“IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME, YOU LOT!” Frigg exclaimed. The fierce old hen soared straight to the hellish arachnid, sword drawn and ready to strike.
The demon spider swung an arm at her, but she struck it with such force that it shattered the arm in half. It shrieked in agony and backed away like a cornered rat.
“WELL!? WHAT’RE YE SWABS GAWKIN’ AT FOR? TEAR THE BASTARD APART!!!” Frigg ordered.
Just as everyone else charged into battle, Shadow Shroud stood paralyzed, anxiously staring at the beast, clutching a kunai in her shaking hoof. “It’s a just spider; it’s just a spider. I-It’s just…one… itsy-bitsy spider, Shadow Shroud. N-N-No need to panic!” Her stammering worsened as her shaking did, and she started hyperventilating. The sheer amount of web silk it had already produced, its horrific jaws, the purple fire spewing from orifices on its outer joints, its demonic roaring….. She could swear she was living a nightmare from her earlier years.
But no matter how much the very sight of the monstrous spider made her skin crawl, she had her integrity as a warrior to uphold and her friends to protect; so she took a deep breath and turned her fear into primal aggression, something she could easily control to help her go into assassin mode, and she vanished into the nearby brush.
The demon spider leapt high into the air, and its flaming joints suddenly started blasting the purple fire like a busted hydrant. It somersaulted before slamming into the earth, unleashing a wave of the dark fire. Those who could either ascended above or jumped over the blaze while those with shields got in front of others who had no other way of evading damage.
With the beast having staggered itself, Kickback seized the opportunity and opened fire on its joints. The beast roared in agony as its joints looked as though they were bleeding fire, but it was still dangerously mobile.
The spider vomited purple fire which Frostbite quickly countered by forcefully exhaling his ice-fire. The two opposing streams collided until a glyph of light appeared underneath the spider and caused the ground below it to erupt and toss it onto its hind legs.
“ATTACK, MY FRIEND!” Zebota ordered. Shrapnel quickly slashed and gnashed at the spider’s exposed underbelly before it fell on top of him and tried to pin him down.
However, Turf War hurled his shield like a Frisbee at one of its bleeding joints. The impact caused a massive fracture that didn’t even seem to faze the beast as it was only focused on wrestling with Shrapnel, whose brute strength allowed him just enough power to resist.
Turf War caught his shield as it bounced back to him, and those who had ranged attacks opened fire on the joints and face of the atrocious arachnid. When it was finally forced to focus on defending itself, Shrapnel threw his foe off of him and clamped his jaws onto its own jawline; he then forcefully chucked the beast into a prison wall some yards away, causing some rocks to fall down, but none hit the beast. Just as it was barely able to regain its balance, a dark blur suddenly appeared from the fallen debris and swiftly slashed at the joints and abdomen before vanishing, leaving it further vulnerable.
“Good boy, Shrapnel!” Fire Fight said.
“Time I played a part in this!” Frigg declared. “LET’S FINISH THE BASTARD!” She charged toward the beast with everyone following suit.
Air Slash launched some sword beam at it to distract it while they all went in for the kill. Frigg tried to swoop down and jam her sword into it, but it caught her with a barely functioning arm and slammed her into the prison wall; the impact was so great that it caused a large chunk to chip off and fall onto her.
“CAPTAIN!!” Valkyrie shouted.
Shockingly, the old hen easily lifted the huge rock crushing her with one talon and smashed it into the demon spider’s abdomen, causing an inferno of dark fiery blood to burst as it shrieked in dying agony, and its bleeding joints finally burst off. Interestingly, as it died, the dark fire consumed it from existence as it slowly disappeared, and the flames burnt out.
“Well, that ended rather quickly.” Quantum Tech commented.
“Probably because we outnumbered it like crazy.” Spiral Galaxy said.
Fire Fight rushed over to Frigg. “Are you okay, Captain!?”
