Celestial Storm: Golden Dawn

Chapter Ten: Blood Beer

We moved toward the wharf in silence. The sun had sunk almost completely below the horizon as we neared the wharf. Fryn was able to lead us to the sewer pipe by following Arachne's scent. Fryn whined anxiously when he reached the front of the tunnel.

"In there," Fryn said.

"Go ahead," said Vlukyn.

"I don't want to go first. You go!" Fryn said.

"Fine. If you lot are going to use a light source, keep it at least sixty feet behind me," Vlukyn said, "I get horrible migraines if I look at light sources while I am using my night vision to see."

Vlukyn jumped into the pipe and started walking down it. Fryn whined anxiously as Vlukyn disappeared into the dark pipe. Khanordhoi jumped into the pipe and hunched down as he followed Vlukyn. It seemed that he didn't want his head to brush the top of the pipe. Flame and Siegfried followed Khanordhoi. Flame ignited his fist to give us some light. Gazual was trying not to touch the water looking down at it as though expecting it to jump up and bite him. He hurried down the pipe after Flame and Siegfried. Ethiza, Fryn and I followed. Dukhiza brought up the rear.

We hadn't gone far down the pipe when we found the bodies of the guards. Arachne had slashed her way through them. The four men were all bleeding profusely, and one was missing an arm. A little bit beyond them was a huge form bound in silver spider silk. I couldn't tell exactly what kind of monster it was because the spider silk completely covered it. Not far behind the huge form was a door that appeared to have been melted down by a very corrosive acid. Vlukyn was not in sight, and I guessed that she had gone into Blood Beer's base ahead of us.

We proceeded down a straight hallway after we had gingerly climbed through the melted remains of the door frame. It was still dark within, but Flame used his fire to continue to illuminate our surroundings as we proceeded. We found more bodies as we proceeded. It seemed that Arachne had dispatched anyone unfortunate to come across her as she hunted for the eight formidable members of Blood Beer. When we reached an area that was finally illuminated by glowing crystals, we found a scene of destruction. Arachne seemed to have lost patience with trying to look around in the labyrinthine structure and had simply blasted the walls down. Vlukyn was waiting for us standing on the wreckage of a former wall.

"I can hear the sounds of combat from within," Vlukyn said pointing past the blasted walls to a wall that had managed to survive the main blast that had flattened the labyrinthine walls, "I think she found one of the eight leaders."

"We should catch up to her and see what her condition is," Ethiza said.

Vlukyn nodded and started toward the partially intact wall. As we reached the wall, I could hear the sounds of explosions and shrieks from Arachne. Ethiza punched a hole in the wall, and it collapsed with a rumble that shook the compound. We had entered a large, open room. Arachne was battling a man on the other end of the room. It seemed that this man was the rune-weaver. His long coat had many arcane symbols embroidered into it. A rapier was in his right hand inscribed with runes. The man had long blonde hair that went down to his hips. He was conjuring runes that would hamper Arachne's attacks making her shriek in anger and frustration.

"Die, you lowly male mortal!" Arachne screamed as she hurled a spinning ball of acid at him.

The rune-weaver did not say anything in response. He cast runes at Arachne's feet, which enraged her. He seemed to have cast a protective spell over himself, for the ball of acid didn't eat his skin away or even come into direct contact with his skin. Arachne let out another scream of frustration and shrieked another incantation that shook the room. The rune-weaver stumbled, but he didn't seem injured by the attack even though conjured magma sizzled around him.