Of the nine people launched from the Anime club’s starting platform, six were hurtled over the cliff's edge and into the valley below. The valley funneled most of them toward its center, dispensing them closely together. Hayden and Alex were dropped near Haven and Mia and Grey landed in the same clearing together. Caine, on the other hand, was not so fortunate as the rest.

Caine’s ball had been sent on a similar trajectory to Oak’s but, unlike Oak, his ball did roll over the cliff. The shield slammed into a jutting rock on the way down, slowing his momentum toward the ground and propelling him into one of the oversized tree branches. Snapping twigs broke his momentum and he slowed when he smashed into a soft mass at the main branch’s base. Caine stared bleary-eyed out of his sphere as the world slowly shifted back into focusl.

Beyond its impenetrable walls, splatters of something thick and wet covered the ball. Small, angular sticks were plastered onto the shield along with the viscous fluid. All around it, white, cottony material clung to the ball. It wasn’t until Caine noticed the movement all around him that horror set in. Hundreds of legs crawled frantically about the ball. Spiders. It was spiders, crawling out from the nest he just destroyed and surrounding his sphere.

The spiders looked like standard wolf spiders, only much larger, and visibly angry. Many of them were at least the size of a tarantula, some as large as a dinner plate. Caine tried to control his panic as he looked around. Beyond the spiders, at his back, there was an opening in the webbing he had partially destroyed. He moved and the ball shifted, settling further into the webbing.

A shudder went down Caine’s spine as a voice chimed in his head, “Stability detected.”

“N-no, wait a second,” Caine started to protest.

“Deactivating shield”

“Please, God, no,” he whimpered.

Caine tried to scream in protest but his shouts were cut short as the shield dissolved rapidly from existence. Caine felt the soft thud of several objects on his body and tried to hold extremely still. Small legs padded all across his body and a shiver ran deep down his spine.

“Please not the face, nod da fashe,” he said, mumbling between tight lips as one crawled over his mouth.

The spider crawled around his face and to the nape of his neck just as another tried to sneak under his shirt. Caine caved and he wriggled and shivered. He danced about and shook violently, knocking a few spiders off but causing several more to fall on him.

He moved as quickly as he could toward the entrance of the web cave, desperately trying to keep his feet from tangling in the web. He tried to ignore the new additions that fell from overhead and climbed up his legs. One dashed up his neck and onto his face again, pausing on his cheek. Its large fangs hung right where his eyes could see them and he prayed it would move on.

The first sting of pain came from between his legs where one had been trapped between his thighs momentarily. He jerked at the sudden pain and pressed another against the wall, causing it to bite his shoulder blade in protest. He tumbled out of the entrance, half a dozen spider bites on his body with a veritable swarm still crawling over him. The only thing keeping him from screaming was the thought of one crawling into his mouth.

Once out of the makeshift tunnel, he quickly brushed all the spiders off and either sent them scrambling away or tumbling over the edge of the branch. Caine slammed his feet down on a few others and half stomped, half danced over them while his body fully caved to the shivers running through him. His body pulsed with a strong shiver and he wrung his hands.

“Spiders, why did it have to be spiders?” he said, trying to control himself from shivering again.

He glanced over the edge to see that he still stood about 75 feet off the ground. He looked for a way down when a dark shape on the branch caught his attention. Caine glanced over with wide eyes, body shaking with fear. Walking down the branch with an octopedal stride, a massive spider, roughly the size of a small car, crept toward him. It looked like the others only with a much larger abdomen relative to its size. As it drew closer to him, his horror grew. The abdomen wasn’t just larger, it was moving. A massive clump of smaller spiders writhed on its back and Caine resisted the urge to scream or throw up, although soiling his pants seemed like an equally apealing option at the moment.

Caine’s voice shook as he made a vain attempt to address the creature, “H-hey mamma, no need to freak out…” he glanced back at the half-ruined nest and the many spider corpses at his feet, he laughed nervously, “Someone wrecked your home but I chased them off, heh heh.”

The spider continued toward him with the glossy blank stare of an arachnid. Caine’s hands moved back and he felt the twin daggers at his hip. He drew them out quickly and held them in front of him to ward the spider off. To his dismay, she continued forward with little thought.

“I’m warning you, I know how to use these! Kind of…” he said, waiving the blades around frantically, “They’re razor sharp!” He backed himself up to the web and gulped audibly. He glanced down and saw a branch several feet down, wide and flat like this one. “I hope they’re sharp at least,” he said and then leaped over the edge.

Caine’s jump was slightly short but he had anticipated that. His blades dug into the bark on the side of the branch, hoping to find purchase in the dense wood. Instead, his blades bucked back and sent him hurling into the night. Caine flailed his arms and tried to twist as his stomach lurched in the momentary free fall. His small frame slammed into another main branch and bounced off, sending him into a web of smaller branches and hurtling for the ground. He landed hard and heard the crack of multiple bones as his body bounced once off the solid ground and came to a rest.

