The large monster attack at the front of the caravan forced it to stop for some time. Even with almost two sections worth of adventurers, they couldn't push the wave of monsters fast enough. And so the first cart had to stop or risk running straight into an angry pack of Taratects. Once the mercenaries stopped their attack, which happened once their assault team broke against our defense, the waves thinned and Ottar managed to secure a victory. The number of wounded was high, however.

Since the next checkpoint was only a few hours away, Ottar made the decision to resume the walk on the spot and push through to relative safety. It would make the caravan somewhat of a mess until then since the beasts of burden were not used to it. I had learned, from Tinkwire and Jeremy, that they were bred and trained specifically for long expeditions. With special skills that allowed them to pull their loads for long periods without exhausting themselves or needing to sleep. The disadvantage was that they were so specialized that they were unsuited to any other kind of work.

When I checked their health, the premature stop had created some problems. I didn't know in detail which skills they had but I could feel their stamina dropping unnaturally fast. There was a downside to everything after all. They would likely manage to reach the safe point but I expected we would need to stay there for two days and that all the beasts would need to be checked by us healers.

The last few hours were tense, everybody expected another attempt while we were vulnerable but none manifested. Mid-way through, I heard that one of our own rogue teams managed to kill two of the mercenary tamers, the ones that were leading the attack against the tail of the caravan. When I had seen them in Lorenzo's dream-illusion, I also sent a team after the waiting Garvin and his team. They had managed to kill him and one other before the rest managed to disengage.

If Dimsai's information was accurate, which seemed to be the case, they had lost both of their infiltration teams, half of their tamers, and a few of their reserves. The Nimble Shadows were likely cutting their own losses.

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When we finally reached the relative safety of the clearing, most of the beasts of burden collapsed on the spot. Before they, and the adventurers that had been severely wounded in the attacks, could be treated, every single mage, scout, and rogue swarmed the outer perimeter and set up a fortress of traps, both mechanical and magical. Anyone who approached the camp with hostile intention would have an extremely bad time.

I had added illusion-based traps to the mix, including the Lotus Labyrinth that Lorenzo had fallen prey to, in order to confuse any assailant. There were some obvious traps that were fake and some others that weren't. Some illusions hid nothing while others concealed deadly spike pits or runic mines.

The wounded had already been gathered at the center of the formation once we returned. Vel and I went to work alongside the four other healers. Since I had the most mana out of everyone, I was the one to regrow missing body parts that had been bitten off or amputated. Once all the adventurers were back on their feed, we moved on to the many, many beasts of burden that made the caravan work. If even one of them died, it would throw a massive wrench into the operation. Thankfully, several of the traders knew what the specialized skills were and how they worked which made our work much easier. Still, this took several hours and, by the time we were finished, the crystals had fully dimmed and night had fallen.

Ottar announced a three day break, much to the relief of everyone.

With plenty of time on our hands, I decided to build a proper nest to spend those nights. With Vel's help, I grew a frame to attack my web. It took a ridiculous amount of mana to grow a fully fledged tree so the egg-shaped construct was built with much cheaper branches and vines built into a self-supporting network. Vel added some flowers and leaves for decoration and privacy. Then, I built my standard model web hammock inside and covered it in pillows.

"Wow … so … this is how you usually sleep?" Sarah said as she looked at our construction.

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"Why are you surprised?" Jane chuckled. "Spiders make webs, don't they?"

"Yeah … 'course they do, but she didn't do that last time."

"It wasn't worth it for one night," I shrugged.

"It looks really nice to sleep in …" Jane said as she looked at the pile of pillows.

"It's very nice," Vel grinned as she prepared another piece of flatbread over the fire.

"Not even a little scary?" Sarah said. "I know Liscura wouldn't but … Taratects kind of give me the creeps."

"She's all soft and fuzzy," Vel said with a dreamy look.

