Kharma looked out into the main cave and cursed. “Now, we burn demons. No time for traps.”

“Let’s see if they burn. Shoot them with the fire arrows. You first, then Lutha, then me.”

Before Dawn had even finished talking, Kharma had lit and loosed the first fire arrow on the demon on the ceiling. It was a perfect hit. The spider had been hanging motionlessly and was presenting a huge stationary target. Flames spread at a rapid pace over the spider’s body, it screeched and hastily began to lower itself down to the ground. In the meantime Lutha had calmly taken up her bow and shot another of the approaching demons. The elder Kharlin showed quiet competence under pressure and struck her target with ease. Here too, the spider was rapidly engulfed by flames.

Dawn’s hands shook as she tried to light up her arrow. It took her a second try to accomplish it. Her resulting shot was weak, but it managed to at least graze a third demon. The flames eagerly spread over its body. Now three demons were burning fiercely. Before, they were heading straight to the hide-out of the companions. Now, they turned around and tried to reach the water. In the process they passed further demons that had approached behind them. The flaming demons infected two more of those with their fire. The spider that had lowered itself down from the ceiling had reached the water directly. It fell down with a resounding splash, as the threads it had hung from burned away. And now it was proven that the demons couldn’t swim. The big body sank like a stone and the water washed over its head. It was gone.

Its burning fellows on the ground were luckier. Two of them entered the water in the shallows and they succeeded in partly reducing the fire that consumed them. But their legs couldn’t splash enough water on their big bodies to extinguish it completely. Another huge spider was stuck behind them and couldn’t reach the water. Still another burning one seemed to go mad and was running around the cave mindlessly, banging into stone columns, running into still further spiders and shrieking like a banshee. The others too, were screeching, chittering, clicking. It was total mayhem and a concert to wake the dead.

Dawn and her friends were struck speechless at the chaotic scene. “That - worked a lot better than I expected.” Exclaimed Dawn while watching the scene. “But it endangers the villagers. If one of the burning spiders gets too close to a web or cocoon, everyone near will go up in flames. We need to get them out, now.”

Lutha shook her head: “We cannot get through. If we try we burn or spider kills.”

Indeed, the number of spiders stumbling around seemed to have multiplied, some burning, some not. At least, they had forgotten about targeting the intruders for the moment. Their minds were taken up by bigger problems. At first, some of the demons had tried to help their burning fellows, industriously splashing water on them. After one of the helpers was starting to burn itself, that stopped.

The friends supposed the trapped villagers were caught in the spider’s main den at the other end of the cave. How to get through to them? The direct way was closed. Too many of the demons were between them and their target. “Let’s leave the passage to the right, get some distance and enter the water,” Dawn said. “We swim to the other end of the cave.”

Ankou gave an indignant mewl, ears flattening. Dawn grimaced: “I know you don’t like the water, but it’s getting decidedly too hot in here. Let’s go.”

Quickly they left the small cave and sprinted to the right. Stealth wasn’t important anymore. Now they needed to be fast. Rapidly entering the icy water they swam at at steady pace, first in the direction of the opposite wall to get some distance to the demons and then left in the direction of the spider’s lair. If the spiders noticed them in the water, they didn’t show any sign of it.

Level up!

Nature’s Shadow level 8

You have 2 free stat points to distribute!

The notification startled her. At least one of the demons must have died. But she had no time to waste thoughts on stats and leveling now. The formerly quiet caves were filled by a cacophony of sounds. The friends couldn’t understand their own words. Communication was almost impossible. They approached the beach before the spider’s lair. Dawn yelled: “Stop here!” with all her might. She needed to take stock of the situation first. Before they got out of the water, and before the water got shallow enough that they could be reached by the spiders.

In front of them lay a narrow arm of the cave crisscrossed with spiderwebs and threads. As far as she could discern, almost no spiders were left sitting in their webs. A few were scuttling around on the ground, their attention taken up by the chaos and the fire in the rest of the cave. In the center of the room between the spiderwebs multiple rows of cocoons were hanging. Dawn hollered: “Swim nearer until you’re able to stand and try to shoot the cocoons down. No fire arrows!”

