This time, traveling ahead of the wake of magic grew to be the hardest compared to anything before. It had been difficult and very taxing. Elena had to keep her attention focused on the task at hand lest she be caught in the turbulence and risk getting ripped apart by the torrential current.

The feeling of churning mana stopped, and Elena felt weightlessness as she materialized in the air. The portal immediately closed behind her. She saw the ground coming closer and flipped herself in the air, bending her body with the grace of a gymnast, orienting her feet to the ground. She landed with a muffled tap on the carpet and crouched in a defensive pose.

She was far from the intended destination. Her emergence point should be within the protection of the forest. Instead, she found herself inside a furnished room dominated by a queen-size bed with a sliding glass door that led to a balcony with a view of the city.

Elena saw no threat. She looked out of the glass doors and went closer to the doors to acquire a better understanding of her location. Stepping to the balcony, she bumped her head on the clear glass, its length reaching up the ceiling. She marveled at the clarity of the material, pressing her palm against it to feel its plane surface, and worried as she might be deep within an important place.

Still, she needed information and she looked out to see the view afforded by her vantage point showing the rest of the city. There she could see the buildings arranged in a grid pattern. More glass windows shone under the sun causing the buildings to shine under the light. She stood, amazed, and stared at the sight. It was far from the houses of craftsmen lining the Dwarven cities, nor the familial estates of the elves or the ever-moving caravans of the Cevine.

She stepped away from the doors, followed by a wave of potent mana emanating far below her. Against the lack of mana saturation in the air, the wave felt like a cold breeze in a hot summer.

It was not a good sign. A massive portal has opened below and is pouring out a deluge of natural mana into the world. Such an event would only be the prelude for something catastrophic.

Elena quickly figured out how to work the door, and with a slight tilt of the doorknob, she poked her head into the hallway. It was dark, but her enhanced vision didn't let the lack of light be a detriment. The path was carpeted flanked with unlit sconces resembling the mana lamps scribes use within the libraries.

She stepped out into the hall, sneaking through the end where she hoped to find an exit, only to be stopped by a yell.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Hoss yelled from the other end of the hall, his light panning over Elena as she stood in the middle. "Hank, Hoss here, we got someone sneaking around in the halls." He said to the radio only to meet nothing but silence. "Fucking broken piece of shit."

Elena could understand the man. She thanked the teams of mages that created the spell that allowed them to communicate with any sentient race. It was the first spell they are taught to learn as part of the royal scouts.

"This is a restricted area." Hoss continued, moving closer to see Elena in a better light. A cosplayer, he thought as he had a better look, she wore a light leather armor covered with runes over her heavy spun silk clothes. A pair of daggers lay on them sheathes hanging front her belt. "This is not the place to get lost and I don't think you're not part of the guests on this floor so I'm going to have to check your ID." He said

Elena stood still as she was caught, letting the man go closer to her. It would only turn out worse for her if she tries to run away. She contemplated how he would knock him out when Zuflal, her second in command, appeared behind the Hoss and slit his throat.

Hoss's first instinctive reaction was to grab at his throat and call for backup. He managed to depress the switch on his receiver and call for backup but what came was only a gurgle. He looked at the two with eyes filled with fear as he tried to get away, only to feel his knees buckle and fall, dying on his own pool of blood.

"You didn't have to do that Zuflal. I had him where I could have just knocked him out." Elena admonished her second in command, stepping over the body and kneeling to give him a short prayer. "Such needless a loss." She mourned. The wound had been so deep that it had almost decapitated the man.

"My apologies," Zuflal replied, his voice betrayed no emotion. "I'll do better."

"Make sure you do," Elena replied, standing.

"The path is this way," Zuflal said, pointing over to the other side of the hall, right where Hoss had been standing. "Where are the others?" She asked.

"I don't know. You're the first one I found." He replied.

Elena fished out a whistle, a magically enhanced reed that could pierce through any obstacle and be audible at distances depending on how strong she blew. He took a deep breath and blew hard. The sound penetrated through the walls making it audible to anyone nearby. Her men's trained ears would recognize the sound and would come to her as a result.

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Elena followed Zuflal and went down the stairs. The rest of her men joined her as they made their way down. They had been scattered around the rooms and reached full strength by the time they had reached the lobby.

It was chaos. People were running in panic as swarms of Steelweb spiders skittered to and fro. The monsters jumped at their prey, biting the guests around their vulnerable necks, piercing the skin, and injecting incapacitating venom to take effect within seconds. Elena identified a man belonging to the same group as the one upstairs who was busy corralling the people behind him as he brought his weapon up, pointing it at the hostile creatures. It reminded Elena of crossbows reserved for untrained peasants.

Rob fired, keeping his finger on the trigger as the rifle kept firing.

The sharp sound startled everyone in the group. They flinched from the deafening loudness and watched as the spiders fell under its effect. The automatic fire had cleared out a sizeable portion of the spiders, but everyone knew that there would always be more.

They ran in the direction of the source of the swarm, eager to close the portal where the creatures are pouring out from.

"Hey! Don't go there! It's dangerous!" Rob shouted after the group.

Fresi, the youngest in their group, stopped in response to look. Zuflal caught him by the arm and dragged him to run with them. "Leave him. He's a dead man." He said.

The group ran through the hallways, dodging strikes and parrying blows as they steadily traced where the spiders were coming from. They needn't bother with the small fry, and it would only be a shame in the entirety of the group for one to be caught in the clutches of such lowly creatures.

