"Solus, Tresslar, Leontis, and I will handle Nathifa," Diran said. "Ghaji, you take the others and deal with the web mummies. But be carefuclass="underline" the spiderlings inside them are just as venomous as their parent."
"Got it. Good luck, Diran." Ghaji turned to the others. "You heard him. Let's go!" The half-orc warrior dashed forward, axe raised and ready for battle, Yvka, Asenka, Hinto, and Onu following close on his heels.
Diran had momentarily forgotten about the changeling. Onu's combat skills were rudimentary at best, and Diran feared for the man's life. But there was nothing the priest could do to help him now. He would have to trust that Ghaji and the others would do what they could to protect Onu.
"The lich is using the Amahau to drain the energy from the magic artifacts in this crypt!" Tresslar said. "Once she has that much power at her command, we won't be able to stop her!"
"And what of that floating eye?" Leontis asked.
"A guardian of some sort," Tresslar said.
The lich is getting desperate, Diran thought, else she wouldn't be sacrificing pieces of her body like this.
"We'll never get close to the lich unless we do something about that eye," Leontis said. His voice was pitched low, the words more growled than spoken. Diran knew his friend was losing his battle against the beast that shared his soul.
Ghaji and the others were battling the web mummies, but since the warriors were restraining themselves to avoid releasing any more broodswarms, they were at a decided disadvantage. The tomb spider had turned her attention back to Makala and the wereshark, and the two monsters ignored the crimson spiderlings crawling over their bodies as they fought the giant arachnid. Nathifa remained motionless as she continued to draw magic power into the dragonwand. If Tresslar was right about what Nathifa was doing, and Diran had no reason to doubt the artificer, then the sorceress was growing more powerful by the moment. They had to stop the lich. Now.
The priest turned to Solus. "I have an idea. I just hope you have the energy to help me make it a reality."
Ghaji had fought undead of all sorts during his travels with Diran, but he'd never faced tomb mummies before. The things were slow-moving and clumsy like most zombies, and they attacked without any sort of strategy or concentrated group effort. Their strength wasn't out of the ordinary. In fact, they seemed somewhat weaker than most undead. But these mummies possessed two very important differences: the webbing that covered them was incredibly sticky, and their body cavities were filled with deadly crimson spiderlings. So the trick was to fight the damned things while simultaneously avoiding touching them or causing a wound that would release the spiderlings they hosted.
Far easier said than done.
If Ghaji's elemental axe had still functioned, its flames would have made short work of the mummies, as well as the spiderlings they hosted, but the axe was just a weapon of steel now, and there was no point in wishing otherwise. Various objects were scattered across the floor of the ancient crypt, making it awkward to maneuver, but the clutter also hindered the web mummies, so overall it proved an advantage for the faster, more agile living warriors. Dust covered the crypt floor, and Ghaji ordered Hinto and Onu to scoop up handfuls and throw them onto the oncoming mummies. Ghaji hoped that the dust would adhere to the mummies' webbing and nullify its stickiness, making it possible to touch the creatures without becoming bound to them.
Ghaji knelt and rubbed his axe head in the dust for the same reason, and Asenka followed suit for her long sword. Yvka sorted through the magical items in her pouch for weapons that would deter the mummies without damaging them to the point where the spiderlings they hosted were set free. Ghaji didn't know whether Yvka could employ the magic of her dragonmark so soon after wielding it against the dark serpent that had taken control of Solus, but even if she could, he had no idea what use it would be against the web mummies. Though the same luminescent mold grew here on the walls of the crypt just as it did in the outer cavern, the light was so dim that Ghaji doubted Yvka's shadow magic would make any difference to the mummies.
So Hinto and Onu threw dust, Ghaji and Asenka struck the attacking web mummies using the flats of their dust-coated blades, and Yvka tossed a variety of mystic weapons designed by the artificers of the Shadow Network-walnuts that exploded with concussive force, thistles that flew through the air and traced lines that created magical barriers. Thus Ghaji and the others managed to hold back the tide of undead without releasing any more spiderlings.
But the dust covering their weapons soon rubbed off, and Asenka's long sword became stuck fast to a web mummy's chest. As the mummy reached out to grab hold of Asenka, Ghaji started forward, intending to keep the monster from getting its undead claws on her. But before he could do more than take a step in her direction, a hand fell on his shoulder, and a hollow voice said, "Allow me."
Ghaji was startled to see a web mummy walk past him-when had the thing gotten through their defenses? — and stagger toward Asenka. The creature walked with one hand held palm up, and Ghaji saw that the thing carried a handful of crypt-dust. The mummy stepped up to the one reaching for Asenka and rubbed the dust it carried onto the blade of her sword. Asenka looked at the mummy assisting her in disbelief, but she was no fool. She yanked her sword free and quickly stepped back out of reach of either mummy. Their undead benefactor then rubbed its hands together, making sure both were coated with dust, and then shoved the other mummy as hard as it could. The second mummy stumbled backward, bumped into the edge of a sepulcher, and fell into it, web-wrapped legs sticking up and waving uselessly in the air.
The helper-mummy turned back to face them, a familiar grin on its desiccated, sunken-eyed face, and that's when Ghaji noticed that beneath web-strands covering the mummy lay a bright red sea captain's coat.
"I'm glad that worked," Onu said. "I wasn't sure I could fool the beastly things!"
Ghaji grinned back in relief. After that, the battle went more easily, for Onu-still wearing the shape of a web mummy-was able to walk right up to the real creatures and rub dust on them without interference. Thus Ghaji and the others continued holding the web mummies at bay, the half-orc hoping that Diran was having equal success dealing with Nathifa.
In the confusion, no one-including Asenka-noticed that when she tore her sword free from the web mummy, a tiny red spider no larger than an infant's fist clung to the blade. This youngling had been hiding close to the surface of its host's dead, dry flesh, doing its best to avoid being devoured by its ravenous sisters. When Asenka yanked her sword away, a small scrap of skin came with it, a scrap the youngling was clinging to. The spider, following its instincts to attack anything that threatened its host, scuttled down the length of the sword toward the hilt and onto the back of Asenka's hand. The warrior woman felt the feather-light touch of the spiderling's legs on her flesh, But before she could shake off the tiny creature, it sank its fangs into the back of her hand and released venom into her system.
The bite was painful, but Asenka had endured worse in her time, and her only reaction was to draw in a hissing breath of air that no one else heard. She gave her hand a violent shake, dislodged the spiderling onto the floor, and crushed it beneath her boot before it could crawl away. She then examined the back of her hand. The bite was already swelling and beginning to purple, and she could feel it throb in concert with her pulse. She didn't experience any immediate effects of the venom, though. No lightheadedness, no nausea. She decided that not only had the spiderling been too small to deliver much venom but that she'd managed to dislodge it before it could inject what little it could. Besides, she had more important things to worry about than a tiny spider bite right now. She had to help the others keep the web mummies busy and buy Diran enough time to stop Nathifa.