She walked through the forest carefully. Each step sent pain shooting through her ribs. At least two were cracked, maybe three, from the impact against that tree during the tiger fight. The bruising went all the way to the bone.

  Her hands were damaged too. The palms were split open where the nano thread had crushed into them under the tiger's momentum. Dark lines of dried blood crossed both palms.

  But she was eating.

  The dried meat was tough and leathery, requiring serious chewing just to break it down, but it was food, real food, protein, energy her body desperately needed.

  She tore off another piece with her teeth and worked it between her molars.

  It had come from the saddlebags, the leather pouches she'd taken from the dead tiger's mount where one of them had contained this: strips of preserved meat wrapped carefully in cloth, maybe a week's worth if she was careful and if she rationed.

  She swallowed the piece she'd been chewing, the taste was strange, gamey and heavily salted, but her stomach didn't care and wanted more.

  She took another bite immediately.

  At least I have food and water. That's something.

  The pain in her ribs faded slightly as she chewed, or maybe she was just getting better at ignoring it, either way, having something in her stomach helped and made the world feel slightly less hopeless.

  The spider sat on her shoulder, was balanced despite her uneven gait with its weight minimal but she could feel it there, a small presence, watching.

  Its head turned constantly, scanning behind them and covering their retreat exactly as she'd ordered.

  Good spider. At least something's watching my back.

  She had food now and had water, the waterskin from the saddlebags was half full, warm and clean, enough for two days if she was careful.

  But she had no idea where to go, what to do, or how to survive beyond the next few hours.

  Everyone in this forest seemed to be in groups and teams, she'd heard them, seen evidence of coordinated movements, people working together with tactics and planning.

  And she was alone, one person and one spider against trained soldiers with weapons and abilities she barely understood.

  At least the forest is dense here.

  Trees packed close together with a thick canopy blocking most of the light and undergrowth everywhere, bushes and ferns and fallen logs, plenty of places to hide if she encountered someone.

  She wished she'd had time to wash in the stream and clean the dried blood and dirt and sweat from her skin, but those voices and those footsteps approaching fast had made her run instead of risking it.

  So now she was covered in filth with her own stink surrounding her, blood and fear-sweat.

  Wonderful. If they don't see me first, they'll smell me.

  The spider's eyes changed color.

  Red.

  An alarm started, high-pitched beeping, urgent, coming from the spider itself.

  Her HUD flashed into existence.

  [THREAT DETECTED]

  [DIRECTION: LEFT]

  She threw herself left.

  No thought, pure reaction as her body moved before her brain caught up.

  Something passed through the space where her head had been, fast and whistling as she felt the air displacement against her neck.

  Hit the ground hard as her right shoulder took the impact and pain exploded through the cracked ribs, she bit down on a scream.

  Rolled and came up on one knee with eyes searching.

  A man stood twenty meters away.

  Silver armor, polished and expensive-looking with black clothing underneath as he held his right hand extended, palm open and fingers spread.

  A spear was returning to his hand.

  Flying through the air and rotating, it slapped into his palm and he caught it smoothly.

  Kinetic. Fuck.

  She'd seen this before the soldiers back at the clearing lifting rocks and moving objects with their minds.

  This was worse, much worse, a weapon, a spear he could throw and recall at will.

  The man's eyes locked onto her and recognition flashed across his face.

  Not recognition of her but recognition of what she was wearing.

  His gaze moved from the thick cloak wrapped around her shoulders to the saddlebags hanging from her back and down to the knife and belt cinched at her waist.

  His expression changed and went from professional assessment to something darker.

  "That cloak." His voice was rough. Angry. "Those bags. That's the young master's gear."

  Oh no.

  Couldn't find words as her mind was racing and calculating, the tiger, if this was the rider's gear then..

  The young master was the rider. And I killed his mount.

  "You." The man's face twisted. "You're the one."

  His hand shot forward.

  She felt it immediately, an invisible force like a giant hand closing around her entire body.

  Her feet left the ground.

  She flew toward him, fast and helpless with arms pinned to her sides by whatever telekinetic grip he had on her.

