Cass slunk around it, keeping to the shelter of the pillars, only braving the open spaces between when she was sure that it was looking in another direction.

You should move on, Salos said. You can’t beat it like this.

Cass scowled, slinking up to a pillar flanking the spider. He was right, of course. Somehow she had survived up to this point, but she wasn’t getting anywhere. No one would fault her for cutting and running now.

You tried. You cannot win this fight.

And yet, here she was, slipping closer and closer.

Her ranged attacks hadn’t worked earlier. But she wasn’t sure how Wind Blade differed between its ranged and melee variants. She was pretty sure it was stronger at melee. Not certain. But maybe if she additionally laced it with Mana Blade? Could she break the monster’s tough carapace?

She darted out, her staff raised, winds whipping into a blade at its end.

Something tipped the spider off this time. Maybe it was that she was much closer this time. Maybe it was that it knew she was antagonistic. Maybe it was just it knew of her existence and that was enough to cut through her stealth.

Cass didn’t know.

Whatever it was, it gave the spider enough time to spin. A leg swatted her strike aside, but only enough to direct it from straight on to glancing. Her Wind Blade dug into its side, but not deep or centered. Another leg followed the first, slamming into Cass’s torso.

She rolled with the strikes, darting behind another pillar and re-engaging Stealth as she did. The spider followed, racing blindly after her, swinging wildly through the air she had occupied moments before.

She tried to get around it, to strike at its back again, but it doggedly turned after her. Clearly, it had a feel for her general direction, if not her exact position.

She backed off again, darting between pillars until she’d lost it again.

Why? Salos moaned. Why do you keep trying? The longer it takes, the better it will get in finding you through Stealth.

Cass bit her lip. He wasn’t wrong.

She should move on, save her strength for a fight she could win.

The victim groaned again from their spiderweb cocoon. She grit her teeth. That was her fate if she lost here. But it was also the fate she consigned that soul to if she left.

How do I reduce my presence more? Cass asked Salos, focusing the question at him with all her Will.

Training? Practice? Skill? His voice had taken a flippant tone. Dismissive. He just wanted her to leave. This isn’t the time to be experimenting with new techniques.

He was right, of course. And yet…

What kinds of Skills? Cass asked.

He sighed deeply. Your Stealth is one. Some variants of Dodge. Skills for throwing up smoke screens or otherwise creating cover. Illusions. Most assassination techniques. None of which you have.

Could you kill it? Cass asked.

At my height? Sure. Easily. Now? At half your level? Without a body? No. I can’t even use my combat skills right now.

Cass bit her lip. The spider was patrolling the room, throwing Acid Bolts at random, screaming in its hissing, chittering voice.

What if, she hesitated at the suggestion, but it was her only idea, What if you possessed me again?

He snorted. I would still be half your level.

More importantly, do you trust me enough to do that? This is an entirely different situation from last time. You are not on the brink of death. You are not bleeding out to the point of being incapacitated. Would you be able to stop yourself from taking over again?

More to the point, our goals differ. I would not choose to fight this thing. I would run. With my skill set, we would easily escape. Would you trust me still?

Cass frowned. He was right. Once again, he was right.

Was that it? Was there nothing else she could try? She only had the one Stealth skill. The only similar thing was Dodge. But…

Her frown deepened as she turned the skill over

She started with Dodge, turning the skill over in her mind. It was an odd feeling, something she’d avoided looking at too closely as much as possible.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The skill felt foreign in her mind, one part innate, uncanny knowledge on how to move, one part quiet adviser warning of upcoming dangers, one part inert magic woven into a tight ball in her core.

She pulled up the description.

Dodge (lvl 6)

[Bob and weave. The best defense is not getting hit in the first place!

Passively increases one’s reaction time to a small degree.

Actively increases one’s speed in getting out of the way and advises on how best to move one’s body to avoid unwanted impacts.

Modified by Dex.]

She pressed at it mentally, not really sure what she was expecting to happen or even if she was affecting it in any way. She could use it actively to “increase one’s speed in getting out of the way”. The phrasing implied “get out of the way of danger” or at least out of the way of “unwanted impacts”. But could she stretch it to mean out of the way of an opponent’s senses?

You wish to dodge detection. Would you like to attempt this feat with Dodge? Detection is outside the normal range of dodgeable entities and will be significantly less effective and consume both Focus and Stamina.

She blinked. That worked? She mentally selected yes and felt the skill expand within her, linking with Stealth to provide more nuanced suggestions.

