The path forked immediately away from the landing of the seventh floor forcing me to cast my map early.

  ?Mental Map?

  Straight, Straight, Left, Right, Right, Straight, Left.

  I quickly wrote the instructions in my spellbook. It was close, with no need for tunneling this time, though if I was willing to tunnel through 15-20 feet of rock I could save a journey down a long corridor. But that would take two hours.

  The first leg of the journey was the door directly in front of us, ignoring the lefthand path, though both led to the same location.

  Magic Swords II

  Attar and I retreated back up the stairs while the swords, sensing my intent, attacked the iron door.

  The door slowly gave way with a haunting squeal that set the whole floor howling and deeper bellows, ones which I’d only heard that the edges of my hearing previously, also echoed down the halls.

  A flurry of legs and teeth and madly rolling eyes burst from the ground beneath me, the ceiling above me, and wall next to Attar.

  Attar dived out of the way with a cry, rolling back to his feet in an instant, and was suddenly surrounded by his ogress and four “surviving” mercenaries.

  I saw about twelve of the encroaching spindly legs in time, but missed the other six; which struck me with the strength of a champion boxer, which is to say, failed to hurt me.

  My ring was showing me horrors I’d yet to experience, even when we’d fought the giant spiders. These were spiders also, but far, far larger. Their torsos (thorax? Abdomen? Spider bits anyway) were larger than a man before you accounted for their legs. Their heads had tusks and fangs and a demonic humanoid face curled into a snarl. Eyes were placed on the face at random, and in random quantities, much like a spider, but with a man’s rage and intelligence behind human-like irises.

  I could also see inside the spiders, of course. Their fat bellies were swollen with human skulls, and bones from all manner of animals. Smaller spiders of various sizes crawled around over these skulls and feasted on the rotten meat therein.

  I had a tough stomach. I could handle offal without a giving it another moments thought. But these creatures had my own stomach roiling, an effect which I could see at the same time I felt it. It did not help the situation.

  I briefly considered engulfing all five of us, not including the ghosts, in an inferno, damn the consequences.

  Sanity prevailed for the moment.

  Push IX

  The spider-demon sunk back through the wall like a grotesque sling bullet. Its wails echoed even as it flew from view. The creatures treated stone like water. Like less than water. Cliff divers had died hitting the ocean at those speeds.

  Lift II, ?Push VIII?

  The spider assaulting Attar was crushed between the lift and the force of the spells cast by me and the sudden arrived skeleton at the base of the stairs. The lift couldn’t withstand the weight, but it was enough to cause the spider to collapse like desiccated mushroom. Spiders poured from the body, several large enough to be threats in their own right.

  Acid Pool II

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  One of the larger spiders melted into a puddle while

  Scorch, Sword, Scintillation II

  The fireball consumed another while the sword chopped a third in half. That left Attar with two smaller spiders—and countless even smaller ones—to deal with, while I merely had the giant wrapped around me to deal with.

  My spells had all been cast in sequence or simultaneously over the course of a second. In that time the spider demon on top of me managed to force me to the ground and began squeezing with its legs, but completely failed to cause me discomfort.

  Handcannon

  Its humanoid face exploded from above and its body crashed down towards me.

  True Teleport II

  I was standing in front of its corpse before the body hit the ground. Given the size of the thing, trying to crush me would have been a more effect strategy than whatever that strange hug it had been attempting was.

  Attar’s ghosts were faring poorly against the merely giant spiders. One had lost his sword, and the others failed to hit the spiders as they skittered around their feet and tried to maneuver over to get at the necromancer.

  Magic Sword III

  Only a single blade was summoned by my spell, but the spider exploded into viscera when it was struck; far more force than I was expecting. The dark magic was thicker down here, and its influence more common.

  One of the mercenaries scored a scratch along one of the spiders’ backs, but the other spider managed to disarm one of the female mercenaries and tear her armour from her in a single swipe. The ogress and other mercenaries failed to land a single hit.

  My magic sword killed the unwounded one with a thought, but the wounded was too in the thick of things to strike at without risking the ghosts.

  The unarmed ghost fell back as another of the mercenaries hit the spider on the abdomen with the flat of their sword, but her armour was shredded in exchange. My sword darted in to the opening and finished the spider.

  More spiders poured from the bellies of the slain giant spiders, but these were not immediately hostile.

  “Straight down the stairs!” I cried, running as I did so.

  Attar and his ghosts followed immediately behind. None of us wanted to stay in that swarm of spiders and corpses. Both of the demon spiders were twitching as things beneath the surface moved.

  We piled into the room at the base of the stairs without regard for safety.

  I slammed the iron door shut behind us and nearly cast Inferno to cover our retreat.

  “Every 15 seconds for an hour a fireball 50 feet in diameter and four times as hot as flaming coals fills the room in front of the caster at the time of casting.”

  A stairwell was not a room. Casting the spell was a good way to get us all killed.

  I pried the door back open and instead used commanded my fireball from afar to swoop down and consume every spider in its path. No larger spiders remained alive, and the demon-spiders were soon ablaze with oily light.

  Only once the job was done did I examine the room we’d nearly incinerated ourselves within. I’d trusted Attar to guard my back until then, but the protection was unneeded. The room merely held a few statues, necks broken and heads on the floor. The faces were my own, naturally. Male, for a change.

  “This dungeon is an evil place,” I said.

  Attar dismissed his ghosts, “More things which can swim through stone. And my amulet didn’t grow warm, I would have noticed. I was focused on it when they attacked.”

  “It warns us of immediate mortal peril. You dodged the attack. Mine didn’t warm either, as the creatures couldn’t harm me.”

  “Or the amulets don’t work.”

  “We can trust the pixie. You know that. You could sense if he had lied.”

  “I know that he thinks the amulets will protect us.”

  “Fairy magic is not a mortal skill, it is a law of nature. The amulets will do as he says.”

  Attar rubbed his arms, “The attack shook me. Those things were horrible.”

  “Disgusting, too. I’m glad I had you by my side.”

  “Fight too many more of them, and I won’t be,” Attar said with a laugh.

  I joined him. The moment the dungeon outstripped the little necromancer I’d gladly travel alone, but while he could stand by me, I’d gladly share in his strength.