Legs skittered across the earth, fast and delicate. The fallen leaves barely rustled. Radkin and I walked slowly, creeping into the territory that the creatures had carved out. Their webs choked the forest. Prey, many still clinging to life, were suspended within. Once caught there could be no escape. The beasts were cruel. They entangled their food in webs several meters high. The fall would cripple if it did not kill. I did not wish to share their fate.
Radkin stalked through the trees beside me. He raised a hand and gestured with a slashing motion. The command was simple. Kill on sight.
Shrill chittering grew louder as we drew closer to their nest. The creatures communicated with hisses and clicks. The sound grated on my ears. With my sword in hand I found faith and conviction. As my nervousness diminished, my courage grew. I was keen to face the enemy.
Planning and preparation won battles. Darkness was equally as conducive to our foes as it was to us and without time to explore the layout of their nest, we could only charge in blindly. Urgency prevented us from scouting as a witcher ordinarily would.
Knowledge was power. There were beasts the size of hills that could be felled with a single swift blow to a vulnerable region. Brute force was an ineffective method to win fights. With a well-thought out plan even a farmer could kill a dragon.
Something glimmered in the darkness, drawing my attention. Rubies as red as blood. Suddenly, eyelids closed around the precious gems. The creature tilted its head to the side, staring at us. Its eyes were far too many. Some were the size of a man's fist, others barely wider than a marble. After a moment the beast's shock gave way to bloodlust.
It raised its head to the sky and shrieked. The wave of sound cut through the air. Pain erupted in my ears. A painful balance was reached as my eardrums ruptured and mended again and again. The creature's shriek didn't let up. Its mandibles opened and shut rapidly as if anticipating the delicious taste of its meal. Radkin's hands clutched at his ears and his expression was pained. Blood trickled down his neck.
I dashed forwards. The creature's eyes widened and it shrieked louder. The defiance of its prey seemed to enrage it. The beast was as large as a dog. Thick and oily black hairs covered its body and thin spindly limbs supported its rotund form.
The distance between us shrank rapidly. My feet skimmed across the earth. The pain from my ears filled my body with adrenaline. I ran faster than I ever had. Only a witcher could move with such swiftness.
With two hands I gripped the hilt of my sword. The silver glimmered even brighter than the beast's red eyes. Then I leapt, soaring into the air. The creature hurriedly raised its spindly legs, a few managed to find purchase in my legs and chest. Its strength was too weak to pierce deeper than an inch. The pain did not faze me. Gravity gripped me tightly and dragged me down. I gathered momentum as I descended back to the ground.
The tip of my blade pressed against the beast's skull. The resistance was so weak I barely felt it. With a squelch and a crack it sank into its head. The point emerged cleanly from beneath its chin.
The beast's limbs twitched then fell into an eternal stillness. I twisted my waist and pulled upwards. Blood sprayed as my sword was freed from its corpse.
There was no time to rest, nor think. A huge spider crashed through the bushes and scurried towards me with a lightness that did not match its hulking frame. The creature's eyes spun wildly in their sockets. It was upon me an in instant.
Spindly black legs hurtled towards my face like spears. I dodged the strikes hastily and leapt back, putting some space between myself and the beast. Furious the beast lifted its head skyward and shrieked. A long pink tongue covered in barbs waved through the air. The creature's anatomy was otherworldly and hideous.
Though its size dwarfed the slain spider by several times, its shriek was far less piercing. The agonising pain was reduced to a slight earache. No longer restricted by the shrieking, a new ally joined the fight.
Sharp and precise Radkin's blade slid almost gracefully into the side of the creature's head. His wrist jerked forcefully and the blade rotated. The creature's brains were stirred to mush. Its body immediately became limp.
Radkin unsheathed his sword from the beast's head and wiped the blade on its thick hair. The dead deserved no respect, he spat angrily on the corpse, "Fuckin' bug!"
