The people, the demi humans that are trying to survive this, are desperately hiding behind the waves of spiders.

The demi-humans run, crawl, and drag themselves towards the even the smallest patches of spiders they can find. Small children are being picked up and thrown by their parents into groups of the spiders, as powerful blasts of energy rip through the air towards them.

Because of the healing energy, the spiders are able to dive in front of them and absorb the blows, allowing them to get away and survive.

For those who go towards the small patches, they are dragged underground and brought up into a larger group through another hole.

Which honestly freaks many of them out until they see the others emerge within the main groups of spiders.

If there's one thing Gong's spiders are good at, it's quickly digging and reinforcing tunnels, while moving things in between. It's honestly quite frightening. And new spiders learn how to do it efficiently, through the hive mind with Gong.

The connection with the spiders and her is in a sense closer than it is with me.

I wouldn't ever want to fight her. Even with cultivators.

As we get ever closer and closer to the fighting, I can feel the cost of the healing going down.

It appears it looks like I will be able to hold out for a lot longer than I thought I would.

This continues on for the next few minutes, as Gong continues to speed us closer and closer to the battle… And then suddenly we stop.

My scan reveals that we're directly beneath the center of the battle. It's clear that this is the lowest my healing cost is going to get, while keeping us out of danger.

As we sit here, fighting in our own way, a pattern emerges with the cultivators and their fighting.

They're avoiding the spiders.

Anywhere that has the demi humans being protected by spiders, they move on to the next area, looking for areas that don't have them. Still focusing on each other, but still doing massive damage to the surrounding area.

Which further reinforces the fact that this is a coordinated approach. It looks like they wait every time after killing a demi human, they visibly pause with an eye towards the spiders. And then looks toward the spies, who are watching them intently. Some spies are watching the spiders, as well.

I can see cultivator's eyes directly landing on the agents for the Yellow Sashes members. Only I can 'see' the spy for Big Sis Crane.

Finally, they look towards Gong's area.

It's almost as if they are waiting for Gong to attack them.

Through our bond, I'm able to tell that Gong already knew. They wanted her to attack them. And she was going to fight anyway, showing her true infuriation at the situation.

This continues on for an hour. I let her know that I'm all set to continue with the healing. We end up having to go through different tunnels, moving with the center of the battle. The tunnels continuously shake with the power of the cultivator's attacks. Some dirt trickles through the web supports, falling to the ground around us. With every rumble, my heart drops… wondering if this is when the tunnels will collapse.

But they still hold. The webs that Gong uses for tunnels seem to be even better than I had realized.

Based on the expressions of the cultivators, they seem not to have realized anything about the spiders. My scan also reveals that no spies have seen anything either. Except… the agent for Big Sis Crane.

The edges of the demi human living areas have Vermillion Stripe's people putting out and containing the fire. Forcibly keeping humans out of the area, while ignoring escaping demi humans.

It should be noted that all the humans seem to have already previously left the area.

Gong and I have formed sort of a rhythm between us. Just enough where we can talk outside of this. I take the moment to ask a question that's been bothering me.

"Where are the humans?"

Her face tightens further.

Normally, I'd use my scan to find out that answer. But I don't want to waste my mental energy towards that, in case we might need it later.

"There's free food and medicine being given out near the Vermilion Stripes area today. Only humans allowed."

They're not even trying to be subtle about it. The coordination between these can't be a mistake. This is their retaliation for what happened before.

It's going to be a long night.

At least we are doing good work here. There's been only a death or two since we started. And those were near the beginning, when we were trying to get ahold of the situation.

There are still way too many serious injuries, though. I'm shooting general healing at some of them, to keep them stable… but there's only so much I can do without revealing that there's something going on.

And I'm already running near empty, even with the immense mana pool that I have, that is still growing. It's just not enough, even with the mana regeneration. The cost of strong, remote healing is just too high. Especially with this many bodies.

To imagine that the cost is even higher for using it on cultivators?

It's frightening.

Nonetheless, it is clear we are having a major effect on the battlefield. The cultivators seem almost frustrated by the effectiveness of the spiders and were hitting harder, after realizing they weren't doing much damage to the demi humans. They eventually stabilized their attacks, after realizing it wasn't effective.

It's become a battle of attrition.

Luckily for us, they broke first. After 2 hours of this, I could see that their bodies were becoming too exhausted from channeling external Qi through their dantians and meridians. They likely could have gone on for longer, but they let loose to a medium degree. If they continue further, they'd be damaging their bodies, to where it would need a healer's help. It feels as though they are being casual about this, but also having a bit of fun.

Fucking assholes.

As their attacks begin to slow down, I can see an interaction between the two of them. The two cultivators lock eyes and nod. One of the cultivator's launches a blow at the other, that causes that one to fly into a building.

They repeat the same thing that I saw that day I first explored this area. One forces the other to apologize and they then jump off into the distance.

Leaving a broken area behind them.

My scan reveals the demi human area is still burning, but with the cultivators gone, the spiders are putting out the fires. A few spider groups, surge toward the spies, causing them to run away.

I end my healing and focus towards Gong.

She's already looking at me. Having put all the spiders on alert, but mainly autopilot. One group of them are putting out the fires, while the other is collecting the surviving demi humans into one area. Into what could only be described as a triage area. By the time we had reached them, there were only around a hundred or so demi humans left in the area. The others were well enough to either run away or had died in the process.

A few of the ones who had stayed were clearly stronger than any of the others and were seeming to help the children and weak ones get to safety. It's partially because of them that we were able to minimize the deaths to only two people.

Gong turns to me with a serious look.

"Can you heal them?"

Once again, I come to a decision. I could heal these people, but then they become a security risk. A hundred people are a lot of fucking people. Any of whom could let it out, that there is something going on.

I'll just say it straight.

Before I can say anything, she assuages my fears.

"James. Before you say anything, I want you to know I've already made the preparations to include people in our group."

Alright… let me hear her out, at least. She hasn't failed me yet.