Another small one tried to leap over the small gap between the rubble and the building's ledge. In response, Eliza slammed it midair with the butt of her spear, sending it tumbling down the rubble into the mass of Rakna below. She brought the spear back, ready to thrust her spear into the next Rakna, but for some reason, they backed off.

A moment later, she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

She glanced back at Leo and tilted his head towards the street. The Rakna had spread out throughout the road, looking as if they had lost the group.

Eliza slowly passed the spear to Leo, who took up her position. Slowly, she backed up from the ledge and went to the nearby pile of stones they had gathered. She picked one up. It was about the size of a brick, small enough that it wouldn't be hard to throw but big enough to do the trick.

Stepping carefully, she sidled up to the small wall that rimmed the building's roof and looked down at the multitude of Rakna encircling the building. Eliza clicked her tongue. There were more Rakna than she could count; they had really stirred the hornet's nest.

She looked over at the other two. Leah threw a stone, crushing some unfortunate Rakna's head; she picked up another one and took careful aim.

Seeing that Leah was doing fine, Eliza glanced over at Demitrus. He held a Rakna spit sack, and he aimed. Before he threw, however, he glanced towards Eliza and gave her a challenging grin.

Eliza watched the spit sac cleanly arc down and smashed into the side of a Rakna, instantly coating it. Several of the nearby Rakna immediately responded by dragging it away.

She looked back at Demitrus, who had already picked up another spit sac, and he casually tossed it between his hands as his eyes met hers again. And he raised a questioning eyebrow.

Eliza lifted an eyebrow in response. Did he think she couldn't do better?

She looked down below at the mass of Rakna and deliberately picked a smaller one far enough away to be challenging to hit. Grabbing a stone, she aimed carefully, and then she threw. It was a beautiful throw, arcing gracefully through the air. The stone flew at an angle towards her target's head. And then hit, caving in the head… of a Rakna that happened behind her intended target…. He didn't need to know that.

She adopted a confident smile on her face and flipped her hair over her shoulder, Throwing a challenging gaze back at Demitrus.

He smirked dismissively and threw another spit sac, scoring a hit on its unfortunate target.

Annoyance flooded over her. she took a deep calming breath as she walked the few steps back to the pile, this time carrying an armful of the stones.

She returned to the ledge and carefully retook aim; she wouldn't let the antics of someone like him get to her.

She threw a stone, this time accurately hitting and taking out another one. Strangely, with every Rakna that went down, all of the Rakna immediately moved in a weird pattern. It wasn't until she had thrown a couple more stones that she realized what they were doing.

"They've encircled us." Eliza quietly announced. With every thrown rock or spit sac, the Rakna had adjusted their position, finding out exactly which building the group was in and cutting off all the escape routes simultaneously.

"That's strange; they normally just attack when they've found you." He said, a hint of concern coming into his voice.

"It's like they're… waiting for something," Leah said.

A moment later, they found out what that something was.

One of the larger Rakna they had seen earlier came scuttling into the torchlight. Its tentacles waved in the air in what looked to be some pattern, and it came to a stop and rhythmically tapped the ground. Almost immediately, the Rakna around it retreated away from the building and into the shadows beyond the torchlight.

The larger Rakna strutted into the middle of the torches, raised itself up, and angled its head directly at them. Eliza glanced at the others and was shocked by how serious their faces had become. Her gaze returned to the adult Rakna, and at the same time, its head turned to face her. She suddenly felt its gaze as if it was sizing her up.

"What's going on?" Eliza whispered as Leo came up beside her.

"I don't know; I've never seen one act this way." He said, Eliza hearing a bit of concern in his voice.

"If it wants to die like the rest, then it can be my guest." Leah said as she drew back her arm and threw a stone straight at it." The Rakna didn't react as the stone flew towards it up until it was about to hit.

In a flash of movement, one of its tentacles lashed out and caught the stone. Eliza watched in shock as the tentacle wrapped around the stone and, with a flick, crumbled it to pieces.

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It threw the rubble to the side, clattering across the cold stone floor. The Rakna looked back up to them and tilted its head to the side, mimicking a human gesture. As if to ask, "is that all you got?"

"It's taunting us," Demitrus remarked.

"I've never seen one this intelligent before," Leah said worried.

It again began to tap its legs onto the ground in the strange rhythmic pattern, and the Rakna emerged from the shadows. In an orderly fashion, they split up into groups and surrounded the torches around the street.

Seeing what they were doing, Eliza and Leah threw a few stones and took out a few while Demitrus threw the spit sacs. But no matter how many they took out, another immediately replaced it. Eventually, the Rakna dragged the torches to form a large ring, with the large Rakna on one side. To Eliza, it looked like a fighting ring.

Again the thing angled its head up towards them and tilted it. Eliza felt its gaze land on her, and she knew that it was challenging her.

"It's challenging me," Eliza muttered as she looked at it. It had been a long time since she had been challenged like this.

"Challenging you? Don't be stupid. Rakna don't 'challenge' you; they swarm, capture, and feed you to their queens to make more of them." Leo said sarcastically.

Eliza reached over and grabbed her spear that was in Leo's hands.

"What are you doing?" Leo demanded, holding onto the spear

"I'm not one to back down from a challenge," Eliza evenly said as she turned to look at Leo and pulled at the spear again.

"Why in the blazes would I let you go down there and get swarmed by them? we have the height advantage, and they can't see us right now." He said as he pulled the spear back to him.

"Don't know about that chief; it really looks like they know where we are. " Demitrus said from the side. Both Eliza and Leo looked back down, and the multitude of Rakna had crawled into the visible light, and all of them had their heads angled up towards them.

