Here we go. I like to think I made this one pretty interesting, and I know it's a little short but it dawned on me that my previous plan on how I was going to write these next few chapters didn't really seem to flow well in my mind. So I hope this will do until I get the next chapter. I hope it will. Enjoy!
The cave stank! A queer, damp smell that was like being in a dark, wet alley filled with trash where rats would hide and breed. A musty odor like that of urine was over powering. God, it was like being back in Kingsport where the stench of the homeless loomed over, along with the scent of wet stone, wood and hay that all three of them had grown too familiar with.
There was another smell here, one that was sicker and more stomach turning than the others. It was a dead smell. A dead smell that was alive. The arachnids that inhabited this cave were not to be seen, but the smell of death was permeating and stuck like a perfume that was most unattractive.
Thick webs covered the walls of the cave and they were quiet. Taking only the most silent of steps without a tap of a boot to be heard. The walked slowly and their breathing was so slight that they needed to take single deep breaths just to stay regular.
Lyndon lead the way. He hardly had an idea as to where he was going. The only light was coming from the prize strapped to Kormac's back - The Strangers sword. None of them knew anything about spiders in detail but if they considered them like any other beast or animal then they could assume a very highly developed since of instinct was a given for these creatures and what was more concerning was they had no way of knowing how many arachnids were dwelling in these caves.
Tip-tip-tip-tip-tip.
He stopped. Lyndon held his arm out to halt Li-Ming and Kormac from going any further. Tip-tip-tip-tip. Something was moving ahead of them and they couldn't tell how close it was. They heard another set of irregularly quick steps above them and behind them. Li-Ming tapped Lyndon of the back of the head to tell to keep going. She wanted to avoid these spiders as well but Lyndon was being to over cautious. Should they get caught, Li-Ming would simply light the arachnids on fire.
Each step they took was methodical because none wanted to step on anything or trip. They heard what sounded like breathing and Lyndon unsheathed his dagger. Whoever it was sounded like they were having difficulty breathing like they were crying mixed with choking.
Unable to see too far, they relied on their hearing to tell them when they reached whoever it was that was making the noises. Li-Ming opened her palm and made a small fire ball to give them some extra light and they saw little baby spiders the size of adult hands scurry and hide from the light. They scattered in many different directions, into cracks and tunnels of various size.
A skinny man, wrapped in a cocoon hung on the walls. He trembled in his web made tomb and Lyndon made a bid to cut him loose until he spoke. "My mistress has accepted me." His grin was sinister and his eyes were crazed. "Come and feel my mistresses loving embrace." He convulsed and he screamed in pain. The area of web that covered his stomach bubbled and shook. Lyndon backed away with his arm out stretched, almost burning himself on Li-Ming's spell as he did. The man continued to scream and the webs stained red with blood and more blood spilled from his mouth.
Spiders erupted from his belly and malodorous, green tinted insides fell out with them. More spiders struggled and crawled from his mouth. The little spiders surrounded the man's insides and began to feed. Lyndon and Kormac threw up and Li-Ming almost did the same. Instead she swallowed the bile in her throat and set the man and the spiders on fire. The spiders screeched as each one burnt and shriveled in Li-Ming's fire.
The fire spread rapidly. Eating the webs that blanketed the walls, going into holes and tunnels. They heard screeches and high pitched howls coming from everywhere and larger more deadly spiders crawled out of their holes and ran straight towards them.
"I've got this!" Li-Ming claimed.
She was about to fire another spell until Lyndon grabbed her wrist and said, "Sorry good looking, but no!" He ran and pulled Li-Ming along with him, giving her no choice in the matter. The fire roared and howled above and behind them as did many spiders as they poured from the walls all around them to run from the fire and give chase.
The entered the main chamber of the caves and kept running. All round them were yellow, bulbous, slimy egg sacks. They covered the chamber like a fungus and spiders were coming from all over the chamber towards them. They looked behind them and the fire crept up the walls and to the ceiling. Bits of flaming web dripped onto the nest below them and set more fires that quickly grew out of control.
The spiders were catching up. Just was they ran, they spiders were there to barely miss them. One tried to jump on Kormac but he ducked and it went over the edge. Another simply tried rushing towards li-Ming but she jumped over it.
Below them, a monstrously huge spider crawled from the nest. It was the queen and she was massive. She cared not for the spiders that were in her way. She crushed, smashed and stomped on any that had the misfortune of being in her range.
There was no way they were going to be able to out run these arachnids. They would all be caught and eaten long before they made it out of the tunnels. Li-Ming knew this to be true before they even started running, which is why she stopped, turned and shot a powerful wave of force spell into the sea of spiders.
Lyndon and Kormac stopped and saw Li-Ming standing her ground against the spiders that rapidly approached her.
"Li-Ming! What are you doing!?" Kormac shouted.
