The gatepost cracked above Jin's head.
He dropped the shoe and lunged for Bram. They rolled under the tilting bench as a length of timber crashed into the yard.
The creature climbed its own tightening lines.
Higher ground. More anchors. A clear view of everybody underneath.
Jin could almost admire it.
Almost.
Garran struck a strand with his sword. The monster jerked sideways, taking the pull off it before the blade bit deep. Its rear legs gripped the wall while its abdomen laid another line.
It was replacing the web faster than they could cut it.
Kessa climbed onto the fallen gatepost and thrust upward. The creature lashed at her face. She dropped flat; the blade split the wood above her shoulder.
Jin dragged Bram clear of the bench.
“Stay.”
He pointed behind the wall. Bram shook his head and pointed at the loose end of the rope still hanging from the reel.
“You are a terrible investment.”
Jin pushed him toward it anyway.
Kessa slid back to the ground. The guard's sword was in her belt, her own spear in her hand.
Jin held out his palm.
She gave him the sword.
The grip was too thick. The blade was heavier than the Academy practice ones. He swung once, felt it drag his wrist down and closed his second hand over the first.
Garran saw him testing the weight.
He shouted, pointed at one thick strand running from the creature's underside to the far gatepost, then struck the ground with his heel.
Jin followed the line with his eyes.
Every time the creature dodged, that one tightened.
Its way back to the wall.
“Hold it still,” Jin said.
Garran couldn't understand him. He understood the lifted sword.
The veteran stepped into the open.
One blade plunged toward his chest. He turned it with his sword and seized the narrow limb above the edge.
His boot left a pale print in the dirt.
The monster pulled.
Garran's shoulder jerked forward. His heel stayed where it was.
Jin ran past him toward the thick strand, marking three short steps as he went.
It rose.
He stopped just short of it, sword across his chest. The thread would have caught him under the chin.
Garran shouted again. His arm was straight now. Blood ran from his fingers.
Jin backed to the start of his trace.
The creature saw him.
Its free blade swung across the route.
Kessa drove her spear into the joint above it.
The blade jerked upward.
Jin crouched and selected Replay.
His sock slid over dirt. His boot hit the last mark.
He turned with the arrival and cut down across the taut strand, putting both hands, both shoulders and everything his new body could give behind the blade.
The sword stopped halfway through.
Jin's teeth clicked together.
The creature started to pull him up by the trapped blade.
He widened his stance.
His bare heel burned through the torn sock. He shoved against the ground and finished the cut.
The strand snapped.
The monster shot sideways under its own unbalanced pull. Its rear legs skated off the wall.
Garran released the captured limb and slashed another leg as it fell.
Bram threw the reel's remaining rope across its two rear limbs. The guard caught the other end. They hauled in opposite directions.
The creature tried to climb.
Its feet came together beneath it.
Jin raised the sword.
The flat head swung toward him. Both front blades lifted.
Kessa struck from behind.
Her spear punched through the underside of the head, lifting its edge. She planted the butt against the fallen gatepost and drove forward with her good shoulder.
The point came out between the black eyes.
The blades stopped above Jin's face.
He stood very still until they fell.
Kessa looked at the sword still above his head.
Her laugh came out breathless and rude.
The creature dissolved around her spear. Rope dropped into the dirt. So did a narrow copper band that had been hidden under the folds behind its head.
RECLAIM DETECTED: EXP +150
LEVEL UP: 14 → 15 → 16 → 17
LEVEL 17: 47/55 | FREE AP: +15
Jin lowered the sword.
Seventeen.
He'd needed help. He'd nearly lost a foot, a face and several less replaceable things. But when the strand held, he'd held too.
He spent the fifteen: four Strength, four Agility, seven Endurance.
MODIFIERS: STR +24 | AGI +29 | END +27
AP REMAINING: 0
The workers came out from behind the broken doorway. One hugged the guard so hard his sword belt slid sideways. Bram sat down and let the ruined reel fall from his hand.
Jin returned the sword to its owner and retrieved his shoe.
The sole had been punctured twice. White thread filled the toe.
He looked at it. Then at the silver coin Garran had rescued from the fallen shelf.
“I got paid,” he said. “Why am I poorer?”
Garran handed him the coin and the two coppers, then crouched over the copper band. His thumb stopped on a stamped mark beneath the sticky residue.
Kessa's smile vanished.
Garran wrapped the band in cloth and put it inside his vest. He called the guard over; their quick exchange ended with the man running toward the village.
Then Garran turned back to Jin.
He pointed at the bare heel protruding through the sock. At his own undisturbed footprint.
Jin forgot the money in his hand.
“Yes,” he said. “That. Teach me that.”
Garran held out a hand.
Jin clasped it.
The veteran smiled, planted his heel and pulled.
Jin left the ground.