The enormous, heart-stopping monstrosity hung only a few feet away, dangling above their heads like any spider might do—any spider the size of a tractor.

Almost. They had almost run right into it. Completely black except for bright-red squiggles splashed across its surface, the creature’s skin looked somewhat old and crinkled, yet no less deadly.

Elder Lichroot Spider, the notification read.

Level: 8

HP: 950/950

SP: 770/770

LP: 200/200

Carey tried to deduce what he could from the stats. It was an “Elder,” which probably meant there weren’t many of them around (unless he ran into a Lichroot nursing home). The rest were probably adults and children.

Still. Just one Elder was enough to utterly erase Carey and his little party of adventurers off the Luminether Online servers forever. Plus, who knew if the entire spider family would get called as backup?

But what if...

Carey held up a finger to call his party’s attention. He turned slowly, smiling at Will and Beatrice. Will shook his head, as if he could already read Carey’s mind, and had detected only depravity in its depths. Beatrice squinted at Carey in suspicion.

What is it? she mouthed.

Carey made the Stone of Binding appear in one hand. Comprehension dawned on their faces.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked. Carey and his team back tracked until they were far enough away from the Elder Spider to be somewhat safe. Then Carey threw the Stone of Binding—using his newfound Feral athleticism—to accurately hit the rock he was targeting, a boulder only a few feet away from the spider.

Clack!

...Thwup!

The clack of the stone drew an immediate response from the spider, which then shot a blast of webbing like something Spider-Man would eject to plaster a thief against a brick wall. It covered the entire side of the boulder. Luckily, the Stone of Binding had bounced away from the web’s path.

The stone returned, loyal as always. This time, Carey threw it further, hoping it would skip, making a noise resembling footsteps. Hearing it, the spider lowered itself toward the ground. Another throw, and it lowered itself again.

Finally, after six or seven throws, the spider had apparently decided there was a creature nearby worth investigating. It detached itself—each of its eight monstrous legs unfurling in cringe-inducing silence—and landed so softly that even Carey didn’t hear a thing.

“Now’s our chance,” he whispered, leading the others.

They crept along a parallel path, Carey attuning his senses as best he could to the lurking spider, which must have been twenty feet away. It disappeared at one point, and Carey pressed his back against a stalagmite, motioning for the others to do the same. They held their breaths, pulses pounding.

A quiet click-click-click told them the Elder spider was nearby and creeping. Carey smelled it—an acrid, musky scent, like a dried hornet’s nest covered in vinegar—before he saw the knuckle of one of its hairy legs appear behind a nearby boulder.

He threw the Stone of Binding. The spider slipped into the shadows after it.

Carey finally managed to lure the spider around the front of the temple. The three imp creatures were busy eating their gortlodon stew and steaks. He could tell by the scent they had boiled the meat with a few potatoes and... was it green onion? He wasn’t much of a chef—couldn’t cook at all, unless you counted heating microwaveable meals—but being a Feral, apparently, meant being able to identify ingredients by smell with the precision of Gordon Ramsay on crack.

It worked. The Elder Lichroot Spider scurried over to the unsuspecting imps, quiet as a ghost.

“This should be good,” Carey whispered.

“Get ready to clean up the last man standing,” Will added.

One of the imps was just rising from his seat by the fire—still happily munching on a dripping steak clutched in one hand—when he happened to turn and see the spider.

“An Elder,” he shouted, and tossed away the meat.

The other Torgs were on their feet in a flash, meals forgotten. They pulled daggers from their waistbands and did something completely unexpected with the blades.

They dipped them in the fire.

With the blades alight and flaming, the imps took turns throwing them. The weapons had been pre-coated in some sort of flammable oil. These Torgs were obviously prepared for Lichroot Spider attacks, as they should be.

The first managed to hit the spider, setting one of its legs ablaze. The second hit the spider in its nightmarish front—the face, if it could be said to have one—and subsequently set that part of the body on fire as well.

The imp with the earrings hung back.

