Dao Divinity 2 Chapter 31 (Patreon)

As one, the eighty some villagers left Hearthway into the southern forest. Their torches made great tools for burning through all the webs that they began encountering, with their first steps into the forest.

It had changed drastically in the week Dar had been away from it. The webs seemed to cast the whole forest in a gloomy, dying light as they passed by with their torches. Ettercaps and spiders fleeing from their group as the torch light illuminated their shadowy hiding spots.

Watching the enemy flee seemed to bolster the entire group. Many began raising their weapons and running out a bit further from the group, burning more webs down. He could sympathize with them wanting to reclaim their home, but the last thing he needed was a fire.

“Do not set the forest on fire. Get back in formation.” Dar shouted to the column as he saw a pair of men using their torches to burn a web off a dead tree. Its branches started to smolder like little birthday candles.

They grumbled but shifted back, keeping with the column. Dar kept his face blank, but he worried about his ability to command such a random assortment of people. So far, they hadn’t encountered trouble, but it was bound to come at some point as they got closer to their keep.t.

Mika marched next to him, her eyes up constantly scanning the trees. She was entirely a warrior at that moment. The lines on her face were hard and her body moved fluidly as she continuously prepared for attack.

“Devil!” Someone shouted, and Dar held up a hand to stop the march, looking around. Sure enough, he could spot small groups of spiders gathering on several trees around them, taking a few steps closer.

“Dar, they are everywhere.” Mika whispered.

Dar nodded. They were surrounded. It appeared the spiders were smart enough to organize further out and then press in at the same time. He’d hoped they wouldn’t be so coordinated.

Projecting as much calm as he could in his voice, Dar shouted. “Everybody circle up. Take out as many of these bastards as you can, and protect your fellow villager. Protect our home.”

Rex stepped up, giving his commands like a drill sergeant. “Archers in the middle. Two other layers around them. Tap out when you get tired and shift with the person behind you.”

Rex turned, giving Dar a nod. Dar thrust his weapon into the air in return, letting out a billowing shout.

The villagers joined him in his war cry, following Rex’s orders. Everyone shifted and tightened the circle, with a number of men going into the center and hovering over the shoulder of another. Dar wasn’t an expert, but he had heard of historic battles using multiple lines as a relief was a pretty common depiction of roman soldiers.

Dar stepped up to join those in the outer right. “Afternoon. I’ll be between you two.” Dar made room for himself.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Sasha, Marcie, and Amber stay back. He was surprised they hadn’t joined the front lines until he saw Sasha pulled out her wand and start carving on rocks.

She was going to enchant more rocks to explode. When Marcie and Amber joined her, Dar smiled, a bit excited to see what damage the enchanted rocks could do.

“Neko. Here.” The cat girl stepped up next to Dar, shoving the man next to him aside as her tail swooshed behind her. “Fight with Dar.” 

“And you won’t be alone in that.” Mika spoke behind him. “I’ve got your back, and Amelia has Neko’s, or however it winds up.”

Dar shook out his arm and let his ax rest comfortably in his hands. The devils were pooling on the ground, eying the villagers like a feast.

“Sasha, now would be a great time to throw the first stone.” He called over his shoulder.

In response, a rock lobbed into the gathering spiders, bouncing off one before it exploded, consuming the surrounding spiders in a ball of fire.

Two more rocks flew in other directions to the same effect.

The resulting explosions ripped through the mass of spiders, and they screamed. The entire forest filled with their screeches as they surged forward, enraged by the fire.

Dar’s focus narrowed to the surrounding few yards as he let himself fall into a trance of battle. He swung his ax, clearing through spiders and ettercaps with each swing. There was satisfaction in the kills, but like the battles before, the enemy had numbers. More devils crawled over their dead peers as soon as Dar had taken them down.

More than once, Mika thrust a spear over his shoulder while he was recovering from a swing, catching an ettercap that was using its recently dead brethren as a launch pad.

Mana flowed through Dar’s body, reinforcing him with hard and strength as he fought what seemed like an endless wave. He nearly spun and attacked when a hand pulled on his shoulder before realizing it was Mika. Knocking out another spider in front of him, she spoke in his ear.

“You are losing focus. Switch.”

Dar didn’t bother arguing, trusting her combat instincts. He stepped back as she stepped forward with a thrust of her trident, moving fluidly into his spot as she stabbed the spider through the face.