In his HUD, a silhouette blinked all over with a red, flashing light. A notification blinked in his vision, blocked partially by the stars and growing dark spots in his vision. Caine struggled to hold lucidity and, a moment later, pulled a small, clear vial from a portal with his only good arm. He flicked the stopper off and drank its contents. Moments later, his scream howled up into the canopy of trees.

In the end, Caine used two whole vials of healing potion to mend all of his broken bones, open wounds, and spider bites. He still felt a strange numbness around the site of the bites and figured it was probably the venom. He thought wolf spiders weren’t venomous but maybe that’s just when they’re small enough? What did he know?

He stood up, picked up his daggers, and sheathed them. He shouted a few profanities up into the tree before gathering himself again. He cracked his neck and looked for a hint of a direction to travel in. Before he could make his mind up, he heard a soft patter above him and glanced up to see the massive spider barreling down the tree toward him. It appeared she did not appreciate her unwelcome guest nor the mess he left behind, including the various accounts of arachnid infanticide.

Caine took off running but found his two legs struggling to outpace the eight of the enraged mother. He weaved back and forth through trees and jumped over the underbrush. He slipped and scrambled around several times as the giant spider quickly closed the gap. A whistle sounded off to his left and he glanced at a bright light shooting into the sky. A moment later, another one shot up from the same area.

“That had better not be more spiders!” he said through rapid breaths. He whirled around the side of a tree and flattened himself against the bark, activating his one rogue skill: Active Camouflage.

The description said it would make him nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, particularly if he held still. He just prayed that was still true for eight eyes. The spider blasted past him a moment later and dashed back and forth. Caine held his breath as the eight eyes panned over him. The spider paused and stared directly at him. Caine’s heart pounded violently in his chest as his hands began to tremble. The spider drew in a little closer and lifted its mandibles in a warning gesture, its fangs raised high.

Caine prepared to bolt when a massive pair of legs pinned him to the wall. No, not two legs, four legs… ten legs? Even more legs and chitinous segments poured over him in a long stream and Caine realized what it was. The long creeping form of a centipede whipped toward the spider in a serpentine motion. The centipede’s jaws met with fangs and the two creatures clashed, arthropod versus arachnid. The centipede latched onto the spider’s abdomen and whipped its body around, wrapping the spider in its legs. The two thrashed around and stirred up dust.

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Caine began to creep away when a smaller rope of legs, about three feet long, crawled down his shoulder. Caine reacted instinctively and threw it off him with a shout. The two fighting creatures paused for a moment and the spider threw the centipede off it. On the ground, smaller spiders and centipedes clashed as Caine looked on in horror.

“Why do you all have to have so many babies?” He yelled as he spun around the tree and ran toward the direction he saw the light shoot up from. The spider took chase and the centipede followed close behind. Caine screamed as he ran, hoping someone with more than a couple of rusty daggers would hear and help out. He heard a snarl from behind him and a crunch as something collided with the spider.

Caine whirled around a tree and looked back to see a group of wolves attacking the arachnid. Two flanked behind it and tried to hold off the centipede. Caine shouted with glee, “Yes! Man’s best friend!” a wolf turned to him, bearing its teeth and snarling, “or at least a distant relative…” he said, turning to run again.

The wolf gave chase and Caine found himself weaving through trees again. This time, the wolf turned out to be far more agile and cunning than the spider and it caught up quickly. Caine rounded a tree trunk and was hurled to the ground by the massive paws of the wolf. He hadn’t had time to pull out his blades before it pinned him to the ground. Its jaws opened as it lunged for his neck.

Before its teeth could sink in, a blast of light erupted from its side. Heat washed over Caine and caused him to wince. Caine’s arm singed and the wolf for its part, stumbled and ran away. Caine looked up to see a hand stretched down toward him. It was Haven’s hand.

“Haven! Oh man, I’m glad to see you!” Caine said with a sigh.

He stood up and saw Haven wasn’t alone, Grey and Mia stood behind him, clad in oversized robes. Mia pointed her staff at him and shot a green bolt of light over his shoulder. Caine ducked and scowled at Mia, “What the hell Mia? You could’ve killed me!”

Mia scowled back at him, “I’m a healer, dumbass! Or did you already forget?” she said, repositioning her staff, “Not that I'm any good with that either. This thing is way too hard to aim,” she said, throwing her staff on the ground.

“Glad you’re okay, man,” Grey said, walking over to him. The sounds of snarling and crashing branches sounded from within the forest. Grey looked over at Caine, “Friends of yours?”

Caine shook his head, “Objectively no, but I think I’d take the wolves over the alternative.”

“Which would be?” Grey asked. As if summoned, a tangle of legs and fur tumbled into view. Grey couldn’t tell what it was but he didn’t like the look of it.

“Uh, that,” Caine said, turning to run.

The others followed and quickly caught up to the scrawny boy. Grey ran next to Caine, “Anything else you want to tell us about?”

“Uh, yeah,” Caine said, out of breath, “Centepedes, also big, not fun.”

They stumbled and crashed through the forest until they came out into a clearing. They slowed their pace to an eventual halt. Everyone was breathing heavily and Caine held his side where a stitch had formed.

