Content Warning: Depictions of arachnids and spiders. I realize I shoulda put this out with the st few chapters too, I'll add them in soon xD

  At the end of the cave they found Honey speaking with another goblin, this one male. As they approached Temate began to make out some of the words. Knowing the bears were somehow auto-transting their words was interesting to Temate. Especially when he thought about Craobh’s loud procmations.

  He wondered if she had actually meant for him to hear that, or if it had been transted for him. If it had, did she do it? Or did bears do it instinctively? Or maybe Honey or Milis was doing it for all of them?

  “–looks good, very well done goblin. Go and grab some food and rest your crew.” Honey finished talking with the goblin who bowed and led a dozen Daog away, passing carefully by Temate's small group.

  “Lady Toni, Master Temate, good morning to you two. Sneak Surrender, soft winds this day.” Temate felt Surrender waving from his back, shaking his shoulders slightly.

  “Morning Honey bear!” She said, followed by simir greetings from Toni and Temate.

  “Pipuck says we’re basically ready?” Toni asked.

  Honey nodded as he replied. “Assuming this works the way you hope, yes it is all prepared. At least on our end.”

  “Well lets go ahead and get started, we can burn for a few hours before we finish up top.” Toni said.

  Honey nodded then reached into a small pouch he’d attached to his waist with a green fibrous belt. He pulled out one of the Shatter stones and looked up as he handed the stone to her.

  “Apologies, it’s not as if I doubt you, but I’m not confident in my throwing paw or aim.” Honey said.

  Toni took the surprisingly rge stone then looked to Temate. “Think you can hit it? Dead center?” She asked, hefting the rock. “I’m more of a runner than a tosser.” She grinned at him, her face cast in the soft light of a magical light Honey held in his other paw.

  Temate took the stone and looked up at the ceiling the other two had been examining. A strange sort of carving had been done in the ceiling of the small space. The ceiling tapered up to a single small circle which then rapidly expanded back out and up for several feet.

  In Temate’s head he imagined a cssic keyhole with a rectangle at the top instead of a circle. He looked down to the floor of the chamber to get a measure of the center by examining the room's contents. A rge pile of wood, pnt matter and a few cylinders of the ‘toxic smoke’ fillers Toni taught the bears to make.

  He followed with his eye up to the ceiling then twisted his head to the left, cracking his neck. Then twisted his head to the right, cracking his neck again. He hefted the Shatter Stone, measuring its weight then nodded.

  “Clear the room.” He said. He waited, watching as Honey, Toni and Pipuck all moved further up the tunnel to a rge gap in the wall. More fuel for the fire was stored there, stacked neatly into piles of wood, pnts and filler. Toni grabbed a cylinder as she saw it, examining it, unconcerned it would seem.

  Temate took a deep breath, aimed, pulled his arm back and threw with all his strength. He activated [Vicious Strike] for good measure, adding the extra oomph to the action and causing the stone to fly perfectly straight. It hit the ceiling beyond the rim of stone above him and there was a loud, thundering sound.

  The ceiling split and fell down, several thick chunks of stone crashing downwards at speed. Temate dashed out of the room, throwing himself on the floor outside of the chamber as he heard rock and stone fall behind him. But less fell then he expected, he uncovered his head and turned.

  Certainly several rge rocks had made it through, but when he looked up at the gap he smiled. Toni’s pn had worked, the rgest rocks had fallen into each other and filled the gaps. A few smaller spiders were already crawling through the gaps between the stones but no gap would allow anything dangerous through.

  As he stood up Toni walked past him, she gestured towards the collection of kindling in the center of the chamber. A fire ignited, then grew, expanding rapidly both as Toni manually spread it, and as it quite the dry fuel. Soon the room was lit with flickering red-orange fmes as thick, bck smoke, noxious even to Temate’s nose here, began to float upward.

  Then, Toni began igniting random spiders as they crawled towards them. Temate followed suit, stomping instead of burning since he didn't have any fire magic himself, and shortly after so did the others. They smashed and burned spiders as they waited, watching to make sure Toni’s pn was working.

  Of course it did, Temate had known it would when she’d expined it. The bck toxic smoke began to filter up and between the rocks. Certainly some gathered in the chamber but she’d ‘done the math’. So long as they didn’t burn too much it would never gather enough down here to be dangerous.

  Above however, where the spiders swarmed, it would gather. After all nothing passed through the barrier, Sgoinneil said. Not even air. And from here, the cavern slowly sloped upwards to the barrier. So they would smoke them out, choke them with toxins and smoke, and kill them. Temate was impressed, cruel sure, but efficient and these were a threat.

