The campsite was less a camp and more a fortress of paranoia. After the cultist ambush, Dominic had spent an hour weaving earthworks into a defensible ring, while Daniel set up shadow wards that would whisper a warning at the slightest intrusion. The scent of crushed Ling Heather leaves hung in the air Camila's attempt at a psychic calming agent. It mostly smelled like a goat had eaten a perfume shop.
"I'm just saying," Justin muttered, poking at the small cookfire with a stick, "if one more thing with too many eyes or teeth jumps out at us, I'm going to start charging them tuition."
Ellora giggled, stirring a pot of thin stew. Her fox spirit was attempting to help by dropping suspicious looking berries into the mix. "I think it's nice. They're just very… enthusiastic about meeting us."
"The Gravelurk was 'enthusiastic'," Sophia said dryly, polishing a scorch mark from Storm's Verdict. "It gave me an enthusiastic full-body mud facial. My hair still smells like bog."
"It's a new scent," Camila announced from where she was tinkering with a small device. "Eau de Swamp Terror. Very bold. You're a trendsetter."
Sophia threw a bit of moss at her.
Kael sat with his back against a stone, the cool weight of the lightning fang a steady presence in his hand. The encounter with the wolves had shifted something. It wasn't just about survival anymore. They'd drawn a line. Sora settled beside him, her warmth a quiet contrast to the forest's chill.
"You're thinking about the dagger," she said softly, not a question.
He nodded. The Black Night Stone weapon lay wrapped in cloth beside Ellora's pack. A gift from a lightning wolf. It was insane. "It feels like we've been graded by the forest itself. And we got… a participation trophy that can probably kill a shadow."
"A plus for creative problem solving," she offered, a small smile playing on her lips.
Their moment was shattered by Daniel melting out of the evening gloom, his expression grimly amused. "We have company. Or rather, our company has company."
"Cultists?" Justin was on his feet in an instant.
"Worse. Dumber." Daniel pointed north. "Corvin's group. They're about two hundred yards out, setting up camp in a dry creek bed. And they're about to have the worst housewarming party ever."
A slow, collective grin spread around the fire. After the day they'd had, the idea of Corvin Hale walking into a disaster was… therapeutic.
"What's the catch?" Dominic asked, always practical.
"The creek bed isn't dry because of the season," Daniel's red eyes glinted. "It's dry because it's the drainage for a Poison Black Spider nest. Upstream. The vibrations of them setting up camp, driving stakes… It's like ringing a dinner bell."
Poison Black Spiders. Awakened Tier-2 pests. Not hugely powerful individually, but they hunted in swarms of dozens, their bite causing painful numbness and mild hallucinations. A nightmare in close quarters.
Lisa closed her alchemy notebook with a decisive snap. "Their venom has alchemical value. A controlled harvest could net significant bonus credits."
"Lisa, my love," Camila said, patting her arm. "Sometimes it's not about the credits. Sometimes it's about watching a bully get webbed to a tree while screaming in a high-pitched voice."
"The two objectives are not mutually exclusive," Lisa replied, her green eyes gleaming with sudden, terrifying calculation.
A plan formed, not with words, but with a series of looks. It was beautiful in its simplicity and pettiness.
"Right," Kael said, standing up. "Let's go get a better view. And by 'view', I mean a safe, elevated vantage point from which to observe natural consequences."
They moved like ghosts through the gathering dark. Daniel led them to a rocky overlook shrouded in thick Forest vines. Below, they could see Corvin's camp. Three tents were already up, and a cheery, magical light stone was casting long shadows. They could hear Corvin's voice, whining and arrogant.
"useless! You call this kindling? I've seen drier wood in a sauna! And you, Lyle, if you don't get that perimeter ward up, I'll have your family's mining contract revoked!"
"Charming fellow," Sora whispered.
"He's a poet," Dominic deadpanned. "Really paints a picture with his words. A picture of a moldy turnip."
Below, Corvin's lackey, Lyle, was frantically trying to anchor a warding post into the hard packed creek bed. He gave it one final, frustrated slam with a rock.
Thunk.
The sound echoed oddly.
A second of silence.
Then, from the dark holes and cracks in the creek bank upstream, a soft, skittering chorus began. It was the sound of a thousand tiny legs on stone.
"Uh, boss?" another lackey, a girl with bronze veins, said, peering into the dark. "Do you hear—"
The first wave of spiders poured out of the shadows. They were the size of a man's hand, bodies a glossy, venomous black, with twin red dots for eyes. They moved in a horrifyingly coordinated carpet of darkness, straight toward the source of the vibration.
Corvin's camp dissolved into pandemonium.
"SPIDERS! BY THE SOVEREIGNS, SPIDERS!"
"My ward! It's not tuned for vermin!"
"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF MY NECK!"
It was chaos. Lackeys danced and shrieked, batting at their clothes and hair. Spiders fell from the tent tops. One particularly ambitious arachnid scuttled straight into their stew pot and emerged waving its legs furiously.
Corvin, to his minor credit, tried to fight. He shot weak, panicked jets of flame that did little more than singe a few spiders and set the corner of his own tent smoking. "Form up, you idiots! Use area of effect!"
But his team was beyond listening. They were a symphony of panic.
From the ridge, Kael's group watched, their hands over their mouths to stifle laughter. Tears streamed down Camila's face. Justin was shaking silently, his shoulders trembling. Even Lisa had a hand pressed to her lips, her eyes sparkling.
