One way that beasts have always outcompeted their human counterparts is in their instincts. They never hunt when the conditions aren’t right, for example. An owl will use the night where a hawk uses the day. You’d be surprised how many cultivators seemingly forget that they need to see when hunting a beast... –Jinai Sure, Guard to the Nighthaunt Menagerie

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Panic filled me as shadows surged. I curled and threw myself forward, desperately hoping that the true reality was one where I’d escape the attack. Fangs snapped down on air, followed by an angry mix of hisses and clicks, but I did not stop to look at the creature. It was much more important to put some distance between me and it.

“Why ssso scared?” hissed a horrible voice. It sounded like a young woman, but one who’d drank acid enough to make her voice into gravelly whisper. It echoed with otherworldly power.

Only once I reached the south edge of the square did I spin and hold my ground. Crouched on the fountain, perched on eight spindly legs, was a spider big enough to come up to my waist. It seemed I’d stumbled on part of my true quarry, after all.

Immediately, I relaxed. It was a known enemy, and one I knew to be a naturally solitary hunter. I could handle a single spirit spider, even if it was big enough to rip my arm off…

“I’m not scared in the slightest,” I answered. “When there was a spider in my home, my sisters would always come to me to take care of it.”

The spider clicked her pincers. “Are you here to play hero, then? How cute.”

“If you insist on terrorizing the townsfolk, then I’ll show you just how much ‘playing’ is involved,” I answered.

The spider let out a blood-chilling giggle. “Terrorizing? I think you mean ‘tenderizing.’ The blood runs so much more freely when the prey is scared.”

“I’d advise against consuming the blood and qi of humans.”

“Oh? Afraid my kin will become too strong to deal with?” She laughed. “You humans think you can keep everything for yourselves!” I sighed. She would not listen to reason, and, since she was just a lesser spider, the odds were becoming increasingly likely that the matriarch had already taken the first steps down a very dark path.

Any creature can become a yokai, the monsters that dwell in the dark places of the world. Three critical components are required for the change from human or beast into a yokai: the blood of a human, the qi of a human, and enough resentful energy to catalyze the change and alter their form. It’s for this reason that most yokai are considered wicked beasts of the night.

However, resentful energy can take many forms, and not all yokai are as evil as mortals claim them to be. Much like shades, mortals, and cultivators, they come in all flavors. That said, most newborn yokai are still too steeped in resentment and negative energy to see much beyond that. Many go mad and become the very monsters that give the rest a bad reputation, and those who are most vulnerable are the ones who don’t understand the risks of the transformation.

“Listen, the townsfolk have done nothing to you. Let’s talk this out, before things go poorly.” I didn’t bother mentioning that it would go poorly for her, and not me. That part was implied.

The spider clicked her pincers. “Mother warned me against the lies of men.”

She launched herself off the fountain, streaking towards me like a shadow in the darkness. Eight sharp legs carried her with incredible speed across the distance between us. I threw the orb of void qi. It would have slammed into her abdomen, but she flattened herself at the last second, letting the hostile qi sail straight over her.

Two legs reared back and thrust forward. I hopped back. The strike slammed into the ground where I’d stood, cracking the cobblestones with far more force than I expected. I mentally ticked off the lower advancements. This creature was probably more powerful than me, strictly in terms of advancement. No wonder the administrator hadn’t resolved the problem. If he was anything like Tenri, he probably would die in the attempt.

“You’re a spritely morsel, aren’t you?” the spider hissed. “Perfect. I like the squirming ones.”

I summoned the hungering void within my core and lunged forward. She’d regret bringing this fight into close quarters.

My hand brushed against the closest of the hairy legs that had threatened to skewer me only moments earlier. Void surged into the limb, ripping into the chitinous shell and dissolving it. The spider screamed a terrible pitch like twisting metal, and I was forced to press my hands over my ears to alleviate the pain it caused in my head.

“YOU WRETCHED INSECT!” she screeched.

