Instinct took over and I immediately created a large shield a foot above the enhanced’s head. At nearly the same time the spider monster suddenly dropped down, landing awkwardly on top of my flattened shield and skittering the hardened tips of its legs against the surface. 

A startled cry came from the man I shielded, but it was followed by a fearful scream as another enhanced was snatched by a spider I hadn’t noticed and was already being carried back up to the ceiling. Not knowing how many other spiders were hiding in the shadows, I sent the shield sheltering the man upwards, rocketing the spider who was still standing on it higher. Then the shield expanded rapidly, creating a latticed dome that surrounded everyone on the collection team but still allowed us to see out. 

Multiple clicks and high-pitched screeches sounded out and I gulped when almost a dozen spiders dropped from the ceiling and began scurrying along the net-like dome covering us. 

“Carol!” Silas yelled in the direction of the screams coming from somewhere above us. My wrist nearly got yanked out of its socket when Silas bounded toward the edge of my protective dome. I scrambled after him so I wasn’t dragged along the ground and Silas gazed down at me with both guilt and confusion in his face. 

“I have to go after her!” Silas announced, glancing between the mana tethering us together and the protective dome I’d enclosed us in. 

Looking up at the dozens of screeching monsters trying to get through my shield, I couldn’t help but think Silas was being unreasonable. From the screams of the woman who’d been snatched, I could guess the spiders had already bitten off one of her limbs (at the very least). She was probably a lost cause at this point. 

“Undo the tether and let me out, youngin’,” Silas ordered, his jaw clenched harshly. 

I gazed up at him for a few seconds before releasing my hold on the mana. The pale gold tether connecting us dissolved and Silas immediately lunged forward, expecting my shield to dissolve in a similar way. I blinked mutely, not sure whether to find his idiotic courage impressive or ridiculous as spiders the size of bears tried to reach towards him from the other side of my protective dome. 

When it was obvious I wasn’t opening the shield for him, he turned back to look at me with obvious frustration. I scoffed, tempted to ask if he really thought it was right to risk letting one of the monsters in here to attack the remaining team members in order to save the one who was most likely dead by now. When he nashed his teeth and glanced with obvious determination at the ceiling though I sighed and followed his gaze. 

How do I get him up there without letting the spiders breach my shield? I wondered to myself as my mind whipped through several options. Since I had a very limited amount of mana allotted to me to practice with I wasn’t exactly sure what the limits of my abilities were, but one thing I could do was move anything I molded out of mana with my mind. 

If I can move my shields wherever I want… then could I move a person on top of them too? I wondered as Silas began hitting his massive fist against my shield and demanded that I let him out. It’s worth a shot, I decided as my eyebrows twitched upon seeing the tantrum the grown man was throwing. 

Shaking my head in Silas’s direction I briefly closed my eyes and pictured a flat circular disc that would be big enough for two people to stand on. Mana flowed down my legs and out of the soles of my feet and I let out an embarrassing yelp when the platform I’d envisioned immediately formed underneath me and pushed me a few inches off the ground. Silas immediately stopped yelling at me as his eyes widened.

“What are you…” Silas started to say, but to my surprise he closed his mouth and rushed over to me, stepping onto my floating disc without hesitation. 

Luckily his additional weight didn’t seem to affect my ability to move the mana platform, so I molded some extra mana around our feet to keep us steady and the platform brought us up swiftly to the top of my protective dome. Silas wobbled slightly at the unexpected speed but his eyes were focused on the ceiling where Carol’s screams were growing fainter. 

Once we were hovering at the apex of the dome I split the disc of mana Silas and I were sharing so that we each had our own individual one. I couldn’t help but be amazed at how easy it was to manipulate my newly absorbed mana and I could feel my body replenishing it almost as fast as I was creating things. I still didn’t understand how I could move my mana creations with just my mind without feeling any kind of strain either physical or mental, but I was grateful it came so naturally. 

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to control my mana when I can’t see it,” I admitted with a small frown as I looked up at the spiders still scurrying all over my protective dome. 

“You’re not coming with?” Silas asked, seeming surprised. 

