Boots crunched through wet leaves and broken branches.
Elena heard them before she saw them — disciplined, spaced, deliberate. Not the frantic scramble of animals or the skitter of spiders. People.
Trained.
She pushed herself upright, ignoring the ache screaming through her muscles, bow coming up on instinct before she forced it down again. Torchlight spilled through the shattered entrance, cutting through the dust and drifting web strands.
"Don't shoot," she called out. "We're inside."
Figures emerged from the rain — four soldiers, armour dark and travel-worn, shields slung on their backs, blades and polearms ready in their hands. No nonsense. Their eyes moved constantly, checking corners, ceilings, shadows.
Then Marek stepped through behind them.
The room went deathly still.
Marek took in the carnage in one sweep — the Bruises and cuts, ripped clothes, the webbing stretched like rotting silk, the twitching spider corpses, the green-black stains smeared across stone and steel. His gaze lingered longest on the largest body, legs bent at unnatural angles.
"…Looks like you found trouble," he said flatly.
Scarlett snorted, leaning against a broken pillar. "Oh yeah. Popped in for a cozy nap and got jumped by spiders the size of a fucking house."
One of the soldiers muttered, "What in the hell is that thing?"
"Dead," Finn said helpfully, still scrubbing dried green claret off his sleeve. "Very dead. You're welcome."
Scarlett elbowed him. "You didn't help, Sleeping Beauty. We didn't know if the corpse, could be of use Sir?. So we brought it up here."
Marek's eyes finally settled on Elena.
She straightened despite the tremor in her hands. "Sir — before you pull us out of here… you need to see something."
His expression sharpened. "Talk."
"There's a console," she said quickly. "Old Guild records. And—" her voice caught, just a fraction "—my father's name is on it."
That stopped him.
Everyone had heard of her father's feats and Captain he had become.
Rain pattered harder outside. One of the soldiers shifted his grip on his spear.
Marek exhaled slowly. "How long?"
"Ten minutes," Scarlett said instantly. "Fifteen if you're feeling generous."
He shot her a look sharp enough to cut stone.
She shrugged. "Worth a try, sir."
After a long moment, he nodded once. "You get a short window. Then we leave. No arguments."
Relief hit Elena so hard her knees nearly buckled. "Thank you."
"But," Marek added, voice hardening, "you do not go deeper. You stay in pairs. If you hear anything — anything — you pull back immediately. This place isn't empty."
As if summoned, something scraped softly above them.
Slow. Deliberate.
Finn grimaced. "I hate this place, can't we just leave."
They split up quickly.
Elena stayed with Max. Scarlett grabbed Finn by the collar. "You're with me, Spider Man."
"I feel unfairly targeted."
"Shut it, you muppet."
Marek took two soldiers with him down a side corridor, torchlight slicing through dust and shadow.
The deeper sections felt wrong — warmer, heavier. Old warning sigils were carved into walls, half-scorched and clawed through. Webbing clung thick here, reinforced, layered like it had been tended.
Then Marek stopped.
"There."
A recessed terminal sat half-hidden behind collapsed shelving. He brushed away grime and keyed it alive.
Text crawled onto the screen faint and barely visible.
M.C.G. OPERATORS
Grant Burton — Military Assignment
Status: CODE GREEN
Max leaned forward, breath hitching. "Grant Burton… my dad—"
Marek shut the console down.
Swiftly and Hard.
The screen went black instantly.
"What was that?" Scarlett muttered.
"Nothing you need to worry about," Marek said, already turning.
Elena's stomach dropped. "Sir—"
He stopped, facing all of them now.
"Listen carefully," Marek said quietly. "What you just saw does not leave this room. Not the name. Not the status. Not a word."
Finn frowned. "That bad, yeah?"
Marek met his eyes. "Worse."
Another scrape echoed — closer.
Marek's hand rose. "That's enough. We're leaving."
They started packing up fast.
That's when the noise came again — louder now. Heavy. Wet.
Two soldiers moved instinctively toward the corridor mouth, shields raised, blades out.
"Hold position," Marek ordered.
The shadows moved.
One heartbeat of silence.
Then something impaled the first soldier, lifting him clean off the ground. He didn't even have time to scream before he was dragged backward into the dark void, armour shrieking as it scraped stone.
"CONTACT!" the second soldier roared—
He vanished mid-shout.
Pulled screaming into blackness.
Blood sprayed the wall.
Everyone stumbled back at once.
Scarlett swore violently. "Shit. Not again—"
The corridor breathed.
Then it stepped into the light.
It was a spider — massive, easily as large as the one they'd killed — but wrong in a way that turned Elena's stomach inside out.
Where its eyes and mandibles should have been was a human torso, pale and twisted, ribs visible beneath stretched skin. Its mouth opened too wide, teeth human but jagged, eyes staring blindly as it screamed — a sound layered with chittering and something horribly aware.
An Arachne.
Max whispered, horrified. "That's a… mythical creature."
The last two soldiers charged without hesitation.
Water surged beneath Marek's fist's as he slammed it down into the ground, water ripping up forming a waterfall barrier. The soldiers struck together — spear and blade flashing, power-enhanced strikes slamming into the creature.
It didn't slow it or phase in the slightest.
One was caught mid-strike, torn in half with a wet crack.
The other was hit by a flying torso, smashing against the wall so hard the stone buckled.
As he went to lift himself of the floor a leg impaled him straight through the back of the neck.
One swift movement from the spider and his head flew down the corridor past the group.
Blood rained.
The Arachne let out a high pitched Screech, disorientating the group.
"RUN!" Marek shouted.
Scarlett didn't argue. She grabbed Finn and blinked them both backward. Elena yanked Max with her telekinesis as the Arachne screamed again, claws ripping through stone like paper.
They fled.
Boots slipped on blood and webbing. The facility howled, walls shaking as the creature pursued — not rushing, not panicking.
Hunting.
They burst through the entrance just as Marek forced a wave of violent and ferocious water through the corridor behind them, folding inward with a thunderous crashes.
Silence followed.
Rain poured.
They stood there shaking, soaked, alive by sheer luck.
Finn broke the silence weakly. "…I vote we never come back here."
Scarlett laughed — sharp, hysterical. "Seconded, you absolute pleb."
Marek stared back at the soaked entrance, jaw tight.
"That Mythical beast shouldn't of been here? It must have been left to protect the place." Marek thought
"The M.C.G didn't just die out. They went into hiding," he said grimly. "There waiting for the perfect moment. I have to report this to Smith."
Elena clenched her bow.
This wasn't over.
Not even close.