Frigg casually brushed herself off and looked at him as seriously as ever. “Aye, lad. How’re you? Shaken? Scared?” she asked assertively
Fire Fight shook his head. “Nope. But I’m pretty concerned about what could have spawned that!”
“Yeah. Ah reckon we’ve done enough scoutin’ ahead now that we know the desert has snakes.” Kickback said. “Now we just trudge onward n’ be prepared to ward ‘em off.”
“So you can talk a little sense, eh?” Frigg said.
“What the hell did you think we are, a bunch of barbarians?” Bullseye asked.
“Maybe you.” Tidal Wave said, earning him a nasty stink eye from her.
“If I may?” Quantum Tech said. “If we are to now boldly cross into enemy territory, may I suggest we simply blow a hole into the structure of the prison wall?”
“Man! F*** that! Lemme-”
“Excuse me!?” Quantum said to Turf War.
“My bad!” Turf War corrected. “Lemme just smack it open.”
“I oughta smack you over the head, thinkin’ a wee gavel can bust open a mountain of a stone wall!” Frigg said.
“Mmhm.” Turf War said as he casually walked towards the wall and drew his hammer. “Everybody, stand back!”
Turf War took a deep breath and readied himself to strike like a baseball player. When he was satisfied, he took a swing, and the shockwave could be felt as it caused the section of the wall to crumble, leaving a big, gaping hole that would allow them to pass inside.
Proud of himself, Turf War twirled his hammer before sheathing it. “I saved just saved us a….whole lot o’ trouble! What!?”
Frigg’s troops were dumbfounded while the captain herself seemed little more than mildly surprised. “Huh… Maybe those walls are older than they look.”
“Actually…” Quantum Tech said. “His hammer is magically enhanced thanks to yours truly.”
Frigg’s surprise dissolved into an unamused frown. “Hmph. Li’l cheat…”
“Hang on.” Spiral said. “We need to make sure this creepy purple demon fire won’t like… possess us or anything.”
“I sense that it is trying to grip our beings.” Zebota said. “Greensprout, can you purge this corruption?”
“I should be able to…” Greensprout projected her healing beam onto everyone, and much to her relief, she could see the evil magic dissolve away. “Oh, good!”
“Then it looks like we’ll really need you going forward.” Fire Fight said.
“Just be careful, alright?” Air Slash said.
Greensprout nodded. “Right. You all too.”
“TURN…… BACK!......”
The echoing voice that had previously emitted horrific growls had just spoken to them in a threatening, booming voice. Everyone drew their weapons out of pure reflex upon hearing the threat.
“Wh-Whoa!” Tidal Wave stammered.
“G-G-Goodness! Not… the most hospitable host, is he?” Quantum stammered.
“Oh, suck it up.” Frostbite said bluntly. “Whatever it is, it now knows that we can fight it, and it doesn’t want us to know its scared.”
“I see it all the time.” Valkyrie said.
“Captain, should we make any more preparations?” one of the guards asked.
“No! We have the manpower to march onward.” Frigg answered. She then leered down at Fire Fight “Unless the scrub has a second opinion?”
Her expectant gaze felt almost oppressive, but any chance to impress was a good one at this point, Fire Fight thought he had a sound answer for her. “Ymir has read lore on this place, right? I think it’d be a good idea to get his insight. Maybe what just happened has something to do with one of these ‘urban legends’ he mentioned. Any potential info on the enemy is helpful.”
The griffon guards all looked at each other, pondering Fire Fight’s suggestion. After a moment or so, they seemed to come to a consensus.
“Captain, with all due respect, the kid’s idea sounds logical.” One of them said.
Frigg looked back and forth between her troops and Fire Fight a few times before lightly sighing. “Alright, you swabs. Back to the ship then.” She ordered. She then looked down at Fire Fight again, whom she noticed seemed a little anxious. “What? Ya waitin’ fer a cookie r’ somethin’?”
“N-No, ma’am. I… I’m just happy we could agree on something.” Fire Fight said.
Frigg’s expectant leer softened a little, and then she leaned her down towards him. “Decisions like that will only slow us down, swab. You’ll never get anything done if only walk one step at a time the whole way.”
