The army had formed a small convex bubble centered around the door that they pushed their way into. As each new unit pushed their way into the room they made their way onto the left side of the previous unit. The first unit would then step to the right as they were fighting to make room for the new unit. Rinse and repeat, until there were 8 units all filling the space. The coordination was made easy by the War Leader skill.

  Bjorn found out that gram was able to put each of the squad leaders under his command, as well as the rest of his unit with space to spare. Each of the squad leaders were able to have people under their control furthering Gram’s influence. If Bjorn was to guess, gram could have 250 people in his War Leader party, with other War Leaders letting them have their full respective parties, Bjorn guessed that around 500 to 750 of the army were apart of a War Leader party. At the same time not every squad leader had the War Leader skill.

  The convex bubble of safe space was large enough that Tommin’s full squad was able to freely move about in it and help out where it was needed. It just so happened to be Gram’s unit. It wasn’t so much that Gram’s unit needed help, it was that they were now against the right wall and they wanted to move out and enter the center of the force again. So that is what happened. Tommin’s unit moved over to Gram’s. With practiced ease the back lines of Gram’s unit split open and allowed Tommin’s units to intermingle with it.

  From there the front line stood back to back and did a small 180 degree turn where they stepped around one another. This was accomplished by Gram’s deep bellowing voice, which had grown deeper with his increased size, shouting out a quick order. When the order was given both lines which had been slightly staggered stepped back with their right legs, and pivoted, turning over their right shoulder. In less than a second the front line had been switched out.

  After that Gram’s unit pulled back leaving Tommin’s in his stead. They were supposed to hold that position until the 11th unit made it into the fray, and then they would perform the exact same maneuver, leaving the 11th unit in their stead.

  So that is what they did: they stayed and held the right flank for several minutes. The pressure that they felt was enough that they had to be vigilant, but not enough that they were in danger. Spiders threw themselves at their front line in droves and tried their best to push through but with no luck.

  Soon the 11th showed up to be their relief and the same maneuver was performed and they were soon back in the middle of the zone that was slowly expanding. The left flank had pushed into the wall to the left and started to push forward, trying to turn the convex position into more of a line. But it was slow moving, as the army had to deal with the thick strands of webbing that were thickly packed into the area.

  It was slow moving but they weren’t having much difficulty as the army by now were awfully adept at fighting these spiders. They were cutting down the spiders relatively easily without really any casualties in exchange.

  The spiders were done with their surprises though. Chaos erupted on the left side of the flank as screams of pain and agony could be heard from that side. The sounds of things slamming into metal were especially loud from that area as well. It didn’t take long before the order to go help out was issued by Gram. The telepathy that they shared from the War Leader skill made communication a cinch. Even though most of Tommin’s unit couldn’t hear what was happening in the other war party, he filled his unit in as they ran over to help the left flank.

  “Reports are quickly coming in that we are coming in contact with a larger variant of the snatcher spiders. They are closer to the size of a wagon. For now we are only facing a few, but they are having a massive impact on our forces.”

  When they joined that area a massive impact was an understatement. It was relatively easy to stop a Great Dane sized spider with a shield wall. While supported by both sides they were able to hold strong and stop any momentum that the spiders had. When the spiders were easily larger than a horse that became a harder thing to do.

  There were 3 of the large sized spiders that had pushed through the front line of the left flank and were wreaking havoc amongst the humanoids. Many of the smaller spiders had pushed through as well and were stopping the humanoids from reforming their battle lines. All while the large spiders were running rampant in the back lines of the army.

  Tommin quickly took in the scene in front of him and gave the order, he split his unit into three parts. The first two had 40 men in it equally, the last one had 20. Each of the first 40 were ordered the go after the first two large spiders. The last unit which consisted of Alaric, Bjorn, Rickie, Tayla, Meira and 15 others, were given orders to hold against the last spider and distract it until they would be able to get help. Tommin lumped them into the smaller unit because of their fighting prowess. Tayla and Rickie were known profession holders, Alaric and Meira were not known, but during the last battle it had become apparent that those 4 were some of the best fighters that were under Tommin’s control.

  Most of the army were in their low 10’s or hadn’t even broken 10 for levels yet. As most of the army were just regular citizens of Blackrock Bay who signed up when they were attacked by the snatcher spiders. Even though Bjorn was the weakest of their group he was still stronger than the average soldier in this army.

