They carried on for another half an hour before anything further happened, each minute spent travelling on bringing them closer to safety and adding to the ball of tension that was nestled in Kai’s gut. He could almost feel the hungry gaze of whatever was out there on him.

Gwen had been a little unnerved at first, but she’d settled down now and was focusing on getting them back to her home. It helped somewhat that the moon had come out and was giving them some light to see by. Kai knew better than to relax, however. They were walking in the light grey of dusk now, pools of shadow all around them, pools that could hide anything.

‘Here, just past these rocks, and we’re at the glade,’ Gwen said, relief evident in her voice as she pointed out a rock arch that was positioned over a faint trail that led off from the main path.

Kai began to relax but noticed a slight glint in the air just in front of Gwen at the last second, the witch stepping forward just before he could grab her and pull her away.

Gwen cried out in surprise as she walked straight into something; the air across the entirety of the path seemed to shimmer and shake as she hit the glint he’d seen. Webbing. The whole path was covered in shimmering webbing, all but invisible when still but easily spotted when disturbed like this.

Gwen was cursing and trying to pull free, but both her hands and the left side of her body was stuck fast. ‘Kai! Help me out of this!’

‘Thanr disir!’ Verdan’s voice cracked the dark evening air, a flash of light illuminating everything as an incandescent bolt of fire sped past Kai to envelop a dog-sized patch of darkness on a nearby tree. The bright light of the fire banishing the surrounding darkness for a brief moment.

In that instant, two patches of darkness were highlighted, their stygian depths untouched by the light of the fire. Kai hesitated for a brief moment, but Gwen seemed to have made progress in getting herself free, so he raced towards the creature that Verdan had hit with his initial shot. It was still smouldering where Verdan had aimed, and those embers were his only clear target right now.

With its ambush partially spoilt, the creature Kai had chosen released the obfuscating darkness that surrounded it, revealing a black spider the size of a medium dog, its fangs exposed as it reared back threateningly. Even without the darkness shrouding it, the creature was difficult to see, giving Kai little to aim at as he closed in and thrust out with his spear.

The spider managed to almost wholly evade his blow by throwing itself to one side, the tip of his spear catching the edge of one leg as it went, ripping through flesh and coating his speartip with black-blue blood. The spider chittered in pain but was quick to close with him and leap for his neck in a burst of explosive movement.

Igniting the essence in his soul, Kai felt the speed and unrestrained energy of fire flood his body. The spider was quick, far too quick for an ordinary soldier to keep up with, but with the fire racing through his body, Kai was able to swing his spear around, plant a heel and thrust up at the leaping spider with the rear of his spear. The surprisingly light spider collided with him barely a moment later, rocking him back as he drove the spike on the haft of his spear through its thorax. The hooked spikes that were the spider’s fangs were barely inches from his throat, glistening with venom as it tried to drive them home while impaled on his spear.

Twisting and pushing up, Kai grunted with effort as he brought the creature up into the air before slamming it down and driving his spear all the way through with a visceral crunch. The spider spasmed and flailed for a brief moment before curling in on itself as its lifeblood stained the dry ground beneath it slightly blue.

Pushing down with a booted foot, Kai pulled his spear clear and spun it around so that the spike was at the rear once more, flicking off a lot of the blood and gore at the same time. His fight with the spider had been only seconds in length, but he could see a second spider’s corpse on the far side of the group, a small trail of smoke coming from it, marking it as Verdan’s work.

A slight breeze brought him an astringent smell that made Kai grimace in distaste, the source revealing itself as miniature bolts of lightning jumped from Gwen’s hand to burn away the spiderweb she was stuck to.

Unlike Verdan, who was completely in control of his magic, Kai could see Gwen flinching as the lightning flashed once more, burning away yet more of the web.

This was what turned people away from witches. Kai knew that Gwen wouldn't hurt him on purpose, but if she was flinching from her own magic, just how much control could she have?

