The clock overhead had 15 seconds left to go before it would let them into the large pumpkin-shaped house. Oliver put himself at the front of the group, closest to the door. The street lamps glinted off the blade of the newly cleaned scythe that he casually gripped in his right hand. He was now a Level 9 which meant he was still the highest level of all of them. Laura was sure he would bring that up if anyone questioned why he should be the first one to go in.

  Agnes was next to him with the can of insecticide wedged in her backpack. The tube was uncoiled and looped down by her side. She had the sprayer gripped in her hand and ready to go.

  Laura positioned herself just behind them with Caroline. “And what will you be doing?” Oliver had asked Caroline as they packed up to head over to the house. Clearly he was hoping to not have any more surprises like she’d pulled at the pumpkin patch. Caroline had pulled a marionette out of her inventory and dropped it on the table with a dull wooden thud. “I’m going to reanimate some of these creepers to send after some of the spiders,” she had said. She waited next to Laura now with the animating ash she needed already prepped in a jar in her hands.

  Graham stood just behind them to provide support with his shotgun.

  10 seconds…

  Nate hung out towards the back. “I think I’m going to have to sit this one out,” he had said as they were getting ready. “That spider venom debuff’s still in effect for me so I’m not sure how useful I’d be with how close I have to get to fight them. I’ll still come in and stay by the door in case things really go sideways.”

  Brett was in the back of the group with Nate. He was armed with the throwing knives that he’d inherited from Agnes so she could focus on using the insecticide.

  5 seconds…

  Laura glanced at the debuff still hanging over Nate’s head. Oliver hadn’t said anything when Nate had brought it up, but she’d bet dollars to doughnuts that he had to be affected by one too. Oliver shifted position near the door, testing his grip on the scythe. Laura could have asked Agnes to be sure, since Agnes was in the same party as him, but certainly Agnes would have wondered why Laura didn’t just ask Oliver. And why didn’t she?

  The countdown clock hit zero. The message showed again:

  Occupancy limit: 7.

  Now welcoming guests.

  And the door clicked open.

  Oliver took a moment, bounced on his heels, then gently shoved the large wooden door. It creaked the rest of the way open to reveal a maze of spider webs.

  Agnes lifted the sprayer, ready to pull the trigger, but there weren’t any actual spiders that they could see. Just a tangle of webs densely stringing the entry hall.

  “Trying to slow us down?” Graham asked, raising his shotgun out of caution.

  Oliver lifted his scythe and gave a tentative swing. The blade sliced through a few webs, the severed strands parting and floating down to either side. He took a probing step forward, up past the doorframe and into the hallway.

  Nothing happened.

  “I guess we get to cutting,” he said, pulling back the scythe and taking a larger sweeping cut through the webs. After a few minutes he managed to carve enough of a path that Agnes stepped up to join him, insecticide still at the ready. Laura stepped through next, closely followed by Caroline, Graham, Brett and then Nate.

  Laura had her sickle in her inventory, but kept her shotgun at the ready instead. Laura scooted over to nudge Brett. “Why don’t you move up front and help cut through those webs?”

  Brett shrugged. “Oliver’s handling it fine.”

  Laura grit her teeth and moved back towards the middle of the group. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck. The webs had closed off much of the airflow in the large hallway, leaving it feeling claustrophobic and densely packed.

  She grabbed one of her anti-nausea caramels out of her inventory. She paused before eating it, until another musty wave of air built up around her. She downed the caramel quickly.

  24 hour anti-nausea buff in effect.

  The others stepped back to give Oliver room to swing. Once he was able to build up steam he sliced through the webs at a decent clip.

  Oliver paused as they approached the entryway to the dining room on their left. He cleaned the webs off the scythe. He turned back to look at the group.

  “Agnes, you ready there?”

  Agnes nodded.

  “As for the rest of you,” Oliver continued, “try not to die.”

  He lifted his scythe one more time and decisively sliced an opening into the dining room. Laura and Graham lifted their guns to their shoulders.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Little miss muffet, sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey…

  The giant spider boss hung on the ceiling, just as they’d left it. The human-sized bundles still sat immobilized at the table. The room was otherwise empty.

