He spotted the top of an obsidian spire beyond the treeline before he even arrived at the orchard.

  It wasn’t there an hour ago! His heart raced, his legs hurt from exhaustion, but he forced himself to run faster, with the wolf just a single step behind him. The spire wasn’t there when he and the others passed through here just a short while ago.

  He passed through the orchard, then ran northward across the plains before finally reaching the dense forest.

  “Ava!” He shouted as soon as he arrived at the treeline. He tried to see them through the dense vegetation. “Jason!” No response came to his calls.

  Please be alive! He rushed into the trees, towards the obsidian spire. His heart raced, fears spiralled in his mind. He shouldn’t have let them go without him. They never should have split up. He should have protected them.

  His mad dash ended as he heard a battle cry from his left. “Bloody die already!” Jason’s voice echoed across the trees, followed by a low, weird screech. Something scurried above, and an arrow followed, whistling through the trees before it found its target. A black, spherical shape with a lot of appendages fell into the bushes not far from him.

  A wave of relief washed over him, followed by the realisation that they too had come under attack, and the fighting was still ongoing. “Protect the humans!” he ordered the wolf.

  Letting out the quietest howl in acceptance, it dashed to his left, into the bushes. Following the wolf, Alaric broke through the forest’s edge and into a clearing, a small pond lying ahead A web of white string covered most of the ground, and spread across the entire surroundings, wrapped around trees and their branches, creating thick, odd pathways from tree to tree.

  “Alaric!” Ava’s shocked voice rang. She was standing on a rock by the pond, bow and arrow in hand. Jason was knee-deep in the pond, stabbing a spherical black creature with eight squirming appendages. He hadn’t noticed Alaric yet. Ava’s eyes widened, she nocked an arrow and drew the bow aiming right behind Alaric. “Look out-“

  The wolf leapt aside, nimbly dodging the arrow, then darted into the forest. Not a moment later, something scurried off, with the wolf right behind it.

  “That’s mine.” Alaric glanced around. “I’ll explain later – where’s everyone else, and what’s that?” He pointed at the white string spread all over the place.

  “Hiding here,” she pointed behind the rock she was standing on. “Giant spiders.” She then looked upwards and nocked another arrow. “Jason, it’s dead. Be ready for the next one.” She aimed somewhere high up between the branches and released her arrow. An odd, insectoid screech was followed by the giant spider plummeting into the shallow lake.

  Jason rushed over to it, stabbing it with his sword over and over again. “And the bloody things don’t die.” Ava exclaimed. “Why are you here? Where are the others?”

  “Sent them back after wolves attacked. The obsidian thing will keep flooding the place with more creatures. Retreat.” Somewhere in the bushes on the other side of the lake, the wolf finally caught the spider.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Can’t we destroy whatever’s bringing them here?” Jason straightened his back and readied his sword for the next spider. “There was a mission about a mana core.”

  “We don’t know how, and it’s too great a risk.” Especially against bloody spiders. Getting caught in their webs would spell anyone’s doom. “Let’s go.” I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. He shuddered at the lingering thought, then shook his head and gestured at them to hurry. “Come on.”

  With visible disappointment, Ava hopped down the rock she was on, circled around it, and ushered the few hiding people into the open. “We’ll have to do something about them at some point.”

  “We will – but we need a proper plan.” He hoped his voice was as reassuring as he intended it to be.

  Despite their best efforts, the group moved rather slow. There were four people aside from Ava and Jason, and all four had been wounded when the spiders first appeared. Two of them limped while walking, one of them couldn’t feel his arm at all, and the other had a broken hand.

  The wolf ran around the group, alerting them whenever a spider approached from above. Ava’s arrows shot the creatures down reliably, letting Alaric and Jason finish them off.

  Should I take one?

  As soon as the question popped into his head, he reeled back and struck his blade into the abdomen of the gigantic spider Ava shot down. They were larger than dogs, and when standing, their height easily reached Alaric’s shoulders.

  Covered in short, black and grey fur, they were disgusting, and just looking at them made the hairs on his arms rise. No. He decided. He wasn’t going to force the camp to be around one of these abominations all the time. Don’t get carried away, idiot.

  A howl pulled his attention. His gaze darted to the wolf, then followed the direction its snoot was pointing at – right above the group.

  “Look out!” He shouted as white webs shot at the group. “Move!”

  Ava threw herself to the side, while Jason grabbed one of the men’s arms and pulled him out of the way. The webs spread open in the air, falling on the three wounded men with disturbing accuracy. Covered in webs, they fell down.

  “Fuck!” Jason staggered backwards as he helped his friend stand. “Where is it? Can you shoot it?”

  “I can’t see!” Ava spat. Her arrow was nocked, but it was difficult to see the damn creatures in the forest canopy – especially when they weren’t in a large opening anymore. “Alaric, can you see it?”

  He shook his head. The three wounded and webbed men were struggling against the thick web. Each string was as thick as his pinkie finger, and it seemed to stick to their knives, making it difficult to cut.

  “Erik, help them get free.” Ava handed the limping man a knife as she put her back against a tree, scouring the forest canopy with her gaze.

  “Can you see it?” Alaric asked, glancing at the wolf. It sniffed the air, its ears raised, its tail still as it focused, then it let out the quietest howl, its eyes locked on the branches of the tree Ava was leaning against.

  He followed its gaze to see a black silhouette slowly descending a thick, white string of spiderweb.

  “Erik, give me that knife.” He softly said, moving slowly. The other man seemed somewhat confused as he handed the knife. “It’s a bit dull, so it’ll take a while to cut-“

  Alaric raised the knife over his shoulder, then threw it towards the thick web the spider was descending on. “Above you!” he shouted at the same time.

  The knife missed the spider and the web by a large margin, the thud it made as it harmlessly hit the tree was enough to distract the creature long enough. As it visibly flinched and turned its attention to the knife, Ava’s arrow struck its hard back, piercing its fur covered body. It’s legs jittered as it tried to climb back up, but soon its motions stopped.

  “I hate spiders!” Ava cried out in disgust, quickly putting some distance between her and the tree.

  “Who doesn’t?” Erik muttered. Ava gave him another knife, and one to Alaric. It still took them a while to cut away the sticky spiderweb.