Right as we were about to leave the central spire, a goblin atop the left siege tower played that awful string instrument. Finally allowing me to see the cursed tool that made that sound. A long, thin metal pipe covered by the porous wood held delicately against the ground. The goblin who played it lifted the strings to let them smack against the wood and the sound to echo throughout the tube.

  We couldn’t see what the goblins signaled for and instead put our heads down to sprint towards our assignment. As we ran, we passed Nora, who was in the middle of a crowd of aranae scholars. She looked exhausted, but still mustered the strength to smile at us. I knew she was only returning to meditation, and she’d be back in the line firing off spells soon enough.

  It tempted me to just rush into the goblin line, use my momentum to disrupt them. It was the mangled corpses and the laborers who rushed to collect them that stopped me and forced me to carefully maneuver up to the front. As I got closer, the goblin I was about to charge and I got a chance to size one another up.

  Smaller than most of the others, only a foot taller than my six ten, rather than usual two or three feet. But even through their battered armor, I saw far more of those crystal piercings on this hoblite than I’d seen on anyone else.

  Stillness filled a long, stretched out moment as Ellen and I waited across from our enemies, just out of reach of their spears, Mika’s golems waiting by our feet. Through unspoken agreement, the two of us led with a shove. I sent the rim of my shield at the hoblite’s face while Ellen punched the head of her maul at the gut of the goblin in front of her.

  The goblin met my attack with their own shield and just from that brief interaction, I knew we shared similar Strength stats. Ellen’s dodged out of the way of her maul and she almost overcommitted to the attack. She just barely collected it fast enough that the goblin missed his grab attempt. We spent a good amount of time dueling the people in front of us. No one getting the better of the other until Mika finally saw his opening and stabbed through the foot of Ellen’s orc with the clawed hand of his baker.

  The goblin was a good enough warrior to not pause for long after the golem pinned his foot to the red stone wall. But in his brief stillness, I slapped my shield against him, setting him off balance long enough for Ellen to bring her maul down on his head. Unluckily her maul hit at an odd angle and the sparked off his helmet to shatter his collarbone. Her follow up was better placed and when she pulled her maul back, there was a fist size dent in the goblin’s face plate that oozed out blood.

  A spear thrust forced me to weave out of the way at the last second, too distracted by Ellen’s goblin. The rings of my chain mail veil rattled as the spearpoint glided across them. I followed through with the dodge and stepped forward to slam my hammer down on where a human liver would have been. Metal crumpled, and air escaped the goblin in a ragged gasp. I tossed my hammer in my hand to set the reverse grip and sunk my spike through the center of his chest piece with a squeal of bent metal.

  The height difference made pulling the slightly curved spike out of the goblin’s chest difficult, and I had to block or absorb several spear thrusts on my armor. I planted a boot on the goblin’s chest and with a sucking sound, I tore my hammer free from him.

  When I looked up from the weakly gurgling goblin, Ellen had already killed her next opponent and was onto a particularly fat orc. Mika’s golems hounded at the feet and legs of the entire tunnel. Since she was fine and looked in total control of her engagement, I looked elsewhere to spot a hoblite rushing to fill the gap we created. Seeing my chance to collapse the tunnel, I stepped into the lane. Just far enough away from Ellen that I could step in to help at a moment’s notice should she need it.

  The goblin broke into a full sprint when they saw me, legs pumping and armor rattling against itself as they ran. Right before we collided, the goblin dropped a shoulder and raised their shield. Rather than allow someone hundreds of pounds heavier than me to level me at a full sprint, I leaned out of the way while keeping my legs planted.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  I’d hip checked people before, usually during duels, when someone got overly aggressive in their initial charge. Typically, it ended with the other person tumbling over my hip. The goblin, however, was heavy enough that the impact inserted rods of pain into my bones. My hip creaked and nearly broke as they sent me flying backwards. Momentum, however, was not on the goblin’s side and they tumbled forward to land sprawled out on their stomach.

  I was lucky that Mika was nearby because as soon as the goblin hit rust red stone, all three of his golems fell upon them. Their rune enhanced claws ripped at the goblin’s stomach. Metal rent and flesh gave way. I got up quickly, hiding behind my shield and trusting my armor as nearby goblins tried to end my life and tested my hip.

