The spectral knight's sword cleaved through chitin, but the Gloom-Web Arachnid barely flinched. Its carapace absorbed the blow, spider-webbing with cracks but holding firm. The creature was massive, the size of a carriage, with eight shard-like legs that moved with a speed that defied its bulk.

Reidar channeled another command through his Hive Mind Echo. Two more knights surged forward, shields raised. The spider's mandibles snapped down, catching one shield and crushing it inward. The knight staggered but didn't get killed.

From behind the knights, the Rift-Sprites let loose. Fireballs, ice shards, and chunks of rock slammed into the spider's swollen abdomen. The barrage tore through its spinnerets, and thick, black ichor started oozing out.

The spider shrieked, a sound that rattled Reidar's teeth. Its eyes tracked the sprites, and it lunged. One leg swept out in a scything arc, impaling a spectral knight through the chest. The knight dispersed into mana mist.

Reidar grimaced. These things were strong. Stronger than the Vorathid Ants. Stronger than most of what he'd faced. Level 110 wasn't just a number. It was a wall of power.

Four more Gloom-Web Arachnids skittered across the ruined buildings around them, crawling through walls as if it was nothing.

Reidar's formation shifted. Half of the spectral knights broke off to engage the newcomers. The Rift-Sprites split their fire, keeping pressure on all targets at once.

One spider launched itself from a rooftop, landing in the middle of his small army. Its spinnerets flared, and strands of the Gloom-Web that gave these creatures the name shot out.

The webbing flared with a sickly, phosphorescent glow. Three spectral knights, found themselves suddenly bound fast, their limbs locked in place by the sticky, glowing threads.

The spider advanced with a jerking, unnatural gait. The knights struggled, as they tried to free themselves, but the webbing held fast, dragging them closer to the creature's waiting fangs.

Lena appeared behind the spider, her daggers finding the joints where the legs met the body. She struck with enough force that the spider's leg buckled.

The creature twisted, trying to catch her. But Lena was already gone, though, darting away before its mandibles could snap shut.

The injured spider limped; its mobility was compromised, but there were four others of its kind around, and they worked in teams.

The spectral knights pressed the advantage, hacking at the damaged leg until it severed completely and making Ichor spray across the pavement.

Reidar kept his focus split. Three spiders to the left, two to the right. The Rift-Sprites were cycling their attacks, alternating between targets to maximize damage and slow them down. Five of these monsters were a lot even for his 50 Spectral Knights. Fire also softened the carapace. Ice cracked it. Stone shattered it, but there were multiple layers of it, so killing the beast wasn't easy.

Before another one of his summoned creatures could get killed, a circle of green light pulsed beneath the area where a spectral knight was.

The summoned creature was hurt, yet the moment the light touched it, its wounds began to heal. Jake darted past, his small frame moving faster than the eye could follow. He brushed another knight, and a second circle of light blossomed.

He was fast, damn fast, to the point that not even Lena could see him move, and he was covering ground faster than Reidar's own eyesight.

It turned out that Reidar had guessed the kid's trait wrong. It wasn't a speed-augmenting trait, but rather…

<It's a cheat. A cheat!>

Reidar realized the boy's gift wasn't speed at all, it was the ability to augment anything: speed, strength, even skills. Jake was sprinting between the knights, laying down green circles that stitched the wounded back together. Right now, he was burning mana to keep his speed at inhuman levels, racing between summons and casting Circle of Renewal on each one.

But it wasn't just that, because he also increased the effect and radius of the circle of renewal Reidar shared with him.

And it was working, the knights who should've been destroyed stayed in the fight. Those with critical hits were healing up. Jake was like a one-man med team, but his mana was draining fast. His trait ate through it like crazy.

One of the spiders on the right flank broke through the line. It barreled toward Reidar, its legs churning up debris.

He raised his wand, and the Void Javelin snapped into existence, a spear of pure darkness, humming with unstable energy. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled it. The javelin cut through the air like a shadow given form, striking the spider square in the head.

Mana surged through the attack, enough to crack its armored skull. Four of its eight eyes burst in a spray of ichor, but the beast didn't go down. It reeled, legs buckling, but stayed upright, dazed, but not dead.

It reeled but didn't stop. It charged blindly but without a shred of doubt.

Reidar dove aside. The spider crashed into the wall behind him, bringing down a shower of brick and mortar. Before it could recover, three spectral knights surrounded it, and their blades fell.

The spider didn't even have a chance to rise from the ground.

\[Gloom-Web Arachnid—level 108—defeated.\]

\[You have gained 11340 C.L.A.S.P. Points.\]

\[You have gained 3402 Survival Points.\]

Reidar exhaled. <One down. Four to go.>

Lena reappeared behind another spider, this one still on a rooftop. She'd climbed up somehow, using the rubble and vines as handholds. Her daggers found the soft tissue between carapace plates. The spider shrieked, its legs spasming.

The monster tried to shake her off. She held by driving both blades deeper. At some point, the pain must have been so great that the beast's movements grew erratic, and it lost purchase, falling off the roof's edge.

The Rift-Sprites saw the opening. A concentrated volley of fire and stone hammered the creature as soon as Lena got the fuck out of there.

She had used the beast's body to avoid damage, and just for the sake of being sure she was ok, Jake healed her.

Regardless, the Gloom-Web Arachnid didn't fare better. The surge of attacks made its abdomen rupture.

Most of those attacks were of fire, so as soon as the ichor got out of the beast, it turned into a cloud. It twitched once, then stopped.

\[Gloom-Web Arachnid—level 110—defeated.\]

\[You have gained 11550 C.L.A.S.P. Points.\]

\[You have gained 3465 Survival Points.\]

Two down.

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