"Behind us!" shrieked a voice. Sanjaya, who had been examining a relief carving of a man with a club on the door frame, spun around to see a flurry fangs and legs descending on the soldiers behind him. One of the soldiers, taken by surprise, had failed to defend himself in time and a man-sized hunting spider had buried its fangs in his chest. The soldier collapsed, twitching as venom entered his blood stream. More spiders were launching themselves from the forest, jumping the distance from their camouflaged ambush to the startled townsfolk and behind them, the bloated figure of their grotesque master drummed the ground, coordinating their assault. Battle surrounded Sanjaya, he was in the middle of the group, his back to the massive doors, unable to see properly as combat exploded around him.
Fortunately, the majority of the expedition were trained soldiers and the rear guard had been well arranged. They quickly fanned out, the swordsman taking the front lines with spearmen behind. Archers drew their bows, looking for openings.
From within the doorway, Jack Slate cursed. He had already passed the huge doors with two of his men, a third was in the triangular gap. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of movement, barely bringing his shield up in time as fangs the size of his forearms attempted to skewer him, sliding off his shield and scoring his helmet. With years training and battle experience, Jack's reaction was immediate. Thrusting his sword upwards, he felt the honed blade penetrate the thick chitin of his opponent's carapace. Jack's eyes widened and his expression turned grim. A spider the size of a horse had descended from its web in the shadows beneath the gopuram, ichor dripping from the ghastly wound in its thorax.
Without hesitation, the soldiers who had entered with Jack sprung on the wounded spider, hacking at its legs with their swords. Shoving the spider with his shield, Jack stepped to one side, providing an opening. With a crack of chitin, the man behind him thrust his spear into the spider's head, extinguishing its life. As the arachnid slumped to the ground, Jack quickly surveyed the temple courtyard. Two more horse-sized spiders were scuttling towards him and from the columnar facade of the temple, an ettercap drummed its legs, summoning more minions from its depths.
Prād caught his breath. From his position to the side of the group, he had a superior view of the battle. Sprinting around three men who were dispatching an isolated hunting spider, Prād's eyes locked on to his target: A hunched abomination, humanoid in shape with a bloated, belly and sharp chitinous claws in place of hands, its eye clusters glinting with cruel intelligence.
Breathe in... The clang of steel, grunts of pain, the scream of a soldier as an inept spearman accidentally stabbed him from behind. The ground churning as his feet ripped the undergrowth gripped by his toes. The target. The monstrosity turned towards him, it's arms spread wide, its fangs raised. So many openings. Prād released his breath, launching himself into a flying kick, but the creature was fast. His foot, aimed at its head, instead glanced off its shoulder. The spider master turned, catching Prād's leg with its chitinous claw, it slammed him into the ground and sunk its fangs into his thigh. Agony. With all his strength, Prād thrust his staff into the creature's mouth shattering some of its teeth and dislodging it. He rolled with the momentum, coming to a halt braced on one knee. Blood and venom streaming from his wounded thigh, one hand on the ground, the other gripping the staff locked to the back of his arm. Breathe in. He did not know if he could still stand. He had underestimated his opponent and used reckless, flashy moves. Breathe out. This was no longer a fight that he could win. Breathe in....
Combat was fast and brutal. The hunting spiders, despite their needle sharp fangs and venom were no match for the armored warriors. The ambush had been sprung too soon. Instead of picking off the stragglers, they fought the bulk of the group and were severely outnumbered. Of the initial eight hunting spiders, only two remained, the rest cut down by swords, spears and arrows. While the ettercap, distracted by Prād, had turned its back to the fray, the front line of swordsmen had butchered the interposing spiders leaving it vulnerable. Sanjaya's crossbow bold thudded into its back. As it spun around to face the new threat, a spear sunk deep into its bloated belly.
With its minions dead and itself severely wounded, enemies on three sides, the ettercap fled, or at least it tried to. With impeccable timing, Prād wedged his staff between the spider master's spindly legs, causing it to go sprawling. The swordsmen made short work of the prone abomination.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, the situation was far more dire.
"Retreat!" the captain commanded, his sword skittering off the nearest spider's chitinous carapace. The men fell back, slashing and stabbing at their assailants as they retreated through the narrow gap between the doors. Jack held the rear for his men, but before he could escape himself, one of the spiders breached his defense, the tip of its fang penetrating the chain mail on his upper arm. The wound itself was negligible, but Jack felt his body slow as a small dose of the paralytic venom entered his veins.
Two more spiders, followed by an ettercap had emerged from the temple. Another two with an ettercap scurried out from a building on the left and three more, with the final ettercap emerged from around the right side of the temple. With nine giant spiders and three ettercaps in view, Jack knew that he had no hope of either holding or advancing his position.
"Back, back, back! Fan out! Archers watch the walls." The spiders were far too large to squeeze between the doors, but Jack was under no illusion that they were safe. A moment later, two spiders appeared on the wall, only to be met by a volley of arrows. The results were not great. Of the four archers in the group, only one had a decent longbow, the other three just had simple shortbows that they used for hunting small game. These bows barely had enough power to penetrate the spiders' defenses. Most of the arrows clattered harmlessly off the wall, however, one struck true and, combined with Sanjaya's crossbow bolt, was enough to drive off an already wounded spider.
The second spider halted. It was alone and there were far too many enemies. Despite the orders of its masters, it retreated into the webs behind the massive doors, overlooking the corpse of its sister. The townsfolk had earned a brief reprieve.
Jack wasted no time. He had seen what was on the other side and did not like their chances. "Help the wounded! Orderly withdrawal! You two, carry Clive! Stuart, take point! Form up!" A minute later, under the guidance of their masters, a mass of hairy legs, eyes and fangs swarmed over the temple walls and stopped. The humans were retreating into the forest and the spiders would not easily leave their webs. These spiders were web spinners by nature, not hunters and could not easily be commanded otherwise.
As the group retreated down the cracked, paved path, surround by burned, blackened webs, Sanjaya smiled at the young monk. "That could have gone worse." Prād was barely able to walk, his leg was wrapped in a hasty, blood soaked bandage, his arm over the older man's shoulder. Prad hung his head in shame. "I was stupid. I didn't think. I didn't know my enemy. I thought that I was better than it. I forgot my teachings."
"You were also brave, you reacted quickly, you stopped it from escaping and most importantly, you didn't die." Sanjaya chuckled. "From my perspective, this was a win."
The townsfolk headed home in mixed spirits, their pervious bravado tempered by reality and experience. One man was paralysed, a few others wounded and sluggish from venom, but, thanks to the decisive orders of their captain, nobody had died. They had defeated one of the ettercaps and its pack of hunting spiders but they only now realised the danger of the ancient temple. Who could sleep well at night knowing was growing in the ruins? They had seen spiders, the size of horses commanded by grotesque humanoid abominations. But they had made them bleed. One of their masters was slain. While the townsfolk were retreating for now, nobody doubted that they must soon return or their town would never be safe.