Carey noticed the spider’s Health bar was down to 85 percent, continuing to take fire damage.

HP: 778/950

-37 HP (Weakness)

-27 HP (Weakness)

“It has a weakness to fire,” Carey said as they crouched behind a boulder and watched. “This isn’t going to work.”

“Hold on,” Will said. “Elder still got game for an old man.”

The spider launched one of its webs. The projectile hit an imp and sent him flying backward until he hit a stalagmite and stuck there, writhing to break free.

The third imp launched a flaming dagger—they carried several, dipping each one in the fire right away—but the spider strafed, and the blade missed. The spider shot forward, using all eight of its legs to propel itself, and struck the imp as he dropped on all fours to dart away.

The imp tumbled head-over-tail toward Carey and his party.

The Torg’s Health bar was now down to 70 percent. Carey could see the numbers, but he preferred eyeing the bar itself. Quicker that way.

“Spider’s melee attack is powerful,” Will said. “Best to keep your distance.”

The Torg fighter jumped to his feet and ran back to join the fray.

On the other side of the bonfire, the imp with the earrings pulled something out of his leather armor chest piece—a rolled-up piece of parchment. He quickly unrolled it and began to chant what was written on the page.

He wasn’t just another low-level fighter; he was the party’s spellcaster.

The spider lunged at him, but it was deflected by a wall of fire that suddenly sprang up in front of the imp caster.

From that wall of fire, a flaming golem stepped out and squared its shoulders.

“Whoa,” Carey said.

“Whoa, indeed,” Will agreed.

“It’s an elemental golem,” Beatrice said. “That caster must be...”

Lvl. 7 Torg Shaman, they read above the imp’s head.

“...formidable,” Beatrice finished.

HP: 185/185

SP: 32/45

LP: 350/350

The fire golem bent slightly, as if to charge the spider. Then it opened its flaming mouth and issued a roar so powerful it caused the Onamurshin jellyfish floating above to brighten momentarily in fright before darting away.

Carey tried to check the elemental golem’s vital stats.

Lvl. ?? Elemental Fire Golem

HP: ???/???

SP: ???/???

LP: ???/???

“Stats are hidden?”

“You need a much higher Perception to see them,” Will explained. “Those are extraplanar creatures. Not from this plane of existence.”

“Really frickin’ mysterious, in other words,” Beatrice added.

A hellish stream of liquid fire shot from the golem’s mouth, hitting the spider dead center. The smoking spider was flung through the air and landed on its back, coated in the brightly burning liquid, its screams so sharp they made Carey and the others wince and cover their ears.

The Elder Lichroot Spider’s Health was now down to 472. The damage from the attack had been massive.

A few more minutes, and the golem would have reduced the spider to a pile of ash. But the summoning spell must have been on a timer. Within seconds of its devastating fire attack, the elemental golem vanished in a puff of smoke.

The other two Torg Fighters were ready. They dipped more daggers into the bonfire and threw them at the spider. In return, the spider spit a bucketful of corrosive acid that covered one of the fighters’ arms, smoking and hissing as it ate through the creature’s flesh. The Torg shrieked in agony. The spider lunged at the other fighter, its strike only glancing off him—he must have deflected—doing minimal damage.

The Torg shaman pulled out another scroll and cast a healing spell from it. The fighter who had suffered the acid attack grinned in pleasure as misty blue, sparking light currents swept around him, rejuvenating him and bringing his HP bar up to about 80 percent.

The other fighter died in a gruesome fashion, the spider impaling it with the sharp claw at the tip of one of its legs. It lifted the corpse and flung it away.

“Want to place bets on who wins?” Carey said. “My money’s on the spider.”

“Oh yeah?” Will said. “How much?”

Ten minutes later, Will was forced to hand over 2 silver to a grinning, victorious Carey. It was a good battle and could have gone either way, really.

“You deserve it,” Will said. “Solid idea luring the spider. That Stone of Binding is the name of the game, son.”

