Free Shadow Gambit by Adam Drake

“And please don't call me Snowball.”
     
    Mudhoof insisted on taking point and we began our walk down the mine tunnel. At first the slope downward was gradual, then it became more pronounced. There were bits of a rail line along the ground but it looked unfinished.
     
    Occasionally, there would be a vein of blue ore marbled in the rock. But when I queried the game as to what it could be it offered no answer.
     
    “Something ahead,” Mudhoof said after a while of walking. “Looks like a side tunnel.”
     
    The new tunnel branched off to our left, but its darkness offered no clue where it led.
     
    “Stick to the main tunnel, or take this new one?” Mudhoof asked. Both Mudhoof and Feign looked to me.
     
    I sighed. “The quest log says delve deeper. And this new one looks to be angling down more than ours.” I shrugged. “Let's follow it for a while. We can always come back.”
     
    They nodded, and we turned onto the new tunnel. Soon, we began to see webbing along the ceiling and on the walls. Thick webbing.
     
    “Better not be spiders,” Mudhoof said. “I hate 'em. In game and in real life.”
     
    As we progressed, the webs became more of a nuisance as they encroached more into the middle our path.
     
    I was about to suggest we go back when a cry came from somewhere ahead.
     
    We all stopped.
     
    “Was that a person?” Feign asked.
     
    “Listen,” said Mudhoof.
     
    Several heartbeats later we heard it again. “Help!” Someone said.
     
    Mudhoof gripped his uber ax more tightly. “Better not be spiders,” he said and walked forward with caution.
     
    The tunnel opened up into a small chamber. Webbing clotted every available inch of space from the high ceiling to the rocky ground.
     
    Jammed up in one nook along the wall was a cocoon. Inside it, wrapped up to his neck in webbing was a man. He looked at us wide-eyed with terror.
     
    “Help me! Please!” He said. Sweat glistened his skin. I noted with relief that he did not have any black veins.
     
    I said to him, “Easy. We'll get you down from there. Don't worry.”
     
    “It... It's going to eat me! Please help!” He cried.
     
    Frustrated, Mudhoof said, “Well, where is it?”
     
    The cocooned man said, “I don't know. It was just here a second...” His eyes looked upward in surprise.
     
    The three of us did the same.
     
    From an alcove high up, something emerged. Large and fast.
     
    Feign's orbs floated upward and illuminated it.
     
    It was a monstrosity of a spider. Purple in color and covered in a fine hair, its giant fangs dripped with thick poison. At first it glared at us and the light from the orbs reflected in the cluster of eyes at the center of hits head. Then it lunged.
     
    “FILTERED!” Said Mudhoof as he back pedaled. “FILTERED! FILTERED! FILTERED!” He needed room to swing his ax.
     
    The thing crawled down the chamber wall and hissed. Its focus was on Mudhoof, probably sensing him as the biggest danger.
     
    I took this as an opportunity. Moving to the side a little I waited with my sword held in front of me.
     
    Mudhoof, despite his fear, knew what I was up to, so he yelled more obscenities at the thing.
     
    The spider crab-walked along the floor, keeping Mudhoof in sight. It inched closer to him.
     
    Feign held out his dagger, but looked a little out of his depth. With his offensive magic tapped out after continuously freezing the mine door, it was all he could do.
     
    At the right moment, I shifted into Shadow and vanished. Quickly, I moved around to the side of the giant spider.
     
    Mudhoof jabbed his uber ax toward it. “I can't use my knock-back. It might collapse the ceiling.”
     
    When I was in position, I used my sure-footed ability to help me take several running steps up the cavern wall. Then I pushed off and up.
     
    By attacking, my Shadow dropped, and I became visible again.
     
    The spider caught my movement above it at the last moment and raised its forward legs in