The Spider Queen

Rachel landed on the branch to the left of Sophie and stared at the Tarkkakans wriggling around the ground with an expression of disgust.

"Do you think that any other students will figure out their weaknesses?" Astrid asked curiously.

The Mendolesa girl had never seen this strange species before as like most mages she spent most of her free time learning about different magic runes and spells.

"I think I've seen pictures of them before on the virtual net, but I've never researched any of their behaviours or habits," Qiana adjusted her glasses as she spoke.

Cultivators would usually go into battle equipped with their own personal AI that could scan nearby enemies and match them to species in the Earth Federation's database.

It was just impractical to memorise the strengths and weaknesses of the billions of races scattered around the universe.

Many were not even documented properly or had even been discovered so it was always great advice to be wary of foreign alien species.

"Sophie how did you know about these Tarkkakans?" Rachel questioned.

There was an abrupt silence as Sophie remained in the same position as if she never heard Rachel speak.

"Err… Sophie are you okay?" Astrid noticed that something was wrong and turned around to give the hybrid girl a look of concern.

Sophie's eyes kept flickering from a golden hue to a blood red colour as drool slowly dripped down from the sides of her mouth.

She did not respond to Astrid or Rachel's questions as the pinkish flesh of the Tarkkakans became almost translucent in her eyes with a beating heart that was now clearly visible.

Hungry…. more…. food…

Hunt…HUNT!

It took Astrid shaking her arm a few times for Sophie to finally snap out of her daze as her eyes slowly returned to their normal colour.

"Sorry I was a little bit distracted," Sophie apologised to her roommates.

Astrid was glad to hear that her friend was alright and just wagged her tail a few times while Rachel also laughed and called Sophie a day dreamer.

Only Qiana was gazing at the hybrid girl with an indecipherable emotion in her eyes.

"We do have one problem with this situation," Qiana suddenly whispered.

"Any student who manages to defeat these Insectoids will probably earn bonus points to increase their overall rank."

The university entrance exam would be considered passed if a candidate could last until they became one of the final one thousand students remaining.

They would then be given an offer by at least one of the four great universities to either their main or side branches.

But…. there was also a ranking system in place.

Students were given points for various actions performed during the exam such as fighting, treasure hunting or general survival skills that were tallied at the end of the exam.

These points were decided by an advanced computer program controlled by an independent AI with no input from the exam administrators.

Generally speaking, those ranked in the top four hundred were given offers to the main branches of the universities while those outside this rank group were given offers to the side branches.

Hiding in the trees would guarantee that Sophie and her friends would pass the exam, but they had no way of knowing if their points currently were enough to break into the top four hundred.

"So, do you think we should try to take some of them down?" Sophie asked.

"Well I'm always down for a fight!" Astrid unsheathed her claws and gave a proud declaration.

Rachel also nodded her head in affirmation as holy light began to flow into her body.

Qiana gave an exasperated sigh at the enthusiastic trio and replied,

"Do you girls even have a plan? I'm fairly certain that we can't face that many Tarkkakans at the same time."

Sophie paused and looked down at the hundreds of Tarkkakans still crawling around the ground as her cheeks flushed slightly.

Yeah…. she was under the impression that they would jump down and fight. Her overwhelming instinct to consume their hearts was influencing her rational judgement.

"Of course, I have a plan," Astrid furrowed her brows before analysing the situation.

"Based on the characteristics of the Tarkkankan race we know that one of their glaring weaknesses is their poor night vision and inability to detect objects in the air."

"Therefore, we need to adopt a herding strategy where one of us will act as bait to draw them to a certain area before Rachel and I bombard them with flame type attacks."

"Their flesh may be resistant to physical attacks, but it seems to char just as easily as any other."

"Also, to avoid getting overwhelmed we need to pick an ambush location with connecting tree branches so we can move quickly in the event that the trees we are currently on fall down," she explained.

"What?" Astrid pouted slightly as she glanced at her now stunned roommates.

"I am a super intelligent mage you know!"

"Not a bad idea wolf girl," Qiana smiled slightly as she felt quite impressed.

"I can move the fastest so I should be the bait," Sophie volunteered.