  Everyone broke into their assigned groups and moved to engage the large spider. Rickie and Alaric led the charge for their small group. Even though their charge looked reckless the two now practiced allies understood how the other moved and fought, so it was anything but reckless. The barbarian and the dwarf ran straight at the farthest of the 3, the one who was wreaking the most havoc on the army.

  When Rickie drew closer he activated a barbarian talent. His legs surged with energy briefly before he rocketed forward ramming his large two handed sword into the abdomen. Instead of burying the large blade into the spider’s abdomen the blade sank less than 6 inches into the abdomen before it came to a stop bringing Rickie to a stop as well.

  With the barbarian standing right next to the spider it became obvious that the reports were slightly off. By the way that the reports sounded they made the spider out to be the size of a small human sized hand cart. That wasn’t entirely accurate. The spider's body was around 12 feet long, and half as long wide. With the legs added into the equation the spiders stood at around 7 feet off the ground, and their freakishly long legs made the spiders around 15 feet in diameter.

  The spider lowered its body towards the ground so it would be able to bite at and attack the humanoids that were shorter than it. Which was how Rickie landed its hit high up in the abdomen. The giant spider stood to its full height. Rickie’s sword was stuck in the thick carapace of the spider and as it stood it brought Rickie’s sword with it, and by extension It also brought Rickie.

  “Shieet!” Rickie exclaimed as his feet were lifted off the ground.

  Alaric arrived a few moments after Rickie, but by the time the dwarf arrived Rickie was already getting pulled off the ground. With Alaric’s shorter stature he wasn’t able to easily land a hit on the spider that was now well out of his reach. So instead of attacking the body of the spider he went for the only thing close by, its leg.

  Alaric turned and took a swing at the thick trunk of a leg. As he started the swing with his hammer he increased the length of handle further increasing the force he would be able to bring to bear. The mighty war hammer slammed into the leg of the spider and it looked like it had no discernible difference. Leg which was over 6 inches thick didn’t even move as the mighty blow which would have dented high steel barely did anything to the leg.

  If you inspected the impact site closely you would be able to find the spot where the hammer bounced off, but that would be it. In a move which looked familiar to a person pushing a cat, the spider lifted that leg off the ground and thrust it at the dwarf. When it connected he went flying.

  Bjorn quickly sized up the situation. “Get close enough to distract it, but don’t get too close.” He shouted to the others in his small unit. By then the spider had turned its attention on the small gnat that dared attack it, and chased after Alaric where he had gone flying. In doing so its rotation made Rickie’s sword pull free and both him and his sword went flying.

  The spider went to change Alaric down where he lay, but the others in their group made their presence known. They put themselves between Alaric and the giant spider, giving the dwarf a chance to return to his feet and rejoin the fray. Together they all tried their best to juggle the attention of the spider. Fortunately for them almost everyone who had been assigned to their group wielded spears, allowing them to keep distance between them and the spider. Each time it would lunge forward they would attempt to poke out one of its eyes forcing the spider to pull back time and time again.

  A familiar arc of lightning came streaking across the field as Meira finished casting her weak lightning bolt. The jumping lightning slammed into the side of the spider faster than could be tracked by the naked eye, blackening and charring the spider’s dense exo-skeleton. The dense electricity slowed the spider as it’s legs spasmed and it fell to its side. Unfortunately the electricity didn’t travel through the central nervous system and instead it slammed into the abdomen and then down into the ground. The spider just fell to the ground briefly before it scrambled back to its feet.

  When it returned to its feet a screech of pain and anger left the spider. Briefly disregarding its own safety the spider lunged forward trying to latch onto someone. It did exactly that. The spiders biting appendages slammed down on one of their numbers, the fangs puncturing through the metal and sunk deep into the woman. Each of the almost 2 feet long fangs plunged into the body of the woman killing her instantly as her heart was pierced. Almost as quickly as they plunged into the body they were retrieved and the spider turned towards its next victim.

  It didn’t get far as one of few shield wielders of their small squad stepped forward and took a swing at the spiders face as it retracted its fangs. The spider instead of fully storing its fangs instead turned just slightly and the deadly fangs came down on him as well. The spider was fast, but not quite fast enough. As the fangs started their downward trajectory the man swung his shield upward in an attempt to block the fangs.

