Emiri started to answer but was cut off by a flash of light. It streaked in from an open window and then materialized as a heavenly being. It was vastly different from the celestial duplicate that she summoned to fight for her sometimes. Both beautiful and bizarre, it had three sets of wings holding it aloft. Her words failed her as seeing it seared her mind. It simply was too alien, too beyond her ability to describe.

  When it spoke, they all fell to their knees, and a deep sense of her imperfections filled her. Yet even as guilt swept through her, forgiveness followed. “I come bearing messages from on high. You have been seen, Emily Nelson. You have been known. Your intentions have been weighed. Seek to learn more. Embrace this baptism and arise as Emiri, a new creation.”

  It paused in speaking, and she hesitated to mentally categorize this rapturous being as an it, yet it was clearly neither male nor female. As the meaning of its words sank into her, it continued, “Challenges will come, and three tests you will face. Eventually you will see the exiles home.”

  As if that weren’t both vague and ominous enough, it paused again, but before she could ask any questions, it gave one final pronouncement. “For now though, a shadow comes. It is a blight upon Talos and has crept in the shadows for far too long. Such men and monsters must be confronted, and Shanelle leaves this to you with one word of caution. You can’t hold back. All that has been given to you is on the line, so all that you have and all those you call friends must join in.”

  Then in another flash it was gone. Emiri’s eyes struggled to adjust to the change in light. Even as she adapted, it became clear that it was growing darker outside. She saw the others all bowed down, and grabbing Dave’s hand, she ran for the door. Outside was a nightmare made flesh wreaking havoc on the already damaged city. It was ugly, and the form of it caused a shiver down her spine.

  The thought in her head though was that if the attack was so imminent, then why only warn her now. There must have been another purpose to the warning that made her aware of the attack. It must have been to prepare her for what she must do.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him, lies on the paths of men.”—H. W. Longfellow

  Konig—Dave Nelson, Mira Nelson

  Dave was enraptured by the beauty and completely alien nature of the angelic messenger that was speaking to Emiri. He tried to make sense of the message it was giving her, but then just as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared and his wife was grabbing his hand to pull him to the door of the temple.

  He heard her gasp as they both saw what the streets outside looked like. Buildings were smoking; bodies were strung up against the shattered wall of other buildings, held in place by gray webbing. And there in the middle of the street past the far end of the temple grounds was the source of it all.

  Dave immediately looked around. Emiri and the kids were all with them. Neither had been willing to leave the children without them. That, of course, meant that Jaselm and Daichi along with the Kirun Sisuta were all there too. Mun Hagen hadn’t come along today because they were visiting the temple of Shanelle, and Fumihero had stayed back in his room at the palace for much the same reason. Duleen, on the other hand, was a fervent follower of Shanelle and thrilled to be here. Even Kraden had come along. He revered Emiri, and while he seemed to have an odd relationship with the church now, he still had been willing to visit.

  One of them called out, “What is that thing?”

  Dave answered even as his mind was trying to figure out how to get the kids to safety. “I don’t think it is a what so much as a who. Unless I miss my guess, that is Seimion.”

  The bishop was shouting for guards to attack the monster, and all around them worshippers were scurrying inside the temple while paladins were trying to organize an attack. Fear was thick in the air.

  Dave took another look at the monster. It couldn’t be called anything else. In this form it reminded him of a monster from his days of playing D&D, yet it wasn’t quite the same. It had the body of a spider. That is, if a spider was twenty feet wide and ten feet high. Then where there should have been a head full of beady eyes was a set of humanoid shoulders with thick black chitinous arms and Seimion’s head atop the shoulders. Except the head and shoulders were all proportional to an enlarged human.

  Dave cast Assess Enemy and got back nothing. “In that form, he is too powerful for my spell to determine anything about him.”

  Jackson said, “Let’s just hope that’s his final form and he doesn’t have any more power-ups.”