Her movement continuing, she twisted it back out and stabbed the next, taking out another spider.

Sasha pulled Dar deeper into the circle quickly, continuing to lob explosive stones out and over their soldiers into the masses of devils surrounding them.

When she stopped pulling him, Dar looked around and realized he was sitting among dozens of spider gut-covered men, catching their breaths.

“There are so many.” Glump croaked, seeing Dar sit down.

“What, getting tired, old man?” Dar joked.

“I’m not the only one wheezing over here youngin. I would have thought all those workouts I hear at night would have you in better shape.” Glump sparred back, a shadow of a smile crossing his exhausted face.

Dar chuckled, his smile quickly fading as he took a few deep breaths to try to regain his energy. “They just keep coming.”

Dar looked over at the men surrounding them, trying to figure out which area needed his help the most as he got back into battle.

Glump grunted and stretched his arm. “Looks like they might be pulling back.”

Dar followed his direction, looking out past the ring of soldiers. It did look like the ettercaps were pulling back, but the spiders kept coming, covering the ettercaps’ retreat.

Taking his knife, Dar picked up a stone and started to carve combustion into it. Done, he tossed it into the crowd of spiders near what looked like one of their weaker points in villagers, killing at least four spiders with the resulting blast.

Standing back up, Dar prepared to head back into the fray. As he looked over the inner circle, emotion began to sweep over him. The wounded lay packed in a small area. Some of them were too still, either on the edge of death or past it and onto whatever lay past this life.

The emotions threatened to overwhelm Dar, knowing he’d led them into the battle. But he couldn’t let himself process those emotions in that moment. There were devils to kill, and townspeople who still needed his protection.

Dar grit his teeth. He’d honor them when they returned to the village. He looked over to Glump. “I’m heading back in. See you next time.”

Neko and Amelia were on the front line now. Mika had apparently shifted back over their shoulders, protecting them.

The cat girl was a fury. Her hands flew like claws, cutting straight through any spider that got close. Meanwhile, Amelia fought with a short sword, but she also had a few crystalline pieces of salt floating in the surrounding air, acting as emergency weapons.

Dar found a man a few down from his original position, who was barely holding his spot. His arm opened with a deep gash. “Get someone to bind the wound. I’ll take over here.”

“Bless you.” The man said, ducking back deeper into the circle. Dar faced the spiders, once again swinging his axe as he took out row after row.

***

Killing the devils had been grizzly work. Now that the field was clear, Dar was amazed at just how many devils they had managed to kill.

But it hadn’t come without sacrifice. They had eight dead and three times that who were out of the fight with their wounds.Their initial group of eighty-six was nearly cut in half.

“They fought well.” Rex greeted Dar as he stood over the dead. Men were digging graves for them as they spoke.

Dar nodded. He wasn’t sure there was such a thing as a good death, but the men had died with honor, defending what they built with their own two hands. 

Dar struggled with what to do next. The men around him were haggard from the battle, worn down in the wave upon wave of spiders they’d encountered. But it was also the best time to press forward, before the enemy could rebuild.

“Come on, sit down.” Sasha pulled Dar away from his thoughts. “We have some food, dried berries and meat. You need to eat.”

Dar took what she offered and looked around. His family was still whole. Sasha and the two maids had blood on their clothes, but it wasn’t their own. They had helped the injured on top of creating the exploding enchantments.

Neko was covered in the guts of spiders, wiping at her tail to get some of the guts off. Mika and Amelia weren’t much better off, spider goo dripping from everywhere. Cherry had disappeared early on in the fight, using her dao to crush large quantities of spiders outside the ring of fighting. From where he sat, Dar could see the displaced roots and the lines of squashed spiders.

“What now?” Dar quietly asked the group as a whole.

“What do you mean?” Mika asked, clearly confused. “We push forward and keep fighting.”

But Dar’s eyes slid over to the rest of the surrounding soldiers, his voice lowering even softer. “What if I don’t think we can push forward?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mika’s shoulders slumped. “That battle was trying, but we broke them. And we can only hope that it was most of their forces, otherwise…” Her voice trailed off as she swallowed.

“I’m not saying we give up. But what if… what if we pushed forward without the rest? Tried to go straight for the fortress and burn it down? I’d joked about it before as a last resort… but I think we are at last resorts.”

