Chapter 0182 - Along came a spider

For the entire week, Hana was seen traveling back and forth from the woods by almost everyone at the Sect. It was no longer a secret which direction she would travel home. Thankfully, she didn't get a lot of negative attention.

After she ate lunch one day, she was found yelling in the forest. Everyone presumed it was just her going through some sort of breakthrough. The effect of her food, products by Master Harris of the Alchemy Department, left her spitting fire instead of seeds from the melon she bought. She had wanted something sweet, but the effect was strange. The seeds generated an explosive charge, clearing the dirt around them. Hana tried spitting them at a tree, and a small pit appeared on the bark. She giggled, put the melon away and flew around the forest. Caoimhe flew nearby, stopping with Hana on occasion but for the most part, she stayed in the skies and followed closely.

She came across some of the other student's. They were surrounding an ant loose from the colony nearby, it was the size of a bus with wings on its back. The ant spread its wings and blew several of the student's onto their asses. Hana watched to see if they were in trouble, it was bad form. If there were signs of trouble, it was a different situation.

The leader of the small group was doing a good job of controlling which direction the drone was facing but the wings made it hard for everyone to approach. It was a losing fight and Hana knew it. She watched and waited but stood ready.

The Ant flew up.

"Shit, Snare it." A net was thrown out of a launcher but it missed. "Again!" One of the others pulled out another launcher and took aim. It caught the left wing and the Ant fell down.

Angered, it let out a shrill. A stream of bile came out, it was corrosive. They put up a shield but it only had a slight effect, some of it still splashed into the air, landing on their clothes and skin. The acid burned through armor then flesh, it didn't smell good either.

Hana saw them struggle to keep the netting on top of it. The wing's themselves were cutting into the ropes. 'Sharp.' She watched and for the moment, they were good. "Do you guys want my help?"

"Let us try, if you really want to help, just make sure it doesn't get away." Focused on the battle, the Priman Woman called Naen Answenk, could feel Hana's sincere interest in helping. She didn't want to shoo her away, but it was their kill, their hunt and their reward.

Hana readied a snare formation, she cast it above the Ant and waited to activate it. The group below wanted to test their battle readiness and it would be extreme to interfere.

With their strategy, it was likely to be a lengthy battle. The Ant swung its front legs around and its head moved pretty quickly. The feelers on its head were giving off strange vibrations that kept some magic from manifesting.

A spot appeared on its back, it was shaped like a Violin. Hana had read a lot about the Ants, many young adventurers would head into the Ant Colonies for training in the past. "Hey! There's something weird about this Ant, you should be careful."

The Vibrations stopped. The Ant shuddered and the bile that came out was a different color. It mixed with the air and became a fog, enveloping the combat group. Hana acted quickly, she activated the formation and started to lay another. When the second formation was complete, she fed her energy into and drew her hammer.

Caoimhe saw her actions and circled above, the pollen from her flowers was clearing the miasma away.

""GET OUT OF THE FOG"" Hana yelled out, there was no place to go. She sent her vision out, focusing on the ant itself. Using the Eagles Eyes Pierces Rock technique against it seemed like a great idea but it was only enough to crack the shell slightly. Hana tried striking the same place, it slowly got larger.

The group was managing to stumble their way free of the fog but it had already done a lot of damage, all of them would need immediate care. Throwing her hammer, Hana knocked the Ant on its side.

Naen grabbed it with her tail and threw it again. It bounced.

Hana grabbed it and brought the hammer down, the momentum was intensified and ant's exoskeleton broke apart, three of its legs lost their function and it toppled to the ground. Flailing, it was still a threat. The Acids themselves were still a problem and the miasma had yet to disappear. Caoimhe's pollen was doing an excellent job of breaking it down but each time it was nearly gone, the Ant would produce more.

The spot on the back of the Ant glowed and changed into a different color. Its wings were shed, breaking away from the body and its carapace broke apart. A spider, a colorful one, crept out of the body. It was soft and quick, the Spider leapt onto one of the juniors and bit down. There was not enough time, he died almost instantly. Hana stared at the soft spider and expected to be able to tear it to pieces with her eyes, unfortunately there was no such luck.

The spider's flexible body was able to keep itself from getting hit, it rolled, hopped and bit anyone nearby. Unafraid of using its opponents as shields, the Spider fought alone. Naen threw a spear, when it missed, another of her teammates was nearly struck. 'Che' Naen clicked her tongue and grabbed Hana's hammer. She slapped a talisman onto it and started to chant.

Hana and Caoimhe had been focusing on the spider and the Miasma, there were only three of the juniors, Hana and Naen remaining. Hana got hot blooded, her heart started to pump faster, beat stronger and her body followed along. Energy circulated throughout and the Wild Red Heart technique activated. Hana's wing's broke into a white fire, her body took on the colors of the Dragon's Egg Crystal and her eyes boiled in essence.

It was too much, too much at once but Hana could feel her power. She grabbed the spider, it tried to bite but its fangs couldn't penetrate Hana's feathers, let alone her skin. With regret, the Spider soon realized that the white fire was spreading. Burning from all places across its body, the spider cooked and shriveled. It twitched and curled.

Naen rushed around and tried to check on the fallen. Her medical skills were not very good but she knew if someone could come back from a wound. Staring at her dead teammates, Naen's expression was grim. "What the hell happened? What the fuck was that spider!?"

"I don't know, I've never seen one and that Ant was just a disguise." Hana examined the bodies, the toxins inside had killed them really quickly. She pulled a clean storage ring out and stored the student's bodies away before handing it over to Naen. "You shouldn't put the ant or spider corpse into your normal ring either. Here, you should take them back to the Sect and report what happened to the Elders." She swept everything into a third ring and called Caoimhe to land. "Get on, its a lot faster."