They walked in a wide semicircle to avoid the invisible poison cloud of the Corpse Lotus. The detour took them through a dense thicket of black, thorny vines that seemed to reach out for their uniforms like rusted hooks.
Jin led the way now, forcing Ren to step back into the middle of the line until they cleared the immediate hazard area.
"Keep your mouths covered," Jin ordered quietly, his hand steady on the hilt of his falchion. "The poison hangs in the damp air. If you smell anything sweet, hold your breath and run backward."
Ren nodded so hard his neck cracked. He held the sleeve of his dirty uniform tightly over his nose and mouth, his eyes darting frantically from leaf to leaf.
After ten minutes of tense, silent hacking through the black thorns, the air cleared. The sweet, heavy scent of decay vanished, replaced once more by the standard smell of wet dirt and rotting leaves.
Jin stopped. He looked back at Ren.
"The hazard is cleared," Jin said. "Ten paces. Resume your position."
Ren let out a miserable, muffled groan but complied. He stepped forward, his boots squelching loudly in the deep mud as he took his place at the front of the line. He looked like a prisoner marching toward a firing squad.
The jungle was growing darker again, even though it was barely midday. The thick canopy above was so dense that not a single ray of sunlight pierced the green roof now. Everything was locked in a cold, grey twilight.
Suddenly, a strange sound echoed from the high branches.
Click. Click. Click.
It was not a bird. It was a dry, rhythmic sound, like two heavy hollow stones being struck together at high speed. It was coming from the trees directly above them.
Jin froze. He did not look up immediately. Looking up was a common instinct that exposed the throat and eyes to falling attacks.
"Luna," Jin whispered.
Luna did not need the warning. She had already slipped behind a thick, mossy trunk to the left. She held her chain-sickle ready, her blue Aether beginning to pulse softly through her veins.
Ren stopped dead in his tracks. His entire body was shaking. "What is that?" he whimpered, his voice cracking. "Is it a bird?"
"No," Jin said.
A heavy drop of thick, clear liquid fell from the canopy. It landed directly on a large fern three feet in front of Ren.
Sizzle.
The fern instantly turned black and began to dissolve. A foul, acidic smoke rose from the melting green leaf.
Ren screamed and jumped backward, tripping over his own boots and landing hard on his rear in the mud. He scrambled backward like a crab, pointing a shaking finger at the dissolving plant. "Acid! It's acid!"
The clicking sound grew incredibly fast and loud.
From the dark canopy thirty feet above, a shape dropped down. It did not fall like a stone; it descended silently on a thick, sticky thread of grey silk.
It was a Spindle-Leg Weaver. Foundation Level 6.
The beast looked like a massive, hairless spider, but its body was covered in a hard, segmented black carapace that looked like polished obsidian. Its eight legs were long and ended in razor-sharp, spear-like points. In the center of its head was a single, massive bulbous red eye that pulsed with a faint, angry light.
It was worth six Merit Points.
The Weaver landed softly on the rotting log right in front of the crawling Ren. Its massive mandibles clicked violently, dripping more of the clear, steaming acid into the mud.
It lunged.
"Bait active," Jin muttered.
He didn't wait for the beast to reach the screaming boy. Jin pushed his Level 10 Aether into his legs, exploding forward from the mud. He swung his heavy silver falchion in a massive, horizontal sweep aimed directly at the spider's front leg joints.
The Weaver was incredibly fast.
It sensed the incoming kinetic force. It did not try to block the sword. Instead, it used its powerful back legs to spring backward, leaping ten feet into the air.
While mid-air, its abdomen twisted. It fired a thick, wide net of sticky grey silk directly at Jin's chest.
Jin knew the math of the silk. If it touched him, the adhesive would bind his arms to his chest, rendering his sword useless.
He did not try to dodge. He didn't have the space.
Jin reached into his belt pocket and pulled out the red clay tile. His fireball rune. He pushed a single drop of Aether into the clay and threw it hard at the incoming net.
"Burn," Jin said.
The red clay tile exploded mid-air.
BOOM.
A violent, localized blast of bright orange fire erupted in the space between Jin and the spider. The sudden kinetic blast tore the sticky grey net to shreds, instantly burning the silk to black ash. The shockwave blew the wet mud away from Jin's boots and threw the giant spider off balance, sending it crashing heavily into a thick patch of ferns.
The Weaver hissed, its massive red eye flashing wildly. The fire had singed its front legs, but its hard black carapace had protected its vital organs.
Before the beast could recover its footing, a sharp whistle cut through the smoke of the explosion.
Luna stepped out from the shadows. She swung her right hand. The silver throwing knife attached to her chain flew through the air, aiming directly for the spider's massive red eye.
The Weaver saw the projectile. It raised its thick, armored front leg to block the tiny blade.
Luna narrowed her grey eyes. Her Level 9 Aether flared.
The space directly in front of the spider's leg warped. The flying knife hit the distortion and snapped hard to the left, completely bypassing the armored limb.
The razor-sharp knife buried itself deep into the side of the spider's head, right behind the massive red eye.
The Weaver let out a high-pitched, screeching whistle. It thrashed wildly, its long, spear-like legs stabbing deep holes into the mud as it tried to shake the blade loose.
"Pull!" Jin shouted.
Luna grabbed the chain with both hands, planted her boots, and yanked.
The silver knife tore through the soft tissue inside the head. The giant spider's movements grew sluggish, its nervous system severely damaged by the laceration.
Jin was already there.
He closed the distance in a single, massive stride. He gripped his falchion with both hands, channeling his Level 10 Aether until the silver steel hummed. He brought the blade down in a brutal, vertical chop.
Crack.
The heavy silver blade split the spider's obsidian head completely in half.
The Spindle-Leg Weaver shuddered once. Its eight long legs folded inward, collapsing its massive body into the wet dirt. It was dead.
Jin stood over the corpse, breathing steadily. The heat from the fireball explosion was still lingering in the damp air. He wiped the black spider blood off his sword.
"Six points," Jin said.
He knelt next to the split skull. He used the tip of his sword to pry open the inner cavity, popping out a small, dark blue stone. A Level 6 Aether core. He dropped it into his spatial pouch.
"That makes sixteen points total," Jin calculated. He looked up at Luna, who was already reeling her chain back in. "We are well past the survival threshold."
He turned around.
Ren was still sitting in the mud, staring at the dead giant spider with wide, hollow eyes. He looked completely traumatized, but he was completely uninjured.
"You see?" Jin said, walking over to the boy and offering a hand. "The bait system works perfectly. You survived."
Ren stared at Jin's outstretched hand, then slowly looked at the dead spider.
"I almost got dissolved," Ren whispered, his voice shaking. "My life passed before my eyes. I saw my grandmother."
"But you are breathing," Jin pointed out, pulling the boy up by his arm. "And the beast is dead. That is a highly successful transaction. Now, brush the mud off your pants. We have more territory to cover."
Ren stood up on trembling legs. He looked at Jin, then at Luna, and let out a long, exhausted sigh. He realized he had no choice. He was officially part of the squad now, and his role as the loudest, most terrified bait in the jungle was far from over.