  He received mixed results. On one hand he did stop the fangs. On the other hand the fangs punctured the shield. The incredible force behind the strike allowed the spider's fangs to puncture the dense wood of his shield. Even though he was saved from being stabbed like his fellow soldier, his body wasn’t able to hold up to the immense kinetic energy behind the blow. The blow sent the man to his knees and his arm buckled. The way the force was applied he wasn’t skewered by the fangs.

  When the spider went to withdraw its fangs from the shield it ended up picking up the man still attached to the shield with it. With a yell the man went from a kneeling position to his feet dangling a few feet off the ground, all the while with large spider fangs right in front of his eye. His arm hung at an awkward angle as he dangled. Reaching up he grasped the leather strap that held him in place with his free hand and yanked. The craft person who had made the shield had made it so the leather strap that held him in place could be easily released.

  The man dropped to the ground in a heap, where he quickly scrambled to his feet and tried to get as much distance as he could between him and the monstrosity as fast as he possibly could. But by the time he freed himself he was far from on the spider's mind. It was set on freeing its fangs from the shield. It was able to do so by placing one of its legs on the shield and yanking upward. The movement was clumsy and rather rushed.

  When it lowered its head to try to rip its head free the fighters rushed in to try and wound the beast, with little success. The only ones who did any meaningful damage were Alaric, Bjorn, and Tayla. Rickie tried to land another hit on the carapace where his sword got stuck before to little success. Alaric moved in and made a few repeated attacks on the same spot on one of the spider's legs, the leg started to sprout thin cracks as the structure of the carapace. Tayla dove forward her eye on a segment of one of the spider's legs and drove her dagger deep into the joint.

  Bjorn had been sitting back waiting for the right opportunity to hit the spider. When it lowered its head to the ground was when he decided to strike. As the head started its trajectory downward Bjorn pulled one of his poison tipped arrows out of his bag of holding and sighted down it to make sure he wasn’t going to miss. He used the zoom function he got from his level 10 in archery. The beady eyes of the spider grew large in his vision as a small reticle appeared where the projected arrow would fly. He made a last second adjustment and let loose.

  The arrow flew true and slammed into one of the spider's eyes. The arrow sunk deep into the eye socket. The screams of pain turned into a wailing agony as the poison that had coated the tip of the arrow began to spread throughout the body of the spider. The poison was fast acting and quickly began to eat away at the bone structure.

  When it yanked its head away with the shield pinned two things happened at the same time. The first one was that one of the fangs that had been trapped in place inside the shield broke leaving it behind while the second one was pulled away safely. The second thing that happened was that the limb that Alaric had been swinging at finally broke leaving the spider unsteady. The fast acting poison did its work, as without it neither of the two injuries would have occurred.

  Now with one of its 8 legs missing its bottom segment the spider became more erratic. Some part of its mind began to understand the danger it was facing, and it started to understand that this was a fight for its life. During its 7 months of life it had been the biggest, baddest, and strongest monster around, the fact that these small insects that normally wouldn’t be a challenge were hurting it was difficult for its small brain to understand.

  Lunging forward it swung its head using its remaining fang as a Billy club. The club slammed into one of the spear wielders, instantly crushing the metal of his chest piece and killing the man. In retaliation the spider lost another one of its eyes as spears were thrust toward the spider.

  That is how the spider fought for over a minute. It would lunge forward hoping to crush one of the insects that challenged its majesty, sometimes it would find success. The reason that their party of 20 was able to last as long as they did was because of Alaric and Rickie. With the two of them situated on either side of the spider wherever it turned to attack it would be met by the two warriors and its attack would be foiled. When they weren’t defending they were slowly whittling down at the health of the massive spider.

  Tayla and Meira couldn’t be discounted either. Tayla was always there in the thick of the fray either trying to find the weak points in the spider's carapace or trying to save those Rickie and Alaric couldn’t. She would constantly get in the way of a stray limb and push the soldier to safety or tackle them bearing them to the ground allowing the attack to miss. Meira was at the back constantly chanting spells. She would alternate between casting an offensive spell to try and help whittle down the spider's health, and some healing magic to try and help mitigate what small damage did get through from the spider.

