Despite the tension in the air, nothing immediately happened. Each minute spent travelling brought them closer to safety, and yet it also added to the ball of tension that was nestled in Kai’s gut.

He could almost feel the hungry gaze of whatever was out there on them.

Gwen had been a little unnerved at first, but she’d settled down now and was focusing on getting them back to her home. It helped somewhat that the moon had come out and was giving them some light to see by.

Kai knew better than to relax, however. They were walking in the light grey of dusk now, and pools of shadow were all around them, pools that could hide anything.

"Here, just past these rocks, and we’re at the glade," Gwen said, relief evident in her voice as she pointed out a rock arch that was positioned over a faint trail that led off from the main path.

Kai began to relax but noticed a slight glint in the air just in front of Gwen. He tried to stop her, but the Witch stepped forward just before he could reach her and pull her away.

Gwen cried out in surprise as she walked straight into something; the air across the entirety of the path seemed to shimmer and shake as she hit the glint he’d seen.

Webbing.

The whole path was covered in shimmering webbing, all but invisible when still but easily spotted when disturbed like this.

Gwen was cursing and trying to pull free, but both her hands and the left side of her body was stuck fast. "Kai! Help me out of this!"

"Thanr disir!" Verdan’s voice cracked the dark evening air from behind them, a flash of light illuminating everything as an incandescent bolt of fire sped past Kai to envelop a dog-sized patch of darkness on a nearby tree.

The bright light of the fire banished the surrounding darkness for a brief moment. Bringing everything into stark contrast as the patch that Verdan had struck hissed in pain and became slightly visible, revealing long segmented legs and a furry body with far too many eyes.

Two further patches of darkness had been highlighted by the light, their stygian depths untouched by the illumination Verdan had provided. A distant part of Kai’s mind appreciated the irony of their own stealth magic providing their location.

Gwen seemed to be making progress in getting herself free, so Kai raced towards the creature that Verdan had hit with his initial shot. It was still smouldering with dimly glowing embers, giving him somewhere to aim.

The creature realised its ambush had been foiled and released the obfuscating darkness that surrounded it, revealing a black spider the size of a hunting dog, its fangs exposed as it reared back threateningly. Even without the darkness shrouding it, the creature was difficult to see, giving Kai little to aim at as he closed in and thrust out with his spear.

The spider jumped to one side with explosive speed, the tip of Kai’s spear catching the edge of one leg as it went. Swift-moving steel cut deep into its chitin and flesh, coating his weapon with shimmering black-blue blood.

Kai had expected to remove its limb with such a strike, not simply bleed it; the chitinous exterior of the creature must be particularly strong.

The spider hissed in pain, abruptly changing direction as it scuttled towards him and leapt again, this time toward Kai’s neck.

Igniting the Essence in his core, Kai felt the speed and unrestrained energy of fire flood his body.

The spider was quick, far too quick for an ordinary soldier to keep up with, but with the fire racing through his body, Kai was more than its match.

Swinging his spear around, Kai planted a heel and thrust up at the leaping spider with the rear of his spear a bare moment before it struck him.

The hooked spikes that were the spider’s fangs were barely inches from his throat, glistening with venom as it tried to drive them home, Kai’s spear impaling it through its thorax and holding it in place.

Twisting and pushing, Kai grunted with effort as he brought the creature up into the air before slamming it down and driving his spear all the way through with a visceral crunch. The spider spasmed and flailed for a brief moment before curling in on itself as its lifeblood stained the dry ground beneath it slightly blue.

“Disgusting,” Kai muttered with distaste as he pushed down with a booted foot, pulling his spear clear and spun it around, flicking off a lot of the blood and gore that stained it.

His fight with the spider had been only seconds in length, but he could see a second spider’s corpse on the far side of the group, a small trail of smoke coming from it, marking it as Verdan’s work.

“Yes!” Gwen shouted from behind him as a slight breeze brought Kaian astringent smell that made him grimace in distaste.

Turning to look, Kai saw miniature bolts of lightning jump from Gwen’s hand to burn away the spiderweb she was stuck to, releasing more of the foul smell.

Unlike Verdan, who was completely in control of his magic, Kai could see Gwen flinching as the lightning flashed once more, burning away yet more of the web.