Lutha and Kharma approached the shore, standing knee-deep in water they readied their bows. Dawn was staring at the cocoons and the spiders on the ground and turned to Ankou: “Can you distract them without getting caught?” The lynx tossed her a contemptuous look. “Oh, please excuse me for doubting your superior capabilities.” Dawn muttered. Between Lutha and Kharma some of the cocoons were falling down now. Dawn winced when she thought of the villagers inside them. That had to hurt. If any of them were still alive, of course. There were no guarantees here.

Ankou was on the shore now and leapt up on the path directly in front of a demon. Her breath caught. Surely, that was too close. The demon reared up, its front legs striking out at the cat, but the lynx already was elsewhere. He was fast. Slowly, Dawn let out her breath. ‘Stupid to doubt Ankou. I have to concentrate on my own part here.’ She thought. The icy water was starting to sap her strength now. She needed to get out of the water. At last, she was able to stand. Slowly she waded in the direction of the shore. How to get the cocoons out? There was no help for it. She would have to carry them to the water, one by one. ‘This will take ages.’ She thought gloomily. ‘And no chance that the spiders will just let me take away their food without resistance.’

The demons scuttling on the ground formerly had run off after Ankou. He was harrying them and had led them a short distance away in a deathly dance. Still there were some massive bodies sitting in the webs. ‘Are they asleep in all this mayhem?’ she asked herself, wondering why those didn’t move. In the end it didn’t matter. She would have to approach.

She activated Shadow Play and waded to the shore. The moving water betrayed her whereabouts in spite of her stealth skill, but the demon’s attention was elsewhere for now. She approached the cocoons swiftly, feeling that she had a target on her back. Her head swiveled nervously around as she tried to keep an eye on her surroundings. She grabbed the two cocoons nearest to her, suppressing a shudder at the feel of the sticky substance on her hands. Applying all her strength she started to walk backwards to the water and dragged the cocoons after her. Dawn didn’t dare to turn around. She could not stand the thought of spiders approaching at her back. Panting and grunting she reached the shore. She risked a short glance at the other part of the cave. It was still filled with burning, panicking demons. Ankou was hard pressed to keep himself out of the clutches of the spiders hunting him. But she couldn’t help him now. She turned to the cocoons and used her knife to carefully open up the first one. A furry face greeted her. She cast Nurture without bothering to look for signs of life and started with the next one.

Level up!

Nature’s Shadow level 9

You have 4 free stat points to distribute!

Obviously, more spiders had died. “Kharma, Lutha, she hollered.” Both looked at her questioningly. She beckoned to them to approach. They came. “Dawn, what is matter? Are alive?” Kharma asked. “I don’t know,” she said loudly.” I cast Nurture on both of them. You need to get them out of here. I’ll grab the next ones in the meantime. Drag them behind you in the water. Use our hiding place in the cave to stow them.” Both nodded a bit doubtfully and started to drag the cocooned bodies into the water. Getting them into their hide-out through the water would be hard.

Recklessly, Dawn dumped her free stat points in intelligence and wisdom. She would need a lot of mana shortly.

Once again she looked out for Ankou. He had been forced to flee into the water meanwhile. Keeping several demon’s attention without getting caught or killed was no easy feat.

She returned to the cocoons and grabbed the next two. Not all had been shot down. Several were still hanging from the ceiling. But they would have to worry about that later. Shivering in her wet clothes, she started to drag the bodies back to the water. Same procedure with freeing the heads and casting Nurture. As she tried to cast the spell on the second body it didn’t form. She hadn’t enough mana. Impatiently she waited while looking around the cave. The chaos seemed to have died down a bit. The demon’s that Ankou had diverted were on their way back. Cursing, Dawn retreated in to the water. She pulled both bodies in behind her. Taking out a rope she bound them together. She cast Nurture on the second one. This time it worked.

She didn’t know if she could manage to swim and hold both heads over water, but she was out of time. As it was, she would have to leave the other villagers here for the time being. But almost out of mana and with several demons approaching on her position she saw no other choice. They would have to revive the ones she had gotten out first and come back for the others later.