The oldest wisdom Kaden remembered his father imparting to him was the Lower Ring never slept. There were always people about conducting business, both legitimate and nefarious. At all hours.

And tonight, anyone caught upon the streets of the Lower Ring by the voracious desert spiders was quickly caught and devoured unless they were incredibly nimble and lucky.

The Black Rohs were relentless in their insatiable search for food. The highly cannibalistic desert creatures would never pass up an opportunity for human flesh. They crushed down doors and gnawed on the frames of the buildings with their mandibles to enlarge the openings enough for them to reach their desired and often helpless prey.

The sheer number of the beasts that had flooded into the city in such short order staggered Kaden. Some were tiny, able to be crushed under his foot and oozed their green blood. Babies that had ridden on the backs of their mothers as they came searching for a late-night snack.

Others were towering, their jaws chittering, some would even say screaming in a mockery of their victims.

Kaden skewered one through its jaws as it tried to rip a child from a home. That only succeeded in pissing it off, although it did drop the child to focus its anger on Kaden. The Black Rohs stretched upwards, extending its legs beneath it until it was twice as tall as the Karo Shar. Then it tried to pierce him with the sharpened ends of its forelegs.

Both were cleaved off as they came down on Kaden. The Karo Shar used the bladed end of his Rohs Fang the neutralize the threat. Then he flipped his weapon around, slid underneath it, and pierced its belly with the other end, green blood drenching down upon him.

The dying creature nearly fell atop him, but Kaden was out from under it before it could. Leaving it to its death throws.

A smaller one attacked him next, ignoring much easier prey. Kaden cleaved it so deep that the creature was almost in two, and unable to do anything other than lay on the ground, bleed out, and twitch.

A woman ran to grab the child he'd previously saved and and take it back inside. She uttered a frantic. "Thank you." But there was no time for thanks. Kaden was on to fighting the next Black Rohs.

"Get inside and secure yourselves," he said to her. "There's more coming."

"Is the prince sending any more men, Karo Shar?" She asked, while simultaneously running back through the destroyed doorway of her home.

Kaden went to engage the next Black Rohs nearby. "So far, it's just me."

"Then may the Luck bless you, Karo Shar." And she disappeared into hiding.

For long minutes, Kaden did nothing but focus on the next Black Rohs before him. Then the next. And the next. One by one, they would fall. In the not so distance, he could hear the dying screams of their victims. He cursed the luck, knowing he couldn't save them all.

But the anger that swelled within him, bolstered by Rage and buttressed by Courage made him fight harder to save as many as he could. Most were holed up inside, but Kaden found numerous souls out and fleeing for their lives.

He cleaved a path through the monsters, saving more than one person in their clutches. But while being too late to save others. Unfortunately, some he couldn't save. Those the Black Rohs and already caught and injected with their liquifying venom would have to die painfully so that others could be spared.

Sometimes the spiders would attack in groups of three or four, but it didn't help their odds against the Karo Shar. His mind was greater than theirs, and using it, he calculated every step and every strike he took to give him the utmost advantage against the creatures.

Soon there were more dying screams from Black Rohs than residents of the Lower Ring. Kaden's body didn't tire. Two years of further refining his muscles he once did not have made his endurance in battle superb. The consumption of essence on enhanced that reality.

And the Black Rohs were far easier foes than Koronai.

Kaden set his sights on the largest Black Rohs he had ever seen. Not only in height, but in girth. It was consuming the last of a victim, slurping the body down its gullet.

Just watching the sight caused Kaden to lose control.

As he prepared to engage it, the Karo Shar realized something. He was in an alley with no way out other than the way he come. And as half a dozen other Black Rohs swarmed in from behind him and off the tops of the buildings on either side, he realized—

"A trap?" he cursed as he found himself desperately fending off more swipes from jagged legs and mandibles than he'd been prepared to.

How did he not see it? How did his mind not calculate it and warn him against such a danger? And how did these mindless creatures pull off such a devious scheme?

Despite the odds against him, Kaden fared well for several minutes, even taking two of the creatures down. But then one of the desert spiders clipped his arm with its sharpened foreleg. It gashed his skin down to the muscle on his shoulder and forced him off balance. Right into the largest of the Black Rohs.

Kaden barely missed being grabbed up in the beast's mandibles, managing to hew one of the fangs off with the blade of his ancient weapon. The mother of all Black Rohs screamed, but was undeterred. While the others backed away, it came at him in a fury and blocking his only chance at exit.

The Karo Shar now had his back to the dead end of the alley, and a monstrosity looming down upon him. He had no choice to avoid being eaten, except for one bold move.

Remembering how far he'd leaped from the rooftops, he gambled that, from a standstill, he could make the roof here. He batted away the attacks of the large Black Rohs and gauged the distance up. As the creature retreated to avoid being struck, Kaden took the opportunity. He kneeled and cocked his legs at the first chance he got, and sprung on Rage fueled muscles.

His ascent upwards was smooth. Like he was meant to fly as though he were a bird.

But just as he was about to reach the top of the roof and land there, the Black Roh's clawed leg caught him on the back of his calf. The attack sent him careening out of control, but with still just enough distance to make the rooftop. His ankle clipped the edge, and he tumbled away from the alley across the roof.

Both of his wounds hurt like they'd been set on fire. The one thing he'd learned was not to look at them. His arm and leg, both in pain, still worked. And that was what was important.

Kaden hobbled to his feet, facing down the reflective eyes of the giant Black Rohs as they ascended to the rooftop, following him. Behind the largest, which led the way, a score more followed. The entire structure creaked under all the weight it was now bearing from the horde of spiders, and several held back. But only momentarily.

Kaden prepared for the attack in an awkwardness necessitated by his wounded leg as still more Black Rohs joined the swarm. The legs and eyes were so numerous, Kaden couldn't even count them. He gave the horde a hard stare that even their animal instinct couldn't help but interpret as, 'I dare you. Come and take me.'

They charged.

At the same moment, a cacophonous war cry from soldiers erupted from behind Kaden. The mere sound didn't stop the Black Rohs, only the drawn swords that charged past the Karo Shar to confront the beasts did.

Kaden was surprised to see who lead the reinforcements he'd long hope and waited for—it was none other than Prince Relastin. Ison's sovereign was like a demon in the night, destroying Black Rohs as fast as they arrived. The others with him, two score of soldiers including Sahkar Bul, did their part as well.

Overcoming his shock at the prince joining in, Kaden too rejoined the fray.

Against the warriors, the Black Rohs stood no chance. Not a single soldier died. But every Black Rohs soon laid still except for perhaps the reflexive twitching of a leg. Even the most gigantic one of them all.

The prince sheathed his weapon, wiping the green fluid from the creatures on his urk before doing so.

Finding himself next to the prince as the battle ended, Kaden spoke to him. "Thank you," he said honestly. "These people will never forget what we've done to save them. You will be more revered—"

Kaden only briefly saw the butt of the prince's redrawn sword fly for his head before a sharp pain his temple and a night within the night took him.