Page 6 of The Glass Unicorn, Part 2 (Quest Wars #2)

We regrouped and, after wiping off as much of the zombie remains as possible, we headed further down the passage.

Up ahead, we came to a curve, which lead to a series of stairs going down.

I stood there, staring at them. In the game, there was usually some trap to be found, but here we couldn’t just roll the dice.

We actually had to get busy and take a close look.

I could pick locks to an extent, but I wasn’t the best. I turned to the others, trying to remember if one of us had the ability. “Lock picking. Who’s good at it?”

“My dexterity is good, but I have a slim chance in hell to find any traps,” Reggie said.

“Don’t look at me,” Thornhold said.

“I can do it,” Geoff said. “I’m a mixed class—a bard/rogue. I’ve got a decent chance to find anything that might be there.”

I moved to the side. “Be my guest. Somebody hold the light for him.”

Reggie scooted in beside Geoff. “I’ll do it.” He held out his light.

Geoff got down on his hands and knees, examining the first step. He scanned it, then leaned further out, to look at the second stair. “Nothing on the first two. You realize this is going to take some time, unlike in our regular games.”

“Nothing’s coming up behind us, so we have plenty of time,” I said.

He was about halfway down the stairs when I heard a noise behind us. “Crap. Thornhold, come with me. The rest of you be ready.”

We slid along the wall, toward the bend where the passage curved.

As I came to the edge, I could hear the murmur of voices, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

While Abarria Game Guides was international, they had Live RPG facilities in other countries, and from what I had read, they changed them in each region to match the local regulations and culturally acceptable play.

So, we either had some players from another country, or we had Syms out there. And the Syms could be enemies. I slowly leaned forward, wishing I had my compact. If I did, I could maybe angle it so that I could see who was coming down the hall.

There were no other turnoffs or doors before we had turned the corner, so—unless they turned around now—we were going to have to face them. I decided to be direct. I motioned for Thornhold to follow me as I swung around the corner, bow out and arrow nocked. Thornhold followed, his axe ready.

The moment I saw who they were, I knew we had a fight on our hands. Like a creepy-assed centaur, only with black widow spider bodies and human torsos, the two werespiders were the size of St. Bernards, and they took up the entire width of the hallway.

“Crap,” I turned the bow to the one on of the monsters.

“Gah,” Thornhold said, adjusting his weapon. “Attack?”

“Wait to see what they do. The moment they move toward us, go in swinging.” I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen.

The nearest werespider’s eyes narrowed, and she—she had breasts, mighty impressive ones, so I assumed she was female—held out her hand, an orb of lightening about the size of an orange appearing on her palm.

“That’s all she wrote,” I said, aiming directly at her head and letting the arrow fly.

Simultaneously, she tossed the lightening orb my way and I dropped to the ground.

Thornhold raced forward, keeping to his side of the wall, away from the approaching attack.

The orb flew over my head, and I could feel the sizzle as it passed.

It exploded against the wall behind me, the shockwave jolting me forward a few steps.

“Eat this!” Thornhold shouted, charging down the hallway. An enraged dwarf was a terror to see.

The other werespider scuttled back, his eyes widening. But his partner, the one who had attacked me, let out a hiss as the arrow struck her. It missed its target, but still, hit her in the shoulder, and a trail of blood began to trickle down her shoulder.

She shouted something that sounded like an expletive and raced toward me, her eight jointed legs making a skittering sound on the stone floor.

I shouted for the others to come help us, and took another shot, but the arrow flew wild, and barely grazed the bulbous mass that was her belly.

Now, I was having traumatic flashbacks to dealing with black widows in my childhood home. I had no time to shoulder my bow, so dropped it and grabbed out my dagger—the silver one. I had no idea if the metal would react on her, but it was worth a shot.

Thornhold reached the other spider, who had retrieved a sword from a belt around his naked waist. The creature wasn’t wearing clothes, but he seemed to be wearing the belt to hold things.

He managed to get in a swing before the creature could counterattack. Thornhold was short, but the werespiders weren’t gigantic, so he managed to contact the creature across the chest and his axe resounded with a slice that sounded as bad as it probably felt.

At that moment, Brynn came racing around the corner. She took in everything that was happening and pulled out her sword, racing toward the spider that was approaching me.

“Get back,” she said.

I stepped back, letting her have room to swing the sword. I turned to see Ray, Reggie, and Geoff approaching. “Werespiders,” I said.

Reggie looked horrified, but he pulled out some petals from a little bag around his neck and began whispering over them.

Ray gave me the once-over. “You all right?”

I nodded. “She tried to singe me but I managed to duck. But prepare a healing spell, just in case. Remember, we can die in here now.”

