Peter didn't freeze or hesitate as the monster emerged. He had his Beastly Shortsword in his hand before the Spider-Skunk's body was fully out of the alcove, eyes already searching the area for how best to use the environment.

The arena was clearly set up to provide a challenge, but not to be an impossible death-trap. Level 11 was at the upper bounds of what he could reasonably survive, but it wasn't so high that he didn't think they could win.

Distantly he felt a shift as Bolt left his post and began running, prioritizing Peter's safety over keeping watch, but even the kalvex's full speed wouldn't be enough to traverse the whole maze in time. Five minutes, ten minutes, either was an equal eternity in a fight like this.

'Stall long enough for Bolt to eat it' was a possible strategy, if they couldn't achieve outright victory. Or they could try to retreat. It wasn't a 'boss room' so the entrance hadn't sealed itself, thankfully. He disliked the idea of being trapped in close confines with a giant spider monster even more than fighting it in this arena.

Even as he thought this all, his body was moving to interpose himself between the monster and Riana. She may be a few years older than him, but they'd been working together long enough that the disparity hardly mattered to him. They were friends, and he was the tamer and warrior. She was a mage, she needed range and distance, not close quarters.

The spider-skunk sprang at them. It was pale brown in color with a thick black stripe down its back and across most of its face, making the pale patches across its forehead above its too-many eyes stand out vividly and its mouth seem like even more of a gaping maw of darkness than it already was.

The monster snarled, exhaling a cloud of visible stench as it lunged.

Peter didn't falter. They'd fought one or two of these sort of creature before - not at this high level, of course, but enough to know their tricks. The smell would be distracting and the smoggy mist would be uncomfortable to breathe, but it wouldn't cause any major or lasting damage and could be safely ignored.

He met its lunge with a sword through the face, activating the sword's special power. Glowing jaws of mana bit down on the monster's nose. It shrieked in response, swiping out with its front four legs. Peter released the sword's bite and ducked aside.

Behind him, Riana had been chanting softly as she charged up her air blade spell, and as soon as he was out of the way she fired.

Peter looked up hopefully. Augmentation could increase the spell's damage to several times its base rate, but when she fired it the creature's health only dropped by 3%.

That was a bad sign. She could only do that ten more times or so before she'd be out of mana, and Peter's original plan relied on her spells doing the bulk of the damage. The jump from level 2 to level 11 was actually a lot more than he'd thought.

"Use the plinths!" Peter shouted, jumping backward in a stamina-enhanced backflip. He startled himself by landing it perfectly, but in the heat of the moment there was no time to marvel. He spun away and jumped, hopping from the ground of the arena to the shortest of the four square pillars, then to the next highest from there.

The spider-skunk below skittered up the side of the vertical surface as though it were no obstacle at all, but it did leave it on the wrong pillar when Peter jumped to the next.

He hadn't seen any of them doing much in the way of jumping, so he was desperately hoping that his guess was right.

Riana sent another wind attack at it, then turned and fled as it chased after her instead.

The one advantage they had was size - the spider was large, but more the size of a medium dog than anything big enough to effortlessly squish them all. Peter would be hard-pressed to fit his arms around its main body if he tried, but it wouldn't be too far from possible.

Instead of pursuing Riana all the way out of the center, it spun and fired a thick strand of webbing at her as she fled.

"Look out!" Peter shouted, and in a sudden burst Riana jumped aside just in time. The web anchored just where she'd been standing a moment before, forming a diagonal bridge from the floor halfway up the curved floor of the bowl-like arena to the plinth the monster stood atop.

Riana took the chance to fire off one more air blade while the monster remained relatively stationary.

Level 11

(Spider-Skunk)

Health 91%

They were making progress. Between Peter's own attacks and Riana's spells, they'd brought it a tenth of the way down.

With a sound of bestial frustration, the creature belched another cloud of noxious smoke, then fired four more strands of webbing at once, spread out in a shallow fan. It would be practically impossible to run out of the way of those. But--

"Riana, jump!"

They'd fought together enough times that she followed his suggestion without needing to confirm its reasoning. She leaped straight up into the air, narrowly escaping the webbing as it slapped into the floor beneath her.

That only bought them a moment. She'd still be trapped if she fell into it. Peter ran forward without thinking, sheathing his sword as he pushed himself faster.

Riana reached the peak of her jump and started to fall.

Peter sprang from one plinth to the next, then shoved off with a frantic surge of stamina that burned almost half his pool. He slammed into Riana in midair, throwing them both safely beyond the webs.

Unfortunately, that did lose him the high ground and any hope of controlling the battlefield. The spider-skunk ran down its web at them, fangs bared, forelegs raised ready to stab.

Peter and Riana disentangled themselves and stood to face their enemy. Peter yanked his sword back out of its sheath, ready to close with the monster, but it skittered to the side rather than face him directly, gurgling as it continued emitting more and more of the noxious fumes.

The air grew hazier and Peter coughed on the thick vile stench, eyes watering. He didn't dare let his attention waver. If there was one thing he'd learned fast it was to stay alert at all times. Tracking the monster with his sword, he backed toward Riana and away from the webs still strung across the room.

Luckily, this particular specimen seemed more inclined to skirmishing than direct confrontation. Peter knew Bolt was on his way, if they could hold out long enough they'd be able to even the odds.

The next moments almost crushed his hopes of holding out even a single minute, let alone five.

The monster continued backing away, the cloud around it thickening deeper and deeper until it was barely a silhouette, then disappeared from sight entirely.

"Back up, we need to get--" Peter choked again, the stinking smog burning his lungs.

Riana grabbed his hand and they ran up the slope opposite where the monster had disappeared.

Not a moment too soon. The wet smack of webbing against the floor followed behind them, too close for comfort.

They burst out of the dense brown fog into the open--

Right in time to meet a much thicker strand of web that crossed the room from wall to wall.

When did it have time to set that up?!

There was no time to evade. They were moving too fast. Even surging stamina into a desperate jump wasn't enough to clear the sticky wall. Peter had just time to swing his sword up before he collided with it, shouting a warning too late.

Riana ran facefirst into the web beside him, cursing as she stuck fast.

Peter could swear he heard hissing laughter from within the cloud behind them.