My sight was restricted to a five-foot diameter around me, but luckily my mist more than made up for the limitation. It was a good thing too. Webs spread across the rows of gambling machines, random tables and pillars, creating a maze. I bent and twisted like a gymnast, maxing out all the moves that the System added into my Guide to study, just to make it through quickly. Even so, I could hear the scurrying of many legs, the hard exoskeletons brushing and tapping against each other.

Farther behind me came screaming — mostly a man screaming. It echoed so much that I couldn’t make out his words.

But I didn’t have time for that.

I B-Twisted over a stretch of web, my horizontal body spinning through the slender gap with only inches between me and white filament on either side. Three spiders dropped from the ceiling, their uneven legs spread wide, clicking their pinky-sized fangs together.

My kindjal appeared in my hands mid-twist and my arms came into action. By the time I landed, one spider was dead, another half dead, and the last wasn’t far behind. Several quick moves later, I collected their EXP and Drop orbs and ran on before their bodies even finished dissolving into little lights that lit up the dark for a split second.

More and more of the spiders came at me. I didn’t know where I was going. Even if I had a map, between hurrying through the web maze and killing spiders that rained down, I wouldn’t have time to even look. Vaguely, I heard the System notify me that I leveled up, but even that was ignored. I was too busy dealing with the spiders. I twisted and slashed at the monsters closest to me, while creating blocks of mist and smashing them down around me. Guts and broken exoskeletons piled around the slot machines, but the spiders never seemed to end.

I was currently winning, but that didn’t mean that I got away scot-free. Countless holes and injuries dotted my body where a spider got through my defense long enough to attack. Most of them were stabs from the needle-hooks on the tips of their legs, but I could also feel several venomous bites on my legs and arms. Luckily, the venom didn’t seem to be a neurotoxin, but the area where I was bit felt like it was on fire.

I flicked my wrist, snapping my arm straight, and cast Mist Blade. The water vapor solidified in the ten-foot blade around my kindjal. My face twisted in a scowl as I swung the weightless weapon, while I used my left kindjal for defense and attack. Since Stealth didn’t work on these monsters — I have a feeling it had to do with the webs that wafted around when I moved — I cancelled it so I didn’t waste more MP than I needed to.

Loud crashes and yelling echoed behind me, Blake’s team fighting the Uttu and other spiders. They were obviously having a hard time, but that wasn’t my business. It's not like I was having that much better of a time. Slowly the sounds of their fighting were getting farther and farther away.

The Mist Blade slashed through the webbing, clearing a way through and killing several monsters at the same time. Finally, I had enough of a break to pay attention to the layout the map created in my mind. To my right was a restaurant, overturned tables and chairs. Not far away to my left was an open room with rows of tables and chairs.

And just past that was a pair of closed double doors. The exit?

I sprinted forward, slashing the Mist Blade in front of me as I went. The spiders ran after me, their feet scuttling across the crusty carpet. I landed in front of the door and pushed the bar-handle. The door wiggled then hit something on the other side. That was when I noticed that the door was made out of glass, but there wasn’t an ounce of light coming through it. Something huge was completely blocking the way.

I kicked at the door. The glass shattered, and my foot hit the rubble behind. It didn’t budge. Was this concrete? From the partially collapsed parking garage?

“Damn,” I hissed and turned around, swinging my blades as I turned and killing more spiders.

The System dinged, alerting me of another level, but I could hardly celebrate. All I could think was, how many had I killed in this short of time to level up? Had it been a short time? I didn’t have a way to tell right then. Leveling was great, but I was in over my head. My HP was dropping steadily and the fiery burn around the bite wounds was slowly growing. It was time to get out of here. After I healed up, I could come back here with Kesstel. If he could take out a dragon, he could squash a bunch of spiders.

I could fight my way back to the front entrance and cut it open with my Mist Blade, but then I’d have to run past the conservatory. I didn’t know how many spiders I’d killed so far, but it wasn’t hundreds. There had to be a lot more monsters in the nest. Also, I didn’t know where the Uttu was. I could hear the fighting going on, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. If I ran that way, I could accidentally get mixed up in something worse than I was now. There was another exit around a corner from where I was, but I could already tell that there was no light coming from it. It was probably barricaded just like the door behind me.

