The Lurker stepped out of the forest.
Its dark chitinous body gleamed under the pale gray light of this cloudy day, a dark black carapace covered in just as equally dark spine-like hair follicles.
Eight segmented legs-jointed like sickles from its thorax and moved with a precision that a creature as large as this had no business portraying. With every step the ground dipped beneath its weight and yet at the same time its steps were just as smooth and soundless as though the ground wasn't cracking beneath its feet at all.
A large bloated and bulbous abdomen trailed behind it swaying at a constant rhythm as though it were a grotesque pendulum- a short patch of web fluid barely jutting out from its tip.
From mandibles that twitched as though excited before a salivating meal, it dripped with poison potent enough to boil upon making contact with the ground, to 16 red eyes that gleamed with menace and eerie intelligence, the creature radiated with a nightmarish hunger.
It was a spider- not a creature of nature that was barely the size of a palm but rather a monstrous product of mutation and mana leading to the terrifying creature that was over 5 meters long and stood and almost 2 and a half meters above the ground.
16 red orbs shining with untold intelligence swept over the group of now eight able bodied members of Bennet's group.
A solemn heaviness and despair weighed on all them when they felt the gaze of the creature- The Lurker. It was as though the creature's very gaze had a ton of weight to it that was difficult to explain.
What they didn't know was that this was due to the extreme soul pressure that was weighing on their souls. The lurker wasn't emitting its soul pressure consciously as that would only be possible at the Fourth Star Order and then multiply that effect the higher one went into the Orders.
Still for souls that were within the First Star Order, this soul pressure was like having a large rock dropped onto your back. It was enough to crush to spirits of most First Star Order creatures and leave them paralyzed.
Bennet grit his teeth and steeled his nerves, his grip on his weapon growing firmer as he forced himself to stand as straight as a javelin.
He couldn't allow his followers to see him in such a pathetic state and worse than that he couldn't possibly falter here as that would mean that those kids would have to do all the heavy lifting.
As an adult, Bennet couldn't stand leaving such a heavy burden onto their shoulders alone. It was one of the reasons he never agreed to use Huey as bait in order to lure the beast out no matter how strong he was. That was yet another reason, those kids would be the future of this ruined nation and they had the potential to do even better and surpass those of the older generation.
For that reason alone he had to carry a big part of this burden.
However, no matter how much he resolved himself to carry this burden, he knew he wasn't strong enough and of those that were with him here maybe only Thorne and Arina had the best chance of surviving several exchanges but that was it.
Bennet took deep breaths, calming his agitated heart. He looked towards his warriors.
They all looked back at him. He could see the fear on their faces but he could also see a strong determination hidden within their gazes.
Their meaning was as clear as day.
They would fight to the bitter end. Even if it came sooner than they expected.
Seeing the resolve of his men Bennet felt a bitter sweetness in his chest. On one side he was happy to have these people fight by his side to the end. On the other side though he had really hoped that they would leave this place. Run away and survive this battle.
And yet here they were.
Bennet felt his lip curl slightly.
'Alright then. Lets give it our all' Bennet thought before turning towards Arina who held onto her twin daggers tightly.
"Arina I need you to use your teleport skill to get those who can't possibly fight away from here and then I need you to gather those brats…" he said in a bitter voice. "…though I would have loved to leave them out of this battle, we can't possibly win this without their help"
Arina bit her lower lip. Conflict written on her face. She knew that she was probably the only person who could do this and yet she knew that if she went ahead with this she would spend all her mana making her ultimately useless and unable to continue fighting.
She knew this. She really wanted to help and yet…
Looking at the captain of the scouts who was lying on the ground helplessly, she found herself biting into her lower lip harder to the point of drawing blood.
Her entire body shook as she really didn't know what to do.
It was at that moment that she felt a strong hand land on her shoulder. Her gaze snapped upwards and met Thorne's gray eyes.
"Go" he said.
He wasn't much of a talker and only talked when he deemed it important enough. Like the time he was describing Huey's strength to Bennet or when he had been elaborating the plan to take out the Lurker in the office.
That was just the kind of person he was.
And at that moment, even though it was just a single two letter word, it was more than enough to calm her nerves and stop her trembling.
Arina found herself nodding.
"Alright" she replied her gaze steeling. She had to hurry.
And so like that Arina made a move to gather her injured allies. Under the scrutiny of the Lurker's gaze. It seemed almost amused and made no moves to attack the group at all only watching as this played out.
Arina managed to gather three injured people- the woman who had been knocked aside by the gorilla, another man who had fallen unconscious under the soul pressure and the captain of the scout team who had carved out a large pound of flesh from the gorilla.
She prepared to teleport but hesitated for a moment before speaking once more.
"I'll hurry back" she whispered her promise before she vanished together with the three.