Jonah sloshed back through the mud, putting up his huge shield as the three of them backed away. Multiples strands of web shot at it, but slid off, as if it were greased in oil. Spiders were crawling all over the trees around them now, leaping from one to the other.
“How are there so many?” Claire asked, firing off bolts from her wand.
With each bolt, a spider fell but the tree-hopping creatures were outpacing their careful withdrawal. Surrounding them, the spiders were able to fire webbing from the sides where Jonah couldn't cover, but it accomplished little. Claire ignored the webs, her barrier offering even less purchase than Jonah's shield. Rick danced around as if he wasn't shin-deep in mud, his huge sword flashing out, quick and deadly.
One of Rick’s trump cards was an essence ability that temporarily ramped up his speed and power, and he put it to good use. His huge sword was incredibly heavy, but he waved it like a baton, intercepting webs and slashing through spiders. The blade of his sword was glowing red hot and had burst into flame, cutting through webs and spiders alike with a searing hiss. He had been saving his abilities for a crucial moment, but there was an army of spiders bearing down on them.
“This way!” Jonah shouted, wading into thigh-deep water. “They don’t swim.”
It was a wide patch of water, common enough in the marsh, but it had one advantage: no trees were rising out of it. Following Jonah let them escape the trap weaver onslaught. The lack of trees gave the monsters no place to jump to, and the absence of canopy meant no shadows for Jason to jump out of. Even reaching the middle of the water, it had never gone deeper than Claire’s waist.
“Now we wait,” Rick said. “Without us, Jason becomes the only food on the market. He can’t avoid them all, riled up like they are.”
The three waited, back to back as they watched the edge of the trees for movement. The glowing orb floated over them, light shining off the water. The screeching sounds of trap weavers came from all around. The water stilled around them when they stopped moving. Eventually, the trap weavers calmed, their shrieks diminishing down until they finally stopped.
“Do you think they got him?” Claire asked.
“They had to, right?” Jonah said.
“We have to go check,” Rick said. “I think the loudest concentration of screeching came from over… did anyone else feel that?”
“I can feel it crawling on my boots,” Jonah said. “There’s something in the water.”
“Out of the water,” Rick commanded, pointing in a direction. Even as he did, the water around them started roiling like a boiling soup. The barrier around Claire flashed in staccato rhythm.
Jonah grimaced and Jonah let out a painful grunt.
“What is that?” Claire asked, pushing down panic. “It keeps attacking my shield. It’s going to eat through all my mana.”
“Just keep moving!” Rick yelled. Their resolve showed as they didn’t slow their pace, even as something attacked them from under the water.
Claire’s shield absorbed attacks at the cost of mana, regardless of the strength of the attack. Rapid, weak attacks were the shield’s weakness, and something was attacking it in swarms under the water. Unhappily, she let the shield drop before her mana was emptied out, immediately feeling the sting as something started biting into her legs.
Their attackers were revealed to be leeches as the creatures climbed high enough up their bodies to rise above the water. The leeches crawled over them in search of vulnerable flesh.
Claire fought through the pain to chant spell after spell, cleansing afflictions and healing through bleeds. The others had dropped their weapons to have their hands free, Jonah yanking the shield off his arm. They tugged off leeches with both hands and tossed them away, the leeches taking gobbets of flesh with them. The adventurers’ efforts made little headway with the swarming leeches.
“My spells can’t keep up!” Claire yelled.
The leeches constantly inflicted bleeds and afflictions, faster than she could chant. The afflictions slowly but surely stacked up while the bleeds soaked up the healing. Their skin started to blacken around the leech bites. All the while, they kept making for the shoreline, finally struggling out of the water.
Suddenly Jason was there, a lunging kick sending Claire splashing back into the water. Jonah threw a gauntleted fist, but Jason danced lightly away on the surface of the water. Claire sat up, spluttering, only for Jason to kick her in the teeth in passing, sending her back down. He pointed at Rick.
“Your fate is to suffer.”
Rick had his hand extended out in the direction of the water. His huge sword was spinning through the air, throwing off droplets of water as it flew past Jason and into Rick’s hand. Jonah held his own hand out and an iron spear appeared in it.
Both men threw their weapons. They struck home with accuracy but kept going, Jason’s cloak suddenly empty. After being dragged through the air, the cloak disappeared and Jonah watched his spear splash uselessly into the water. Rick’s sword stopped in the air and flew back to his hand.
“What was that?” Jonah asked, looking around for Jason as he yanked off leeches. “I thought he could only teleport through shadows?”
“I don’t know,” Rick said, likewise yanking off leeches.
“My cloak is a shadow,” Jason said, walking out of the trees well out of melee range. His cloak was no longer around him and they could see his face. His eyes were wide and his mouth was twisted in a deranged smirk. He looked hungry for something that definitely shouldn’t be food. The cloak formed around him once more, hiding his face and its disturbing grin.
“Finally ready for a fair fight?” Jonah asked, another spear appearing in his hand.
“Two against one is hardly fair,” Jason said.
“You mean three,” Jonah said. Rick was quicker on the uptake, looking to the water behind them. Claire's body floated on the surface with the awkward stillness of death, leeches swarming over it.
“She focused her healing on us,” Rick said bitterly as they looked at her corpse, robbed of dignity in death. He turned to spit invective at Jason, but he had vanished again while they were transfixed by the fate of their healer.
“I’M GOING TO RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!” Jonah screamed into the air.
“Are you sure?” Jason’s voice came from the trees, lilting and off-kilter.
“Your healer is gone,” his voice came from another direction.
“All I have to do now is wait,” he said, from a new direction again.
Rick grimaced, knowing Jason was right. They had managed to tear off most of the leeches, which couldn't move through the mud like they could in the water, but the damage was done. Standing around with no recourse, he could do nothing, even as he collapsed to the ground. That left only Jonah.
Jonah had the greatest fortitude of the team. His resilience and heightened resistances let him last well beyond his comrades, but he could do no more than Rick. He screamed rage into the shadowy woods, then spotted Jason emerge, once again at a distance. He threw his spear, expecting Jason to vanish into darkness again. Instead, Jason made no move to avoid it and the spear impaled him, low and to the side of his torso. He staggered back several steps before righting himself, not making a sound.
Jason regained his balance, then pulled the spear from his body, hand over hand as Jonah watched. Holding the spear in one hand, Jason pushed the hood of his cloak back with the other, revealing his face. He took the spear and slowly ran his tongue along the shaft as Jonah watched in shock. Jason tossed the spear aside, eyes wide as his lips, tainted with his own blood, took on a maniacal grin.
“I taste good,” Jason said, looking absently at the blood on his hands. Then he looked up at Jonah. “I wonder how yours will taste.”