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There were several hanging down from different points too, like snakes dangling in the darkness.
My hands grazed across the ledge of the hole and I found the rough texture of rope just at the edge. I was going to have to pretty much hang upside down to get to a level surface, but whatever I had to do, I had to do. I untied the rope from around my waist and shoved it in my bag, casting one last look behind me.
Fuck. The other competitors were gaining fast. If I hadn’t had such a solid head start, they would’ve caught up to me already.
I braced myself as I climbed over the edge, dangling my feet down and turning, gripping onto the rope ladder.
At first, my feet slipped, and I hung there, swaying back and forth over the enormous drop.
My eyes went wide, and I quickly pulled my legs back up hooking them into the rope ladder. Gathering my breath, I began to work slowly down it, hoping that I could move fast enough to stay ahead of the people who were approaching the crest of the roof.
I got into a pretty good rhythm. My upper body strength was great from hours spent working the heavy bag, and I kept the magic film on the palms of my hands, which helped me climb without getting cut by the ropes.
But when I reached the point of no longer struggling against gravity but climbing parallel to the sides of the building, I heard something scrape across the metal beams around me.
My heart lurched in my chest, and I peered around me into the dim light. The only illumination came from the sunlight streaming through the hole at the top, and although my eyes had adjusted, it was still a little hard to see clearly.
The noise came again, closer this time.
Please, gods, let it be something harmless.
I still couldn’t see shit, but staying still wasn’t a good plan. So I gave up searching and began to climb faster, moving my arms and legs as quickly as I could.
Then I heard it again, and again.
The next time the noise came, it was so close to me that I jumped, almost losing my grip on the rope. Very slowly, I turned my head, palms growing slick with sweat.
An enormous spider perched on the side of the dome a few feet away from me. It was staring right at me, and for a moment, I was pretty sure it was licking its spiky, hair-covered mouth.
Its legs were longer and thicker than mine, and its body was the size of a fucking horse.
Of course. First giant birds and now this. I hope there’s a god that really likes bunnies.
Chapter Thirteen
The scratching sound was squealing in my ears, but the spider wasn’t moving.
My hands gripped tighter to the rope as I realized it was coming from the other direction. Slowly, I looked over to the other side, finding three more—and the newcomers were even bigger.
Fuck. How many of these giant fuckers could there possibly be in this dome?
Of course, that was a very stupid question to ask. I might as well have told fate right then and there that I’d love for her to fuck with me.
I’d never been very squeamish about spiders. They were just insects, and they were smaller than me anyway. I didn’t need a man to kill them for me, and I didn’t get all squeamish if I saw one.
But these?
These were like something out of a horror movie.
I had never seen an insect so big, or so seemingly hungry as these hairy fuckers were.
Above me, the other contestants were crawling into the dome, hanging from the ropes. Every single one of them paused, their eyes going wide as they noticed the spiders around us.
The one to my right began to move, quickly scurrying toward me. I hooked my legs in the rope and laid back, hanging upside down. I barely had time to charge my energy before releasing my magic and slamming a stream of it into the spider.
The beast flew back and rammed against the dome wall before sliding down.
Eventually, it caught itself, its legs latching onto the ropes to stop its fall. It regained its footing and scuttled off into the darkness.