  Any that were smart would flee back into the deeper chasms, or down into the Nitha’s space. Any that weren’t would die, a horrible death certainly, but they would die. It would also keep most of the webbing intact which was good. That had been part B of Toni's pn, normal spider silk was incredibly strong, with the stuff these things spun?

  Who knew what could be made, Sgoinneil had been excited at that. She wanted new, more comfortable cushions, as the ones in her den were apparently made of spider silk. Not this stuff, something found out in the woods, the bears were ready to give up harvesting this silk after this st attack. With this pn, however, they could at least get some.

  All they needed to do now was wait and watch. Keep the fire burning and, in case the spiders were smarter than they seemed, protect the fire. When the barrier space had been filled with smoke for a few hours step two would commence.

  They would lower the barrier and colpse the Nitha tunnel with a Shatter Stone. At the same time they would colpse the spider passage from above with a second Shatter Stone. Then step three, they sweep through and clear out anything still alive, crippled as it would be.

  It was a good pn, Temate turned to Toni and patted her head.

  “Good job firestick.” He said and she turned and ughed at him.

  “Firestick? Is that supposed to be a pet name?” She asked.

  “Seems appropriate considering…” He trailed off and waved at her gun, then at the glowing, smoking fire in front of them.

  “Hahaha, I like it honestly, though I’d rather something more I dunno… “ She waved her hand in the air almost as if confused.

  Temate raised one eyebrow. “Not with that motion I don't, but we’ll workshop it, I was gonna say firebug at first but that seemed a bit strange considering.”

  “Hotty!” Surrender chirped from behind them. They both looked at her and she shrunk, her ears lowering as her hair bristled, uncomfortable. “Because she pretty and like fire?”

  Toni ughed and Temate gave Surrender a slight smirk.

  Then they waited.

  As they waited and watched they heard noise begin above. A loud whistling filled the air and vibrated the smoke above them. For several minutes the whistling continued, growing quieter and louder every now and again. Eventually, it faded completely.

  Several hours ter Temate, Toni, Surrender, Pipuck, Sgoinneil, Milis – recently healed from her st fight with the spiders – and almost a dozen other bears gathered by the barrier. Sgoinneil sat at the edge of the glowing yellow barrier staring at the thick bck smoke roiling beyond it.

  “Will it really be safe?” Milis asked.

  “It’ll take awhile to clear, but with the masks Temate brought from our world we can get in and colpse the Nitha tunnel and get out. You guys just have to y low and watch this space in case anything happens.” Toni looked up to Temate and sighed.

  “What, it’s better safe than sorry.” He spoke, his voice muffled by the comical mask he was wearing. It looked almost like a cartoon gas mask, with two filters and a gssy covering over the eyes. Toni looked down at the one in her hand, sighed again, then pced it on her head.

  It was tight and uncomfortable, Temate knew. Surrender, standing between the two humans, looked even more uncomfortable then he or Toni did. Pipuck wasn’t wearing one, mostly because they only had three. However they had refused outright before even knowing that there weren’t enough.

  “I can keep the air aroun’ my own face pure with some low power win’ magic, I’d burn my face jus’ as much with tha’ rubbish as with the smoke!”

  Temate smiled at the memory, then again at the image of their group in his head. Temate, Toni and Surrender looked like well prepared rioters in their colorful garments and facemasks. Well prepared rioters with a tiny person who’s hair swirled around their head. They had to look ridiculous, and the way the bears around them kept gncing their way confirmed it.

  “Just head back to the entrance once you clear the barrier. Make sure no one is above this space for a few hours while the smoke filters up and out of Bearbhaile.” Toni reiterated her instructions to Sgoinneil who nodded. Honey was already dealing with that though, but she probably wanted to make sure all the bears here knew.

  “Ready?” Sgoinneil asked them.

  Temate hefted his machete in one hand and his [Bone Salt] shield in the other. It had good weight, he could tell it would be sturdy and effective. It took time to form, about a minute but it sted for a few hours before the magical bone dissipated. He saw Toni checking her gun to his side and lost sight of Surrender as she slipped behind his legs.

  Pipuck simply rolled their shoulders and nodded at Sgoinneil. “Let’s do this thin’.” They said, Temate was still surprised the Spiras was coming along. They’d been practically allergic to any form of risk or danger since the group had arrived. It made Temate happy though, to see Pipuck ready to go in with them.

  With a quick strike of her cws Sgoinneil broke the carving that made the barrier on the floor. She covered her mouth with a thick damp cloth and moved with surprising speed away from the barrier.