  The bundle that they’d ripped open with the deceased party member was starting to decay, and the stench made Laura gag. Eating the caramel had been the right call.

  Oliver took a single step into the room, and ripped through a fine filament of thread running along the floor. He cursed and stumbled back, swatting the thread off his ankle.

  The thread acted like a tripwire. Dozens of mobs poured into the room. A handful of large Level 5 spiders, a dozen Level 3s and 4s and even more Level 2 spiders swept in from the far end of the room, heading towards the dining table and the group. Agnes jumped in with the insecticide, aiming at the biggest Level 5 mob she could reach. A few pumps of the trigger sent a spray of insecticide showering over the mob, which shrieked, then retreated with half its health gone. Agnes nodded, satisfied, then set about carpet bombing the smaller mobs en masse. A single spray was enough to knock a Level 2 mob dead.

  The Level 8 boss loomed heavily over them on the ceiling. Oliver made a beeline for a spot beneath it, and began cutting any strands it tried to send down.

  Graham took aim at the injured Level 5 mob. One quick shot finished the job. He and Laura then coordinated their shots to take the remaining large mobs out one at a time. Laura would start off by hitting one and then Graham would finish them off with a follow up shot as it sped towards them, enraged.

  Caroline tossed two marionettes down on the floor, then sprinkled the ash over them. She spoke a few words and braced herself as the ash fused to the puppets’ limbs. They jerkily rose to their feet and advanced on the nearest small spiders, flinging their little wooden bodies at them and wrapping the spiders in their limbs. The spiders tried to bite them, but the fangs sank uselessly into the wooden bodies, leaving small divots but not even slowing the puppets down. Caroline commanded the puppets to squeeze and constrict the spiders until they were crushed into a pulp. The puppets released the crushed spider mobs and set off to find new targets.

  Brett stuck to the doorway, throwing the occasional knife at any smaller target that escaped Agnes’ insecticide.

  Oliver pushed farther into the room, trying to get closer to the boss spider. Agnes kept relatively close, using the insecticide to create a protective ring of open space. Oliver climbed up onto the dining room table, kicking serving dishes and fine china out of the way. He stood directly beneath the massive middle section of the spider and took a swing with his scythe. It cut a shallow line in the spider’s back, but it just spat a glob of venom in response out of its fangs. Oliver dodged to the side as the venom splatted down on the table.

  He took another swing with his scythe, and buried it in one of the spider’s thick legs. A bluish green fluid oozed from it and coated Oliver’s hands. The fluid didn’t seem to hurt Oliver, because he kept his hands firmly on the scythe’s handle, twisting and yanking trying to pull it free. The boss’s health bar had barely dropped 10%.

  Agnes was now struggling to keep a ring clear around the table. A large Level 4 spider had managed to crawl up onto the table with Oliver. Laura pointed and yelled. “Watch out!” Oliver looked over and dodged out of the way of the leaping spider. His scythe was still buried in the boss spider’s thick leg. The Level 4 spider landed with a heavy thud at the far end of the table.

  Caroline yelled, “I’m on it!” The two marionettes moved with supernatural speed up the chairs and onto the table and both threw themselves at the Level 4 mob, which shrieked and ineffectually snapped at each of them. The puppets quickly engulfed the mob and began to squeeze it into submission. Caroline grunted with the effort, and her nose started to bleed. The Level 4 mob tumbled backward off the table and hit the floor with a loud thud. Agnes finished it off with her insecticide, then went back to work clearing the area around the table.

  Oliver still seemed fixated on the boss. He had wrenched his scythe free and was about to take another swing at the boss spider’s midsection. He hadn’t even made a move towards the person trapped and bundled in the chair by his feet. Laura yelled at Graham to take over shooting for a moment. Graham picked up the pace to cover for her.

  Laura darted in and clambered up onto the table with Oliver. She took a moment as the blood rushed to her head from the sudden exertion. Then she grabbed Oliver’s arm. “We need to try to free them!” she yelled at him, the percussive force of repeated gunfire making her ears ring.

  Oliver shook her off. “We can do that after!” he shouted back.

  “We don’t have to defeat the boss if we can just get them out of here!”

  Oliver ignored her.

