7
"Why can't we walk out where there are no trees?" Revvo asked trying to push himself through a bunch of trees. He could barely see the clear path through the gaps in the foilage in the distance to the right, unsure why they were trying to make their way through the dense trees when they could walk easily and with no obstacles on the dirt ridden, open plain a few miles away.
"Because, out there we are open for attacks. Anything can see us," Amerial noted pointing to the vague beasts wandering in the far distance.
The group couldn't make out what they were exactly, only that they were big and not friendly, most likely.
"You forget these damned spiders?" Grebb said flinging sharpened stones towards a lone spider. It was foolish to think it could rush the group for a possible meal.
"They are much easier to deal with. Spiders are no challenge." Amerial smiled watching the spider collapse with the newly adorned chunks of rock protruding from its body randomly.
With each step they took southward, the jungle became more impassable. It was not so bad until the sun finally took its place in the sky adding its heat to the hardship of the journey. Between the packets of dense trees, the moist humid air, and the miscellaneous jungle creatures, mostly the spiders merely looking to feed, Amerial's group by far had it worse than the rest, especially since they could not stride in the open, flat plain of dirt not ridden with pockets of jungle trees per Amerial's orders.
"I haven't seen a damn thing the entire time, save these eight-legged pests!" William said crashing into a spider with his shield. After it was slain, he rampantly made his way through the thicket trying to make a way to walk.
"That's because you have been complaining the entire time," Grebb said weaving out of the way of jungle shrubs. His hands were parallel to the ground as he walked with a minute brown aura surrounding them.
"Shut up Grebb. You're used to the jungles. You Asura and Sylvari have it made out here." William wiped sweat from his face for the hundredth time in the past hour.
"I also have yet to notice anything out of the ordinary," Nikcoli said looking around. She had a faint smile on her face
"So Sonja, enough of the small talk," Gunnar started with a hearty smile, "What is your full name? I've not met such a," Gunnar began eyeing her body before continuing, "breath-taking woman before."
Gunnar Bjornjankin, a Norn from the more grassy regions of the Shiverpeaks, had quite the time on the journey so far. Despite the tiring, sweat-drenched journey, he found the trek quite amusing. This was mostly because there was a female Norn in the party and he had nobody to call his own. Mordremoth was the main mission, but Gunnar's side mission was Sonja.
Sonja shot him a glance of annoyance, but decided to play along. "Sonja Stromdottir, daughter of Strom Svaglin. Why? What is yours?" she asked not actually caring. She waved her hand in front of her, misting the area in which she walked. The cool breeze of icy mist she walked through sent a shiver down her spine, despite the heavy jungle heat.
"Gunnar. Gunnar Bjornjankin of the mighty Bear Spirit!" he boasted with a noble pose, "Strom Svaglin, eh? I recall that name from somewhere…" Gunnar mentioned looking away from where he was walking. His straying eyes caused him to trip over a root and fall right into a brush of leaves and webbing left behind from some spiders. Sonja laughed, as well as a couple others.
"Ugh, blach!" Gunnar shouted angrily because he fell. He tried to rid his face of the webbing before getting up.
"Pay a little more attention to where you walk and not so much on me, Gunnar. Be for the best anyways," Sonja said with a wink while moving right past him.
"Ah, but that is where you're wrong," Gunnar stubbornly started while hastily rising to his feet and rushing to keep up with Sonja, "I was too busy admiring your beauty to see the branch in my path."
Sonja rolled her eyes and she was thankful when William interrupted.
"My god man," William said with a crazed look of annoyance, dehydration, and a sleight tinge of crazy, "She isn't interested. Even I can tell that and I'm ready to collapse."
"You ok, William?" Kadra asked seeing his reddened cheeks and immense sweating.
"I believe so, yes. Probably the heavy armor. Just a little thirsty too." William began daydreaming in that moment of a nice ice-cold glass of water.
