The plan was simple. The front row fighters would lure out the spider, the mages and archers would immobilize it, and a few stealth fighters would sneak into the lair and rescue Eli. Leroy was in the front row fighter group. No surprise there. His movements lacked subtlety and grace, but he made up for it with speed and precision.
Lilith on the other hand was the quintessential stealth fighter. She moved slowly, seeming to melt into the scenery. Her limbs, like open wounds, bled shadows into the environment that wrapped around her to shield her from detection and attention. She was one of three members of the stealth infiltration squad. She didn’t quite know why she was here. She had no obligations to assist Eli, and her only contractual obligation was to protect Leroy, and yet, she had somehow been dragged into this. Despite her misgivings, she had to admit she was curious. Lilith had never seen a giant spider before, but she had heard amazing things about their combat capabilities. She settled in by the entrance to the cave with the other two infiltrators to wait for the spider to emerge. She could hear the scraping sound of chitin against stone grow slowly louder as the creature approached. The sound grew louder and louder and it soon became clear that the spider was much faster than any of them anticipated. Like a freight train it barreled out of the tunnel at high speed, throwing several fighters across the ground. Lilith didn’t worry about them. They seemed sturdy, and anything non-lethal could be handled by the handful of mages in the group. She tore her attention away from the fight as she and her companions slipped into the cave, completely unnoticed.
The sound of her footsteps against the stone was nonexistent, strangled by her careful footing and the aura of shadow that enveloped her. The other two, whose names she had not bothered to learn had similar abilities, and they progressed silently through the cave, careful not to touch any of the adhesive threads spun across the tunnel. How the spider managed to navigate through, being twice the height of a human, was a mystery. After about half a minute of walking the sounds of battle faded away and the trio was presented with their first branch in the cave. It didn’t take long to decide which branch to take, as they could hear muffled moaning emanating from the left tunnel. It wasn’t hard to guess as to its source. They found Eli in a chamber at the end of the tunnel wrapped in webs. Their knives wouldn’t cut through the webbing so they just lifted him up, webs and all and carried him out of the chamber. They began the return trip and Lilith couldn’t help but feel satisfied with how well everything had gone.
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Leroy couldn’t believe how poorly everything had gone. When the spider had first emerged from the cave it had done so at a tremendous velocity and had thrown their best defensive fighters out of the way, opening up him and the others for attack. The spider had immediately noticed the mages and archers off to the side and made a beeline for them. Leroy hadn’t really expected that level of strategy from the spider, especially since none of the mages or bowmen had launched anything yet. The defensive fighters crumpled up on the floor would need the mages in order to heal after the fight, so his first priority should be to protect them. He himself did not specialize in defense, but if he made himself enough of a threat, he could force the spider to focus on him instead. With his supernatural speed he could avoid its attacks and lure it away from everyone else.
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With his mind made up he ran towards the spider’s right flank, the world blurring around him. He launched himself into the air and drew Ronald from his sheath, aiming for one of the spider’s many joints. “Aim a little higher, boy” the sword called out into his mind, “that leg is about to move.” Leroy had not been able to figure out the rhythm of the spider’s movements in the short time he had been watching it, but he trusted Topor’s expertise. The sword was ancient after all and had seen more combat than most generals. He lifted his aim a little higher. The point of the sword dug into the joint as the leg lifted up to meet it. With a flick, he severed something in the joint and his sword came free. He landed in a ready stance with Ronald held up, ready to block the counterattack he was anticipating. Strangely, it never came. The spider continued forward, unbothered by the sudden loss of functionality in one of its legs. The other seven carried it just fine.
Most of the mages and archers scattered as the spider bore down on them, but one stayed still and after a quick chant, a shimmering translucent barrier came up in front of him. The spider impacted the barrier head first with a sickening crunch. A web of cracks spreading across the shield from the impact. The spider stepped back and rammed the shield again with its head, this time shattering the barrier completely. The shield had only bought the unfortunate mage a few seconds, but that was all the time Leroy needed to catch up to him and push him out of the way of the oncoming spider. He leapt up into the air and landed heavily on the spider’s back as it passed underneath him. A quick thrust of his sword at the joint between the spider’s head and abdomen earned him a pained shriek and a buck as he was unceremoniously ejected from his ride. He twisted midair to land lightly on his feet, while Ronald let out a joyful laugh.
The joy was short lived as the spider turned to run back into its hole. Several arrows, aimed for the exposed joints and head, barely managed to inconvenience the spider as it ran. Another chant from one of the mages, and vines burst from the ground entangling the spider’s limbs. That held it still just long enough for Leroy to catch up and cut one of its back legs clean off. That did little to slow it down though, as it ran on its six remaining functional legs. It was fast enough that Leroy was having trouble keeping up with it as it ran into its hole and climbed onto the ceiling, where there were large gaps in the defensive webbing, but down on the ground it was thick enough that Leroy couldn’t keep up his speed without becoming caught in the webs. As the spider disappeared down the passage, Leroy leaned against the wall breathing heavily. His movement techniques were impressive, but they required an equally impressive amount of energy to perform. The other fighters who hadn’t been blown away at the beginning, but were too slow to catch up to the spider during the fight, reached the entrance of the cave and looked at each other. One of them said what everyone else was thinking, “Now what?”