She could see not only how she should move to reduce her presence, but which paths she should take to minimize the spider’s sight lines on her. It whispered for her to Dodge behind a pillar as the spider patrolled the room. It sped her slinking steps as she silently ghosted across the open space toward the spider.

I cannot believe this is working, Salos grouched. Cass grinned to herself, despite being just as surprised.

Cass prepared another surprise attack. She’d slink up on it under the effects of both Dodge and Stealth and strike with a Mana Wind Blade from behind.

She gathered the blade as she stepped out into the open. Dodge assured her that this was outside the spider’s line of sight. Stealth directed each footstep over the slick stone floor.

She was maybe two yards away when Dodge screamed for her to step back. The spider’s legs had tensed, the hairs along the legs stiffening in the breeze whipped up by her Stealth.

Cass scurried back, as the spider turned in her direction. It stared hard through her, unmoving, before turning again to continue its patrol.

She tried again. And again. Each approach ended the same, with Dodge screaming she’d be caught if she took another step closer.

This is never going to work, Salos said again. It is sensitive to vibration. Your Stealth is not well suited to reducing such senses, especially not here where the air is so stagnant.

Cass frowned. He was still not wrong. The winds thrown up by Stealth were not helping here. But she didn’t know how to make them stop. Moreover, she suspected they did something for her that she’d lose if she somehow could stop them.

Outdoors or even in a moderately busy room the movement would be lost in the normal air flow. It was only here in the dead stillness of the Temple that it made her stand out like this.

Though, that suggested all she needed to do was to hide that movement, and she’d have her way. But how did she hide wind? In more wind, perhaps?

She envisioned a gale whirling around the spider, disorienting all the information it was getting from the hairs along its legs.

Could she do that with either Elemental Manipulation or Wind Blade?

Wind Blade could move more air at once, but only in the form of blades on specific trajectories. That didn’t really match the gale of wind she had in mind.

But then, Elemental Manipulation could only move so much at once too. While it was more flexible, she’d never tried to move anything outside her physical reach. Then again, she did have that Range Buff now.

Thinking about it was only going to get her so far. She had to try. The only other option was to listen to Salos and leave.

Steeling herself, she pointed with her staff, engaging Elemental Manipulation and Willing her Focus to grab the air around her. She easily grabbed a region the size of a basketball, but that wasn’t enough. She pushed her Focus out further.

It oozed through the air, trying and failing to capture more of the mass around her. Trying and failing to push it toward the spider. It was like trying to push water with a net. Her Focus ran uselessly through the air, barely affecting much of it at all. A far cry from a gust, much less the swirling gale she wanted to summon around the spider.

This was different from her past uses of the skill in a lot of ways. Not only was she trying to move more of the element at once, she was trying to do it continuously, further from her body.

She just didn’t have the control or power for what she wanted. Still, there had to be some way to make this work.

Perhaps instead of a smokescreen, she should be aiming for feints?

She took a deep breath, preparing another Wind Blade.

Cass, what are you doing now? Salos asked. You aren’t thinking of throwing another ranged Wind Blade at it? That didn’t do anything last time!

True. But last time, she hadn’t followed it up with anything.

She waited for Dodge to tell her the coast was clear, then stepped into the open, a Wind Blade building on her staff. She threw it and Sprinted for the next pillar.

The spider sensed the approaching Wind Blade and spun to face the racing attack as Cass Sprinted at it from another direction.

It stabbed through the ranged Wind Blade, screaming wildly as it found only empty air behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Cass’s staff swung down on the spider’s exposed flank.

Its screams of rage transmuted into pain as Cass’s magic glaive bit deep. The spider’s green innards spurted through the air as her melee Wind Blade ripped through its exoskeleton.

Cass pulled her blade free with a twist of her staff, tearing the wound open further.

The spider reared back, blind fury trembling through its body. A ring of green acid manifested around it, growing with its screaming pitch.

Cass leapt back, Dodging out of sight behind another pillar as the ring exploded into a swarm of Acid Bolts, spraying in every direction.

It still didn’t know where she was. If it had, it would have chased instead of throwing an area-of-effect attack.

Cass grinned.

This could work. She could win.

How? Salos asked. How is this working?

Cass’s grin only grew. Still think I should run?

No. Take that experience. Kill the spider.

She snorted silently. That was what he wanted, huh? He still didn’t care about the trapped person? Well, that didn’t matter now.

She could win.