He turned to me. His scowl immediately brightened into a smile. There was a slightly manic look behind his eyes, "Aye the little bird can fly! A beautiful slaughter. These bastards are just warriors, they're thick as pig shit and serve the queen. She's the only one who can lay eggs, once we snuff her these lot will be fucked."
Strength did not come without a price. Elixirs and mutagens had transformed our bodies. They had taken our fertility and gave us a millenia to walk the earth instead. The mutations that reshaped our bodies did so violently and rapidly. The healing factor in my blood allowed only beneficial mutations to occur. Those that would be harmful or detrimental were erased.
Vessemir had warned me that I was an outlier amongst our kind. Every witcher had a flaw. A defect in their production. Radkin's defect pertained to his mind. The bloodlust that arose within him when he fought was amplified several times. Without sufficient willpower he could easily lose himself to violence. I observed this now for the first time.
"Don't be frightened little bird! I won't hurt ya!" Radkin remarked with a wide grin. His joy was not faked. The thrill of battle burned fiercely in his heart.
Radkin pushed off from the ground. He was fearless as he charged. I chased after him. Although he moved seemingly without forethought, his feet carried him deeper into the spider's nests. Webbing was everywhere. His sword flashed constantly as he sliced through the ropes of white. The oil on his blade opposed the stickiness of the webs.
"Should've stayed in the fuckin' tree!" Radkin roared. He span and slashed his sword, cleaving the body of a pigeon sized spider cleanly in half. Undeterred by its death, dozens more descended on webs from the trees.
Their skeletons were too brittle to stop our blades. Hanging from their webs they were easy targets to hit. Three of them met their end at my blade before they learnt to scurry down the tree trunks instead of descending from above. Once their legs touched the ground they finally had the chance to display their abilities. They darted like lightning across the earth. Their black hair blended in almost seamlessly amongst the shadows.
The hair on their bodies seemed to swallow the faint moonlight. Concealed in the shadows they could strike without warning. I heard movement behind my back. Without hesitation I span and slashed at the earth with my sword. The spider's mournful cry lasted only a moment.
Bodies began to pile up. The small spiders attacked without regard for their lives. Every few seconds one would shriek and meet its silvery end. The earth underfoot was slippery with blood.
The thick webbing heavily restricted our movements. Any attempt we made to cut through the webbing and open up the battlefield was met with immediate retaliation. The spiders hurled themselves at us, willfully using their lives to pen us in. Their tactic was sadistic. Yet effective. Dozens of them darted from tree to tree, endlessly spitting webs. They were entombing us with walls of white.
"Cheeky bastards!" Radkin called out. His voice was nothing but cheerful.
"You little bastards would be much better if you just stopped moving! How about a little heat ya' dirty bugs?" I felt the magic in his body pulse. Then like a flood it broke free. Jets of flame roared out from his palm, scorching a spider as it leapt down at him from branches above. Sparks scattered across the earth. The leaves were too damp to serve as tinder. But the webs were not.
Flames bathed the forest in light. They burned greedily, chasing almost playfully up the threads and engulfing the beasts that spun them. Shrieks and screeches filled the air. Smoldering corpses dropped like comets from the treetops and crashed into the earth. The smell of burnt flesh was sickening.
The ground shook abruptly. Then again. Thundering footsteps pounded the earth. Only something enormous could make the ground shake so violently. The beast's colossal form burst out from between the trees.
There were no words that could describe the horror of the beast. Its body seemingly grew without order. Legs protruded from all over its body, some long and spiked with jagged barbs, others barely larger than a baby's. Its eyes were uncountable. It towered over us, as tall as a house and equally as wide.
The beast's eyes roved about madly, surveying the slaughter that had taken place. Then it screamed. The sound was like a bomb exploding. I reeled backwards, desperately clamping my hands over my ears trying to block out the noise. The creature's shrill cry droned on and on. But its limbs were not idle. It charged towards us, stabbing its legs into the earth with every step.