She did not answer and the queen spider was getting nearer and nearer. Her giant maw was open and waiting to catch Li-Ming.
Li-Ming held her arms up at shoulder height and her fingers danced like she was puppet master controlling the strings and the fire took on new life. The fire sprung forth from all around and flew in the chamber like serpents in the water. The fire thinned out and dashed across the flood of spiders that burnt them to smoldering heaps and ashes. The queen retreated into an adjacent tunnel but the rest of them did not and they met a fiery end at the hands of Li-Ming's magic.
The men watched in awe and horror. Li-Ming was surrounded by fire that swirled and danced around her as she set the spiders to a blaze. Neither of them had seen Li-Ming do anything like this. Kormac had seen Li-Ming use her magic more than anyone else and he knew her to be exceptionally powerful but h did not know that she could do something like this. It was out of this world. With every movement Li-Ming's fingers made, the fire obeyed like a servant to its master.
Sweat beaded and trickled from Li-Ming's skin do to the heat, it was time to put the fire out. Li-Ming made fists and slowly, the fire shrunk until all that was left was the burnt remains of the arachnids and piles of ash.
Kormac and Lyndon could not believe their eyes. The chamber was completely void of any arachnids and their eggs and webs. Li-Ming lowered her arms and swiped away some of her sweat with her sleeve. She had not done anything close to that since her last night in the Yshari Sanctum. The night when she realized her destiny was upon her.
Li-Ming walked and said, "Alright, let's go."
"Hold on!" Kormac said, running up to join Li-Ming. "Would you care to explain just what the hell that was? It was like you were controlling everything with your mind."
"I was."
"Why have you not used it before? If you're capable of that kind of power, than why didn't you use it to put Wortham out when Maghda attacked?"
"Because Kormac, I was too mentally drained to even attempt it. You have to remember that when we got back to Tristram that day we had just spent the entire time running to get back and the attack happened not long after. Had I tried it, I could have lost control and caused more damage otherwise I would done it on the spot." It would have been like what Isendra tried to do in Lut Bahadur. When she tried to save the village from the drought that cursed that land. Li-Ming would have tried if she could but doing so would have proven her old master correct and that was out of the question. "Believe me, I had thought about all I could do to stop the fire. I would have made rain fall, or summoned water from the lake to flood out the fire but my options for magic were limited."
"Are all magic users capable of that kind of power?" Lyndon asked.
"No, they're not. The most powerful at the Yshari Sanctum were my old master, my friend and tutor, Isendra and myself. If it helps give you an idea – my master once told me that I alone had the power to break the world. So imagine the difference we could have made if we three had ever been able to actually agree on something and work together."
"You're that powerful, huh? Sounds all too dangerous to have that kind of power so I think I'll just stick to what I know which is thieving, bows and arrows and women." Lyndon said.
"And you hardly know anything about real women." Li-Ming replied.
Kormac snickered. "Oh, shut it." Lyndon sneered. "I hardly think you're eligible to give your opinion mister 'forgo the pleasures of the flesh." Komrac crossed his arms, but he held his smile. "And as for you Li-Ming. I would have you know that I know plenty about women."
"Do you now?" She replied.
"Indeed, and I'd been inclined to show you later if you have any romantic inclinations this evening."
"Oh, Lyndon. You flatter me, but I have not the slightest clue where you've been and I would hate to catch something."
Kormac laughed again.
"Keep it up, Templar, and I won't hesitate to show you who the better man is."
"In case you forgot, Lyndon. I am twice your size and will have you pinned before you could get the first punch in."
"Are you testing me?"
"Boys!" Li-Ming shouted to shut them up.
They came into another yet smaller chamber. It was surrounded in webs and the same yellow egg sacks lied among the ground. Large web covered holes littered the walls and a lager more cubic hole sat in the center of the room. The way out was a few yards above them but thicker, slimy webbing blocked the way out and a familiar large spider sat in the center of it.
"Looks like she has been waiting for us." Li-Ming was surprised to see that this creature was capable of such critical thinking. It truly was impressive. The queen walked down her web and onto the ground. She stared at them with primal hunger with her twelve beady black eyes. She growled and then roared a high pitch scream. It was a piercing sound and the group covered their ears.
Lyndon stood, his vision blurred and ears ringing. He pulled the string of his bow to his cheek quickly and fired an arrow into the queen's mouth where it struck soft flesh. The queen stopped her assault on their ears and shook her head in pain. The rest of them stood and the queen vomited a slimy, thick putrid smelling excretion and they all jumped out of the way to avoid it. Where it landed, the rock gave way as the projectile melted through the ground.
The queen eyed Li-Ming, seeing her as the biggest threat and charged for her. Li-Ming swiped her hand upwards and a curved wall of ice shielded her from the queen's attack. Kormac observed and saw weak spots at the joints of the queen's legs. He held his ax high and struck with all of his might and the queens' leg split and was now only attached by a few strings of meat.
