Bonnie’s cry stopped him. “Wait! Just stay safe, money bags! I'm almost down!” she shouted down as she dropped the end of a rope down through the new hole. “Don't go anywhere! Don't you dare die on me, mister deep pockets!”

“Don’t stop!” Lucas warned. “Those eggs might hatch at any time!” He turned and thumped the momentarily befuddled Nick on the back with his staff, urging him back to his task of turning the room into an inferno once again. Lucas knew that it was incredibly unlikely that any monster would pop out of its egg at the exact moment a random adventurer happened to show up, but this was a game, and there was a good chance that the developers might have had a sick sense of humor.

“I’m starting to see why no one does the Sir Kegan subjugation quests,” Nick grumbled.

“It’s not for lack of trying,” a deep, silky voice echoed through the chamber. The voice was slightly off key and hissed more than spoke over a loud crackling noise like someone had taken two large Styrofoam objects and rubbed them together.

“Stridulation,” Nick said quickly. “It’s a big one by the sound of it, too.”

“Stridulation?” Lucas asked, looking around to try and see where the voice had originated as he fired off a few more spells at the last remaining eggs.

“It’s that sound insects and arachnids make when they rub their mandibles or body parts together,” Nick explained. “From how loud that is and how much it sounds like a saw . . . whatever we’re about to face is huge.”

“It’s rude to call a lady big,” the voice hissed. A clicking sound filled the room and bounced around the chamber this time, making it impossible for Lucas to discern its origin.

Where in the hell are you?

“Even if we are big, no one wants you to point out what we already know . . .” The grating speech was punctuated by a loud, clicking laugh.

The cords! Lucas realized that the giant, arm-thick, silk-like strands hanging throughout the room were resonating as the creature spoke, making it seem as if her voice was coming from all directions at once and leaving the three of them turning about endlessly as they tried to find her.

Lucas wasn’t sure how conductive the cords might be, but he wanted to test out a small theory. Instead of shooting off another Firebolt, he swapped his skills up and fired a Zap of electricity at the closest cord. There was a small puff of smoke the moment the Lightning struck the strand, frying the silken cable and leaving two severed ends to fall away limply.

“Come, now . . . don’t be like that,” the spider said. “I just wanted to say hello.”

Nick followed Lucas’s example and zapped another one of the cords.