We were already in the battle when Serenity ordered us to enter the gate. Demonic creatures surrounded us from all directions, attacking with their everything to get a taste of us. The eagle wasn’t among them. It was still up in the air, its intelligent eyes surveying.

“Tell her to take care of the damn bird,” I practically shouted. “It is with the trespasser.”

“Bird?” Serenity asked, being already on my mind. A pair of her eyes flashed in all directions until she found the golden-tailed eagle hovering above us. Unfortunately for us, she was in no position to take care of it at this moment, surrounded by a herd of corrupted creatures. “I will deal with it. You two enter the gate quickly… I am not sure how long I can fend them off.”

Marvel jumped into the fray before Serenity could finish giving orders. Even if Marvel wanted to abide by the instructions, she found it tremendously difficult to follow through. There wasn’t even fifty metres of distance between us and the glowing portal. Unfortunately, corrupted creatures littered every inch of the place, restricting our passage.

Some creatures were even jumping into the portal while the elder spider fended off their advances. Alone, she was hardly enough to take all their assault upon herself.

“Do not move on your own, Shai,” Marvel instructed as I struck a barrage of [Arcane Shots] at the enemies. The weaker ones fell away easily, however, the stronger ones did not even budge. By the look of the wall of demonic creatures standing before us, it seemed there were a lot of stronger monsters.

Marvel shot web after web to bind them together and restrict their assault, jumping over their head. Wherever she landed, monsters jumped at her in maddening violence. I took care of the attacks in her hindsight and those she was unable to deal with on her own. My mind numbed, simply shooting arcane shots, my energy reserves almost depleted after firing dozens of them in such a quick succession.

A huge lizard, almost double Marvel’s size, came through the enemy lines like a wrecking ball. It squealed horrifyingly, dashing with its savage maw open to take a bite of the spider’s head. Marvel struck where it was weak.

The monster froze only a fraction of a second before it was about to gobble her. Marvel stared at it with her marvellous, smouldering red eyes. Unfortunately, the monster was of the third tier—something the fledgling spider couldn’t control for more than a fraction of a moment.

Good thing she had a trustworthy and angelic partner to help around.

I didn’t waste any time. Taking advantage of the situation, I shot another barrage of [Arcane Shots], aiming at the monster’s eyes.

Marvel’s control broke, and blood bubbled out from the ghostly eyes of the lizard. It screamed horrifyingly, scrambling in a rampage. Marvel lunged up to dodge as it broke through monsters. The iron lizard was not dead, though blinded and maddened enough that it would not bother us again. Now it was fighting its corrupted brethren, thinking it had got us.

With the monster easing our path, Marvel halved the distance in no time. It would have been impossible for any bipedal creature to cover such distance impeded by a horde of maddened creatures. Thankfully, Marvel was not one.

With each step, we grew closer to the portal, where something else was going on. Instead of attacking us, most of the monsters were jumping into the portal as on the other side Serenity was doing her part in the rampage.

Now I wondered if jumping into it would be a good idea anymore, considering we might have to fight the creatures once more on the other side.

My contemplation was cut short as I felt wild blades of wind rushing towards me. The golden-tailed eagle finally took its chance, swooping down.

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“That damned bird!” I cursed to Marvel, who spared a couple of her eyes to avoid the rushing wind.

My energy reserves were largely gone, and Marvel was no better. To deal with a creature of this calibre, we would need a lot more than that, and even then, I wouldn’t be confident of taking it down due to its advantage in aerial route.

My eyes scanned the surroundings. The portal was only a dozen paces away, but the bird was a mile faster than Marvel. Not to mention, it could still come after us through the portal as well. While I wondered about what I could use against it and rummaged through all the belongings in my inventory, an idea finally came to me.

Feels so damn stupid for not trying this before, I muse. Now I’d have to face whatever comes out of it.

“Marv, don’t falter, go straight!” I shouted. “I’ll deal with this bitch!”

“Are you sure?” Marvel asked, but my focus was entirely on the bird.

Our eyes met for a split second as the bird shot like an arrowhead towards us. No, not at us. It had only one target in mind—it was after me.

“Come on, birdie,” I hissed, preparing no attack. “I’m going to fill my stomach with you tonight.”

Halfway into its flight, the eagle manifested its complete form, easily as wide as two metres with its wings unfurling. Its speed rose tremendously, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“Shai?” Marvel’s voice alerted me in my mind, feeling the danger growing. “Shai?!”

I had no time to answer, putting all my willpower into opening my inventory as wide as possible right before me, where the bird was swooping down.

The stupid eagle didn’t see it coming as its head drove into the inky darkness of the inventory. A pinprick stuck in my skull instantly as a backlash, and I wasted no time closing off the storage function. The dark entrance of the inventory closed even faster than I hoped. It was gone in no time, leaving a spray of blood and feathers in the air.

"Hey Grandpa, it's dead, right?” I hoped. There was no notification to indicate such. Still, this was the best outcome I could have hoped for.

There were merely a couple of steps remaining for us to jump into the portal, and Marvel didn’t waste her energy being surprised at the whole encounter. She jumped.

“Oi, Spider Mama, don’t eat my fruit,” I shouted through the empathic filters of my mask, remembering I hadn’t gotten my reward yet. “I swear if—”

I was silenced as inky darkness consumed my sight and mind for a split moment. That was probably what the eagle felt. Fortunately for me, the feeling only lasted for a split second.

Warm wind brushed against my scales as I opened my eyes once again to find bright light flashing around us. I was still coiled around Marvel, and everything else was moving around us.

I blinked, turning my head around. My bad, everything wasn’t moving. It was us who were falling.

“MARVEEEELLLL!” I screamed, completely unprepared for these empathic spider shenanigans again. I had no essence left to pull something magical off my ass to save us.

Marvel took care of the asspulling. Cobwebs shot from her rear and stuck into the wall. A couple of them wouldn’t be enough to support our weight, so she spread out more until both of our bodies stuck against the wall. It wasn’t hard, since countless large glowing bulbous plant-like things were growing on the wall.

They were the source of light. We squashed one in the crash. It was luminescent no more, with shimmering sap coming out of it. It took all my willpower to stop myself from licking the glowing substances. For some reason, my snek senses went berserk on contact with them. And it wasn’t a bad kind of it.

Putting her sharp appendages to work, Marvel glued herself to the wall and released an expression of relief.

“At least we wouldn’t have to fight the corrupted creatures,” I transferred. “Those stupid bitches are probably dead from the fall.”

“I don’t think so,” Marvel’s empathic waves were laced with exhaustion. It wasn’t every day one got completely surrounded by a flood of demonic creatures. “I think there’s a web cushioning down there somewhere.”

The chasm seemed endless. Even with all the bright light around us, I couldn’t confirm her suspicions. On top of it, my [Golden Eyes] went inert.

“Still, it’s good that you didn’t take chances,” I praised, patting her back with my tail.

Marvel expressed an echo of discomfort. Only then did I notice she was injured. One of her appendages was cut halfway at a joint, while another was a mangled, bloody mess. The juice still dripping from it.

Perhaps I didn’t do as good of a job as I thought, I sighed inwardly.

“Any chance of you growing those back?” I asked hesitantly.

“I’ll be fine after some rest,” Marvel returned.

Well, I very much doubted that, but I didn’t argue with her. “Do you know where to meet up with the rest of your clan so they can heal you?”

Marvel released an expression of affirmation. “But before that, we must clean out the pest from corrupting our holy ground.”

Sister, you need to catch a break or two.