The soft moonlight was just bright enough for Gaia to be able to make out every detail of the enormous spider. She gulped mentally while inspecting the colossal form of the beast. The spider resembled it’s smaller variant in many ways, the most obvious one the single red eye, but this spider was bigger, much bigger in fact.

Gaia figured it was almost three times as large as the other spiders, making it taller than even the grass around her. This creature could easily dwarf Scarlet without even as much of a sweat, but it was more than just the impressive size of this Cyclops that intimidated Gaia.

She noticed the spider’s legs ended in sharp silver spikes, perfectly made especially for penetrating hard exoskeletons. When Gaia looked further up, she saw that the rest of the spider's body was covered with plates made of the same silvery material, making it look like it had some kind of armour over its exoskeleton.

It didn’t take long for Gaia to realise that this creature must have evolved at least once, and she began to realise why Scarlet deemed evolution to be so important. The difference in power between the Cyclops and the smaller spiders was just simply overwhelming.

The giant one-eyed spider took a step closer and Gaia yelped. The ground didn’t exactly shake, but she definitely picked up the vibrations through her roots, which had about the same effect on Gaia. The creature moved its head close enough for Gaia to feel its stinking breath on her leaves. It reeked of death and decay.

“You… hurt usss,” a slithering voice resounded in Gaia’s head. “You will… pay.”

Gaia was suprised for a second when she heard the Cyclops speak. She hadn’t expected such an abomination of a monster to be able to interact with other living creatures, but she picked up its intention a second later. It only spoke to intimidate and distress her even more, which revolted Gaia.

She realised that these spiders were completely different from the ants. The ants hunted other creatures in order to eat, survive and feed their grubs, which was necessary to sustain and grow their colony. The spiders on the other hand only killed to consume and reduce the amount of living creatures on this planet. Although it sounded the same, Gaia deemed it fundamentally different.

She wanted to say something to the Goliath, but before she could even speak, the spider’s fangs flashed towards her with incredible speed. One of Gaia’s leaves fell onto the ground, bitten off by the large fangs. Only the small stem and the base of the leaf remained.

“Silence. You ssspeak when you are ssspoken to,” came the hissing voice.

Gaia’s severed leaf hurt a lot, but she didn’t scream. Instead, she turned towards the Goliath and spoke.

“Fuck off, you ugly thing. I’m not gonna grovel underneath your stinking feet, if that’s what you thought.”

“Foolisssh,” it said and its teeth flashed again, biting off another of Gaia’s leaves.

This time Gaia did scream. The spider began clicking its teeth together, but Gaia didn’t notice. All she could feel was the burning pain in the stump where her leaf had been a second ago. This time the pain was different though, as Gaia felt a strange cold spread through her entire body. Her heart sunk in her chest when she realised that this bite had been poisoned.

Her vision became blurry, and the only thing she saw when she looked up was the glowing red eye of the Goliath. Trying her best to remain awake, she called for help. The world began revolving around her now, but she kept calling.

“Please help, anyone,” she muttered softly.

“We are on our way now Mother, please hold on just a little longer,” a voice finally answered her calls. Gaia smiled weakly as she heard Scarlet’s calming voice in her mind.

Only a moment later, ants came pouring out of the entrance of the anthill. Gaia was only half aware that their numbers were much lower than during the fight this afternoon. Only fourteen ants were present now, and most of them weren’t in a good condition either. They were still recovering from their wounds after all.

Still, the ants were looking just as determined as before. They all fearlessly lunged themselves at the Goliath, ignoring all of the smaller spiders, who were still too suprised by the ants’ sudden arrival to react immediately. Gaia was about to cheer them on with the little strength she had left, when she noticed something was wrong, terribly wrong even.

All of the ants had bravely leapt towards the Cyclops, but now they were all dangling mid-air, helplessly moving their little legs and caught by suprise. Gaia squinted her eyes with effort and noticed what had caused this sudden turn of events.

It appeared the smaller spiders had secretly woven invisible webs made of sticky strings between the grass without her noticing. The ants, whose nest was just outside of her little area, hadn’t noticed the barrier either and dived straight into the trap when they charged at the Cyclops. Gaia watched the ants trying to escape their sticky prison in vain as she stood by, powerless.

The Cyclops slowly walked over to the helpless ants and observed them with its single eye. Its gaze shifted from ant to ant, untill it fell on an ant who was missing two legs, which probably happened during the battle before. The ant didn’t move an inch as the Cyclops lazily lifted one of its legs, but Gaia felt what was going to happen.

“No!” She yelled, but the Cyclops ignored her scream. Faster than the eye could follow, the tip of the spider’s leg pierced the round head of the ant, killing it instantly. The Cyclops then slowly pulled the dead ant out of the trap and raised it towards its fanged mouth.

Gaia looked away, but she couldn’t ignore the crunching of the ant’s exoskeleton resounding through her mind. Slowly, she looked up again. Only a single antenna was left laying on the ground. The Cyclops quickly picked it up and stuffed it in its mouth again. Then it turned around and looked at the smaller spiders standing by.

“Now, let’sss feassst, children!” It hissed, after which all spiders started moving excitedly.

All Gaia could do was watch the spiders close in on the ants, who were still helplessly caught in the web. If only she could have done something to prevent this. If she had just listened to Scarlet and evolved herself, maybe she could have at least gave the ants an opportunity to escape. But now the ants would die, and it was all her fault.

Gaia had almost given up completely when she felt the earth vibrate again. Not from the surface this time, but from… underneath? She stared at the entrance of the ant nest again, which seemed to budge outwards a little. She looked at the spiders, but they didn’t seem to notice, the creatures already closed in on the trapped ants. She just had to buy them a few more seconds.

