Adon flitted through the air, flying almost effortlessly—he had allowed his wings and body to revert back to their original forms, so the flight felt relaxing.

He moved in slowly widening concentric circles around the tree where Goldie and Samson waited.

As he flew, he did not appreciate the beauty of nature as much this time as he had earlier. The butterfly’s mind was focused. He scanned the environment for living creatures larger than himself, almost fully ignoring the plant and insect life that filled every square foot of the forest. He also ignored anything that flew through the air.

Adon was looking for something specifically strong enough to challenge Goldie, but not strong enough to kill her. Most birds would be strong enough to challenge Goldie, but they would also be difficult for her to kill—too mobile. Even if Adon dropped her onto the back of one, she would probably be thrown off before she could secure the kill.

He saw a rabbit and thought, Too small and weak.

He saw a deer and thought, Too big and quick. Maybe Goldie could kill it with the Mana ball, but it probably wouldn’t still be here when she caught up.

He spied a skunk, decided that was a nightmare waiting to happen, and moved in the opposite direction immediately.

Adon kept looking until he saw something that looked a bit monstrous to him.

The creature was mostly covered in gray fur, though its head was mostly white with black stripes running from the ears past the eyes. The coloration reminded Adon of war paint. The beast’s bulky, muscular body looked built for brawling with creatures its own size or larger. It moved slowly, like it was drowsy, but it kept turning its head left and right as if it was waiting for a food source to walk by.

You’re a big one, aren’t you? Adon thought. I bet you’d be a really good opponent for Goldie.

Identify said it was a Gray Continental Badger (Male).

Darn…

Adon thought that it was exactly the kind of creature that would probably give Goldie an energetic fight, but it might be a little too much for her right now. He was pretty certain that some species of badger had immunity or resistance to venom. He had never been an animal expert, but if he was this monstrous thing, he would have opted for some sort of venom resistance or immunity Adaptation at a very young age, as soon as he had a few extra Evolution Points saved up.

The butterfly pictured Goldie suffering a bite from the badger’s strong-looking jaws, and he knew he would have shuddered at the image if his insect body had that inclination. Adon decided this one was a little bit too unreasonable, and he started to fly away.

Then he heard a bestial jaw close, snicker-snack, on something fleshy that twisted and writhed. There was a noise of struggling and tearing and a slight, accompanying odor of blood as predator and prey fought. Adon used his sense of hearing to triangulate the location of the sounds. He could not be certain, but to him, the creatures fighting sounded a bit smaller than the badger had.

Adon flew around a tree and finally set eyes on the source of the vicious noises.

Below him, a red fox was beginning to tear into a rabbit. The body still twitched slightly, but the struggle was over. The head was almost fully disconnected from the torso, and the fox took big, gory bites from the stump where the rabbit’s neck had been.

Ugh. Is that what it looks like when I’m eating?

Adon only looked down at the fox enjoying its meal for a moment. He thought that foxes were roughly as quick as deer, but this one probably wouldn’t be as quick to leave the area as the deer. It was in the middle of eating, after all.

He made a beeline for the tree where he had left the spiders. The fox did not seem to have noticed him.

Adon reached Goldie a minute later, fluttered down to the ground, and settled between her and the unmoving, gently glowing form of Samson.

You found something, Adon? Goldie sent, clearly excited.

I did, he replied.

Adon described what he had seen and pointed the way toward the fox with his antennae.

You can do it, he finished, trying to infuse his words with all the confidence he felt. I’ll be watching Samson. So don’t worry about anything. You’ve got this. Just get there quick, before it gets away! That fox will never know what hit it.

The spider dipped her head in a quick nod.

Thanks, Adon.

Then Goldie began moving away.

—

The spider clambered across the ground, her eight feet gobbling up the terrain faster than any rodent of her size could have accomplished—being hampered with only four legs, they were practically handicapped.

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Her eyes took in her surroundings carefully, marking where every last predatory creature was. Her reserves of Mana, honed and increased through training with both Adon and the Princess, were ready to be unleashed at any moment. She knew that only Mana could allow a creature as small as herself to survive a fight with an opponent as large as a fox.

Despite her slight paranoia about her surroundings, none of the predators around made a move toward the brightly shaded spider. They seemed to recognize that her golden coloration and the hourglass on her back were not ornamental. They were indicative that the dinner-plate-sized spider was deadly, possessor of a highly toxic venom repeatedly strengthened through Evolution Store purchases and cycles of Evolution.

Goldie did not consciously notice the way the other creatures looked slightly askance or even changed their direction to move away as the deadly spider walked past, but on some level, her mind perceived it. She relaxed very slightly. Somewhere within, a confidence settled over her.

