“We shall endeavor to accomplish it all sir, but some will take longer than others.”
“Are you Two-souled finally coming back? Will there be more of you?” the Lunari asked.
“The rest are a bit behind us, sir, but more will be coming.”
“Very well. If I am not on duty when you bring your quests back, let the officer on duty know to send for me. I’m curious to see how you fare out there. I’m Sergeant Shadow.”
“Yes, sir,” Alburet said, snapping another salute. “We shall do so upon our return.”
“Dismissed then, Alpha Company,” the sergeant told them, returning the salute.
As they exited the keep Gerald spoke up, “His voice was vibrating my chest.”
“I know, right? Can you imagine what he could do if he…” Karen began to say, then cut off as a small squeak escaped Fluff.
Fluff was almost frantically grooming an ear as she blushed scarlet. Alburet shook his head, “Way to go, Karen.”
“Sorry, Fluff,” Karen said. “You’d been doing so good over the last two days I didn’t even consider.”
“It’s fine,” Fluff said quickly.
The woods began half a mile away from the fort. When they neared the tree line, Alburet summoned Tiny, “Tiny, we are going spider hunting.”
“As master wishes,” Tiny rumbled.
Alburet grinned as he summoned Bob, using his new spell Summon Lesser Imp. Bob appeared in a puff of smoke and everyone looked on to see how he’d changed. Bob was now redder then the red-orange he had been. His size had grown as well, to a two and a half foot tall Imp now. His wings had grown, they looked like he might be able to actually use them to glide with now. His claws and teeth were larger and sharper looking.
“Wow, Bob. Looking bigger and badder,” Alburet said in greeting.
Bob blinked, then looked at himself and laughed, “Finally, more power! It feels so good to become useful again. Now it’ll be just like the first days, with me saving your life again and again.”
Laughing, Alburet nodded, “Your stats all improved as well. Looks like they’ve all more than doubled, and you’re at level 31 now. You’re going to be a little beast for a while.”
Bob flexed his fingers. “My spell does more damage now, too.” He turned to Karen, “So, Karen, what do you think? Ready for the bigger, sexier version?”
Karen laughed, “Nope, not yet.”
“Damn,” Bob snapped his fingers. “Okay, fine. Level 41 for master will improve me again, then you won’t be able to resist. Just you wait and see.”
“Amusing as this is, can we head out? We only have a few hours before sundown,” Gerald reminded them all.
“I’ll start without a copy until we know if Stacia can daze or control the spiders,” Alburet informed them as they headed into the woods.
“Works,” Gerald said as he and Tiny took the lead.
A few yards into the woods the canopy closed in over the top of them and the undergrowth got thicker, restricting movement. As they slowed down to pick their way through the mass of plants, they started seeing masses of webs in the branches above them, sheets of spider web stretching from tree to tree.
“Yeah, this doesn’t have a horror movie vibe or anything,” Alburet said as his back began to itch.
“Can you hear the soundtrack that should be playing?” Karen whispered from behind him, having stealthed and stepped off to the side.
“Gah!” Alburet yelped as he spun to face her.
Karen started laughing, Fluff giggled and Gerald looked back while shaking his head. “So not funny, Karen. You just took two years off my life,” Alburet grumped at her.
“Pranks in hostile territory, where we’re under leveled?” Gerald sighed.
Karen chuckled, “Sorry. He was all but begging for it. I couldn’t resist.”
Without warning, three spiders about a foot in diameter each dropped halfway down from the webs above them. Hanging from strands of webs, they shot secondary webs at the group. Stacia was able to sidestep the one aimed at her. Marysue and Bob were not so lucky, and each was hit by the sticky webbing. The spiders starting hauling upwards, dragging their victims into the air.
“Save Mary,” Gerald called out as he tried to rush to her. The thick underbrush tangled around his legs, slowing him down.
Alburet clenched his left hand and opened it slowly, “Die in a fire!” The ball of flame blazed into existence as he tossed his Fire Blast at the web that had caught Marysue. The strand flared briefly and she dropped the few feet to the ground.
A second later Bob was also free, having cast his own spell. Instead of falling, his wings snapped open and he floated down. “Oh it’s on, you pathetic little bugs,” Bob yelled.
Gerald got to Marysue as she got back to her feet. “Mary, you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She frowned up at the spiders dangling above them. “How do we deal with them like that?”
“Bob, delivery time,” Alburet called back as he prepared another Fire Blast.
“On it,” Bob called back as Tiny went to stand under the spiders. “Tiny, you ready to try on a new hat?”
Twin spells went up, Bob’s noticeably brighter. Each burned through the webs holding a spider aloft. The two spiders dropped toward Tiny, who caught one with his shield and the other with his axe as they fell.
“Stacia?” Alburet called out.
“I can nay Daze them nor make them me Ally,” she told him.
Nodding, Alburet watched as Karen, Fluff and Gerald all went in for melee on the two spiders. He summoned a copy of Bob and grinned, “Double Imp.”
Both Bobs grinned as they launched dual Fire Blasts at the sole remaining spider above them. One blast hit the web, burning through it and the other hit the spider. “Suck that, you eight legged freaks!” Bob began to laugh as the spider dropped to the ground.
Once the spiders were on the ground, they were not hard to deal with. They had a poison debuff that took 20 agility away from the one afflicted with it, and they tried to web anyone who got behind them.
Soon, the trio of spiders was dead and the group was smiling. “Okay, we can do this,” Marysue grinned.
“How long does that poison last?” Alburet asked.
“Five minutes,” Karen grumped, having been hit with it. “Marysue’s Cleanse Sickness doesn’t pull it off, either.”
“At twenty-five I can get an ability that removes poisons,” Marysue told them. “We’re just going to have to put up with it until then.”
“I wonder if it stacks?” Fluff mumbled.
“Ah, fuck, I hope not. An assassin without agility, that’s as useless as tits on a boar, right?” Karen said.
“We should find out,” Alburet added, “if it does stack, then we might very well need to switch hunting areas.”
Gerald nodded, “Good point. Let’s go on and see what we find next.”
About three minutes later as they moved through the woods using a small trail, they were taken by surprise by three spiders, slightly larger than the last trio, that seemed to rise up out of the ground around them.
Bob Jr., the washed out Copy, let out a squeak as one of them clamped down on him. Fluff let out a yowl as she was also bitten, and the last one tried to bite Gerald, but he was just able to deflect it with his shield. “To Fluff,” Karen called out as she whipped both of her blades free and went to attack the spider on Fluff.
Bob Jr. let out a ragged yell, “Help!”
Tiny dove at the Trapper that was backing away with Bob in its mandibles. Fluff let out a leonine roar, causing the spider attacking her to freeze and huddle in place. Gerald glanced back at the commotion before returning his attention to the spider attacking him, just in time to block another bite.
“Tiny, tank the one on Fluff,” Gerald called out. He began slowly backing toward the rest of the group, careful of his footing, as he led the mob back to the others.