  The smoke rolled nguidly out of the barrier, like a reaching amorphous monster. It clung to the ceiling and walls as it moved, so thick it almost seemed like a liquid as it flowed. The bears all hunkered down and scooted backwards, staying low as Temate began to move forward, Toni and the others trailing closely behind.

  The mask helped drastically, but some chemicals still got in every now and then prompting a cough from Temate or Toni. Using Toni's [Eternal Fme], kept low to avoid igniting smoke or dangling webs, to light the way they slowly moved forward. Very quickly they found their way to the Nitha tunnel, it was only 30 or so feet in after all.

  When they arrived they stopped in their tracks, Temate raised his eyes in surprise. The hole had been covered, filled with what looked to be thick webbing. The white fibers covered the whole wall and up the ceiling a bit, looking all the world like a plugged pipe. Or to Temate's degenerate mind, something much more... disturbing.

  Temate shook his head, not to clear it but in annoyance at the thought. He turned to look over his shoulder, the smoke already mostly cleared away, and looked to Toni and beyond. The bears had already shifted back towards the entrance of the tunnel, seeing no immediate danger.

  “We’re gonna have to clear that a bit to colpse it properly.” Toni said. Temate nodded, turning back forward, he carefully picked his way past huge ropes of webbing as he approached. He stopped at the edge of the web extending out from the gap, too far to reach. He grimaced, examining the webbing carefully for the best pce to begin.

  “Hrmmm, Temate something strange.” Surrender hissed from near his feet. Her ears were twitching around as she gred at the wall. That gave Temate further pause, he lifted his shield and machete and began to focus. [Magic Eye] kicked in after a few seconds, but when it did he knew what was wrong.

  Unfortunately, as he recognized the problem, so too did the problem recognize it had been detected. A sharp whistling suddenly filled the air as the wall of webbing burst like a pcid ke disturbed by a falling boulder. A giant, white furred spider, which had been camoufge and sheltered within, lunged out towards Temate!

  Behind it he could see several rger spiders and hundreds of smaller ones rushing after their leader. The eight sharp, taloned legs of the leading abaster beast moved with surprising speed, shaking the webs as it rushed forward. It's hairs striduted along it's body filling the tunnel with a horrible whistling noise.

  It's 8 bck eyes focused on Temate as it came on, it's rge fangs trembled ready to strike. Temate dragged his attention away from it and beyond where he could see the tunnel. Where he could see stone safe to colpse.

  Immediately Temate tossed his machete into the air, catching it awkwardly in his shield hand. He drew out the Shatter Stone and tossed passed the rushing white creature and into the passage beyond. As it exploded, colpsing the tunnel on most of the rushing spiders he heard more explosions from behind him.

  It took Toni a second to squelch her fear as she saw the white monster burst from the webs. Only seconds though, before she leveled her gun. She focused, activating [Hunter’s Instinct] causing parts of the spider to glow as it moved. Vulnerabilities.

  Fire. Hit, and a good one, right in one of those book lungs Temate mentioned.

  The spider stumbled and Toni thought it looked weak already, too weak. Clearly it hadn’t gotten out of the smoke scot free. She took her second shot quickly, triggering [Hammer Down] to focus in near where she’d already hit. A handy [Power], it allowed her to focus her strikes in one spot, great for manual forgework.

  Also great for killing. A part of her felt upset, even guilty, about that. The other part saw a predatory monster baring down on someone she cared about. She felt her gun kick in her hand, reminding herself of why she was fighting. For the same reason as Temate, to protect.

  She watched as the second [Fshforge] bullet tore into the giant tarantu-like thing, not quite in the soft spot. She grimaced as it continued charging, then she screamed as it leapt.

  “Temate, watch out!”

  Temate raised his shield to take the creature's charge head on, holding his stance firm. He could feel the grin spreading on his face, the thrill of battle, the thrill of blood in the air. He reminded himself that he was here to protect, not just fight, as he stared the ivory beast down. It leapt from the webs at him, two of the rger spiders following it.

  It was fast, but worse it was heavier than he expected. The thing smmed into him with the weight of a small car crushing him beneath its body. Then its two rge fangs smmed into his shoulder, punching through the bone shield as he shifted to block. Somewhere he heard a scream.

  Then he felt the venom fill his body as he grew woozy and sluggish. As he struggled to shake the effects, he saw Surrender. A small fuzzy creature shed out from behind the white giant. The blow was shallow but it gave Temate an opening as the spider snarled and kicked at Surrender who dodged nimbly out of the way.

