My heart drums a steady and swift beat, pushed by excitement and pragmatism alike. This is a monster that poses a genuine threat— massive, likely agile, and with a burning, furious malice glowing in its eight eyes.

  A growl builds in my chest. My claws lengthen, my skin gives way to thickening scales. There is a base, snarling temptation to lunge and leap and tear, sharpened by depth and impatience.

  “Need a plan,” I rumble, tail lashing. The moment carries on, three bodies held stock-still with ever-building anticipation. A thread pulled taut, waiting for me to sever it.

  I scan the spider’s form over. Fuzzy patches over a bulky brown-and-tan body, white on the underside with odd ridges. Purple eyes could mean nothing, but my blood sings the way only a clever monster can make it— magic, perhaps Lightning.

  “Plan without any real information,” Verity says lightly. She sighs. “But that’s normal for Delvers, isn’t it? Especially this far down.”

  “We do have information,” I counter, matching her sigh with my own. The monster has a ridged underside, no, ribbed, I’ve seen this before in the World. “It’s made of mush—”

  “Forage mushroom, and it’s covered in mold growths,” Verity interrupts, snapping her fingers. Her eyes stay locked on the spider. “Which is something.”

  “Good eye. And it’s a spider, so we can expect quick movements and easy traversal of the web,” I squint at the spider, dragging up my knowledge of mushrooms and fungus as a whole. Spiders, ambush predators, hard outer shells... mm, could have a way to trap us. Probably produces a silk analogue, but I’ve been wrong about that one more than I’ve been right in the past. The mold looks a bit worse than anything I’d seen on spoiled food, the kind we almost certainly don’t want to inhale.

  More intriguingly, at this depth I can assume it has some more magical tricks up its entirety metaphorical sleeves. A proper challenge, then.

  It's also still not moving. I really don't like that, but I will take advantage. Drawing a small, hooked knife from my belt, I push it as gently as I can into the surface of the whitish tower behind us. Our bag of supplies goes onto that, hanging on the oddly-shaped handle.

  “Need to filter the air,” I grunt, running a few spell structures through my head and reaching for my knife. I test the long, curved edge on my scales, check the backside for any nicks, and fiddle with the grip to make sure nothing’s come unwound.

  “Go for cutting, if it's actually mushroom-like, and focus on the joints. Can you do that with your shield?”

  “Easily, yes. What about...” Verity trails off, and I see her turn out of the corner of my eye. “Oh, a big knife! I expected elongated claws, a spiked tail, or, y’know.”

  “Can’t punch things if my claws get that long.” My tail swings down to punctuate my statement. I roll my eyes and flex my claws, then rip my gaze back to the monster. “Also, a little more range is good for monsters this substantial.”

  Thump.

  The web ripples beneath us, a shivering pulse that races away on a thousand threads. Gods, did I really do that? Feh. No time to grouse, it's riding up the pillar towards—

  “Oh that's how it works!” Verity trills, and the monster lurches.

  No, it skitters. One leg after another, its massive body emerges from behind the pillar and begins its alarmingly swift journey toward us. Footpads tik tik tik from tower to web, going from vertical to sideways to upside down and back as it glides across the landscape. I suspect nothing is out of its reach on this eye-bending web of a layer.

  “Clearly,” I grouse, pouring Wind down over tensed muscle. I bend my knees, carefully keeping my tail above the ground, and heft my knife. The magical structure for filtering air forms in front of my mouth and nose— all it'll take is drawing Wind from myself to activate.

  A flicker of Fire draws my eye to Verity. The air around her face is shimmering with heat, even flashing into tongues of nearly invisible flame along the fringes. Her shield lengthens and thins as I watch.

  I glance back up, focusing on our opponent. Gods, almost here, still skittering, traversing diagonally along the web. Those pale purple eyes betray nothing of its focus, utterly featureless.

  I nod, flexing my claws. Plenty to tear into, plenty to slice and cut and... focus, Ivy. “Stick to its left side if you can. I'll stay to—”

  Our time runs out like a dropped hourglass. The monster's pace slows, it rears, and it lunges, all between the beats of my heart. Greenish light glimmers on its mandibles, bright and strong enough for me to feel the tug of Wind upon it.

  “Move!” I snarl. Blood pumps, scales spread; I lunge to the side and swing my tail to balance. Web bends and shudders underfoot.

