Chapter 027: The Spider and the Sword

The claws of the Giant Spider stopped echoing impending death throughout the dark tunnel as it stopped, leaving an eerie silence. The hideous eight-legged creature remained stationary, hunting from the darkness as its eye stalks rotated, locating and sizing its prey.

As Carter released his Cure Wounds spell, the echoes of whimpers and water droplets started to ring in his ears. The punctured holes in his chest discharged red blood and white light as the wounds began to heal. His priority now was to stop the bleeding from Arthur's rapier wounds.

"What a fucking mess," whispered Carter as he swore again. He rarely swore or cursed, but if there was ever a time to do it, it was now.

He reached up and drew his sword out of his rucksack, steading himself for the coming fight. The black obsidian sword's tip melted into the dark as he panned it back and forth, hoping whatever creature was out there wasn't close. He heard and felt his foot set back into place as his magic healed his broken foot. He released a little moan.

"What are we going to do?" asked Hammy as she huddled with her two sisters-in-banishment.

Arista pulled her sword out and pointed it at the noises she heard in the dark. The drop down the hole had wrecked her foot badly, disabling her from running or escaping. She knew the three women from the Village of Despair well beside her. Arthur had kicked them out of the village for a small, perceived slight against his manhood. Hammy, Corin, and Seth were remarkable women who never hurt anyone, banished from the safety of their village because they wanted children and begged Arthur to be the father. Hammy had lost a foot protecting Arthur, and this was her reward.

"I loathe that pitiful excuse of a man," thought Arista. She heard a small noise down the tunnel.

"Hammy, you need to be quiet," said Arista, being as motherly as possible.

The noise of the spider's claws clacking on the rocks started up again.

Carter stopped his healing and sent a spell of light into the air. The light sphere floated upward slowly, illuminating the vast cave and tunnel with its bright light.

The spider stopped again, watching the light float upwards. It contemplated what the light meant. Sensing that its prey might escape, It started running forward quickly.

The monster crossed the threshold of darkness, and Carter saw it was horrifyingly huge. Ten to twelve heads tall, with a hard exo-skull covering its head. Two eyes, containing a cluster of smaller eyes, stuck out two holes, moving back and forth as it scanned for danger and dinner.

"A dread spider," said Arista quietly. Her companions, letting fear take over, weren't as quiet, and they let out screams.

The spider stopped its haste, hearing its victim's screams. To the spider, screams meant his prey was in distress, ready for capture. It looked around again at the five morsels: three screaming, one holding a sword, and a big one lying still on its back. The one with the sword is the priority. That prey is the one that did the magic, it surmised. The spider targeted Arista and mistakenly ran past Carter, who was lying on the ground.

Carter moved his sword slowly to his left hand. His right hand, the dominant one, was helplessly broken from the fall. He remained motionless as the spider stopped and inspected him for a moment. The screams of the others kept waffling his attention from Carter to them. Carter felt the pangs of yesterday's manna wanting out and couldn't hold it any longer. His flatulence echoed in the cave as the spider moved back as a defense against the loud vibrations it felt. It moved close to Carter's body again and pushed it with one of its claw-tip legs. No change from before. Satisfied that his game was still dead or incapacitated, the spider turned its attention to Arista again, the one with the sword.

Sharp nails on the floor brought the spider closer, eyes bouncing from Arista to the others. The creature watched its target, Arista, with her quivering sharp weapon pointed at him from a sitting position. A pulsing rhythm of screaming, caused by breath inhalation, echoed through the cave as Arista joined in.

The women's distraction allowed Carter to flip over and jab his sword into the spider's abdomen as it conveyed past him. He slid his sword backward toward him, cutting the creature's stomach wide open. The spider jumped and flipped around as its green essence poured out of its gash onto the floor. Berserked with pain, it started to act erratic. It ran up to Carter and pinned him down to the ground with its large-sized claws, digging into his flesh. Carter's sword dropped from his hand involuntarily from the pain. The monster's fangs came out and slid into Carter's chest, releasing its deadly toxin. Carter released his grip from the spider's legs and fell limp.

