T/W: Arachnophobia. See description for arachnid-free summary.

The spider-like creature’s huge form and intense eyes look straight at me.

Darkness swallows us and yet the glowing eyes create enough light for me to make out its general shape.

Eight legs, hundreds of glowing eyes, a disintegrating acid web and a screech that could shock us in place.

Oh shit, the scream!

The creature starts to open a hole just below its eyes.

“Cover your ears!” I yell at Leo, while covering my own.

I can’t turn around to check if he hears me, still an unwilling participant in a staring contest with the monster.

SCREEEEECH!

The sound deafens me despite my best attempt, but my hands block it enough to keep my wits. 

The echoes shake the ground. Unfortunate victims’ bones rattle in the piles from our path.

The screech dies off.

Behind me, the clunking of metal tells me Leo is still moving, and the monster’s eyes shift to him.

It’s ready to attack.

I take my hands away from my ears to unsheathe Knightshade.

“I’m sorry my love, please stay strong,” I whisper as I look at her beautiful and sharp edge. The intense eyes are back on me in an instant. 

Right. Good hearing.

It only stares at me with a hundred unblinking, glowing eyes but it doesn't attack.

Can it not see me?

Even with all those eyes, it only seems to be looking at where the sound came from, not at me.

It hunts with sound and sound alone.

I don’t dare move, but I eventually have to.

I need a distraction. A new sound. Something.

Still looking at my possible doom I squat down and pick up a piece of bone that has rattled its way over to me from the vibrations.

I throw it toward the exit.

PLINK!

The spider skitters towards the sound faster than I thought it could move.

When it is out of sight, so is the light.

Purple light starts shining, I look towards it and see Leo unpacking our flashlight plants.

We look at each other with an understanding nod. The spider can’t see the light.

It is safe to use them, for now.

Rattle.

I go to take my flower but am stopped by a weird sound.

Rattle, rattle.

A bone pile just barely in our light’s radius is… moving?

RATTLE!

“Is it gone yet?” whispers the pile of bones.

A few of the bones fall from the stack to reveal a small person with curly brown hair and a face of total innocence.

“PIP!” I hear myself yell out, relief almost making me tear up.

Leo yells his name as well, with his arms held out for a bear hug, but—

RUUUMMBLEE!

The sound of a very large thing was heading back towards us.

Oh fuck.

Leo’s arms drop.

“Guess not!” Pip slips back down under the pile of bones without another word.

The skittering gets louder, and fast. 

All too quickly, the Disintegrating Nightweb reappears.

I look at Leo, who stands with his toothpick-like rapier, readying his stance.

Knightshade in hand, I also prepare to fight. Pip’s help would be nice here, but who knew what he’d already been through. And maybe he was afraid of spiders?

I couldn’t blame him for hiding.

I walk slowly backwards, trying to create distance. The only light I have is the purple from Leo’s flowers and the yellow from the spider. 

Great. If I move too far out of range I’ll be blind.

I ponder how I would kill a big spider in my own world, but quickly realize that LA did not prepare me for this.

And it’s too late to find giant pesticides.

I need to get serious.

WOOOOOOSH!

Rattle! Crackle! Creak!

The roar of wind, old wood, and metal wheels rips through the air from somewhere behind me.

“Todaaaay! Is the daaaay! I kill a legeeeeend!” an all too familiar murderous voice calls out from behind me.

Blaze.

I just barely jump to the side as the huge-ass spider skitters right past me and towards the multitude of new sounds.

Turning around, my mouth drops.

There, in the spotlight of the spider’s hundreds of glowing eyes, stands Blaze riding a minecart. Hair whooshing in the wind. Greatsword out and swinging. One leg on the edge of the cart, almost leaning out of it.

He stands like a true hero on his way to slay a dragon, or, in this case, the dragon-sized spider.

I can barely make out Vincent and Sir Zantar behind him, Vincent desperately trying to pick at a long staff-like thing in the back while Sir Zantar holds him, making sure he doesn’t fall out. Or so I assume.

The minecart track looks like a ruined rollercoaster that ends with an upwards swing.

Just as it reaches the apex —

“DIEEEEE!” Blaze yells as he leaps up, spotlight—or, eyes, rather—following him in a master production of a stunt scene. If only this wasn’t so unsafe. 

It does look cool as fuck, I do admit.

Blaze falls, hands firmly gripping his sword which he smashes right down in the middle of the spotlight and…

Nothing happens.

No screech. No clatter. No nothing.

“If I can’t kill it, I don’t like it!” he yells, indignant about another cutting failure.

At least his sword seems okay.

“Get away from there!” Vincent yells. He and Sir Zantar are flying down on the monster as well, hugging each other tightly for safety.

Isn’t it safer if they are apart? There is no way they are going to land properly.

Weird.

The monster moves its head, following the sound and putting its spotlight on the pathetic display.

I can’t see Sir Zantar and Vincent anymore.

I hope they’re okay.

Blaze tries to stay on as the spider whips and sways, but he is tossed off immediately. He desperately tries to stab it on the way down, but it doesn’t seem like it can be sliced. Its skin is tougher armor than any of ours.

Blaze doesn’t give up, though. His sword slashes wildly even as he passes the long, creepy legs of the spider. It looks as if he hits nothing but air until—

Plop!

He falls in all his heavy glory, armor clanking and sword smacking out of his hands. The eyes of the spider shift to him in the commotion.

