Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Along Came a Spider

Dammit! I'd impacted the web with my right-hand side, and it had caught my right arm and leg, but the rest of me was still free. I still had my left foot on the ground, and struggled to hop forward, to pull myself away, while trying to keep my shield between myself and the giant spider.

I expected it to take advantage of my immobility to attack, but instead it continued to hang casually upside-down in mid-air, attached to the ceiling by a single silken strand. It was a pale grey, the size of the horned beetles, but without a hardened shell. Eight legs pointed upwards, gripping its line. I noted the front two ended in sickle-shaped claws, and the spider also had some prominent fangs. Not anywhere near the scale of the wolves, but enough that I wouldn't want it biting me. It certainly looked equipped to attack, if it chose to.

It didn't move, but continued to stare at me, making clicking noises that my habit of personifying these monsters interpreted as laughter. Maybe it really was laughter; I was pretty sure it had acted deliberately, sneaking up right behind me before making a loud noise, which suggested more intelligence than I was comfortable with. How had it got behind me? Had it been out in the cavern when I'd started making my way through here, then snuck in following me? Had I missed it somehow and passed it in the passage?

The answer turned out to be neither of those things. My struggles to pull myself away from the web started to bear fruit as it popped and detached strand by strand from my leg. As soon as my leg was free, the spider immediately ceased its clicking, then vanished. It didn't move; it simply disappeared. I saw a glimmer of light shoot up the thread that connected it to the ceiling, and then move along the ceiling web, where the spider reappeared, still upside-down. This spider could teleport itself along its web?! What sort of bullshit ability was that?! No wonder there was a single web covering the whole ceiling in here! Using that, it could turn up anywhere.

Now that I had both feet on the ground, I could pull forward with far more weight, and managed to get my arm free in a matter of seconds. The spider was skittering around on the ceiling, and still didn't seem interested in attacking. Perhaps it was hoping I'd get more thoroughly stuck in the web. Given its teleportation ability, I figured it was time to skedaddle, and start again from the entrance of the corridor, this time dismantling the webs completely. Or maybe it was time to learn how to make fire...

I'd taken a few steps away from the chamber when a section of the ceiling web detached and started drifting down. Luckily, I'd been keeping an eye on the spider, or I wouldn't have noticed until it was too late. As it was, the section was too large for me to dive out of the way. I huddled down and held my shield above my head, which stopped any of the web impacting me, but left me kinda stuck regardless; if I moved from here, I'd tread in it. Now what was I supposed to do? The spider had deliberately dropped a part of the web on my head; that thing was far too intelligent. This dropped web wasn't strongly anchored to the floor, unlike the big corridor spanning ones. Perhaps I could wrap it around one of my spears to clear it?

Crack

I almost resisted the impulse to turn around to face the sudden loud noise behind my back, knowing full well it was a trap. Almost. Alas, I'd spun my shield before I could stop myself, twisting the web that was all around me and pulling it inwards. I was still free of the thing, but it was now tangled around my shield, so of course the spider kept up its assault by jumping onto the shield's edge. There was no way I could hold its weight with one arm. I probably wouldn't have even been able to hold it with both, but never had a chance to find out, because before I could react the shield was pushed downwards to my side. I had the choice between letting go or snapping my arm, and decided that keeping my arm would be more useful. As the shield fell, so did the web, draping over my head.

I attempted another stab at the spider, but every movement I made resulted in me getting more tangled. Fortunately, the sparse threads of this ceiling web meant that it wasn't causing me too much trouble, but nevertheless, this was not going well. I did not want to die here; retrieving my gear from this deep in the spider's territory would be a nightmare.

I blinked as I caught up with my own thoughts. Since when did I start thinking like that? Correction, I didn't want to die at all! But if there was no other choice, and I really had to, closer to the entrance would be better.

I pulled out my second horn and spun in a circle, carrying out my original plan and trying to wrap up the web like a giant candy floss. With some of the web already over me, it wasn't as effective as it would have been earlier, but I at least got it out of the way of my legs. I had to throw away the webbed up spear, but it cleared my path to run, so I turned my back on the spider and fled, abandoning my shield and one of the horns. For some reason, the spider hadn't taken any action other than dodging while I'd been trying to spear it, and didn't even react when I fled. Did it have that much confidence in its webs?

I wasn't sure how far I'd get. Given the intelligence of my opponent, I was expecting the holes I'd cut on the way in to have been sealed up before it even attacked me, but by the time I'd made it halfway, I'd seen no sign of the spider, or any sign of web repairs. I might actually make it out! Yes, I'd lost my shield, and I'd already used the other horned beetle heads, so I didn't have material to make another, but at least I wouldn't lose my armour.