Instead, I focused on a staircase, one of the two that I had run past, not far from me. I couldn’t see what was on top, hell it could be worse than this, but I had to take the risk. I couldn’t stay cornered forever. I fought my way to the stairs and jumped up in one leap.

No surprise, there were more webs. However, there seemed to be fewer spiders for the moment. That fact was quickly changing, as spiders crawled up from the staircase. I created a solid piece of mist and slammed it over the top of the stairs like a lid, then took care of the few that had made it out of the hole first. Spiders stabbed at the solid mist blocking their way, but since they weren’t stronger than me, it stayed in place.

I looked around me, completely flabbergasted. Seriously, there wasn’t a single window in sight on the corridor I was standing in or in the several empty conference rooms around me. The only light source came from ahead of me, where the second floor opened up to overlook the conservatory.

Do they just not believe in windows in Las Vegas? I wanted to yell out. What was so wrong with a window in a building? Every building needed an escape route in case of a fire, or in case a horde of huge spiders attacked. But the only windows I’d seen in this building were the ones that lined the conservatory walls, probably ‘viewing specials’ to the hotel room's visitors.

There really was only one way to go now. Frustrated and a little desperate, I ran toward the light. I was starting to regret following Blake into this building. I should have scoped it out more before I went in. But there was no time to stew. More spiders were pouring in, blanketing the ceiling, and scurrying across the floor.

On and on, I swung my blades and smashed monsters, all the while trying to get to the conservatory. Maybe at this point, if Blake’s team was still alive and keeping the Uttu distracted, I could jump up the windowed walls. If I couldn’t make it to the glass ceiling — which I doubted I could — I could at least break through a window in the conservatory and leave through the other side of the hotel. I know from looking at the hotel tower that it was covered in unblocked windows, I just didn’t know where the hotel rooms started and the prison-like casino ended.

Muted light poured through the open doors to a balcony overlooking the dead garden. Above, the spider nest stretched out, seemingly thicker than ever. It wasn’t flickering with as many smaller spiders anymore, but there were still a lot on it. It was going to be a rough escape, but I was already on plan D — all of them made up on the fly. I was running out of options.

With a calculated, huge swing, the four spiders died between me and the curved, dirty white marble and dark wood balcony, finally leaving me a clear path. I lunged through the opening, blinking hard as my eyes adjusted to the sudden light change. Elevator shafts rose over the balcony, going all the way up, with rows of hotel room windows on either side. It was an easy jump to the first floor, less than twenty feet. And there was still ten feet before the webbing started. Good. Now that I was actually in the conservatory, I realized that all I needed was three or four jumps to get to the glass top. If I could avoid the webs and spiders, I could be out of here in less than a minute. The question was, did I want to deal with spiders and webs in the dark or in the light?

My knees bent, ready to jump.

The wall exploded on the other side of the elevator shafts. From the first hotel floor, Blake’s team came flying out of the hole and landed on the balcony ten feet from me. They were obviously battered, covered in wounds and thick white film, but still alive. Although I didn’t know how much longer for the fourth man. Red blood leaked from puncture wounds on the back of his throat, and his face had a grayish hue. Still, by the way that he gripped his sword, he wasn’t ready to lay down and die.

The other Hunters spotted me and gasped.

“Y-You!” Blake hissed and pointed his sword at me.

My attention was split when the horde of spiders that were chasing me through the darkness started to spill out onto the balcony. I thrust my hand out. A huge block of solid mist fell over the entrance, smashing the handful of monsters in the light and blocking the others from coming.

“I thought she was an E,” Mark muttered.

Out of the gaping hole the Hunters just came from, the thick, long brown spiders spread out. The Uttu’s head appeared, then the rest of its humongous body. It spread across the wall like a nightmare from hell, looking at us with its many black eyes, click, click, clicking its fanged together. There were clear signs of damage to it, but it still had more than half its HP and it didn't seem tired.

I spun around and located a gap in the webs on the wall left of the elevators, opposite of the Uttu. As soon as I saw it, I jumped in that direction. Anything to put distance between me and the huge spider. I swung my Mist Blade and cut the hole bigger so that I didn’t touch the web as I sailed through. A small mist block appeared on the wall, a perfect place for me to land. My boots had barely touched it when Blake and his team landed on the wall right next to me, using the hole that I just cut.