  Bjorn was equally the least useful and most useful at the same time. His spells were mostly too weak to have any real effect on the spider, but he still tried. He had cast strengthening light and also bark skin on Rickie. He even tried his blind spell which did work. But for such a short time that it is hardly worth mentioning. Once when the spider landed a solid hit on Rickie Bjorn cast encroaching darkness to slow the spider and confuse it, allowing him to reorient himself and get back into the fight before the 5 second duration elapsed.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Ultimately he himself didn’t amount to much use in the fight. The poison he had spent long hours trying to make paid dividends though. Each and every time he landed a solid hit with an arrow the thick bone like carapace on the large spider would weaken making it more likely for their attacks to land and break through the carapace and sink into the soft flesh underneath. That in and of itself made him the most important member of this fight.

  It was on arrow 6 that landed and stuck in the spider's body that things finally changed in their favor. One of Meira’s Lightning bolts finally stuck and actually stunned the spider. By the time the bolt struck The spider was teetering on 5 legs. The stunned debuff was too much and the two legs on one side collapsed and the spider fell in that direction. Rickie was on that side of the fight and saw an opportunity. As soon as the spider began to fall he reactivated his barbarian lunge talent and he shot forward again. This time his 5 foot long blade sunk a foot and a half into the thorax of the massive spider. His body's forward momentum brought his feet against the carapace of the spider and he planted his feet and shoved off, throwing his body away from the spider and leaving his sword behind.

  As his body flew through the air clearing the body of the spider it fell. The sword which was hanging out of the side of the spider was pinned between the heavy body and the ground. As it landed on the sword it was shoved further through its thorax and continued to be shoved in until it was buried up to the hilt.

  Everyone else piled onto the spider as it lay there stunned. Unfortunately for the spider it never got the chance to get back up. As the combined attacks over 13 people was too much for the massive spider and it expired under the onslaught.

  Once everyone got the notification confirming the spider's death collectively the remaining 15 soldiers let out a sigh. They were so distracted by their own fight that they had lost track of the battle. Out of the three spiders that their squad of 100 engaged two of which were down. The first one was the one that they just fought the other was the one that Tommin’s group engaged. The last spider looked to be winning versus the last group. Of the initial 40 only 25 were still on their feet, the remaining looked haggard.

  It said a lot about Tommin’s capability to lead when he left Bjorn’s group to fend for themselves and moved to help the ones who were struggling. Together the two were easily handling the large spider.

  Surveying the rest of the battle it was going fairly well. The army was making good gains into the room. There were 7 other of the snatcher spider warriors who had attacked the main army. 3 attack the right front, which was struggling. One of the spiders was dead and the other two looked to be damaged. The last 4 attack the main army. Two of which had attacked Gram’s unit. Which was a big mistake on their part. Gram had fought and killed one all on his own, and his professed fighters easily made quick work of the second.

  Before they moved on the group collectively helped roll the massive spider's body over allowing Rickie to retrieve his sword. After their own barbarian was re-equipped they moved over to where the remaining spider their unit engaged. By the time they made it over to the spider the rest of their unit took care of it. Everyone was breathing hard. Tommin gave his unit a few minutes to rest.

  But not Meira, she didn’t stop at all. As everyone was stopping to catch their breath Meira very quickly began walking through the resting soldiers and started casting her healing magic on the worst injured of their unit.

  With Tommin being a part of Gram’s warband he was able to communicate with the support staff and get them moving towards their position to evacuate the wounded, at least those too hurt to continue fighting.

  After a minute Tommin stood back up. “We have new orders to make our way to the right flank. They were hit hard by the large spiders and they need reinforcement. Take another 30 seconds and then we need to go. Our people are dying, we need to go help them.”

  No one disputed Tommin’s order, nor did they drag their feet. By the time 30 seconds had passed everyone was back on their feet and started to form up again. Out of the 100 people who were initially a part of their unit 70 were left standing. The remaining 30 were either dead or were too wounded to be of use in this fight. All things considered they were better off than most of the other units.

  Together they moved through the battlefield, as they went the support staff for the army stopped what they were doing and got out of their way. It was a grim sight as they moved. Hundreds of non combat people worked hard to remove the dead, the wounded, and the spider corpses. There were more dead than there were wounded that they passed on the way to support the right flank.

