Gauss’s memory was razor-sharp now.

He was certain the passage around him wasn’t the same as before.

For instance, that corner he’d just flashed past hadn’t existed on the way in.

The terrain had changed—without a sound?

What truly unsettled him was not knowing where Alia was now.

Had the two of them been separated in the labyrinth’s shifting?

In his mind’s map, the course he was running now was the exact opposite of the route in.

He didn’t dare stop; the pale guardian shadowed him like a ghost.

And he could feel clearly that the thing’s condition was improving bit by bit—like a creature waking from a long hibernation, organs and systems revving back to full.

He had to shake it fast.

Feeling the gale clawing at his back, Gauss turned again and took another furious slash on the staff.

Clang!

Another block; the recoil left his arms numb.

If not for Brute Force, his naturally solid STR/CON, and the Omni-Armor soaking the shock, it wouldn’t just be numbness—his arms would be wrecked.

He had to admit: up against many monsters, the human body is at a disadvantage.

“Bigger” often means “stronger.”

And beauty, just as often, means danger.

From the first instant, the pale guardian had looked imposing. And indeed—it was as strong as it looked.

After that first charged ambush, Gauss had given up trying to clash head-on. Every other time he’d used technique to bleed off its force instead of meeting it outright.

Dada-dada…

Footfalls hammered the narrow corridor.

“Hah… hah…” Gauss’s chest heaved, breath ragged.

Barely a minute had passed—but the exertion was enormous.

Its range is this big? From the relentless chase behind him, cold crept into his gut.

He had figured a puppetlike entity like this might be confined to some zone. Evidently not.

Boom!

Like a thrown stone, Gauss slammed into a wide, unfamiliar chamber.

He didn’t spare a breath—he rolled, bled off the force, and scanned fast.

“A dead end?”

At first glance there was no exit.

Worse, the whole room was blanketed in a massive, clotted white web.

Not the sticky threads you pick up in shrubs, but rope-thick strands layered and layered—roof, walls, floor—an suffocating net.

From it hung countless old, bone-white egg sacs. Some had burst; others bulged and pulsed with a nasty life, as if just about to hatch.

“The nest of that spider-thing?”

He glanced back at the doorway.

The pale spider-shape that had been doggedly chasing him stopped short and stood watch at the entrance—also the chamber’s only way out.

Thinks I’m a rat in a jar, Gauss thought, analyzing its behavior.

That gave him half a breath. He took it to settle his surging mana and breathing.

Looking back, its herding of him had been deliberate—as if it had been driving him into this nest.

Which suited him fine.

From the wide sleeve of his robe, a teleport scroll slipped into his palm.

Cornered he might be, but not without escape.

He hadn’t used it yet partly to save it—but more importantly, he’d had no opening. Even a teleport scroll took a sliver of time to trigger; there hadn’t been a safe window.

Rustle…

Just as he began to tease mana into the scroll, a susurrus came from beyond the snarled white threads.

He looked up on instinct.

Three smaller, pallid creatures were crawling out from the heavy webbing.

“Smaller” only relative to the adult that had driven him here. The smallest of the three was the size of a burly man; the largest was around two-point-three meters tall.

Adolescents of the same kind?

Its young—or sisters?

Unlike the adult’s eerily elegant, almost exotic beauty, these three were warped and chaotic—upper halves barely human in outline. Their faces were indistinct, plastered with white filaments; those strands masked where a face should be like melted wax—like wet clay mashed by a child, unfinished and grotesque.

Gauss caught the guardian’s intent.

It had herded him here for them.

Why alive and not dead—so they could feed on fresh flesh? Or was there some reason they had to do the killing themselves?

The three smaller ones slithered forward, eyes on Gauss. Unlike the adult, their gaze burned with raw hunger.

He flicked a glance at the adult still blocking the door, impassive.

Without a fuss, he edged deeper into the nest, widening the gap to the adult. That way, when he made for the exit later, he’d have a few more heartbeats to work with.

The adult either didn’t grasp the intent—or, sure it had bottled the only exit, didn’t care.

“Hoo—”

Gauss looked at the three coming fast.

His eyes showed a trace of hesitation.

Their threat, by his senses, wasn’t high. Judging by their movement they might be at elite level—but far short of the adult.

Why wasn’t it helping? Did it believe these three were enough—or was there some reason it couldn’t act?

Gauss’s confusion lingered.

But the setup favored him.

He was confident he could drop the weakest of the three.

Path of the Elite, Stage 2: Slay 5 Types Of Elite Monsters (4/5).

While he weighed it, the trio came skimming, closing in.

Gauss spared the adult one last glance.

If it wouldn’t intervene, then he would.

He drew the slender bone staff from his pouch.

Ignoring the larger two, he fixed on the smallest at the rear.

If you’ve made up your mind, squeeze the softest fruit first.

He only needed one to tick the box.

He silently gathered mana and let them come on.

And in his mind: the moment one died, he’d trigger the teleport scroll.