The spider pounced, trying to pin me down, but I scrambled away. Her landing sent a small shockwave through the ground. I stumbled from the impact but kept going. Anger burned in every one of the spider’s beady eyes. She raised up on her legs once more, releasing another earsplitting screech that pierced my ears.

Out of instinct, I found myself looking at the air around the spider, rather than at her. Being Bronze was really inconvenient. If I’d been even one advancement higher, I would be able to see the qi under the command of that scream and have some clue as to what the attack might do. However, to pitiful Bronze eyes, the air was just air, and I had few ways of deducing what would come next.

In fact, nothing seemed to happen…which was even more suspicious than any other outcome. Flash Forward didn’t warn me of an immediate threat, which was mildly reassuring, but only mildly. The ability wasn’t infallible, but usually when it failed it was because of a surplus of input, rather than a lack thereof.

“I should commend you for making it this far,” the spider said, settling onto her seven remaining legs in a way I’d almost describe as dainty…that is if she were a woman carefully arranging her skirts rather than a spider. “Only a handful of wasps have ever put up this kind of challenge, and they made some of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had.”

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She was stalling for time. That was clear, even without Iron eyes with which to see qi. But…what was she stalling for? I glanced around me, but nothing happened. No miasma seeped from the earth, no walking corpses crawled forward. It was as if she really did want to pause and talk as I’d suggested at the beginning of the fight.

“Oh, so cautious,” she praised further. “You really are an experienced cultivator. Fear not, nothing will attack you there.”

“Is that so?”

“It is,” she took a few steps towards the fountain and the remnants of the last corpse I’d defeated. She examined it carefully. “Hmmm, maybe this arm can be salvaged after all. The fingers aren’t in too poor condition, and the nails were nicely done for the funeral.” Then, she knelt before the twitching pile and did…something I still couldn’t see. The corpse went still, and I guessed that she absorbed the qi used to animate it. The visible miasma around the body lessened until it was entirely dispersed on the wind.

“What are you doing with the body parts?” I asked, hoping that the spider would be stupid enough to reveal her grand plan. However, no such luck.

“Mother would chastise me for playing with my food even this much,” she mused. “And it’s not like you’ll live long enough to see my plan come to fruition, so why waste my breath?”

“I thought I was safe as long as I stayed here?”

She clicked her pincers. “That statement only lasts until I have finished giving my ultimatum.”

“Then speak. I don’t have all night.” The beady eyes narrowed in a way I didn’t realize a spider was capable of. She huffed and crawled back towards me.

“Men are so impatient,” she hissed. “But fine. As I said, you’re an impressive cultivator, so I’ll give you three options. First, you could run. You’ll die, but your dignity will be intact. Second, you could fight from exactly where you are, and we’ll have a terrible fight wherein I’ll bleed your body in a very unbecoming manner and you’ll be worth little more than food for me and mine.”

I raised an eyebrow. She was very confident in her skills to be giving this kind of ultimatum. Did she even realize which of us had actually drawn first blood? What kind of trap was she setting that made her so sure of her success?

“And finally, you could pick my personal favorite option.”

“Which is?”

She raised her head, letting her fangs gleam in the moonlight. “You don’t fight at all. That lovely body of yours stays in perfect condition as I bleed you dry and raise you as my honorable knight. We work together to overthrow my mother, the wasps, and the humans, before ruling over the region as queen and servant.”

Did she seriously think that was enticing? She wasn’t nearly powerful enough to raise any sort of corpse with sentience, so really, that was the same as just letting her kill me.

I sighed. “And here I thought you’d have some options worth considering.” It was a shallow hope. Villains rarely had anything interesting to say, but, at least, I’d hoped for a thought-provoking set of demands. Not that I’d ever acquiesce to the demands of a spider, but, at least, it could have something interesting and out of the ordinary.

“What? But they’re great options!”

“Not really, the choice is simple.” Void qi surged to my hand, and I hurled the ball at her. She skittered to the side, and I took the opportunity to turn and run.

Don’t think of this as a coward fleeing. I was extremely wary of whatever trap this spider was weaving. She would follow me through the streets of Heimian, but if I could slip through the holes in her web, I would.