I nearly told him that I didn’t believe in expending energy on lost causes, but realizing that would sound insensitive I shook my head. “Dr. Montressor told me to run away from danger. I don’t think he’d be happy with me if I left the protection of my shield right now.” 

Silas blinked and suddenly looked sheepish, as if he’d forgotten I was just a kid for a second. He quickly waved and told me he’d manage just fine. 

“I’m going to cover you completely until you get past the worst of the spiders. Then I’ll take the shield away and send you as high as I can. I’ll try to create a safety net or something so that I can catch you if you fall,” I explained my plan as quickly as I could. 

Silas nodded his understanding and reached out to grab my hand in a firm handshake. 

“Thank you, kid,” Silas replied with more sincerity than I was expecting. I nodded mutely and then focused on my mana manipulation.

Now that I had access to as much mana as I wanted I could feel my thoughts guiding the mana that my body absorbed down my arms and out my fingertips towards the disc of mana Silas was standing on. The added mana merged with the edges of his disc and grew up and around him until he was completely encapsulated in a protective mana cover that almost looked like a bullet casing. 

Directing my gaze upward, I sent Silas in his mana cocoon toward the inky black cave ceiling. When his mana shield connected with my larger mana dome I was amazed to see his cocoon meld seamlessly with my dome until he’d gotten out, leaving the dome intact. Almost immediately several spider monsters attacked, but with a scrunch of my brow Silas shot up and out of reach of the monsters so fast I thought I heard him grunt in surprise. 

Trying to aim for the echoey sobs that I could barely hear over the screeching of the spiders, I removed Silas’s protective coating and left only the pale gold mana disc under him to propel him hopefully toward his friend. In the meantime, I created a net of mana as far up as I could see and expanded it as far as I could. I frowned as I tried to figure out how to change the net from a solid to something more rope-like. Since I couldn’t reach out and test it, I decided to make it spongy like the top of my mana surfboard since I knew it was capable of that, and a spongy net would feel better than a hard-as-metal net. 

Knowing I’d done as much as I could for Silas, I directed my mana disc back to the ground to where the collection team was huddling in the very center of my dome, staying far away from the spider's legs that were reaching through the small openings I’d left so I could see what was going on. 

“Where is the clearing team?” the guy who I’d saved earlier asked with wide eyes. “I thought they were supposed to kill all of the monsters in an area before moving on!” 

“The spiders can move across the ceiling,” I pointed out as I touched down on the ground. “So even if they cleared an area they may have missed a nest on the ceiling. Or… colony? Clutch? What do you call a group of spiders, anyways?”

Ten pairs of eyes turned to me and I waited for a response. When nobody said anything I turned to look at the dark ceiling. I frowned when I noticed a few monster spiders shooting webs toward my safety net for Silas. I considered making the net sharp to try and cut the web, but I didn’t know when Silas would fall. 

Mr. Silas chose to leave the safety of my shield. I don’t owe him anything, I grumbled to myself as the spiders reached my net. Part of me really didn’t want to go back on my promise to Dr. Montressor, but a larger portion just didn’t see the point in risking my neck for someone who wasn’t my best friend. I highly doubted that Silas would provide any hint as to what story I was in and he was way too old to be the hero of the story…

“Um… hey, kid.” I glanced over my shoulder to see the man I’d shielded from the first spider attack. He was looking down at me with obvious disbelief and I tilted my head, waiting for him to continue. 

“Is… Is this your doing?” he asked while pointing at the protective dome made of mana. 

“Yes,” I responded simply, redirecting my gaze to the safety net where a third spider had climbed and seemed to be starting a web. 

“You’re so young though. How can you control your powers like that?” my rescuee asked with mild astonishment on his face. 

“I’m a survivor of the Newport Beach gate break,” I responded dryly and the guy’s mouth instantly clamped shut. 

Everyone in LA knew about the three adult survivors of the Newport Beach Gate since they had all gone on to become leaders of a dungeon-clearing team. Gail was especially well-known (although the term infamous might be more accurate) but the government kept my existence fairly quiet since they didn’t want other underage kids trying to become enhanced and putting themselves in danger. 

