The Spider’s Great Fall

Calum jumped back, narrowly dodging the spray of venom. The yaunmof shot its venom at him again, but he managed to dodge it again. “Kia, do you think you can fight it in the trees?”

“Maybe… It won’t be easy, though.”

“We need to get it down here, and I don’t think there’s any other way to do it.”

“Understood. I’ll try to force it down.” Kia ran to a large tree and speedily climbed up, vanishing into the overgrowth.

Calum kept his eye on the yaunmof, running around to avoid its spit.

Tilaya had finished her spell. Flames danced around her, basking the surrounding area in an orange glow. “I’m ready! Bring it down here!”

“Kia’s working on it!”

The demon halted its barrage of venom and turned. It jumped onto another tree, to fight Kia, Calum guessed.

Erik shook the leg that was still caught in the yaunmof’s thick web. “Can someone help? I’m still not free, you know.”

“I’m coming.” Calum ran to Erik’s side, slowed by the webs on the forest floor. He held his sword high and tore through the webs in a single clean cut from the glowing blade.

“Thank you. I didn’t particularly enjoy being stuck in place for hours, you know.”

“Next time, don’t follow a spider to its home.” Calum sheathed his sword and glanced up. He couldn’t see Kia or the yaunmof, but he could hear the shrieks of the demon and the constant rustle of disturbed leaves.

“So are we just waiting?”

“Pretty much. Kia’s trying to chase it out of the trees.”

“Why don’t you use your Divine Smite to bring it down? That would be a lot easier.”

“If I use any divine magic, I might attract hordes of enemies. I would rather not be endlessly fighting before we get to the Demon Lord’s castle. It wouldn’t be good to fight him when we’re all exhausted.”

“I see… I didn’t know divine magic attracts enemies.”

“When you’re in a land ruled by demons, the presence of divine magic will draw every monster that can sense it.”

The yaunmof crashed to the ground between Tilaya and Calum. It immediately flipped over and found its balance.

Tilaya held her hands above her head and a massive ball of fire formed above her. She threw her hands forward, and the fire blasted the demon, engulfing it in flames.

The yaunmof howled in agony and writhed in pain. After a few moments, it stopped moving. The flames died out, leaving the scorched body shriveled up on the ground.

Kia jumped out of the trees and landed next to the burnt spider corpse. “We should get out of here. The demon’s shrieking must have grabbed the attention of at least a handful of enemies.”

“We’ll return to camp to pack up, and continue heading deeper south.” Calum led the party back the way they came, his eyes on the forest floor to keep track of the footprints that were guiding his way.

They arrived at their campsite without any interruption and hurriedly collapsed their tents.

Once everything had been packed and the campsite was cleaned up, the group continued onward with Calum and Kia at the head of the party.