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Kanus walked through the empty mine, torch held in front of him in his left hand while his heavy repeating crossbow was at the ready in his right. A posting on the local tavern's bounty board had brought him to this place. Apparently, there was something in the mine dragging off workers never to be seen again. The owners of the mine offered five hundred gold pieces to whoever could figure out and solve the problem. The russet brown dire wolf usually charged quite a bit more for his services, but with his supplies running low and coin purse light he couldn't afford to be picky.

The mine had been constructed with normal furs in mind, so the twenty-seven hands tall dire fur felt cramped. There wasn't enough space for him to wield the greatsword at his back without scraping against the stone walls, so if it came to close quarters combat he would have to rely on the daggers strapped to his leather harness. In addition, he had two spare feed boxes for his crossbow strapped on to it as well.

Up ahead the tunnel narrowed a bit and Kanus got the only clue he needed to know what he was dealing with. On the ceiling were white wisps of a silky substance which the dire wolf recognized as the webbing of a cave crawler. Specifically, it could only be a brooding female based on its behavior. A male would roam around and would eat its prey at the kill site while a normal female would lie in wait at its nest, ambushing prey that got to close. However, a female that had created an egg sack would hunt like a male, but drag its prey back to its nest so the hatchlings could feed upon bursting from the sack. If it hatched, the mine would become overrun with crawlers and any chance of reclaiming it would be lost. This simple bounty had just become an even more urgent matter.

Using the torch, he scoped out the walls and floor and found more webbing. Cursing under his breath, Kanus charged forward as fast as he could. The crawler knew he was there the moment he set foot in the mine and was most assuredly hunting him down at the same time he was hunting it. He followed the webbing coating the corridors knowing it would lead him to the nest, he only hoped that the mine opened up soon so that he had a chance against the crawler.

He quickly neared the end of the tunnel he was in and stopped just short of the archway that led into the heart of the mine. He could see that the main area opened up quite a bit beyond it, multi-leveled with wooden scaffolding construed. Webbing covered everything, so following it back to the nest had now become significantly harder.

The wolf noted that he had come this far and had yet to encounter the crawler. There was no doubt in his mind that she was waiting just outside his field of view to ambush him as soon as he entered the large room. Kanus' grip on his crossbow tightened, he had to make it take the first move and at the same time distract it enough to make it through the entryway and into the heart of the mine.

Kanus eyed the torch in his left hand and an idea formed in his head. With as much strength as he could muster in the cramped tunnel, he threw the torch through the archway. As soon as he did, the giant arachnid jumped into view after it, having been hidden directly above the entrance. Seeing his opening, Kanus bolted into the main chamber.

The crawler immediately turned to face Kanus, the dire wolf responding by firing a well-aimed bolt directly into one of its main eyes. He watched as she raised her forelegs and scuttled backward out of the torchlight. Kanus caught a bit of a shine in its eyes from the flame before scuttling further off.

He ran to stand next to the torch and dropped his crossbow on the ground before reaching behind him and grasping the pommel of his greatsword. A flick of the wrist unfastened the leather strap securing it to his harness followed by pulling it over his shoulder into a two-handed grip in front of him. With his limited visibility, using the crossbow was no longer an option. He had to wait for it to attack him and hope his reflexes were quicker.

He circled around the torch, blade at the ready, as he scanned the darkness for that reflective sheen in its eye. Occasionally the wolf heard it grinding its fangs together making a sound most would refer to as hissing. Kanus would turn to face the sound and be greeted with the sight of light reflecting in its many eyes before it scuttled away. It had become a war of attrition, in which the first to mess up would be the first to die.

Kanus thought for a moment, trying to decide his best course of action. If he went charging into the darkness, the giant spider would track him through the webbing on the ground and kill him. He could stow his greatsword and pick up his torch and crossbow, but the bolts did next to nothing and it would have enough time between shots to get to him. No, his only chance would be to bait her out and get in a single highly damaging blow with the blade in his hands.