“Hey!” She suddenly screamed at the spiders. “Watch out, something’s coming from above!”

It was the oldest trick in the book, but it somehow worked. All spiders, including the Cyclops looked up for a split second, which was at exactly the same time as when the entrance of the anthill exploded outwards. The spiders quickly turned around when they heard the sound, and Gaia couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw who had come to their aid.

The frames of four massive ants had come bursting out of the anthill, and were now watching the scene with their red compound eyes. Gaia immediately recognized Scarlet, her large and royal form unmistakable hers, but she had to think for a while before she figured out who her three allies were. Gaia gaped when she finally recongised them.

They had changed a lot, but Gaia couldn’t help but let out a laugh when she identified the three other ants as the Dardevils. The same ants that had found her a while back and had helped her by answering some of her questions were now standing proudly next to their queen on the battlefield, ready to fight for their colony.

Gaia hadn’t noticed at the time, but now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen the Daredevils since they had brought her the spider’s corpse at all. Not during the first battle, nor during this one either. They had probably been busy evolving the entire time, and Gaia was glad they had.

The Daredevils had undergone a lot of drastical changes in just this single day. Not only had they grown to be slightly larger than even Scarlet, but the aura they gave off had changed as well. They appeared stronger and more deadlier now. Their roundish carapace had been replaced by a pointier and more sturdier looking one, and their legs were bigger too now. Gaia looked at their faces and noticed their mandibles looking much more powerful than before.

The spiders reacted with less enthusiasm than Gaia. Apart from the Cyclops, all spiders were now sandwiched between their own barrier of strings and their new enemies. One of the spiders couldn’t contain its anger anymore and was stupid enough to try and throw himself onto the queen, furious that its meal had been interrupted by these strange ants.

The spider hadn’t even left the ground yet when it was caught by one of the Daredevils by its hairy abdomen. Before the spider could react, the ant snapped the spider in two. The other spiders stared at their fallen comrade laying on the ground, but the ants gave them no chance to react. Within a few seconds, three more spiders had fallen by the ants’ mandibles.

This spiders finally figured out what was happening and immediately started attacking the ants all at once. For a second it seemed like they would overwhelm them with their numbers, just like the ants had done in the first battle, but unlike the spiders, the ants came prepared.

While the daredevils fended the spiders off, Scarlet quickly dashed for the ants caught in the webs, wounding a few spiders in the process. When she finally arrived, she swiftly cut the threads with a few snaps of her mandibles. Some of the now released ants immediately started attacking the unaware spiders from behind, while some of them stayed behind to defend their queen.

The ants had the upper hand now, but the spiders weren’t finished yet. As soon as half of their numbers had fallen prey to the ants, the Cyclops joined the battle. Furiously biting at everything that moved, Gaia had to watch as ants were devoured left and right. The smaller ants with their unevolved mandibles couldn’t pierce the Cyclops’ shiny exoskeleton and were helpless in front of this kind of enemy.

The Daredevils on the other hand managed to wound one of the spider’s legs after a few attempts. The Cyclops hissed and smacked one of the Daredevils with the sharp end on its feet. The ant staggered, but since it wasn’t a fatal wound, it continued attacking the monster.

Gaia watched as another Daredevil managed to land a heavy blow on the Cyclops’ abdomen with its leg. She knew this was a fight they could win. Since it took about three ants to take out a single spider, it would probably take three evolved ants to take out an evolved spider as well.

The Cyclops however seemed to have reached this conclusions as well, as it dashed towards Gaia as fast as it could and placed it’s fangs at her stem.

“One more ssstep and ssshe diesss,” it hissed at them.

All of the ants froze in place when they noticed who it was the Cyclops was holding hostage. Gaia didn’t have the impression the ants had heard the spider at all, but they seemed to have understood the situation. The smaller ants stopped fighting the last remaining three spiders, who quickly booked it into the tall grass as soon as they were being released.

The Cyclops however remained, alone on the battlefield and still holding Gaia between its large fangs. Gaia remained calm, catching the Daredevils’ attention by slowly moving one of her leaves without the Cyclops noticing. It worked, as the Daredevils slightly nodded. The Cyclops looked at them, but it failed to understand the meaning of the gesture.

“Now!” She shouted and the Daredevils sprung into action.

The fangs surrounding Gaia closed, but like she had observed before when the Cyclops had bitten off her leaves, its teeth weren’t suited for cutting at all, but more for biting and piercing hard surfaces. So when it tried snap Gaia in two with its fangs, she managed to escape its bite by bending her stem backwards matrix-style.

The Cyclops, now only biting air, seemed suprised by her sudden evasion, but the Daredevils didn’t give it the time to strike again. They dashed towards the spider all at once, but hadn’t expected it to suddenly turn around, mouth wide open. One of the ants was bitten directly in the eye, and Gaia noticed black liquid being added to the wound.

The other ants managed to grab a hold on the Cyclops, but with one of their teammates now laying unconsciously on the ground, they couldn’t finish it off. They desperately tried to hold onto the Cyclops as it tried to shake them off, they couldn’t hold it for much longer. Just when the Cyclops was about to break free, a large amount of dark green blood washed over Gaia, obscuring her vision.

She quickly shifted her point of vision to one of her leaves and looked up. She saw the form of Scarlet standing on her back legs, holding up the body of the Cyclops with her mandibles. Precisely at the exact same moment the Cyclops had been distracted, she had managed to slip under its head and pierce the spider’s head from underneath with her mandibles. The two Daredevils let go of the monster’s corpse and Scarlet slowly sunk on the floor as well.

It was finally over.