The Widow

Uneven branches smacked his elbows. Bristling thorns like needles clung to his pants. Boots sunk slightly in soft soil, twisted as he recovered his footing and darted forward. His back pressed against a wide oak trunk.

Roxanne drove ahead, rushing through thin underbrush and catching spider webs. She stopped in a clearing, went still, and reached for the handle of the large steel axe.

A chain whirled beyond some more trees. Thin branches fell like rain. The tighter space left it scraping bark. It caught large branches, but disentangled itself before straightening into a spear. Frederika thrust it forward into a bloated swaying abdomen coated in thick black scales. A spurt of liquid pushed out with a sickening pop as she pulled it out. The spider screeched. A spray of pale mist shot from the spinneret.

Kurl released the concentrated zinnian pocket against his palm. Vapor expanded while accelerating. Wind rushed through the expelled powder, smacking it against tree trunks.

Frederika stepped back, sluggishly light headed. The zinnian around her withdrew. She shook her head and lashed at something big rushing through the shadow, once again, she only saw the abdomen. The chain missed, slamming the forest floor. A fallen tree trunk split, the sides jarring upward from the force.

“What are you doing?!” Frederika protested, “I almost had it!”

“It almost had you. We’re withdrawing from the forest! Now!”

Frederika stuck her tongue out and returned to her hunt.

“Stay in my line of sight!” Kurl demanded, then clicked his tongue when she vanished behind a thicket.

The creature hissed while backing away. A thick bulging black abdomen pulsed behind it. Eight spindly legs coated in black chitin supported her weight. She turned to face Frederika. The spider body held the torso of a pale slender vampire woman from the waist up. Strands of hair in a mix of black and white resembled salt mixed with pepper. Long pointed ears stuck out of her hair, paler than the rest of her. Her bangs obscured her eyes. She’d taken a liking to a conscript jacket with the sleeves torn off to accommodate slender arms. A cap held tightly atop her head. As the heavy breeze moved the canopy, fangs glistened.

Hands reached out, sickly pale fingers stretched. Skin opened into blisters beneath the nails.

“Take cover!” Kurl shouted.

Roxanne rolled behind a tree with her ax. An unexpected legion fired its musket; the round struck so close she felt it pass hot against her torso. Her back braced against the trunk as she raised her weapon. Steel split the head down the middle. The ghoul slid from her ax, leaving a residue of oozing pink brain matter.

Plates of tarnish circled Frederika. Poison projectiles shattered into white clouds, unable to penetrate them. The chain whip swished in an S pattern before the maid, who stood unharmed when the dust cleared.

Three legion ghouls opened fired behind her. Distorted air pockets caught the rounds. Frederika twirled to strike slowed projectiles in distorted air, deflecting them into dirt. The chain whipped up, then slammed down. The head of the middle conscript popped against its own collar bone. A swing of her wrist cracked a ghoul’s neck. Her whip snapped against the remaining ghoul. Ribs cracked before it went down wheezing in convulsions.

Despite the floating plates, beads of condensed zinnian caught poison darts aimed at Frederika from behind. This girl was leaving more openings than Swiver cheese. Kurl signaled to Roxanne from behind an oak.

She ran at the spiderling vampire behind. It turned around on spindly legs, no longer threatening Fredericka. It charged Roxanne instead. A gust pushed it back, lifting its bangs. Hair blew aside to reveal a multiplicity of eyes. The largest in the center was red with a moving black dot, while the rest were black.

Frederika’s chain whipped underneath the creature, striking its legs. It wrapped a back leg, ripping it off. Repulsive green stinking fluid leaked from the wound.

The creature skittered, looked in every direction for the legions it crafted from dying men, but found nothing. Roxanne darted at her with an upraised axe.

The spiderling screeched as it twirled in confusion.

“Don’t!” Kurl shouted.

Zinnian bands wrapped Roxanne’s eyes with a gentle pressure, but she ignored the slightly irritating flow as it toyed with her hair.

The axe slammed the creature’s abdomen, which popped with an explosive release of white powder interlaced among whipping strands of spider silk. A heavy wind pushed the cloud away while Roxanne stumbled and clothes. A thin coating of dust covered her uniform. Sweaty palms burned. Another burst of heavy vapor swept the worst of the dust away in wisping white bands against the trees.

“Use the silver!”

The spider screeched, she skittered at the mention of silver. Spindly needle legs climbed high into the tree while her flattened abdomen dropped silky innards. It hissed from the branches.

Condensed zinnian bullets struck two legions aiming muskets at Roxanne. Their foreheads burst fluid before they collapsed.

The chain whip caught the spider jumping between the trees and smacked her into a clearing. When the chain returned, a broken chitin leg crunched between its links.

The vampire struggled to its feet, panting. It clutched at its uniform with a screech. Shaking legs unsteadily charged Roxane, whose steel axe rested on the forest floor behind her.

A smaller axe gleamed in her hand. The spider rushed. Remaining innards it spewed behind it. It reached to form more quicklime from blistering fingers. Only to watch her fingers separate, cleanly sliced at the knuckle by an invisible blade.

Roxanne punched the slender arm aside. Her silver axe sliced through the old uniform. A plume of acrid white smoke followed, so she retreated to avoid breathing more. The blade had gotten through, she could see the wound necrosing where the cut uniform slacked.

Frederika ran forward, only to hit an invisible wall that distorted her vision. It refused to budge against her fist.

The vampire’s long ears went limp as she tilted her head. Compound eyes stared at her hands. The rickety arachnid body dropped on its remaining legs. The black rot burnt its way across smooth pale skin, up slender wrists, until it engulfed what remained of her fingers.

A sniffle escaped a pushed-up nose. Tears cascaded down her cheeks. The hand with severed fingers disintegrated into ash before her eyes. The burning black rot spread up her slender neck. Veins of it formed along the left of her face. Hair disengaged from scalp like dandelion puffs in the wind. Lips curled into smile revealing her shimmering fangs. A great sigh released a puff of crystals while her fangs became mist.

The outline of a young woman formed in a powder cloud of quicklime dust. She curtseyed to Roxanne for a split second, and then, the cloud settled. Only the abdomen, legs, and disembodied eyes of the spider remained in a pile of dust, silk, and gore.

Kurl looked over the remains, exhausted. As much zinnian as he could practically condense gathered about his right hand, “You two!’ he shouted, “Back to the convoy! Now!”

They immediately followed orders.