I tried my best to get comfortable, giving up after a few minutes, as every movement caused the spider under me to panic and either rush forward, or freeze, neither of which felt good when climbing down a cliff.
I closed my eyes and did what I should have done when I had first woken up. I called out to Bane. I thought I’d heard his voice before, when I first woke, but I needed to be sure.
“Bane?” I called, and there was a second in which my heart froze, before I heard a response.
“I’m here, Jax. I’m weak, but I’m here.”
“What happened?” I asked, sagging back with relief.
“I sensed the great spider… Ashrag… and I focused on her like a child on his first hunt. I ignored the signs around me until it was too late, and I was taken. Dozens of spiders were everywhere I turned; my jaws webbed down before I could even shout a warning. I failed you,” he said bitterly. “I will admit my fault, Lord; I will stand down as your bodyguard. You deserve better.”
“Quit that shit.” I snapped at him, my relief turning to annoyance. “So, you made a mistake, you got caught by a nest of frigging enormous spiders; well, so did we, and am I gonna be safer with you as a bodyguard…or without?” There was a long pause, before a grudging sound of agreement floated down to me.
“Besides, who’s going to keep me from going fucking mental, if not you? I doubt any of the others want the job, do they? Barrett, Lydia?” I called out, getting a series of snorts and strained chuckles in response.
“No chance.”
“Not going to happen!”
“Hell, no; that fucker’s crazy!” I heard Arrin call out, clear laughter in his voice, and I let loose a low chuckle as I realized the crazy bastard was having no end of fun. I shifted enough to look up at him and he waved to me, having somehow managed to get himself webbed in place upright, when the rest of us were horizontal.
“Look, Jax! No hands!” He called and waved again.
I couldn’t help it, and the low chuckle began to build, with others joining in.
The laughter was strained at first, but it soon spread, and I felt a little of the blackness that had consumed me since Oracle’s kidnapping, fall away.
I still had friends. I still had people that had my back. I wasn’t alone, and I was going to get Oracle back, find Tommy, and seriously fuck up Barabarattas’ Tuesday.
Even if it was Wednesday, or whatever.
“What day is it?” I asked aloud, and Miren replied.
“It’s the third of Distan.” I waited for her to go on, and when she didn’t, I shrugged as best I could.
“Doesn’t matter what day it is; got it.”
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself, as I reached out to Oracle and got no response, so I pulled up my notifications instead, trying desperately to distract myself...
Congratulations! You have killed the following:
11x Cave Spider Soldiers for a total of 2,500xp
10x Cave Spider Hunters for a total of 12,500xp
27x Immature Spider Drones for a total of 405xp
1x Cave Wyrm larvae for a total of 3,000xp
A party under your command killed the following:
7x Cave Spider Soldiers for a total of 3,500xp
2x Cave Spider Hunters for a total of 5,000xp
86x Immature Spider Drones for a total of 2,580xp
Total experience earned: 11,080xp
As party leader you gain 10% of all experience earned.
Progress to level 15 stands at 22,543/140,000
I’d also managed to raise my Mana Manipulation skill to two out of one hundred, so at least I had that going for me… even though my last notification let me know I still desperately need to heal myself up properly…
Beware!
You are suffering from mana manipulation fatigue: you currently have a negative ten (-10) modifier to all stats. This will continue until you have been healed fully.
Current HP 327/520
Current Mana 198/240
I tried reaching out to Oracle again and again, but all I could sense, besides the facts that she was alive, and that she was growing weaker, was that she was stationary, slightly above and to my right. She was closer than she was before, but no matter how much I called to her in the silence of my mind, she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, answer. The more I tried, the blacker my mood became, and when we finally stopped, and my spider mount lowered itself to the ground and froze in place, I was coldly furious again.
Ashrag might be a spider queen, and an old servant of the Empire, but right now, she’d gotten between me and saving my friend.
A pair of spiders scuttled up onto my mount, their bodies covered in blue and black patterns, and they spat something on the webs that held me.
The webbing hissed and spat, dissolving in seconds and freeing me.
I growled in pain, jerking upright and yanking my hands away from the corrosive spit, feeling it burning my skin, but it died out in seconds, and I jumped to my feet, stripping the remaining webs from my skin. I could feel the weakness that plagued my body from the wounds, from the taking of the Oaths, and from using the Ability again.
I quickly cast ‘Battlefield Triage’ on myself, the burst of light that emanated from it illuminating the ledge I was standing on. More accurately, it illuminated the ledge the spider beneath my feet stood on, and I realized it was still shaking in fear, with my right foot crushing its face into the stone floor, my left being firmly stuck to a patch of webbing that covered some of the ledge.
I grimaced, but stepped off the spider, my asshole clenching up reflexively as it scuttled away.
Nothing the size of a small horse should have that many legs or be that fugly.
I looked around the darkness, still channeling the spell, until my health was fully restored, and I felt the debuffs vanish.
