They were rushing from all directions, yet Spike seemed to always be at the front. With staff held firmly in both hands and his eyes set forward determinedly, his force could be felt and seen, glimmering around his teammates in warmth and by his enemies in hostile rebuke.
A spider swarm dove at Garble, his great blade cleaving into them, crushing and breaking them with every word of his song, but there were so many more, pressing and biting. "Dang it," he swore, one getting past his spotty defense, his focus on his attack, but the bite never really hurt.
Instead, a swollen bump appeared on Spike's side in the same place Garble had been bitten. Spike hissed softly, but his grip only tightened on his staff, warm green glow swarming over the spot, trying to heal it even as he kept up the sphere of protection.
"Aiden, show us what you have!" Sandra waved a hand out over the swarming mass. Following her direction, Aiden spread his wings wide and soared at them as silently as owls were known for. As quiet as his wings were, the flames that began to spread out were anything but an angry roar of hungry inferno that consumed the arachnids that had been approaching Sandra.
Smolder slashed with one of her brand new daggers, slashing one between its eyes, it collapsing. The next arachnid was dispatched just as easily, but Smolder snorted as she peered spotted Garble cleaving another three apart with one slash. Daggers were not well suited for hitting groups of enemies at once. She raised her daggers up again. Nothing to do but to slash faster!
Garble slashed through another wave, and they had just a bit of breathing room. But the spiders, despite the fact that they had cleared out what had to be a room full of them, were regrouping and ready to surge. “What gives? Aren’t they supposed to be, like, being beaten?”
They began to surge forward, and Sandra called out, “Aiden! Keep it up!” He flew up close, flapping out a wave of flame to blanket the first wave, who skittered to an end and evaporated as monsters do, but leaving nothing behind. Not even scraps. Sandra tilted her head. Not a single one turned into anything?
“There!” called out Spike, as he pointed his glowing staff. In the gloom there was a single glowing light, apparently on a pole, and notably the spiders avoided it.
Garble nodded, holding up his sword high and behind him, ready to swing. “Let’s get moving then! Rolling Crescent!” He spun himself around, his blade close, then brought it down at the end of the rotation, sending a wave of white energy out in, well, a crescent in front of him, cleaving a huge swath of spiders apart.
The swarm was too much for just his staff. Spike thrust forward an arm and his shield appeared on it without the usual steps of drawing it, just in time to catch the mandibles of a crashing spider and thrust it aside. "Together!"
"They… said…" Sandra directed Aiden with great sweeps of her right hand, guiding his flaming path across the seemingly endless carpet of crystalline spiders. "They said! To… watch for your first… step."
Despite her fatigue, Smolder let out a lone rough laugh. "It's a doozy." She slide forward, slicing open the belly of a spider along the way and dragging its entrails as she bent and twisted it in a bloody display. By the time she sprang up the other end, she tossed it aside to a floating fire that hadn't been there before, cooking the knotted spider offal without missing a beat. "Snack coming up!"
Pressing together, they forced the waves of arachnids back, Spike at the fore. He held his shield high and to the front, projecting an angular plane of force that kept them from swarming from ahead, which left the others to cleave and burn those who came from behind, earning their progress what felt like inch by inch. "Eat this." Smolder shoved her cooked meat into Spike's face, narrowly missing just jamming it into his mouth.
"Not… in the mood. Barely breathing." Spike was panting with effort, sweat coating his scaled body and making his clothing stick awkwardly. "Keep going."
"Eat!" she sternly commanded. "It'll help."
Spike moved up and chomped the morsel of meat, which was still juicy, and chewed it up. It was at that moment that he remembered where it had came from. "I'm eating a… spider…" Part of him wanted to retch it right back up again, but it didn't taste as awful as one might imagine, and the food was working as advertised, chasing away his fatigue.
Smolder took a moment to pat him on the back, smiling but saying nothing, before turning back to slash away on her side, ready to make a few more morsels.
Spike turned his attention forward again, pressing forward slow and steady with his shield. Even with the angle they beat against it, trying to press him back. The spiders didn’t have a sense of self preservation, and somehow they never stopped. But bit by bit they cleft and burned and even munched their way to the light that drove them away, and when they got there, Spike collapsed onto the ground on it.
The ground lurched beneath them, then began to rise towards the ceiling at a smooth but rapid clip, the unyielding stone above coming towards them uncomfortably quickly. "Tell me that's part of the plan," grunted out Garble, edging towards the side, ready to jump free.
Sandra held out her arm and Aiden landed on it without a word of command. "We made it, I think… We beat the first floor." She gestured upward with her free hand as the ceiling began to part, opening for them. "The second's not quite as… intense, if their bragging is anything to go off of, but they get stronger with each floor."
Almost too close to call the ceiling parted and they went straight through a tunnel that seemed to be nearly exactly the size of the pillar they were being lifted on.
“What was going on with those spiders?” Spike sat himself up, breathing heavily. “They were so weak… were they weak like the weakest monsters out there? And they didn’t seem to end...”
“They might literally have no end,” Sandra said. “I think… the magic from the spiders was being reused to make new spiders.”