"We should stop and take a small break," Amerial said while looking around, "This patch isn't as littered with trees as in other areas and William looks ready to face-plant like Gunnar did."
Gunnar grumbled as the rest chuckled. William immediately sat and rested his head over a low branch. Looking up, he began to cackle lightly at the situation and recalling Gunnar's trip.
"From the looks of it, we're near Brisban, right?" Revvo asked seeing familiar brush and landscape.
"I do not think we are close to Brisban," Amerial said. She began moving and twisting her body to make up for her body shriveling slightly due to the immense heat and lack of hydration.
"Closest part of Brisban we are near is Vandal's and the Proxemics, and those are some ways away. We passed them a while back, closer to The Grove and Rata Sum I'd say now," Grebb said looking at the vaguely familiar mountain ranges in the distance.
Amerial went to add her two cents, but her head snapped to the left as she sensed something. She lifted her bow and let loose a few arrows to the Maguuma jungle spiders descending from the treetops. After they fell from their descent, the rest of the group that were still standing slew them out of boredom.
"I am -sick- of these spiders," Grebb noted after hearing William laugh and mumble something through the laughter.
"It is the jungle. And it appears we are in their territory," Kadra noted pointing upward at the vast circuit of webbing stringing along the tree tops hidden behind the tree leaves.
"Regardless. They need to-," Grebb started before William began to really lose his mind. He just kept laughing.
"I think he really needs water…" Amerial said before searching through her pack.
"I got it," Sonja said waving her hands in the air towards William. Just above his mouth a globe of water began to form. It swished and twirled about, letting go some icy drops atop William, who loved every cool touch.
"Ah yes, give me some imaginary water!" William said trying to eat the entire globe of water. His laughter stopped with the first drop that touched his tongue.
"It isn't imaginary William," Sonja noted, "it's merely conjured. Big difference. You were drinking imaginary water before I produced any."
William kept his mouth open as water poured from the spherical fountain into his mouth. Little by little, his thirst was being quenched as the rest of them looked on more than envious.
"Might we have some of that Sonja?" Grebb asked licking his lips. Although Grebb too was an elementalist, his specialty was the earth and dirt and crystals, not water.
"Of course. You all can." Sonja widened her open hand as the sphere of water grew in size. After a few more seconds, water poured in many directions, watering the thirsty group. Their faces of sweat and exhaustion turned to that of a normal, well cooled one, as if in a proper ventilated home. Nikcoli was the only one not involving herself in the water gorge.
"You taste delicious, Sonja of water!" Gunnar said before realizing what he said was inappropriate. He choked on some water before he could talk and apologize.
"Wow man… You try too much," William said nearly sated of water.
"You do not want any Nikcoli?" Sonja asked ignoring Gunnar's comment. She was almost offended at Nikcoli not wanting any. Nikcoli was Sylvari and didn't want to moisturize her body with magic.
"I am fine. I am used to this area," she said looking around. Amerial and a few others looked to her.
"You've been out here before?" Amerial asked now questioning how and why Nikcoli might have been this far.
"I was just going to ask the same thing…" William stated while unable to sit up due to the bulk of fresh liquid in his stomach.
"Not this area exactly," she said now feeling as if she was being interrogated, "but some many yards from Brisban." Nikcoli felt the unsettling tension and could only stand there absorbing the piercing gazes.
"The outskirts of Brisban is bandit controlled or Nightmare Court territory." Amerial said with poise in the topic.
"Which do you hail from?" Kadra asked Nikcoli with a hint of anger in case they were all being duped by this necromancer.
Nikcoli looked to Kadra and then the rest of the group. She felt guilty and sighed. "Well, if you must know, I was once of the Court."
Gasps came out and Amerial drew her bow again. "Once? Not how it works. Once you're part of the court, you are corrupted and cannot reclaim yourself."
"Not true," Nikcoli spoke as she tried to calm them while she looked over at Kadra's rifle pointed at her, Amerial's bow, and a ready William with shield and sword.
