Free 3 Weaver of Shadow by William King

heavy hit him from the side and bowled him over. For a brief, terrible desperate instant, he scrambled on all fours on a carpet of human bones under the belly of a monstrous arachnid, then rose to his feet.
    He lashed out once more at the last shard of Mayasha, this time severing it close to the root. The ground shook slightly. The phosphorescent lights dimmed. The Spider Queen bellowed her rage and twisted away from Kormak. She raised herself into the air on her front legs and swung herself backward so that she would pass over his head and be in a position to charge him once more. As she did so she spat more webbing at him. A glob of it landed on his foot and wrapped round his leg, tightening swiftly. Desperately he lashed out with his blade severing the strand and leaving himself free to move once more.
    The Queen swung herself forward again, armoured legs slicing through the air towards him, green eyes glittering, more and more of her scuttling children dropping from her back to confront the Guardian.
    He slashed at one of her legs. It was a mistake. The sheer weight and momentum of the Queen bowled him over, partially deflecting his blade even as it cut into the great column. The blade stuck and he found himself being dragged along beneath his foe with a pack of her children snapping at his heels.
    The ground rippled beneath his feet now, sending skeletons and skulls tumbling once more, even when they had not been hit by the Spider Queen’s massive limbs. It seemed like the earth was in the grip of a quake.
    He ripped his blade clear and grasped one of the Queen’s unwounded legs, wary as he was of the ichor flowing from the cuts he had left. He pulled himself up the limb, rolling over onto the Queen’s back, finding himself confronting more of the small spiders.
    He crunched them under his boots, breaking their carapaces with his weight and raced forward, aiming for the first of the great cables that supported the Queen. She realised what he was trying to do and reared into the air, sending him toppling backward. Desperately he drove his blade into her back, deep enough to embed itself, and perhaps cause pain, and he held on as she bucked and reared.
    Beneath him he could see the pack of spiders start to advance once more, clambering up onto their mother’s back as he had done. He twisted the blade. Oily blood oozed forth. The Queen let out a long eerie wail and toppled forward.
    Kormak rose, pulled his blade forth and sprang, chopping at the first of the great cables that held her weight. One side of the Queen sagged forward as she became unbalanced.
    The movement almost sent him flying, but he managed to grab a horny protrusion in her back and hold himself in place. He rose and threw himself forward again, slicing at the second supporting cable. It parted with an audible twang, like the string of a great mandolin suddenly cut.
    The Queen sagged forward unable to support the weight of the front of her body. He raced up her back, now tilting like the deck of sinking ship sliding underwater prow first, slashed his way through the horde of tumbling, wrong-footed spiders racing towards him, sprang into the air and sliced the third supporting strand of web, leaving the Queen’s great bulk suspended from one final thread which slowly stretched and threatened to give way.
    He landed on a pile of bones that crunched under his weight, rolled to his feet and raced for the exit, leaving the Queen floundering unsupported among the remains of her victims, and her children scuttling in pursuit.
    The whole vast root system of Mayasha was shivering now, as if a Titan were smashing into it with his hammer. The lights flickered erratically. He turned at bay and slew another huge spider and turned to flee back up towards the surface. The spiders pursued for a while until summoned back by the pained cries of their mother.
     
    Kormak lengthened his stride and raced upwards. He had achieved the task the god-tree had set him. He could