They spent a few more minute finalising all the details before putting the plan into action.

Qiana had rope inside her spatial storage device so she created make-shift bridges between several trees. She then moved to the spot that the group had designated as the ambush site.

Rachel activated her wings and soared into the air while Astrid started to breath slowly as the runes on her arm glowed.

"Are you ready Sophie?" Rachel asked.

Sophie nodded in acknowledgement and bent her knees as she prepared to launch herself towards the ground.

Astrid opened her eyes and chanted a spell,

"Festina et celeritate!"

Sophie felt a surge of power flow through her body and sensed that she could now run a great distance without getting tired.

She landed on the ground with a resounding thud as the Tarkkakans swung their heads around as they detected that food had now appeared.

Reeeeeeeeee!!

Squeals of excitement could be heard amongst the crowd as those with faster reactions had already moved in Sophie's direction.

"Come here you ugly bastards!" Sophie yelled loudly as she ran around the forest while being followed by a tidal wave of Insectoids.

Just when the wave had reached to over ninety Tarkkakans, Sophie changed directions rapidly and led them to a clearing filled with older trees and dead branches.

"Now guys!" Sophie called out before activating her movement technique and disappearing.

"flamma anulus est calidum!"

Astrid immediately followed up by casting a spell that created a ring of fire that trapped the Tarkkakans inside the clearing.

"Oh god please grant me the power to smite the non-believers," Rachel closed her eyes and chanted a quick pray.

Holy fire consumes all!

An enormous pillar of flame shot up from the ground and incinerated the flesh of the Tarkkakans as they squealed out in pain.

This attack was not enough to finish off the beasts as they had a powerful life force and regenerative abilities, but their temporary loss of mobility was all the opportunity that Sophie needed.

Stab! Stab!

Sophie weaved confidently through the charred bodies of the Insectoids while her spider appendages accurately extended and punctured straight through their hearts.

The poor Tarkkakans never stood a chance under the fearsome barrage of attacks.

Many were slaughtered without putting up any meaningful sort of resistance and the only survivors were the lucky ones who did not enter the clearing.

The hybrid girl even managed to sneak a few hearts into her pockets as she was not sure of her teammates' reaction if she just ate them on the spot.

Sophie climbed up a nearby tree and prepared to repeat the strategy all over again in a different ambush site when something unexpected happened.

A loud alarm was suddenly blared and the surviving Tarkkakans froze in place as dark purplish veins appeared under the surface of their pinkish flesh.

Reeeeeeee!!

Shrieks of agony were heard from the creatures as each beast's skin began to shrivel and dry up.

The Insectoids died within the span of a few minutes.

"What a strong poison," Sophie whistled in admiration.

The mechanical voice boomed out from the emitter boxes nearby as the following announcement was made.

[1002 students remain…. 1001 students remain…. 1000 students remain!]

[Congratulations to those who survived!]

[It seems that the odds…. were in your favour!]

"We did it!" Qiana shrieked with excitement and laughed madly as she ran around with a joyful expression on her face.

Astrid picked up the girl in her arms and the duo twirled around the burnt clearing while the Mendolesa girl's tail was wagging non- stop.

Qiana was in such a good mood that she even smiled when Astrid gave her cheek a few licks.

In fact, she thought that the silly wolf girl now seemed to look even more pleasing to the eye.

Rachel just leaned against a barely standing tree while choking back a sob of relief.

The results of this exam would have directly influenced her standing within the church so she was under quite a lot of pressure.

Sophie just stood still while trying to process the announcement as various emotions surfaced in her heart.

She…did it!

All those months of training…. all those years of being laughed at…. she fucking did it!

Their barrier devices simultaneously gave out a buzzing noise as small holographic windows popped out with new information.

[Please check your barrier device for your individual ranking…]

Sophie hurriedly checked her device and saw a list of names with the final ranking of the exam.

The high processing speed of the AI made the computations easy to perform and the results were instantaneous.

The final rankings were as followed:

1st place – Ethan Kneyre

2nd place – Astrid Lockhart

3rd place – Sophie Peterlor

19th place – Qiana Abazin

27th place – Rachel Empyrean

Every member of their team had managed to break into the top one hundred of the entrance exam!