Every horror story Kai had ever heard about witches ran through his mind. Tales of witches killing someone who had tried to help them, their magic turning against their would-be rescuers.

However, after his conversations with Verdan, Kai wasn't quite as bothered as he would have been. True, it was disconcerting, but if the witches were Verdan was from could control it, then so could Gwen. Seeing her magic in action, Kai couldn’t help but wonder what she would be able to do when she had full control of her power.

Gwen was freed by a final spark of lighting from her hand, leaving her to stare down at her hands with an unreadable expression for a few moments. Visibly shaking it off, she turned to meet Kai’s gaze, giving him a nod before moving toward Verdan and the two brothers.

Seeing Gwen free, Tim and Tom turned toward her and moved to meet her halfway, turning their backs on the nearby shadows.

A flicker of movement from the treeline caught Kai’s eye as another of the giant spiders came scurrying forth and leapt at Tim. Kai was still filled with the essence of fire, its primal energy speeding his reactions to the point that he was already moving before the creature was halfway to Tim. It wasn’t going to be enough, though. The eight-legged monster was just too quick for him to intercept over such a short distance.

‘Ast!’ Verdan barked, throwing a hand up towards Tim and conjuring a pale blue dome in between the guard and the leaping spider, which impacted with a dull thud and fell heavily to the ground.

Tom lunged forwards to strike the creature before it could recover, bringing his mace down on it with a heavy two-handed blow. The steel ridges of the weapon smashed through the spider’s carapace with ease, pulping the flesh beneath and leaving behind a vicious wound.

Kai arrived a split second later, all of his speed going into a powerful thrust that sent his spear powering in through one side of the creature and straight out the other. It was hard to tell if Kai’s strike had been needed to finish the creature off, but all that mattered was that it was dead.

‘That’s all of them,’ Verdan called out a moment later, moving to crouch over one of the dead spiders and examine it a little closer. ‘What are these called, do you know?’

‘No idea, not something I’ve fought before, definitely shadow essence from how fast they were and their tricks with darkness,’ Kai said, pulling out a rag to clean the ichor off his spear. He’d fought shadow essence creatures in the past and had it much worse than this. Verdan was almost the equivalent of several projection-focused sorcerers by himself.

‘Yes, we’re lucky that the illumination from my spell seemed to damage the Aether constructs they were using for the webbing and for their camouflage. An interesting weakness, perhaps they don’t encounter many things that can produce bright light.’ Verdan said, tapping a finger on his lips as he walked over to examine the remaining webbing. Kai's internal translation was that bright light disrupted the shadow essence, which did make sense after all.

Taking a deep breath, Kai quietened his essence, letting the energy that was coursing through him fade away once more. Every time he used his essence, the world felt sluggish afterwards, though, thankfully, the effect never lasted for that long.

Approaching the section of spiderweb that Gwen had burnt herself free from, which was still smoking and giving off a horrific smell. Grimacing in distaste, Kai used his spear to cut through the strands in the centre. The unburnt strands were remarkably tough and resistant to being cut, but after a bit of effort, he was able to cut down the centre and split the whole web in two, making it droop to either side and open up the centre.

‘Nicely done, now let’s get moving and be behind those wards before anything else happens,’ Verdan said, heading straight through the gap and on towards the rocks that Gwen had pointed out.

Kai waited for everyone else to pass through before following at the rear, staying wary for any more hidden creatures, just in case Verdan had missed one. He gave the corpses of the spiders one last look as he walked away. It was a shame that it was so late and so dark. He would have loved to harvest them for anything usable. Shadow essence was relatively rare after all, so anything that could be taken might have been useful. It just wasn’t worth the risk right now.

In Kai’s opinion, greed and overconfidence killed more sorcerers than anything else. He’d seen it so many times. They would stay too long, go too far or take too little backup, and then not make it back. He had no intention of making the same mistake himself.