Fire Fight dreaded having to argue with such a strong authority, but he took a deep breath before making his stance. “In a situation like this, I’d rather we be too cautious than not very. We’re dealing with something we don’t understand.”
Frigg’s assertive expression didn’t waver as she raised her head again, and she softened more noticeably before following everyone else back to the Jotun.
Just as Fire Fight was about to follow suit, he suddenly got a gnawing sensation that he was forgetting something. Looking around, he realized that Shadow Shroud had yet to reappear. “Shroud?”
“<pant>…<pant>…” Listening closely, he could here somepony gasping for air from behind a large fallen rock. When he turned the corner, there she was. “It’s gone…. It’s gone, Shroud….” She was shaking as though she’d just seen a ghost.
“Shroud?” Fire Fight said.
“Huh!?” Shadow Shroud snapped out of her terrified trance. “O-Oh! There you are.”
It still shocked him that she could conceal her feelings so easily, and he couldn’t help but to hold back laughter. “I forgot you were scared of spiders.”
Shroud rolled her eyes and blushed. “I-It’s of no consequence. We were heading back to the ship, right?”
“Yeah. Come on.” Fire Fight led her, and they started following everyone else.
As they neared the rest of the group, Shadow Shroud leaned in close to Fire Fight. “If you say anything to anyone, I will cease speaking to you from then on.” She growled in a whisper.
“Lips are sealed, Shroud.” Fire Fight said.
Shroud leaned away from him and gave him a warm smile. “Good.”
When they finally reached their ship, a couple of the guards took the time to provide everyone with some beef and wheat jerky, and Frostbite gobbled down some of his gems. Ymir joined them.
“Well! That was quite the kerfuffle. Is everyone still well?” he asked.
“Sure! It’s overcoming your demons! Give them a big, deadly hug, and everything will sort itself out!” Crazylocks blurted.
Ymir chuckled. “Something tells me that you’re quite the authority on such a matter, young filly.” He said gently.
“Ymir, did those bastards ring any bells in that page-filled noggin o’ yers?” Frigg asked.
“Actually, yes.” Ymir cleared his throat. “I may have explained this earlier, but the prisoners of Heimr were forced to get their own water from a well, and they cleaned it regularly, which some prisoners detested, saying that they could here ominous noises coming from below them as they dug the well deeper. Some believe that they had to stop digging the well, because they feared uncovering some sort of monster. Surviving patrol reports claim that many of the prisoners who were tasked the most with cleaning the well slowly began to exhibit unusually aggressive, even feral behavior.”
“No s***?” Bullseye asked.
Ymir shook his head. “It may just be testimony, but the implications are rather worrying. Not only that, but a few of the reports are…. A tad nonsensical, shall we say, as though they were hallucinating.”
“What….kind of hallucinations?” Spiral asked.
“Feelings of oppressive dread, evident paranoia, a large ‘shadow’ lurking about, and an otherworldly voice growling something apparently indiscernible.” Ymir answered.
“Well, I’d say we heard it rather clearly a moment ago.” Air Slash said. “And it sounded incredibly dangerous.”
“And those poor prisoners were just left here….at its mercy.” Greensprout muttered.
“Well, whatever it is, it looks like it was waitin’ for someone to dig it up, and it’s startin’ to pick up where they left off.” Kickback said.
“So getting to that well should be our priority.” Fire Fight said.
“Agreed. I’ve already taken a photograph of Ymir’s map, so I’ll guide us through the ruins.” Quantum said.
“Good. Then we can go keep the bastard in the dirt.” Frigg said. “Who’s ready!?”
“Aye, captain!” the griffon guards shouted unanimously. The Battle Foals all nodded.
“Then finish yer snacks n’ get movin’!” Frigg ordered. They all complied with Quantum and Fire Fight taking point.
As they marched forward, Frostbite anxiously pondered to himself; he had a nagging feeling about the situation as a whole. “Could it really be…”