"It is true. Many in the Nightmare Court are evil, twisted and tainted in their ways, but not everyone," Nikcoli pleaded, "Many of us believe in the court's ideal, free of Ventari's tablet and free to not be bound to the bonds in which we are born. This same group also isn't evil, or at least trying to corrupt everything. There is a group within the Nightmare Court who merely want to be free from Ventari's teachings and go along with the Nightmare because there is no other option for them. At least, that's what I believed."
Amerial aimed but was not ready to fire just yet. She wanted to hear whatever excuse Nikcoli could muster. "No other option? There is always another option."
"Amerial, by merely being a Sylvari means for us to always consort with the Dream and take root with the Grove. I do not wish to take root, but travel. Explore. See what there is to see. Be free of Ventari and come up with my own philosophy, however anyone I wish to talk to about it within the grove call me a traitor and label me as such for just expressing how I truly feel."
"What of your Wyld Hunt, necromancer?" Amerial asked almost ignoring Nikcoli's plea.
"My Wyld Hunt I have seen. It also has to do with the Nightmare Court, sadly."
Amerial huffed and pulled an arrow out and got ready to load it into place to let fly. "Was it to corrupt and taint other Sylvari into their cause? Was this what you have seen?"
"I no longer corrupt others or kill for the court. No longer am a Knight, Nikcoli of Carrion. I am merely me. A dark Sylvari looking for a better life, not of Nightmare looking to taint." Nikcoli raised her arms defensively, trying to show she was not a threat.
"Stop it bookahs," Grebb said standing in front of Nikcoli. Despite not actually covering the rifle or bows line of firing because of his stature, Grebb opened his arms and stood in front of the Sylvari in question as if he was tall enough to block any incoming attacks.
"For what reason Asura? A traitor is a traitor. She might backstab us," Gunnar said unsheathing his short bow to also take aim.
"I was once Inquest, but I am no longer part of their ways of life. Do you toss me out of the group like you all wish to do with her as well?" Grebb looked angered that such rash judgments were given from the others.
"I don't know," Gunnar said while aiming a little lower, "You both could be in cohorts for all we know!" Gunnar took notice of Sonja now looking at him through his peripherals. He felt the look Sonja gave and smiled, knowing it began in his mind. Her head in his direction only meant she was looking at him with admiration and the faint attraction he wanted from her. Her stare was all he needed to boast higher in tallness and grinning.
"What if I was technically part of the Sons of Svanir merely because of my father?" Sonja said while walking up to Grebb and Nikcoli. Gunnar felt his stomach turn and heart sink, no more could he sustain the butterflies and arrogant eminence.
"Strom Svaglin…," Gunnar started, "-That's- where I know that name. Your father was one of the generals for the Svanir. You outlasted him I see."
"I did, but I did not take up his mantle," Sonja said crossing her arms.
"You're female, not like you could take up his mantle if you wanted to," Gunnar said with a smile.
"I'd not want to. I am not with them any longer or associated with them," Sonja defended.
"How do we know for sure?"Gunnar asked with a quirk in his face.
"Just because I was born into their ranks does not mean I belong to them anymore." Sonja planted a firm foot down, showing just how passionate she was about their ambiguous stares.
"Why don't we finish this another time," Kadra offered while looking upward with hesitation.
"What?" Gunnar asked looking over to Kadra, despising being interrupted.
William looked to Kadra and saw her stare did not gaze to the possible traitors, but upward. He too aligned his eyes with hers and gasped.
"Are you jesting me? More spiders?" William shouted raising his shield.
"Now that's more than the usual three to four…" Revvo said reaching for his sides seeing about ten of them beneath the webbing coating the treetops.
The group as a whole armed themselves. Kadra whipped around her rifle pointing it up, Amerial and Gunnar their bows aimed high, Nikcoli her scepter, Revvo his pistols, and Grebb and Sonja with their hands at the mass of creatures. The pact of adventurers eagerly waited for the spiders to start dropping down to them, but the spiders stopped and merely starred at the group instead.