  At the same time, Mira snorted and said, “Let me see if I can make the spell work. She then wove a combination of Assess Enemy and Lesser Gauge Defenses. She pushed with extra mana and wove the spell form around the monster until it finally stuck.

  Seimion

  Evolved Spiderkin:

  Tier 6, level 50

  Class: Warlock

  Health: 14,750

  Mana: 3210

  Damage Resistance: 175

  Blunt Resistance: 175

  Elemental Resistance: 100

  Poison Immunity, Acid Resistance: 560

  Vulnerable: Piercing damage

  Current Buffs: Haste, Elemental Ward: 300, Wyer’s Woven Net, Soul Pact*

  “Well, that isn’t discouraging at all,” Dave said. “We need a plan, people. Just throwing Tier 1 warriors and Tier 2 paladins at it isn’t going to win the day.”

  Emiri took the words to heart and yelled at Bishop Tengur, “Please keep the soldiers back. Let my husband and our team come up with a plan.”

  The bishop looked from her to the king, who simply nodded. Max’s old squad was with them, assigned as the Purple and Gold who were guarding the king.

  Outside, the beast yelled, “Send out the Nelsons and Maxwell Smart, and all the rest of you may live in peace, for now. I am tired of their interference. Send them out now, or I shall continue to destroy this feeble city. You have made me look like a failure before the exalted one. Now I shall show him that you truly are nothing special.”

  Dave said, “It isn’t coming onto the temple grounds. Hopefully that means there is something about it that prevents it from being on holy ground.”

  Max replied, “We can’t bet the king’s life on that, and even if that is so, it doesn’t prevent it from destroying the rest of the city.”

  “Agreed, I’m not saying we should stay here, only assessing if it will be safe for the kids to be left here.”

  “I’m not staying behind,” both Mira and Jackson said in unison.

  Emiri started to say something, but Dave interrupted her. “Fine, I agree you are both strong now, but you are still my children. That never changes. So either I will waste my time knocking you unconscious and tying you up now, or you will agree to fight on my terms. And if I order you back into the temple, you agree to do so.”

  As he spoke, Dave glanced out and saw the monster continuing to knock down buildings and kill any soldiers who got close enough to it, all while ranting for them to be sent out. He looked at his kids, and they both nodded in agreement. Emiri frowned but didn’t say anything. Dave took that as her acceptance that she realized the kids might be needed in this fight. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Dave to allow his kids into harm’s way, but he appreciated that it was likely just as hard for Emiri.

  “Okay, so I am the tank, with Jaselm as the backup. Sorry, Hannah, I know you are pretty good at that job too, but I need you to do other things. Emiri, you will be on primary healing, but if you get a chance and are very certain, feel free to try out that mage-slaying dagger of yours.

  “Mira, your primary job will be to try to counter and interrupt any spells that he casts. I know he is strong, but do what you can. Even if you can just knock them off target. If you can do anything about removing his buffs and or removing any debuffs he casts on any of us, that would be great. It is pretty clear what his Haste and Elemental Ward do. Haste should be the first thing that you try to get rid of. I don’t know about the other buffs. Healing will be your backup. Speaking of which, Bishop, if you or any of the other priests can stay in the background and heal any you can, that could make all the difference.

  “Daichi and Jackson, you’re gonna be on my left side, trying to deal as much damage as you can. Jackson, take your lead from Daichi and follow his orders. Kraden, I want you and Deoca trying to deal damage from the right side. That hand of yours seems pretty versatile, but remember we all want to come out of this alive.

  “Max, you help out where you see fit, but I’m counting on you to add damage. That thing has a ton of health, and we are gonna need to grind it down before it turns me into chopped liver. Please have your squad protect the priests who are healing, and feel free to throw any ranged attacks they can. I just don’t want too many melee fighters in close.

