The first thing Anton noticed was a bird in front of them. Nothing was particularly strange about the bird itself except it was larger than he would expect. In addition to that, it remained in the air with its wings out, not flapping. “Wait,” Anton held his hand out to the side, the rest stopping behind him. Anton focused his eyes, and even with the highest level of Hawk’s Eyes he could produce, he could only just barely see thin strings between the trees in front of them, wrapped around the bird.

“What’s going on?” Timothy asked.

“Spiders. Diamondsilk spiders, to be specific.” Anton was glad he’d researched the various dangers in the area before The Hunt began. He wouldn’t have imagined the sort of danger before them. Normal spiders had webs that could be difficult to see- though perhaps not with the eyes of a cultivator. For its size, spider silk was normally as strong as steel. However, to have something capable of catching a large bird the webs would have to be much thicker- and thus more visible. Except in the case of diamondsilk spiders, where the webs were… well, extremely durable while thin if nothing else. Diamond was perhaps a bad comparison, except visually. “We have to be careful moving around. Only follow directly behind me.” Anton looked around, seeing they had already found themselves inside the area of other webs. They were lucky not to have run into any, but now they had to be careful leaving the area. Attempting to gather the webs was a possibility, since Diamondsilk was many times stronger than normal spider silk and quite valuable. However, that came with its own dangers. It was possible to get tangled in the webs or exhaust too much energy taking them down… and then facing the spiders who produced the webs. They were actually quite small and nearly invisible themselves, though they came in large numbers to devour the choice parts of prey much larger than themselves.

Anton first looked directly behind them. They could retreat that way, but he could see more webs on either side of them which would prevent them from easily going around the area. On the other hand, he could see a way to go deeper… and hopefully through the area. He explained the options to the group.

Hoyt shrugged, “Either way is fine with me,” he turned his head around, “Can’t see any of these webs though.”

“The flow of energy is different around here,” Catarina commented. “I’d prefer to go through.”

Timothy scratched his head, “I can barely even see the bird from here. Just let me know where to step.”

Anton nodded. “We’ll try going through then.”

He was very careful with the movements he made, because while the webs couldn’t be placed just anywhere- they had to string between two trees- they were even harder to see without the right light. He moved his head around to get different angles, keeping his eyes enhanced. Fortunately he only needed to track still targets, so it was less strain on his energy reserves than it would be in combat.

They picked their way through the forest one step at a time. “Careful of this one here, gotta duck below it. Watch your left foot.” Anton scraped the dirt with his boot to show the edge of where they could move. As they moved further, concern grew on Anton’s face. “Hmm.”

“What’s wrong?” Hoyt asked.

“I… haven’t spotted a single Diamondsilk spider yet. The book indicated they would be easier to see than the webs, if I looked in the right place.” Anton glanced down at his boots and legs, but still saw nothing. There was also nothing hanging off of the webs. He should see transparent spiders, and the library had high quality images of them. He stayed on guard as they continued forward, but eventually the webs thinned and stopped. “That’s the end. We could attempt to gather some webs, but we don’t have the tools. All we’d end up with is sticky, tangled bodies in the magic bag.

“We can come back after The Hunt,” Catarina suggested, “It can be quite useful.”

“Right.” Anton nodded, but couldn’t help but think about the missing spiders. It was unfortunate to miss such a good opportunity, but he couldn’t help but think it was a trap of some sort.

There were no other obstructions to their path on the way to the barrier, and they only ran into a few lone beasts which were quickly defeated, along with some regular sized boars and wolves which they left alone. It wasn’t as if they planned to exterminate the population.

“This should be the right place,” Anton waved his hand. He could generally sense something in front of them, a flow of energy, but not much beyond that.

Catarina nodded. She stepped forward, tracing her fingers in the air. As she did, a shimmering barrier- quite like a web but less regular in arrangement and not from a central point- became visible in front of them. Catarina stared at it, enraptured.

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“How long is this going to take?” Timothy asked.

“A while,” she responded.

With that, Anton looked for a nice tree to take watch in. It would be better not to be stumbled upon by a pack of beasts. They should only be able to come from what was more or less a semicircle behind them, so it was easier than focusing on every direction. It was good to take a rest, as they had already spent a long day fighting and moving. Actually stopping for more than just the time to recover energy would do them good, though Catarina wasn’t actually resting.

