The spider's run into the clearing slowed when it spied the two of us waiting, instead of just Mog trapped in the web. Its eight eyes glittered in the sun, determining how tasty Skip and I would be. It must have liked what it saw, because it let out some kind of hiss and began moving forward again. 

"Well, shit. That's not good." Skip had taken the bow from her back and selected an arrow from her quiver that seemed to shimmer in the light. I didn't know enough about enchantments to know what it would do, but that was no normal arrow.

"What?" I shouted back, louder than I'd intended. "You don't think you can kill it?" The panic in my voice was pretty apparent.

It stepped forward across the clearing, judging how best to attack us. Each step seemed to blight the grass it walked on, spreading veins of shadowy black across the meadow.

"The big one, sure," Skip answered ever confident. Her eyes remained locked on the advancing spider like she could somehow intimidate it away. It didn't seem to get the message. "Not the thousands of little ones, though."

I took a closer look. It wasn't somehow turning the meadow grass black. Those were more spiders, riding on the big one's back and running down its legs to join the fray. An entire carpet of spiders; thousands of them, all charging towards us. Even if her claims about being able to shoot a bug through the eye were true, Skip still didn't have a thousand arrows.

"Do we run?" I asked, already retreating in anticipation. Out of all the horrible deaths I could go through, being eaten by spiders was the absolute worst one I could ever choose. "I'm gonna run!"

"No!" Skip fired off the shimmering arrow, causing the large (I'm assuming mother) spider to freeze in place. That didn't stop the rest of the little spiders from scampering down its legs to the ground, though the arrow had somehow made them all move more slowly. The sea of little arachnids was crawling closer and closer. "I need your help!"

I hastily dropped to my knees and took the cursed goblet from my satchel and began to mix another summoning elixir. The little spiders were close enough that I could begin making out individual legs and fangs and beady little eyes. I poured Lirk's parts out onto the grass and hastily resummoned him. Only a few feet now, and it looked like whatever enchantment was on Skip's arrow was beginning to wear off. The little spiders were moving a bit faster now, and even the big spider was able to take a few plodding steps. The seven or eight additional arrows that Skip had shot into the beast's thorax didn't seem to have any impact.

"Thank you, Ma..."

"Kill them, Lirk! Kill the spiders!" I had no time for pleasantries with Lirk. The skeleton dutifully rushed forward and began trying to stomp on the carpet of arachnids, now almost up to full speed. The Ruby hanging down my chest glowed again, but otherwise had no reaction even as spiders began crawling up Lirk's bony legs and through his ribcage. But once they found no meat on the bones, they scuttled through him and continued towards me and Skip.

"It didn't work!" I told her. She had exhausted her supply of arrows, leaving the massive spider looking like an oozing pincushion, but that apparently wasn't enough to stop it. Instead, it just looked angry. It was still advancing slowly, though: the enchanted arrow's spell was still having some effect.

Mog strained at the web with a frustrated whimper. "RUN!" he shouted to us. "LEAVE MOG." I had a strange moment of realizing that that was the longest thing I'd ever heard him say. In fact, it was the only actual sentence I'd ever heard him speak.

Skip retreated into the trees, looking positively sick. I followed, while Lirk was still desperately stomping at whatever spider he could get to. The spiders didn't seem to notice. "What's the plan?" I asked. Skip always knew what to do. She held her knife out in front of her and continued back into the woods as the big spider continued towards us. Her eyes darted around to Mog struggling against the web, to the giant spider, to the wave of tiny spiders advancing. But she didn't answer me. "Skip, what do we do?" I repeated. She wouldn't just leave Mog there, would she?

"I don't know!" she finally burst out.

I deflated. Skip didn't know what to do, which meant that we were all dead. Poor Lirk would outlive us all, surprisingly. But eventually his spell would wear off and his bones would collapse into the grass.

"Isn't there anything else you can do?" Skip asked. She still held the knife desperately in front of her as she retreated, like the spider that had survived a whole quiver full of arrows would somehow be intimidated by a five-inch blade.

