The torches along the vault walls flickered violently, shadows twisting as the ground rumbled beneath them. The deep clicking noise returned—not from the collapsed entrance, but from below. Something massive was moving.
Jaxon tensed. His symbiote pulsed with warning. Whatever was coming… it wasn't small.
Kade's silver eyes narrowed. "We need to leave. Now."
Elias flicked his deck open, scanning the carved symbols lining the walls. "This vault isn't just a tomb. It's a maze."
A shudder ran through the stone beneath their feet. Dust fell from the ceiling. Then, the sound changed. The clicking grew deeper. Heavier. A slow, metallic scrape followed by a thunderous, unnatural breath.
Reed swallowed hard. "That doesn't sound like normal spiders."
Then the first leg emerged.
It was the size of a carriage wheel, coated in blackened chitin that glowed with veins of molten red. Fire dripped from the joints, sizzling against the ancient stone. Another leg followed. Then two more.
The vault shook as the Titanic Spider pulled itself from the depths.
Jaxon took a slow step back. This thing wasn't something they could fight. Even if they took down the smaller ones, this… this was something else.
Elias let out a breath, his fingers flicking through his cards. "We're trapped in a burning ruin, with a spider that's big enough to eat a house." He grinned, though his eyes were sharp. "I love these odds."
Kade's chains uncoiled, but Jaxon grabbed his shoulder. "No. We don't fight. We run."
Kade gave him a sharp look, but then the Titanic Spider moved.
A low, echoing hiss filled the chamber as its eight ember-like eyes focused on them. Then, without warning—it lunged.
Jaxon pushed off the ground, his symbiote body coiling around Reed, dragging him away as a massive, burning leg crashed where they stood. Stone exploded. Heat seared the air, forcing them to move.
Elias hurled a card—it erupted into a wave of spectral ice, freezing the nearest webbed passage. "There—down that way!"
Reed barely had time to register before Jaxon pulled him along, dodging another massive strike. The vault trembled. Kade's chains lashed out, wrapping around a falling boulder, redirecting it mid-air before it could crush them.
The Titanic Spider screeched, its fangs dripping with molten venom. It slammed its legs down, causing the entire chamber to buckle. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground.
And then—the floor collapsed.
Jaxon didn't think. He grabbed Elias with one body, Reed with the other, and leapt into the darkness. Kade's chains snapped outward, latching onto the crumbling stone, swinging himself forward as the vault gave way.
For a moment, there was nothing but freefall.
Then—water.
The impact was like hitting solid stone. Jaxon sank instantly, the icy rush stealing his breath. His symbiote body thrashed, instinctively pulling him back to the surface.
He gasped. The others broke through the water beside him. Elias cursed, shaking wet hair from his eyes. Kade exhaled sharply, dragging himself onto a slick, narrow stone ledge. Reed coughed, shivering from the shock.
Above them, the vault had completely collapsed. The Titanic Spider shrieked from the ruins above, unable to follow.
They had escaped.
For now.
Elias let out a breathless laugh. "So… no one died. I call that a win."
Jaxon glared at him. "We're trapped in a flooded cavern."
Kade flicked water from his cloak, looking around. The tunnel stretched onward, deeper into the unknown. His silver eyes gleamed. "Then we go forward."
Reed sighed. "Forward where?"
Jaxon clenched his fists, his symbiote already shifting in anticipation. There was only one way out.
"Wherever this takes us."