The web around my torso loosened. I dropped a small distance and landed upright, wobbling on my feet.

Might be the only chance. Have to do it now.

I made a show of stumbling, my knee going out as I moved awkwardly towards the spider, reaching out towards her for balance. Whether it was vanity or hubris, she didn’t move, rather planting herself in my path for me to catch my balance.

“A warning would’ve been nice,” I said through gritted teeth. Simultaneously, I opened my palm and pressed flat to her side, waiting until I pushed myself free to fasten it there with the residual webbing still left on my hand, all in one smooth motion. I was desperately tempted to check if it was secure, but a single glance down at her side could have easily given me away.

The spider circled me, the scent of rotting flesh following her. “Hm. Inexperienced as you are, there is much potential. I look forward to seeing what you become.”

“So what now? Do I kill them all myself, or are you going to help?”

“We will treat this as a training exercise.” She moved from side-to-side, putting the tip of a leg to her mouth thoughtfully. “I’ll give you access to my soldiers and allow you to orchestrate the arena while I observe your efforts. Your goal is to weaken them as much as possible. As long as there is no intentional sabotage I will not hold it against you if you cannot kill them. If you do, however…” The spider’s smile was an upside-down rictus, chilling and disquieting, “Then the reward will be reflected accordingly.”

“It would be tragic to kill them too quickly.” I matched her intensity, channeling my nervousness into savage giddiness.

“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow.

“After how they treated me? Like I was equal to them? It’s only fair that they suffer for it.”

The spider guffawed. “Delightful. We will have such fun together. Now. Let us begin.”

A single glowing red thread crossed my vision. I remembered from the description of my new feat that it described mana as a weave. Somewhat instinctively, I reached out to it and felt it slide through my gauntlet and into my wrist. Heat rushed through me, leaving me flushed and panting.

I could see everything. It was like my viewpoint had suddenly widened to a 360-degree camera with an unlimited field of view.

The surrounding ruins were a ramshackle sprawl of stone and bog, ranging from half destroyed buildings to crumbling walls. A small layer of fog pervaded the scene, stopping around chest height. And it wasn’t just sight. I could feel the horde of spiders wandering the ruins, leaping from vantage to vantage to avoid touching the water beneath. There were a handful of invisible scythe bugs, radiating nothing but desperation and hunger.

There were a plethora of advantages to this arena for a defender. Visibility was limited, and it would be difficult for ranged attackers with the broken up nature of the sight-lines. Plenty of potential sites for ambushes.

At the far end of the bog were two sets of doors. Nick and Sae emerged from one, Jinny and Talia from the other. I only saw them for a moment as they reunited, before my view lost focus. Before it could fade entirely, I shifted focus back to the boss room, studying it closely. The main entrance was a hallway laden with several trap doors and vents connected to poison vats within.

There was a connecting wall on the right, however, that was on the verge of crumbling.

“They’re here.” I said, turning to the spider.

She scowled. “And unfashionably early, too.”

“How do I command your underlings?”

/////

Taking control of the spider army was simple. Once the matriarch allowed me access, it was not unlike using suggestion, only with zero resistance. I’d climbed to a high point on one of the more intact buildings and began commanding the spiders. They formed webs incredibly quickly, so that was the first line of defense. The spider on my neck shifted from time to time, an ongoing reminder of a problem I needed to solve.

I “accidentally,” dropped the on my climb to the vantage and used to relay a message to a perplexed Audrey to take the knife and find a weak-point for the spider on my neck.

The rest of it… was complicated. I’d been able to glean from conversation that the matriarch was either unaware that some Ordinators had summons, or didn’t expect me to have any at my current power level. It was possible that it was a trap, and she was aware—some play to get me to show my hand if I gave my summons conflicting orders. But considering the rather difficult parameters to unlock my branch of the class and how unlikely it was that she was aware of it, I had to operate accordingly.

