Chapter 18 - Death Cocoon.
A pitch-black cat emerged from his tie and sat on top of his shoulder. She had long thick whiskers, making her resemble an old beardy cat.
When she glanced lazily in the direction of the Harrowing forest, her dark slit opened up widely, reflecting an abnormal scene.
A gigantic, almost invisible web of walls surrounded the entire forest's borders and seemingly grew taller each second, desiring to meet at the top.
If it weren't for the moonlight being reflected once in a while by the web threads, no one would be able to see them even if they were close!
"Woah...It's a Death Cocoon." Mao clicked her tongue, "Your little fellas' luck sure is rubb..."
Before she completed her sentence, Feng Ling had already taken off towards the Harrowing Forest with an icy grimace.
He was kicking the wind like he was bouncing off solid surfaces, each kick sent him flying for more than hundreds of meters. His speed was enough to put even Shia's eagle to shame!
'Why the hell is there a Lurker Spider Queen nearby, and how come no one has reached out for reinforcement?'
Although Feng Ling knew that the moment the Death Cocoon appeared, it was already too late to ask for reinforcement, he was still confused.
'Is she in possession of a signal jammer or did she already slaughter everyone before they can make contact?'
He doubted the latter was true as he knew that Lurker Spider Queens seldom made their move personally unless threatened or forced. They always leave it to their armies of spiderlings.
This made him assume that she was using a signal jammer, which was going to change the whole narrative of this ambush.
'Astra, call for a code purple to the capital. Location: Harrowing Forest. I might go offline soon.'
The moment he finished his report, Feng Ling narrowed his eyes and increased his speed to the limit, leaving behind mere windy figures.
'Maybe, it's not too late...I might save a few.'
As this thought took root, an image of Levi surfaced in Feng Ling's mind. It wasn't of their last meeting at the gate, but of the first time he had ever met him.
The day he was still an Anti-Sleepwalker Officer and responded to an abnormal electrical activity in a house within Tamara's upper neighborhood.
He could never forget that day and the horror he had seen in that house...
'I might save him this time...'
***
A few minutes ago...
Shia's party was still being hunted by an ever-growing army of spiders, who never seemed to get tired or lost.
Although Levi was acting as the perfect radar, helping them avoid the largest group of spiders and choose the weakest one to pierce through, the morale was at an all-time low.
Every one of them knew that it was going to be extremely challenging to reach the eastern borders of the forest without exhausting every bit of their stamina.
"The Flesh Eaters have heat vision. We might never leave enough distance to summon the mounts in peace." Levi frowned. "We have to change our plan."
"I am all ears for suggestions," Shia responded while grasping tightly onto a necklace with a flaring sun symbol.
"We need fifteen seconds at minimum to summon the mounts." Levi glanced at the spiritual wave behind them and guessed, "I assume thirty meters are separating us. Based on their constant speed, if we were to stop, they would reach us in five seconds. This means we have to create a distraction good enough to buy us more than ten seconds."
"What kind of distraction are you talking about?" Sergio inquired while sweating heavily, his big belly flapping all over the place.
Although he looked unhealthy and unathletic, he was somehow capable of keeping up with the squad's speed.
In fact, he was doing much better than Jamal, who was huffing and puffing like he was going to collapse at any given moment.
When it came to Daywalkers, appearances were deceiving.
"We need something strong enough to break them off the Lurker Spider Queen's authority." Levi said.
He had already updated them about the true intentions of those spiders and the actual gravity of their situation...Knowing that a Lurker Spider Queen was hunting after them was enough to scare anyone straight.
Thus, even when it looked like Levi had taken leadership of the group, none of them dared to complain. The only thing coursing through their minds was to survive this hellhole.
"Purified sunlight." Shia shared sternly, "If we threw at them all of our growth totems and Luminus snacks, I am certain they will fight amongst each other to eat them."
"My thoughts exactly." Levi nodded in approval.
He understood that only purified sunlight was capable of breaking low-tiered nightcrawlers from their masters' authority briefly...Especially if it was in abundance.
It was like putting a delicious snack in front of a starving dog who hadn't eaten in many days. Even if he was well-trained, his survival instincts would instantly take the wheel.
"F*ck, even our growth totems?" Sergio's expression turned ugly as he glanced at his backpack.
His reaction was understandable when considering that those growth totems were used by Daywalkers to accelerate feeding their Shadowlife Seeds with sunlight.
The Shadowlife Seeds were in every Nightcrawler, and they were the singular 'organ' responsible for their lifespan, evolution, intelligence, strength, life, and death.
It was everything to a nightcrawler, and now, it had become everything to humans as well. But, more on that later...
"Fine, save them, the spiders will surely enjoy adding them as snacks while they feast on your corpse." Shia said coldly while letting go of the necklace.
"Damn it, if this doesn't work, my vengeful soul will haunt this forest for eternity!"
Sergio seemed on the verge of tears as he reached out to his backpack, pulling two pouches. One was filled with Luminus snacks and the other with Growth totems.
Jamal brought out his own, and they handed them to Shia mid-sprint. Shia evaded a tree and glanced at the contents of the pouches. When she noticed the quantity and quality of the growth totems, her eyelids twitched.
"Are you withholding?"
"No? Why?"
"Never mind, this is good enough."
She poured everything into a single pouch, and then she pressed them together, activating all the dormant Luminus snacks and totems, causing the pouch to shimmer brightly!
She traded glances with everyone, and when she saw Arthur tap on Levi's hand, she turned around and threw the pouch behind them.
"Prepare your Nightmounts!"
Sergio and Jamal pulled their sealing totems and held them tightly, awaiting Levi's call with looks of expectancy.
Although Levi had no vision of the pouch, he focused on the movement of the spiritual wave of spiders.
Meanwhile, the sea of spiders was as terrifying as ever; jumping on trees and walking on each other, uncaring about anything else but the moving humanoid heat auras before them.
It was like they were on a mission, and they would not stop until they fulfilled it. But, just as it seemed like their resolve was unchanging, a sudden, beautiful brilliance appeared in their sight.
Immediately after they saw the light, their Shadowlife seed tingled like crazy, sending electrifying shockwaves across their entire system.
Then, every single spider in the vicinity of the brilliant light let out a unified screech and charged toward it like they were injected with steroids!
The first spider to arrive sank its giant fangs into the pouch and swung its head, cutting the pouch in half and hurling all the activated Luminus snacks and growth totems everywhere!
The spiders halted their sprint and started fighting over every single piece, even biting each other to snatch it!
"It worked! Summon the mounts! Go! Go!"
Levi notified his squad the moment he saw the great disturbance amongst the spiders' army.
Shia, Sergio, and Jamal were clever enough to throw the sealing totems tens of meters away from them after uttering the incantation to ensure no second was lost!
The wooden sealing totems turned brighter and bigger in midair and even when they landed, the process still continued.
When Shia's party arrived near them, they counted the seconds with held breaths, waiting impatiently for the sealing totems to shatter.
"We will make it, the spiders are still fighting over the purified sunlight." Levi eased their worry while gazing at the disturbed spiritual wave.
As he claimed, the sealing totems shattered after a few rough moments, unveiling the three nightmounts to the world.
"Kairo, you ugly bastard! I never thought I will be happy..."
However, before Sergio could take a single step forward, a sudden aggressive whooshing sound was heard from above, attracting everyone's attention.
The moment they lifted their heads, it was already too late...