Pathway

By the faint glow of the orblight, Ju Feng and Chang Chang stood at the beginning of an underground tunnel. Smooth stone walls rose to a flat ceiling high over their heads. Ju Feng could see the trapdoor through which the drydra had fallen. The talisman of the girl had caused great destruction to the hydra and the place.

The tunnel was now blocked by the bases of the thick stone walls that had nearly crushed them in the room above. The darkness was dense and stifling here, retreating sullenly before orb light of Chang Chang's orb. A rank odor like the putrid reek of decay hung in the air, so thick that it almost seemed to leave on oily residue on their skin and inside their lungs. It was a stench of evil.

With no other options evident, the two started down the corridor. The tunnel plunged straight through the darkness, without openings or side passages. The sickening odor grew more intense as they walked, but there was nothing to do but swallow their bile and press on. Soft, ropy strands dangled from the ceiling. Ju Feng guessed they were moss, for they glowed with a faint and noxious green light.

They ducked to avoid the strands and kept moving. Though he couldn't be sure, Ju Feng had the sense that the passageway was leading gradually downward. He swore inwardly. They needed to go up, but it seemed everything they did only took them farther down. It was as if Underground itself were somehow conspiring to pull them deeper.

After a time, the inky mouth of a smaller tunnel opened up to the left. The fetid stench was stronger here, pouring like black water out of the side opening. Yet it wasn't just the smell that spilled from the tunnel—there was a malice as well, distant and faint, but chilling all the same.

"I think the hydra is down there," Chang Chang whispered softly. "And I think it's terribly hurt and angry." She added in a squeaky voice.

"Let's be careful." Ju Feng said. He felt the malevolent aura of the hydra had increased greatly. He wiped his sweaty palms on his robe and kept his sensitive eyes peeled. They continued down the murky passageway. The mouths of more tunnels opened to their left and right. Some were blocked by fallen rubble, and others were dry and dusty. But the same pungent reek wafted outward from several tunnels, as did the aura of evil. Without deciding aloud to do so, the two picked up their pace. 

Then they saw the outer layers of the hydra on the floor.

"It's changing form." Chang Chang whispered cautiously. "It should be closer now."

After they hadvtaken a few steps, the aura of malice swelled befor them. They reeled, nearly overwhelmed by the vile emanations of hatred. Something was coming at them, and it was gaining. They readied their weapons as they made their stands. As they watched, tens of bloated forms bust forward. They were spiders, but like none Chang Chang had ever seen. But Ju Feng remembered their kind. Nephilia spiders. 

They were huge, each the size of a dog. Their bulging bodies, as pale and waxy as corpses, were eerily translucent, and their long gray legs trailed off into dim tendrils of gray mist. Dark saliva bubbled from their vague pincer mouths, and their multifaceted eyes shone malevolently, like flame reflected off black jewels. Whatever these spiders were, it was clear they were not truly alive like the nephilia spiders, but wraiths, in hideous spider form. Their swords met the claws of the spiders as they engaged in battle. The more they fight, the more the spiders.

"Do you have anything to stop them?" Ju Feng asked Chang Chang.

"No, not anymore."

"We better run then."

Gasping, they hurled themselves down the tunnel, the darkness following thickly on their heels. An eerie whispering sound echoed all around. Lungs burning, the three kept running. All at once the walls of the tunnel fell away, and they found themselves dashing across a cavernous chamber. Strange white shapes littered the floor, crunching brittlely underfoot. Dense clumps of the same strands that had filled the tunnel hung from the high ceiling like a weird inverted forest, filling the room with a ghastly green glow. They caught another wisp of fresh air, stronger now. Ju Feng saw it on the far side of the hall—a faint rectangle glowing amid the gloom. A doorway.

"Hurry!" he shouted, heedless of what might hear his voice.

The eerie whispering grew louder, filling the chamber. Thick blackness poured out of the opening behind them like a putrid flood. Legs pounding, they ran towards the doorway. As they neared the doorway, they saw that it was covered with more of the same green, glowing strands. With a cry, he hurled himself at the portal. Instantly his cry became one of pain as bitterly cold threads burned the skin on his hands and face. The silken material stretched under the force of his impact, then abruptly snapped back, throwing him roughly to the ground.

He stared up at the door in surprise, rubbing his throbbing hands. Then he leapt to his feet, drew a knife from his boot, and slashed at the chaotic weave that covered the door. The blade bounced back, jarring his wrist painfully. He had not so much as damaged one of the cords.

"What is this stuff?" he said in hoarse amazement as Chang Chang came to stand beside him.

Chang Chang drew in a sharp breath, staring upward. "I think I know."

The strange whispering grew to a maddening din. The threads hanging from the ceiling stirred. Ghostly shapes scuttled down the glowing strands.

"Auric webs," Chang Chang gasped. "They're archaic webs from dark energy."

Sge branded her grey sword. The hilt tingled in her hand—it was the first time it had done that since acquiring it. Warm energy flowed up her arms as red fire glimmered along the edge of the blade. A wraith spider lunged forward, and Chang Chang swung her glaive. The creature let out a mind-piercing shriek as two of its legs fell to the floor. For a moment, they twitched of their own volition, then evaporated into wisps of fog. The spider lurched backward.

Chang Chang made some hand seals. Blue-red energy crackled from her fingertips. It struck two of the wraith spiders, but passed through their ghostly bodies. They continued to scurry forward.

"My talismans has little effect on them!" Chang Chang shouted.

"Then let's work on freeing the door!" 

Ju Feng gritted through clenched teeth. "Try to hold the spiders back as long as you can. I''ll try to open it. "

Chang Chang swung the glaive in whistling arcs, and a dozen more many-jointed legs fell to the floor, turning to mist. The spiders advanced more slowly now, wary of Chang Chang's grey glaive. The plan was working for the moment, but there were too many of the wraiths. It was only a matter of time until one got through.

Chang Chang glanced at Ju Feng and growled. "You might want to hurry, Feng."

Ju Feng looked at the door and remembered the fire seal of his grandfather he was holding. He activated and thrust the seal at the webs. Instantly the sticky strands ignited, engulfed by brilliant fire. In seconds they were burned to fine ashes, clearing the doorway.

"It worked!" Ju Feng cried excitedly.

Chang Chang started to back away from the dark elemental spiders, toward the now-open door. Then she suddenly froze at the sight of three archaic dark elemental spiders coming towards them. In her short existence, she had never seen anything like them before. Quickly, Ju Feng flash stepped to her side.

"Go, I'll cover you."

Chang Chang was slowly walking backward towards the door when a giant dark elemental spider dropped down from above, landing behind her. Ghostly pincers dug into the back of her neck. Her body went limp, and she fell to the floor. The glove hung loosely in her hand.

Suddenly, the glaive in her hands jerked violently. As if imbued with a life of its own, the blade danced forward. Seeing that, Chang Chang decided to use her mystical arts. She strained against the power of the glaive in her hands, face twisted in effort, then managed to turn it on the archaic spider that was approaching her. A giant blade of blood shot forward and sliced through the thing's bloated abdomen. It waved its thin legs, then exploded into a puff of foul vapor. Chang Chang sunk on her knees as her energy depleted from the use of the mystical technique.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ju Feng saw Chang Chang forcing herself to stand. She was still alive. Grim satisfaction turned to cold terror as Ju Feng realized that his back was now toward the other archaic spiders. Sensing their prey's vulnerability, they chittered hatefully, closing in. Ju Feng knew he had mere moments to act and live. His eyes fell upon Chang Chang who was struggling with the archaic elemental spiders, and an idea struck him.

There was only one chance.