I can do this, she found herself thinking. That fox had better watch out!

Her walk acquired confidence. Spiders could not truly strut, but there was a definite purpose and certainty to her movements. They were not a skitter or a scuttle. Closer to predatory stalking.

Then, as she stepped around a tree trunk, she almost tripped over her own feet.

There it was, right there!

Muzzle stained coppery red-brown with rabbit’s blood, still licking and crunching away at the furry brown mess at its feet, the fox had been closer than she had imagined.

He exaggerated the distance a little, because he figured my walking was much slower than his flying, Goldie thought. That was it. Or maybe this is the wrong fox?

She took a moment, standing still, to settle herself. The spider could tell now, after repeated adventures in the deadly outdoors, when she was working herself up into a sort of low-grade panic.

You are startled, she told herself, as the fox licked blood from its left front paw. You do not need to be afraid of this fox. You are not some helpless rabbit. You are clever. You have deadly venom. You…

The self-talk wasn’t working very well.

Just be clever, she told herself. Be sneaky and tricky.

Almost without thinking, she stepped back behind the tree that she had almost stumbled into. The fox still did not seem to have noticed her, despite the gilded coloration that made her virtually unique among this world’s arthropods. It was too busy enjoying its meal.

But it was almost done. She would have to be quick.

Goldie circled around the trunk and began walking in a loop around the fox, aiming to get behind its back. In her mind, she was juggling tasks and planning. Watching the fox to see if it looked up at her, examining the rabbit and trying to guess how much eating the fox had left to do, and planning how she would best inject her venom to kill the fox as quickly as possible.

The fox had little situational awareness, it seemed to Goldie, but it was no less intimidating for that obliviousness. The fox belonged here. It was perhaps not at the top of the local food chain—there were probably apex predators in this forest—but it was confident enough that it did not have to worry about ambush attacks from creatures as small as spiders. Even giant spiders.

Goldie made it all the way around behind the fox’s back and got to within a foot of the creature. There was a tree that stood between her and the enemy. That, and a few inches of empty air. The spider hesitated for a moment.

Then she began to climb.

She had decided on her method. Goldie would climb until she was just above the fox, and then she would throw herself off, onto its neck. A few bites there ought to deliver a fatal dose of venom to his system quickly enough.

Goldie had an intuitive understanding of how best to use her venom on different types of creatures. It was one of the Adaptations she had purchased ages ago, and it had developed with her venom and her Evolution.

But it was one thing to have intuition, and another to have actual data. Goldie had not fought anything since her Evolution that truly required more than one bite to kill. She had never really needed to worry about such a large opposing creature.

As she progressed up the side of the trunk, she moved around horizontally as well, positioning herself so that when she was high enough, her jump would place her where she wanted to be. The spider came within a few inches of the fox’s brush tail, which wagged slightly—perhaps because the fox was well pleased with its cotton-tailed meal. She paused for a moment, sorely tempted to try and grab the swishing limb.

But she made herself resist the urge.

A tail was an extremity. It would be like biting the fox’s toes. Painful, certainly, for the fox. Perhaps eventually deadly, depending on how powerful her venom was relative to this large creature.

The fox would certainly be alerted to her presence, though. The element of surprise would have been wasted. The creature would probably get away from her, so she would not be able to eat it. At the very least, it would have the opportunity to fight.

Goldie didn’t want that.

She forced herself to keep climbing, elevating herself to a higher position. She passed the height of the place where the fox’s bottom legs met its body, then the level of the top of the fox’s tail. Then she rose to the height of the fox’s head.

Goldie was going to climb just a little higher, so she could more easily control the direction of her fall. She was going to point, aim, and throw herself very carefully and precisely to land right at the middle of the fox’s neck.

She was going to leap, venom already dripping slightly from the tips of her fangs, ready to inject it directly into its neck.

She wanted to do all of those things and end this fight in a few frenzied seconds of sudden, violent action.

Instead, the spider stood paralyzed for a moment, as the fox turned its head around and looked right at her, staring very clearly in her direction. Perhaps it was just her nerves, but the creature seemed to her to make direct eye contact. Those fiery orange eyes bored into the spider’s soul for a moment. They were intelligent eyes.

Then the bloody maw curled slightly, exposing the fox’s slightly reddened, gory teeth. It almost appeared to be smiling like a human.

Well? its expression seemed to ask. I’m waiting. Go ahead and ambush me. Jump.

The creature opened its jaws a little wider and licked its lips.

The fox tilted its head to the side. Its eyes had never left Goldie. One of its paws scratched at its rear. It seemed to be growing a little impatient.

Fine, Goldie thought. I do not need the element of surprise. I can do this.