This was what turned people away from Witches. Kai knew that Gwen wouldn't hurt him on purpose, but if she was flinching from her own magic, just how much control could she have?

Every horror story Kai had ever heard about Witches ran through his mind. Tales of Witches killing someone who had tried to help them, their magic turning against their would-be rescuers.

However, after his conversations with Verdan, Kai wasn't quite as bothered as he would have been. True, it was disconcerting, but if the Witches where Verdan was from could control it, then so could Gwen.

With some of the fear taken away from the situation, Kai couldn’t help but wonder what Gwen would be able to do when she had full control of her power.

Ignorant of his thoughts, Gwen was finally able to free herself with a larger blast of lightning from her hand that was accompanied by a gust of wind from the other.

Gwen stopped and stared at her hands with an unreadable expression for a few moments. Visibly shaking it off, she turned to meet Kai’s gaze, giving him a nod before moving toward Verdan and the two brothers.

Seeing Gwen free, Tim and Tom turned toward her and moved to meet her halfway, turning their backs on the nearby shadows.

A flicker of movement from the treeline caught Kai’s eye as another of the giant spiders came scurrying forth and leapt at Tim.

Kai was still filled with the essence of fire, its primal energy speeding his reactions to the point that he was already moving before the creature was halfway to Tim.

It wasn’t going to be enough, though. The eight-legged monster was just too quick for him to intercept over such a short distance.

"Ast!" Verdan barked, throwing a hand up towards Tim and conjuring a pale blue dome in between the guard and the leaping spider, which impacted with a dull thud and fell heavily to the ground.

Tom lunged forwards to strike the creature before it could recover, bringing his mace down on it with a heavy two-handed blow. The steel ridges of the weapon smashed through the spider’s carapace with ease, pulping the flesh beneath and leaving behind a vicious wound.

Kai arrived a split second later, all of his speed going into a powerful thrust that sent his spear powering in through one side of the creature and straight out the other. It was hard to tell if Kai’s strike had been needed to finish the creature off, but all that mattered was that it was dead.

"That’s all of them," Verdan called out a moment later, moving to crouch over one of the dead spiders and examine it a little closer. "What are these called, do you know?"

"No idea, not something I’ve fought before. Definitely shadow Essence from how fast they were and their tricks with darkness, though," Kai said, pulling out a rag to clean the ichor off his spear.

He’d fought shadow Essence creatures in the past and had it much worse than this. Verdan was almost the equivalent of several caster Sorcerers by himself.

"Yes, we’re lucky that the illumination from my spell seemed to damage the Aether constructs they were using for the webbing and for their camouflage. An interesting weakness; perhaps they don’t encounter many things that can produce bright light." Verdan said, tapping a finger on his lips as he walked over to examine the remaining webbing.

Kai's internal translation of that explanation was that the bright light had disrupted their shadow Essence, which did make sense after all.

Waiting a few more moments to make sure the fight was over, Kai took a deep, calming breath and quietened his essence, letting the energy that was coursing through him fade away once more.

Every time he used his Essence, the world felt sluggish afterwards. Thankfully, though, the effect never lasted for that long.

Kai approached the section of spiderweb that Gwen had burnt herself free from, which was still smoking and giving off a horrific smell. Grimacing in distaste, he used his spear to cut through the strands in the centre.

The unburnt strands were remarkably tough and resistant to being cut, but after a bit of effort, he was able to cut down the centre and split the whole web in two, making it droop to either side and open up the centre.

"Nicely done. Now, let’s get moving and be behind those wards before anything else happens," Verdan said, heading straight through the gap and on towards the rocks that Gwen had pointed out.

Kai waited for everyone else to pass through before following at the rear, staying wary for any more hidden creatures, just in case Verdan had missed one.

He gave the corpses of the spiders one last look as he walked away. It was a shame that it was so late and so dark. He would have loved to harvest them for anything usable. Shadow Essence was relatively rare after all, so anything that could be taken might have been useful. It just wasn’t worth the risk right now.

In Kai’s opinion, greed and overconfidence killed more Sorcerers than anything else.

He’d seen it so many times.

They would stay too long, go too far or take too little backup, and then not make it back. He had no intention of making the same mistake himself.