"I suspect that if we don't respond, it'll have them barrage us with spit attacks. What'll we do then?" Eliza challenged as she looked up into his blank eyes.

Getting no response other than him furrowing his brows, Eliza pulled the spear out of his hands and, despite Leo's protest, jumped off the ledge onto the rubble below. On her way down, she came across a few Rakna positioned in the rubble, but they drew back when she neared, and they began to coral her towards the circle of torches, confirming her suspicions.

Eliza approached the ring of torches, her spearhead pointed down towards the ground and entered. She walked into her side of the circle and stood directly in front of the large Rakna.

Now that she was closer, she noticed how big it was; it easily stood several feet taller than her. And to make matters worse, its armor was thicker, much thicker than any of the other Rakna.

The smaller Rakna began to move in her peripheral vision. She slightly turned her head to see them closing off the circle and trapping her inside.

She spared a glance up to the three who were still on the rooftop. Leo looked frustrated, Leah looked worried, and Demitrus looked intrigued as he leaned on the wall with his arms folded.

Eliza returned her gaze to the Rakna in front of her. She glanced again towards the smaller Rakna and then back at it. It would be annoying if they got in the way of the fight, and it would be hard enough as is without magic.

It tilted its head again, and then it began the rhythmic tapping of its legs on the ground. Instantly the smaller Rakna around them pulled back and slinked into the darkness, leaving the two in the ring alone.

Eliza silently examined the thing. From the others' reactions, this amount of intelligence in this species was unusual. Not to mention that the thing seemed to understand what she was thinking. She would have to be careful.

The thing angled its head directly at her, and it nodded its head and then tilted it. "Are you ready?" it seemed to be asking.

Eliza stepped back into a fighting stance, raised her spear, and then nodded.

Almost immediately, it reared up higher than Eliza had ever seen a Rakna do before, and then it fell back down, letting its momentum carry it towards her, its bladed-like arms extended as far out as they could be.

Reacting to its movement, Eliza charged forward to the left and ducked under its scythe arm before it could cut off her escape.

The Rakna slammed into the ground where she had just been standing, its arm cutting gouges into the stone floor beneath it.

Sliding to a stop, Eliza pivoted and thrust her spear into the Rakna's side, but it moved right before her spear impacted it, causing Eliza's spear to glance off of its Chitin.

Looking back, Eliza saw it turning to charge at her again. She ran alongside its moving body, keeping its back sections between her and its head. She lashed out with the spear and finally got a decent blow, stabbing into one of its hind legs.

When it took the blow to its leg, it stopped turning and slashed backward with its arm, forcing Eliza to jump back. It then kicked the ground, propelling itself away to create some distance. Once It landed, it began to turn around but, unexpected to it, Eliza was already charging it.

Before it could turn around, Eliza leaped and landed on it. Immediately it bucked, trying to dislodge her, and Eliza felt herself go airborne. Desperately she lashed out with her hand and clawed at its armored back with her free hand. By some stroke of luck, she managed to latch onto a crevice in the armor.

She crashed into it and immediately pulled herself into a position that allowed her to stab at its leg with the spear. The Rakna suddenly stopped trying to dislodge her and sprinted straight towards the nearest building. Unperturbed, Eliza focused on the leg and, with a final stab of the spear, pierced through the leg, separating it from the body.

Immediately the back end of its body sagged to one side and hit the ground. The force of the impact sent tremors through Eliza's that were hard enough to force her to let go, and the Rakna, taking advantage of this, scuttled up the side of a building and bucked once again. Its back section slammed into Eliza's stomach, the force of the blow sending her spiraling through the air.

Eliza flew and came crashing down on the opposite side of the circle of torches. She landed on her right shoulder and came to a rolling stop, the breath knocked out of her. A jarring numbness spread around her body, and she struggled to her hands and knees, vainly trying to drag air into her lungs while coughs racked her body.

She had barely managed to climb onto one foot when she heard that now dreadfully familiar chittering sound. Kicking off with her foot, she was able to send herself tumbling towards the side, but not quick enough to avoid its spit attack. Something slammed into her left leg, and a moment later, Eliza felt the spit soak through the material of her pants. Almost immediately, the burning began.

She barely climbed to her feet before the substance stiffened her left leg. Sweat beaded her forehead, and she gritted her teeth in pain. She glared at the Rakna as it tried to saunter towards her on its remaining three back legs.

"Eliza!" Leah yelled. The Rakna tapped the ground once again, and almost immediately, the Rakna scuttled out of the shadows, The haunting chittering sound emanating from their tentacled mouths.

"Stop it, Leah," Eliza heard Demitrus say, and right after Leah supposedly stopped what she was doing, so did the surrounding Rakna. The message was clear; there would be no interference.

The Rakna continued its slow, awkward gait towards her, and Eliza did her best to position herself with her stiff leg. Instead of rushing in for an attack, The Rakna reared, its tentacles retracting back into its mouth. The awful chittering filled the air as it aimed.

A loud boom tore through the silent city just then, drawing everyone's attention. A bonfire tall enough to be seen over the rooftops of the buildings; burned brightly in the dark cavern. Already Eliza knew the fire was where the Crystal Node was.

Immediately the adult Rakna retreated several steps. Conflicted, It looked between Eliza and the bonfire a few times before coming to a decision. It gave Eliza one last long look before charging in the direction of the Crystal Node. All the other Rakna went with it.

Seeing them leave, a wave of relief crashed over Eliza, and she awkwardly let herself fall backward until she was sitting on the ground. Behind her, she could hear the sound of the others climbing down towards her.

Her heart pounded in her chest, and she looked down at her hands that slightly trembled. A slight grin spread across her face, and despite the burning in her leg, a small chuckle escaped her lips.