  “Hannah, I want you to use your earth power to try to control the battlefield. If you can soften the ground, open holes under that thing’s feet, or throw up walls, that will be the most useful things you can do. Duleen, anything you can do to distract it with illusions is what I’m asking from you. Just don’t get too close to it. I know you have other spells, but if you can keep it confused, that would be the best.”

  “What about me?” Balayria asked, when after a moment he still hadn’t mentioned her.

  “You have the most important job to me. Please keep Sara safe.”

  “You know I love Sara like my own daughter, but won’t she be safe inside the temple? I need to be fighting with the rest of the Kirun Sisuta,” the half-orc protested.

  Dave and Emiri looked at each other. Then at Sara. Strangely, she was squinting her eyes, and her nose was scrunched up like she was struggling really hard to do something.

  “Are you okay, sweetie?” Emiri asked.

  A moment later there was a pop, and a massive white rabbit with some green drake scales scattered about its body, covering vital parts, appeared with a goblin atop its back. There was a popping sound as the air was displaced when they appeared, and Sara went running to them, calling out, “Snowball, Krinnk, you came.”

  “You can summon your friends to you?” Dave asked.

  Sara shrugged as she was hugging the bunny and rubbing her face up against its fur. “I wasn’t sure, but I thought, maybe. I tried to call Altracia, but she’s too big. She is flying here, though, but it will take a few hours for her to get here.”

  Dave looked at Emiri and said, “Are you okay with them as protectors?”

  Emiri hesitated, then said, “Fine, as long as they stay in the temple.”

  Bishop Tengur looked shocked to see a goblin inside his temple, but at least seemed to understand there were more serious things to worry about at the moment and didn’t say anything about it.

  “Balayria, you can try to help Duleen with distracting it and Hannah with controlling the ground. Set your traps. Do whatever you can to help. But stay as safe as you can too.” Then Dave looked around at everyone and asked, “Are we ready?”

  “As ready as we are ever gonna be to fight a giant spider. Where’s a huge boot when you need it?” Jackson joked to cover his nervousness.

  Steffen asked, “And what about me?”

  “Well, Your Majesty, frontline fighting isn’t what the king does. You can use the mind of a general and help us change our plan up on the fly. Can’t have you or the heir to the throne getting killed today, though. Especially when it seems to mostly be after me and mine.”

  Without waiting for an answer, Dave strode out of the temple. As soon as he was outside, Seimion cried out, “Ah, so now the fool comes to face his punishment like a man. At least you aren’t making me destroy the rest of the town, so I will give you that. You may be stupid, but you are stupid brave at least.”

  Dave already had Ablative Armor up, and as soon as he cast Minor Enlarge, he yelled back, “Have you seen Miss Muffet by the way? I was looking for her.”

  If a half-spider half-man could look confused, Seimion definitely did in that moment. “What gibberish is this?”

  Dave checked around him to make sure that the team was moving into place before he told Seimion, “Be careful. It looks like rain today. You may not want to crawl up any waterspouts.”

  Again confusion and annoyance seized the monstrous creature, which was just what Dave wanted. Anything to let his team deploy.

  “Is your mind cracked? Has fear finally gotten to you? Or were you unable to handle the Master’s voice in your ear?” Seimion asked.

  “Master? Hmm… oh, you mean that jerk telling me to try to smash all the little people around me? Nope, I kicked him to the curb. No time for listening to foolishness.”

  Seimion growled as he said, “No one speaks of the Master like that. For that, I will kill you last. You can watch your family die screaming before I finish you. And all the while you will know that all you had to do was bend the knee once and you could have kept them safe. More than that, you could have had all of this.” As he spoke, he waved around with his two humanoid hands.

  “Oh, shut up, or are you just like your master? Nothing but talk,” Dave yelled.

  Even while he was trying to distract Seimion, Dave’s mind kept running through options here. The fight with Holstein as well as the battle against the mountain giants had convinced him that once you reach a certain level, winning combat came down to two things. First, there was the ability to act quickly and decisively. He had to assume that any opponent he fought now had the ability to put him down in two or three attacks if they went through for full power, and that some could likely do it with a single attack.