“Leave this group of armed and trained men, demons, and spirits behind to go do heroics? Sounds like a great way to get yourself killed.” Sasha scolded, exhaustion causing her to snap.

Dar held her gaze in return, his voice still quiet but firm. “Look at them, Sasha. That was just one fight, with mostly spiders, and they are already exhausted and worn down. We might have given them a week’s worth of sword practice, but that didn’t magically turn them into soldiers.”

Even as he spoke, the villagers milled about. They still had spirit and fight in them, but it wasn’t the blazing fire they had when they left the village.

“I don’t want to lose any more of them. The seven of us all have the dao of quiet. We could push forward and try to set the massive fortress of webs on fire.”

Cherry spoke up, surprising him as she said, “I’m on board with this plan. The less we lose in this effort, the better.”

“You agree?” Sasha turned to her other dao companion, and there was a silent conversation between the two of them before she turned back. “Fine. Then I’m on board too. But for the record, I think this is dangerous.”

“Of course it’s dangerous. But it’s dangerous for us. The rest of the village will be safer. I’m willing to shoulder that risk for them.”

“Shit. When you put it like that, how can I say no?” Amelia shrugged, scooping a bit more food into her mouth.

Dar met the eyes of the rest of his small family, and each of them nodded in turn.

“Then take an hour. Rest up. After an hour, we head out.”

Rex and Glump hadn’t loved the idea when Dar had pitched it to them. But all it took was another look at the rest of the villagers for them to agree.

The avian demon wanted to come with, but Dar assured him that they had stealth in the smaller group and that Rex needed to be back to support the village. If Dar’s team failed, Rex would be the villager’s best bet at future protection.

Neither Rex nor Glump liked the plan, but eventually they saw the logic.

Settling in after speaking with them, Dar worked to get a quick nap to rest his body. But it wasn’t long before the hour was up and it was time for him to head off into the woods with the girls.

***

Dar and the group moved silently through the forest, using their quiet dao to mask any noise they may make. They were in near perfect stealth, well at least as far as noise was concerned.

Webbing connected the entire forest, running up trees and overhead along the canopy. Dar had suspected the ettercaps functioned largely like spiders, so there was a good chance the webs transmitted their prey’s motion deeper into the forest. They’d done their best to avoid touching any of the webs as they’d moved.

As close as they were to the fortress with their small team, Dar didn’t want to give away their location.

“Careful, I almost didn’t see this one.” Dar pushed his voice through the other’s daos.

“Stupid webs.” Cherry muttered. “I should just smash them all.”

“Thanks.” Sasha looked up from another half finished dao character of combustion. “I think I almost have enough. You sure these are going to work?”

“It’s a lot better than directly confronting them.” Amelia reiterated. She had been one of the stronger believers in their plan.

“Better in that you are going to destroy half the forest?!” Cherry hissed. She’d been the most against the plan, but she also had a connection with trees that none of the rest of them had.

Sasha finished and etched the remaining conditionals on the enchanted item. Dar had made them out of granite and they were shaped sort of like a taser. That way, it fit neatly into their hands. Two tongs rose up and pinched together, with just a bit of space between them.

It was delicate, enchanting work that Dar had needed Sasha’s help with, but in the end, the small fire starter would try to combust any material placed between the two tongs when activated.

Dar raised his head, once again scoping out the canopy. The trees all around them were gray and brittle looking. By that point, their team was deep enough in ettercap territory that these trees had likely been dead for a long time. It looked like their green leaves had been choked out by spider webs months ago.

“Say, since the spiders are capable of giving a dao in the dao tree, does that mean they are the descendents of some devil that had a dao?” Dar asked. From all the ecology of the ancient races, why the ettercap’s spider imparted dao to his dao tree bothered him.

The girls all gave him odd looks. “What would they? What would they come from?”

“Never mind. I guess I don’t have to make sense of everything.” He said, but the idea still lingered with him.

Neko snorted. “Very human. Everything must add up. Why can’t spiders just do what they do?” She made conversation as they picked their way through the maze of webs.

“Because we are curious.” Dar explained.

Neko moved quickly, covering his mouth. “Curiosity killed cat. Bossy lady tell Neko. Might kill Dar. ” Neko nodded, as if she was speaking sage advice.

Dar realized she must have heard Sam and taken it literally. Dar tried to suppress a smile.

The girls started snickering, and Neko’s ear flattened back against her head. “Neko wrong?”

