There was no point hiding anymore.

“Ambrosia, light the torch and keep it on the spider. Shield ready.”

“Ah—right. Yes.”

A spark caught behind me. The torch flared to life over my shoulder, giving me my first clear look at the creature.

Eight eyes reflected the flame. Two large ones stared directly at me, bright and wet, while the smaller ones glittered around them like black beads. Coarse pale hair bristled between the dark plates covering its body. It stayed low to the ground, its legs spread wide over the roots, every hooked foot resting against the soil as though it were feeling for vibrations.

The Wolffang Spider shifted once, then lunged.

I barely raised the shield in time.

THUNK.

The impact drove through my arm and into my shoulder. My shoes slid across the leaves, and the lower edge of the shield ground into the dirt before I managed to hold. Its fangs scraped across the wood.

[Shield XP +5]

“Okay,” I said through clenched teeth. “Good start”

I shoved forward, slipped to the right, and slashed at one of its front legs with the laboratory knife. The blade connected, but only barely, opening a thin cut along the joint.

[Lv8. Wolffang Spider]

[HP: ???/???]

Its health bar moved by perhaps five percent.

The spider snapped its leg back and skittered sideways with startling speed. It circled us with its body low and its legs tapping lightly against the roots. I turned with it, shield raised and knife held close, while Ambrosia tried to keep the torchlight on its eyes from behind my shoulder.

The spider hated the flame. Whenever the light struck its face, its front legs lifted and its body drew back.

“There,” I said. “Keep the light on its head.”

“I’m trying!”

The spider feinted left. I shifted to meet it, and it struck from the right.

One leg whipped around the edge of my shield and scraped across my shoulder.

[HP: 39/50]

Pain burned down my arm. I stabbed toward its face, but the spider jerked back before the knife reached its eyes.

It resumed circling, slower now, testing the angle between Ambrosia and me. Then one of its legs snapped toward her.

Ambrosia raised her shield with both hands.

CRACK.

The blow knocked her back a step, but she remained standing.

[Ambrosia HP: 35/40]

“I hate spiders!” she said.

“I can see why!”

The spider crouched. Its abdomen dipped, and its front legs spread.

I recognized the tell.

“Move!”

It launched.

Instead of blocking head-on, I stepped aside. The spider tore past me and slammed into a tree hard enough to shake wet leaves from the branches. Its legs scraped over the roots as it struggled to turn, leaving its entire body exposed for a second.

I rushed in and drove the laboratory knife into its abdomen. The blade sank through the thick hair but barely penetrated the tough skin beneath it. Its health bar hardly moved.

I yanked the knife free and slashed lower, across the joint where one rear leg met its body. This time, dark fluid sprayed across the bark.

[Critical Hit]

The spider released a sharp, chittering shriek that cut through the forest. Its injured leg buckled for half a second.

“Cloud!” Ambrosia said. “You hurt it!”

“Barely. Celebrate after we’re not dead.”

The spider spun, sweeping one rear leg low across the ground. I jumped, but the hooked tip caught my boot and ripped me sideways. My shoulder struck the dirt, and my shield arm slammed into a root.

[HP: 26/50]

Red crept around the edge of my vision.

The spider was already on top of me.

I threw the shield up from the ground. Its fangs punched into the wood, and a crack split across the surface.

[Shield Durability: 41%]

I kicked upward with both feet and struck its underside hard enough to force it back. The opening lasted only a second, but it was enough. I rolled away, pushed myself upright, and dragged the damaged shield in front of me.

Ambrosia swung the torch toward the spider’s face. It recoiled from the flame and gave me another moment to recover.

“Nice timing,” I said.

The spider lowered itself again.

My breathing had turned rough. The shield was cracked, and the knife had done little more than injure one leg. Ambrosia still had most of her health, but if the spider decided to focus on her, the torch would fall. Without that light, we would lose our only reliable way to keep it back.

I checked our surroundings.

The spider had circled between us and the trail, blocking the way out. Behind us lay the deeper forest, normally the worst possible direction to retreat.

Ambrosia grabbed my sleeve.

“Cloud. The Sulfurblast.”

I followed her gaze. Beyond the place where the Twigstalkers had been feeding, a cluster of squat yellow mushrooms glowed beside the roots of an old tree. Their swollen caps pulsed with a dull amber light, and tiny orange pores opened and closed as if they were breathing.

“They burst when stepped on,” Ambrosia said.

I looked from the mushrooms to the spider, then down at my cracked shield.

“Stay behind me and keep the torch on its eyes.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Let it push us back.”

“Back?”

“Toward the mushrooms.”

“That sounds like a terrible plan.”

“It is.”

The spider launched.

I met it with the shield. The impact drove me backward through the leaves, my shoes sliding over damp roots as the wood cracked louder beneath its fangs. Instead of trying to stop it outright, I kept the shield angled and guided its force.

It drove me back one step, then another.

Ambrosia stayed behind my shoulder with the torch raised. The flame struck the spider’s eyes, making it recoil just enough for me to breathe.

