Niji, the current king of the Arachnoforms, or just the destruction anthem arachnoform to all others who are not qualified to know his name.
All the elders immediately stood up, and Sia stepped behind the elders,
In that silence, only Niji spoke,
"You. Come forward."
Pointing an arm at Sia.
Because she had touched the roof, her body and cloak had turned a slightly dark and red shade of grey.
"Tell me about the Hysuan and Meneric kids."
Niji said as he looked at the Ninth Elder,
"And since you're old black guy's adopted granddaughter, you can just call me Uncle."
Niji was a generation younger than the elders, and he was going to leverage that.
A lot.
... And it starts with spoiling a spy.
————
As day breaks, every party in the Javelin forest wakes up with a strange unease.
The Hiwana Forest Guard outposts began their day as usual, until about noon, when a Hiwana Reserve scout arrived.
Their first batch of reinforcements had arrived, and with that, a new outpost had to be integrated into the Array network.
The Reserve guys were meanwhile hard at work, finishing the foundation but not actually building the thing.
But before that, they had to clear the surrounding areas and expand the building space.
All the Reserve Hysuans were doing some work.
Even Karat.
At the scout camps of the Menerics, it was noon, and all of the thin and clawed were waiting.
Soon, the scout they were waiting for returned.
The Assault squad was here, but their leader was dead.
At the Capital of the Javelin Forest Arachnoforms,
Sia was suddenly given the highest level access token.
If she showed this token, anything done against her will be equal to doing the same to the King.
So, she basically just became something close to a princess, but not quite.
The fourth elder, Ash Snow Spider had taken her to her own residence.
Very close to the elder's residence and simple, but elegant.
It was just a two floor house, the lower floor was for living, and the upper floor was for leveling up.
The level of an Arachnoform is determined by their patterns.
1 to 50 means straight lines.
51 to 100 means curved lines.
101 to 150 means circular.
151 to 200 means arrows.
And since she saw the king in person, now she knows,
201 to 250 means vortex like spiral patterns.
The first thing she checked was the bed.
She had an actual bed now!
AND she could sleep upside down in it!
But first, she had to do 3 things, out of which the first was still running.
Spy on atleast one, either Elfane, or Karat.
The second and third things will be told to her by the king after he gets enough info on both of them.
She's looking forward to retiring early.
To the south of the Javelin Forest are the Marble Flatlands, connected to the South Ocean.
And a single hole formed somewhere in it, revealing a stepwell like structure, filled with marble dust, making it only 20 meter deep.
The area was transforming.
————
Soon, evening fell.
The two Meneric camps and the new Hiwana forest guard outpost fell into a calm that tugged at the corner of the mind, asking
Why?
Why was everything so calm?
Why did the unease they had felt since waking up still here?
Why did everyone have the same gut feeling?
As darkness fell, Hysuans and Menerics began going back to their temporary dwellings.
Karat again snuck out to train, and Elfane went to a small mound of mud near the Assault camp.
The air felt damp, but neither noticed.
Karat began attacking nocturnal beasts.
Elfane prayed at the mound, Elun's grave.
The moon felt blurry when they were beneath Javelin trees.
Soon, both of them felt something call them.
They had already experienced it before. 6 times, exactly.
One of their colors will be powered up tonight.
With that, both of them left.
In the (work in progress) New outpost,
"Captain...?"
"Hlemam, is it about Karat sneaking out? Today's not even his watch."
"No captain."
"Come in."
The short strategist Hysuan entered his captain's tent, uncharacteristically holding his bow.
"Hlemam, you..."
"The Vice captain saw something move between the Javelin trees, and I suspect it to be Arachnoforms."
The Hysuan captain's brows furrowed,
"That's rather seri-"
*BOOM*
*SHING*
*CRACK*
An assortment of loud noises broke their conversation as an urgent, rough but feminine voice cut through the night.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK, EVERYONE-"
As the voice cut off mid sentence, the captain grabbed his staff, and the string connecting the barbed sphere flashed white with mana as he rushed out.
"
Hlemam muttered as an arrow of red mana formed in his hand, and he stepped out too,
immediately he saw
the captain plummeting the incoming Arachnoforms,
the vice captain waved the torn flagpost, sending bullets of mana at the far off Arachnoforms, while striking the closer ones with the staff.
The Arachnoforms were too many, about 3 per Hysuan.
"I cannot sit this out."
Breathing out, Hlemam released the arrow, aiming at an Arachnoform circling the Vice Captain.
"
The arrow accelerated at breakneck speed and hit its target.
"
By then, more Hysuans were out, reducing the burden on the three, who internally cursed Karat.
At the two Meneric camps, the situation was not much better.
The Scout campers were just stalling and scratching their enemies, while the Assault campers were slaughtering all they could.
Because at the Meneric side, the Arachnoforms used their silk!
A lot of the Menerics were pinned under the webs, and some were slowly suffocating to death as their claws and nose(s) were under the webs, and the hand at their tails was not working.
One Meneric was fending off an Arachnoform, parrying 4 spider arms with his pair of claws.
A red Meneric and a green Meneric were fighting side by side, their combined claw length was about 1.2 meters, but their synchronised assault was impossible to stop.
The Green one hit suddenly staggering and confusing the enemy while making the wind blow the shot silk away.
The Red one slaughtered every Arachnoform in sight brutally, leaving every corpse in 3 charred pieces, sometimes shooting balls of orange flame at the Menerics trapped under the webs.
The Arachnoforms attacking all 3 locations were, at best, with curved patterns at best, so the battle could be won. Barely, but winnable.
But despite that, the unease didn't wane.
And the confidence of the Arachnoform's didn't helo.
At all.