The spider hit the ground with a resounding crack, smashing the ground where we’d been a moment before. And then, to my surprise, reared up and.... fired? ... a gigantic web out onto the door.
I was a little pleased that it’d taken my idea, even if it had tried to crush us in the process.
I was less pleased when I realized I’d dodged directly into a web, and my legs were very firmly stuck against the gooey surface.
I wasn’t the only one in similar shape. Sera had it worse, having fallen backward onto a web. She was struggling, but her whole body seemed stuck.
Vera and Jin had gotten out of the way successfully, though, and they were both opening fire.
Jin aimed straight at the creature’s head, unleashing a hail of bullets. He hit repeatedly, and the bullets sunk in, but it was unclear if they did any damage.
Vera started running toward the other side of the room, deftly dodging bits of webbing, while firing the dueling cane at the spider’s center of mass. The bolts of mana seemed insignificant striking a creature of that size, but nevertheless it let out a hiss and turned toward her. Apparently, mana blasts hurt more than bullets, at least against giant spiders. Who knew?
I drew my sword and started cutting. That didn’t help much. The sword cut effectively, but it also got stuck almost immediately. After a moment of consideration, I pushed on the mana aura around the sword and managed to finish severing the first bit of web that way.
After that, I turned and slashed the air to push a wave at the webbing sticking to my other leg. That got it free.
I ran for Sera, still struggling against her own web.
I heard a crack as something smashed into the door near us.
Derek. He’d gotten through Sera’s wall and he was coming for us.
Resh. I’d hoped we’d have more time.
Jin and Vera continued pummeling the spider with shots, but it reared up again and blasted a vast web in Vera’s direction. She managed to throw herself to the side, but it still caught her on the left arm and leg, dragging her backward with the force of the expulsion. She hit the back wall, stuck in place.
I slashed in the air, making the now-familiar gesture to project waves of energy to cut Sera free. She fell backward and hit the floor when the final piece of webbing fell away, then I helped her extract herself from the mess.
Another thud against the door, and another.
Derek’s fist broke through and stuck on the webbing, and I rushed forward to try to grab at the ring — if I could have pulled it off, maybe I could have freed him — but he retracted his arm too quickly.
The spider continued barreling toward Vera, too fast for me to catch up. I made a couple slashes in the air toward it, managing a hit against a leg, but that barely seemed to slow it down.
Jin paused to reload.
The spider reared up, ready to jam a spiked leg right into Vera’s chest.
“Wall,” Sera whispered, pointing a hand and bursting into a coughing fit.
The wall of ice shot upward from the floor, catching the spider’s front legs and pushing them upward. The spider fell backward, chittering, and I heard a voice in my mind.
“No! Stop! Food mine!”
I grabbed Sera with my left arm and began to push her forward. We needed to move. “That was great, Sera. Stay with me.”
She nodded, leaning heavily on me, and coughed again.
Resh it all, I need to do something.
“Sera, switch swords with me for a second.” We swapped blades, and I felt comforted with the familiar weight of Selys-Lyann in my hand.
I slashed at the air and pushed on the weapon’s aura, making a wave of cutting ice. The frozen blade cut deeply into the creature’s hindquarters, drawing visible blood and beginning to spread.
That caught it’s attention.
I stepped forward, letting go of Sera briefly, and unleashed a torrent of cuts.
I’d never tried pushing the slashes rapidly with this weapon. It turned out it didn’t work as well with the one I’d made. The sword’s aura was undoubtedly stronger, but after I pushed the ice away it took a few seconds to reform around the blade.
The end result was that I ended up firing out tiny, insignificant spikes of ice. They hit, but not for any significant damage — and then the spider was barreling toward me.
I heard the door behind us crack again. There were several holes in it now. The rune was slowing Derek’s progress, but he wasn’t going to take much longer.
The spider’s leg came down faster than I expected, and with all my attention focused on attacking, I failed to dodge.
Sera shoved me out of the way.
I stumbled, but didn’t fall. The gigantic leg smashed into the ground where I’d been a moment before. For a brief, horrifying moment, I thought it’d pierced Sera instead of me — but when I saw her on the ground nearby, she wasn’t bleeding. It’d glanced against her, but her barrier had stopped the blow. I could see thick cracks in the barrier, still visible around her.
The problem was that Sera wasn’t getting up.
She was conscious, but the sword had fallen from her hand, and she was only slowly pushing herself from the floor.
Another spider leg was going to pin her before that happened.
I didn’t have the strength to stop the leg from falling, even if I hit it as hard as I could.
Sera, on the other hand, was light.
I turned my gauntlet toward her and sent a burst of transference force into her. The blast slammed into her side, flipping her over and pushing her ten feet across the floor. That looked like it hurt, but the spider’s leg hit the ground harmlessly instead of pulverizing her.
Another leg hit me from behind a second later, slamming me into the ground.
There was a sharp jolt of pain in my back, accompanied by crushing pressure.
I heard a crack and felt another surge of agony.
I really hoped that wasn’t my spine buckling under the pressure.
I coughed, dropped my sword in the surge of pain, and shuddered helplessly on the floor.