One moment, the colossal arachnid was towering over the cracked earth, its eight multifaceted eyes gleaming with a sickly, malevolent purple light through the toxic black miasma.

The next moment, it propelled itself forward with a sickening shhhh-clack, its massive, bristly legs covering the distance between the center of the clearing and the terrified cubs in a single, horrifying bound.

"Zhēn!" Bai Yue screamed, her voice tearing from her throat as she scrambled forward, her bare feet slipping on the frosted grass.

She was too far away. They were all too far away.

She had heard of the chaos and rushed to check if all was right.

Nothing was right.

The scarred jaguar leader, clinging to the bristling hairs on the monster’s thorax, shrieked with manic delight. "Take the boy! Eat the rest!"

The Death-Weaver’s massive, venom-dripping mandibles snapped open. A drop of dark, sizzling acid hit the ground just inches from Hóng Yè’s boots, instantly melting a hole straight through the solid earth.

Hóng Yè pushed Ruì Xuě and Yòu Lín behind him, raising his bone dagger with shaking hands, fully prepared to be impaled. But the spider didn’t aim for the teenager. Guided by the dark magic of the crushed crystal, the beast completely ignored the red panda, its multi-faceted eyes locking purely onto the terrified five-year-old jaguar cub trembling in the dirt.

Tao Zi couldn’t breathe. The stench of rotting meat and acidic venom paralyzed his lungs. He squeezed his dark eyes shut, waiting for the piercing agony of the fangs.

But the fangs never reached him.

"DON’T YOU TOUCH HIM!"

Zhēn, the tiny, white-haired girl with her mother’s fierce amethyst eyes threw herself directly in front of Tao Zi, her small arms spread wide in a physical barrier.

The Death-Weaver’s mandibles snapped shut like a steel bear trap, closing exactly half an inch from Zhēn’s tiny face. The sheer force of the snapping jaws blew her white hair back, the foul, hot breath of the monster washing over her.

Zhēn squeezed her eyes shut, but she didn’t budge a single millimeter.

"GET AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS, YOU UGLY BUG!"

A brilliant, blinding flash of emerald light erupted from the canopy above.

Glimmer, had had absolutely enough of the jungle’s nonsense. She might have been young, and she might have been small for a dragon, but the blood of the First Generation pumped through her veins.

Dropping from the branches like a shimmering green meteor, Glimmer opened her jaws. She didn’t breathe a puff of smoke. She unleashed a highly concentrated, blinding beam of pure, emerald-green dragon-plasma directly into the Goliath Death-Weaver’s cluster of eyes.

SCREEEEEEEECH!

The monster let out a deafening shriek of absolute agony. The plasma seared across its face, blinding it instantly and melting two of its primary eyes into bubbling sludge. The Death-Weaver violently reared up on its back legs, thrashing blindly in the air, its front legs swiping wildly.

The scarred assassin clinging to its back yelped, losing his grip as the beast bucked, and was thrown haphazardly into a thick patch of thorny brambles.

"NOW!" Mo Xiao roared.

Han Shān did not need to be told twice.

No one threatened his daughter. No one.

Han Shān slammed both of his massive, calloused palms directly against the armored underbelly of the Goliath Death-Weaver.

"Freeze," Han Shān whispered.

A shockwave of pure, unadulterated winter exploded outward from Han Shān’s hands.

A sickening CRACK-CRACK-CRACK echoed through the humid jungle air as a layer of thick, jagged, diamond-hard ice rapidly crawled up the spider’s massive legs. The beast tried to screech again, but the sound was abruptly cut off as the freezing aura invaded its lungs, turning its internal organs into solid blocks of frost in a fraction of a second.

Within the span of two heartbeats, the towering, terrifying Goliath Death-Weaver was completely paralyzed, transformed into a massive, twenty-foot-tall, highly detailed ice sculpture.

Zhāo Yàn casually strolled up beside Han Shān. The Fox Lord didn’t even look out of breath. He elegantly raised one finger, his crimson eyes flashing with smug satisfaction.

"Timber," Zhāo Yàn purred.

He lightly flicked the frozen monster’s leg with his index finger.

SHATTER!

The entire frozen Goliath Death-Weaver collapsed in on itself, shattering into a million harmless, glittering ice cubes that rained down onto the grass like a bizarre summer hailstorm.

"Wow," Yòu Lín breathed from the bushes, his eyes shining with awe as a piece of spider-ice bounced off his nose. "Papa is so cool."

"My Papa froze it!" Ruì Xuě corrected proudly, his chest puffing out.

"They both did good," Hóng Yè muttered, finally lowering his bone dagger, his knees shaking slightly now that the adrenaline was fading.

Bai Yue sprinted across the ice-covered dirt, sliding to her knees, and violently dragged both Zhēn and Tao Zi into a crushing, desperate hug.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did any of the venom touch you?!" Bai Yue babbled, checking Zhēn’s face, then checking Tao Zi’s arms, her hands trembling uncontrollably.

"I am fine, Mama!" Zhēn beamed, completely unfazed by her near-death experience. "Glimmer saved us! And then Papa turned the bug into a popsicle!"

Tao Zi didn’t say anything. He just stared at the pile of ice where the monster had been, and then looked at Bai Yue’s pale, terrified face. His dark eyes widened slightly.

She was crying. The tiny female who could command giant beasts was crying...because she was worried about him.

At the edge of the clearing, a rustling sound broke the quiet.

The scarred jaguar leader, having miraculously survived his flight into the brambles, realized his master plan had just been turned into a snow-cone. He dragged himself out of the thorns, bleeding and battered, his eyes darting frantically around the clearing. The three Alphas were turning their murderous attention toward him.

"Curse you all!" the assassin spat, scrambling to his feet.

He didn’t try to fight. He spun on his heel and bolted headlong into the dense, dark undergrowth of the jungle, moving with the desperate speed of a dead man walking.

"He’s getting away!" Yàn Shū shouted, adjusting his glasses. "Statistically, if he reaches the river, he can mask his scent and—"

"He isn’t going anywhere," Mo Xiao growled, rolling his broad shoulders.

The Panther Alpha didn’t chase him. He simply crossed his arms and stared into the dark canopy above the retreating assassin’s path.

Deep in the shadows of the jungle, the fleeing assassin sprinted, his lungs burning. He just needed to make it to the water. He just needed to report back to the Usurper King that the boy had been found, and that the Thousand Fang Tribe was harboring him.

He leaped over a rotting log, his eyes fixed on the distant gleam of the river.

Sssssssss.

The assassin froze mid-stride.

The sound hadn’t come from the bushes. It had come from directly above him.

He slowly looked up into the canopy.