The Merchant Who Would be King

Everybody Loves Large Chests

Marian

The giant spider only seemed to grow bigger and scarier the closer Marian got to it as she ran. It was disgusting and a million times creepier than any spider she'd seen before. No arachnid should ever be allowed to grow this big.

It scuttled around to face her with a body the size of a horse on long, hairy legs tipped with talons. It had been dead a while and the decaying abdomen now dragged on the ground, leaking fluids of rot. Two of the eight eyes were missing but both mandibles still functioned.

Trying to overcome her rising fear and her pounding heart with bravado, she laughed in the face of mortal danger and pointed both hands, sending a fan of fire at the target. Flames engulfed the brown creature yet it showed no signs of pain.

Eight creepy legs crept forward and the remaining eyes, cloudy with death, somehow still seemed to focus on her. With that hatred for life that reanimated dead have, it instinctively sought to destroy her.

Dashing to the side to stay out of range, she sent one long blast after another at it. To her relief, while it moved unerringly towards her, she was faster than the undead thing, if just barely, given how long its legs were and with eight of them. Eight legs became seven soon enough when one superheated and cracked, falling apart under the strain of the body above. Seeing more cracks appear in the zombie spider's body, she knew that it was only a matter of time before she brought it down. And she seemed to have more than enough mana for the job, thanks to her new earrings.

Grinning a bit like a madwoman, thrilled at the danger and her own magical power and at being able to run and do things like this for the first time in her life, she shouted at the zombie. "Die, putrid thing!"

She was so wrapped up in the battle that it didn't occur to her for a while that the others hadn't followed. And when it did, she just put them out of her mind because it was probably safer for the lot of them to stay back while she handled this herself. As such, she didn't hear someone shouting her name until they were almost on top of her.

"Marian!" cried a female voice.

"Huh?" She paused her attack and looked over her shoulder.

Jax was barreling right for her, his sword in hand, looking over his own shoulder as a very large zombie owlbear chased after him, looking fresher and moving much faster than the spider. It had the body of a bear and the head of an owl, thick wings for arms and bear paws for hands. Running upright and flapping the flightless wings for balance, the hooked beak looked ready to rend Jax's flesh from his bones.

Her eyes flew open. "What are you—?" She tried to dodge but he clumsily ran right into her. His arm hit her in the face and knocked her head back and the two of them spilled into the long grass. She groaned, feeling the armoured weight of him crushing her from above. "Get off—!" She felt hands squeeze her breasts.

Jax blinked down at her. "Uh, sorry."

Her face screwed up in anger. "What the—? This isn't some anime you dumb brute. Get off me!" She punched him in the face and sent him rolling to the side.

A shadow fell over her.

Screaming, she threw herself into a wild roll and the descending leg of the zombie spider barely missed impaling her. Clawing her way out of reach and to her feet, she pulled up short as the owlbear bore down on her next. The monster took a swipe at her.

She screamed again and ducked, then ran. And nearly tripped over Jax, who hadn't gotten out of the way yet himself. "Move!" she shouted at him in tense frustration, stumbling past.

He grunted and picked up his sword, which he must have dropped. He lashed out at the owlbear to no effect, not even connecting. Then he back-peddled fast, trying to escape the oncoming spider.