The cavern was quiet, the only sounds the soft crackle of Ignis's internal fire and the gentle lap of violet water against the shore. Adam had just finished recounting his desperate gambit, luring the Cavern Creeper Queen into the Arachnowyrm's domain.

Alice listened intently, her starry eyes wide. 'So the big centipede… evolved? Into a Queen? And now it's injured?' A slow, understanding gleam entered her gaze. 'That… is an opportunity. Weakened prey is the easiest to hunt.'

"Precisely," came the gentle, melodious telepathic voice of Lilith. The Pale Weaver sat poised on a smooth rock, her pristine white form a stark contrast to the gloomy cavern. She exuded a calm, regal authority. 'The Queen is a significant source of power. Wounded and driven from her territory, she will be vulnerable, her guard lowered as she seeks to heal. It would be a strategic waste to ignore her. We should hunt her first. Consume her strength, add it to our own. Then, with that power bolstering us, we turn our attention to the Big Mother. A stepwise ascension.' Her tone was perfectly reasonable, almost nurturing, but the content was ruthlessly calm.

Adam nodded, feeling the truth in her words. "My thoughts exactly. Defeating an evolved Dungeon Lord like that… the EXP and EP will be enormous. It might even push me over the edge for my next evolution."

'Me too! I want to evolve again!' Ignis chimed in, her tail thumping eagerly. 'I'll get even bigger! And my fire will be hotter!'

Alice, however, was not fully convinced. Her eyes narrowed, flicking between Adam and the tunnel that led back to the spider's domain. 'And what about the 'Big Mother'? While we're hunting her rival, won't she come for us? She hates you, Adam. She'll sense an opportunity.'

Lilith let out a soft, chiming sound, a laugh that held no malice, only cold certainty. 'She will not. Not now. The invasion of her sanctum, the wounding of her brood, the presence of a rival Queen… it has shaken her. She is not a creature of impulsive pursuit. She is a weaver of schemes, a patient guardian of her domain. Right now, she will be fortifying her nest, reinforcing her webs, setting new traps. She fears not just us, but the vulnerability the Queen's attack exposed. She is… afraid of other eyes watching.'

Adam's head tilted. "Other eyes? What could make a creature like her afraid?"

Adam wanted to press for more details about the deeper horrors Lilith hinted at, but the pale spider merely inclined her head, a gesture of graceful uncertainty. 'I do not know their nature, only their… effect. The hive-mind echoes with her caution, not their names. It is a shadow in her thoughts.'

The mystery would have to wait. The immediate opportunity was clear, and it was fleeting. "Then we move now," Adam declared. "We don't know how fast something like that can heal. We find it, and we finish it."

The hunt began. Adam led the way, his Hunter's Tri-Sense stretched to its limit. He layered his senses seeking the faint, acidic scent of the Queen's blood, feeling for the deep, heavy vibrations of a massive creature burrowing to rest, and probing for the singular, powerful, and pained psychic signature he'd marked during the chase.

Beside him, Alice moved like living shadow, her own senses though not as versatile, keenly tuned to shifts in the darkness and the faintest of sounds. Ignis followed, her fiery light deliberately dimmed, while Lilith clung to Adam's back, her presence a silent, observing weight.

It was Adam who found the trail, a smear of corrosive, greenish blood on a tunnel wall, leading away from the Arachnowyrm's territory and down, deeper into a network of older, drier caves. The scent was sharp with pain, the psychic impression one of exhausted fury. They followed it to a vast, cavernous space littered with ancient stalagmites and pools of stagnant water.

And there, they found her.

The Cavern Creeper Queen had not gone far. She had burrowed partially into the soft earth at the cavern's far end, creating a shallow, defensive crater around herself. Her colossal, segmented body was a tapestry of wounds, deep gashes from the Arachnowyrm's legs, scorch marks from acid and web-venom, and the weeping hole where Adam's earlier attacks had struck true. She rested, but not peacefully. Her mandibles twitched, and a low, pained hum vibrated through the stone.

She was not alone.

Dozens—perhaps hundreds—of her smaller offspring, the standard Cavern Creepers, swarmed over and around her like living armor. They crawled across her wounded flanks, some secreting a thick, gluey substance over the injuries, others standing guard with their mandibles raised towards the cavern entrance. They were a living shield, a dedicated brood protecting their wounded matriarch as she concentrated her energy on regeneration.

Adam pulled back into the shadows of the entrance tunnel, his companions gathering close. He let out a low, frustrated hiss.

"This… complicates things," he murmured, his mind racing. "A direct assault means fighting through the entire swarm to get to her. And in this enclosed space, her acid and their numbers…" He remembered the suffocating, helpless feeling from their last encounter in the tunnels. "It'll be a brutal grind. We can win, but the cost, the time it would take… she might recover enough to fight back properly before we break through."

It was a hardened, fortified position. The wounded Queen was vulnerable, but she was far from defenseless. Reaching her would be the first, and perhaps most bloody, battle.

'I have an idea,' Alice's voice cut through his thoughts. She pointed with her snout towards a narrower side tunnel that branched off from the main cavern. 'I can lure the small ones. Lead them down that tunnel, then use a Void Bolt to collapse the entrance behind me, trapping them. While they're chasing me and digging their way out, you and Ignis attack the Queen directly.'

Adam blinked, turning to look at her. It was a bold, intelligent, and highly risky plan. A flicker of pride cut through his worry. "That's... a very good strategy, Alice. But it's too dangerous. If you get caught in that tunnel with them—"

'Do you not trust my strength now?' Alice interrupted, her starry eyes flashing. 'I evolved. I can move through shadows. They will never touch me.'

"I do trust you," Adam insisted. "But—"

'Then it's settled,' Alice said, finality in her tone. She turned to go.

"Wait!" Adam hissed, lowering his head to her level. "I agree to the plan. But you are not going alone. Take Lilith with you."

Alice's fur bristled instantly. 'Absolutely not. I don't need the spider. I work better alone.'

From her perch, Lilith let out a soft, chiming laugh. "Fufu. I have no objection. It would be my pleasure to assist, Alice. My silk could prove useful for creating diversions or additional barriers.'

'I said no!' Alice snapped, her tail lashing.

"Alice," Adam's voice dropped, a note of firm command entering it that he rarely used with her. "This is not a debate. You are doing a dangerous thing for the team. I am asking you to take a partner. I need you to watch each other's backs. I cannot focus on the Queen if I am worried about you being overwhelmed."

He met her gaze, his own unwavering. "Please."

Alice stared at him, the fight draining from her posture. He was trusting her with the vital distraction role, but mitigating the risk. She let out a soft, staticky huff, looking away. 'Hmph. Fine. Whatever. Let's just go.' She stalked towards the side tunnel.

'Come along then, white spider,' she grumbled telepathically.

Lilith gracefully disembarked from Adam and skittered after her, her movements silent and precise. 'I do have a name, you know,' she replied, her tone gently chiding yet amused.

'Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just hurry up and get on,' Alice muttered, not slowing down. With a sigh of resignation, Lilith leaped onto Alice's back, her white form a stark contrast against the Voidweaver Panther's abyssal fur. The unlikely pair vanished into the darkness of the side tunnel.

Adam watched them go, a knot of worry in his gut, but also confidence. He turned to Ignis, who was buzzing with barely contained energy. "Get ready, Ignis. The moment the swarm is drawn away, we hit the Queen with everything we have. No holding back."

'Yes, Boss!' Ignis chirped, her scales beginning to glow with suppressed solar fury.

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