  By the time they made it to the flank they had successfully managed to take down the remaining spider warrior. Their lines were in disarray because of the havoc that the massive spiders were able to sow before they were taken down though. In multiple places there were pockets of snatcher spiders behind friendly lines that were also now wreaking havoc on the cohesion of the flank. Which looked like it was about to collapse.

  “Split into groups of 35. Mainly those who are in our front two lines in one group and the rest into the other.” They quickly split into the two groups as ordered. One had roughly 20 men and women who carried shields. The rest of that group carried a mix of spears and halberds. “Good, now you go to that hole and put yourselves into it to plug it. Stop the stem of spiders that are making it through. The rest of you. You will be under Alaric’s command, listen to what he says. Your standing orders are to clean up any of the spiders that made it through. Once there aren’t any snatcher spiders alive on this side of our line you are to come back to us and help us hold the line. Got it?”

  “Sir, yes sir.” Rang out from the throats of all those present. Tommin nodded and joined the holding force and they began to move out.

  Meira moved to join Tommin and his force. “Are you sure?” Bjorn asked her.

  “Yes. They can use my help more than you can. You will be fine.”

  “It isn’t me I am worried about.”

  Meira smiled. “I am touched, but I will be fine. I will be in the back. And don’t you worry about me. I am a coward at heart, if I see our line even getting close to wavering I will run away.”

  Bjorn returned her smile. “Liar.”

  Meira turned back to the now moving away force and ran after them to catch up. Bjorn turned back to the force now under Alaric’s command and saw that they had already started to move towards the nearest clump of spiders harassing the back line of their army. He also had to run to catch up.

  The next hour was spent clearing up any spider that had made it through the right flank, and helping stabilize the flank. By the end of the hour it looked like the right flank had managed to hold on and was once again pushing. All of the credit for that couldn’t be attributed solely to Tommin’s unit. There were a few factors that allowed that to happen.

  The first one and the most important factor was that on top of Tommin’s unit showing up to help defend the flank. Two other units also were sent over to help. These were mostly fresh. So the combined aid of over 250 additional soldiers made a massive difference.

  The next thing that helped was that the side of the cavern they were on began to shrink. The wall of the cavern they were fighting in began to narrow, helping stem the flow of spiders. That could get through and attack the flank.

  The last thing was that the flames that were eating away at the spider's web began to make real headway on their side making it so that it was harder for spiders to get there through the webbing. The webbing itself burned smokeless. No one had any idea as to why that was the case but it was something that they learned early on and used to their advantage. If not for that property of the spider silk it was likely that everyone in the room would have asphyxiated from a lack of oxygen. It also seemed to burn quite rapidly leaving little behind to endanger those on the ground below.

  Once the flank was fully recovered the now almost useless 500 soldiers that made up that wing of the army stood there to recover. Orders were quickly passed down through the chain of command and a large quantity of the right flank was delegated to helping out the support staff. Tommin’s unit was not one of those assigned though.

  As the battle raged onwards the sides of the room began to shrink, funneling down to a single exit once again. The spiders fought hard but ultimately it was a foregone conclusion. Gram and his unit were too powerful, the small spiders weren’t able to do much damage to them and the snatcher spider warriors were not enough to tip the scales in the spider's favor.

  Even though the spiders ultimately lost the fight they had made the humanoids pay a heavy toll. Of the 1500 humanoids that went into combat a little over 400 were dead or wounded enough that they had to be evacuated. They weren’t able to tell for sure how many lost their lives, but by their preliminary headcount there were nearly 1100 soldiers still standing on the field of battle.

  Once the fighting was well and truly wrapped up they sent word to the other force to state that the battle was won.

  Tommin and his unit had orders to move to the edge of the cavern and take a well deserved rest. Everyone including Meira slumped down against the cavern wall while the rest of the army set about to clear out the remains of the dead. By this time Meira had well and truly exhausted herself, she had fully bottomed out her mana pool twice through her excessive use of spellcasting. Everyone’s stamina was near depletion so the rest was welcome.