Both Sarah and Jane looked at me, naked curiosity in their eyes. I rolled my eyes and wiggled a pedipalp in their direction. Jane was the bravest and she ran a hand alongside the short fur.

"Oh my god," her eyes were wide, "it's so soft."

Sarah shivered slightly as her eyes landed on my fangs, the ones that were usually hidden by the pedipalps, but she gave the limb a test nonetheless.

"Is it … naturally like that?" She asked. "I can't imagine the gold you spend on shampoo otherwise."

I burst out laughing, I couldn't help myself. "Forget the cost, think how long it would take. I need to use spells to dry otherwise it takes forever."

"Finding a bath that fits you is already difficult," Vel said. "Thank Gaia that the people at the guild were nice about it."

"Hopefully, I don't fall overboard in the next layer," I add. "Salt water probably isn't great for my hair."

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Ottar gave out the watch schedules. Vel and I had the last one of the night, with a note to skip it in case we were too tired. I had not slept for the last three days, in case an attack on the prisoners happened, but I only felt mildly tired thanks to the potions and spells I had used to stay awake. Higher stats made it easier but everybody had a limit, there were no perks or skills that I knew of to entirely remove the need for sleep.

Still, nobody had wanted to take any risks with Aetherbane in play. The small dart Leonardo had used wouldn't have gotten past my defenses but there were other ways. Sebastian mentioned he'd once heard of an army using an aerosolized version to disable an entire battalion of mages. There was an antidote but the recipe was a closely guarded secret, much like the recipe for the poison itself.

Rellen had wanted the doses I had found on Dimsi and Leonardo but I had refused, they would stay nice and snug in my storage, alongside the rest of the mercenaries' gear and bodies. Sebastian and Gaelin had backed me up and Yuri had insisted for the samples to be destroyed outright, being an affront against her god. Amelia had almost looked uncertain, almost ready to agree with the harekin rogue, until the opinion changed.

After a nice meal, courtesy of Vel and some merchants, I climbed into the web with my girlfriend and went to sleep. I had a few catalysts woven into the egg and attached a few light wards to them, more for my peace of mind than anything.

I woke up in the morning, at the first light of the crystals, in the same place and without any vital organs missing. The three clusters of catalysts that kept the captives … captive were untouched and the wards around the egg were intact, as were the outer defenses.

It was nice to have a night without problems.

Through my sphere, I had a good view of the camp. Most people were still asleep except for the last watch, the tension of the last few days had probably exhausted everyone. Since nothing seemed amiss, I decided to indulge a bit. Vel snuggled closer to me and I slipped back into half-sleep for a while.

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"Looks like the Nimble Shadows have given up," Ottar said. "They would have attacked last night, otherwise."

"They could be biding their time," Rellen said, "gathering reinforcements."

"However much they've been paid," Ottar answered, "it's probably not enough to lose more members but I'll tell our scouts to keep an eye out for unusual activity."

"What about the captives?" I asked. It was entire reason for my presence at this meeting.

"Leave them here," Ottar said, "we will deal with them."

"Is this going to be a summary execution or …" I asked.

"Now that the danger has passed, they will be offered the option to leave or join the escort until our next stop."

"I'm not sure about trusting my back to them," I raised an eyebrow, "she did try to poison me with some really nasty stuff."

"Mercenaries are an odd bunch," Ottar smiled, "dangle some gold in front of their eyes and they'll do anything you ask. As long as we pay them fairly for the job, there will be no poisoning."

"It is also likely that the woman will be grateful," Rellen chuffed, "since you saved her from my … barbaric practices. Even if I have to admit your way was efficient."

"Just don't stick her in my team," I shrugged, "I don't really care about the rest."

With the help of Psychokinesis, I lowered all three captives to the ground and freed them from their bonds. The thread dissolved under my command and left them in their underwear. I summoned their clothes, armor, and weapons out of storage but I kept the poisons.

I left just as Dimsai woke up from her magically induced torpor.