The Spider Queen

"Okay sweetie," Sophie leaned closer and planted a soft kiss on the little girl's cheek.

"I'm going to grab one of the hoverbikes and then we can sneak out of the camp together."

"Stay inside and under no circumstances should you open the door."

Sophie reached into her storage bag and handed Lily a tiny metalloid sphere. If all went to plan, then there would be no need to use this device, but it was important to prepare for the worst.

There was just so much that could go wrong during the escape.

Sophie was confident that she could kill any of the Hyperion Order knights with the exception of Captain Dawn but having to protect Lily at the same time would put her at a noticeable disadvantage.

Lily held the metalloid sphere in her hand and shot Sophie a puzzled look of confusion.

Seeing that the little girl clearly didn't understand, Sophie explained in a soft whisper,

"If someone enters the room by force, I want you to click the reddish button on the side of this sphere and throw it at them."

"When the room fills with white smoke, you need to run to the bathroom and close the door as soon as possible."

"Wait for me inside."

What Sophie had given Lily was a modified smoke bomb that had a particularly nasty effect on cultivators.

It would cause the qi in their meridians to flow backwards and cause a backlash.

Of course, this only affected cultivators in the qi body and spirit stage.

Lily was unlikely to be affected as there was only a small amount of qi in her body because children would only formally begin cultivation training at age ten.

Before that wealthy families would just improve their children's natural physique with the help of rare herbs, genetic serums, and light exercises.

Lily nodded in understanding and placed the sphere down on the bed.

It would be a lie to say that Sophie didn't feel a bit worried.

She tried to reassure herself that leaving Lily alone in the captain's tent shouldn't be dangerous.

It would be impossible to sneak past the knights guarding the hoverbikes with Lily on her back or held in her arms.

"Big sister…" Lily tugged Sophie's arm.

"Are you going to be safe? I heard that those knights are very strong!"

The worry and concern hidden in Lily's eyes sent a warm feeling through Sophie's body.

She had been fearful about Lily's safety this entire time not realising that the little girl probably felt the same way.

Sophie bared her fangs and playfully tickled Lily's stomach until the little girl couldn't stop laughing.

"Don't worry baby," Sophie whispered with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Your big sister is stronger than all of them combined."

Sophie spent the next ten minutes reassuring Lily that she would be okay and handed the little girl some more gear just in case.

Most of the items she took out from her storage bag were protective in nature as Lily had not been professionally trained to use or handle high firepower weaponry.

The little girl was now covered in layers of security from hand-sized barrier devices to a camouflage mask that could change her facial features.

Unfortunately, Sophie did not pack filtration masks due to her immunity to toxins which was a mistake in hindsight.

Lily could not be given any of her poison vials as her immune system would probably collapse from even the mildest toxin in Sophie's arsenal should a drop make contact with her clothing or skin.

"Okay. I'm heading off now," Sophie gently smiled at Lily and got up from the bed.

"I should be back in thirty minutes at most."

The little girl nodded furiously and also tried to put a brave smile on her face. Sophie could spot tiny teardrops forming on the corners of Lily's eyes and felt a small stab of pain in her heart.

Not trusting herself to speak, Sophie just continued to smile and walked out of the room with a confident strut.

Projecting a strong image was the only thing she could do to reassure the worried child.

There was only one option for the plan tonight and that was success.

Sophie walked up to a nearby window and scanned the immediate surroundings for any knights.

The campsite was eerily quiet. A pale blue moon illuminated the various circular pods scattered around the rest site as most of the knights were asleep or at the sinkhole.

There were two steps of the escape plan that were particularly dangerous.

The first was stealing the hoverbike and the second was actually leaving the rest site without being noticed.

Using the 'Rsychosis' technique to create decoys would only be effective if no one had seen Sophie and Lily leaving the camp at night.

Sophie quietly tip toed her way to the back entrance of the captain's tent and slowly opened the door.

The cool night breeze gently hit her face and there was a strange feeling of tranquility in the silent desert.

Naturally, a desert planet was much colder in the night than during the day, but the temperature change had no effect on Sophie due to her enhanced physique.

Sophie's combat bodysuit was all black but her noticeable hybrid features meant that the clothes she wore would most likely not help to conceal her identity.

There was a small rustling noise whenever Sophie took a step on the sand, but the hybrid girl melded into the shadows flawlessly.

It was pure instinct.

Sophie even felt as though someone else was controlling her body as her bladed appendages dug into the sand and kept her body low to the ground with fluid motions.

This was a hunt.

If any of the knights were looking outside, all they would spot would be a dark shadow shuttling from place to place at a lightning-fast speed.

Golden eyes penetrated the dimly lit campsite and scanned the surrounding area with machine-like precision.

The captain's tent was located in the middle of the rest site while the hoverbikes were kept at the back.

Sophie's pointed ears flickered left to right constantly as she searched for even the slightest trace of movement.

Perhaps luck was on her side as Sophie reached the area where the hoverbikes were kept without meeting a single knight.

Hoverbikes used plasma fuel in order to maintain their high speeds so exposing them to the low temperatures of night were perfect for cooling down the inner machinery.

Of course, the hoverbikes also had self-cooling mechanisms built inside but it was effective to combine both to achieve a greater effect.

It was for this reason why the hoverbikes were not kept inside storage devices when not in use.

Sophie hid behind a large sand dune and carefully observed without rashly moving forward. The hoverbikes were located inside a transparent dome-like structure with only one entrance.

However, the biggest problem was the complete lack of cover.

There was an insurmountable distance of around five hundred meters between Sophie's sand dune and the entrance to the dome.

Two knights were guarding the entrance to the dome but judging from the yawning motions that both were making, it seemed to be a boring job.

Sophie's enhanced sense of hearing could pick up tiny snippets of conversation, but she didn't hear anything useful.

Rather the two knights guarding the dome seemed to be more interested in petty gossip and news about the sinkhole.

"Do you think the captain has a chance of picking up a seedling?"

"What do you mean? He's the most powerful cultivator here so it is only natural that he will succeed!"

"But no one else has gotten it…. I have a friend who knows a guy who talked to one of the knights that took part in the trial, and he said it was impossible."

"Is this the same 'friend' who was bragging about being the next candidate for commander while failing two physical examinations in a row?"

"I don't see how that has anything to do with it!"