  Caroline’s nosebleed was getting worse as she pushed the marionettes to go after the last remaining Level 4 mob. Graham attempted to shoot it, but his shotgun jammed. Without breaking a sweat he cleared the jam and got back to firing, but he’d lost ground and had to retreat back several paces and pull Caroline back with him.

  The Level 4 mob was starting to shake off the puppets as Caroline began to flag. Graham took aim to finish it off but missed when a smaller Level 3 mob jumped and slammed into his chest, wrapping all its legs around him.

  Laura leaped down off the table. She pulled her sickle out of her inventory and ran to slice the Level 3 spider before it could bite Graham. The mob fell to the floor. Graham took a deep breath.

  Laura made a quick decision.

  She pulled her intelligence booster and strength booster out of her inventory. She shoved the intelligence booster at Graham. “Here, you use this to take out the last few large mobs on your own. Agnes and Russell are taking care of the smaller ones. And Caroline, take it easy.” Caroline looked like she was about to argue. “Please,” Laura said, finding an authoritative voice from deep within herself. “Let’s all try to work together here. I’m about to do something sort of stupid, and we can’t both be doing that at the same time.” Graham downed the intelligence booster and nailed the Level 4 spider with a single shot. Caroline wiped her bloody nose and nodded at Laura.

  Laura took the strength booster and ran back towards the table, sickle in hand. If Oliver wasn’t going to do something, she would.

  She started cutting into the one she was guessing was Russell. She was a sitting duck as long as she was stuck sawing through the wrappings, but between the sickle and the boost to her strength she was able to cut through to the final layer over his face in a matter of a minute. As soon as she ripped through the final layer and severed the line to the bucket under the table Russell took a big gasping breath. He wriggled against the tightly wound mass of threads. “Holy shit, how long’ve we been in here?”

  “At least a couple days,” Laura said.

  Laura heard yelling from outside. It sounded like Nate.

  Oliver continued to swing at the boss spider, dodging globules of venom.

  Laura picked up the pace to hack at the rest of the webs, while still trying to be careful not to cut Russell. Once his hands were free he started to tug and tear at them, eventually ripping his legs free.

  Russell looked down towards the far end at the decaying body. He drew in his breath sharply. Then he hammered his fist down on the table, rattling the cutlery and remaining plates. He jumped to his feet, but staggered unsteadily at the sudden movement after having been immobile for so long. Laura put a hand out, even though she couldn’t have stopped him from going down if it came to it. He steadied himself, then with a grim look on his face, turned around and put his fist through the nearest spider mob, a Level 3. “That’s for Scott!” Russell yelled, giving the rest of the spiders the middle finger.

  Laura noticed Russell was only a Level 6. “Are you one of the lower levels in your group?”

  “No, I’m the highest. Why?”

  Laura’s stomach sank. “I guess you guys didn’t get a chance to build up as much experience, huh?”

  Russell punched at another spider mob, but it latched its fangs onto him. He cursed and pummeled it again and again with his other fist until the spider’s body caved in.

  “Does it say you have a debuff?”

  Russell paused. “Yeah. Shit. Spider venom.”

  “Maybe you should wait towards the back of the room while I get the rest of you out.”

  He shook his head. “Nope, not a chance. I’ve been sitting around long enough. I’ll just make sure I go after the littler ones.”

  Laura nodded. “Graham! Make sure you concentrate on the Level 3s. Russell is going to work on the smaller ones.

  Agnes continued to rain death on the smallest mobs in droves.

  Laura cut into the next bundle and found Hannah. She was also still alive. Something in Laura’s chest loosened a little as Hannah opened her eyes and took a deep breath.

  “Where’d Brett go?” Graham suddenly yelled behind her. Laura looked around.

  Caroline whipped her head around to look at him. “Did that douchebag actually run?”

  “No,” Graham said, “he literally just disappeared into thin air.” He looked around the room and out into the hallway. “And Nate’s gone too.”

  If you’ve been enjoying this story, please consider leaving a review or a comment. It means a lot!

  Also, I’ll be taking a one week break for the holidays, so you can expect the next chapter on Saturday, January 3rd.

  Thank you so much for reading!