After a short scream from Arista from behind, her sword sunk into the spider's flesh, making him whip around again. The beast's leg knocked Arista down to the floor. He lunged forward and bit down on her shoulder. She had a hard piece of armor on, and the spider pulled back from pain. She started to crabwalk backward as she held her sword up. The spider lunged and bit down again, hitting her leg this time, and the poison was injected. She stopped moving; the poison was fast-acting, and she succumbed to it and passed out.

The dread spider grabbed Arista, its paralyzed prey, into its arms and cradled her like a newborn baby. The beast turned around and was met by a high-jumping Carter that landed on the spider's head. His legs tightened around the spider's neck and squeezed. The spider jumped up and down like a rodeo bull, trying to buck Carter off. Holding his obsidian sword with both hands, Carter brought the weapon down and plunged it into the spider's bone-protected neck. This was no easy feat, as Carter's right hand was broken and in pain, but he needed the force of both hands to be able to cut through the thick neck of the spider. Carter hammered the sword down with every scream he released. The spider had its hands full and couldn't reach Carter to pull him off.

The last hit finally made the spider drop to the ground. He lifted the sword one more time and came down hard. The spider's head fell off, but the sword's momentum made it hit the ground hard, busting his sword into many pieces against a rock. He held his sword up and saw only three inches left of the blade.

His sword. His only weapon. "Damn," he swore again.

He walked away from the spider, holding his bloody-stained hand by the wrist. The pain from using his shattered hand almost made him faint. He started healing again as his broken hand and arm bones popped back into place. The soft white glow permeated the dark as Carter's hands and shoulders began to heal.

Ella's Cure Poison spell had saved his life. He removed the nasty spider's poison as it turned around and attacked Arista. He looked down at Arista and had conflicting emotions. The spider's front legs were still coddling her unconscious body.

Hammy and her sisters finally stopped screaming as they saw the dead spider's body on the floor. They huddled beside the wall, still moaning about the fall's damage. It seemed as if they also had broken some of their bones too. If he leaves them here, they surely will die.

His chest started burning as he contemplated what to do.

"On this hand, they threw me in. On that hand, they were controlled by Arthur. On this hand, they allowed him to," said Carter as his head started pounding.

The women of Despair had accepted their fate and watched Carter walk back and forth, contemplating what to do. He could not drag them up anyway, and they knew it.

He walked over to Arista and touched her poisoned shoulder with his glowing hand. A Cure Poison spell left his hand and enveloped her body. He followed it with a Cure Wounds and Sanitize spell. Her eyes fluttered open as he shut the spell down. Carter lifted what was left of his sword and cut the spider's legs, holding Arista close to its furry body. She let out a little whimper, not knowing how she ended up in the arms of the spider as she fell to the ground. Carter touched her damaged leg and started to heal it.

She grunted loudly when she felt her broken leg snap back into place. The healing subsided the pain, and then it was over. She pushed herself off the floor and stood on her leg. A slight smile came over her face.

Carter turned around and looked at his sword again. He frowned and started moving towards the three women huddled in the darkness. A little noise came out of Hammy as she tried to place herself in front of the other women to protect them.

"Your name is Hammy, right? I need to heal you all up so we can get out of here," said Carter, holding his hands out in a non-threatening gesture. She looked at him confused and then proffered her single leg to him. He grabbed it softly and healed it completely. He looked at her face, and she looked surprised. He touched her cheek and the scar she had there disappeared.

A small smile appeared on Hammy's face. Unintentionally, Carter placed his hands on her disability, her lost leg, and Cloned her a new foot. She didn't realize what had happened until she felt the pain of the spell Sanitize on her foot.

Carter moved to Corin and Seth. They were meeker than Hammy but looked to be just as strong. Broken bones moved back into place and healed instantly. Small wounds and cuts disappeared. "Better?" asked Carter as he stood. They both shook their heads up and down, still somewhat scared.

He shuffled himself through the dark towards the spider's body. It hadn't disappeared. Was it not part of this Tower? Every monster he killed disappeared when they died.