Kormac smiled but was then struck by another one of the queen's legs and was hit across the room.
"Kormac!" Li-Ming yelled. The Templar was face down on the ground and he was no longer conscience. Li-Ming slapped the ground and a sheet of ice snaked its way across and up the queens legs, making her immobile while Li-Ming dashed to Kormac's side.
There, Lyndon saw an opportunity. He raced to the queen and thanks to her rough hide, managed to climb on top of her. The queen shook violently, trying to get Lyndon off of her while she also struggled to break her legs free from Li-Ming's spell. Lyndon held on as best he could as his legs swung left and right. He crawled to her head and proceeded to jamb an arrow into each one of her eyes. The queen hollered and her pain was evident.
"You like that, huh! Here, have another!" Lyndon shouted. Each time he pulled his arrow from one of the queen's eye socket – green strings and drops of warm blood freckled his face.
On the other side of the chamber, Li-Ming successfully dragged Kormac to safety and she watched as Lyndon bravely confronted the queen. The queen shook some more and finally broke her legs free of Li-Ming's ice and crawled her way up to the ceiling. Lyndon held on by the arrow that was lodged in the queen's eye socket. "Lyndon, let go!" Li-Ming yelled and he did before the queen disappeared inside of a tunnel. He was caught by a slide of ice that Li-Ming summoned and he slid safely to the ground.
"She got away!" Lyndon called out.
"Like hell she will." Li-Ming set fire to webs and like the last time, the fire ate the webs quickly and traveled into the tunnels honeycombing the chamber. Legions of other arachnids rained from their crawl spaces and splattered to the earth where they twitched and squirmed until they died. Like a demon descending back to hell, the queen came charging back in a fiery heap. She crashed into Li-Ming's ice slide, shattering it into pieces and onto the ground and the queen broke wreck. Lyndon and Li-Ming jumped and dashed to escape the queen's ever present furious assault.
The queen smashed into walls and cracked the floor with her weight with each angry step she took. Her attack was clumsy but primal and full of rage. She worked towards them and they jumped out the way in time and the queen almost tripped herself into the large hole in the center if the room and that's when Lyndon got an idea.
Li-Ming was creating an ice barrier to block the queen away from her and the queen destroyed the ice wall as it was being made. Slashing and craching with her legs each new part of ice that Li-Ming made. It was enough away but Li-Ming was having trouble concentrating with all the ice and water droplets thereof sprinkling her eyes.
"Hey!" Lyndon called out to the queen to get her attention. He was standing near the edge of the large cubic hole in the center of the room with a plan that may or may not kill him. The queen glared into him with a gaze of intense hatred and thunderously stomped her way towards him. Time implied to have slowed down as the queen made her way towards him and sweat trickled down in rivulets from Lyndon's face and neck. He had never done anything like this before. It wasn't his preference to put himself into harm's way like this so he wasn't the most confident.
When Lyndon was certain the queen would lunge for him he jumped out of the way just as the queen did as he predicted and she fell, helplessly. Her abdomen slammed against the other side of the crater, causing chunks of rock to break free and she roared as she descended into darkness where she would burn until she died.
He was panting so hard that Lyndon wasn't sure if he was going to be able to catch his breath. He leaned back against the wall to gather himself and he rubbed his face.
"Are you alright?" Li-Ming asked as she kneeled down next to him with concern.
"Yes, I'm fine. But remind me to never, EVER, do that again." He had his fill of being the hero and from now on he would leave that job to Li-Ming.
Li-Ming chuckled. "That was very brave of you. You have a lot of guts…for a thief."
"And there it is! Want to have another go at me while I'm down?"
"She's right." Kormac said, rubbing the back of his head. "You should be proud." Kormac held out his hand to help him up. Lyndon didn't know if he could take this seriously but the look in the Templar's eyes and his genuinely pleased smile indicated differently and so Lyndon took his hand and Kormac helped him up. "I guess you're not as spineless as I previously assumed and I owe you an apology."
"As do I." Li-Ming said. She leaned in and gave him a little kiss on his cheek. "Consider that an award for your valor." Lyndon rubbed his cheek and smiled, feeling more proud of himself than he thought he should.
Li-Ming went to Kormac and asked, "How's your head?" She went to touch it and Kormac flinched. "Sorry."
"No, you're fine. That beast clocked me a good one and it aches a bit, but I'll manage."
"Glad to hear it. We should make our way out of here now that the path is clear." Li-Ming said and they all nodded and they left the caves.
This has too hold the record for the shortest chapter yet and I am sorry but pacing and tone is important I think so I had to settle. The next chapter will be longer I promise and I hope to have it up before the end of the weekend.
But for now I hope you all liked this one I tried to make it good and please bare with me.
So bye for now and I really, really hope this chapter was enough for now. PEACE!