"What are they doing?" Revvo asked wondering just what these spiders were doing.
"Yeah, they are creatures of habit: kill, eat, sleep, mate, and repeat. Nothing more…" Grebb said watching them.
Slowly more spiders began to emerge from the webbing spread throughout the treetops, growing in their numbers. None provoked, none moved once in position.
"Wait," Nikcoli said inspecting them further, "those aren't the usual jungle spiders…"
"Befall upon them!" cried a deep female voice from in the distance in front of them. The group all looked to the voice having not expected to hear anything, let alone anyone, out in the jungle.
A lean plant-body frame sat atop a larger than average spider. Thick leathers adorned both her and her spider mount, colored in black, purple, green and gold with accents of red. Tendrils protruded fashionably from her attire, mimicking both spider legs and spikes.
"Venassi…" Nikcoli mustered while looking at her in the distance, uncaring spiders were now making their way towards her and the rest of the group.
"Who?" Amerial asked now wondering if this was an ambush set by Nikcoli. She began picking off the spiders nearing the group, though weary of her supposed ally.
"She is a of the court. One of the many under Faolin. The Duchess of Venom," Nikcoli averted her gaze upward while raising her scepter, "Those are Nightmare spiders."
The spiders began to come all at once instead of a few here and there. As they got closer, each spider started to spit a thin layer of green atop the group, covering them like a blanket.
William rose his shield, blocking the substance. He darted over hearing small cries of pain and shouts of alarm.
"It burns!" Revvo said trying to shake it off, as if shaking would do the trick. The substance was quite sticky and pained at the touch.
"Their venom! Watch out!" William cried before realizing he was the only one without green on him. Their cries of pain and stinging made William wish he was more of a healing guardian than one of defensive capability. He threw up a hand causing a small cryptic symbol to appear over his unit's heads, only helping their anguish a little.
The small ease of pain William gave the party gave them all some time to attack. Amerial loosing arrows into nearby spiders, she could only fell so many before falling to one knee from the poison.
Nikcoli appeared to not be as hindered by the venom, wielding a wide ribbon of black and dark green with her sceptor. With a flick of a wrist, the ribbon of unholy magic coursed through a mass of spiders. The cloud of disease she bore caused the spiders to be in pain by their screeching and wobbling.
Sonja rose up from her pain, the green poison being soaked up by her conjured waters, and shouted angrily with a visage matching her anger. "Damn foul creatures!"
A large surge of water erupted from her hands as she widened them, covering the entire group with the outer bands of the water, also colliding into the spiders that were close to being right on top of them. With the tide of water splashing against each member of her company, their pains healed and the venom vanished. The surge that hit the spiders not only knocked them back away from the recuperating group, but also caused some grief as well with the magical properties of her conjured substance.
"Oh, my…" Gunnar emoted soaked and refreshed while fumbling to his feet. Not putting two and two together in his mind properly before talking, he decided to comment, "Your juices from in you are all too enticing, the vigor I get from it is amazing."
"Let's focus on the threat here Norn," William said shaking his head wondering how the Norn male could think of such inappropriate thoughts at a time like this.
Two spiders skittered towards the group from the ground, causing Revvo to leap back while firing his pistols at them. Kadra littered the air in front of three other spiders with an array of bullets and metal, impacting harshly with the furry legged creatures.
William slashed away at one spider while keeping another at bay by bashing it in the face with his shield.
"And I was starting to think that this was to be a boring journey!" Gunnar said firing an arrow directly through three of the four legs on the right side of the spider he focused on.
"It still is, who said otherwise Gunnar?" William commented slashing away at more spiders.
As the spiders met the ground, they started at the group messily , and then started crawling over each other to try and get to the group, frenzied in their attacks.
"Will," Grebb said crouching down on the ground. Once William looked, Grebb nodded. William did the same and made his way over to Grebb, fending off any arachnids who might be out for the little one.