Geoff ducked past, too, his sword out. “Spiders? Crap!” He sounded shaky, but at least he was on his feet and moving.

I managed to grab my bow off of the ground and pulled another arrow out of the quiver.

I’d have to restock soon, I thought. I fitted it to the bow, drawing back the string as I aimed toward the spider fighting Thornhold.

It was bleeding, but still fighting. I aimed for his head, trying to wait for the right moment.

I didn’t want to risk hitting my best buddy.

The next second, the werespider grabbed Thornhold in his arms, yanking him toward his mouth. bent over him, mouth open wide. It was then that I noticed needle sharp teeth lining the creature’s mouth. He was going to bite!

I took aim and let out my breath as I shot.

The arrow flew high, but my aim was true, and it spiraled toward the werespider, hitting him directly in the chest. The spider lurched, and Geoff took that moment to dive in with a quick jab.

He managed to slash the spider across the front of the abdomen, where the guy’s loins would be if he weren’t a monster.

The spider let out a high-pitched screech and stumbled again.

The other werespider—the female—turned at the noise and, her eyes flashing, began to race back to her mate.

At least, I assumed he was her mate. As she turned, Reggie cast a spell and a blinding flash lit up the hallway as an arrow of energy shot toward her, hitting her directly in the back.

She staggered as the arrow blazed and then vanished, but the wound on her back looked very real, and very dangerous.

It had left an open hole, and she was hemorrhaging blood.

The spider turned, but the flow of blood only increased. Brynn grabbed the chance, while the spider was distracted, to launch an assault. She swung her sword, hard, and it gashed a wound so strong she eviscerated it.

I grimaced, but my fear of the spiders replaced my disgust, and I nocked another arrow and turned back toward the werespider on Thornhold.

I aimed and shot, this time landing the arrow directly in his chest. Thornhold took another swing at the spider with his axe, hitting him square where my arrow had landed.

The blow cleaved my arrow in half, but left a deep gash, and the spider tripped, and tipped over on his back.

Another moment, and both werespiders were dead.

Breathing hard, I leaned against the wall. We’d lucked out so far, with minimal damage. I knew it couldn’t last forever, but we were batting a thousand right now and that was all that mattered.

“Search them,” I said. Werespiders, unlike zombies, probably carried something of value. “Then let’s get back to those stairs. How far down did you make it, Geoff?”

“Half way,” he said. “I think you could jump the rest of the way without much damage, but there might be something beneath the bottom floor plate, so let’s toss something heavy down there first, to trigger it if there is.”

“What about one of these?” I pointed to the two werespiders.

Geoff wrinkled his nose, but shrugged. “If we can drag them. They’re pretty heavy. Those bulbous asses of theirs aren’t hollow like a camel’s humps.”

“Camel humps aren’t hollow,” I said. “They’re filled with fatty tissue.”

“Well, then…the more you know.”

With a grin, Geoff and Brynn began rifling through the gear the spiders had. They both had packs that they’d thrown on the floor to better fight us, and we hit the jackpot, relatively speaking.

“A total of thirty-seven gold, two hundred silver coins, twenty bronze. Rope, three potions of unknown origin, and these handy swords, along with a few daggers, and two very nice bows. I think the bows are magical,” Geoff said. “You want one? It’s better than the one you have.”

I hefted the bow, admiring the ornamental curves and design. When I tested it, pulling back the string, I found that I could pull it back easier, and targeting was much more accurate.

“Yeah, do they have arrows to go with it? Mine won’t fit, I don’t think.”

“They do, two quivers, full. I think they’re poison, though, so don’t prick yourself on the tips.” Geoff handed me one of the quivers and I changed out my old one for it. I also took one of the swords, and Ray took the other. They were lightweight and well-balanced.

We divided the treasure up as equally as we could, then dragged the nearest body—the female—to the stairs. Thornhold and Brynn grunted, picking her up, and they heaved her down the stairs to the bottom. The body landed with a thud, and nothing happened.

“I guess we can take a leap over the bottom half of the stairs, though the thought of landing on that freaking monster gives me the creeps,” I said.

“I’ll go first,” Geoff said. Before I could reply, he dashed down to the last step he’d been able to examine, then, leaning down into a squat, he launched himself into the air, clearing the rest of the steps.

He landed on the belly of the werespider, groaning as a jet of fluid sprayed out.

But he managed to avoid getting hit by it.

“All right, I’m dragging her out of the way,” he said.

I wanted to tell him to be quiet, but given the fight we’d just had, every creature within earshot would already know we were here.

“Go on,” I called back.

As Geoff dragged her body away, I wondered—what would we find waiting for us on the next level? And would our luck hold?

If you enjoyed The Glass Unicorn (A Quest Wars Adventure), part three will be coming out shortly.