Page 11 of Silver Slayer

"What is it?" Truxxet demanded.

"We call them void weavers." I was already on my feet. "Giant spiders, but nothing like anything on Earth. Five of them, heading straight for us. If we don't take shelter, we're dead."

Before any of us could retreat, the forest split with a sickening crack, trees folding aside like stalks of grass beneath a boot. A massive undulating form burst through the vegetation, its translucent body bending light around it in nauseating waves.

Brooke grabbed Mara's arm and yanked her backward. Too late. Before any of us could move, the void weaver spat a stream of black webbing that expanded midair, covering twenty feet in an instant. Brooke screamed as the edge caught her leg, hardening immediately into unbreakable restraints.

"Get down!" Vennox roared, tackling me sideways as another spray of webbing shot over our heads. We hit the ground hard, his body covering mine as the webbing struck the tree trunk behind us and sealed itself to the bark. The analyzer slipped from my grip and skidded across the soil.

"Let me up!" I struggled beneath his weight. "We can't stay here!"

His silver eyes locked on mine for one heart-stopping moment. "Stay behind me," he growled, then rolled off me in a fluid motion that put him squarely between me and the creature.

Mara fired her nutrone blaster, blue bolts striking the void weaver's translucent hide with little effect. The creature emitted a high-pitched shriek that set my teeth on edge, then lunged with terrifying speed.

Truxxet was already moving toward Brooke, his spear cleanly slicing through the webbing binding her leg. She stumbled as she was freed, but he caught her arm and hauled her upright.

Two more materialized from the treeline, their bodies warping the light around them as they spread to cut off our retreat.

Vennox moved like nothing I had ever seen. His blade was a silver blur as he intercepted a strike aimed at me. Cleaved from its body, the creature's limb fell, twitching to the ground, leaking phosphorescent fluid that sizzled against the soil. The void weaver recoiled, its body contorting.

"Get to the ship!" Vala's voice crackled through my comm. “We’re outnumbered.”

"This way," I shouted to Brooke and Mara, pointing toward the crashed vessel. "Run!"

The forest floor erupted again as a fourth void weaver burst through, blocking our escape. The fifth emerged from the shadows to our left, cutting off the only remaining angle. Trapped in the middle of all five, we backed into a tight circle, weapons raised.

"Any other ideas?" Brooke's voice shook as she lifted her blaster.

"Back-to-back!" Vennox ordered.

In an instant, we were pressed together, Vennox and Truxxet forming a perimeter around us as all five void weavers closed in,their translucent bodies folding the light around them as they came.

"Aim for the cluster of eyes!" I shouted, raising my blaster as one lunged forward. The bolt struck its pulsating core, making it screech and recoil. Then another shot a spray of webbing that narrowly missed my shoulder.

Vennox didn't fight like a male trying to survive. He fought like he had never considered the alternative. His blade found the void weavers' joints, their seams, the places where their bodies hadn't thought to be defended. Strike. Recover. Hold the line. Every move deliberate, nothing wasted, and never, not once, did he give the creatures an angle on us.

Truxxet was no less formidable. Where Vennox was raw power, Truxxet was precision, reading each creature's movement a beat before it committed, his spear already driving into the soft junction behind a void weaver's mandibles before the lunge had fully extended. He fought with the economy of a male who had learned long ago that a spear had one killing end and one chance, and he never wasted either.

Between blaster shots, I couldn't help watching him. Vennox fought with such controlled savagery it was as terrifying as it was mesmerizing. His silver eyes blazed as he intercepted a spider's lunge that would have impaled Brooke, his blade cleaving through its midsection in one devastating swing.

When a second void weaver shot a stream of webbing at Mara's back, Truxxet caught the arc of it with the shaft of his spear, deflecting it into the soil, then spun the weapon and drove the razor-sharp tip through the creature's eye cluster in one unbroken motion. It dropped without a sound. He was already moving to the next before it hit the ground.

"Above you!" I shouted.

Vennox spun, his sword slicing upward in a perfect arc that split the creature from its mandibles to its abdomen. Phosphorescent fluid sprayed outward, hissing where it hit the ground. The creature's legs spasmed once before it collapsed at his feet, its internal lights fading.

Truxxet pinned another to the ground with his spear before wrenching it free with a sickening crunch. Three void weavers remained, circling, their bodies refracting the light in nauseating pulses as they looked for an opening.

The forest went still. The remaining three had retreated beyond the tree line, their distorted forms shifting the light.

"We move now," I said. "The ship. It's our best shot."

"Go," Vennox ordered, turning toward where the creatures had disappeared. "We'll cover your retreat."

"This way," I said to Brooke and Mara. "Stay close."

We hit the ridge at a dead run. I went first, half-sliding on loose soil, grabbing at whatever held long enough to slow me before the ground leveled and I was sprinting. Brooke landed hard behind me. Mara a second after that.