“Keep moving,” I said.

The Sulfurblast caps pulsed behind us, growing brighter as we drew closer.

A hooked leg stabbed toward my side. I twisted away, felt it tear through my shirt, and jammed the laboratory knife into the injured joint.

The spider shrieked as Ambrosia raised the torch.

“Now!”

Ambrosia thrust the torch toward its face. Flame washed across its eyes, and the spider jerked back, its legs scraping through the dirt.

For half a second, I thought it might retreat. Then its body dropped low and all eight legs spread across the roots.

It was not retreating. The Wolffang Spider charged, tearing through the leaves with its fangs open and its hooked legs cutting across the ground.

“Jump!”

Ambrosia moved with me. We threw ourselves in opposite directions at the last second, and the spider shot between us before slamming into the Sulfurblast cluster.

“Shield!”

The forest flashed yellow, turning every tree, root, and leaf painfully sharp for an instant.

Then the Sulfurblast detonated.

Heat slammed into my shield. The explosion hurled dirt, leaves, and burning yellow mist across the trail. Acid splashed over the roots and hissed against the bark, carving pale scars into the old tree behind the mushrooms.

The Wolffang Spider took the worst of it. Its body lifted from the ground, twisted in the air, and crashed into the roots with a heavy, wet impact. Steam rolled from its legs, followed by a sharp, rotten chemical stench.

[Lv8. Wolffang Spider]

[HP: ???/???]

Its health bar had fallen to ten percent. Two icons appeared beneath its name tag: one resembled cracked armor, while the other flickered like fire.

The spider lay motionless. One leg twitched before falling still, and small orange flames crawled across the burned pale hair on its abdomen.

My own health bar had dropped into red. I pulled a slime bun from my pocket and shoved it into my mouth. Sweet dough, warm filling, and something jelly-like hit my tongue at once.

[HP Recovery]

[Regeneration]

My health climbed barely past the halfway mark, with a smaller healing effect continuing to tick.

“Ambrosia, eat your bun. Quick.”

She did not answer.

I turned and found her on the ground beside the roots. Her shield had cracked in half, and the torch lay several feet away. The blast had torn my shield from my grip as well, leaving it somewhere in the burning mist.

A red icon pulsed over Ambrosia.

[Critical State]

[Time Until Death: 20 seconds]

Behind me, the spider dragged itself through the wet leaves, smearing mud over its burning abdomen. The fire icon beneath its name tag flickered once and disappeared.

The Wolffang Spider was still alive, and I had twenty seconds to kill it and save Ambrosia. My shield was gone, and my health was barely holding.

Then I spotted Ambrosia’s knife beside her toolbox and sprinted for it.

The spider lunged. I dropped beneath its fangs, slid across the wet leaves, and snatched up the second knife.

It turned as I rose and stabbed one front leg toward me. I crossed the two blades, caught the hooked limb between them, and twisted until the joint cracked.

[Dual Wield XP +100]

The spider shrieked and dipped forward. With sixteen seconds remaining, I stepped in before it could recover. Its head hung low, all eight eyes catching the abandoned torchlight at once. I slashed upward with both knives, crossing the blades over its face in a bright X that cut through the wet black eyes and the soft ridges between them.

[Critical Hit]

[Blind]

The Wolffang Spider reared back, its legs thrashing through the air. Eleven seconds remained as I dropped flat and slid beneath it. The ground scraped across my back while its damaged legs stabbed into the dirt around me. Its burned abdomen hung overhead, leaking steam and dark fluid.

The narrow seam where its head joined its body was completely exposed.

I set both blades against it and pulled with everything I had. The knives tore cleanly through the seam.

[Critical Hit]

[Wolffang Spider Defeated]

The body collapsed, and I rolled aside before its weight came down. The spider struck the ground with a heavy, wet crash, its legs folding in every direction as the cracked armor of its body slammed into the dirt beside me.

With four seconds remaining, I forced myself upright, ran to Ambrosia, and dropped beside her with the first-aid kit. As soon as I opened it and began treatment, the red countdown stopped.

[Stabilizing... 10 seconds]

A loading circle appeared beneath the message. I kept both hands pressed against the kit while the timer fell, watching the forest for movement. Nothing emerged from the trees. The clearing remained quiet until the final second disappeared.

Ambrosia gasped.

Before she could speak, I shoved the last slime bun into her mouth.

“Eat. Talk later.”

She blinked at me in confusion but bit down.

Only then did I notice the remaining notifications stacked along the side of my vision.

[Shield XP +100]

[Dagger XP +100]

[Battle Scientist XP +100]

[Physical Resistance XP +100]

More continued beneath them.

I sat back in the dirt, breathing hard, with both laboratory knives still clenched in my hands. Then I drew one long breath and realized I had apparently forgotten to do that.

Ambrosia looked around the clearing.

“Did we win?”

I glanced at the dead spider, then at my health bar.

[HP: 15/50]

“Yeah,” I said. “Barely.”