Chapter 7: Creepy Crawly Nasty Things

We were about halfway there, maybe, when Eric called out “Stop! Drop your packs and form the battle line! Cindy, ‘Bless’ us. Once we’re formed we’ll shift a little to the right.”

Being ‘Blessed’ is a really good feeling. Once I got up there I could see some movement in the grass, a little ahead and to our right. George said “I’m set” while I was moving up and Margie repeated that, Eric did too, and then Cindy, Margie, and by then I could finish the line so no one had to look around to see where we were.

Eric kept talking to us, letting us know what he was thinking. “Okay, George you take a step back. Matt, you take a half step back. Sam, a step forward and Margie a half-step forward. Good, now we’ve changed our facing some but we’re still in formation. Lets slowly move forward. Cindy, you’ve got to look behind us, you’re the only one who can.”

As we slowly closed with them, Eric told us what he knew about them. Again. “These things are low to the ground and they have big sideways pincers to hold you in place while their actual mouths chew you up. Don’t let them crowd you, you don’t want to let them get close enough to grab you with their pincers and you DEFINITELY don’t want them to knock you down to their level. Push them back if you can, but really there are only two ways to stop them. You can chop up their head, or you can cut them in half. Okay, let’s keep facing this way, but try to slide to the left some so we’re beside them. If we can hit them first we’ve pretty much won.”

We slid sideways some, then some more.

Eric went on. “Cutting all the legs off on one side will do it, too, but that takes a while. It’s best if one person keeps one busy while another person comes in from the side and chops it up, but that depends upon how many they are. From the front, all you can do is hit the head and they aren’t smart enough to die immediately. So, even if you kill it immediately, you may still have to avoid it until it figures it out. If you have to, you can step back. If you do, that’s fine, but warn everyone else so WE can step back, too! We don’t want to be busy with one when another one comes up to us from the side. We have to maintain the line. Fire Mages, don’t throw fire if there is ANY chance you’ll miss. Instead, blast them with the tip of your staff. It’s more accurate and it does more damage.”

Yeah, those things were scary, but they weren’t as fast as those Giant Raccoons had been. And, I’d been faster than the Raccoons. We did get surprise, and Eric chopped the first one’s head in half from above. It kept moving for a couple of steps, though.

Unfortunately, the one behind it on my side reared up. I was NOT expecting that! I know, small caterpillars on Earth can do that. Maybe centipedes can, too, but I’d never seen it. That thing was 15 or 20 feet long, and enough of it reared up that its mouth was higher than my head was!

On the other hand, rearing up like that meant that all those segments were holding the head up, instead of holding it out. It was farther back and it couldn’t reach me. I was walking towards it, though, and it was still moving towards me, and when we got close enough it opened its pincers wide and tried to drop its head on me. Well, I’d seen that one coming. I was able to bash it with my shield, and once that pretty much stopped its head, I hit a long fly ball into the left field stands.

My mace got stopped in the middle of its head, but I could yank it out. That one kept walking, too, but I wasn’t sure what it could do to hurt me. Maybe its pincers still worked. Maybe it could trample me. I yelled “backing up” and looked around to see where the rest were. George was having trouble with one in front of him; his sword was just bouncing and sliding off its chitin. Eric could turn and be right there, and he cut it mostly in half, one or two segments behind its head.

There was a fourth one coming so I went to it while Eric was dealing with George’s. I risked a quick glance, and Margie was staying between us with her staff held end-on, either to poke one if it got too close or to blast it. I called “I’m going around the side” and scooted to the left. It turned to follow me, and Margie stepped up to it and blasted it right in the head.

Oh, yeah! She must have fried its nervous system, because all its legs that I could see flailed around and then it just dropped. Well, alrighty, then! I looked around but I didn’t see any more so I called out “Clear on the left”.

Cindy looked like a spaz, jerking around to look in all directions, but she called “Clear behind us!” Eric looked around from where he was and called “Clear all around. Everyone okay?” We all said we were fine, and Eric said we could relax for a minute, it appeared that there had only been four.

When we started talking about the fight I had to admit that I might need to change my underwear. I had NOT been expecting the damned thing to rear up like a horse and try to drop on me!

Eric said that he looked, and I had appeared to have it under control. Well, yeah, I could use my shield to push it over to one side, and I tried to hit a home run with its head. It landed in the left field stands, just barely foul. Still, with its head smashed in I wasn’t sure it was still dangerous.

Then the second one came in behind it and I’d tried to go around and hit it from the side, but when it turned to keep facing me Margie had blown its mind with her staff. Whatever she did killed it immediately.

She explained “Fire Blast to the head is almost a guaranteed kill to anything with a nervous system, but only if I can actually be touching its head when I do it. If I do it from a foot away it’s a lot weaker. You gave me the opening when it turned to follow you.”