The King's Crown by Gavin Johnson (best classic books to read txt) 📕

a chill down Isabella’s spine. It only got worse when a vision came up abruptly. This vision showed a head of a spider, it had eight eyes, and was clacking it’s teeth. When she returned, she shivered a bit. Jack started to walk in. Luckily, John grabbed his arm, and stopped him in place. “whoa, there, now hold your horses, where do you think you’re going?” John said. “Uh, in the cave, Duh! Now come on! Let’s go!” Jack said eagerly. “Oh no, I’m not going in there!” Claire said, stepping back.

Jack sighed, then said, “Is this of that freak accident in the cave that got us here in the first place? Listen guys, that was just some coincidence, I bet that won’t happen again, I promise.” John let go and said, “Actually, I’m with Claire on this one.” Jack sighed again, then crossed his arms and proclaimed, “Well, I’m going in, and when you three decide to stop being wimps, you can follow me, and besides, weren’t you the ones who talked me into doing this quest in the first place?” With that, Jack pivoted his heel, and walked slowly into the cave.

Isabella sighed, she knew Jack was right, so she ran up to him, letting him know she was in, Claire was next, but mostly because ever since her apology, she thought they were sole mates, so Claire tagged along because Isabella tagged along. John was stubborn, and held his ground, yet he was outmatched, when he realized he was outnumbered. He groaned, and walked over, together, they past through the cave. “See, this isn’t so ba-” Jack was cut off when, a huge spider web covered the entrance. “Jack....” John said angrily. The trail they followed wasn’t Og’s, it was a spider web’s trail.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
John examined the web thickness, sadly, this web was to thick, it was beyond cutting. “Yeah, we just had to listen to you Jack, we just had to walk through the creepy cave, we’ve obviously hadn’t learned from our last experience,” John said sarcastically. Suddenly, a bone rattling roar erupted through the cave walls, then, a huge spider came, charging towards them, all four jumped out of the way, the spider ended up crashing into the wall. John drew his sword, and dashed up to the spider, and plunged it into one of the legs. The spider shrieked, ripping through the air. With great force, it threw John off, and into the wall, causing stalagmites to crash down. Jack drew his hammer, and bashed it against the spider’s hard shell.

Yet the spider hardly felt a thing. The spider backed up and crashed him into the cave. John struggled up, and ran over to Jack. They charged towards the spider, but it clacked it’s teeth. and slashed out at them, knocking them back. The spider let out another chilling howl, then galloped away. John used his sword for support, then cursed himself for being so stupid for challenging a beast that he had never encountered before.
Jack had to be helped up, making his defeat even more embarrassing. “What was that thing?” Isabella said. “Must have been one of the Arachnid clan, I have heard of these somewhere before!” John said. “I have heard the stories of many, saying the horrid of an arachnid chamber, survivors would always tell about this place, eyes wide, and shivering of fear. This just made the children even more afraid of this place. “We definitely need to find a way out of here now!” Isabella said, nervously. She had been staring at the ceiling, when three spiders pounced from the ceiling. These spiders weren’t as big as the spider they faced before. In fact, they were just as big as the children, maybe just a bit bigger.

To their surprise, these spiders talked. “Look Louie! Dinner!” One spider rasped. “They look oh so scrumptious, don’t you think Joey?” The second said to the first. “Quit talking you fools, and just attack, I’m starving over here!” The third scolded. “Yes Steven,” Louie and Joey said. Joey attacked first, but still in shock of hearing them talking, Joey easily knocked John off his feet. Jack charged at Steven, then smashed his hammer into the exoskeleton. Then, smacked Joey. John sliced Louie’s head off. Letting it roll in the darkness. Joey and Steven screamed when they saw this, and scuttled away.

Jack smiled, revealing in his victory, then put his gaze to John. “Today’s just not your day, huh pal?” John grumbled as he got up. “Hey, guys, what’s this?” Claire called down a hall. Listening to the echo from Claire’s voice. THey found her near a wooden door built into a caved in wall. “Wonder what’s on the other side,” John said. “Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Jack said, opening the door up. Two dead corpses wrapped in silk, thin webbing, dropped to the ground, John had to cover Claire’s mouth to keep her screech from echoing through the halls. The kids walked through. The room was filled and bloated with the spider’s unlucky victims. The room was small, but a crude opening was on the other side. the opening led to a open, rocky arena. There, in the middle of the arena, was the huge spider that had attacked them earlier.

