Chapter 9 - Sunday Bloody Sunday

“Hiyyah!”

Rose slashed her falchion down and severed three legs from a spider. She had just blocked its jumping attack with the buckler on her left arm, giving her an opening to bear down onto the creature as a counterattack.

Green ichor sprayed along her arm.

“Yuck! I hate fighting spiders!” She batted the maimed spider away with her shield.

“There’s too many! We need to get the nest where they’re pouring out of!” Ajax stood to Rose’s right, pushing back some of the cat sized spiders with his own shield.

“It’s fine!” Rose yelled. “Kaelen should be almost done his chant.” She looked behind herself quickly and saw the mage beginning to glow with a red light. His eyes were closed in concentration and his meditative state made him seem immune to the chaos around the party.

We need to make this look good. Warlock is watching. Rose thought as she turned her attention back to holding off the arachnids.

Standing some ways back from the combatants was the man in his usual dark cloak, his face inscrutable.

An arrow lodged itself into a spider on Ajax’s right, covering fire from his brother Apex.

Three spiders came for Rose on her left. Wanting to impress Warlock she pushed herself to take the offensive. She brought her falchion down on the first spider’s head neatly cleaving into it. The curve of the blade let her continue the stroke and she twisted her weapon and kept pushing towards the next creature.

Its beady eyes caught her movements and the second spider jumped back, but not quickly enough to completely avoid the strike and one of its forelegs fell to the ground.

Rose spun in place and struck at the third spider horizontally, carving into its head. It slumped to the ground dead and she used her momentum to bring her shield down onto the neck of the second assailant, ending its life.

“He’s ready!”

Rose heard Ajax’s warning and quickly pulled back to make sure the path to the nest was clear.

“Shards of Avernus…Fire Daggers!”

The red glow around Kaelen intensified into a bright light then suddenly vanished. A moment later a ball of crimson appeared in front of him which quickly shattered into innumerable darts of pure flame.

The fiery projectiles burst forth and began a spray towards the remaining spiders and their nest behind them. Chittering and high pitched squeals filed the adventurers’ ears. The flames reached the nest and it easily caught fire and began to burn.

With a final slash at a nearby spider Rose took stock of their surroundings. The smell of burnt carcasses was terrible but none of their assailants moved any longer except for the occasional death spasm.

She quickly turned to face Warlock. “Did you see? Didn’t we do great?!” She beamed with a sense of pride but not without a hint of desperation.

A gruff voice escaped the blackness of the hood. “Excellent. I would almost give you full marks.”

Rose scrunched her face in confusion. “Almost?”

Rather than reply, Warlock simply pointed behind the party.

Rose turned and shrieked in surprise.

A spider far more massive than any of those they had killed dropped from the trees. Rather than the size of a cat, this spider was over four feet tall and at least ten wide if you included its massive legs. Its mandibles twitched as it bore down on the group.

The word queen popped into Rose’s head before she realized she wasn’t prepared for the charge. Her left foot slipped as she desperately tried to back away in time to bring her shield to bear and she fell onto her backside.

Sensing opportunity since none of the other party members were close enough to help, the spider drove its fangs towards her.

Rose thought she saw a flash of blue before screaming as the spider queen’s maw closed over her chest.

She felt the weight of the creature’s fangs but no pain.

No pain? She thought.

Just then the spiders head slid off Rose’s torso and struck the ground beside her. The head had been neatly severed from the queen’s body.

And standing next to the queen’s dying body was a blue haired elf wielding two blades. The elf flicked some green blood off the blades in her hand then returned her swords to their sheaths as the spider body collapsed.

“There you are.”

Rose watched the petite elf casually turn away from her and head towards Warlock. She lay on the ground, covered in spider ooze, confused as to what happened.

Warlock turned to the elf. “While I appreciate you helping out my associates, do try not to leave them so messy next time.”

Ariadne smirked. “Better than the mess from fangs puncturing her stomach.”

“True enough. To what do I owe the pleasure?” He turned to Rose who was just finally getting up with the help of the rest of her group and gestured towards the young, blue haired elven woman. “This here is Ariadne. She works for an information broker in the city.”

“I…I would have been fine!” Rose snapped at the elf. She then turned to Warlock. “And how did she just appear out of nowhere?! Can you even trust her?” Rose couldn’t keep the scorn out of her voice. And the hint of jealousy at how easily the elf had defeated the queen that had surprised her.

“You need not worry. She volunteered some time ago to help us. I can assure you that her information is reliable.”

“If you say so…” Rose stood arms crossed and waited for Warlock and the elf to continue. She didn’t want to come across as childish in front of Warlock and knew she was still worked up from the battle. But something about the elf didn’t sit right.

“I’m here to let you know that a high value target is on the way to the City.” She paused as she considered what to say next. “A greater demon. He’s a relative of the Demon King himself. Sent to crack down on any resistance.”

Rose’s group gasped then grumbled about what this could mean to their activities.

Warlock continued the conversation as if he had expected the news. “Will you be able to let us know when he will be here?”

Ariadne nodded. “When I can confirm his arrival time I’ll let you know.”

She went to leave only to pause and turn back a moment. “You should know the last town he visited…was razed to the ground.”

And with that, she left.

Rose, Ajax, Apex and Kaelen stood stunned by the information.

“Are we going to be ok?” Ajax eventually let out.

“Of course we’ll be ok!” Warlock let out with a surprisingly jovial tone as he approached the group.

Responding to his unexpected happy prediction, Rose’s party blinked and waited.

“We’ll be fine…because we’re going to murder him!”