Chapter 61: The Forest Wants Us Dead

Over the next hour, Raven discovered that gaining poison resistance in Sablewood was a lot like buying a cloak during a storm.

It helped.

It didn’t mean you stopped getting wet.

The group had retreated several hundred yards from the Arc Needle Wasps’ food cache and searched for a place far enough from their flight path to stop. Roland found a small rise of stone between Silkroot roots, with a narrow stream on one side and enough open ground to see something before it tried to bite them.

Valeria checked the perimeter with several droplets of blood floating around her fingers while Raven finished marking the cache’s location on the map.

They needed a mature worker.

They had found several.

The problem was that none of them seemed interested in voluntarily separating from the other twelve.

Raven closed the map.

"Tomorrow, we can use bait."

Roland was laying a line of white repellent around the camp.

"What kind?"

"Meat."

"That attracts half a dozen things besides wasps."

"Then meat they prefer."

Roland looked up.

"Do you know what they prefer?"

"No."

"Excellent start."

Raven looked toward Valeria.

"Blood."

One of the floating droplets stopped moving.

"No."

"I wasn’t finished."

"Your first word was enough."

"We saw them collecting paralyzed animals. If we mix meat with a small amount of mana-reactive blood—"

"My blood."

"Probably."

Valeria watched him with an expression that wasn’t exactly annoyance.

She had already learned how to recognize when Raven was developing an idea that would end unpleasantly for someone.

"How much?"

"A little."

"Define little."

"Enough for one worker to notice without making the entire colony think a feast fell out of the sky."

Roland sat on a rock.

"I like how the plan depends on us knowing how much ’enough’ is."

Raven looked at him.

"That’s why we observe first."

Valeria crossed her arms.

"What a relief. I thought you were going to cut me and see what happened."

"That would be unscientific."

"I’m deeply reassured that your problem with it was methodological."

Raven turned back toward the forest.

The distant buzzing was still there.

It was no longer an occasional sound.

Now that he knew what to look for, he could identify patterns.

A worker passed east every few minutes.

Others returned from different directions.

Some carried sections of plants.

One had been carrying something that was still moving.

The colony was working.

That meant they could observe its habits before trying to kill one.

It also meant spending more time inside Sablewood.

Raven still hadn’t decided which of those two things was worse.

Movement near the stream caught his attention.

Not hostile.

Small.

A frog-like creature jumped from a root and disappeared beneath a rock.

Raven barely paid attention.

Roland did.

"Don’t drink directly from the water."

Raven looked at the stream.

"Why?"

"Leech Eggs."

"Parasites?"

"Yes."

Valeria pointed toward a small bag hanging from the supplies.

"We have filters."

Raven looked at the crystal-clear water.

Then at the forest.

"I’m starting to think clarity here is a visual threat."

"Sablewood is beautiful," Valeria said.

"So are some weapons."

She smiled.

"That explains quite a bit about your tastes."

Raven decided not to answer.

They waited an hour before approaching the food cache again.

They didn’t try to hunt.

Only observe.

Raven found an elevated position between two massive roots where he could see part of the trunk without getting too close. Valeria remained behind him while Roland stayed lower, watching the branches.

The Arc Needle Wasps were more organized than Raven had expected.

They didn’t arrive randomly.

Two or three workers remained near the food almost constantly. Others appeared, cut away portions, and disappeared east.

Every fifteen or twenty minutes, a slightly larger wasp circled the area before leaving again.

Patrol.

Raven counted timing.

Routes.

Altitudes.

How long they took to react when a small animal approached the cache.

A six-legged lizard entered the area.

One worker noticed it.

It didn’t attack immediately.

It waited until the lizard came within less than six feet of the trunk.

Then it moved.

A buzz.

A blue flash.

The creature dropped before Raven could fully track the movement.

The wasp landed on it.

Stinger.

Then dragged it toward the tree.

Valeria whispered,

"Does that look fun to you?"

"Useful."

"I didn’t say fun."

"Your tone implied it."

Raven kept watching.

"The discharge happens before the sting."

"So?"

"Impulse Spark isn’t just part of the venom. They use the discharge to interfere with movement before closing in."

"We already knew that."

"Now we know the approximate range."

Valeria looked toward the tree.

"Three meters."

"Two and a half. Maybe three."

"And that helps?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Raven pointed toward one side where the roots formed a narrow passage.

"If we lure one there, it can discharge. But it won’t have room to come in from any angle it wants."

Valeria followed the line of sight.

"And I close the exit."

"No."

She raised an eyebrow.

"No?"

"I need the organ intact. If you use enough magic to immobilize it, you might damage the abdomen."

"I can be precise."

"I know. But I’d rather have you control the others if they appear."

Valeria stayed silent for a moment.

"You’re going to fight it alone."

"One worker."

"Level twelve or thirteen."

Raven looked at her.

"I’m Level Eight, not Two."

"That doesn’t answer the question."

"Yes, it does. You just don’t like the answer."

Valeria exhaled through her nose.

"If it stings you again, I am not listening to another lecture about how ’the benefit justified the risk.’"

"You can listen afterward."

"You’re unbearable."

"That seems stable."

She looked back toward the cache.

Raven was about to add something when Predator’s Instinct reacted.

Not toward the wasps.

Below.

Raven turned.

Too late.

Something burst beneath the layer of leaves.

A yellow cloud engulfed his leg.

Roland shouted.

"Back!"

Raven used Burst Step.

He cleared the cloud and rolled behind a root.

Valeria moved in the opposite direction as a thin barrier of blood spread in front of her face.

Raven got to his feet.

There was no creature.

Only a plant.

A kind of brown bulb had split open on the ground, now divided into four sections.

The yellow cloud spread slowly.

Roland covered his nose and mouth.

"Burstpod."

Raven looked at his leg.

"Poisonous?"

Roland didn’t answer immediately.

That was an answer.

Raven had inhaled very little.

Very little.

But some of the powder had touched his skin.

The reaction came in less than thirty seconds.

First itching.

Then heat.

Then his peripheral vision became slightly blurred.

Predation appeared.