By sunrise, Sia had apparently decided that yesterday's tie was a personal insult.
Keizeix discovered this when he stepped outside his tent and found her already waiting beside Marike.
Her front legs were positioned neatly beneath her.
Her posture was dignified.
Her expression was not.
"You're late."
Keizeix looked toward the barely risen sun.
"I'm early."
"I was earlier."
"That doesn't make me late."
"It makes you later than me."
Keizeix stared at her.
"That may be the stupidest thing you've said this week."
Black-purple sparks flickered once around Sia's leg.
Marike immediately looked at her.
Sia extinguished them.
Shirespoke walked past.
"Wonderful. Both of you survived long enough to become irritating again."
Keizeix followed.
Covering his midnight-black shell, Tiestra's living-form Edenweave remained completely concealed.
It copied every crimson marking across his body.
Every joint.
Every natural contour.
Even knowing it was there, Keizeix sometimes couldn't visually distinguish it from himself.
He had also taken another carefully measured dose of the silk-production tonic before leaving his tent.
Everything else remained hidden inside Personal Storage.
Nobody could know.
Not the soldiers.
Not his mentors.
Not Sia.
The platform itself might be inaccessible to everyone around him, but the physical items he obtained through it weren't.
One strange bottle could create questions.
One unknown armor set could create an investigation.
Enough impossible items could turn Keizeix from prince into something people wanted to study.
He had been prey once already.
He wasn't volunteering for it again.
---
As they approached the battlefield, Keizeix moved alongside Shirespoke.
"Mentor."
Shirespoke glanced at him.
"You want something."
"A question."
"Those are usually worse."
Keizeix ignored him.
"My physical growth is moving much faster than my magical growth."
Shirespoke's expression became more thoughtful.
"That makes sense."
"Why?"
"Look at what you're killing."
Keizeix glanced toward the beetle lines.
Thousands of armored bodies shifted across the distant terrain.
Almost none showed magical effects.
"Their stronger magic users aren't here."
"Exactly."
Shirespoke pointed toward the far ridgelines.
Even at this distance, occasional magical detonations could be seen.
"Beetlekin capable of meaningful magic are concentrated in other portions of the warfront. Commander Vaelcor and stronger officers handle most of them."
"So fighting these won't help my Magic much."
"Not significantly."
Keizeix frowned.
"What does?"
"A catalyst."
That got his attention.
Shirespoke continued.
"Killing creatures or people actively developed in magic is one way. Taking their cores and absorbing what remains inside is another."
Keizeix looked at him.
"You can just consume cores?"
"Generally."
That answer sounded suspiciously incomplete.
"Generally?"
Shirespoke gave him an approving look.
"Good. You noticed."
He slowed.
"Absorbing a core close to your own strength is usually manageable, provided nothing about it is especially incompatible with you. The greater the difference between you and the core, the greater the danger."
"What happens if it's too strong?"
"You die."
Keizeix waited.
Shirespoke shrugged.
"That is the simple version."
"And the complicated version?"
"The power overwhelms your core faster than your body can contain or integrate it."
Shirespoke tapped Keizeix lightly on the thorax.
"If enough magical force is involved, you don't merely die."
"What happens?"
"You explode."
Keizeix stopped walking.
Shirespoke continued several steps before looking back.
"How badly?"
"Depends on what you swallowed."
"That's not reassuring."
"It wasn't supposed to be."
Marike, who had overheard them, added from nearby, "There was once a soldier who tried absorbing a core several stages beyond what his body could contain."
Keizeix looked toward her.
"What happened?"
"They found pieces of the fortress three valleys away."
Keizeix stared.
Sia walked past him.
"Perhaps don't do that."
"Excellent advice."
Keizeix resumed walking.
"What about Mana itself? If I use more, will my capacity increase?"
"No."
Shirespoke answered immediately.
"Using Mana empties Mana."
Keizeix nodded slowly.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
Shirespoke sounded almost amused.
"You recover it through proper rest, food, time, or restorative resources if you possess them. Spending your entire reserve repeatedly won't magically create more."
Keizeix mentally reconsidered several plans he'd been forming.
That changed things.
Shadow Mist wasn't training fuel.
It was ammunition.
Finite ammunition.
And without mages in his section, his Magic was going to remain behind unless he found another source of growth.
"Understood."
Shirespoke gave him a sideways look.
"That usually means you're planning something."
"I'm always planning something."
"Yes. That's the problem."
---
The beetlekin had adapted again.
Iron-shell beetles formed a moving defensive wall.
Horned varieties positioned themselves behind them.
Burrowers disappeared beneath the earth.