Dar fought to keep the amusement out of his tone. “It’s an idiom, Neko. Like, a warning to little children not to be too curious for their own good. Another one is don’t poke a sleeping bear.”

“Of course.” Neko agreed readily, only more confused. “You pounce. Kill lazy bear. Easy food.”

Dar couldn’t help it at that point. A deep belly laugh ripped out of him at the cat girl’s frankness. He had to clamp down on his dao of quiet to keep it from echoing through the woods.

Wiping away tears that had crept up from the laughter, Dar tried explaining again. “It’s a lesson in a few words. Like a small lesson. They aren’t supposed to be taken literally.”

Neki’s head tilted and her ears flopped like a confused kitten. No one had a better explanation, and Neko grumbled. “Stupid words.”

“Don’t worry, Pussy Cat.” Amelia rubbed her head. “You’ll get it, eventually. Everyone does.”

Neko growled. “Neko, not stupid.”

“Anything but.” Dar agreed. “You’re learning incredibly quickly.”

Smiling wide enough to show off her large incisors, Neko beamed up at Dar before dropping her head again to carefully pick their way through the forest.

The massive spider silk fortress came into view ahead of them, cutting off any playful banter.

“Ready girls?” Dar asked, taking his own firestarter in his hands.

“I thought you were yelling at soldiers earlier not to set the forest on fire.” Cherry tried one more time.

“That was when I thought there was another option. Unfortunately, I think there aren’t any other options left.”

They moved quickly through the woods, careful to avoid any webs. The spiders remained hanging in their webs, ignorant of their passage as long as they avoided the webs.

A chill passed up Dar’s spine as they continued. He hoped they simply would be still until their webs were touched, but it still gave him a foreboding feeling, like a guillotine hanging over his head.

As they continued moving closer to the fortress, the spiders seemed to continue growing larger, and avoiding the webs was becoming harder with every hundred feet. They were having to zig-zag through the area to avoid the webs.

Getting slightly closer, they were out of easy room to move around the webs and about half a mile out from its giant white walls. Dar decided it was time to start using the firestarters. Pushing his into a pile of dried twigs, Dar activated the enchantment, holding his breath at what would happen.

Little bright sparks jumped to life as the edges of a twig, which then combusted again and again as the little tool bore through the stick. It wasn’t long till a small fire had started, but Dar left it.

The girls had begun doing the same on objects near them. From leaves to bark on a tree, they were starting small fires and moving clockwise around the fortress.

“Look.” Sasha pointed behind them. The orange glow of fire was picking up behind them.

“Good. Let’s keep at it. We’ll want to circle away when we start this one and burn out another fire between here and Hearthway.” Dar repeated the plan.

Smoke was starting to rise into the air, and the spiders were starting to shift, abandoning the areas that had started to burn.

Fights broke out among the spiders as they stepped into each others’ territory. A rippling effect took place as they started to push further and further away from the spreading fire.

The fire was spreading around the silk fortress, and Dar began to have hope that the plan would work. Emboldened by the success, he started moving faster, setting more fires.

At that point, they’d made it almost a quarter of the way around the fortress, but the fire was helping them, spreading across the dry canopy. The dead trees made for great tinder, helping the fire jump across branches.

“Do you think we need to light any more on fire?” Sasha asked, seeing the blaze growing rapidly behind them.”

Dar stopped in thought. “Let’s circle around the far side and start a fire there. This side should at least drive them away from Hearthway, and the burnt out forest will make a decent barrier between us and them.”

“Wouldn’t starting a fire on the other side push them towards Hearthway?” Mika asked.

Dar understood her concern. “It won’t if it catches most of them between the two fires. The fires might even put each other out.”

The group nodded and rushed to reach the other side of the fortress, repeating the same exercise. By the time they got there and finished setting the flames, their first fire had reached the fortress. The flames licked at the giant web as spiders scrambled to escape.

But the surge of spiders and ettercaps became even more frantic, seeming to even throw themselves into the flames than deal with whatever was coming behind. Bracing himself, Dar watched.

Coming out of the entrance was a spider body the size of an elephant. Connected to it at the hips was a gray human-like form from. Something about that devil wrang alarm bells for Dar. It almost looked human, but it didn’t have the same feel of a demon or spirit. Despite looking slightly human, it felt devoid of any humanity in the way it moved through its minions, easily stepping on and killing any that got in its way.