"Hey, you think I can open this gate the same way I did the other?" Jakurk knew the answer of course he could, but he did want to gloat just a little bit. But when he looked to see his fellow companions' reactions he felt a sense of confusion accompanied by ominous dread.
Tristin was shouting something which he couldn't quite hear and Opip was rushing towards him with fear in their eyes. Readily drawing their sword but what for. Then he felt the warm drops of saliva touch down on his coat. Above him was a creature straight out of a horror story with a very hungry open maw and very spiny legs that could easily pierce flesh. Truly this was not going to be a good day.
"/ooo//o" It was not the first time that Jakurk had been ambushed. A noise which could only be described as a fork scraping against a ceramic plate echoed throughout the hall at an overwhelmingly high pitch. Opip and Tristin had to cover their ears as best as they could yet the sound still rang within their head as high as if it had been shouted directly into their ear.
The spider which was about to attack Jakurk fell down onto the floor screeching like the rest of its family. Several more spiders fell down, they rolled around screeching and flailing with their legs as the few still up on the ceiling hurried back towards the holes and nooks from where they had come.
"Get behind me, Quick!" Jakurk ushered an order. That only Opip was able to hear, Tristin's ears had nearly ruptured and it was clear that he was in quite the pain. Hill-folk ears were the most sensitive of all the folk races, They had perfect hearing and sight which made them perfectly optimised bowmen, rangers and the like. However this gift had backfired immensely as Tristin's ears had absorbed Jakurk's sound with quite the impact.
Opip's ears were also of a higher class in comparison to Jakurks, but Hounds excelled far more in smell when it came to the five senses. Perhaps this is why she could still stand despite the ringing in her head. She grabbed the frail hill folk in one arm and rushed over to the gate on the other side of the podium where Jakurk stood ready to cast another spell. The light on Tristin's torch began to spin once more.
"/o/-o" Jakurk acted as soon as the others got behind him. The spell he then used was the one most draining and most powerful at his current disposition. A Wall of wind bursts forth a metre or so from where he was standing. The wind traveled throughout the room dragging up the fallen spiders and pushing them towards the other side like balls of yarn in the wind. This Gust like wind covered the entirety of the room picking up both the dust and bones of skeletons and throwing it alongside the spiders as far away from the group as possible.
"Keep them back while I get this gate opened" For the group's survival they would need to get the other Gate opened. The one they had come from was already overrun. Hopefully the labyrinth-like tunnels of the first floor would continue beyond. The ringing in Opip's ears was getting close to stopping.
"You don't have to tell me" Opip drew her sword ready for the horde of spiders who were regaining their senses one by one. Jakurk could not hear her answer for he had ruptured his eardrums with the previous spell. In contrast to both Opip and Tristin he had taken the spell at point blank and contrary to when he used it against the Tanngrisnir he had not been fully prepared for it. All he could hope was that his companions had enough brains to understand his plan.
"/_/_/_/_…" Jakurk began with the same method he had used before. But his legs gave out before he could finish one complete frequence. He had used too much will. Will was once ability to call forth help from the other world which once soul was bound too. In other words it was the fuel one used when casting a spell. Jakurk had already used most of the will he had on the previous gate which now stood closed on the other side of the room. The rest of his will had been used on the two most recent spells. He could forcefully squeeze out just a bit more will from his soul but that risked the possibility of a shattering. For a moment he felt desperate as a certain calling came from the hidden amulet beneath his shirt. But he decided against it, not today.
"I need a soul, Get me a carcass as fast as you can!" Tristin had recovered just fast enough to hear the request. With blurry eyes he looked around the room. Opip was engaged in combat Two spiders, a third one quickly approaching on the left yet she held the line. But a fourth one on a pillar just behind making its way down as quick as its eight limbs could make it. She did not notice it.
As it jumped towards her and she got a good clean look at its opened maw and outstretched arms. Yet she could not lift her focus from the other three. In her mind a question arose, which of my limbs would I have to sacrifice to escape? Fortunately for her the question would not need to be answered.
Trisitns daggers were not for cutting or slicing, they were made to be thrown. With a single motion of his hand he flung a dagger directly into the spider's head, killing it mid flight. Its corpse curled up neatly as it hit the floor.
"Thank you" Opip was quick to give praise. She was not much of a marksman but she could tell that throw required some skill. Yet she did not have time for more of a conversation as the other spiders continued to pile on. Even more descending the pillars and climbing across the podium. Hunger in their eyes.
Tristin grabbed ahold of the now dead spider wringing out his dagger from its thick skin. Then he dragged it by its legs back to Jakurk. He did not know why the mage needed the carcass and he didn't have time to ask.
"Give me your knife" Jakurk spoke with a faint breath. He somehow seemed more tired than the warrior giving it their all just a few metres away. "Hurry" Without so much as another word Tristin handed it over. Jakurk did not have much time. In a single quick action he cut open the spider's stomach. He then practically threw back the knife to Tristin and ordered him to go back up Opip.