The beast sought to eliminate Radkin first. The agony had brought him almost to his knees. The shrill piercing screech drowned out his screams. Though agonising, the pain I experienced was decidedly lesser as my healing factor worked rapidly to repair the damage. The creature's bestial intelligence urged it to strike at the weakest foe first.
Radkin's eyes were bloodshot and furious. The armour on his shoulders was soaked with blood, much of it his own. The wounds to his eardrums had barely begun to clot when they were forcefully reopened once more.
The madness behind his eyes could no longer be contained. With a savage snarl he raised his palm to the approaching beast, "Eat shit ya' fuckin' bug!"
Chaos pulsed. Intensely. Violently. Radkin was mobilising every ounce of magic his body had to offer. Bloodlust and agony clouded his judgement. A telekinetic blast slammed into the beast's body. It was as if it had been struck by some invisible titan. The beast was thrown through the air, the force behind the blow snapped several tree trunks before being consumed. Blood poured out from broken bones and shattered organs. The creature drew pained gurgling breaths as it drowned in its own blood.
Radkin swayed weakly. His eyelids fluttered. He was white as a ghost. The body instinctively regulated its output. Exerting force beyond its limits would cause an immediate shutdown in order to prevent catastrophic damage. Magic acted in the same way. Radkin had poured out everything he had. Now the consequences arrived.
His eyelids closed. This time they did not reopen. He began to fall. I hurriedly sprinted over and caught him. The air still crackled from the remaining heat. I pressed my fingers against his neck. His pulse was long and steady. He would recover with adequate rest. Witchers had a tenacious lifeforce, it would take far more than this to kill one.
The queen was dead. From inside her stomach I heard fainting scratching noises. A limb squeezed out from between her destroyed organs and dug into the earth. Half-formed and with skin blackened and cracking from the fire, a wounded spider attempted to drag itself out. Such a thing had not yet had the chance to harm a human, it was deserving of salvation. I plunged my sword into its skull. With a twist of my hand it's consciousness was permanently extinguished.
The forest seemed to celebrate the queen's death. A blustering wind swept through the trees. The smell of burning flesh that had been assailing my nostrils lessened significantly.
The death of the queen ensured the nest's downfall. Without her they could not hatch any more of their hideous kin. But some still lived. I could hear the sound of dozens of legs striking the earth as they raced to their queen's desperate cry for help. They would find only a corpse.
I dragged Radkin's limp body to a hollow tree stump and shoved it inside. I cast a yrden spell to protect him while he slept. It would hold long enough for me to slay any creature that sought an easy meal.
A large spider the size of a dog leapt into the air. Its legs stretched out as if it wished to embrace me. The image was frightful. Though it was decidely horrifying, it was a foolish attack. I raised my sword and held it in front of me. Inertia carried the spider straight onto my blade. Judging by the softness, I believed that I had impaled it through the heart. It's legs flailed about wildly. It seemed to know that death was approaching. Then it stilled.
There were still footsteps approaching. I eagerly awaited their arrival. I was keen to swing my sword once more. Practice was the best teacher. While the memories were still fresh in my mind I was impatient to correct the mistakes in my technique. The remaining beasts would serve as the perfect sparring partners. Perhaps I might allow them to live a little longer so that they could better serve their purpose.
Another spider scurried towards me with its mandibles open wide. It was barely the size of a rat, too small to deserve my attention. I crushed it underfoot. Its brittle skeleton cracked easily. Hopefully there were still a few larger ones left.
The fog of battle gradually began to fade. As I began to think clearly once more I suddenly remembered why we had pressed blindly into the forests, "The hunters!"
I began my search. The fire had raged fiercely. I hoped that they had not been caught up in the flames. I would not deliver a charred corpse to the village. Sometimes a lie was kinder than the truth. If they had perished I would tell their families that they had fought bravely. Perhaps wounding the queen with their arrows.
Life was fragile. Miserably so. Mercy was what countless people begged for. They sought a saviour to rescue them from their suffering. I had triumphed in this battle. I would train harder so that I would triumph in the next as well. Ambition stirred in my heart. I had almost forgotten what it felt like.