  The spider-monster lands with eight thumps just in front of where I was, bare moments before— six of its legs grip to bridges, catching its momentum and sending shudders outward through the web. The two long legs in front are buried deep in the ground. Sickly blue-green dust bursts out from bulging clusters of mold, scattering across the broken surface and spreading through the air.

  Did Verity— well, no, of course she would, but where is—

  A flash of Fire erupts near the spider's abdomen, followed by a crackling thud. The monster sways, rocking with the unseen blow, and its violet eyes flare brighter. Malice, punctuated with a warbling chitter. Mold ripples and puffs on its abdomen, scattering yet more spores. It turns away from me, pivoting on the spot to face Verity.

  I'm already in motion, teeth bared, Wind curling across my frame. Spores scatter before me, the web shakes with each step; while its body hangs over the endless depths, my knife can still reach its legs. I leap and land next to one, sending out yet another ripple. Its leg shudders—

  I follow my gut. I let my momentum carry me, ducking and dragging my claw against the ground while swinging my tail. The monster's leg cracks the air, ringing against my ears.

  Any slower, and I would've been sent flying. Any less careful? One of my legs would've slid off the side of the web-bridge. I hiss out a curse, dragging my claws free of the surface. Whitish sap oozes from the wound, clinging in strands to my hand before finally slipping off.

  Bah.

  Snarling, I drive my boots deeper into the ground and push. Every muscle strains and straightens, force channeled from boot to back and out through the knife gripped in my right hand. The blade thuds into the joint of the monster's leg, echoing the blow back down my arm.

  I lean more of my body into the blow, knife scraping between plates of fungal chitin and biting into... whatever it is, that lies beneath. While it's tempting to keep pushing, the spider's drawn its forelegs from the ground and every other leg I can see is starting to move. Not that it's easy to see; the air is thick with blue-green spores, coating the surface of the web around us.

  The leg jerks away with a muffled rasp, tearing my knife free and nearly ripping my shoulder from its socket, then snaps back out with eye-straining speed— I dance away as best I can, holding close to the edge of the bridge.

  And then there’s those spores. Bah. I growl, savoring the rumble as it spreads through my body. Lots to think on, not enough time.

  The legs are armored. Is the rest of the body? If so, the knife won’t be useful for big hits. Joints, maybe?

  How did it react to me so quickly? Airflow? Tremors? An impossible sense? Mm. Still haven't seen any magic, could be—

  Fire burns starkly against the endless white, devouring the thick haze of spores. Verity's armor and shield gleam through the gap. As I watch, a forelimb skitters off her glowing shield with a clang. Her shield rams through the opening, crunching deep into the limb's base.

  Out of time, Ivy.

  With teeth bared and tail lashing, I lunge back into the fray; Wind turns a hop to a soar, and I carve a clear path through the spore-thickened air. Another pulse forms at the heel of my boot—

  —with the full force of my body behind it, my heel cracks through its abdomen. Wind shoves it further, deeper into a cold, mess of greyish goo. My knee jars painfully, twinging again when I have to shove off and drop myself down. Ooze clings to my boot, and more spills from the wound as I watch.

  Its body shudders like before, my eyes sweep for the retaliation. No legs close enough to... no, the legs opposite me are moving.

  Those legs stretch, dropping and ramming the monster’s abdomen at me. My first leap barely gets me clear, and I have to leap again when the nearest leg whips out with a deafening crack.

  Tail swinging out for balance, I drop into a crouch. The spider’s false flesh still drips from my boot, sticky and slick all at once. But it’s more than worth it; the spider’s abdomen is cracked, cratered, and oozing from the blow I’d landed earlier. My prey bleeds thick ooze, and I feel a toothy smile pushing its way across my face.

  It only widens when the spider, still unstable, is reminded of its other opponent.

  Verity shouts wordlessly, shield ramming into the spider’s head from below. Reddish-orange light flares from her shield’s surface, a wave of flame that turns spores to ash and dribbles embers across the spider’s chitin. A grisly hunk of mold goes up in rotten fire, and Verity keeps pushing. Up and forward, enough for the spider’s legs to start digging into the webs they stand on.

  Another cluster of mold bursts near its head, spewing out a wash of spores. The air ripples with the force of the rupture, clipping Verity’s shoulder hard enough to yank it backward. It’s enough to make me wince from here.