They went down a set of stairs, followed the trail, and came upon a pitch dark space. It was typical. Steelweb Spiders had always preferred dark underground areas and this place was the perfect environment for them.

They spread out. Elena ran past metal objects that were kept within yellow markings on the floor. No one in the group had any idea what they were, but that is another common part of the job.

Going down the levels, they could see the portal using their mage sight. Without it, a person would only see creatures appearing impossibly out of thin air. Swarms were pouring out of the infernal hole and everyone took their defensive positions. Elena stood at the front, gathering her mana for a burst of speed and palming her MageBane, a specialized blade forged and crafted for the sole purpose of destroying magic.

They would need it to close the portal as leaving it open would only cause unnecessary casualties in the area. It would also grow to be a headache in the future, especially as they needed this world intact as it could be.

Unfortunately for them, closing the portal was not as easy as they wanted. In front of it stood the Steelweb Broodmother. Crouched and in a defensive pose, it was ready to attack anything that would threaten its children's connection to this world.

"We will make this quick. Support me!" Elena commanded and drew her MageBane. Her men moved to their formation and readied their magic.

"Here," Zuflal said, handing over a potion and drinking one. "This place is so low in ambient mana that it's sapping it from us. We cannot afford to have you pass out from exhaustion."

"Thank you." Elena took the potion and popped the cork, drinking the contents and throwing the vial to the side. "It does pay to have someone experienced."

"Live long enough and you'll be the one giving advice," Zuflal replied, crouching as he readied himself for the eventual push. He pulled out a shield from his inventory, putting it between himself and the Broodmother. They needed to give enough of a distraction for Elena to be able to close the distance and shut the gate.

"Everyone ready?" Elena asked, waiting for a response. None came, they only needed to reply when they are not. "Go!" She ordered.

Men and women surged forward from their positions, their weapons drawing and cutting a swath through the swarms of Steelweb spiders. Elena waited, watching as her men continued their path of carnage forward.

Seeing the opportunity, Elena bolted forward. Her enhanced speed allowed her to catch up to her men within seconds. She passed Zuflal, who was busy burying his blade to one of the spiders, throwing it to the side, and braced himself to face the surging mass.

She dodged and weaved between the swiping legs and under pouncing leaps. Elena focused pm the portal as a massive pair of legs belonging to another Broodmother passed the threshold, followed by its main body.

The massive form of the Broodmother coming out of the portal had halted the swarms of spiders coming out the same way. Its body blocked the passage for anything else to come through. It was an opportunity. Elena picked up speed and ducked under a swipe by the Broodmother defending the portal and came under its massive body. She thrust her dagger upward, piercing its underside as she passed by and was no longer under the Broodmother when it dropped its body in an effort to crush her.

Past the first Broodmother, Elena jumped on the back of the second. It was halfway through the portal. She stabbed at the shimmering concentration of mana in front of him. Without the mage sight, she would look as if stabbing her dagger at the air in front of him and holding it. But with it, the effect was apparent.

The portal destabilized and shrunk from the drain of mana. The dagger grew burning hot, and Elena felt the pain as her hand sizzled under the contact.

The Broodmother screeched as the portal shrunk to its body, holding it stuck between the worlds. Elena held on to the dagger as long as she could and felt the Broodmother's carapace crack under the crushing pressure of the collapsing portal. She felt the Magebane grow close to its breaking limit, then pulled it out of the portal.

Elena jumped off and darted forward, feeling the wind from another strike sent by the wounded Broodmother. She stopped at a safe distance away from the fight and jammed the dagger to the concrete below her, letting the gathered mana within the dagger to disperse to the earth below and letting it cool.

She looked over to her men, who were still taking in the horde. Wounded were being pulled out of the front, and there were fewer of them fighting now. Elena readied herself for the final push and darted ahead. She dodged another swipe of the Broodmother and jammed the dagger to the portal once more.

The portal quickly shrunk along with the pained screech of the Broodmother stuck between the portal. With a pop, it collapsed, bisecting the Broodmother and killing it instantly.

She saw the following strike in advance, the other Broodmother managed to get close enough, but as Elena crouched and readied to dodge to the side, she felt her mana drain suddenly. A wave of nausea overpowered her and caused her knees to buckle and lose her balance. She saw the swing and it didn't leave any time to recover.

Elena raised her hands in an attempt of feeble defense. She felt her bones creak under the blow and was thrown towards the skittering mass of lesser spiders.

Bodies covered her view as she was swarmed. She felt fangs dig into their flesh, piercing her skin and injecting venom.

Impossible. Given her line, Elena should be able to overpower her attackers enough to escape. Instead, she felt her strength drained as she struggled and fought against the mass. The effect of the venom was a known potent agent, but its effect was far from being instantaneous.

Between the masses, she could see her men retreating, their objective completed and scattering to hide within the darkness. She could see the form of Zuflal to be the last to retreat, scanning his eyes towards her direction to meet her gaze and turn away.

He saw her! Traitor! Elena wanted to scream at the man but was too weak even to suck a lungful of air. She could only afford shallow breaths as she was encased in a cocoon of silk, immobilizing and blinding her.

She felt herself being dragged, her consciousness quickly fading, carried off to their den to which she knew from reading about the Steelweb species of insects that they would keep her alive as long as they could, saving her magically honed body as prime meat for the young.

I’m sorry sister. I have failed you.