Then, the alpha spider emerged. It was the size of a small dog, its carapace gleaming with a sickly purple sheen. It moved with chilling purpose, ignoring the fleeing lackeys, heading straight for Corvin, who was now backing toward the creek wall, his face pale.
"This is our cue," Kael whispered, the laughter dying into focused intent. "Sophia, you're on alpha duty. A little lightning to get its attention. Justin, Dominic, you're extraction. Get the lackeys clear. Ellora, Sora, perimeter control burn and tangle the swarms. Lisa, Camila, venom harvest on the stunned ones. Daniel, make sure nothing sneaks up on us. Go!"
It was like watching a well oiled machine engage.
Sophia stood, raised her spear, and a single, precise bolt of blue lightning forked down from the clear night sky. It didn't strike the alpha spider. It struck the wet stone next to it. The crack of thunder was deafening in the enclosed space, and the flash blinded everyone for a second.
The alpha spider reared back, confused and agitated, its attention ripped from Corvin.
Justin and Dominic were already moving down the slope. Justin moved like a guardian spirit, his sword a blur of non lethal flats and pommel strikes, knocking spiders off the screaming lackeys, his voice cutting through the panic. "To the high ground! NOW! Move!" Dominic simply waded in, his earth magic causing tremors that disrupted the swarm's advance, creating a safe path. He grabbed one weeping lackey by the collar and unceremoniously hauled him toward safety.
Ellora's vine spirit shot out, not to attack spiders, but to weave a quick, living barricade of thorns between the main swarm and the fleeing students. Sora stood beside her, her hands weaving gentle, wide fans of flame that washed over the ground, forcing the spiders to retreat from the heat without burning the forest down. The air filled with the scent of ozone and toasted chitin.
"Fascinating!" Camila chirped, dashing forward with Lisa. They moved with clinical efficiency, using insulated tongs and crystal vials to harvest venom from the spiders still twitching from Sophia's peripheral lightning effects. "The paralytic agent is clearly a neuro-protein! Lisa, pass me the neutralizer solution!"
In the center of it all stood Corvin Hale, untouched but utterly forgotten, watching his rivals clean up his mess with terrifying competence. His face cycled through fury, humiliation, and sheer, bewildered awe.
The alpha spider, recovering, focused its malice on the new threat: Sophia. It scuttled forward, mandibles clacking.
Sophia didn't back down. She smirked. "You're not a Grave lurk, ugly. Let's see how you like a direct application."
She didn't throw lightning this time. She charged. Storm's Verdict became a literal spear of crackling energy. She feinted left, then drove the spearpoint down, not through the spider, but into the ground between its front legs. A concentrated burst of lightning shot through the damp earth.
The alpha spider went rigid. Every one of its legs stuck straight out. It vibrated violently, emitting a high pitched, frying sound, before collapsing on its back, legs curled, a thin wisp of smoke rising from its abdomen.
Silence, broken only by the crackle of Sora's dying flame barrier and the distant skittering of the retreating swarm.
Kael walked down into the creek bed. He stopped before Corvin, who was smudged with dirt, his fine tunic torn, his expression that of a man who'd just seen reality recalibrate.
"You…" Corvin stammered, pointing a shaking finger at the efficiently working groups around him. "You… you planned this!"
Kael looked at the scorched, webbed, and generally pathetic state of Corvin's camp. He looked at his own team: Sophia yanking her spear from the ground with a satisfied grunt, Justin checking on a sniffling lackey, Ellora receiving a grateful nuzzle from her vine spirit.
"Planned?" Kael asked, his voice flat. "We heard screaming. We came to help." He leaned in slightly, lowering his voice so only Corvin could hear. "The Gloomwilds doesn't care about your name, Hale. It just cares if you're smart enough to listen. You should try it sometime."
He turned and walked away, leaving Corvin standing alone in the ruins of his arrogance.
"Pack up!" Kael called to his team. "We're leaving. I think we've overstayed our welcome."
As they gathered their things, Camila held up a full case of vials, beaming. "Enough purified venom for a year of advanced alchemy credit! And we didn't even have to buy the spiders dinner first!"
From their hidden perch, now abandoned, Princess Elara Everglade lowered her observation crystal. She didn't write immediately. A genuine, unstoppable smile was tugging at her lips. She took a breath to compose herself, then wrote.
*Team 7-B encountered Team 4-C (Hale) in a state of severe distress, having inadvertently provoked a nest of Poison Black Spiders. 7-B's intervention was swift, coordinated, and tactically brilliant, prioritizing containment, rescue, and resource harvesting over direct combat. The contrast in competence was… visually stark. Subject Hale was left functionally inert by the experience. Note: The social dynamic of 'faceslapping' appears to be a powerful, non-lethal tool for establishing dominance and morale within the 'no rules' framework. The lesson was delivered with devastating, and frankly amusing, effectiveness.*
She looked at the retreating backs of Kael's team, their laughter carrying softly on the wind. For the first time, her clinical analysis was tinged with something like admiration. They weren't just surviving the test. They were rewriting its rules. And they were having fun doing it.
The humor, however, was about to drain away. As night fully fell, a different predator was beginning to move. Theron Von Gale, informed by a furious and humiliated Corvin, was finalizing his own plans. His target wasn't resources or pride.
It was Ellora.
And his methods would make spider venom seem gentle.