Chapter 21 – Silk Forest

  As soon as Cole entered under the gossamer canopy, he began to see shadows skittering on the underside of the silk domes woven over and between the trees. Dog-sized shapes crossed overhead. They all kept their weapons close at hand. A strange chirping noise started to echo through the woods, and Cole halted only a few feet in.

  Howie cleared his throat. “If they’re anything like Earth spiders, vibration anywhere along the web may tell them we’re here.”

  “That’s a great fact to save for after we already stepped in it,” snapped Cole.

  The mage bombard started to turn a little red. “You can’t always take Earth knowledge for granted here. I don’t know if it’s true or not for this place.”

  When nothing happened, he motioned for the others to continue following him.

  “Maybe they won’t attack a big group,” said Roxy.

  Maybe. Cole wasn’t about to put money on it. Overhead, the sun climbed past its zenith, filtering through the dense webs with an ephemeral glow. With his heightened hearing, Cole could make out creatures as they moved through the trees or underbrush, but not when they took the delicate web highways, which, as far as he could tell, produced no sound at all. Hell, they were so fast and so close in color to the webs themselves that he barely even saw them when they moved. Even Besson started to close ranks with them, walking only a few dozen meters behind with Nutmeg close at hand.

  Cole continued walking, slow but with purpose. Best not to show weakness to predators by being hesitant, after all. He glanced back to where Morganstern was draped across Roxy’s shoulders. Opportunistic predators would try to separate the wounded or sick animals from a herd. Either that or completely overwhelm the whole thing once they had enough numbers.

  Landnav in the silk was tougher than in the regular forest. Multiple times, Cole checked his compass only to realize that they’d veered off course.

  “You sure these thing points north, here?” asked Howie, as Cole checked his compass yet again.

  “Doesn’t matter which way they point as long as it’s always the same direction,” said Cole. “I saw a path at the base of the mountain north-northeast of us, and I’m trying to keep us on a direct route…” he twitched up at movement from one of the trees nearby. “Roxy!”

  The shield maiden had already started spinning when his eyes twitched toward movement. When the creature pounced out of the tree behind her, she caught it on her shield. Cole felt the pop of a charge being burned, and the critter rebounded off the shield like it was a trampoline, smashing into the same tree it had jumped out of. Howie held out his hand, and a blast of frost enveloped the thing. Webs erupted in hoarfrost in a meter-wide cone around the creature. It locked up like it had been dunked in liquid nitrogen.

  Roxy stomped forward and lifted her boot to smash the thing, but Cole held her off.

  “Wait! Some bugs got pheromones, call the whole hive if you smash one. Right, Howie?” Cole looked over for confirmation.

  “I mean, not spiders, usually, but yeah some bugs do. Bees, some wasps, other nasties. That doesn’t look much like a bug, though. Ice should neutralize them, anyway.”

  Cole leaned down and examined the creature. It was closer to a crab than a spider in appearance, covered in an armored white carapace with two sets of four spindly legs and two claws. Eyes and mouthparts glared sightlessly ahead at nothing, rimed in frost. Some sort of venom had frozen along its outermost fangs on the end of oversized mandibles. It came up just below his knee. He extended his spear and tipped the creature upwards. Below the mouth were two protuberances dripping with yet another fluid, which Cole assumed to be the source of the webs.

  “Crab spiders, just great,” said Roxy. She shivered. “I could feel it scrabbling on the other side of my shield.”

  “Better decide what to do quick,” said Howie, “This is going to last another thirty seconds at most.”

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  When did Cole become the one deciding? He’d been a non-commissioned officer in the Army, but his rank didn’t matter here so far as the others were concerned. Still, when others looked to you for decisions, you made one—for better or worse. He pulled back his spear and then drove it through the creature’s unprotected face beneath the brim of its top shell. The spear sank in several inches, causing several of the creature's limbs to twitch, as well as the creature’s claws and fangs to latch on out of pure muscle reflex.

  Roxy jumped behind him. “I think I’m gonna be sick,” she said, turning away. Howie just stared in fascination. Cole pulled his spear back out as the creature started to dissolve.

