The sound of feet pounding rapidly through mud came from somewhere in the distance. The sound stopped for a moment, then they heard panicked swearing and the sound started again from a different direction. They heard the wet slap of something landing in the mud and a startled yelp.
“He’s got monsters on him,” Rick barked at the others. “Go!”
They surged over the marshy ground. Hannah had found them a path that was relatively solid and even Jonah powered forwards in his heavy armour. What they found was an indentation in the mud.
Rick looked around, peering at every shadow.
“Hannah?” he asked.
When there was no response, he glanced back.
“Hannah?”
The whole team craned their necks searching in every direction.
“She was right behind me,” Claire said. “We were all running, and…”
“Back the way we came,” Rick said decisively, and so they went. What they found, to their horror, was Hannah’s body, barely moved from where they had started running. Her throat was cut and she dangled macabrely from thick strands of webbing like a puppet on strings.
“It’s not real,” Rick told Claire.
She looked at her sister with a hand over her mouth, eyes shocked wide. He put a supportive hand on her shoulder.
“It’s just illusion,” he told her. “We’ve been through this before. Henry, do you have a scent?”
There was no answer, and they looked again. While they had been looking at Hannah’s corpse, Henry had vanished. That left the two men in their heavy armour and the healer.
“How did he do that?” Jonah asked.
“He’s going for the ones he can kill quick and quiet,” Rick said. “The rest of us won’t go out like that. Our armour and Claire’s magic shield means he can’t take us easily.
Suddenly blue light flared around Claire in the form of a bubble as objects struck it, three in quick succession. They were throwing knives, falling harmlessly into the mud after bouncing off the protective barrier.
“That way!” Jonah called out, but Rick grabbed his arm.
“He’s baiting us,” Rick said. “The way he baited the trap weavers into making all this mess. From now on, we go carefully.”
“How do we find him now?” Jonah asked. “Henry and Hannah were our spotters.”
“We’ve been dancing to his tune the whole time,” Rick said. “Time to change the music. Use your shout.”
“Are you sure?” Jonah asked. “You know what that’ll do to the monsters.”
“He took out our spotters,” Rick said. “The best advantage we have now is a straight-up fight.”
“I don’t think he’s suddenly going to step out for that,” Jonah said.
“It’s not us he’ll be fighting,” Rick said. “He might be able to dodge a handful of trap weavers, but look at all these webs. That’s more than a handful. If they all go berserk, he’ll have a harder time dealing with them than we will.”
“Are you sure about that?” Claire asked.
“No,” Rick said. “I’m open to alternatives.”
The others shook their heads.
“Alright,” Rick said. “Jonah shouts, then we fight off the monsters while we wait for them to flush him out.”
Jonah nodded, then took a deep breath. Throwing back his head, he roared; a primal scream that blasted through the marsh like an explosion. As he fell silent, animal shrieks rose up in answer, echoing out what felt like miles. Rick grinned, hefting his heavy sword in readiness.
“Let’s see how he… crap!”
Everything went dark as a thrown dagger shattered their floating lantern. Rick felt a sting on arm, as did Jonah moments later. Light bloomed, illuminating the area from a glowing orb over Claire’s raised hand. They looked around, but Jason was already gone.
“Keep the orb up,” Rick told Claire. “I know it uses your mana, but not that much and another lantern would be vulnerable.”
She nodded, looking at the wounds on Jonah and Rick.
Jason had found gaps in their armour while they couldn’t see to defend against him, but he had barely drawn blood. They were minor cuts, but Rick had warned them early that it was all Jason required. Claire extended an arm towards Rick and chanted a spell.
“Be made clean.”
A glow of white-gold light glowed out from under Jonah's armour, and a black smoke arose from the gap where Jason's knife had cut. She did the same with Jonah.
“A poison and a curse each,” Claire said. “All gone, now.”
“His hit and run attacks have done all the damage they can,” Rick said. “He can’t quickly finish the rest of us, and now the trap weavers will flush him out. We move carefully, fend off the weavers that come for us, and either find his corpse or make it.”
“Like this body?” a mocking voice asked. There was a lilting malevolence to it, like the speaker was slightly unhinged. They turned, and saw Jason’s shadowy figure behind the dangling corpse of Hannah, still strung up on webs. It was their first clear look at him, although clear wasn’t exactly the word. He looked halfway made of shadows, his cloak of darkness wrapped around him. The dark, flowing lines of his battle robe melded into the shadows and his face was shrouded in the darkness of the hood. Even with the light of Claire's orb, he was hard to see standing in front of them.
Rick threw his massive sword. It spun through the air at Jason but buried itself in Hannah's body as he moved further behind it for cover. Rick held out his hand and the sword yanked itself from Hannah’s corpse, flying back to Rick’s hand.
Standing behind the dangling, macabre puppet that was the ravaged corpse of their companion, Jason’s laughter was filled with sinister mirth.
“So much for camaraderie,” he said.
“We’re going to kill you, you sick prick!” Claire said to Jason, who laughed again.
His response was to chant a spell, voice filled with malevolent relish.
“As your life was mine to reap, your death is mine to harvest.”
A dim red light shone from Hannah’s body, which was quickly devoured by Jason. As it did, Hannah’s skin grew dry, pulling tight over her skeleton as if years were passing in moments. Only a desiccated husk remained in her blood-stained clothes.
Claire screamed out in anger, raising the wand in her hand. A bolt of white magical energy fired at Jason, tracking him through the air. He stepped closer to the corpse, which intercepted the attack. The withered body fell apart, tumbling piecemeal to the ground. Claire watched in horror as her sister's body crumbled into dried-up chunks, splattering into the mud. When she looked up for the one responsible, Jason was already gone.
“You should be careful,” his voice mocked them, first from one direction, then another. “I thought I had the spiders riled up, but you really went and did it.”
Jason’s voice was playful and cruel as he taunted them. Each time he spoke, it came from a new direction.
“My friends are coming for you,” he said. “You might want to get out of these webs.”
His laughter rang through the trees.
“Rick?” Jonah asked.
“He’s not wrong about the webs,” Rick said. “Slow and careful. Claire in the middle and I’ll bring up the rear.”
“I’m going to kill the evil weasel,” Claire said.
“Hannah’s fine,” Rick said. “She’s already awake, back in the control room.”
“I hope she stabs him while he’s still in here,” Claire said.
Jonah yelled out, standing awkwardly in place. He had stumbled into a near-invisible web. At the same time, a thick stand of webbing launched out of the shadows to drag Rick stumbling back.
They were an experienced team who had handled trap weavers in real life, so they moved quickly into action. Claire’s wand, glowing at the tip, cut Jonah free of the web as she used it like a knife. Rick planted his feet, and even with the mushy ground underfoot, his immense strength arrested the force dragging on him. He gripped the web and yanked hard, yanking a huge spider off a tree to sail through the air towards him. Swinging his huge sword in one hand, he cut the monster in half as it tumbled through the air, then scraped the sticky web off his hand with the blade.