The strange spider looked intimidating compared to the other ones. With its bigger size and darker colors, it looked a lot stronger. Just the mere pressure it naturally released showed that it was close to evolving. Lucas could instinctually feel that the aura was bigger, meaning that the spider had a stronger core than its brethren. But it wasn't suffocating like Venion's aura, meaning that the spider shouldn't be as strong as him. 'So monsters also have ranks? And they can upgrade their core like humans to become a higher rank, which in turn changes their appearance.'
'That or this is just a different type of spider if there is a single queen like ants and worker spiders. Then this could be seen as a guard of the queen or something.'
The darker spider was the only one that was close to the female, it was also the only one eating with her as well. He couldn't tell how strong it was, but comparing their aura's revealed the spider to be a bit stronger. 'The first step to fighting is scouting your opponent's capabilities, Liam has a point. Going in there would only result in our death.'
'I don't know how much stronger its senses have gotten, but taking risks without a plan is just incredibly stupid. Don't do anything stupid.'
Creating a distraction could lead to baiting some spiders away, but it wouldn't guarantee that the big one would go as well. 'If it has reached Rank 1 it means that it has a form of intelligence, but that doesn't seem to be the case.'
'If it reached Rank 1, we wouldn't be talking right now.'
Figuring out how to succeed, his darkness kept hiding him, taking energy from his core. He needed to act quickly if he still wanted to fight properly after this. Next to that, he needed to run fast enough to outrun the monsters, which would require stronger muscles and wind to accelerate him. Both of those require energy and a bit of willpower. In other words, he didn't have the time to create any kind of elaborate plan. He needed to act fast. 'If we just kill the female one they would probably follow me, right?'
The other time he brought the head with him, getting the other spiders to even find his hiding spot. Since the spiders then could find him immediately, Lucas thought it had to be a certain smell he just couldn't perceive. But then again, it was only after that female one moved her fangs in a strange way that the other spiders searched for him, meaning that if he wanted to achieve the same result, he needed this one to feel fear as well. Question was, how was he meant to get that smaller spider out of the sight of 40 normal ones and 1 bigger specimen? Creating a bit of light would attract more than just one. 'If they have a similar hierarchy like ants, they want the best for their queen. These spiders are intrigued by light, and are weak to heat.'
Lucas had an idea, if he could create an environment that the spiders liked, they should bring their so-called queen to that place since it's the best. He walked backward and rested for a bit to regain some of his energy while he was thinking about how he would lure the female spider.
Not long after, there was a part of the mine that was a lot cooler and wetter than any other part of the mine. One of the spiders walked into the different atmosphere before it went back to report, or so Lucas thought. Hiding in that strange part of the cave covered in a layer of darkness, Lucas created small lights to attract his prey.
He started to meditate again, trying to limit his aura even further. He wasn't sure how perceptive the big spider was, so he could only prepare as much as possible. If the close to Rank 1 spider found him, he would simply need to run away as quickly as possible or use the darkness from his spell as a source for an attack.
Not long after, the queen spider was brought to the damp area, along with her food. The trap Lucas created was just a part of the tunnel leading to the nest. The place was too small for the big spider to be there as well. So it blocked the entrance into the spider room while eating. If it blocked the other side Lucas would've been stuck and doomed. The food that was brought in was placed around Lucas, even some landing on him, destroying the spell. Luckily the smell from the bodies hid his own. Covered in entrails and blood and pus from the rotting bodies, Lucas had to resist the reflex to vomit.
'I really didn't think this through, at least it worked out. For now, that's good enough, but from now on I should plan out every detail before doing anything.'
Covered in corpses and other unidentifiable meat, Lucas waited for the queen to inch a bit closer. The moment she came to feast on another body close to him, Lucas sprung in action. "Die for me."
KIIIIEEEEK
A fiery spear had drilled into the queen's head, the yell was enough to alert the other spiders, but it also moved its fangs again, signifying his succes. 'Good', a hollow dirt ball was conjured in hopes of capturing that strange pheromone.
His goal was to try to capture that smell. Before he knew if it worked or not he quickly tore a leg from the queen before sprinting away. He needed to infuse his muscles with magic in the first place to sprint even faster, so using a part of that to increase his arm strength to tear the leg wasn't a big deal.
The spiders were already behind him, screeching. They saw the state their queen was in before seeing the murderer run away.
A chase started, with Lucas at the front, using air magic to propel him faster through the mine system and his leg muscles bulging. He kept running and running while carrying the queen's leg and a small dirt ball. One object in each hand he rushed to the place where he left Robert and Liam.
Lucas was gone for quite some time so Liam and Robert had been discussing how they would be handling the monsters that escaped their trap. The trap was placed in a pretty big room that had two exits. One is a dead end, the other led back to the main cave system and thus the outside. Robert looked a bit paler than usual while he clapped his hands together. "I'm done, the trap has been upgraded.", he said with a smile. Liam had been scouting for Lucas, but since he didn't see him for quite a while he glanced at Robert, "What did you even do?"
"I added a few arrays in the cave, although calling them arrays is an overstatement. Arrays are normally a lot more complex than what I've created."
"Why have I never heard of this before?", Liam looked inside the room and saw a few red circles with runes placed inside of them. He couldn't recognize any of those runes, since he wasn't a mage in the first place. "I've learned about arrays in one of my private lessons about magical practices."
'With this, he should be surprised about my abilities. It's time for him to be in awe of me.', Robert had a proud smile on his face, but Liam was still somewhat confused. "What do these even do?"
"These arrays are made of pure air and fire runes. The moment the circle is broken it will activate a big explosion, or at least, that's what it said in my book.", seeing the confused look on Liam's face he continued. "You can compare it to what Lucas did with his hands. He used certain elemental runes to heal his hand right? He made them all with his mind and waited for the right moment before activating them. This is the same principle but I don't have to do anything. All I need is for the circle to break before the entire room collapses."
"I know what you mean, I was just thinking about how we would avoid this explosion. Lucas said he could hide us from the spiders, but with that explosion, won't things get a lot more complex?"
"No worries, I'm prepared."