  Ten meters. Five. Two.

  His hand closed around her throat.

  She hit his armored chest. The impact knocked what little air she had from her lungs. His fingers tightened. Cut off her airway.

  He lifted her. Brought her face close to his.

  "Found you."

  His eyes were cold. Focused. He wanted her dead.

  She couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. Her vision started to blur at the edges.

  Going to die. Right here. Right now.

  His other hand moved and reached for something at his belt, probably a communication device to call his team.

  She had seconds. Maybe less.

  Spider.

  Her lips moved. Almost no sound came out. Just a whisper. Choked. Desperate.

  "Throat. Eyes. Attack."

  The man's head tilted slightly, not understanding and looking at her like she was delirious

  Then his eyes went wide.

  The spider launched from inside her cloak, white metal blur with all eight legs extended and blades out.

  It hit his throat.

  The blades sank deep. Through skin. Through muscle. The man's grip on her throat loosened slightly. His mouth opened. Trying to scream. No sound came out. Just a wet gurgle.

  Blood poured from the wound, hot and spraying across her face and chest.

  The spider didn't stop and pulled its blades free, then jumped.

  Went straight for his eyes.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The man tried to bring his hands up but was too slow as the spider landed on his face with all eight blades working simultaneously.

  Stabbing, cutting, slashing

  His left eye exploded as clear fluid mixed with blood and the spider's blades kept moving, destroyed the right eye the same way, then went back, cut more.

  The man released her completely with both hands going to his face, trying to pull the spider off and trying to stop the damage.

  She dropped and hit the ground, gasped for air as her throat burned and she could barely pull in breath

  But she moved anyway.

  Reached for her backpack. Opened it with shaking hands. Found what she needed.

  One of the nano threads. The ones she'd used to cover the window in the buried structure. Fresh. Unused. Still at full cutting power.

  She stood with legs shaking as the man was three meters away, staggering and blind with both hands pressed to his ruined face and blood pouring between his fingers.

  She approached from behind and wrapped the nano thread around his neck, then gripped both ends.

  Pulled.

  The thread activated immediately with heat and cutting as it passed through his neck like he was made of warm butter.

  His head separated from his body.

  His head separated from his body and fell, hit the moss with a soft thud, rolled twice, and stopped face-up, or what remained of his face because the spider had been thorough.

  The body stood for one second. Then collapsed forward.

  Her HUD flashed.

  [ACHIEVEMENT: DEFEATED ELITE WARRIOR]

  [EVOLUTION PROGRESS: +30%]

  [TOTAL: 100%]

  [EVOLUTION TO LEVEL 3 AVAILABLE]

  [ACTIVATE: YES / NO]

  She stared at the notification. Level 3. Right there. Available.

  Not now. Bad timing. Need to move.

  She dismissed it. Looked at the body instead.

  I killed him.

  Everything here wanted her dead. Animals. People. The system itself had tried to classify her as an error and trap her at Level 0.

  If I want to survive, I have to kill.

  God, what kind of world is this?

  But after the tiger and after watching her traps kill those five fighters in the forest, after everything...

  Cutting off this man's head hadn't caused the impact she'd expected. Hadn't made her freeze or vomit or break down.

  She just felt... numb. Focused.

  Survival. That's all that matters now. Find out who I am later. Figure out where I was going later. Right now, just survive.

  She looked at the nano thread still in her hands and wrapped it carefully, then put it back in her pack.

  Three left. Maybe two or three more uses each before they degrade.

  The spider climbed onto her shoulder and settled into position, then resumed watching their back.

  She grabbed the man's spear from where it had fallen, didn't know how to use it but being armed was better than not being armed.

  Time to move.

  She started walking fast, away from the body and away from the blood.

  The spider's eyes changed, blue this time.

  It jumped from her shoulder and landed on the ground, then started moving through the trees.

  Her HUD updated.

  [REWARD STRUCTURE DETECTED]

  [FOLLOW DESIGNATED UNIT]

  Reward structure? What?

  But she didn't question it and just followed.