Grebb began focusing with a hand extended directly below to the ground on which he stood. The earth surrounding him began to move and rumble. Rocks and dirt began to swirl around and form a growing wave of magic beneath the top layer of the ground, causing the dirt and jungle debris atop it to churn and contort to its power. The surging wave from Grebb made its way outward in a ring beneath their feet, slowly enveloping the group and then many spiders. As it got far enough, Grebb slammed the ground with an open palm, causing the ground to rupture upward rocky spurs. The earth churned up jagged rocks and funneled dirt in that instant, mostly piercing and puncturing many spiders, while crushing others between colliding rocks. The spiders that were not punctured or hit but the churned earth were instead bleeding from the amount of small sharp stones and jungle debris flung outward by Grebb's spell. Grebb's allies were fine, untouched by the churn.
"Good to see someone's using their head," Revvo said nodding to the fellow Asura. Grebb smiled.
There were still spiders making their way to the group, but not nearly as many as there were at first.
"Enough games my arachnids," Venassi approached the group on her enormous spider mount, slowly, as if taking in the victory. The other spiders that had not yet seen action began to make a circle around the group and began spitting a type of green liquid towards them, causing the group to come together in a circular defensive fashion.
"Venassi," Nikcoli said as her hands glowed behind her back, "Do you remember me?" Nikcoli wanted to cause a distraction, hopefully giving the group some time to think.
Venassi leered over humorously. It was not her place to remember faces. Seeing Nikcoli's face, she became surprised in that instant. "I can say that I do. You were the Knight of Carrion, right? You became a Knight back with the Knight of Rot, Knight of Illusions, and the Knight of Embers, well, she has perished since then, but yes. I do recall you actually."
"Good. Nice to know my face hasn't become forgotten." Nikcoli smirked in that conceited moment.
"You are still of the court then…" Amerial said to Nikcoli raising her bow towards her.
Nikcoli whipped back to Amerial and hid her hand from Venassi's sight. She pointed to the Nightmare Court duchess with a ring displacement of green in her hand. "I am not. I am no longer their kindred."
"I have to disagree… you led us to her." Amerial played wondering what Nikcoli was up to. Either way her bow was aimed and ready.
"I did not! I-" Nikcoli started.
"Technically she is right Knight of Carrion," Venassi added with a grin.
"I am no longer the Knight of Carrion, Venassi," Nikcoli said with vigor in the subject, "I am known now as Nikcoli, successor of Nikcoli Tearth, great necromancer of the past."
"I do not recite the name so easily," Venassi said uncaring of her history, "Tell me why I should know the name."
"Well," Nikcoli started turning to her side, "She was a human and lived in the time of The Searing. Frequented the catacombs of the abbey in Ashford, both after and before the land burned, broadening her use of undead and how to wield the power" she exclaimed while concentrating a black veil beneath her palms, "She was a good friend to Munne in her life, and eventually explored the lands around Tyira perfecting her necromantic ways through help of others throughout her travels."
"And how do you know all this or why even care?" Venassi amused putting a hand up to the spiders who were eagerly waiting to attack.
"Because the Pale Tree gave me her memories and her life experiences and I believe it's for a reason. Part of my Wyld Hunt."
"You are no Courtier, speaking of Wyld Hunts and the Pale Tree. I will enjoy this," Venassi said shaking her head.
"You're absolutely right about the one part Venassi," Nikcoli said with a grin.
"One part?" Venassi wondered aloud still holding her spiders back with a wavered hand.
Nikcoli looked to her allies and then back to Venassi, "Yes. I will enjoy this," Nikcoli said as she let loose her black and green blast.
The only reaction Venassi had within the few seconds before the blast hit herwas the widening of her eyes. The blast of unholy connected with Venassi and sent her some yards off her mount, which had rolled over out of surprised stupor and being hit a little by the knockback.
"Be aware!" William shouted as the spiders skittered at them angrily.
