The only part of the situation that I truly cared about was Floof and I now being separated by the spiders. As for the rest, anything that got them to us faster, was a boon as things currently stood. So even though they’d managed to set off their secondary ambush exactly as they wanted, I wasn’t about to let it go nearly as well as they would hope.

  None of them had dropped between Ash and me, a fact that I filed away to ponder later. It could be Ralph was part of this, but I didn’t think so. There were better ways to kill me, and if he knew as much about me as it seemed, he had to know this wasn’t likely to be one of them.

  I opened my mouth, about to give them a chance to surrender, but the loud snarl from Floof, followed by a crunch, told me it was time better spent fighting. As I charged the spiders between the dog and me, the furthest one was flung by its leg into a tree trunk.

  Trying not to let that development distract me, I went in hard. They were big enough that I could easily get under them, slashing at their legs as I ran. I had four of them crashing to the ground before they could even connect a single blow.

  What the spiders seemingly hadn’t considered was that their own sizes would work against them here. The trees blocked them from easily fighting back against my attacks. And I was less nimble than Floof, especially if that dog had managed to apply his levels; I could still easily squeeze between the trees much better than the spiders.

  I refused to let myself think they had just screwed up this badly overall, though. They had been smart enough to pull us into this trap already, which meant they almost certainly had another card to play. Whatever it was, I needed to get ahead of it.

  As I dropped one of the big spiders much more permanently, I spun, trying to get a good lay of the land. There had to be something I was missing. So what was it?

  Ralph was still back with Ash, neither of them advancing, and no spiders were with them, as far as I could tell.

  The path to Floof was now clear, and he was amassing quite the pile of spider parts. Were his teeth sharper than they had been before? I pulled my brain away from that thought. My focus didn’t need to be there right now.

  The trees were thick here, dark brown, almost black trunks in places. These weren’t native Earth trees, at least, none I had ever seen. Some of them were as thick as redwoods. Above us was a canopy of leaves in all shades of green, each big enough to stand out from its neighbor.

  Forcing my mind back past years of learned relaxation, of slower reflexes, of less sensory input, I tried to recapture the awareness I used to have. As hard as I willed it, I knew it wouldn’t come instantly, but that didn’t mean trying was a mistake.

  Drawing in some of the mana from the sword, I pushed it toward my primary senses. There was something here, and I needed to find it.

  Slicing down another of the giant spiders, nothing new caught my eye. But there was a noise in the air. Just barely at the range of what I could perceive, a light rustling moving across the trees.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I finally spotted what I had been searching for. Uncountable smaller green spiders were marching across the leaves, blending in as they moved. They were nearly silent.

  That had to be the final part of the trap. To first wear us out fighting the bigger monsters, then send the swarm once we had become far too tired to fight. It was a good tactic.

  It was one I didn’t have a great counter for. Not for the first time, I wished I had access to more of my magic. We needed to stop them before we were overrun.

  I had an idea.

  “Floof, keep fighting the big guys!” I yelled to the dog, dodging back under one and stabbing upward.

  The spiders were counting on us fighting near each other to make the swarming maneuver work. Luckily, Floof was turning into a force all his own. Hopefully, he would forgive me for what I was about to do.

  “Ralph, get Ash back!” I called to them as I continued my seeming retreat.

  “Come on, Ash, stick with me. We don’t want to be rained on. Your father spotted the final part of the ambush,” Ralph replied, loud enough for me to hear the words. Again, he gave away just the tiniest bit of information, but it was enough to tell me I was on the right track.

  The idea that he really would do what he could to help was starting to take root. And that was a dangerous thing to let happen. I couldn’t let myself trust him yet. Too much relied on me to be able to risk that kind of mistake. For now, I’d give him just enough rope to hang himself.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Once I was far enough from the current fight, I leaped into the nearest tree. The climb wasn’t nearly as quick as I’d have liked, but climbing with one hand while trying to hold a massive sword in the other was bound to slow anyone down. But as I neared the top of the trees, their small forms came much clearer into view.

  Damn, it really was a massive swarm of spiders. While smaller than the ones we had fought so far, that didn’t make them small by normal spider sizes. These were all still the size of a large wolf spider, and from the looks of them, just as aggressive.

  “Come and get me,” I snarled, flaring the mana in the runic blade brightly. I had no idea if the light would do anything to them, but that was just the first step of my hastily thrown-together plan.

  If I pushed the mana flow hard enough, the sword would start to superheat. And while it would be unharmed, the same can’t be said for anything it came in contact with.