  He grasped the bde in both hands and with a [Vicious Strike] lunged up towards its head. Right where the body had been burned the worst. Right where its head connected to its abdomen. From the damage dealt by his allies, and the opening Surrender gave him, he connected.

  In a rush of fury and savagery he felt something else surge up within him and cut deep. He wrenched and pulled like every time he’d tried to open a tightly sealed anything really. There was a screech as the whistling grew louder and the beast struggled atop him.

  Its hairs stood on end and then erupted off of its body. Like arrows they thudded into the ground around him, some even making contact, sticking into his gut. It hurt but he just wrenched harder until with a glorious crunching slurp it’s head tore off.

  Surrender skipped back from the monster as it’s leg shed at her, [Sap Strike] didn’t nd, but she’d done her job. She’d thrown it off guard giving Temate enough room to hit it hard. [Skitter] helped with that, and it helped now as she rushed away from the other rge spiders rushing forward.

  She ducked once more behind Temate’s shoulders as she helped him up from the ground.

  “Thanks, Surrender.” He growled as he stumbled onto his feet. He lifted his shining metal bde and stood tall, filling Surrender with confidence despite his bloodied form. Then, he froze and fell back over. Surrender tried to catch him but he was too heavy.

  “Pip! Heal help!” She shouted, but before she’d even finished shouting, a hand was on her shoulder. Pip knelt with her examining Temate, their hair swirled in the clean bubble of air surrounding their head. Their hands began to glow as they pulled several pnts from pouches on their belt.

  “Damn, venom. ‘E’s too big to move, deal with the other spiders, I can handle this!” Pipuck knelt, grabbed some dirt from the ground with their other hand and smashed their two hands together. A burst of light filled the space as they knelt atop Temate’s chest, pressing a blue green ooze to the puncture wounds.

  “GO!” They growled at Surrender and she snapped her head up, realizing what she was doing, she turned to look for the other spiders. She extended her cws and studied the rgest spider as it dashed towards her. She heard Toni grunt behind her and a small metal sphere flew past into the mass of swarming spiders.

  Then.

  Kaboom!

  A big, bright explosion filled the space, scattering the smaller spiders and wounding the rger ones. Surrender snarled at the wounded things as they ran, to her [Wild One] [Power] they were fleeing. She was the predator now, and she loved that feeling.

  She snarled examining the first one as it closed in, spotting the perfect opportunity. She [Skitter]ed quietly up and struck the most wounded of the two in its abdomen. It screeched and shed out, once again she slid carefully out of the way taking only a minor scratch on her arm.

  It stumbled sideways and colpsed, tumbling into the second spider and knocking it off bance.

  Bang

  One shot from behind as Toni finished the second spider and then there was just roaring. The roaring of silence after a battle, of her blood pumping rapidly with no other noise to drown it out. Surrender turned and looked, ears twitching and listening. Any danger, any threat she was ready as she stood over Temate.

  She stomped on a small spider as it rushed passed her and then blinked. She turned to follow the light she saw out of the corner of her eye and found Pipuck and Temate glowing. Several small spiders were rushing towards Temate, but turned away and fled as they reached the glowing dome surrounding the two.

  Surrender joined Toni as they began smashing the small spiders, dangerous en masse but scattered and alone as they were, harmless. Surrender looked over to the colpsed tunnel, then back towards Pipuck, then towards Toni watching wide eyed.

  Surrender went over to the girl, white knuckling her strange weapon, and took her hand. Toni jumped and looked down at Surrender who smiled up at the taller girl.

  “He be okay, Pipuck even better now! Look!” Surrender said, motioning back towards Pipuck and Temate. She knew she was right, much like Temate and Toni, Pipuck hadn’t been properly Empowered even after that first night. Salk damned, even Surrender was cking, having been sheltered all her life.

  Now she could see what they were, not a fighter but a healer. They probably had [Power] that could harm, mother always told her magic [Power]s were incredibly fluid in their use. For instance that light could probably burn enemies just as easily as soothe allies. Yet for now, it was used to protect, and their other [Power]s to heal.

  So now, when all they could do was watch and believe, Surrender held Toni's hand reassuringly. She wasn't even mated with Temate and Surrender was scared and angry at his wounding again, even if she was confident Pipuck could take care of him. Toni however, was beside herself, shaking with what Surrender thought was anger more than fear.

  Surrender held the girls hand, letting her tail roam along Toni's back, comfortingly. He would be alright, she said with her caresses.

  He would be alright.

  Force2reckon