“GET HIM! I WANT HIM ALIVE!” The night erupted in the sounds of skittering legs on the stones. It was the unmistakable sound of spider legs.

So much for solitary hunters… They came from all around me, and, suddenly, my confidence began to waver. They couldn’t all be as powerful as her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have a reason to remain in the shadows as she prepared for whatever dark ritual was on her mind. She was trying to avoid notice, possibly to keep the administrator from summoning more cultivators to deal with the infestation.

However, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t take down one cultivator. If the rest were even half her rank, they could become a real nuisance. But…what to do about it?

“You can’t run from me!” the lead spider shouted. I chanced a glance behind me to see her charging after me, throwing her previous dainty demeanor to the wind.

Flash Forward warned me of a shadow on the roof to my left. I jumped as a long strand of thick white thread slammed into the ground where my feet would have been. I landed and darted into a narrow alleyway. The spiders had no choice but to go over top, the width between buildings being far too narrow for them to effectively spread their legs. Having delayed my enemy, I kept running, looking for a place to make my stand. As with many creatures, if I could just take out the leader, the rest would be too intimidated to fight me directly.

The alley led to market street lined with shops. Doors were closed and windows shuttered for the night, but I spotted a shop that would serve my needs. I quietly ducked between the shops until reaching the door to a fletcher and slipping inside.

The shopkeeper in question was behind his counter, having been drawn out by the noise on the street outside. He was an older man with old hunter's calluses on his fingers from decades drawing a bowstring. He blinked up at me in surprise as I put a finger to my lips.

“I’ll pay you back later,” I promised as I pulled a bow from the wall.

“You defeat those monsters, and the debt will be paid, Master Cultivator,” he said, offering me a string for the bow.

In my old sect, the Heaven’s Blade Sect, disciples were primarily trained in the use of a sword. Even after decades of drills, though, I was still mediocre as a swordman to the point where my own masters refused to admit that they’d been the ones to teach me. After ascending, the Sword Saint had been so appalled by my swordcraft that he’d all but kidnapped me in the early days of my reign to force me to train until I was passable. Even then, he refused to admit to anyone besides our closest friends that he’d had any hand in my training at all.

However, Heaven’s Blade also gave passing training in other weapons. Anything that could be considered a “blade” by the most stretched definition was subject for scrutiny, which included the “blade” that made up an arrowhead. The techniques of the sect could be used on most blades, and, if there was one thing that my masters were proud of me for, it was my ability to weave techniques under pressure. In fact, there was a time where that skill was the only thing that stood between me and being expelled from the sect altogether.

With the bow strung, I fitted an arrow to the string, trying to draw back to my mind the ancient lessons of my masters on the proper technique to use with the weapon. A terrible clacking echoed down the street, and I opened the door just enough to peer through the crack.

“You can’t hide, cultivator!” shouted the spider witch. “You reek of the qi of the living. If you don’t come out, my corpses will hunt you down by your very scent!”

That was true, but I just needed one good shot. The Witch clacked her way down the street, passing right by the fletcher’s shop. I counted to twenty in my head, estimating that to be how long she’d be at the effective range of my bow.

During that count, I infused the arrow with as much void qi as it could handle. It was a similar technique to the one Shen Yaoxan used to infuse his sword, only mine was far less clumsy. The arrow swirled with the dark, concentrated mist of the void. For good measure, I also gave the arrow a touch of moonlight. It wouldn’t be enough for any onlookers to recognize, but, with luck, it would guide the arrow’s trajectory in the event that my aim was slightly off. Once everything was ready, I pushed the door open and slipped quietly onto the street.

“Hey!” I shouted, pulling the string taught. The Witch whirled around, giving me exactly the target I was looking for. Spider hearts are in their abdomen.

My fingers relaxed and the string leapt forward, propelling the arrow. The Witch shrieked in pain as the arrow sank into her back, and void qi began to eat into her exoskeleton. Meanwhile, my bow shattered into a thousand pieces.