And then the final corridor-spanning web came into view, and of course it had been repaired. The spider was back on the ceiling, standing still. I was still tangled in cobwebs, not to the point of restricting my movement, but enough that I kept sticking to myself, giving me an awkward gait as I tried to avoid it. I edged forwards, at which the spider gave a satisfied click, then waved one clawed leg, once again dropping the roof on me.

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This time I'd been expecting it, and immediately barrelled forwards. My last chance was to break through the final web and make it outside of the spider's territory. My speed was sufficient, and I crashed into the last web before the netting from the ceiling had hit me.

My speed may have been sufficient, but my momentum, alas, was not. The corridor-spanning web held, and the webbing dropped from the ceiling drifted gently over my back.

I wriggled around in the web, but this time I was suspended completely off the floor, and had no purchase to push off from anything and tear myself away. The spider's clicking laughter started up again behind me, and with my face stuck to the web I couldn't even turn to look. I still had hold of my spear though, and some amount of arm movement... I thrust backwards towards the noise, but although the clicking stopped, I didn't feel any impact.

The spider materialised above me, and this time, rather than only attacking with its webbing, it stabbed at my wrist with one of its clawed legs, slicing through my skin. The pain made me momentarily lose my grip on the spear, and although the web held it in place, the spider waved its leg again, cutting a few strands, and the spear fell out of my reach. Yup, definitely intelligent. It had just deliberately disarmed me.

This game of cat and mouse was over. I knew it, the spider knew it, and the spider knew I knew it. It resumed its clicking laughter as it twisted the web around me, pinning my arms to my sides and my legs together. Determined not to give it an easy meal, I fought back as best I could, but immobilised and disarmed, my best didn't exactly achieve much, and I was now firmly stuck in the web. The spider started producing more silk, not round strands, but wide bands, slowly and methodically cocooning me from the feet up. Very slowly... And it kept glancing at my face, as if it was expecting something...

Wait, was this spider trying to torture me? Of course, a normal person in my position should be in a state of utter terror. Was the reason it hadn't attacked aside from to disarm me, despite obviously being capable of it, a deliberate ploy to give me false hope? Hope that it could distort into panic and despair? It had let me reach the finish line, where it was now forcing me to watch as it prepared me for later consumption? Was it expecting me to be crying and screaming in desperation, and was confused because I wasn't?

I feared pain, but not death. The sadistic spider's whole charade was useless. It had led me right to the edge of its territory, where I would have no trouble recovering the equipment I still had on me. Its attempts at driving me to despair had aided me. I burst out into what must by now be my trademark mad laughter, and the effect on the spider was far more pronounced than that of any of my attacks or efforts to defend myself. It clicked again, angrily, then picked up the pace, wrapping me at a far speedier rate, my body vanishing rapidly under the tight bonds of silk.

"Oh, so that annoys you, does it?" I asked, the spider ignoring me as thoroughly as everything else in this cave system, despite its obvious intelligence. I doubted it spoke English. "Eat me then. I don't care. I'll be back before you know it, and then yommmf?!"

Dammit, at least let me finish my sentence before you mummify my face! I continued to struggle, and what eventually stopped me wasn't the spider, but a simple lack of air. I could just about breathe through the thick silk sheets, but couldn't get enough oxygen to keep up any amount of activity, forcing me to calm down and relax to avoid passing out.

It had been dark enough already, but with my eyes covered, there was no light at all. Nor was there sound, now that I'd settled down. No munchers were operating this close to the webs, and the spider had gone silent, too. So, death number three. Cocooned and eaten by a spider. How did spiders eat things? Didn't they inject digestive enzymes into their prey after wrapping them, then suck up the liquefied remains? That sounds... unpleasant. Far worse than the tree and its tasty pain-killing nectar. I almost wished I couldn't breathe. Knowing I'd respawn took away a lot of the panic of my position, but pain was still pain. It would be a lie to claim I was still completely calm.

Saying that, the spider seemed to have abandoned me now that it was done with its gift-wrapping. Maybe it was annoyed by my lack of an acceptable reaction, and wanted to leave me alive for a bit in the hopes I'd start crying or something. Well, I was afraid I'd have to disappoint it once more. There was no way I'd be able to break out of here, but the cocoon was actually quite comfy once I'd stopped struggling and got my breathing under control. It had been a long day; I hadn't slept since my last respawn, and while I had little sense of time, I was certain it was more than twenty-four hours. Since the spider had seen fit to provide me with a nice snug bed, complete with eye mask and ear plugs, it would be remiss of me to not take advantage.

For the first time since starting my adventure, I fell asleep.

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