  The main issue with my plan, of course, was that I wouldn’t be able to hold onto it through the process without taking serious injuries to my hands, ones I wouldn’t have the time to let heal.

  So I waited, letting the mana build up and grow hotter until the handle started to hurt. As all around me the spiders made their move, reacting to the light or my presence, I stabbed the sword as deeply as I could into the trunk of the tree we all stood on.

  The light rapidly growing even brighter behind me, I took a leap of faith to the nearest tree that looked able to hold my weight. I landed with a crunch, one followed by a wave of heat and the horrible shrieks of burning spiders.

  The branch snapped, but I grabbed another before I could start to fall. Then I climbed back up, hundreds of burning spider corpses raining down all around me. There were far more of them not falling, still caught in the blaze I had created.

  Somewhere far below, the sound of Floof’s barks grew louder. I needed to finish up here quickly and check on him. Dying spiders tried desperately to climb on me by the thousands, making that more easily thought than done..

  Slapping off burning, panicking spiders was almost as annoying as fighting rats, and by the time I’d cleared them all off of me, I could feel dozens of small points of pain. Their venom wasn’t nearly as potent as the others, more of an irritated itching at each spot.

  I could deal with that. The remains of the swarm were fleeing. The sword had returned back to a normal color. And to top it off, the fire was dying off. The trees were just too alive for it to grow further.

  Somehow, my stupid plan had worked.

  Was something that worked ever truly stupid?

  Tabling that concept for a later time, I grabbed the sword, and started my much faster climb back down the trees. Dropping the last twenty or so feet to the ground, I felt my knees and ankles groan at the force, but nothing broke or gave way. That was a good sign for how fast my body was adapting to the System’s return.

  There was a pile of giant spider corpses where I had left the earlier battle. Standing on top of them was a large dog, his teeth bared as more came in for the fight. They were moving more slowly in their attacks now, there was an increased coordination about their attacks, and Floof was tired.

  But I was back to help.

  The gleam of the sword as I charged down the nearest ones was all it took for several of them to finally turn and flee. I would hunt them down eventually, but first I needed to handle what had stayed to fight.

  Floof was at my back as I dropped the first two, ripping into one that had tried to come in from behind. “Good boy.”

  While I still had no idea how much he understood yet, he was learning well, and positive reinforcement couldn’t hurt anything.

  “Adam, we have a problem!” Ralph’s sudden yell cut through the noise of the spider’s chelicerae missing my flesh and clanking against one another.

  Risking another draw of mana from the sword, I enhanced all of my reflexes. There was a burn through my body as my muscles whined about the sudden energy, but I ignored it. Instead, I quickly removed the rest of our foes and raced back to Ash and Ralph.

  Floof came behind me.

  “What’s wrong?” I said, spotting Ash on the ground leaning against one of the trees.

  “One of the smaller spiders managed to bite her before we could get them all off us,” Ralph answered.

  Dammit. Even if it wasn’t a lot of venom, it was far more than her body needed. We wouldn’t gain any of the experience or levels until we finished with the stronghold, either. With her new focus, it was possible her body could fight it off until then, but she’d be left worse for the effort.

  “Adam, find a knife. I’ll clean the wound,” Ralph said, looking at me seriously for the first time since I had met him today.

  “What are you planning?” I asked, returning the gaze. I didn’t want him experimenting on Ash.

  “Surely nothing you haven’t already considered. After all, your sword is covered in those fancy runic symbols. They may not be as powerful without mana orbs, nor as detailed as they could be with proper instruments, but we can at least copy a few to hold the venom at bay and perhaps contain some of her other symptoms.”

  “Hello. I am the translator,” one of the small green creatures said.

  It hadn’t been the first to approach them in the cave, but it had been the first they understood. While neither of the boys had killed or even fought any of them so far, they still both held their weapons at the ready. So far, everything new that had happened since they lost their family hadn’t been for the better.

  “Um, hi, I guess. Who are you people?” Alecks asked.

  “I represent the Greel Goblins, and we are here to expand our markets. Unlike many of the groups involved in this integration, we have no interest in world conquest. We just wish to make connections and further our trade routes,” they replied.

  “Do you have a name, or are you just all Greel Goblins?” Alecks asked, while Adam watched carefully. He wasn’t sure if he trusted them any more than he did the frogs. Sure, they hadn’t attacked yet, but that didn’t mean they were friends.

  “Grimbleflork.”

  Memories of Adam Miller before he found Earth

  Ruler of Nightmares: A Psychological LitRPG

  by C. Savant

  A prince rises in blood. A god rises in fear.