  Second, there was defense, which itself was split into two types: preparation and reaction. The better prepared individual was likely to win. Magic just gave so many options, and Dave knew he had only scratched the surface. Then there was who could respond. Neither Holstein nor the mountain giants had taken the time to properly prepare, and equally they were unable to respond to his attacks. Offense was great, but going forward, it appeared that defense would be king, since if he didn’t live long enough to attack, nothing else mattered.

  The question that plagued him now was how to penetrate Seimion’s defenses. It was clear that regular sword blows, even enlarged, were only going to do so much damage. The creature’s damage resistance was just too great. The same applied to spell damage.

  So he looked for attacks or skills that might bypass those limitations. Obviously there was the phasing ability of his sword, but Dave had to assume that the spiderkin had some kind of defense for such an obvious threat. Then there were ideas like blinding the monster or immobilizing it, but none of those seemed very sure.

  Oh well, the time for planning was over. The monster was running at him with a hissing sound that for all the world reminded him of a freight train. All around him Dave heard the voices of his team chanting spells, but he couldn’t allow that to distract him. He yelled at Jaselm, “Shield me if I fall; otherwise stay back and be ready.”

  Had it not been for the recent jump in Agility, Dave might have been immediately pinned, for as the monster got close, it leapt into the air to pounce on him. He tucked and rolled, narrowly avoiding the two massive legs, which shattered the paving stones in the street where he had been standing moments ago.

  The thing was just so fast. Even with Alacrity, Dave wasn’t sure how long he could avoid it. It repeatedly stabbed at him with the sharp tips of those legs. The force with which he struck was staggering, and it was all he could do to dodge around them while using his sword in an attempt to parry.

  Strangely, stories of Spider-Man and how spiders were so strong for their size came to his mind. Dave might be just as tall as the creature was, albeit nowhere near as wide, but he could tell that its strength dwarfed his. Dave felt spells and abilities taking effect on him, although he couldn’t actually stop to focus on all of them. Max’s Forced March was a group ability that would greatly increase his movement. Almost immediately he started dodging each attack by a good margin rather than by fractions of an inch.

  Next he felt Emiri’s Minor Blessing take hold. It might not be much anymore, but he would take every little bit that he could. Added to that was a boon that seemed to enhance his vision, as everything came into much greater clarity. He assumed that was from Deoca, just as he assumed the faint golden glow around him was one of Jaselm’s protective spells, and the fact that there were suddenly half a dozen duplicate images of himself all mirroring his movements came from Duleen.

  A moment later he felt the air around him seem to become quiet as a six-foot-high totem rose from the ground. Mira had cast Totem of Stillness. She might not yet have been able to strip any of the monster’s buffs, but she’d created an AoE that would slow all enemies in the effect. It seemed to work because Seimion’s strikes started coming a bit slower.

  Dodging was all well and good, but he needed to tank it. First off because he had to keep it within the totem’s area of effect, and secondly because Hannah and Balayria needed it to be in one place if they were going to trap it. So as the next thrusting leg came, Dave only moved slightly, pivoting on his left foot and lashing out with a slicing blow against the incoming appendage.

  He still took a glancing blow, but between his Ablative Armor and increased Toughness, he still took just under a hundred points of damage. That only served to reinforce why he didn’t want to be hit head-on. Each attack shaved a small amount of health off him, but his regen was doing a good job, and the legs that attacked all took cutting wounds.

  Dave heard Seimion chanting a spell but was gratified when a stream of crystal spears leapt from his fingers yet never touched Dave. The spell was redirected and slammed into an already smashed building a block away, to devastating effect.

  “Argh, you won’t do that again, Mira Nelson. I won’t have any child tampering with my spells,” Seimion shouted.