Why are there always spiders?

[G]

Maplewood, A small township a few miles NorthWest of Treeston.
7:46pm, Dusk.

"Disgusting."

G'nort was twirling a large amount of spiderweb with a stick in the woods behind a farmhouse outside of one of the Urnst cities he lords over. He had been called there as a special consultant due to his experiences in the past with creatures of a great many various nature. As he toyed with the webbing, his scowl deepened.

"Was anyone hurt?" he asked, glancing to one of the soldiers who was helping to investigate the now military matter.

"No one was harmed, unless you include the livestock. The field had been emptied not long ago and the family that lives here had gone away for a light vacation before coming back to see all this."

"Witnesses?"

"None, sir. There aren't many other houses in this vicinity and there apparently were no travelers on these roads, or they haven't come forward." Came the reply. The corporal was looking over a file with all the information gathered up to this point.

"What happened to the livestock?" G asked as he pulled back on the stick, taking a close look at the webbing, touching it with his finger and growing annoyed as it adhered itself to him.

"Well, all were killed, the bodies drained of blood. We suspect either vampires or giant spiders. Neither of which are common to these parts, though."

G shrugged. "Could be my ex-wife. She'd suck the life out of anything. Never mind, forget I said that. It's clearly Spiders. Vampires don't leave webbing behind." he sighed. "With all the troubles that have gone on on Urnst, all the darker creatures are being forced to rearrange their living habits."

"Sir?" asked the Corporal.

"Urnst is losing control of itself, if you hadn't noticed. Not from a political or geological position. Just its life. It's grown darker, more sinister and evil, if you believe in such things. We've been unable to capture that Flesh Golem, Adam. Reports of frickin' puppets gaining control of a township. That damned Ghost Ship. The Zombies. Lycanthropes. Even that stupid Vampire. Now there's reports of a Death Knight setting up shop in Pesii. Lord knows what Nyaranyara is doing up North." G took a deep breath, reaching up to massage the bridge of his nose.

"My point is, there's a lot of evil gaining power in my land. As it grows, takes over, and saturates, less intelligent creatures of darkness find themselves adjusting their locations. Either they're forced to find a new habitat, or, they join forces with something their better. In this case, Giant Spiders have relocated from the deeper forests to the woodlands. This means, while they live near here, they are either acting on their own, or have an arachnid master.

Shuddering almost imperceptibly, the Corporal swallowed and looked at G. "Arachnid Master?"

"Yes, either a Queen spider, a new Drow, or even an intelligent Drider. The latter being somewhat rarer in existence. Usually they take orders rather than give them. I'm betting on a Queen."

"If I may say so, Sir. That's disgusting." the Corporal sucked in a slow breath.

"Yes. That is what I said not too long ago, if I remember correctly. Disgusting." G scoffed, looking back into the woods and just sensing eyes on them both. More than two... likely eight. He Sighed. "Why are there always Spiders?"

[G]

As quiet as he could, G gestured to the corporal, indicating that they should go into the nearby woods, seeking the eyes that he felt watching them. Moments pass in silence, barely audible were their footsteps as they crunched onto leaves, stepping over fallen tree branches. The, as suddenly as could be, G'nort stopped and gestured to the soldier following to do the same.

"Look lively, Sergeant."

"It's Corporal, sir." Came the whispered reply.

"Fine, I didn't really care much for you anyway. Point being, we're not alone, here, and we're being watched. Question is, by how many and where."

"Sir, we searched the surrounding woodlands. There was nothing there." the corporal had a puzzled expression across his features as he glanced about nervously.

"Yes, and I'm so certain that in your extensive search of the surrounding areas, you looked in all directions. Might I say, Corporal, that your investigative pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking. " G'nort replied with a sly grin.

"Two dimensional?" A pause as he thought about what that meant. Then the look of surprise as it registers. "The trees!"

"The trees." He almost chuckled as he slid his hand over the hilt of his sword, unsheathing it as quietly as possible and nodding to the Corporal to do the same. Then, catching his eye, he used his own to indicate looking above them both.

Swallowing, the Corporal reluctantly raised his head to look up into the trees, and what he saw caused him to cry out.

"Anya's tail!" he cried out while staggering back and nearly tripping over an exposed tree root, raising his blade at the same time. G'nort was already swinging his sword in a long arc, slicing through the belly of the creature and spraying bile everywhere.

"Anya's tail? Come on now, surely you can curse better than that. Try this... 'By Kords left dangly bits!' That's a bit more creative! Ahha!" stabbing through a second giant spider, then turning and severing half of a third spider legs. "Dammit Corporal, make yourself useful."

Blinking through his initial shock, the Corporal then pushes to his feet and begins to attack a pair of giant spiders skittering towards him. He lunged and swung his sword, occasionally parrying off a pair of fangs.

Meanwhile, G appeared to be having a grand old time attacking the beasts. Having already dispatched three of them, he turned for the next wave. There only appeared to be approximately a dozen of them, and the Corporal was handling himself adequately against his two. That left seven more to deal with.

Naturally, spiders are only effective if they have the element of surprise, but their tactics are generally a head on attack. This made it simpler for G to attack them with the length of his blade, and another pair were dispatched with strong thrusts into their heads. The Corporal came about, having finally killed the two which were on him and moved back to back against G'nort.

"You're amazingly calm, sir." he said between sharp intakes of breath, raising his sword before him and looking about at the remaining five spiders which were surrounding them on the ground. "Do you think we're going to get out of this alive?"

"I'm pretty sure I am, Corporal, but you're basically cannon fodder. If you're lucky, you'll live to talk about it someday." G chuckled, starting forward and bringing the fight to them. The spiders met his charge eagerly, fangs dripping poison that the creatures were eager to inject into the humans fighting them.

"Spiders are stupid, Corporal. Just keep them ahead of you and you shouldn't have much trouble with severing heads or jabbing through their skulls. See?" As if to illustrate the point, the nearest spider's head came flying through the air after G sent a slicing motion to separate it from it's body.

"But these are much larger than the types of spiders I'm used to, sir!" And nearly closing his eyes, the Corporal stabbed inward, actually striking right between four of the monsters eight eyes. The beast screeched, shuddered almost violently, and crashed to the ground, still.

This latest death caused the remaining three spiders to begin backing off, showing some sort of caution. G watched them closely as they paused in their attack, and he took several steps back, pulling the Corporal with him. The Spiders did not advance, so G leaned down while watching them to pick up a rock, he took aim and threw it, striking the center spider on the back. The spider rose up onto its back legs, letting out a screeching sound before lowering down and turning to escape into the woods, the other two spiders quickly turning and following.

G chuckled and leaned on his sword, looking to the other man with a grin. "There now. That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

"Are you joking? That was horrible. I never want to fight those things again." the Corporal was breathing heavily, sword still raised and appearing jumpy.

"Well, you might. Those were just the scouts. There's more in there somewhere, and probably that Queen, as well. She'll be the biggest of the lot." He nodded, picking up some leaves to wipe his blade.

"Bigger than those? We're going to need more men."

"That we are, Corporal. That we are."