The castle was so close. So damn close!

But not close enough.

The giant acid spider had managed to catch up with us and I was too exhausted to steadily keep us away from it. In hindsight, I should have headed back into the forest rather than keeping to the rocky path leading from the cliffside. It might have been the longer path, but it would at least make it harder for the spider to follow us.

The only saving grace was that the spider was apparently so intimidating to the local fauna that any other monsters that got close immediately ran for the hills upon seeing it.

I would have loved to know why the forest’s apparent apex predator had decided that we needed to die so badly.

A familiar screech resounded behind me and I immediately prepared to jump to the side, but the exhaustion got to me at the worst possible moment and I tripped, making me gasp in surprise.

I clenched my teeth and attempted to shield Wi with my body at the last moment as I prepared to have my back be eaten away by acid.

The burning sensation never came. Instead, the familiar feeling of the ring’s field activating washed over me. I heard the sound of the spider spitting and subsequently a screech accompanied by sizzling.

My head whipped around just in time to see the spider claw at its face with its front appendages.

I blinked.

And then I picked Wi up again and kept running, not wanting to waste the chance Wi had given us.

Again, the ring’s rune was only supposed to affect enemies. Not allies, not random rocks, and not acid spit aimed at us either. But somehow, she just made it do whatever she wanted to.

I was definitely not jealous.

Thanks to the distraction, we made it almost all the way to the castle before the spider caught up again. I could see the damn ramparts in the distance and the bunny-eared person standing on top of them.

She noticed me too and her already panicked expression turned horrified.

“Renee! Behind you!” she shouted unnecessarily.

“I know!” I gasped out, annoyance mixing into my exhaustion. “Why is it chas–”

Then Casey went stiff and her eyes widened and the steady skittering behind me abruptly stopped with one loud crunch of the rocks.

I acted purely on instinct as I spun out of the way, still clutching Wi. The freaking beast flew right past us on its physics-defying leap and decimated several trees in its path.

It had missed, but now it stood between us and the castle.

“Shit…” I swore under my breath.

I hadn’t expected the beast to be capable of jumping like that. Had it given up trying to acid us because it knew Wi could reflect it back? Dammit. Why did it have to be intelligent?

Just as I got my bearings, the spider also recovered from its messy landing and it screeched at us. A moment later, a bolt of magical light slammed into its body from above, making it stumble again.

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My head whipped up and spotted Casey gritting her teeth as she glared down at the beast, a magical staff in her hands. The same one I had once used to test magic back on Trevor’s hillside.

She fired off another bolt, nailing the spider’s butt.

“Okay,” I breathed out. “We need to get inside now.”

I tried grabbing Wi again, but at this point, my arms and legs felt like jelly. I tried my best regardless.

“It’s fine! I-I can run on my own!” she declared, seeing my wobbly limbs.

I locked eyes with her for a moment and saw her determination. I hesitated for a split second before giving a nod.

Together, we ran around the spider and toward the castle’s main gate as Casey kept barraging our pursuer with magic. With my hands free, I also pulled out the shurikens and tried to keep it away from us.

Naturally, the spider, being much smarter than it had any business being, soon learned how to dodge Casey’s bolts and to my surprise, turned its back on us and instead went after Casey.

The heck? After so long chasing us, why suddenly switch targets?

Luckily for us, castles were generally designed to defend against sieges, and despite the spider’s best efforts, it got stuck in the moat as Casey kept pelting it with more bolts. It screeched again and I was about to yell at my friend to watch out for the incoming acid, but apparently, she knew better than me.

She slammed the staff into the ground and used its rune in the same motion. The air around her surged away with a pop, and just like when Wi had used the ring, the acid reversed directions and sprayed all over the spider, enraging it even further.

Meanwhile, Wi and I circled around the castle and could finally see the main gate. But the moat bridge, doubling as the gate, was lifted. We would need to wait for Casey to lower it.

And unfortunately for us, the arachnid monster seemed to have figured out that trying to besiege a castle to get to Casey was much harder than getting to the two of us still outside. It rounded the corner with a screech moments before more acid flew at us. Wi instantly countered it with her ring, but the spider had seemed to have learned its lesson and managed to dodge the reflected acid without missing a beat and continued charging at us.

I tossed my shurikens at it even as another bolt of magic flew from the ramparts, but the damn thing ducked under the bolts and batted away my shurikens.

Dammit! It was learning!

With no better ideas, I stashed away the shurikens, hastily picked Wi up, and ran again.

“Casey, the gate!” I shouted as I ran around the castle, barely dodging out of the way of another one the spider’s mad leaps.

My plan was to run around the castle in a circle while Casey lowered the gate. It could have worked. I just had to endure for a little longer.

I let out a gasp and stopped abruptly as I rounded the castle’s corner.

Unfortunately, I didn’t account for the steep cliff behind the castle. It made sense to build a castle like this strategically, but…

Another screech.

The spider had positioned itself to perfectly block us off. There was a bit of flat land behind the castle a bit further away, but it was too far to reach with a jump. Our only options were to jump down the steep cliff and hope for the best, or become the spider’s dinner. Thanks to the fact that I had told Casey to go open the gate, we didn’t have her artillery support either. We were trapped.

I flicked my eyes back to see the monster creeping up on us, no longer running. Almost as if it was enjoying toying with us now. I could have sworn it was grinning victoriously, even through the burn marks on its face.

I clenched my teeth and glared at it as I slowly backed away from it. I felt Wi gripping me with her shaking hands, only adding to my stress and fear.

An idea sprouted in my head. Last ditch effort.

I took a deep breath…

“Sorry…” I murmured.

“Wha–”

With all my remaining arm strength, I spun around and tossed Wi across the gap before activating my own ring.

Wi screamed as the force of the ring’s field catapulted her over the chasm. Somehow, against all odds, she made it across, landing with a crunch and a pained cry.

I winced but reminded myself that as long as she lived, healing potions could fix her.

Naturally, the spider didn’t like this development and sped up its approach again with a screech. I wasted no time jumping off. With my hands free, I grabbed for any jutting rocks and tried landing on any footholds I could find. Moving as quickly as I could while being careful not to fall, I wanted to make my way over the cliff as well.

But then the spider jumped.

Wi screamed.

I felt the field again.

The spider just barely didn’t make it across and fell down the cliff… right on top of me.

It clipped me with one of its legs.

My hand slipped.

And I fell.