  But my prey is vulnerable, now. Our prey. A plan forms.

  I close the distance in long strides, eyes pinned on the spider’s ever-shifting legs. Wind unspools from my body, pouring into my knife— cruder, less controlled than in my own flesh, but more than sufficient.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Step forward into range. A shudder, I lean, a leg thunders past. Something pops in my ear. Leg back to brace, switch to a reversed grip for pushing, and there. Just as its leg begins to retract, I slam my knife up into the joint. Chitin cracks, ooze spills, and when I push further with Wind and straining muscle alike, the joint gives. Cracks join and shatter, and my blade rips out the other side.

  Part of its leg drops to the ground, and the monster lets out a muffled shriek. I’ve no time to savor victory; another cyst of mold tears on its body, unleashing a spherical wave of spores and force. Wincing, I angle myself to dodge.

  A shockwave bludgeons my side, a blossom of dull pain from hip to shoulder. I’m sent stumbling and snarling, tail whipping to drag my balance back from the brink. The pain is an irritant that takes precious moments to quash, moments where I can feel my Wind aura fading.

  But my mind remains sharp. Verity is a blur in the corner of my eye, pushed off the web in that same shockwave, but I’ll just have to trust she’s alright. The spider is turning toward me, forelegs scything around and putting me just barely outside its reach. Its head is singed, still smouldering with Verity’s fire, and the side of its head has a massive crack where her shield hit.

  Blood trickles down my neck, and sound returns to my left ear. I can feel my jaw shifting as more and more magic floods my body, my lips pulling back further than they should to bare my teeth. This monster is a proper threat, and it has my heart pounding. Excitement turns to evaluation, and my options splay out before me. Weaknesses click like pins in a lock.

  Verity resolves from blur to a smiling paladin, pulling herself up from the side of a lower web-bridge. Our eyes meet; she nods. Good.

  First, though— the immediate danger. The monster lurches, its forelegs snap out with the same eye-straining speed as before. Step forward, duck. They soar overhead, yanking at my hair. Lightning crackles down my arms, Wind stirs at my feet. I reach— no, it’s moving, the mandibles are too close— I jerk to the side, grimacing when my boot hits the critical point on the curved edge. Can’t go further, and with the head being such a small target, I’ll have to use blunt force rather than my knife.

  So I brace, face the monster properly, and drive a hooked blow into the side of its head. The knife’s grip aches against my scales, but it’s worth it. Something cracks, nothing gives. A fire-singed mandible flicks out, I lean and take the edge of it against my armored chest. Glancing at best, bruising at worst.

  My left hand drives up to hit from below, then I pivot my right shoulder and push that force into a straight-on strike. It hits home right on the crack Verity had already made, lengthening it but not splitting. Lightning arcs from fist to monster, crackling across its surface in waves.

  The spider lurches, one foreleg reeling back in and barely missing me when it snaps back out. Its mandibles chitter, flailing and thudding against the side of my chest.

  Time to go. I roll off the side of the web bridge, claws and knife dragging to control my descent. Magic trickles through my aches, enough to reduce the harm, not enough to truly dull the pain. The bruises are going to be everywhere, aren’t they?

  A quick shove off and a fanning of my tail lets me land on a thinner bridge not far below. It bends underneath my weight, rippling out in both directions.

  “Doing alright?” Verity’s voice sounds out, and I follow it to its source. She’s maybe twenty marches away and a handful upward, smiling as always. Ooze bubbles on her armor, burning off into thick smoke. She runs a hand through her hair, sighing— with my senses sharpened, I can pick out every detail. The way her sun-yellow eyes flicker, I’d hazard she’s doing the same. “Those spore sacs are... ech. Nasty.”

  “Took a bit of a hit there, but fine,” I call back, casting my eyes upward. The spider is angling toward me once more, its seven remaining legs spread across several web-bridges of varying thickness. Its massive body is battered and singed, cracked like old paving stones and oozing viscous fluid. Spores still flood the air, though, and the violet malice in its eyes has only deepened.

  And... another thing else tugs at my senses. Or rather, something doesn’t, a sound or sensation noticed only for its absence.

  But what? I push that to the side despite my instincts, because I can’t dwell when the monster is closing in. And we can’t go in blind, can’t go in without something resembling a plan. No repeats of my mistakes with He— no, with Lena.