Speaking of the spider, it had survived the battle after wearing down and finally killing the remaining Torg fighter. The shaman had apparently run out of scrolls and had been reduced to inscribing protective runes into the dirt and swinging a dagger with a yellowish blade that broke within a few minutes.

The Elder spider’s defining moment had been spitting enough acid to completely cover the shaman’s face and body. The cavern filled with the screams of the dying imp. Soon, only a smoking puddle remained of the Torg’s body.

EXPERIENCE GAINED: 485 points (485/4,125 to next level)

The spider had shot a line of its sticky thread up at a stalactite. It raised itself a dozen feet off the ground and folded its legs against its body to rest and heal.

HP: 121/950

“What do you think?” Carey asked, nodding toward the temple door. “Should we try and get past it?”

Beatrice shook her head. “Too risky.”

“I don’t know.” Carey wasn’t convinced. “Will, you’ve got those fire spells right? The ones you used against the Elki?”

“Damn right I do,” Will said, making tiny flames appear at the ends of his fingers and wiggling them before Carey’s face.

“Okay, stop that.” He slapped the Savant’s fingers away.

“So...” Will said, seeming antsy. “What do we do?”

“I got an idea,” Carey said.

Beatrice squinted one eye at him, one of her signature expressions. “Of course you do.”

He motioned for them to huddle up.

In all of Carey’s life, he’d never been one to take risks—unless you counted eating food that was almost 100 percent grease and carbs, drinking enough whiskey to kill a small cow, and driving drunk at one in the morning in search of a Taco Bell—but he wasn’t thinking about that kind of risk. Rather, he’d never been one to purposely put himself in harm’s way. Even popular activities like mountain biking, skiing, and driving above 80 MPH on the highway had always been out of the question for him. The idea of skydiving was almost enough to make him queasy.

And now here he was, creeping toward a gigantic spider that could rain acid all over his body and melt the flesh right off his bones. Approaching said spider instead of running away.

Luckily, he knew the right people.

Beatrice had cast several defensive spells to buff Carey’s stats in the areas of damage, defense, and poison/burning resistance, making some as much as 20 percent higher.

Just in case.

The buff spells had lit up Bea’s face, making her eyes sparkle, her lips shine. For the hundredth time since meeting her, Carey felt the stirrings of attraction. It could have been a side-effect of the magic, but either way, he was glad to have her in his party—glad just to be near her, despite her questionable temper.

He crouched behind a rock, the spider hanging between him and the door leading into the temple. When he was ready, Carey lifted his dagger, a sign to Will that he should proceed.

The fireball emerged from the darkness, its flaming tail wriggling brightly, leaving a trail of grayish smoke.

Carey held his breath.

The fireball slammed into the spider.

xXWillPowerzXx launches Fireball at Elder Lichroot Spider for 26 damage

The creature landed on its back with a thump, legs wriggling fiercely as if they were trying to detach themselves from the flaming body.

By then, Carey had already covered half the distance between him and the spider, practically bounding on all fours, dagger ready. He arrived just as the giant arachnid was flipping itself over. He struck like lightning.

DrollTroll strikes Elder Lichroot Spider for 12 damage

Instantly, before he even finished reading the notification, Carey flung himself backward.

The spider chased him.

They had planned for this. Carey led the spider in a broad circle, returning to where Will and Beatrice crouched behind stalagmites. He managed to evade several acid attacks along the way.

When Carey ran past them, Will jumped out of hiding and cast another Fireball spell that hit the spider dead on. Beatrice flew behind the burning spider and struck it with her blade. Carey also sprinted back to the fray, running on all fours for a second or two before launching himself toward the spider, tail slashing the air.

Using their daggers, he and Beatrice wore down the spider. It struck at them weakly, but the buff spells countered most of the damage. Eventually, they distanced themselves from the creature so Will could approach it and cast one final Fireball spell.

When they were finished, all that remained of the spider was a crisp, blackened shell.

EXPERIENCE GAINED: 300 points (785/4,125 to next level)