The doorway to the jungle yawns in my vision, and I feel a churning in my hive. Wait, no, that's the delinquents having a snack. Or is it? I thought I didn't have a sense of touch before but now I do? It's probably just the nerves. It's one thing to march down here with intent to kill, but it's another to go through with it.

Steeling my nerves, I approach with extreme trepidation, moving extremely slowly, making the softest possible footfalls and examining every inch of ground. It's much easier with so many legs.

That spider lives underground, and I have a suspicion about how he knew I was there last time. I almost don't notice it in time, but Bob manages to catch sight of it before I do and warns me.

A tiny thread of spidersilk about 2 feet off the ground. I can't see it with these metal eyes very well, an unfortunate flaw, but the delinquents are more than happy to lend me their eyes instead.

I carefully follow the spidersilk back along its length, where the thread ends, I'll find the spider waiting. I know where it was last time, but I doubt it stayed put after I trashed the place.

Following the threads, I find a massive junction of threads all leading to one semi-realistic looking rock. This one's probably made of spidersilk like the other, and a big spider hides underneath.

It's time to execute the plan. I climb up a tree, position myself above the likely hideout, and begin unhinging my jaw. Once my mouth is open as far as I can make it, I spit up a small boulder, grabbing on with all my arms so I don't drop it. I carefully position it so I can grip it with my metal mandibles, and begin heating it up with magic.

A small application of heat, then a short wait, then another, repeated gradually over a period of time to make sure the rock doesn't heat up too fast, and soon the rock is smoking and starts to faintly glow.

The rock softens up enough so that it slips from my grip, and plummets, nearly molten, from the tree, smashing through the facade below and soon sending flames licking up from below ground.

I don't see a spider.

Huh.

Well I've lost the surprise now. I thought for sure he'd be in there. The only reasons he wouldn't...

Maybe he was hiding somewhere else or out running errand or something.

or maybe he noticed me coming.

If I were a sneaky spider, I'd have climbed the tree too. Fuck it, paranoia is the only reasonable answer to this, isn't it?

Making a snap decision, I draw flamethrower wands with all four hands and spray fire in all directions, setting as much of the tree on fire at once as I can. I want to say I leaped from the tree, but considering I was hanging upside down from a branch by my legs, I simply let go and tried to right myself before I struck the ground. The delinquents all bail, watching in all directions to see if my paranoia paid off or if I am a fool.

Jessica spots a suspiciously prolonged and directional rustling of leaves as something unseen moves to another tree, and I chase after it, burning the canopy as I go.

Make a fool of me once, and I'll write it off. Pull the same thing again and I'll burn your house down.

I am so done with this kind of thing. As if I didn't get enough of that back home.

I quickly lose track of the rustling in the treetops as the forest blazes around me, but that's ok. I know everywhere the spider isn't, and everywhere he could be. The parts where he could be aren't on fire yet.

That can be solved by adding more fire.

after seeding the fire enough, I head back to the entrance and cover myself in dirt, while sending the delinquents to safety.

Nowhere to run, you bastard!

Unless there's another exit somewhere, I'll see the spider soon.

A few minutes later, I see it approaching. The smoke is messing with whatever magic it's using to shroud its form, and a wavery outline shows up.

I form a link and rise from the earth.

"Did you come to concede?"

The spider pauses. "Well played, Sapling. I never thought you had it in you. It appears you have put me in a corner. But no, I am not here to concede. I am here to kill you for burning down my home." mid speech, the spider lunges towards me, but I am ready. The mana crystal grenade I buried only takes a small spark of mana to detonate, and both of us are caught in the blast. While the shockwave stunned the spider, I lunged forward myself, pincers forward and gnashing. My limbs met its limbs, and while I scored some grievous wounds with my mandibles, it was much, much stronger than I.

I was thrown back, but not before I left another grenade behind. The wounds I had made were now gaping chasms where muscle and blood could be seen moving beneath the skin. Burnt gashes leaked a bloodlike greenish fluid that stopped falling on the way to the ground, reentering the body through some kind of magic. Energy came from the spider, sealing the gashes with some kind of translucent energy barrier. A screeching angry sound could be heard from the creature, as translucent blades formed on the ends of its legs and it reared back to strike again.

Spewing fire at the angry spider, I wove through the burning trees, running as fast as I could.

I knocked down a tree towards the spider, only to see it split the tree in pieces and knock them aside, continuing its charge.

I deployed two more mana grenades, but it was watching for them now, and I barely grazed it with either explosion.

It's time... A quick link, and a message goes through, and Eliza descends from the ceiling, camouflaged by her transparent frame. She lands right in the middle of its back and starts driving her massive new crystal stinger home, again and again. I cut the link after it's apparent she has it covered. Her laughter is unsettling.