  “Think you can block it again?” I shout, starting to jog. The monster skitters down, tik tik tik-ing across the webs, and I keep it out of range.

  Verity’s smile widens, and she breaks into a run on a bridge angling vaguely toward me. “Worth a shot. What’s the plan?”

  “I tear off itss legss.” I hiss.

  Verity smiles hungrily, glancing up at our prey. I follow her gaze. Monster's closer than I’d like, possibly close enough to lunge again.

  A flash of light, a sunbeam through thick clouds. A string of yellow-white Sun shields flares into being between us, hanging in the air in defiance of sense. Verity steps onto the first, then hops to the second, and begins to race toward me through the air.

  Well. That's one heck of a trick.

  The monster tenses, same as before. This time, I know what that means, and I know exactly where it’s going. Time stretches, Wind and Lightning curl around me. The monster lunges, forelegs outstretched, spores swirling more thickly than ever.

  Options race through my mind in the heartbeat I have to spare. Not a safe angle, can I slip between its forelegs? I’ll need to drop down further to get—

  With a deafening clang of chitin on Sun-shield, Verity arrives. Her arm glows with Sun, anchored against the weight of the monster even as her boots skid to a stop. The forelegs splay out to either side, rocketing past us. One of them has a deep, blackened gouge in its side. Perfect.

  “I like your plan!” Verity trills, the two tones of her voice diverging. Fire sears the air around her, turning spores into a rain of rancid ash.

  Well. With an opportunity like that... I growl, letting the rumble ease the tension in my chest.

  My clawed hand lashes out, gripping the wounded forelimb as best I can, and I slam my knife up into crack. The blade clangs home and bounces off, leaving a web of cracks in the already damaged chitin.

  Its leg shudders, yanked back and nearly out of my grip. I drag against it, hissing and snarling, claws burrowing into the chitin. Beside me, Verity levers her shield up, pressing harder into our prey's head.

  Its other forelimb snaps back, edge crashing into Verity's side. She snarls, pushing even harder and digging her boots deeper.

  I swing again with my knife, shoving up into the wound with a burst of Wind. The edge bites, but both limb and blade rip free of my grip. Pulled along, I stumble, wringing my hands and using my tail to counterbalance.

  These damned things need to go, and now.

  So when that same limb shoots out, I lean away. The moment it starts to pull back, I reach out, plant my feet, and grab it. Wind floods my body, bleeding away as much force as it can.

  Chitin fractures, the monster pulls harder—

  And the chitin cracks. My boots dig deep, my shoulders scream in pain. Shorn apart by its own strength, the limb snaps along the wound, a stub reeling back while the rest stays in my grip. My knife drops to the bridge with barely a thump.

  The monster wails, a shrill sound that nearly pops my ears for the second time. Mold clusters pulsate on its shell.

  “Get clear!” Verity shouts, and I move. I take two steps back, snatch up my knife, and drop off the side. Verity follows not long after.

  Spores ripple out in a thick wave of bluish-green behind us, slamming into Verity's back. The blow isn't clean— she spins, pushed down faster than I'm falling.

  She'll be fine, I know. But still...

  Just as she's about to pass me, I swing myself around by the tail and stick an arm out to grab her. Wind flows down my tail, curling outward and catching the air—

  She crashes into my arm, dragging a pained hiss from deep in my throat. I counter our combined spin with a Wind-infused flick of my tail, angling us toward a nearby web bridge. With her fall corrected, I pull my arm from around her waist and focus on landing.

  Wind flows from my tail down to my boots, arms spread wide to help direct my fall. Beside me, Verity's legs gleam with whitish light, and Fire burns in her talons.

  My boots crash into the web-bridge with a wet thunk. Force bleeds away in flashes of green light; my knees bend to absorb the rest. Verity lands in a flash of white and red light, scorching the ground around her. Her boots dig deeper than mine, drawing clear sap from the wound.

  “Blech,” she groans, flicking her boots. The sap burns away in puffs of smoke, which is a bit wasteful, honestly.

  She winks at me, a smile spreading across her face once more. “Oh, and thank you, Ivy. That would've been a pain otherwise...”

  Verity opens her mouth to say more. I point at the giant spider skittering down to us, and she shuts it with a click.

  Our prey is weakened, now. Its gait is stuttery, its movements less sure. Cracks and dents litter its body, its head is a fractured mess, and limb-stumps leave a trail of ooze in their wake.