  Sore but hidden beneath the chill of the Black Hand’s touch, it was stable. It took me a couple of seconds to reestablish enough control over my space that goblins stopped sending probing attacks. Once set, I looked to the downed hoblite ready to end his suffering, but two aranae warriors pierced the exposed flesh of his stomach with their stingers. Barbed tails ripped flesh and gambeson alike out as they retracted.

  Seeing the goblin dead, I stepped back up to the spot I’d filled and used the commotion Ellen created to strike at the first distracted goblin I saw. Once they were dead, Ellen soon freed herself and we joined together, working our way down the line. As we worked, we freed more and more aranae warriors to join our cascade. One vs. one became one vs. two, became one vs. three. That continued until we’d pushed back both sides to their original footholds. The small corridor they’d spent so many lives to forge now collapsed.

  Another random aranae I couldn’t see called us back to the spiress. As we rushed back, I noticed our casters no longer rained spells down at the towers and instead focused their attention on something just beneath the wall. Whatever it was, it was close enough that I couldn’t see it until we reached the vantage point the spiress enjoyed right outside the central spire.

  Two large circular stone roofs held aloft by teams of goblins; hundreds of feet visible below the rune enforced protections. As the platforms advanced, small teams of three or four rushed out from underneath cover to place down slats over the ditches. Each of the slats had something on the other end of them, but from where I was, I couldn’t see what exactly.

  The spells thrown their way focused on the teams of goblins setting the way, rather than those under the aegis of the stone roofs. That did little more than stall the advance, however. As soon as they destroyed a bridge or killed a runner, one of the numerous goblins under the stone rushed out to either replace the bridge or the person.

  Another long, hollow note echoed across the tunnel from the goblin instrument. Goblin officers shouted orders in time with the sound, and the goblins on the wall began to fight defensively. They stopped throwing themselves at the aranae in front of them and instead shifted their focus to holding ground. Goblins no longer rushed across their stone bridges, instead, they waited. Careful not to expose too much of themselves. Only rushing from their towers when they spotted someone weakening.

  The chaotic rumble that was the fight prior shifted into a controlled mass within minutes. No longer focused on taking the wall, but holding onto their small slices, the assault deadlocked. We simply didn’t have the bodies or space to crush them with numbers. People still died on both sides. That was inevitable, but barely an inch got exchanged in either direction.

  Unable to believe the spiress would allow whatever the goblins planned to take shape, I peered up at her. She stood completely still. Not an ounce of worry, excitement, or fear played across her features. She remained calm even when ladders appeared beside the siege towers’ bridges.

  I thought she might call upon my party again to send the ladders back off the wall, but she tilted her head up to whisper to the [Brood Guard] commander beside her. As the spiress spoke, a rictus grin spread across the massive woman’s face. Muscles in her twin stingers visibly flexed in excitement, droplets of toxin traced lines across her clothing as she spun about face to the other members of the spiress’ guard.

  Looks passed between the ten [Brood Guard] and without a word the one she’d spoke to ran towards the left foothold. Her eight legs made the movement seem unnaturally still. The rest of the guards fell in behind the woman in a wedge formation. The regular warriors they passed seemed to move on instinct out of the charging group’s way. None had to look back or hear a command. They all somehow knew when the exact right moment to clear the path was. Even over the din of battle, I could hear the thunderous pounding of their steel capped feet.

  The [Brood Guards’] charge reminded me far more of the cavalry charges I’d read about than the one I’d faced down. The aranae used intimidation, weight, and momentum to break the goblin lines. Like [Knights] with their lances, the women had their tails lowered and ready to strike.

  Venom coated stingers skewered the goblins unlucky enough to not die under thousands of pounds of charging spider woman. Their bards rent flesh as the women passed and ripped their tails free.

  The charge devastated the goblin foothold. And even the goblins, who seemed to possess limitless morale, panicked. Enveloped as they were by the best fighters I’d seen in the Under Tunnels, orc and hoblite alike died. The [Brood Guard] operated with ruthless efficiency, slaughtering any who dared to step forward and cross the siege tower bridge.

  Watching these women work forced me to understand and accept that while we might be the spiress’ premier defensive force. We were in no way the best she had to offer in terms of pure offensive power.