  She ran after it and ignored the pain in her ribs, the burning in her throat, and the exhaustion pulling at her limbs.

  The spear bounced awkwardly in her grip. She had no idea how to carry it properly. Just held it and ran.

  Three minutes, maybe four, as her lungs were screaming and her vision blurring.

  Then she heard it.

  A scream from behind, from where she'd killed the man.

  A woman's voice, loud and carrying across the entire forest, filled with rage and hatred and something that sounded like grief.

  "VAEKK! HUNT OR DIE!"

  The words hit her like a physical blow as ice flooded her veins, her skin prickled, and goosebumps covered her arms.

  That's for me. That scream. That hatred. All directed at me.

  She didn't know how she knew. But she felt it. The pure focused rage in that voice. The desire for blood. For revenge.

  Vaekk. Whatever that means. They're hunting me.

  And if they had more kinetics. If they could just pull her through the air toward them with their minds.

  I'm dead. Already dead. Fuck.

  She ran harder with desperation giving her energy she didn't have.

  I wish I knew if I had a good life. Before. Wherever I came from. I wish I could remember something. Anything.

  The spider stopped and started jumping on the same spot over and over on bare dirt and dead leaves.

  She dropped to her knees and brushed the debris away with her hands.

  Metal appeared underneath, a door, circular, built directly into the ground and hidden under years of accumulated forest debris.

  She cleared more frantically and revealed the full surface, roughly two meters in diameter with the metal old and oxidized, orange-brown rust covering the edges where moisture had worked its way in over the years, but the center was still solid.

  Set into that center was a panel, a small monitor currently dark and inactive with two different input methods below it.

  One looked like a physical keyhole for some kind of access card or key that she obviously didn't have.

  The other was a keypad covered in symbols, the language of this world for entering some kind of access code that she also didn't have.

  The blue thing from my fingers.

  She crouched lower and brought her fingers as close to the panel as she could without touching.

  The blue threads emerged from her fingertips. One from each. They extended smoothly and touched the metal surface of the panel.

  Information flooded into her mind immediately.

  The internal mechanism, the gears and locks, the security protocols, the power routing, and buried deep in the construction, hidden in the emergency systems, the bypass and the emergency access sequence.

  Not how it's built. How to open it without a key.

  And there. The code. Written in symbols she didn't recognize at all.

  Symbols she didn't recognize, different from the languages the large spider had injected into her brain when she first woke up, but she understood them while connected though the knowledge wouldn't last.

  "Spider!" Her voice came out rough and damaged from being strangled. "On the keypad. Now."

  The spider obeyed instantly and positioned itself directly over the array of symbols.

  She started calling out positions. The spider couldn't read the ancient symbols. She had to describe locations.

  "Third from left, top row. Second from right, middle. Bottom left corner. First on right, bottom."

  The spider's legs moved. Tapping the keys exactly as she directed.

  Beep.

  The panel lit up, glowing green and accepting the input.

  She pulled her fingers back as the blue threads retracted instantly and the information began fading from her mind immediately with the ancient language disappearing.

  A deep mechanical sound rumbled from below. Heavy gears engaging.

  The circular door began to move, sliding sideways on hidden tracks and disappearing into a slot in the ground.

  The opening it revealed was circular, two meters across, and below, a cylindrical shaft extended straight down into darkness with metal walls forming a perfect circle and built against one side of that cylinder, metal stairs descended straight down vertically, following the wall into the black below.

  She lifted her head and saw movement through the trees, multiple figures getting closer with silver armor catching light and that massive shape, the giant tiger, orange and black, coming fast.

  No time. Move now.

  She grabbed her packs and slung it over her shoulder, then looked at the spear in her other hand.

  Six feet long, heavy and awkward to carry in a tight staircase, her hands were already damaged with split palms and every time she gripped something it sent pain shooting up her arms, and these stairs were narrow, following the curve of the cylinder wall, so she'd need both hands free to grip the rail and keep her balance on the descent.

  Can't carry. Too dangerous in there.

  She stepped to the edge of the shaft and looked down one more time.