"Well, if we could just get it to attack Lirk and use the lightning, that would take care of the big one. But we'd..." My voice trailed off as inspiration struck. But it's never worked before, I reminded myself. Destruction magic wasn't really my forte.

"We'd what?" Skip asked. Her voice was at least an octave higher than usual. Somehow it actually made me feel better to see her so afraid. Like my near-crippling terror was actually justified if she was also terrified.

"I'm going to try something," I told her, digging through my bag. "But it's... well, it may not work." I poured the necessary ingredients straight into my mouth; no time to mix them all properly. And then I put the three remaining mandrake roots into my mouth, leaving my cheeks completely stuffed. I was just barely able to close my lips and desperately mashed my teeth together. The skin of the mandrake root was tough and leathery, and the taste of the crypt nettle and aldorphous mushrooms nearly made me gag. Skip was watching me with an expression of sheer disgust and curiosity. I managed to chew most of it down just as the first of the spiders began crawling up my legs.  I spit out the skins of the mandrake root; I only need the juice anyway.

"Do it, Winston." She didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but she gave me a warm smile and put her hand on my shoulder. "You got it." She didn't even seem to care about the spiders crawling all over us now.

I took a deep breath as a wave of magical energy washed over me. It felt like I'd swallowed some red-hot metal, straight from a forge, and it was burning a hole through my organs. I bellowed the incantation, which didn't even sound like my own voice. It was booming and deep and terrifying, like a demon had possessed me. And then lightning surged through every bone in my body and out my fingertips. It arced to the closest spiders trying to chew through my leather boots, killing them instantly. The lightning spreading like a deadly chain all through the meadow, electrifying every single little spider rushing towards us. My arms had gone completely numb from the power, but somehow I was still holding them in front of me. The giant spider reared up and gave a hiss of pain as the electricity coursed over its body. The spell wasn't strong enough to kill something of that size; hell, it couldn't even kill a human. But it still wasn't a very pleasant experience; some school bullies had used it on me on more than one occasion back at the Academy.

"Attack the giant spider, Lirk!" I roared. It still sounded deep and terrible, but I was starting to hear my own voice come back. The surge of magical energy was fading quickly.

Lirk rushed forward and swatted at the giant spider's thorax, still dripping greenish blood from a dozen arrow wounds. Lirk's hand managed to land exactly on one of those wounds, causing the spider to hiss in pain. It whirled to face the new attacker and swung at him with one of its massive legs. The blow landed on Lirk's shoulder and knocked his left arm off, and immediately a bolt of red erupted from the Ruby around my neck just as the last of my lightning faded. The giant spider seemed to freeze in place for a second, just like the Paladins had. And then it collapsed into a cloud of dust that covered Lirk in grey powder.

Everything was quiet for a moment. The meadow was covered in a carpet of dead spiders, and Lirk stood in the center patiently awaiting new orders. I was dimly aware that even Mog had stopped struggling against his web prison, and was just staring at me. Skip was completely dumbfounded, and turned to me with her jaw hanging open. "Holy crap," she finally whispered.

"Cool, huh?" I said. My own voice was back again, and my arms collapsed to my side. They felt like lead now. "I was never really able to do that one very well in school," I told her. "I got an 'Unacceptable' grade in Destruction Magic."

She leaped forward and wrapped me in a big hug, which was perfect timing because a wave of dizziness washed over me. "Well that was certainly acceptable! Gods, Winston, that was amazing!" she said with a giddy smile. "That was incredible! I didn't know you could do that!" Her voice was getting quieter and quieter with each word. Or was I just not hearing it right? "I was panicking, but you just knew what you had to do, and you acted." My peripheral vision began to dim, and I tried to clear my eyes by blinking. Skip continued praising my spell, and I tried to give a weak smile. I wasn't sure if I was able to actually do it; my entire body had gone numb. But I could have sworn I felt her plant a kiss on my lips just before I fainted.

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