Sage hadn’t been in a fight between near equals in quite some time. He’d wiped out some weak thugs and thieves and also had an encounter with a dangerously powerful Demonic Plant. The battles were either too easy or a struggle to escape. His last real fight was probably with the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent. Since his new techniques were untested he made sure he could still rely upon his old methods. The rope-dart in his hands was familiar, a rope with basically a dagger on one end and a ring on the other. The blade was swinging in casual circles by his side, whirling it as Sage moved closer to one of the Crystal Spiders.

Sage soon learned that their webbing was far more visible than the spiders themselves were. The reason they were so stealthy was that they hid their webs up among the tree branches and ‘leaves’. From outside the forest it was barely noticeable, but when looking up the many webs and lines were apparent. The purple crystal forest was quite beautiful in its own way, even with the interruption of the spider webs. Each of the web lines were sort of like an old frosted window. The lines were partially transparent and partially translucent. Sage checked a tree carefully before hopping up to investigate them up close. Shooting his rope dart towards a line it was frayed, but didn’t snap. Amazed, Sage moved closer and held the blade end in his hand to chop at it from up close. A little bit of cutting got him through, but it was still impressive.

Sage made sure he hadn’t drawn any attention before collecting a piece of the web and hopping down. Retreating a bit before examining the bit of spider silk to find that it was unlike any spider silk he’d ever seen. Instead, he realized the webbing was very similar to… fiberglass. Silk like threads of glass were woven together and mixed in with a more normal silk compound. Spider silk was amazingly strong and tough on its own, but this Crystal Spider fiberglass webbing actually seemed stiff. Sage tested another web and found it more like a cage than it was a web. The web lines reacted more like bamboo poles than flexible silk webs.

With the research complete, Sage set to the hunt. The Crystal Spiders essentially turned the upper boughs of the trees into a huge cage which left him to be hunted on the ground. At the outskirts of the forest he barely saw any spiders and the ones he did see would run away from him. Are they afraid, or is something else going on?

Chasing one of them down, Sage struck with his rope dart, using the first few moves of ‘Revolving Skimmer’ a martial technique for the rope dart and one he’d picked up long ago in the Holy Flame Sect. It wasn’t anything special, mostly just a method to quickly recover the dart with a Qi technique along with a good foundation in the basic moves with the weapon. It was little more than a basic martial arts manual if it didn’t have the recovery technique.

Sage struck out with the dart, the bladed end flying towards the spider’s huge abdomen. Striking at its eyes or mouth would probably be more effective, but it was currently running from him so he could only aim for the large abdomen, the tiny spinnerets, or one of the quickly moving legs.

Tink!

The blade bounced right off and Sage remembered that their weakness was the joints, the rest of their body was similar to bulletproof glass. Transparent, but incredibly strong. Sage struck again and hit the same spot, the abdomen deformed, crushing inward yet not breaking.

Shatterproof, too? Damn.

Like a car windshield, their bodies didn’t shatter into glass shards, they just deformed and a spider web of cracks spread across the body. With the spider escape, Sage put to use one of his new techniques. Falling Leaf Steps. It used the falling of a leaf from a tree as inspiration, and while nowhere near the fastest or most agile of movement arts, it was definitely one of the very best for a Wood natured cultivator. A plant would never be as fast as something like flame, wind, or lightning. On the other hand, the pattern of a falling leaf was highly unpredictable and it could easily ride the wind or sit upon the surface of water.

Sage used the high speed movement step: Leaf on the Wind. It was just like he’d stepped onto a gust of wind, floating rapidly towards the spider. Sage switched from the blade to the ring, swinging the ring and shooting it towards the spiders path. The first shot missed, but he quickly followed up. The spider stepped forward and its foot landed perfectly in the ring as it hit the ground. Sage quickly pulled it backwards and hooked the ring around the spider’s leg. Wrapping the rope around one arm, he uses the other arm to whirl the blade end and gives it a kick. The dagger point darting towards the spiders face. Sage had spun the spider around with the pull on its leg, just in time for the dagger to smash into one of its eyes. It sunk into its face with a satisfying crunch of glass.

Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, Sage darted forward two steps to close the distance and lifted his leg, performing a quick front kick to stomp the ring on the blade and completely burying it into the spider’s brain. After confirming the spider was dead, Sage started to dissect it. It took some time, but he was very curious about how it was so transparent. Was there some method to bend light around its body, or did it truly have no internal organs?

It turned out to be the latter. The crystal spider had none of the normal organs. It was only after experimenting with different devices and senses was Sage able to determine that the Spiders had some sort of energy cycling system inside them. They didn’t have flesh, organs, or blood, they had energy concentrations in their bodies that seemed to work in similar fashion to the many organs in a body. Luckily, one of those concentrations was where a brain would normally be, so his strike earlier was effective.

Seems that they are somewhat similar to the meridians, qi channels, and qi pores in that they are invisible to the eye sort of like a nervous system and invisible electrical impulses. Without having the right method of measurement, its impossible to know its there let alone study it.

Finished with his studies, Sage felt something was wrong and he carefully observed the area around him. Finding nothing amiss, he still felt something was wrong so he played to the cautious side and moved away from the center of the forest. After traveling a while he learned he was right. There was webbing strung up between the trees. Before he had entered it was only up in the air hidden between the branches. Now that he’d passed by they had started to trap him. Building a cage between all the trees and outside of his line of sight. The forest was thick and they purposely let him move away before sealing off his path of escape.

Interested, Sage moved parallel to the web wall and followed it along to see how far it went. Amazingly, it was a complete encirclement. They’d gone out of their way and sealed off a half-mile wide circle around where Sage was battling and studying a Crystal Spider. They might even have made the wall larger if it weren’t for him having been near the edge of the forest. This is just the outskirts of the forest… how organized and dangerous are the Crystal Spiders inside the Four Cornered Forgetfulness Formation?

With a bit of searching, Sage tracked down the half-dozen Crystal Spiders that were responsible for this web cage and took them on, one by one. He still used his rope dart and like his first battle used both ends of the rope to trap and exterminate them. He earned a few scratches and got bit on the shin. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to carry any poison. Instead, Sage felt his energy level reduce and he was surprised. Without organs it made sense for them to have no poison, but it finally gave a motive to why they walked around and didn’t just sit in place and absorb energy like the crystal plants. They could attack things and drain their energy aggressively. No wonder Rocky said we have to handle this. Who would want their private garden to be overrun by dangerous monsters?