Elder Stas' eyes narrowed as he gazed all around the inside of the ancient tree. The faint figures of massive spiders, the size of dogs and even larger spiders the size of wild boars could be faintly through the darkness.
Spider type spirit beasts were naturally weak to Fire Attributed and Lava Attributed Fae, such a thing was common knowledge, all across the Thirty Three Heavens.
Being an Elder of the Kovacs Clan, and a Rank 3 Fae Master, it was only natural that Stas possessed a couple of Fire Attributed Fae.
Not daring to miss a beat, Stas instantly activated one of his fae, creating a large, searing fireball in the palm of his hand.
Not only was the fireballs colour much deeper than that of Randolf's fireball, but also the size was more than double his own!
This was the Rank 2 Red Crimson Fae!
The natural evolution after the Rank 1 Crimson Fae!
Activating another Fae, a torrent of flames gathered around Elder Stas' arm, circulating constantly as if it was a whirlpool created out of burning flames. Despite the flames touching and burning through Stas' clothes, the flaming whirlpool of flames did not burn Elder Stas' arm!
This was the defensive type Rank 2 Flamepool Fae!
The natural evolution after the Rank 1 Flame Shield Fae!
Instantly, with the appearance of these two fae, the insides of the ancient tree were revealed to Stas' eyes.
Countless springy, yet steel-like webs created a large network in the upper reaches of the ancient tree. It's internals, which had been hollowed out, were now home to countless venom spiders and egg sacks, carrying hundreds of thousands of tiny little spider eggs.
Not only where their a large number of dog sized venom spiders, all of which were knight Ranked spirit beasts, Stas' could now clearly see over a dozen boar sized venom spiders, an indication of their power as lord Ranked spirit beasts!
Knight Ranked spirit beasts were the lowest tier of spirit beast, and were considered at the same level as Rank 1 Fae Masters.
However, lord Ranked spirit beasts were a step above all of that! A single lord Ranked spirit beast was considered at the same level as a Rank 2 Fae Master!
And there were over a dozen of them, just in front of Elder Stas alone!
Stas narrowed his eyes, cursing his change in luck.
'Dammit! That idiot Arthur! He hasn't left the Village in over a month, causing this tribe of venom spiders to set up their nest here! Stupid boy!'.
Elder Stas muttered a few words under his breath before lifting his head and shouting.
"Arthur! If you can hear me! Just come out! I can bring you out of here and protect your from the spiders!".
Stas paused for a moment before sighing and shaking his head.
Even he, as a Rank 3 Fae Master would have trouble getting out of the nest of spirit beasts alive, especially the crafty ones like venom spiders!
How would a measly Rank 1 Fae Master even survive a few minutes in the presence of these man-eating monsters?
Stas sighed once more, thinking that Arthur's death was a waste.
Even if he had this diary, Arthur would still have some insights from the times that he spent researching this.
He was reaching the end of his life, and without a way to increase his lifespan, Stas might kick the bucket before he unlocked the diary's secrets.
Without even blinking an eye, Elder Stas launched the large fireball in his hands towards the closest boar sized lord Ranked venom spiders, causing it to catch alight and instantly burn up into a pile of ashes.
The strength of this Rank 2 Fae was not to be underestimated.
Most of the spiders, including the other lord Ranked venom spiders retreated a couple steps, snarling and hissing constantly towards Stas as he maintained his guard up.
Venom spiders were crafty creatures by nature, usually creating traps and luring unsuspecting victims to their dooms, celebrating inwardly as they gorged on their flesh.
Even if their intelligence didn't match that of a humans, they could still see that they had both the advantage in numbers, and terrain.
Since this meal had openly walked into their dinner table, why would they refuse such a thing?
The venom spiders switched their tactics and followed the lead of one of the lord Ranked venom spiders. They all opened their mouths and sprayed out a veritable fountain of green coloured liquid.
It wasn't acid, so it didn't have the strength to melt through most substances, but Elder Stas was still forced to raise his flamepool fae in order to block the spray of venom his way.
He hissed slightly as one of the smaller knight Ranked venom spiders spat a small spray of venom towards his rear, getting all over his lower legs, causing him to wince.
The spray might not be able to melt wood or bark off a tree, but it was more than enough to cause corrosive damage to Stas' lower leg.
A volley of fireballs were shot all towards the approaching venom spiders, causing an enormous amount of fire and smoke to fill up the insides of the tree.
Stas didn't care about damaging the tree or causing a commotion at this point.
If he didn't take extreme measures, he knew he might not get out of her alive!
The continuous spray of venom kept forcing Stas to expend more and more origin essence to keep up the flamepool fae. Even if he was a Rank 3 Fae Master, his maximum origin essence sea was only 205%, just a little bit more than Arthur's maximum.
The drain of two Rank 2 Fae used continuously on a Rank 3 Fae Master may seem inconsequential, but Stas was more worried about something else.
He bit his bottom lip.
'If this keeps up, eventually the damage will be too much for the flamepool fae, and it will be killed under the constant exposure to this venom! When that happens, I'm afraid I won't even leave a corpse behind!'.
Not only that, but his vision and breathing had started to become fuzzy under the exposure of flame and smoke in such a closed off environment. As a Rank 3 Fae Master, Stas was more than capable of knowing where he came in from, but that exit was blocked off by numerous lord Ranked spirit beasts!
This place was supposed to be a secret hideout, one that he planned to plunder, in order to obtain all of its secrets!
But instead, he had been forced into such a precarious situation!
In a one on one fight, Arthur would definitely be defeated by Elder Stas. Not only was his physical strength no match for a Rank 3 Fae Masters, but in terms of Fae, Arthur would be easily outclassed.
Luring him into an ambush, using his knowledge and wisdom was the easiest way to catch the attention of this little fly.
And then making use of this nest of venom spiders was the perfect way to remove all connection between him and the death of this Elder.
Even if one did find traces of Arthur here, it wasn't as though they wouldn't be able to find traces of Elder Stas here as well.
Arthur would be able to spin whatever tale he liked in order to protect himself. One that would paint Elder Stas as a hero, and him as the young genius who he had given his own life to protect.
From the very top of this ancient tree, Arthur smirked filling up this small hole with huge amounts of black smog. The smoke from the fireballs obviously couldn't create this much smoke, so Arthur had to improvise and use his own methods to trap Elder Stas.
He ignored the screams of pain whenever another wave of venom covered his body, and the sounds of snarling and chittering could be heard below.
Arthur didn't want to leave anything to chance either. So pulling out the small leather sack of "water" he had prepared, he dumped all of it within the ancient tree, before taking out a small candle fae gently out of his origin essence sea.
The water was extremely smelly and despite its translucence its was still slightly too thick to resemble actual water. Arthur made sure not to get any of this "water" on his hands and let out a small sigh as he cradled the candle fae in his hand.
Arthur smirked and gently blew on the candle fae in his hands, letting it float down into the ancient tree below.
The faint burning candle resembled a faint light at the end of the tunnel, one that approached slowly, and brought about anything but the notion of hope.
The sounds of human screaming, were covered up by the endless screams of venom spiders.