With a deep breath to steady himself, Kanus dropped his guard, lowering his blade until the tip touched the ground. The feint only had one chance to work, if his attack came too late he would be added to the feast for her young while to early would mean missing and putting the arachnid on guard. He heard that hissing sound and moved his gaze to his shadow. The moment hers popped into view would be his moment to attack.

Anticipation filled his veins as he nervously waited for his moment. After what seemed like an eternity he heard it again, but closer. His muscles flexed and the grip on the pommel of his blade tightened. Her shadow popped into view and the dire wolf turned, blade swinging with him in an upwards arch as a primal yell erupted from his throat.

She was already nearly on him, ready to give Kanus a deadly attack with her fangs when the blade made contact with the side of her body. Kanus' might forced the greatsword through the first two legs on her right side as well as the appendage the fang was attached to, sending them flying off to the side. The force of the blow knocked the crawler onto her back, and Kanus wasted no time in getting on top of her and sinking his weapon through the main section of the arachnid's body.

Blue blood flowed out from around the sword as the giant arachnid flailed underneath Kanus. The dire wolf fought to keep his balance while worrying the blade in the wound, wiggling it around to do as much damage as he could. She eventually caught the upper hand once more and managed to flip over, Kanus jumping off and extracting his sword in one fluid motion. More of the crawler's blood poured from the now gaping wound like a river, signaling the fatality of the blow.

Kanus watched the creature, blade at the ready in front of him. She could hardly stand, and each movement she made caused a brief period where her blood would gush from her wounds before going back to a steady flow. The crawler collapsed as she tried to retreat from Kanus, her legs twitching but unable to hold her weight any longer.

He took pity on her and walked toward the creature. "You fought well, I certainly didn't expect something like you to be the cause of all this trouble." When he got close enough, he raised his sword before sending it between the crawler's main eyes. Her legs scrambled in one last burst of energy before going still, the body starting to slowly curl around itself.

He pulled the blade free from the now dead crawler. If he had the proper tools, he would have attempted to harvest its venom and silk glands for some extra gold but he wasn't that lucky. Instead, he gave a fierce swing to rid his sword of the creature's blood before stowing the weapon back on his harness.

The lupine picked up the fallen fang on his way back to his torch and crossbow and placed it in a large pouch secured to his harness. He scooped up his crossbow and torch upon reaching them, stowing the ranged weapon for now. His job wasn't done yet, the sack was still in the mine somewhere and needed to be dealt with. She would have picked somewhere secluded, but easily accessible by her. With a sigh, he followed one of the walls in the main chamber, hoping for some clue as to its whereabouts.

After nearly twenty minutes, Kanus only found a tunnel with a thicker coating of the crawler's webbing. Thankfully it was large enough for the canine to walk through comfortably, but still not large enough that he would be able to use his greatsword effectively. As Kanus wandered deeper into it, the webbing coating the walls got even thicker and soon there were strands beginning to crisscross the tunnel. The wolf pulled a dagger from his harness and started to cut his way through. There was no doubt in his mind that he had found the nest.

He nearly jumped as his web cutting revealed the remnants of another crawler about half the size of the female. If there were any doubts in his mind about there being an egg sack, they left his mind completely. The only time crawlers ate their own kind was when a female consumed a male post-coitus. He shook his head and moved on, finding cocooned bodies of the taken workers and past would-be exterminators. All were long dead.

The egg sack finally came into view after struggling through the thickest part of the nest. It was stuck in the corner of the back wall and ceiling, showing no signs of movement. He couldn't see any ruptures on the sack and based on the amount of dead she had dragged back here, it should be squirming full of hatched young.

Letting out a heavy sigh and raised his torch to the sack, setting it on fire. "All these deaths and you didn't even have a viable brood. Good thing I took you out, or you would have kept killing everything that wandered into the mine." The flames ate away at the webbing holding it up and the sack crumpled to the ground. The smell of death spread through the tunnel as the fire exposed the dud batch. Satisfied, Kanus turned around and walked away. He had a payment to collect.