Rae’s real concern was not how to make sure that everyone knew which kills were hers, that was already fairly obvious to everyone.
What was really weighing on her mind was the fact that she was about to become Royal Rank, and she didn’t feel impressive enough.
She was a goddess of the night, a divine blessing come to reap the tasty and unwary. But soon she would be a legitimate Princess, and her only real skills were stabbing, and making things that stabbed for her.
How could a Princess of the Bloodbath Spider species only be good for assassination? Wasn’t that just too sad? If she couldn’t even do something cool, wouldn’t she be no better than a Giant?
She had stabbed thousands of Giants to death, but Rae suspected that the humans didn’t fully appreciate how much of a difference existed between an elegant being such as her and some stupid Giant.
She was so lost in despair that her abilities weren’t visually impressive that she almost missed the fact that she already had the answer.
She had been watching the humans all her life, and there was no way that she couldn’t learn the basics of their skills. No human could be as smart as her. Not even her Karl was immune to her trickery.
What she needed to do was focus on the learning skill and a person with a cool ability. There were countless cool abilities, and really flashy ones. Remi had gotten an overdose of luck on that front, and all her abilities were flashy. But none of them were really appealing to Rae.
She wanted something that people would associate with her.
Then she recalled a skill she kept seeing the Commander Rank Rogues using. They just vanished into a shadow and appeared somewhere else to attack. It didn’t seem to go far, but she could totally learn that. Shadows were her Element.
So, Rae sneaked out to observe the Rogues practising, revelling in the fact that half the camp didn’t even see her passing by them.
Of course, a huge spider sitting at the edge of the training area in the middle of the afternoon wasn’t exactly stealthy, even if she blended with her surroundings exceptionally well. So, the most powerful Rogues knew that she was watching them, and wondered what she was doing.
Then, when the sun shifted and moved her into the shadows, the Bloodbath Spider vanished, only to appear behind one of the Professors and rub a mandible against the back of his neck before making a quarter turn and vanishing again.
“Did we just accidentally teach a Bloodbath Spider to Shadow Step?” One of the students asked as the teacher stood frozen in horror.
“We totally did. Holy shit, that is terrifying. I’m glad we’re not Professor Fingers right now.” Another Rogue agreed.
“She was terrifying enough before. Did you know that she can see in absolute darkness, track you by noise, and she has built in thermal imaging? It’s basically impossible to hide from her. Now, she can shadow step, so she can just appear anywhere and attack.
That’s just disgustingly unfair.” One of the boys that Rae had embarrassed in class ranted.
Rae, who was hiding in a tree nearby, waiting to see how long it took someone to find her, preened at the praise for her skills.
That was what she wanted to hear. Her new skill was called “disgustingly unfair”. That was perfect.
With that settled, she returned to her space for the evening, and worked on adapting her shell so she could be a proper Royal Rank Bloodbath Spider.
She had been neglecting her skincare routine, but tonight, she had brought out all the good stuff.
She had a scrubber made from moss in Thor’s space, and a bath full of Royal Rank blood, both human and Giant. She had ground up a number of stones that seemed like they were beneficial to her to mix into her scrubber, and she was ready for a long night in for self-care.
Thor approved to this method of advancement. His pool was comfortable and soaked him with Holy energy constantly. He would make it to Royal Rank eventually, he was certain. For now, he was more focused on his endurance.
The more recent fights had been exhausting, trying to shield a whole bunch of people at one time, while fighting and working on his own defence, with Circle of Protection active.
Normally, a Lightning Cerro Pack would all have their own barriers, so he wouldn’t need to extend them over everyone. But Karl was the only one who could do it, and he couldn’t extend it the way that Thor could.
So, he had to work on his stamina if he was going to keep up his position in this growing pack.
From what Thor instinctively knew, the stronger a leader, the larger the pack. So, when Rae reached Royal Rank, and the rest of them began to advance, the humans would bring more people for their pack.
When the herd was small and without a powerful leader, they needed as many bodies as they could get. Then as they grew up, they would start a small pack that they could protect. But as they started to get more powerful, they would attract more young members who needed safety to form a powerful herd.
That’s the point in the cycle of pack growth that they were at now. Once they reached Royal Rank, everyone would know that Karl’s pack could protect them, so they would flock to him.
It was inevitable in Thor’s mind, and he just needed to make sure that he could protect them all, since he was the pack’s defender.
That made Thor wonder if he was second in command. In a Cerro Pack, the Guardian was the strongest warrior other than the pack leader, and he defended the weak while the leader and the rest of the strong fighters chased off the threats.
Some herd animals would just run and save as many as they could, while the predators picked off the weak and the young. But the Lightning Cerro didn’t operate like that.
For one, they could heal broken bones in a day or two, they weren’t a crippling injury like they were to many animals. Secondly, they had powerful horns and tails. If they defended in a group, they could save more of their own than if they ran.
If there was a Lightning Cerro who got too old and too injured to heal, and they were dragging the pack down, they would lead the charge during the next attack. That way, they could help the pack one last time, and the predator would get what it came for and leave the others.
Only an insane predator continued the fight once it had its food.
He didn’t think that humans operated like that. He had already met a number of useless human pack members and troublemakers that should have been left for a predator by their packs.
Hawk considered putting in an opinion on the topic, but it was better to just watch Rae and take notes in case she came up with something that would help him. It wouldn’t be long before he was going to be advancing as well, so he needed to prepare in advance.