“You care to explain what that was that suddenly turned you into a track star, Caine?” Grey asked with a frustrated tone.

Caine rasped his answer out between breaths, “Spiders,” he wheezed, “So many spiders.”

“You made us run all this way…” Grey started, breathing heavily still, anger creeping into his voice, “Because of some little spiders?”

Caine scowled at him, “Car. Sized. Spiders. It was the size of a car! With rat-sized spider babies all over its back! Not to mention the bus-length centipede! With babies, they all have babies, giant babies with fangs!” Caine sprayed spit with the last words and the others looked at him like he was insane.

“Well, now we have no clue where we are,” Grey said coldly.

Caine glowered at him, “And you did in there?” he said, pointing an angular hand behind him at the forest.

“At least we were close to where we landed, the other could find us,” Grey argued, crossing his arms dismissively.

“Oh, yeah, ‘hey guys, hope you had a nice landing. If you find the time, come to the spider-infested forest and have a picnic with us. I’ve got the protein covered, hope you like giant-ass spider legs!’” Caine said, waving his arms in the air.

“We can just send up another flare, this is a better meeting point anyway.” Mia chimed in. Haven nodded his agreement. “I think you should do it this time, Grey, I’m running low on mana or Mogi or whatever.”

“MogMog is a stupid name, just call it mana. My fireballs cost quite a bit but I guess having a healer is more important.” Grey said, pointing a ringed fist to the sky while making a focused face. A spark appeared in front of his fist and swirled slowly into a churning flame. After about five seconds, he released it. It volleyed into the sky and erupted over a hundred feet above. Sparks showered down over the glade.

“One of those should be good enough,” Mia said, plopping down on a rock in the field, “Do you guys think they’re okay?”

“They had shields just like us, we know they don’t deactivate until the sphere comes to a halt, so they should be okay,” Grey said, matter-of-factly.

Caine scoffed, “Try slowing to a halt in the middle of a spider nest a hundred feet up in a tree. I’m not hedging my bets on anything.”

The others looked at him with sympathy, “How did you make it out without getting hurt?” Mia asked.

Caine looked at her with a sideways glance, “well, you see that’s the funny part, I didn’t,” he said flatly, “I had to use two of my health potions. The spiders swarmed me and I fell, I’d be dead without the potions.”

The others shared confused glances, “You have health potions?” Grey asked.

“You guys should too, it was in my inventory. It heals at a set pace and only lasts ten seconds, so if you have too many injuries, one won’t cut it,” Caine replied. The others stared distantly for a moment.

“There’s some good stuff in here,” Mia said, scrolling through her inventory, “Nothing amazing but a little food, clean water, a blanket, a trowel, a bag, and some potions.”

The others confirmed that their inventories looked the same and Grey nodded as he scrolled through, “I don’t know how long we’ll be out here but this is likely to run out fast. We’re going to need to make a plan once we gather everyone.”

Mia chimed in, “It looks like once you pull something out you can’t put it back, so don’t get anything you don’t want to use immediately.”

“Oh,” a deep voice said and they all turned to see Haven holding a small sack of dried meat, one piece hanging from his mouth. Mia put her head in her hand and shook it.

A voice came from the woods as branches and twigs snapped, “I’m telling you, it was over that way, you’re turned around.”

“Oh? Who got us lost in the mountains behind the Academy? And who was it that saved us with his keen sense of direction that time? Oh yeah, it was me.”

“It was one time and I was dehydrated!” Alex argued back to Hayden.

The two finally glanced up, brush and twigs hanging from their hair and clothes. They caught the stares of the four people in the glade and stood still for a moment.

“Ha! I told you! Your way probably would have dropped us off another cliff.” Hayden exclaimed in victory.

Grey walked over to them, “Glad to see you guys are okay! Is it just the two of you?”

Alex and Hayden nodded, “Yeah, who’s all here?” Alex asked.

“It’s Haven, Mia, Caine, and myself, that leaves two more of us,” Grey replied.

“Three, don’t forget about Maxine.” Mia corrected him.

“Right, Maxine. The point is, we have no idea where they landed or if they’re okay. We just have to wait and hope that they saw the signals,” Grey said.

There was a pause in the conversation as a heaviness settled over them. Alex was first to break the silence, “This is real, right? I’m not the only one that’s struggling to believe this?”

Caine replied, “I don’t think dreams or hallucinations can make you feel the bites of spiders or branches snapping your bones or tearing your body to shreds as you fall over a hundred feet to the ground. I’d like to believe more than anyone that this isn’t real but I can still feel all of that. Not to mention, we all remember exactly where we were before we got here.” He said, slumping down next to Haven. The larger boy extended his arm to Caine, offering the bag of dried jerky. Caine stared at the bag for a moment, shrugged, then grabbed a piece of meat out.

Alex nodded and looked down solemnly, “I know, I just…” He couldn’t finish his words, because he didn’t know exactly what he felt, only that he felt horribly, “What if we can’t go back?”

“I think the bigger question is what if we don’t even make it that long?” Grey said, looking back toward the spider infested forest.

Everyone fell back into silence.