Keizeix stared across the formation.
"They really don't make this easy."
Sia stepped beside him.
"Would you rather fight the humans again?"
Keizeix considered it.
"Yes."
Sia looked disappointed.
"They were softer."
"You're boring."
"I prefer efficiently killable."
The horns sounded.
Sia launched forward.
Keizeix followed.
---
The first collision was brutal.
Keizeix fired silk around the front legs of an Iron-shell beetle.
The strands tightened.
Unlike earlier days, he didn't immediately feel his reserves dropping toward exhaustion.
Tiestra's tonic was working.
The beetle beside his target shifted to protect it.
A horn stabbed toward Keizeix.
He moved physically instead of activating Shadow Mist.
The point scraped across his side.
The Edenweave hardened.
**THUNK.**
The impact hurt.
But the horn didn't penetrate.
Keizeix twisted underneath the attacker.
He fired another silk line around its rear leg.
Pulled.
The beetle stumbled.
A Silversilk soldier struck its exposed underside.
Keizeix followed.
**Kill registered.**
Another beetle rushed him.
Keizeix almost activated Shadow Mist.
Stopped himself.
Not necessary.
He jumped sideways instead.
The beetle passed.
Keizeix webbed its hind legs to a corpse.
It turned.
Wrong direction.
Keizeix struck the softer neck membrane.
Once.
Twice.
Third strike.
**Kill registered.**
He grinned.
Shadow Mist remained untouched.
Mana remained available.
That mattered.
---
Sia was fighting differently too.
Her lightning appeared in brief, concentrated flashes.
Not enormous battlefield displays.
One precise bolt into a joint.
One moment of muscular disruption.
Then physical attacks.
Keizeix noticed immediately.
"She's rationing."
Smart.
Annoyingly smart.
Neither of them could afford to treat Mana like an endlessly replenishing resource.
Once emptied, it wouldn't conveniently return because they stood still for a few minutes.
The battle would continue.
Their enemies would continue trying to kill them.
Emptying Mana early meant fighting the rest of the day without it.
Keizeix used Shadow Mist only when the alternative was dangerous.
A rhinoceros beetle trapped him between two larger warriors.
Shadow.
His body flattened into darkness.
He crossed beneath them.
Emerged twenty feet away.
Mana dropped sharply.
Keizeix felt the loss immediately.
There was no return.
No slow refill.
That amount was simply gone until proper recovery.
"Right."
He looked at the beetles.
"Physical solutions first."
Silk snapped outward.
---
By midday, Keizeix had turned part of his battlefield into a network of traps.
Broken spears served as anchors.
Dead beetles became barriers.
Collapsed wagons became choke points.
Silk lines crossed narrow routes at different heights.
The beetlekin remained stronger defensively.
But Keizeix was becoming better at deciding how they moved.
A horned beetle charged.
Its leg caught a strand.
The silk stretched.
Held.
The creature stumbled into a second line.
Keizeix attacked.
**Kill registered.**
Another tried circling him.
Three Silversilk soldiers deliberately drove it toward one of Keizeix's webbed corridors.
It entered.
Its legs tangled.
The soldiers swarmed it.
Keizeix smiled.
"They're learning my traps."
Shirespoke passed nearby.
"They're soldiers. They generally appreciate things that make dying less likely."
"You're welcome."
"I wasn't thanking you."
---
Late afternoon brought exhaustion.
Not Mana exhaustion.
Keizeix had protected that reserve carefully.
Physical exhaustion.
His legs ached.
His shell felt battered beneath the hidden armor.
The silk tonic was still helping, but even enhanced production had limits.
He could tell his body was approaching them.
During a temporary lull, Keizeix opened his status.
**Name: Keizeix Silversilk**
**Age: 6 months**
**Race: Spiderling — Silversilk Clan**
**Rank: Master**
**Strength: 70,843 / 100,000**
**Health: 69,718 / 100,000**
**Magic: 31,408 / 100,000**
**Intelligence: 73,104 / 100,000**
**Mana: 24,961 / 31,408**
Keizeix stared at the numbers.
Magic hadn't moved.
Not even slightly.
Of course it hadn't.
Nothing he'd killed possessed enough developed magical strength to provide the catalyst his growth needed.
Mana was lower because he'd used Shadow Mist several times.
That was all.
No mysterious reward.
No convenient improvement.
He had spent power and therefore had less power remaining.
Simple.
Keizeix closed the display.
"So I need magical kills."
He looked toward the distant battlefield.
Colored explosions lit the horizon.
Not those magical kills.
He remembered the Heroic beetle.
Then Commander Vaelcor reducing it to pieces.