  Malice still burns in its eyes. Clusters of mold form along its carapace as I watch. “You cut the limbss. I'll bait.”

  Verity shakes her shield, inspecting it. Storm-air blends with stinging smoke as she walks past me.

  I push Wind down my arms and legs, layering it with just a hint of Lightning. The air sharpens, crisp and acrid like the breeze after a storm. Power thrums through my body, raw and decadent, pulsing with each beat of my heart. My path is clear, my prey laid bare.

  Tik. Tik. Tik.

  The monster creeps down, eyes boring into me. I meet its gaze with my own, snarling at the unspoken challenge. One foot goes back, the other goes forward. I present my side to the monster and reel back my fist.

  “Ivy...”

  Verity's voice trails off. Haven't heard that low tone from her before.

  I stamp my foot against the web. Another ripple, a tremor racing outward; the spider twitches. It tenses, then pounces.

  My Wind catches the wave of spores, scattering it. The monster blurs, its single functioning forelimb slamming down to strike—

  I lean to the side, and the broken forelimb passes barely a handbreadth from my chest.

  Perfect.

  Our prey has become predictable, and that will be its end. I twist, pushing with my back leg, driving with my back, shoving with my arm. Wind flares, the air cracks.

  The fractured chitin that my fist collides with barely puts up a fight. It shatters like glass, and my fist buries itself deep in the monsters' head. A mandible drops to the ground, severed wholly from the body.

  Lightning follows. Flowing ooze and false flesh sear black under the violet light, tearing at shattered chitin and melting what remains.

  It can't even shriek when Verity's shield slams down on its other foreleg, nor when Fire overtakes its shell. It stumbles, its legs scrabble, and when the edge of Verity's shield cuts through the joint, it tumbles into the endless abyss.

  I watch as its body bounces and shatters against the countless web-bridges below. My breathing is heavy, my blood roars in my ears...

  “Goddess,” Verity groans, dropping to the ground next to me. Her armor is coated in tiny scorch marks, and when I look down, I'm coated with a similar amount of greyish ooze. “That was a fight.”

  Slow your breathing, Ivy. Steady, steady...

  I exhale slowly, a soft growl spilling from my throat. The world catches up, the thousand things I'd felt and seen but pushed to the side while my prey still lived.

  “Yesss,” I hiss, and Gods, it was. Nothing compares to the thrill of a fight, the joy of utterly defeating a foe.

  I'm tempted to sit down next to her and savor it. Instead, though, I scan the area, tracing the wounds of our battle back until I have a rough idea of where we entered. My dulled sense of depth agrees with my findings, and I sigh.

  “Let'ss get our ssupplies and get going, then,” I start, hesitating when Verity pouts. Something scratches against the back of my brain. What... “I'd rather it not get lossst.”

  “Awhh,” Verity pouts dramatically, pulling herself up. She rolls her shoulders, leans to stretch out her arms, and smiles. “You're right, I guess. I could go with a snack after that too!”

  Bright as always. Too bright, too much, to the point where frustration pushes against the enthusiasm she's infecting me with.

  “Did you...” I frown. I work my tongue, letting it shift back to a more human.

  A moment buried in the fight—

  That absence. It burrows deep in my gut, a cold worry that only grows as I examine it.

  “Did you feel anything odd, during the fight?” I start, hesitantly. “Something missing?”

  Verity's expression freezes. Her smile goes from warm to stone-cut, the glimmer in her sun-yellow eyes dims. “I... yes. Yes, I did. Something's missing, isn't it?”

  She mouths a word I know well— Adamantine— and several I can't pick out from lip movement alone.

  “Something is wrong,” she concludes, then shakes her head. “I can't tell what, but I'd guess this Delve's weird sensation is getting to us, maybe?”

  Maybe.

  It's probably nothing, but—

  Craumont hangs in balance. Every day lost is a day my city, my home, doesn't have.

  I'd pushed forward against common sense before, with Lena, and that had nearly cost us both.

  “Once we finish this layer, we're going back up.”

  I hear the words come out of my mouth before I've even finished thinking them.

  three dimensional fight scenes with a jumpy lizard and an enthusiastic bird bullying a spider is even harder. It was easy, comparatively, to pour my satisfaction into sending that damn thing tumbling into the abyss.

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