He pulled up his map again and saw the tunnel entrance. Detect Area was cast once more. "The map doesn't get below ground if you're above ground," said Carter to himself. He moved around until the map aligned in the right direction. A slight smile came over his face as he realized the black icon on his map was back, and it was underground. The smile faded when he saw two large red dots further down the tunnel.

"It better not be more spiders," said Carter.

"More spiders? Where?" screamed Hammy, who had snuck up behind Carter while he was concentrating on the map.

He gave them a funny look, then pulled out his water skin. He took a deep drink of it and handed it to Hammy. A warm and gentle smile bloomed on her face as she started drinking.

Arista walked up and instantly started groveling, saying she was so sorry. Carter raised his hand and said, "We must get out of here. When we do, you will be free to do what you want. I'm not a master," said Carter as he raised his hand to show a symbol of two dragons on his hand.

"You're our master, now?" said Arista. She looked back at the other women, and they held up their hands with Carter's symbol.

"Arthur pledged you to me as a sick joke since we were all supposed to die," said Carter as he turned around. He started walking down the wide tunnel. Pointing at his light source, he aimed it down the tunnel. "Follow," said Carter. He wasn't sure of how to make it do that, but it seemed to know.

The women looked at each other. "Let's follow her. That tunnel looks like the only other way to go," said Arista. They all agreed and followed Carter.

After a few minutes of walking, Carter stopped and looked around. The tunnel was large, 20 heads tall and 20 heads wide. Spider webs decorated every overhang and root that hung out. He moved towards one of the walls and then back to the other one. He pulled what was left of his sword out of his belt and started digging into the sabulous wall.

"What are you doing?" asked Arista.

"Trying to dig her way out," said Hammy with a hint of a laugh. All the other women joined in with Hammy and let out a small giggle.

"My map says that something is here. Just give me a moment," said Carter as he dug upwards into the wall.

"Map?" asked Hammy, "What Map?"

"Maybe we should look ahead," said Arista.

Carter jumped down from the hole he had just dug, wiped some dirt off his pants, and started digging deeper. "I wouldn't," said Carter.

"Why?" said Corin. Carter looked over his shoulder at Corin. Corin's face was covered in dirt, and her hair was darkened by grime. All he could tell of how she looked was her ample bosom and nice-sized hips. The dress was also covered in dirt. All the women from Despair were like that. They needed a bath more than Carter did. A smile came over his face as he let out another "manna" induced fart.

"Shocking," said Corin.

"No, shocking is what is waiting at the end of this tunnel," said Carter. Those two large red dots waited. He needed to find some weapon before reaching the tunnel's end.

His grunts echoed through the tunnel as he hastily dug through the dirt. It happened fast. The side of the wall he was digging slid down and covered Carter up. He was stuck under a few heads of sand as he pushed himself backward. His hands were whipping themselves back and forth under the dirt. That's when he felt something sharp. It cut his hand as he grabbed it, but like a dummy, he held on to it tight. Eight small hands clutched at his shoulders and back and pulled him out. He fell to the ground, holding a long sword by its blade. His hand was bleeding profusely.

"Nice," said Carter as he stood up.

"Are you stupid?" said Arista.

"Yup," said Carter as his hand started glowing again. He lifted the blade to the light, and a giant smile came to his face.

"So what, a great sword? You almost died for a great sword?" said Seth.

Carter looked at Seth and asked, "What's a great sword?"

"A giant sword that you hold with two hands. It usually weighs too much for most people to use it," said Seth, "They used them before the Great War."

"Astute as always," said Arista as she pointed to Seth.

"She was an educator from the Capital surveying the Forest and got captured," said Hammy.

Carter looked at his sword as they prattled on. He cast the spell Detect Magic, and the sword glowed brightly.

"Magic sword?" asked Carter to no one in particular.

"That would be very rare. Once again, they are too big, and enhancing one would take lots of magic," said Seth.

Carter had lost his broken obsidian sword in the great landslide, as he called it. He tried to place the great sword on his belt, but it was too heavy and long. He put it in his magical rucksack, and it disappeared.

With a smile, he was ready for those two big red dots and to try out his new sword on them.