  Threw the spear into the darkness.

  It spun end over end as it fell and the sound echoed off the metal walls, growing fainter, then a distant clang as it hit something far below with the echo reverberating up the shaft, then silence.

  Can't risk falling with that thing in my hands.

  She gripped the railing and started down as the stairs descended straight into the shaft vertically, built against one metal wall, and her feet found the first step, cold, then the second and third.

  Metal walls surrounded the shaft as the stairs went straight down into darkness with a railing on the outer edge and nothing but void on the other side.

  There was a panel mounted on the wall. About seven steps down. Same as the one outside.

  "Spider! Same code! Close it!"

  The spider jumped from her shoulder to the panel and started inputting the ancient sequence again.

  Above her, she heard the mechanism engage as the heavy hatch began to move, sliding sideways on hidden tracks, thirty centimeters of solid metal like a vault door, closing the opening

  She kept descending, ten steps down now as her ribs screamed with each step, the cracked bones grinding, and her split palms burned against the metal rail, but she kept one hand on the rail anyway and one on the wall, focused on each step because she couldn't move faster, not with this much pain.

  Then she heard it.

  The woman's voice, distant but carrying through the trees.

  "STOP!"

  Her body froze instantly as every muscle locked and she was paralyzed, like her nervous system had been severed from her brain.

  She couldn't move, couldn't speak, and couldn't even blink.

  Her right hand was gripping the rail and her left pressed against the wall, frozen there, that contact with the rail and wall was the only thing keeping her upright on the stairs.

  What is this? Can't move. If I lose balance...

  Footstep running of one person and heavier impacts from the tiger coming at full speed.

  The hatch was still rising slowly and was almost closed.

  She could hear it. Right outside. Almost at the opening.

  Close. Please close.

  The gap narrowed as the circular hatch rose into position, ten centimeters of opening left, then five, then two.

  Eyes appeared in that tiny remaining gap, looking down into the shaft and staring directly at her frozen form on the stairs.

  A woman's eyes, with hatred in them.

  They locked onto hers and held for half a second.

  Then the hatch sealed shut.

  Total darkness, the emergency lights had faded and there was nothing but black now.

  Silence, complete silence.

  She stood frozen and still couldn't move because the voice control hadn't released yet.

  Her hand was locked on the rail and her other hand pressed to the wall, but she couldn't feel if her grip was secure, couldn't adjust her balance, and couldn't do anything.

  Please. Let me go. If I fall on these stairs...

  The stairs descended into darkness below, if she lost her footing and if she tumbled down that tight curve...

  Five seconds, then ten.

  Then feeling returned all at once, like a switch flipping.

  She gasped as her hand tightened on the rail reflexively and her legs shook, then she pressed harder against the wall and steadied herself.

  Voice control. One word. Froze me completely.

  If they'd arrived five seconds earlier. If the hatch hadn't closed. If I'd lost my balance while frozen on these stairs...

  Thirty centimeters of solid metal between her and them, she'd felt the weight when she touched it and seen the thickness of the edge, vault door construction.

  She pressed her hand against the cylinder wall and felt for vibrations.

  There, faint, so faint she almost missed it, a tremor traveling through the metal, rhythmic because they were hitting it and trying to break through.

  But the material, she'd touched it with the threads and seen the composition when she hacked the lock, she didn't recognize it and didn't have a name for it, but she understood what it would take to breach.

  Heavy machinery, industrial equipment, and days of work minimum.

  Not fists, not weapons, not anything they had up there.

  Her breathing slowed and the panic eased slightly.

  Safe. For now. They can't get through that.

  So keep going. See what's down there. Prepare.

  She adjusted her grip on the rail and took a breath.

  Started descending again one step at a time, careful, as the stairs went straight down with both hands on the rail.

  The spider's eyes provided the only light with a soft white glow illuminating the metal walls and the steps directly ahead, without it, complete darkness.

  She kept her eyes on each step and focused on not missing one as her ribs ached with every movement and her hands burned against the rail.

  One step. Then another.

  The shaft continued down into black.