Many guards had become High-humans. Chaos enveloped the city. The people ran around at a loss with how to deal with the giant humans, the giant ants, the ghouls, and the impending civil war.

While the citizenry dealt with these new beasts, the guards had to clear the surroundings of the corpses.

But this didn’t concern us. Sophie and I ran out of the city. A few guards tried to confront Sophie, but we whizzed past, leaving them confused.

I followed her out into the forest. She knew the way to the capital; there we would find the Queen of this kingdom. Sophie would accomplish her mission, letting me swoop in and retrieve the kingdom’s sceptre.

For an entire day, we ran on dirt paths until we reached a small village. Hundreds of men put up tents in the fields.

“I think we were too quick,” I muttered looking at the military detachment.

“We can kill them. We should, we really should. It’ll give us more experience points.” Her spider legs twitched. Her instincts took over—she did not seem like a human or humanoid. Her legs folded up and she sprung forwards.

I stayed back, content in observation. First, she attacked a patrol with a small needle at the tip of her spider leg. With the same springy movement, she jumped back into the bushes, where she scurried and approached another patrol. She jumped and drove her leg through the man’s chest. His armour, no more than paper to her needle.

A guard heard the body and armour crumble and ran over, spear at the ready. Sophie jumped back into the bush. The men encircled their dead comrade and inspected the hedges with keen eyes. However, they could only see the wrestling of leaves. And once again she jumped. The men raised their spears and thrust at her abdomen, but she jumped high and with three legs she killed 3 guards.

A trumpet blared; soldiers came out of their tent, took up arms, and encircled the camp. Sophie had gone back into the bushes. She awaited another opportunity, but none occurred.

That’s when three horses rushed out of the military camp and headed north. I couldn’t let that happen. The clash between the two main forces had to occur. If the message they carried gave the main force the impression that they may be surrounded or assaulted from the rear it might endanger my plans to sneak into the Capital’s castle while their forces were out on the battlefield, leaving the capital less guarded.

I created twelve bolts, each containing 1/20th of my mana and aimed it to the sky. I launched them with great haste and watched their ascent into the clouds. Once they were above the messenger, I used the remainder of my mana to aim them down. The first 3 arrows missed, but the next hit a horse in its hind leg. It tumbled down and got run over by the following horse. The other arrows missed their marks, but the last four correctly hit the two other riders.

You killed 3 humans; you gained 600 Exp.

Seeing this the guards tightened their formation and didn’t speak. Only grass whistled.

I did my best to crawl over to Sophie without making any noise. The guards who faced us tightened. Had they spotted us?

“We can’t take them all,” I whispered. “They aren’t the ones to blame, if you die here, the opportunity you gained will be lost and many more will fall into slavery.”

Sophie frowned. The tip of her legs smeared in blood twitched and spread crimson into earth. Her wolflike mouth opened and closed, and her eyes turned red. But finally, she stepped back. “Fine, I’ll come back to them later.”

We retreated and took the longer way around the village. At least we now knew the direction in which the army headed and so we took the other path to the capital.

#

The walls of Liliana were dark grey. They couldn’t be compared to those of Forange as they were made of thick and giant stones. Banners flew the insignia of the royal family, a blue lily fluttered in the wind. The gates to the city were closed.

“Let's wait here for now.” I could have gone in without her, but she'd make things much too complicated if she rampaged now. She could do so a bit later.

She didn't respond. I looked around and didn’t see her. My heart beat fast, afraid she'd already gone off to take the head of the Queen. But then I found her spinning webs atop a tall tree. Soon enough a bird fluttered into her web. She ate it.

I didn't like the sight of my kin being eaten, but sacrifices had to be made. I had to accept this a little while longer.

The night came. A few flames fluttered above the walls in a constant and repeated fashion.

When we had gotten the hang of their patrolling routes. We dashed forwards and stayed tight on the shadowy side of the wall.

I grabbed onto Sophie’s shoulder, and she climbed up the wall with her spider legs. We got on the passageway. I had cast Black Haze so that the guards doing rounds couldn't see us. As soon as we got our bearings, we headed straight down. In the city there were few guards. We snuck our way into the alleyways from which we climbed onto the rooftops made of red ceramic. Try as we might, we couldn’t help but make noise.

A roof tile cracked. A part of the red ceramic slid down and fell down. Sophie quickly got down to the ground and I hung tight on her abdomen. Quiet, we heard a couple footsteps approaching the building and orange light crept up the building’s walls, illuminating the sides of the roof.

“It’s just a part of a roof tile, people gotta take better care of their homes.”

“Who has the coins for that during a civil war?”

“Well, maybe if people didn’t spend it all on…”

We let out a sigh and continued on. It didn’t take us long to get to the castle.

The castle was at the city’s northernmost edge, surrounded by another layer of walls. These were much shorter but all the sturdier.

I got back onto Sophie’s thorax. She once again jumped from the nearest building onto the second wall and scurried up to its pathway before jumping onto the castle. She proceeded to make her way up to its ceiling before the guards could spot us.

Up in the stars, we took our time and set our eyes on a garden in the central area of the castle. We descended, slowly. Lilies and roses made-up most of the flowers.

I got off Sophie’s back and headed for the nearest door. I didn’t hear the scutter of Sophie’s legs, so I waved her over. The flowers sang. I turned.

Next to a fountain, she faced a knight. Neither talked, the knight’s hand inched to his sword pommel, and Sophie steadily lowered herself.

I suppose this would do as a distraction. I unbolted the door and entered. Just as I closed the door, keratin claws clanged on metal, a beast roared, and a man screamed.

The hallways were long and lit with small candles. I ran down the right corridor. Bells rang and metal footsteps clanged on the floorboards. I sprinted to the nearest door and entered. The footsteps passed. I didn’t leave the room right away. I had to think a bit first since I didn’t even know where to find the sceptre. Would it be in the throne room, with the Queen, or in the treasury? The first two weren’t too hard to find, but finding a treasury might be a bit harder, especially if it was sealed with high-level magic. High-humans founded the kingdom after all.

I took a deep breath, ready to explore, but then a large rumble spread through the floor. An earthquake shook the castle. The earth continued to shake and the paintings which covered the walls fell one by one. I jumped under a desk in the corner of the room when the walls began to collapse.