Tristin followed the order knowing he probably wouldn't like to see what happened next. A bit hesitant Jakurk showed his arm into the spider's guts. "where is it" The gory interior of the spider's corpse was quite frankly disgusting. The others continued the fight which was slowly getting closer to the gate. In only a minute they would be overrun. And Jakurk doubted anyone would find their corpse before it was too late to bring them back. Frantically he searched the small corpse with both his hands, The spider's legs twitched as the nerve system of the creature still worked. Finally he found it, the heart.
Dark green and covered in an unknown nearly black liquid. But with a green glow beneath its soft surface. The soul could be found directly within the heart. For ten days after death the soul would remain no matter how decayed or broken the body had become. Alchemists would use the hearts of small monsters like these to make low class will potions yet Jakurk had neither the other ingredients, a workstation nor the time to do so. He had but a single option, to swallow it raw.
The taste was comparable to the smell of a rotten egg. Utterly disgusting. Hopefully it wouldn't leave any nasty side effects or an illness. "/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ /_/ /_/" As the rest of the group heard the sound they were filled with a sense of hope and that of relief. "/_/ /_/ /_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ " The gate slowly opened up to reveal a bright passage well traveled and undoubtedly on Tristin's map.
"Come on" Jakurk was already on the other side, Tristin retracted his dagger from another dead carcass, the spiders that had gone into hiding were now fully descending the pillars. Waves of limbs descending down at a rancid pace. "We need to go" He turned to Opip who just cut down another one. "I know"
As fast as they could they made their way over towards the Gate. But as they went Tristin felt his foot slip, he would have tumbled onto the ground if it weren't for Opip. Who as they ran grabbed ahold of the back of his shirt, practically dragging him besides her as they leapt out the door.
Jakurk shut the gate the very second he saw the others were safe. It slammed down onto the ground with a heavy dunce as it split a spider into two. Exhausted, the group took a moment to sit down and rest against the cold stone wall of the reddish corridor.
Jakurk felt a slight headache along with a slight dizziness likely just an offshoot from using so much will. "So is the first floor always this hectic?" Jakurk had not expected to be running for his life on the very first floor of the dungeon. If the whole place was like this then he might have to reconsider adding more people to the party.
"No, in fact I have never seen a room with that many monsters let alone spiders before" Tristin felt exhausted and partially guilty for the whole ordeal. Bad luck wasn't a new thing in his life, but this was something else.
"Maybe it was their home? Maybe that's why there were so many?" Opip wondered if it had been a dumb question. Obviously it was their home the whole concept of a dungeon was a home or a haven of monsters.
"You mean their nest?" Tristin took her seriously. And with good reason to. The bellwood spiders were a common sight on the first floor and on parts of the second. But they were never spotted in groups larger than four. The bellwood spider was a large monstrous insect which lived in large hives with a queen acting as a sort of leader. The actual nest of the bellwoods in the dungeon had not been found, at least until now.
"Yes, a nest!" Opip felt happy knowing she had made her point come across. She still had a hard time using the common tongue which was hard to learn for the hound species. She was much more fluent in Baldic or Kussetsk. Languages she doubted her fellow companions would know of.
"If it was a nest then we were either very lucky or the opposite, I'm leaning towards the latter" Jakurk added on. A den of monsters was a lucky find. At least for those hunting for rare materials. They could probably sell the location or at least use it as a bargaining ship with the house of coin or sword guild or any other noteworthy adventurer. The magical lock was gone now thanks to his own efforts. But then again bugs were gross, and spiders.. Well, who likes spiders? Who wants to go spider hunting today?
"Nevermind.." Jakurk mumbled to himself. He felt as if the dizziness was growing stronger like a fog slowly creeping its way into his mind. It would likely go away if he just rested for a few more minutes.
"Shall we get going then?" Opip rose to her feet. a few wounds she had received from the spiders slightly opened and a few drops of blood fell to the floor.
"Are you going to be okay like that?" Tristin was still scribbling down the location of the room on his map as he spoke. But within the depths of his eyes was a hint of empathy for his wounded friend. Come to think of it, when had he started to see the hound as a friend? Was it when she helped him with the knife guild? No it was something which had just come to be.
"Yes, I am a warrior!" Even though the hound could smile one could not tell if it was a face made in anger, angst, pain or pride. "It would have been worse if i had been poisoned"
"Poisoned?" Jakurk could not help but get caught up on the words like they had some deeper meaning to him. It didn't help that the dizziness from the will use was getting worse… "oh no" he said a little too quiet for the others to hear.
"Yes Bellwoods have a strong venom they use to subdue far greater prey, Many alchemists use it for Dread potions or to make GreenGas, You didn't know?" Tristin felt a bit troubled by the mages lack of knowledge. Come to think of it, he didn't seem to have much experience with monsters at all even though he seemed to be a sort of adventurer just like them.
"What does it look like?" Jakurk tried to get up from the floor. His legs felt wobbly, breakable, wiggly like jelly. Like they had fallen asleep.
"It's a dark almost black liquid, and smells closely to rotten eggs, why?" Now Tristin felt concerned so did Opip but they did not fully know why.
"Oh" was all Jakukr managed to say before falling to the floor with a dunce.