“I don’t see anything,” Anton said.

“That’s… good, right?” Hoyt questioned. “Your tone doesn’t make it sound good.”

“Something is wrong. There are far, far too few beasts nearby. What does that mean…” Anton pondered from where he was sitting in a tree. “What is that?” Anton narrowed his eyes as he looked at the horizon.

“The barrier is broken,” Catarina declared.

“What?” Hoyt asked.

Both Anton and Catarina spoke at the same time. “The beasts can get through this section.” and “There’s a large group coming.”

Normal people could sometimes parse two people talking at once, and cultivators brains were better at keeping track of multiple things. Timothy was the first to react, “Are they coming towards us?”

“Yes,” Anton said.

“We should get out of here…” Hoyt said.

“Thuston,” Catarina said looking at a map.

“What?” Anton asked, jumping down next to her.

She pointed to the map. “Here we are. Here’s Thuston. So we can tell the elders where the barrier is broken.”

Anton looked in front of them, his eyes just catching sight of the town in front of them, the tallest buildings just barely visible on the horizon. “I have to protect them,” Anton said. “The rest of you should be able to move along the barrier to the south into safe territory.”

“What?” Hoyt tilted his head, “Oh. I see. Nah. I’m going too. The Order is responsible for protecting people, isn’t it?”

“I’m coming too,” Catarina said.

“Right,” Timothy nodded. “I can’t just leave them.”

Anton nodded. “I understand. I won’t refuse your help. However, someone should go. We need to inform the elders. I don’t know if we can defeat what I saw. It might not have been everything.”

“I can set up a formation that will help,” Catarina said.

“I want to fight,” Hoyt said.

Everyone turned to look at Timothy. “What? I might be the weakest, but if we’re just holding out against a large number of enemies… I should be very helpful too.”

Hoyt sighed, “Ah. You’re right. And I can run faster.” He shook his head, “Can’t waste any time arguing. Good luck.” With that, Hoyt broke into a sprint along the edge of the barrier.

“We’ll have maybe half an hour,” Anton said, “Maybe a bit less. If the beasts go into the surrounding area… we can’t do much to stop them. But at least we can protect one town.”

Catarina nodded. “Let’s go.”

There were no dangers on the way to Thuston, not that it would be expected. They should have previously been contained by the barrier, and normal animals would avoid humans if they were smart. Thuston itself was a town of a few hundred. The group got a few looks from people as they headed toward the center. There, Anton empowered his voice with some energy. “People of Thuston. We are disciples of the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars. We spotted a large number of beasts heading in this direction. We will do our best to protect you from them, but we cannot guarantee anything.”

“They’re coming for our town?” one man asked.

Anton shook his head. “We don’t know for sure. They may spread out and leave it alone. But there are not enough of us here to stop them if they go everywhere. If you flee the village, they might follow you, but if you don’t… the village may be overrun.”

“But you’ll protect us?” a woman asked.

“To the best of our abilities. We can’t guarantee safety for any of you.”

“Can we fight too?” One of the men asked. “How many are there?”

“I can’t count the numbers. You can fight but… only defend yourselves from those that get past us.” Anton looked around, “Who wants to help with something else? You three-” he pointed at several strong looking men, “Help her rearrange things. She knows how to set up formations.”

There were whispers among the crowd about that. It seemed they had only slightly more knowledge about formations than Anton himself had known at the beginning of the year. In short, they just knew it was something powerful and rare- and connected to the barrier around the nearby forest. Anton had expected the village to panic, but instead of doing so they easily listened to his instructions. Very few chose to flee and take their lives into their own hands, instead most of them preferring to stay to fight with the cultivators. Anton hoped he hadn’t led them to their doom by providing that option… but he also understood that if they didn’t stay to defend their homes, they might have nothing left. Normal animals might not destroy homes, but he couldn’t say the same would be true of a large pack of beasts. He hadn’t been able to see clearly, but they were more like a stampede than a pack of wolves… and it had been more than just one sort of creature. Anton gripped his bow tightly. It was time to put his cultivation to a practical use.