John drew out his sword, and started to rush to the spider, but Isabella stopped him in his tracks. “Where do you think you’re going?” Isabella said frantically. “That behemoth and I have some unfinished business to attend to. John twisted out of Isabella’s loose grip, and began to creep up behind it. Jack started to follow when Isabella grabbed him also. “Wait,” Isabella whispered. John was now up toward the spider’s abdomen and before making a long slash, he whispered, “Let’s do this!” The mighty beast howled in pain. Then turned and slashed back, sending John hard into the dust ground.

Jack charged and put his hand to his belt, gripping his hammer, and began to swing, but the spider rammed its body into Jack, and was sent flying across the arena. Isabella and Claire rushed to the aid for the boys, but the spider stepped in their way, and charged to finish the girls off, permanently, Luckily, the girls were able to run out of the way just in time. Trying to find a good place to cover, they stumbled across a little area of stalagmites. Suddenly, another vision stopped her dead in her tracks. This vision as first person view, showing her soft, fleshy hands holding John’s rusty bronze sword. She was facing the spider alone, the spider had half it’s eyes left, and had six and a half legs left, John had his left leg pinned under a huge boulder, Jack was unconscious on the floor. Claire was attached on the wall of the arena because of a web. Surrounded by two small spiders.

She was shook awake by Claire. Meanwhile John swished at the legs, cutting one in half. The spider slashed out at John, but John quickly dodged and made another attempt to destroy another leg, slicing it at the top. The spider receded. John rushed and swung carelessly, but only cut half of the leg. John grimaced and swung again, more carefully this time. Unfortunately the spider jumped back, and lured John towards a weak cliff. Crashing the cliff with enough force, a boulder came down on John’s leg, John’s left, leg.

The force caused John to fall, and be pinned down. Jack dashed up and leaped as high as he could. Jack then brought down his hammer on the monster’s left side of eyes. Crying with rage, the spider thrusted it’s stinger into Jack’s arm, he fell unconscious. Then the spider lay it’s four remaining eyes on the girls, whom were paralyzed in fear. It slowly walked up to them, and looking at one girl to the other, then turned slightly. “Is it leaving?” Isabella thought. All of a sudden, a thin web latched onto Claire, and she screamed, “Isabella, help me!” But all Isabella could say was “Oh my god.” The spider then swung Claire furiously into the arena’s wall, adding more webs to hold her in place, then two spiders came crawling down towards Claire, Isabella recognized those spiders as soon as she saw them, Joey and Steven. Isabella was now alone, defenseless against a gigantic, behemoth. Frantically scanning the area for some useful weapons, she saw John’s sword just a couple feet away from her.

She made a run for it. The spider realized the only way to get her now was to do the same trick it did on Claire, and then spun a web line. Isabella dove, face planting next to the sword. She struggled up, the sword, heavy in her soft, fleshy hands. The spider seemed to chuckle as Isabella held the sword incorrectly, and then charged at her at ramming speed. Isabella thought of jumping out of the way, but instead, sidestepped, letting the beast screech to a stop, falling on it’s back. Her legs flailing in the air. Isabella went in for the kill. the spider quickly turned on it’s side, allowing Isabella to plunge the side of it’s abdomen.

bleeding out more than ever, the spider rolled back to it’s feet, and bared it’s teeth. Isabella swung hard, missing the face, but chopping off the teeth. Isabella saw the creature close to death, but she had no mercy. She drove the sword into the spider’s side again, further this time. The spider screamed, and tried to nip at the sword, but was to weak to reach it, to weak to do anything. Isabella pried the sword out, caked with blood. The monster staggered toward a cave built inside the arena. There await a huge scorpion. Once the spider was safely inside, the scorpion used it’s tail to send a ton of boulders crashing down in front of the entrance.

Isabella was breathing hard, and was so relieved that the battle was over. She dropped the sword, and plopped down, heart pounding in her chest. Then she remembered. “Jack!” Isabella thought, eyes wide in alarm. She raced to his aid. She knelt down, and cradling his head. Jack slowly opened his eyes. “Isabella?” he said wearily. “Shhh...” Isabella said, smiling. “Hey, is John....” “I don’t know, go check on him,” Isabella said, helping Jack up.

Isabella wondered why these visions were coming true, Jack unconscious, John’s left leg pinned under a boulder, Claire trapped in a web surrounded by spiders. Wait! Claire! John saw that Claire in danger, and picked up his sword and ran to Claire’s rescue. “Oh come on Joey, let’s just eat it already,” Steven complained. “Hold on Steven, I just want to see how thick it is,” Joey said. John came up and sliced Joey in half. Steven watched in horror, then tried to run away, John stepped in front, but Steven decided to