As it turned out, most of the suggestions for a plan amounted to 'group up, and hit it til' it dies'. Callie, even nearly apoplectic with treasure madness, did not approve of anything that sloppy, and visibly forced herself to snap out of her trance to come up with something better.

I wasn't entirely sure if Abel really couldn't think of a better plan or was testing us, but with his bloodlust I wouldn't put it past him to really just decide to try to overpower the thing. Since that would probably be dangerous, and there would DEFINITELY be other spiders hiding around here (though I couldn't see them since they were much smaller and this cavern was too big) we couldn't just attack the thing. We'd get swarmed from behind, and I doubted even Lament and Abel could take on an F-rank spider monster solo while under siege.

Once I explained that, Sydney suggested a possible solution. "Well...I might be able to help. My ability is luck manipulation. I can curse people or animals. Things will go wrong for them if they can." I knew that was her power. I'd totally called that. Still, she grimaced. "For an F-rank...well, it'll be difficult to do much. Impact can resist most powers, but insubstantial things like luck are the hardest hit in terms of defense. If I go all out I can maybe prime it for something bad, but you'll need to provide some impetus."

At our blank stares she sighed. "Do something dramatic to create opportunities for things to go wrong. Stab it or burn it or throw a huge rock at it or something. The more it has to try to defend the more openings for things to go wrong. It probably won't be anything big, even with all my effort, but it should put us in a good position. Especially if Megan helps me out."

Her sister nodded. "I can bless people with good luck. Same basic idea, but backwards. Syd is the bad rabbit, and I'm the lucky rabbit. Our abilities are stupidly rare, so we're considered kind of like the star disciples of the Wave Warren despite not being too strong. People like Riley are way stronger in direct combat, but it's almost impossible to get luck abilities through skill synergy unless you buy some stupidly expensive Skill from one of the factions with the job system."

Thinking about it, I wasn't sure how the hell I'd make a Skill like that either. Still, it gave us some options. "So you can use your good luck aura on the person who attacks while Sydney uses hers on the spider?" I might be able to help a bit with this. When she nodded, I grinned. "Ok then. I think I might have a plan." I leaned in to whisper it to Callie, using my Stealth Skill to make sure I wasn't overheard.

She was delighted. "That might just work. Can you manage it from here? I'm not sure what your range is, but if you miss it would just set the thing off." She looked nervously at the gems in the web and I rolled my eyes. She was worried about them getting damaged in my attack.

"It's fine." I said firmly. "I'm not aiming for them, and the worst that happens is they get a bit dinged up. They're Ascendant materials." A bit of a drop wasn't going to destroy them. Stomach acid from a G-rank spider was a whole different level of harm than a few hundred feet down to a stone cave floor, if they even fell. Though on second thought I made a mental note to use Sucking Mud on the ground below them just in case. The rocks here were tough enough to hurt US after all.

Seemingly reassured, Callie turned back to the others. "Ok, when you see the opening Solomon is about to make, Lament, I want you to attack. Apollyon and Starbreaker will stick with the group to counter the spider horde with us. If you see an opening you can help Lament from range. Wren and Lestri your martial arts should be very compatible so you'll follow her to attack once the opportunity presents." She nodded to the Wave Warren girls. "You two go ahead and do your thing."

No one asked what the plan was for me, because there was no way to announce it to everyone at once without the spider hearing. It would be fine though. Once the two girls focused, their eyes both glowing, I grinned and leveled my stare at the spider. Or more specifically, at its web, where the strands were most concentrated in their connection to the wall. Then I triggered a flame attack from Cark along with Touch of Tears, shaping the blast into a long, thin area near the wall."

The corrosive green flame snapped into being with a lance of pain through my skull, and the spider reared back reflexively. This cave was much bigger than the last one so we didn't need to worry about getting cooked, but the spider was much closer and screamed in an undulating multi-tonal howl that made me want to cover my ears.

As the acidic poison fire ate away at the strands, I felt the ineffable strings of fate pulling in both directions. My flame seemed to hit all the right spots connecting the web and spider made the exact wrong moves as it jerked back. There was a crackling, ripping sound and strands on the other side started to fracture and fall away. The spider scrambled across the web toward the ceiling, but the rock was superheated from the flames and on contact it screamed again and jerked away.

Which was the absolute last bit of strain the web could take as the section it had perched on gave way. I used Sucking Mud, both to save the gems and to trap the spider when it hit, and managed to get the skill in place before the giant beast impacted the cave floor. The wet crash seemed to have set off a tidal wave though, as smaller spiders poured from every crack and crevice of the room and converged on us.