  No one spoke as the army removed the dead and dying from the field of battle. Once again the silence of war was unnerving. The silence was occasionally broken by a barked order that permeated the room. But each and every time it fell back to silence. Even the orders sounded half hearted at best. Everyone was contemplating the effect of the battle today.

  It was a surprise to the entire unit when the walking wardrobe of a man named Gram made his way over to where they were resting. As he approached everyone got to their feet to salute the man. By this time the talent that he had used had worn off and Gram was once again back to his usual 8 and a half feet tall, still towering over everyone before him.

  “Please, there is no need to stand on ceremony here. Rest.” When most of the unit didn’t follow Gram’s words right away he spoke again in a kind tone. “Please sit. You have earned it today.”

  Everyone but Tommin sat back down. “Sir?” He said in a half question.

  “I wanted to personally thank all of you for your actions today. And I wanted to apologize. I didn’t know the strength of those larger spiders before I sent all of you after them. At the time the orders went out I was being swarmed by spiders. By all means you should have not been able to prevail over the large spiders. Many of our troops who came up to face them did not live through the day. Yet the majority of you still are alive.”

  As gram was giving his praise his eyes were sweeping through the crowd assembled before him, making eye contact with each person before his eyes traveled onwards. His eyes stopped as soon as they met Bjorn’s face. They quickly swept down to Alaric where he was sitting at the opposite side of the quintet.

  A smile broke out on the man’s face. “Bjorn, Meira, Tayla, and Alaric. It is good to see all of your faces again. I should have known it was going to be all of you. I am glad you all are still alive. Though, I don’t really recognize your last party member. And you are?”

  Rickie got to his feet and took a step forward, palm extended upwards. Gram also took a step forward and clasped Rickie’s wrist with his own hand. Rickie had to look up to meet the man's eyes. Something he rarely had to do so, as at his 6 foot 6 inches he often was the one looking down at those around him. “My name is Rick, but most people call me Rickie.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet you Rickie. You have picked yourself some fine travel companions. You should consider yourself a lucky man.”

  “Believe me, I do.” They dropped wrists and Rickie took a step back again and let his back rest against the wall where he then slid to the ground.

  Gram also took a step back. “I will be busy for the next few days taking care of the logistics of this battle. On the morning after three days from now, I would like for you to come to my office back at camp.”

  “We will be there.” Alaric said solemnly.

  Gram nodded before his gaze continued on down the line. “As I was saying I sent you against an enemy you had no right in beating, but by the fact that you were able to prevail I thank you. Then you once again saved our asses. When I ordered your unit, Jess’s unit, and Pan’s unit to assist the right flank you were the first ones to respond. You mobilized first and were the first ones in the fray. After fighting an enemy you shouldn’t have been able to beat. I thank you. If not for you many more of my men would have died today.”

  Gram made it to the end of the line and started making his way back up the line once again. “You stemmed the tide while helping clear those that got by, I won’t say you were the only reason that we didn’t lose the right flank and likely this entire battle, but you sure played a large role in doing so. Thank you.”

  From where Bjorn sat he could hardly see Tommin’s face, but the corner he could see was streaked with tears. “Thank you for your kind words sir. But we were only following orders. I wish to be done with these damn spiders and be back home. The faster we win this the faster that can be done.” Even though his cheeks were streaked with tears his voice was unwavering.

  “Be that as it may, but you all did an exemplary job at following your orders, thank you. Your unit shall be given the next three days off of assignments, enjoy the rest you so deserve. You shall also be given double rations. I understand that these are poor rewards, but it is the best I can do under the circumstances.”

  When they heard of three days rest and double rations every member of the unit perked up a bit. All except for Meira and Bjorn, for them even with the days without assignment they both knew that they would not stop working.

  “That is all, you are dismissed.” Gram said before turning on his heels and walking away from the group.

  The unit sat there eyes darting between those seated next to them, Tommin, and Gram’s retreating back. “Well you heard him. Get your sorry asses up and head back to camp. You are to drop your gear back at the blacksmiths and let them work their magic on the metal and make your way to your tents. Oh and if you have any wounds don’t forget to stop by the hospital on the way back, not that I need to tell you lot that.”

  Small chuckles escaped the lips of many of the seated soldiers. They quickly got to their feet and made their way back to camp.