I sent Talia a mental command, warning her I was compromised and to tell the others I’d been mind-controlled. She didn’t sound convinced, but did as I asked.

What happened next was unexpected. Nick completely flipped the script.

At some point between the discussion with Jinny and Talia’s reveal, Nick started glowing gold. An actual, honest to god golden aura emanated from his armor. And before I could even make sense of what I was seeing, Nick charged into the ruins. His expression was barely recognizable, some mix of rage and righteous indignation as he dispatched spider after spider with ruthless abandon, the other two barely keeping up as he plowed through everything that opposed him.

I blinked. There was no explanation for this. Nothing in his skills that gave it away. I’d intended to sandbag, set up half-hearted ambushes and traps that were just slightly off the mark, funneling them towards the far wall of the boss room. But at this rate, Nick was just going to plow through everything. It had to have something to do with his blacked out title.

Slow down, dammit. You’re making me look bad.

“What is happening?” The matriarch hissed, her voice muffled, emanating through the spider on my neck.

“I’m working on it, but the big one will be a problem.” I murmured. “Not sure what’s happening to him. He’s tearing through any resistance like it’s nothing. Showing more strength than he ever did when we were fighting side-by-side.”

There was a moment of silence. Then the matriarch’s voice returned, holding a hint of dread. “I erred. Once I spotted you, I barely observed the others. He is one of The Order. That summon belongs to him, I’d bet.”

Confirmation that she’d spotted Talia as a summon, but mis-attributed her to Nick.

“The Order? Explain in words that mean something to me, please.”

“The natural enemies of our benefactor.” She snapped. “They will stop at nothing to exterminate our kind.”

It tracked with his class, a knight without a cause was just a mercenary. It was also too much to think about now. I needed to slow Nick down. The matriarch sounded angry enough that it was hard to tell how rational she could be. Even though I wasn’t doing anything blatant to undermine her, if I didn’t at least impede his progress, her suspicions would naturally land on me.

Nick impaled three more labrador-sized spiders, lining his sword like a kebab, and—after finding the tip too impeded to impale more, gripped his sword with both hands and used it to beat another spider into a fine red mist. As he cleaned the corpses off his sword, he shouted, his voice ear-flinchingly loud even from some distance away. “We’re coming for you, bro! Just hang in there!”

I commanded three of the invisible scythe bugs to circle and attack from behind, targeting Jinny and Sae. Jinny realized what was happening in time and used her wand to down one. Sae fended off the other while Nick attempted to kill the grounded bug. After prompting from Jinny, he put his sword aside and forced the creature’s body down, drowning it in what had to be less than two feet of water.

Jesus Christ.

The remaining two scythe bugs retreated, but they’d already achieved the effect I wanted. Nick slowed his pace, far more mindful of the exposed magic Users behind him. An intrusive thought occurred to me. The best strategy for a group like this would be a pincer attack. If I was really endeavoring to kill them, I’d herd them into a tight long space, and throw everything I had at them from both sides. As was obvious in the first combat stage, Nick could only shield one side at a time. Jinny’s slow might hold the other, but not for long. It’d be easy enough to bait that out, and once it faded, they were screwed.

It was morbid, though necessary to think about, considering the Ordinator’s mechanics. While I had no intention of betraying Nick’s group, if I ever had to deal with a powerful group of Users, luring them into a dungeon or trial might be the most practical way to even the scales. Especially since the system events limited outside communications.

Jinny caught the last two scythe bugs with an area-of-effect blast, while Nick and Sae drowned them, respectively.

The spider on my neck vibrated. “An unpleasant result. But you did well, considering the circumstances. Return to me. We still have some cards to play.”

I breathed out, relieved that I’d put up enough resistance to satisfy her. It was only a temporary respite. If we were all going to make it out of this in one piece, with my identity intact, the next few minutes needed to go flawlessly.

As I returned to the matriarch’s lair, I sent Talia a mental command.