I scowled at them — well him — but I didn’t have time for more than that. The Hunters weren’t the only thing leaping after me. My stomach twisted painfully when the Uttu sprung off the wall in our direction, uneven legs outstretched.

Truly desperate now, I jumped up to the next level, the other Hunters right behind me. Forget going through the building to the outer walls now. I just wanted to get out of here. The closest exit was up, through the nest. I had my mist blocks to help me jump, but the other Hunters didn’t. They clung to the walls like the monsters we were fighting, trailing after me.

The Uttu landed on the wall, making the whole thing shake. Windows cracked and shattered, raining shards down. The giant spider sped after us. But the very thing that was slowing us down — the webs — were also preventing the spider from catching us too fast. It also had to crawl through the holes in the webs.

Speed was my thing right now, my whole body focused on getting to the glass ceiling. However, I still had to deal with the smaller spiders that flooded toward us. Fighting them slowed me down, eating up every advantage I had over the Uttu by being smaller. Unfettered, I could reach the top in three or four jumps. Because of the webs and killing the spiders on it, I was forced to make one small jump at a time, the Uttu hot on my heels.

Another three-foot spider died at the tip of my Mist Blade. The two halves of its carcass hit the Uttu on the back, leaving a trail of black blood on the giant brown abdomen before the halves fell and caught on the thick white web. The Uttu, only ten feet below me, didn’t pause as it climbed after me and the other Hunters.

I looked up to the steel-framed glass top. So close, twenty more feet. Just one more jump. Unfortunately, a dozen thick strands of the white web criss-crossed in front of me. In the corner of my vision, my MP bar flashed red. I had been using MP like running water all day, and now I was starting to run dry. I gritted my feet and put more effort into my Mist Blade.

I jumped up and swung hard, hacking the stands of web from the side of the wall. Web wafted behind me, mostly cut away from this side of the conservatory. Dozens of carcasses and one of Mark’s swords weighed down the web filament. Cutting the web enabled the Uttu to go faster as well, but if I could take away the threat of the smaller spiders, I could move faster too.

Blake’s constant cursing hummed in my ear. He hadn’t stopped swearing this whole time, as if it would help him go faster. He had tried several times to get above me, but the other Hunters quickly found out that their weapons couldn’t cut the webbing — which was how Mark lost his sword. They were forced to let me go first, much to Blake’s disgust. He hated that he was below an E, below the person he’d been trying to kill for months, and wasn’t afraid to spew his poisonous words at me even as he used me to save his life.

Mark and Penny stayed even with Blake, killing most of the spiders and saving Blake’s ass more than once. The fourth man was several steps behind, every desperate move just inches away from the Uttu’s front legs. If his face had been gray before, it was flat out ghastly now.

With one last swing, I cut the last strands of the spider’s nest in front of me, detaching it from the wall. The weight of the nest shifted to the other side, pulling the few strands attached on this wall taut. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, the remaining strands were stretched thinner and thinner. With an audible snap, the strands broke and the nest on this side collapsed. The huge egg sac in the middle of the nest swung to the side with the movement, acting like a wrecking ball. More strands snapped from other places on the nest. The egg sac smashed into the wall and completely flattened on one side. Smaller spiders rained down to the ground, dislodged from the violent web.

The Uttu paused. There were no emotions on its ugly face, but it seemed shocked by the sudden chaos.

Mark threw his war hammer up. The whole square of slanted glass overhead exploded. Me and the other Hunters took advantage of everything to jump through the hole. I couldn’t be more excited to breathe in the dry, hot Las Vegas air. Wind and sand whipped around me and tugged at the thin veil of mist that I kept around my feet. Small particles of glass stuck in my hair and pricked at my scalp, but none of that mattered. I sprinted to the edge of the building, ready to jump down to freedom.

A small black spot caught my eye and I turned my head. Far, far down below, half hidden between two dead palm trees next to the dried up swimming pool, was a small black arch. As soon as I saw it, a rush of emotion surged inside me. I knew what that was.

The Portal to the System.

*****