"Fuck!" I spat with worry. I had plenty of attack options, but I was dangerously low on defense. I might be able to manage a combo with Callie, but my head was already ringing. I didn't want to rely on soul strength too much at the beginning of a battle like this. It would be far too easy to overdo it and become a liability. This was going to be a marathon not a sprint. I pressed my back to Callie's, doing my best to eliminate openings for both of us, and slipped into the combat trance. At the same time I tried something new.

It wasn't too much of a strain really. The overlay had never cost any charges or been particularly difficult. Even the effort of adjusting it to work through the trance and allow Callie access wasn't much of a problem, just a tiny bit of pain. It didn't tax me overly much so I wasn't worried about burning myself out.

As soon as it clicked into place I felt everything...shift. The arrows I knew appeared, but not just for me. I heard Callie gasp as the tapestry of red and green arrows covered the world. Our Balam Skills were incredibly synergized already since she was my teacher, and the combat trance made us almost a single entity in battle. Adding on the overlay just made everything click into place. It was that last push we needed for our cooperation to become perfect.

My cane came up without thinking, following an arrow on instinct to smash past Callie and knock away a spider leaping for her from the side. A blade of shadows shredded the one trying to drop on me. I was a bit worried about the others but they were strong. We had to pay attention to ourselves. I used my poison fire on the cane and the world turned into a tapestry of blood and death as the spiders poured over us like meat into a grinder. I smashed and burned and crushed them as Callie tore them apart.

At one point I saw Lament's spear manifestation out of the corner of my eye, the spear user targeting the giant spider and creating a path with her weapon. Despite that I didn't watch long. I had enemies to kill, and this whole battle was calling to me, showing me how to move, how to react, in the most perfect possible way. It wasn't just the overlay, or Balam. It was all of it. All the disparate elements. Callie taught me my Skill, we trained together constantly.

Between one breath and the next I felt it all click into place and I had to fight back a grin. A Skill. This was all I needed to create a Skill. I wondered if even Mel and Abel had this one. I knew it was going to be wildly useful in the tournament. I might not know what it was called but I could tell what it was for. Teamwork.

But within seconds I knew they definitely did. This Skill wasn't unique, sadly. In fact, based on the way it worked I was pretty sure this had been the point of all the training up to this point. So many things we'd been told, some of them almost contradictory at times, finally clicked together into one whole package.

It was a strange feeling. The combat trance wasn't really necessary now, not like it was gone, but like it had become part of us, had become just another sense like touch or hearing. It wasn't just what we already had either. I could see where the building blocks were leading even as I felt it twinge and lashed out for an attack. First step predicting the other person's moves, second step sensing their peril as your own, third step abandoning defense to protect them. All of it building to this.

I didn't need to abandon my defense to protect Callie anymore, and she didn't need to abandon hers to protect me. We protected each other, and ourselves. Under this new sense our cooperation was seamless. No longer a give and take, no longer a circle, but more like two hands attached to the same mind. I could sense not just her movements and weaknesses but her intentions for her next attack.

This was how Mel and Abel were so damn good at fighting together. I could feel the name of the Skill too. Minor Paired Dueling Mastery. True seamless teamwork. I had no idea what this Skill would even look like at higher ranks, but for the moment it had completely upgraded our combat efficiency.

Before, I'd felt almost lopsided, hanging on a thread and hoping Callie would come through, but now that feeling was gone. I knew when she was moving to defend, when she wasn't going to make it, and she knew when she didn't have to try because I could intercept an attack myself. My blows and her shadow blades chained together like a whirling storm of crushing slicing death.

I felt a few of her clones form and was able to perfectly take advantage of the shell game she was playing with them, her armor covering her in a way that made it impossible to tell what was shadow and what wasn't, unless of course you were me. I smashed my cane down on one spider, and turned my back on another to unleash the stored force in my cane on a third, not even needing to look as shadows bisected the one flying at my back.

After almost fifteen minutes of pitched battle, I smashed the last of the small spiders. It took me a second to realize they were gone because I could still hear the sound of battle. Mel and Abel had finished their section earlier and were even now helping out with the powerful F-rank spider. The thing was injured in several places, legs damaged and armor cracked, but it's blue eyes blazed with rage and hate. I looked at Callie and she returned my unasked question with a nod. We still had one more monster to kill.