I want to ask if he’s okay but don’t dare make a sound. He is low to the ground, which the monster seems to have a difficult time discerning, as it pokes around with its disgusting feelers for Blaze.

But one horrible truth is staring me right in the eyes.

Blaze didn’t even touch this thing. Even if we could hide from it, our swords were useless.

Another uncuttable monster?

Are you fucking kidding me?

In a world with knights, where swords are the most used weapon, we have now encountered two kinds of monsters in a row that we can’t use swords on. What the actual fuck!?

I hate this book. I hate it so much.

If I ever get out of here, I’m going to find the author and give them a piece of my mind!

The spider rears back out of nowhere and releases a—luckily—less horrific screech than usual. More like a painful squeal this time. Its little pinchers start scrambling around, reaching toward its face, spotlight on the roof of the cave.

Two figures pop up, silver shimmering in their hands, right on top of the monster.

Vincent and Sir Zantar! They landed safely. 

Well, as safely as one can on a spider monster’s back, I guess.

With a distraction in my favor, I try to run as silently as I can over to Blaze. A fall from that height could easily break every bone in his body if he didn’t know how to land correctly.

Matty, I hope not. There is no way I can carry him away silently.

Drip! Drip! SPLAT! SPLAT!

As I get close to him I notice some sort of liquid dripping, spaying, and splotching all around him as the spider jerks from side to side, trying to rip the two knights off its back.

The liquid is black as the darkest night, not silver. And it doesn’t sizzle and burn as it touches everything, even Blaze.

What is it?

I look up, but the spotlight isn’t lighting the spot enough.

No, focus. Blaze, is he okay?

Slash! Cling! Slash! Clank!

Sir Zantar and Vincent both continue to attack the main body, but just like with Blaze, nothing seems to be happening.

It won’t be long before they are tossed off with how frantic the spider has started flailing.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

What do we do?

More of the black ooze sprays around, landing on my face and hands.

Um… Eww.

It’s slippery and sticky at the same time, but doesn’t burn or hurt against my skin. Occasionally, the spotlight passes over me, but it isn’t enough to see what this is, or if Blaze is hurt.

Leo, looking quite useless with his teeny-tiny rapier in his giant hands, watches the spider with his purple light, like he’s waiting for an opportunity to jump in and continue to do no damage.

Wait. The light!

I throw my hands around in the air until I grab his attention and wave him over to me.

Clink! Clank!

Fuck, I forgot how loud he was.

The spider’s attention jerks immediately to Leo who’s toothpick of a weapon was going to do even less than anyones.

Really… who gave this man that weapon anyway?

Sir Zantar’s eyes focus quickly on Leo, running with the light and clanking armor.

“Get Blaze out of here! Vincent and I will finish this beast! With Vincent and I together, evil will never win! We are in this toge—” He yells louder than I’d ever heard him raise his voice, and it covers the sound of Leo’s lacking stealth skills. 

Sir Zantar smacks his sword against the spiders armor, still doing absolutely fucking nothing.

Either way, it kept the spider focused back on him. I’ll have to remember to thank him for that later.

Leo walks over otherwise undetected while Sir Zantar still yells about this and that.

“Help me find where this liquid is coming from,” I whisper to Leo, pointing to the dripping, which only has gotten harder to track the more the monster squirms. 

Leo nods and starts following the source, up, down, left, right, until it hits the spot on the spider from where black liquid leaks.

A leg.

A leg with a little slash in it.

I finally see the light, literally… and figuratively.

There was a weak spot we could exploit. 

Blaze’s sacrifice is not in vain; his senseless slashing around finally did something good.

The others have to know, even if it puts all the attention on me.

I take a deep breath, Knightshade ready at my side, and yell at the top of my lungs, “CUT! THE! LEGS!” 

The spotlight turns to me in an instant, and the spider looks ready to pounce.

“Leo, get Blaze out of—”

I glance behind me to where the pile of Blaze should be, but it’s empty.

“Time to kill a legend!” Blaze yells and slashes out at the dripping leg with his greatsword, cutting clean through it, black liquid oozing out all over.

SCREEEECH!

My eardrums feel like they are going to burst. My teeth clatter, eyes wide. 

I can’t move, just shake and vibrate all over.

The monster starts falling sideways but catches itself with another leg, and starts lifting a third leg, placing it…

Perfectly above me.

It’ll hit me.

I’m done.

I try to will myself to move away, but am stuck in place.

This is it.

Everything feels like it’s suddenly in slow-motion.

The shadow of it looms closer and all I can see is my doom.

I’m going to be trampled to death by a ginormous spider.

Is this karma for all of the spiders I accidentally stepped on back in my own world?

It’s funny, really.

“SIR KRYSTAL, LADY!” a voice calls, just before it slams into me and a second before the leg slams down.

CRASH!

We land in a pile, Pip on top of me. 

The shock and impact helps kick me out of my stupor, gaining control of my body once more.

“Pip! You saved me!” I exhale in a whisper of relief.

“That’s what friends do,” Pip whispers back with a smile, “I covered my ears since I went back into my pile of bones. Just to be safe.”

“You’re so smart.”

We both smile at each other, purple light lightly touching on his features.

In an instant I’m reminded that just because I’m out of danger for now, we’re not out of danger, yet.

This isn’t over.