  “Grab anything it’s got and keep moving,” said Cole. Now that he knew what to look for, it was easier to pick them out amongst the webs. Most of the ones he could see were much smaller than the one that had jumped on Roxy. A few were close to it in size. They all seemed to be waiting for something. Like a big brother to come and start the ruckus.

  Cole led them on for what felt like hours, dealing with the occasional attack, spotting it as or just before it happened with barely enough warning to keep the little bastards from sinking their fangs into one of his teammates. But they killed four more dog-sized web crabs. Even Nutmeg killed one, bringing it to the group for inspection. But each time, they picked up more of the smaller ones tagging along and maintaining their distance. The group collected loot, but it all went into bags for later inspection. No one wanted to sit around in the silk forest and compare stats.

  “I think I can see the edge,” said Roxie. “Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me. There,” she said, pointing.

  Cole followed her gaze. There was a strange shimmer in the air where she pointed, and the webs did seem noticeably thinner there. But he also caught movement in the shadows—movement he might have missed the day before.

  “Howie, can you put that freezing spell into that launcher I gave you?”

  Howie had strung the launcher with a bit of paracord. He hung his otherworld rifle and opened up the breech on the launcher. “Sure can. Could do fire, lightning, or wind, too.”

  “Let’s not set fire to the webs we’re currently under,” said Besson. It was the first thing he’d said since closing ranks with them. Nutmeg huffed in agreement.

  Howie held his fingers up, spell coalescing into the form factor of a 40mm grenade, which he loaded into his new launcher. “No fun,” he said.

  “As soon as Howie launches it, we run straight through. No stopping,” said Cole. Behind them, the smaller web-crabs were edging closer and closer, getting ready—and more impatient. Cole raised his hand and pointed. “Let ‘em have it,” he said.

  “Fire in the hole!” said Howie.

  “Go!” said Cole.

  Howie launched his magic shell, breaking into a run with the rest of them. Rather than the loud explosion of a grenade, the frost hit something midair and released with a thick whump, spreading ice all over the immediate area—including the massive web strung across their path that had been all but invisible to the eye. Roxy crashed through it, shield up, shattering the frozen webbing as though it had been made from glass.

  The largest of the web-crabs, the ones Cole had known must exist, spilled out from the sides of the path, sloughing off frost as they came. They were as tall as his stomach, with two-foot-long serrated claws. With their carefully laid ambush blown, they had no choice but to pounce or risk their prey escaping. Cole raised his rifle and put several rounds into one, barely slowing to aim. It clawed at him as he passed. On his other side, he saw Besson’s skin take on a dark grey sheen like iron as a claw closed around his leg. Instead of severing the appendage, the pincer skipped off its surface. Besson swept his axe down and took the limb off at the joint. He kept running, with the appendage clinging to him. Nutmeg paced alongside him, barking at the monsters but not keen to get close.

  One of the web-crabs tilted its body back, and thick, sticky strands sprayed from its spinnerets. Others followed suit, and soon the path was a crossfire of trapping strands. Besson hacked through them as though his axe was a machete.

  Howie ran at a dead sprint beside him but suddenly went down face first with a cry.

  “Cole!”

  Cole skid to a stop, turning to see what had happened. One of the largest web-crabs had landed a sticky strand right on the back of Howie’s trouser leg. It was reeling him in, claw over claw, at a frightening rate despite his attempts to grasp at the ground. It’s mouthparts dripped with venom. Behind it, a horde of the smaller ones were flooding the path.

  Ahead, Roxy started to turn. Cole waved her away. “Keep going!” Cole shouted. “I’ve got him!”

  Easier said than done, in fact. Cole leapt over a tree root and centered his offset sights on the Curahee monster. His first shot struck one of the claws, but the creature lowered its shell towards him and the next rounds skipped off the hard carapace. It continued reeling Howie in, albeit slower. Cole switched tactics, dropping his rifle to his sling and pulling out the spear. It extended as he swung it, blade severing the gossamer cable. Howie started to crawl away, but Cole stowed his spear and pulled Howie to his feet. He shook off several of the smaller palm-sized creatures that had jumped onto him, but not before they’d bitten him, sending lances of shooting pain through his back and thigh.

  “Come on,” growled Cole. He pulled Howie along, but the path ahead of them was starting to get flooded with more of the creatures. Even with their enhanced speed, they wouldn’t be able to get through the horde.