From somewhere up ahead came a faint, skittering sound. I felt the hairs on my neck rise. It was a sound I knew too well—many-legged and chitinous.
Suddenly, a monstrous shape lunged from the darkness with a shrill hiss. In the bobbing light of Elfriede's torch, I saw a nightmare made flesh: a spider the size of a horse, hurtling toward us on eight spindly legs. Its bulbous body was covered in coarse black hair, and two serrated pincers clacked hungrily at its maw.
I stumbled back with a cry. "Gods!" My voice shot up an octave, pure terror taking hold. I wasn't even particularly afraid of normal spiders—no more than anyone—but this… this abomination was something else. Just the sight of its many glinting eyes and dripping fangs as thick as my forearm turned my knees to water.
"A-a giant spider!" one of the mercenaries yelped unnecessarily, raising his sword.
I had already pressed myself against the tunnel wall, the pack of gear nearly toppling me off balance. My heart thundered against my ribs. Of all things, why did it have to be a spider? Memories of Father's "special meals" flashed through my mind: the way something with too many legs wriggled as I swallowed it down. I gagged. Small spiders I could handle, but a spider big enough to swallow me? That was the stuff of my worst childhood nightmares.
The creature—known in these parts as an Aracrab, a nasty cross between a cave spider and a crab—scuttled closer, letting out an ear-splitting screech. Its cluster of eyes gleamed with unmistakable malice.
I caught a glimpse of its underbelly as it reared up, preparing to strike. There, tucked between jointed legs, was a gaping maw lined with writhing pedipalps. If those fangs sank into a person, the venom would kill in seconds.
Behind me, I heard the dwarf cleric frantically uttering a protective prayer, while the mercenaries fell into defensive stances. But Elfriede merely narrowed her eyes, utterly unperturbed.
"Stand back," she said coolly. Releasing her torch to one of the others, she stepped forward and raised her free hand toward the onrushing Aracrab. Bright orange light crackled around her slender fingers.
"Ifrit!" Elfriede incanted sharply.
In an instant, a roiling ball of fire materialized in front of her outstretched palm and blasted forth. The orange fireball whooshed through the air and struck the charging spider dead-on.