They were being transported by several large carriages pulled by a pair of horses far larger than the average horse should be, obviously these were bred with a high amount of Ehror. Weirdly Hector noted that their keepers did not travel with them, and he could not sense them outside. He was sure that this was deliberate or else it was a massive oversight considering what happened recently. He was not so naïve to think that they were not being watched from afar.

He had originally wondered why they had left them to essentially their own devices, the horses seemed to know exactly where they were going even having the ability to scare away any monsters that got too close. The animals even stopped every couple of days giving them the option to rest and stretch even when it was not quite needed for most of them anyway. They even fed themselves. Hector was quite amazed, the little he knew about animals from what they were taught in the facility told him that these creatures were far smarter than they should be with some specialised abilities as well.

That was when it happened, a creature too powerful for the for the abilities of the horses’ to work on it appeared. It was a gigantic spider far larger than the carriage. They did not whiney in fright though, but just enough to alert the Novas inside the carriages. Maria glanced at Hector and at a nod was outside in an instant. The others followed her lead. Other carriages also had their occupants vacate the vehicles warily.

Hector released his Ehror his surroundings taking on a golden hue as a gold metallic substance flowed around his arms into large gauntlets, the ones he fought Sevyn with before he was interrupted. The carriage sized spider was not the only creature, it had a lot of other smaller but still dog sized spiders accompanying it. Everyone else released their Ehror too as did the spider in a gesture of intimidation. Maria was letting off a positively sinister aura, around her the world dimmed into darkness as tendrils shot out from around her in a wild flurry, spearing through a bunch of the spiders in one go and leaving an opening towards the large one.

Hector too advantage of this and barrelled forwards in a shoulder charge, knocking aside every spider that came in contact with him some getting crushed underfoot letting green blood spill form their destroyed forms. Maria followed directly behind supporting him with more tendrils of darkness flowing from a circular mass underneath her feet. The rest of the spiders were getting into a melee with the rest of the group various abilities activated and different colours of Ehror released smashing into the dark and blue mass of spiders and their quite tough shells. Maria and Hector were just incredibly strong, the spiders were easily beyond the base Soldier class as they had been briefed on classes before the journey. Hector was more easily able to gauge enemies and allies now. It made him realise the level of his allies as well as well as enemies. Enemies like Sevyn.

All the Novas were Soldier class however only a few were actually on the level of the top 5 and knowing her she likely got even stronger by now. He was getting distracted, the large spider let lose a mass of webs in a wide area. He was not under the impression that it would be easy to get away from that. He took cover behind one of the huge trees as the web covered a large swathe of the area between him and it, Maria taking cover using his large body. The ground was now covered in the white mass. He smashed the bottom of the tree with a hit, it was over two metres in diameter and yet the place he hit crumbled, and the tree fell towards him. He then stopped its fall with both hands before lifting it briefly and pushing it towards the spider.

The tree was about thirty meters long providing a foot hold past the muck on the ground. Hector was not stupid enough to try stepping into that. And as could be seen with the tree nigh instantly getting stuck to the ground, it was the correct decision to make. He charged along the tree not holding anything back with Maria in tow. They blitzed the length in the blink of an eye reaching across the covered floor as the spider readied another mass of webs as seen by head being thrown back. It was going to be a big one. Before it could fire however, Hector formed a circular shield using his gold and threw it at the monster’s head. The web mass exploded in its ghastly mouth keeping it shut. The creature let out a horrifying but wobbling and muffled scream through the gaps left.

Hector charged the front legs of the spider letting off a flurry of powerful punches as it backed up defensively. He had noticed they were poisoned and acidic based on how the dripping liquids on them created pock marks on the ground. But his gauntlets protected him from the filth as he slammed into it with blurring fists. His body exploded with muscle as he got to work pushing his top to its limits as he danced around its large legs, landing punches on its face whenever possible. Meanwhile Maria kept it off balance with the darkness surrounding her, she moved around on a small mass of the liquidy mass. It also worked as a shield protecting both her and Hector from attacks Hector was unaware of either from the giant spider or any smaller ones that managed to get to them through the rest of the Novas who now surrounded them defensively.

It was going to be a battle of attrition. The spider was very tough but couldn’t quite get any hits in. The rest of their fifteen-man crew worked well together and the other students were able to do basic defending even without as good coordination as his main crew. At this point Hector figured that this was a deliberate test and was why the trainers were not there personally, while they were confident in the Novas they had now they wanted them in a completely real setting, he could not afford to fail this. He already felt that he had failed with Sevyn. The spider finally slipped up leaving it far more open than usual. Hector did not let the opening it created go to wait as its abdomen was exposed after it overshot an attack. He reformed his right gauntlet giving it a sharp spike where his fist was. With a roar he charged forwards slamming the weapon through the abdomen. The spider practically exploded from the attack releasing a mass of green blood everywhere. Maria made sure to block it from both her and him using her darkness as a shield once more.

The other spiders continued to charge them, but they were slowing down in number. The horses were able to intimidate them again it seemed the larger one was able to alleviate their fears with its own aura. Eventually the spiders slowed to a trickle and then nothing. Hector collapsed in exhaustion. He was not completely unscathed. He had a couple of cuts and some acid had burnt a small patch of his right arm. But he could feel that he had gained some insight in that fight. He knew that the best way to get his chance back at Sevyn would be to continue to keep up in his training and staying with the Red Suns was his best shot at that.

Edges of the known world.

In four corners of the known world, the north, the west, the east, and the south. The same phenomenon occurred. There were large mountains, approximately over five kilometres in height. They glowed briefly a deep blue colour outlining them. Then a short while later a loud crack resounded around the surroundings, like the breaking of chains. Except it was as if the loops of the chain were the size of buildings. Runes of various sizes and types glowed all across the mountains for a few moments. Before the glow stopped abruptly. The mountains then shook. A short while later they started to move almost imperceptibly. They rose slowly at first, a couple of centimetres, then a few metres, then dozens of meters into the air and then a few hundred metres up all the mountains rose. Beneath each of them a gigantic creature could be seen, holding these mountains above their heads. These creatures’ forms were hard to discern. They were covered in a black ooze from head to toe as they stepped inwards towards the centre of the known world, very slowly if you were just looking at them from a distance. However, at their size each step was immense. The creatures all moved for a few steps before stopping. Then the mountains slowly dropped to the ground burying the creatures again, as if in reverse the same event happened, except this time the sounds were like said gigantic chains binding up again to hold the mountains in place. Then it was quiet.