“Wait it can do that?” Smolder was astonished. “So, sometimes, there might literally be an unlimited amount of monsters that people would have to fight?”
“There was probably some kind of device making them…” Sandra looked down in thought. “Unless the tower is just… like that. The monsters definitely don’t deplete from the wilderness. It usually just takes a bit longer.”
“Scary,” Smolder said, pulling out another bit of spider flesh. “You know, this isn’t bad. Tastes a little like when Fluttershy brought us some of that seafood stuff.”
With that, above them a second ceiling split open and they arrived in a well lit large stone room. This floor had… more than one floor? There were clearly two different staircases up, with gates and large ogre monsters and rooms branching off of the first floor. One of them looked at the party, but seemed uninterested in pursuing, and looked back.
Garble took the first step off the pad. "We're here."
"Wherever here is." Spike hopped off next, shouldering his shield along the way and holding his staff firmly. "Give me a second." With soft words and green magic, he began to banish the hurts he had built along the way. "That stung, just so you know, like… a lot."
"Don't be a pansy." Garble rolled his eyes.
Smolder quirked a brow, but Sandra acted faster, ribbing him just as firmly as Smolder might have normally. "I, for one, am thankful Spike was there. One of those spiders bit me! But I saw Spike taking it instead… Sorry for not getting out of the way, Spike."
Spike waved his staff, creating shadows of the green light. "It's the job I took up… It's kind of… different, being the leader."
Garble frowned at the statement. "You ain't leading me anywhere, shortstack."
“What?” Spike blinked. “That’s my class. Divine Lord. Sandra is a summoner who summons, ”
“Well you aren’t my lord.” Garble poked Spike in his chest. “You aren’t much of a ‘divine’ anything either. You’re just a healer in armor. Better than a healer out of armor, but not my ‘leader’,” he said.
“Woah woah woah woah.” Smolder got in between the two, pushing them away from each other. “Okay, this is not the place for this. Garble--” She turned to him. “Spike definitely took point, and that whole ‘take our hits’ thing was pretty damn good, right?”
Garble grumbled some affirmative noises, and Spike beamed, at least until Sandra turned to him.
“But, Spike, being the healer and in the front line doesn't make you like, ‘the leader’. Any more than Garble was our leader before.” She gestured to her brother. “So we work like we did before, except now you have cool armor and new healing awesomeness, and Garble now smashes instead of takes hits. Easy, right?”
Garble snorted, and Spike looked down, feeling abashed.
“Right, easy. Now let’s figure out this floorrrerr--” Smolder looked at the stairs and multi floor chambers. “Floors. Yeah, that.”
Smolder walked ahead, calling over her shoulder, "Anyone still tired? It probably won't just be a casual walk through this floor either." She waggled a few fingers over the strange scene before them. "I am assuming this all counts as one floor."
"Probably," weakly agreed Sandra, looking uncertain. "Do you know, Aiden?" The owl vanished as a reply, flames fading away from the burst of its leaving. "Guess not... Still, that worked. Aiden's pretty great."
"Speaking of that." Garble slung his sword, peering about for other trouble that wasn't in obvious sight. "You can get more than one of those, right? The guy that taught you had a few."
"Yeah! I... just have to find them and then convince them." Sandra began forward, walking with the others along the stairs. "This place is too quiet compared to the first floor. Infinite spiders to not a thing around at all."
"Spike?"
Spike cocked his head, his gait faltering a moment. "Twilight?"
"It's not a bad time, is it?"
"No! No, I mean, I guess? We're in that tower, uh, floor 2. Fighting for our lives."
"For your lives?!" came her distressed squeak. "Spike, what are you doing?!"
"At the top of this tower is how we get home, unless you found another way?"
Smolder ribbed him lightly. "Hey, Spike. You're talking to yourself. Just FYI."
"I haven't," admitted Twilight in a sad defeated tone. "I'm still looking! Spike, please, don't get hurt..."
Spike thought back to the injuries he had banished just moments ago. "I'll... do my best..." He held up a claw towards Smolder. "I'll be with you in a second."
Smolder hiked a brow, moving to be next to Sandra instead. "Huh, must be an important call..."
"Most communication magic doesn't work well through the walls of the tower," noted Sandra, peering skeptically to the side at Spike as he talked. "Who is he talking to?"
Garble rolled his shoulders as he hiked a thumb ahead. "Door coming up."
There was a door, deceptively small compared to the great multi-floored complex they had been traversing. "Think there are monsters behind it?"
Smolder's brows fell in a furrow. "Or some kind of trap, or a puzzle to even get it open..."
"You're much clearer," noted Twilight, sounding a bit happier. "This tower has fascinating properties. If I was there, with you..."
"That would be bad," completed Spike. "Equestria needs you."
Her groan was deep and suffering. "It's not fair. You're in danger and I have to... just hope."
"Don't hope, believe in me, in us. We'll get through this." He put a hand on his chest as he spoke those words, a little smile on his face.
"Be careful." Her voice faded out, the conversation ending for the moment.