Amerial managed to fire one arrow before bashing at a spider with the end of her bow, not expecting them to be at her so fast. William cleaved into a spider going towards Amerial, but found the carapace not nearly as fragile as the last hundred spiders he slain in the jungle. Bashing it aside, watching it get back up, William sighed.
"These Nightmare ones are a bit more tough!" William shouted attacking away with his sword.
"I see that!" Gunnar said watching his arrows bounce off their backside.
"Magic works -much- better," Grebb mocked watching claws he made of soil and jungle brush grasp a couple spiders and then bring them back into the ground, crushing them in the descent.
"I must agree," Sonja commented watching her globes of water latched at the mouths of the arachnids, suffocating a few.
"Iron," Kadra started while blasting away with her rifle, loving each moment her shredding metal pierced through each spider she shot at, "is also well suited to tear through their membrane."
"Gloat more," William voiced agitated while swiping without avail at a couple spiders. He was good enough to dodge their pesky bites, but not powerful enough to break through their exterior.
Nikcoli leered back, smiling while watching her comrades converse, but as she looked back towards the Duchess, she watched Venassi's mount loom over her. Panicking, Nikcoli spit out a spell from her hands, but tripped mid way causing it to fizzle as she fell to the ground. She looked up to see the armored spider come at her, but only for a few seconds until shots were fired at it.
"Bookah!" Revvo said to Nicoli while firing away at the mount with his pistols.
The massive spider screeched while backing up. After a few seconds of this, it curled up and leaned to the side, as if dead.
"You ok Sylvari?" Revvo said placing his pistols in their holsters.
"I-I am fine," Nikcoli softly stated. She could feel in her body just how close she was to dying and it did not feel good. She looked up to the Asura and smiled, glad he came to her rescue.
"You have to watch behind you, Bookah."
"I know, I just-" Nikcoli started, but stopped. Her eyes widened.
Nikcoli watched Revvo get impaled and lifted off his feet into the air. Two furry appendages firmly rested jutting through his middle. Revvo could not move or comprehend what just happened.
"No!" Nikcoli shouted seeing the horror. She had seen death many times before, but not to a comrade she had just met and begun to put up with.
Revvo began to squirm and scream in immense pain, as his mind finally grasped the situation he was in. Just as fast as his screams started, they stopped. The spider mount had begun to pick at its fangs with its two closest tendrils, not only removing the food it had stuck in its teeth, but also separating it into smaller pieces for easier chewing.
"Fellow Asura! NO!" Grebb shrieked unable to comprehend what just happened.
All attacks by the group now concentrated on Venassi's mount while they attempted to avenge their fallen friend. They dodged the other spiders as best they could, but felt obligated to bring down the giant spider. The anger in which they felt could not be matched in the moment.
"String them up!" Venassi shouted nearing the group again, "Clever use of Nightmare tactics Knight of Carrion, but I will not sit here and play when you cannot play by the rules."
Nikcoli responded by weaving another blast of necrotic energy towards Venassi, but she easily dodged it this time.
"Fall upon them my champions! We take them to Faolin! One of them must know the Harbinger's location."
Filled with vengeful anger, most of the Forefront group attacked Venassi and her mount as best they could before becoming overrun with spiders. There were a few cries and some trying to escape, like the mighty Gunnar, but between the masses of spiders that seemingly came out of the jungle woodwork and now about five arachnids that matched Venassi's mount in both size and armor, they could not even attempt an escape.
"Mph Mofbur," William emoted while wrapped up unable to move. Beneath the webbing, a smile coated his face when he saw Venassi's mount.
Missing a leg, on its back with pieces of earth and slices in it, and twitching in its last breathes of life, vengeance was granted and served by the trapped members of the Forefront.
A ray of sunlight hit the husk of the dead spider, shining off its carapace in such a fashion that it reminded William he had the flare to use in case they were in danger.
"Bmnit," he emoted realizing it was too late and also at the fact he was the only one to remember they even had the devices.