“I see. Thank you for saving me. I’m Garrett. I’ve got a lightning ability,” Garrett introduced himself politely, seeming to accept that I was his senior when it came to being enhanced. I didn’t react for a minute but then slowly turned to look at him. 

“Lightning, you say? How does it work?” I asked as a loose idea began to take shape. 

“How? Uhh, I just kind of point and…” Garrett pointed his index finger, and a weak bolt of blue lightning zapped into life and shot towards my mana dome. It pittered out before it could connect though and I frowned. 

“Can you create more than that?” I asked, trying not to sound too unimpressed. Garrett flinched and cleared his throat. 

“Obviously. I just didn’t want to hurt you,” he replied gruffly, visibly embarrassed. 

“I don’t know if my mana shields are conductive,” I admitted as I looked up at the many spiders scurrying fruitlessly on top of the protective dome around us. “If it is, do you think you could shoot enough lightning to charge the whole thing?” 

Garrett blinked in surprise and looked at the large, latticed dome surrounding us. I’d made it fairly large so all eleven of us had ample space to move, although most of the team was huddled in the very center as far away from the spiders as possible. 

“I… don’t know, really. I only became enhanced a few weeks ago so I’m not sure what my limits are. But I can try,” he replied with a determined glint in his eyes. 

“Good. Give me just a second,” I requested as I focused on my mana shield. 

The dome was resting firmly on the ground of the wide cave, but now I focused on the bottom edge. At the four “corners” of the dome I sent extra mana into the dome which stretched down as thick poles, biting into the ground and anchoring the dome even more firmly in place. I also sent a pole of mana from the top of the dome up to the safety net above us, connecting everything for a brief moment and hoping Silas wouldn’t choose now to fall down from wherever he was.

“Okay, it’s grounded,” I announced, knowing from my past life that the spiders wouldn’t be harmed by an electric shock if what they were standing on wasn’t grounded. Just like how birds could sit on a power line without being electrocuted. Although I wasn’t sure if the extra poles biting into the ground were necessary, it could only help.

“Hit it with everything you’ve got,” I ordered Garrett.  

Glancing over his shoulder to make sure the other enhanced were well away from the shield, Garrett took in a deep breath. A jolt went through my body and I quickly took a few steps away from Garrett. Small sparks of electricity were running up and down his body. I watched in fascination as he gathered the electricity around him, then confidently stretched his finger out and shot it up toward my shield. 

High-pitched shrieks and the smell of singed insects filled the air. The stream of electricity stopped as Garrett took several large breaths while covering his wrinkled nose. A few stray sparks zipped down the side of the shield, streaking for one of the mana poles that were buried firmly in the ground. 

Silence fell as everyone waited tensely for something to happen. Then one of the singed spiders tilted over, knocking its neighbor off the shield along with it and dropping with a heavy thud to the ground. The clearing team looked over at Garrett with obvious awe in their eyes and I gave him a thumbs up. 

“Your lightning sure packs a wallop,” I complimented him with a grin. “Thanks for saving us, Garrett.” 

“Eh? Oh. I mean, I couldn’t have done that without your shield,” Garrett responded, looking both bemused and also extremely pleased with himself. Although I thought it was sweet that he was trying to be humble and give me some credit. 

“Argh!” 

A loud cry that sounded equal parts pained and angry sounded from above us. I quickly dissolved the pole of mana attaching my safety net to the dome and refocused on the net, trying to will it to be as soft and cushy as possible. Two bodies hit the net and I was surprised that I could somehow feel the impact with what was almost like a sixth sense. I realized that the spiders had created a thin layer of webbing across the net that hadn’t been burned away by Garrett’s electric shock. Quickly dissolving the mana net that wasn’t holding Silas and the unmoving body next to him, I lowered it through my domed shield and to the ground. 

A collective gasp of horror went through the team as Silas struggled to pull himself free from the sticky web. No one offered to help him though because they were too busy looking at Carol whose left arm right below the shoulder and right ankle were now just stubs with blood sluggishly oozing out.