come to fruition. On the far side of her condensed air barrier the cloud of mist that had disbursed started to condense again. As the mist was being drawn back into the center the static electrical feeling in the air intensified. Then lightning bolts began to shoot out of the ball of mist slamming into the spider's lining the walls of the tunnel.
By then the spiders were almost upon them. The spiders that were on the ground slammed forward into the shield wall stopping their progress forward as the men behind the shields braced against the ground to absorb part of the charge. The second line right behind the shield wall used their own bodies to brace the men in front of them and take the rest of the charging force. The spiders on the walls and ceiling weren't really stopped.
To combat the spiders on the walls the second line moved their spears and pikes to stab at the spiders above their heads, stopping their momentum. So far the third line was basically useless as they stood there trying to help where they could. But unfortunately with their shorter weapons there wasn't much they could do to help so far.
Bjorn's third spell finished casting as a light blue tendril started to drain out of the spider his spell was targeting. The tendril made its way through the melee and ran straight towards Bjorn's outstretched hand. The channeled spell of weak desiccate started to rapidly drain Bjorn's mana pool. When he started casting his third spell his mana pool had already almost been dropped by a third. Now as he drained the water out of his victim the bar started to plummet.
After 7 seconds of channeling he finally saw results. By the 5th and 6th seconds the steady stream of water leaving the spider turned into a crawl. At the end of the 7th second one final glob of water made its way out of the spider's husk. Once the last bit of water left the spider's body its desiccated body fell to the ground with a thunk, falling on top of the spiders that were assaulting the shield wall.
Although his new spell was certainly effective, it was infeasible to use it multiple times during this fight. His mana pool was already under a third after casting only three spells. With it taking 7 seconds to dry out the spider fully he didn't want to continue using that spell. Mentally Bjorn swore he would start dedicating more of his stat points to his mental skills. Sure he could use one of his mana potions to regain his lost mana. But he didn't want to use up his once a day potion just yet.
Resolving to save that limited resource Bjorn began to cast his cast stone spell. Bjorn chucked a few of the newly formed stone orbs that made their way out from the stone in the walls around them. The stones had a much greater effect on the spiders for less of a mana cost. Even though each stone he cast didn't kill a spider it did do considerable damage. The bone-like nature of the spider's carapace made the blunt force trauma from the stones considerably more effective. Each stone that landed either greatly wounded the spider or it crippled it. Making it easier for those on the ground to finish off the wounded spider.
For the moment it looked like their line would hold. The moment Bjorn had that thought everything changed as spiders started to sneak past the line of pikes and spears. Fortunately the shield wall held strong. Two spiders broke through and dropped down on top of the second line's heads.
When the two great Dane sized spiders dropped down into the midst of the second line chaos briefly ensued. The pike wall briefly broke letting 3 more spiders slip through and into their ranks. Fortunately the 3rd line did their job, they quickly filled in the spaces that the spiders created and a furious melee sprung up.
This didn’t bode well for their chances to win the fight. Less than a minute in and spiders were already amongst their ranks. Regardless, the third row of guards quickly fell on the spiders that got through. Angered by his inability to do anything Rickie abandoned his spot in the 4th line and moved into the third line. The entirely too large human took up too much space and so he decided to remedy the crowding issue.
One large hand fell onto the back of the neck of the nearest guard and he clamped down. In a feat of impressive strength Rickie picked the man up by his neck using only one hand. He then threw the man he was holding backwards into the spot he just vacated and quickly he fell onto the spiders that made it through.
The berserker was a sight to behold. He wielded a massive two handed great sword but with the way that he swung the lump of metal it almost looked weightless. The lump of raw iron that Rickie called a sword swung deadly arcs at the spiders. Up until this point slashing damage did little damage to the tough spiders. Somehow Rickie turned his slicing weapon into a crushing one, all while using the cutting edge of the sword. He quickly cleaved through two of the 5 spiders that had made it through the line.
Just when things looked to be heading back towards the manageable side everything changed once again. Thick white strands shot out from further down the cave and slapped into whatever it touched. The ends of the strands had to be covered in some sort of adhesive because wherever it touched the web stuck in place. The web itself wasn’t that restrictive yet, and was manageable to deal with. Instead of trying to slow down their opponents the spiders began to drag the webs back in.