There were levels to stupidity.
Charging into a battlefield filled with magic users strong enough to require Vaelcor's attention would rank extremely high.
Keizeix returned to his assigned enemies.
For now.
---
Near sunset, a burrower erupted directly beneath him.
Keizeix jumped.
Too late.
Mandibles clipped one rear leg.
The Edenweave prevented them from biting completely through, but the force threw him sideways.
A second beetle charged.
"Keizeix!"
Lightning flashed.
The beetle spasmed.
Sia had struck its front joint.
Keizeix recovered immediately.
He webbed the damaged leg.
Pulled.
The creature collapsed.
He drove one front leg beneath its head.
**Kill registered.**
Keizeix turned toward Sia.
"I had it."
"You were upside down."
"Temporarily."
Sia stared.
"You are unbearable."
"And yet you saved me."
Her expression changed strangely for half a second.
Then irritation returned.
"Only because winning vs a corpse would be humiliatingly meaningless."
Keizeix laughed.
"Good excuse."
Sia turned away too quickly.
Keizeix watched her for a moment.
Something about her had been odd lately.
He couldn't decide what.
Then another beetle attacked.
Problem postponed.
---
The withdrawal horn sounded before either of them reached seventeen hundred.
Dinner was quiet initially.
Keizeix was exhausted.
Sia looked equally worn down.
Then the reporting officer arrived.
Both immediately became attentive.
"Today's confirmed kills."
He opened the first scroll.
"Princess Sia Silversilk: one thousand six hundred and eighty-three."
Sia's posture lifted.
Forty-two more than yesterday.
Then the second report.
"Prince Keizeix Silversilk..."
Keizeix waited.
"...one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine."
Silence.
Sia slowly looked toward him.
Keizeix looked back.
Six.
A smile spread across his face.
Sia pointed toward the officer.
"Again."
The officer looked exhausted.
"Prince Keizeix Silversilk: one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine."
Keizeix leaned back.
"Six."
Sia's eyes narrowed.
"You were behind me two days ago."
"History."
"You tied me yesterday."
"Also history."
"Tomorrow I'm destroying you."
Marike pointed a utensil toward her.
"No lightning during dinner."
"I wasn't—"
A tiny spark appeared.
Marike raised an eyebrow.
Sia extinguished it.
Keizeix laughed.
Shirespoke looked between them.
"One victory by six kills and his ego has already recovered."
"It never left."
"We noticed."
---
Food helped.
Not immediately.
But Keizeix could feel his body beginning the slow work of recovery after eating heavily.
Mana would take significant rest to restore properly.
That meant tomorrow's reserve depended partly upon how well he recovered tonight.
Another useful lesson.
Later, after everyone settled, Keizeix sealed his tent.
Only then did he remove the Edenweave.
Several sections had dulled where beetle horns repeatedly struck.
Still intact.
Still useful.
Still secret.
He applied the repair resin Tiestra had included.
Then opened the platform.
Tiestra had already sent an updated offer.
**Tiestra:**
*I added Mana-restoration products to the catalogue you requested.*
Keizeix immediately opened it.
Several grades appeared.
Some expensive.
Others dramatically less so.
He smiled.
That solved recovery.
Not magical growth.
But recovery itself could keep Shadow Mist available longer during difficult battles.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Which ones can safely be used repeatedly?*
Tiestra answered after a short delay.
**Tiestra:**
*The weaker draughts. Stronger ones restore more but shouldn't be abused.*
**Tiestra:**
*Your body still has to process what you're putting into it.*
Keizeix appreciated that answer.
No miraculous bottles without consequences.
Good.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Add a trial batch to my next order.*
**Tiestra:**
*Done.*
Then another message followed.
**Tiestra:**
*You're ordering more already.*
Keizeix could almost feel her trying not to sound pleased.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Your products are useful.*
A pause.
**Tiestra:**
*That may be the nicest thing you've said to me.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Don't become accustomed to it.*
She sent an annoyed symbol he'd never seen before.
Keizeix laughed.
Then Estros's earlier advice came back to mind.
Compatible cores.
Magical opponents.
Materials.
Keizeix looked inside Personal Storage.
Beginner cores everywhere.
Intermediate cores.
Far fewer Master cores.
Surely among the enormous number taken from the human armies, some had belonged to mages.
The thought stopped him.
He had never separated his cores by whether their owners had been magical fighters.
Only grade.
Keizeix stared into storage.
Thousands upon thousands.
He suddenly had a new problem.
Somewhere inside that mountain of spoils might already be exactly what he needed.
He just had to figure out how to find them safely.