  When Bjorn and his company got to their feet to follow, Tommin raised a hand asking them to stay. After everyone else left he turned towards where Rickie and Alaric stood. “Thank you for your effort today. Like Captain Gram I don’t want to say you were the only ones who made a difference today but you played a big part in my unit's success today. I have little doubt that you were the reason that your small unit was able to kill your spider, and why there were so few casualties on your end.”

  “Actually sir.” Meira cut in before Alaric could say anything. “The reason we were able to kill that monstrosity is because of Bjorn. Alaric, Rickie, and Tayla are for sure the reason that we had so few casualties. If it wasn’t for Alaric’s shield and his positioning many of our squad would have died. If it wasn’t for Rickie’s prodigious strength and being able to stop the spider in it’s tracks many others would have died. And if it wasn’t for Tayla’s speed and agility many more would have died. Many of the attacks that Alaric and Rickie weren’t able to stop she was able to save those it would have hit.”

  “How do you think Bjorn is the reason that you were able to kill the spider though?” Tommin asked as he did an once over on the rather unassuming man when standing next to the rest of his party.

  “He and the Alchemists have been working on a poison that will work on the Snatcher spiders. To my understanding they had success as of this morning and Bjorn took the time to coat his arrows in the poison. If not for that poison I doubt we would have been able to kill our spiders.”

  Tommin looked at Bjorn with raised eyebrows. “How does this poison work?”

  Bjorn looked around briefly and started walking over to one of the smaller snatcher spiders. “Come over here I will show you.” The rest of the party Tommin included followed after Bjorn. He knelt down next to the dead spider and motioned for Tommin to do the same. “Reach out and touch the spider's limb, try to break it with your grip.”

  Tommin frowned and reached out grasping ahold of the limb and first tried to crush it, with no success. Next he tried to snap it with both hands again with no success. He had to resort to putting the limb over his leg and using his combined weight and strength to snap the limb into two.

  “Ok? And? That is the same result that I have gotten every time I have tried doing so up until this point.”

  “Hold your horses.” Bjorn said as he reached into his bag of holding and pulled out one of his two remaining poison soaked arrows. He plunged the arrow down into the carapace of the spider, stabbing it right in the middle of its chest.

  “That looked easy! I have seen several arrows glance off of the tough exo-skeletons of these spiders. How long does it last?” Tommin exclaimed and asked all at once.

  Bjorn held out a finger. “Wait a second, let the poison do its work.”

  So they waited. First thirty seconds, then a minute. Then two. Once two and a half minutes passed Tommin grew impatient. “Alright, I waited and nothing happened? What was supposed to happen?”

  “That is probably good enough, try again.”

  This time Tommin went straight for snapping it over his knee. Only this time when he grasped the spider's limb to try and reposition the dead carcass the normally tough carapace dissolved under Tommin’s grasp. Almost as if it wasn’t a hard substance at all.

  “Well I'll be. That stuff is amazing. How hard is it to make? Can we reproduce it? Can we make sure that all of our soldiers have some? Does Gram know that this is what you have been working on? Is that why he knows who you are?” The questions came so fast that Bjorn barely had time to register the questions before Tommin asked the next one.

  Raising his hand Bjorn stemmed the flow of the questions. “Woah woah, calm down. It is rather hard to make and will take some time. Skarit is currently working on making more of this stuff so that it can be ready for our next battle. As to if Gram knows about it, not likely. But I suspect that Skarit will take some to Gram as soon as he is able to showcase the effects of the poison. And finally as to why Gram knows who we are is because we were the ones who first let the entire town of Blackrock Bay know about the spider threat.”

  “Oh, well that makes sense. It is a shame that we can’t likely outfit everyone with some of this poison. Very well, I have kept you long enough from your well deserved rest. Go drop your stuff off at the blacksmiths, take a bath and then enjoy your rest.” Tommin said the excitement somewhat dampened, but there was a seed of hope that could be seen behind his eyes that wasn’t there before.

  Together the 5 friends made their way back to camp, passing several wagons piled high with snatcher spider corpses, as well as several teams of people carrying the wounded or dead. As soon as they made it back they dropped off their gear, took a nice long bath and then crumpled into their cots. It had, after all, been a long day. Even Meira, who had spent the majority of her time at the field hospital, laid down to sleep