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The sudden sense of futility had me fleeing. I ran for outside, only I was still trapped underground.
I bolted, racing for the far end of the street. Daksh came after me.
“Asharee. Stop.”
I didn’t want to. Didn’t he see? We couldn’t win whatever this fight was.
“Asharee, watch out!”
The moment he yelled I flinched and turned. My eyes widened as I saw the creature diving at me from above. Winged like a dragon, but with the head of a mouse and eyes that glowed with orange fire. A bat, but of a size that made it a monster.
I credited my years of dance for how I could suddenly drop into the splits, saving my head from the jaws of decapitation. As I scissored into a roll and bounced to my feet, I noticed more of the giant bats swooping. Daksh parried one, his sword slicing at the membranes of its wings.
Dagger in hand, I crouched and kept turning so nothing could sneak up on me. The bat dove at me. I dodged, leaped into the air, and slashed on my way down, severing its wing. It crashed into a building, and I would have cheered, but we weren’t done.
More of them flocked from the roof of the cave. Too many for us.
“Get inside a building,” Daksh yelled.
I saw the logic. I just hated the idea of hiding with corpses. But I also didn’t want tobecomea corpse…
I bolted for the nearest building, and had almost made it to the arch with its missing doors, when a spider the size of a dog emerged. It squealed and ran for me on all its spindly legs. Ew. I didn’t feel bad about stabbing it. It uttered a shriek as it skittled its last.
Daksh joined me but only because all the attacking bats had changed course. His glance tracked them upward.
“Have they given up?”
“More like they’re scared. And if they’re hiding, then it’s not something we want to be dealing with. Let’s get out of here.” Daksh kept his sword out as he raced along the edge of the city and the ramp going up. We needed to get back into the tunnels.
A sudden blur shot past us, narrowly missing. The gob of goo hit with a splat, which we avoided even as we whirled to confront the newest threat.
“Oh goddess, no.” Apparently the little spider I’d handled came in a larger size.
Much larger.
The giant arachnid climbed down the wall of the city shaft, a putrid green that contrasted with the reddish-orange mosaic of its eyes. The long legs moved in a disjointed fashion that made my skin crawl with wrongness
I’d swear the damn thing stared at me. More like it could smell the spider I’d killed on my dagger.
Daksh left me to run for the spider, and yet it remained fixated on me. He leaped, and I swore his whole body glowed as he arced higher than should have been possible. His sword flashed as he swung and missed! The spider lifted the front half of its body long enough to avoid the blow. Before Daksh could spin to counter, a leg swatted his descent. He slammed into a building and didn’t move.
A part of me wanted to rush to his side, but I had more important things to worry about. The spider spat a sticky strand at me. I dodged and knew this wasn’t a fight I could run or hide from.
The spider finished crawling down the building and hit the ground. It ran for me.
Oh dear goddess. Give me courage.
Before I could overthink it, I ran for the arachnid. If I could sever a leg or two…
A strident whistle drew the spider’s attention to Daksh. Or was it the magic he held in the palm of his hand? A glowing ball of light that oozed power.
The arachnid hissed as it whirled. New target. Let Daksh handle the front while I took care of the back.
It felt strange to race after a monster. The rear of it hung low and bulbous. Probably gushy. I hated gushy. When Palla and I were living in the sewers of Laski, we’d had to deal with squishy spiders on a regular basis.
I lifted my dagger and plunged it in as I ran past. My arm stretched above my head, and I might have closed my eyes as I traversed under its belly. My knife cut, but not to the damaging extent I’d hoped for.
The spider sprang into the air with a shriek that sent me stumbling to my knees. As I flipped my head back, I caught Daksh striding for me. Not dead after all.
