It didn’t take long before Hazel and Chegyaeyi arrived at their checkpoint, which was the two-ninety-five interstate above Forest Avenue. The trip there was a bit difficult due to the various cars blocking the way. It got to the point where Hazel had to step out and move them with her spells before they could proceed with the trip there.

  Thankfully, they were able to make it to their destination, stopping within the interstate that let them get on and off Forest Avenue. All of the players including Hazel and Chegyaeyi stepped out of the military cargo truck and started preparing their area for the upcoming battle against the swarm.

  Aside from this checkpoint, there was the one on the other side of the two-ninety-five interstate near Diamond Street, the Casco Bay Bridge near the commercial street, the checkpoint on Congress Street that was connected to Kellog Street, and finally, Congress Street again that was connected to Deerling Lane.

  Using these five checkpoints around the border of the Spider Queen’s range, Hazel and the others planned to attract the swarm and kill them one by one.

  While all the players with Hazel and Chegyaeyi were busy moving the cars out of the way to establish their positions, the pair walked over to the edge and looked down from the interstate, taking note of the various buildings and the like before them.

  “This transportation structure is certainly remarkable,’ Chegyaeyi remarked with a bit of awe in her tone.

  “Yeah, they are,” Hazel said in response. “Interstates like this were invented to make long trips go faster. And they're connected all throughout the United States, which means you can drive from one state to another when driving on one.”

  “Is that true?” Chegyaeyi marveled at Hazel’s explanation. “That is incredible.”

  Hazel shrugged her shoulders. “That’s just one of the many things my world has created. Before the Interstate, there were also Railroads, though, those were mostly used to transport products and the like across the country to save time and improve our economy.”

  While Hazel wasn’t an expert on the topic, she at least knew that Railroads were vital in America because they assisted in transporting economical products like agriculture or architecture supplies from one area to another with relative ease.

  “Alright then,” Hazel clapped her hands together. “Here’s the plan for us. We’ll be using this interstate as our station where we’ll confront the horde. Since there are two interstate lanes, we’ll have to get rid of one to avoid having it overrun with monsters. We’ll also need to block all paths that lead up to us and have them focus on directing attack us at the front. We can’t have them block off our escape route, so we need them to stay focused on the front and only the front.”

  “And if there are some that get past them?” Chegyaeyi asked.

  “I’ll take care of those since I’ll be able to swiftly eliminate them and return to the frontlines. If the numbers are reduced as I hoped, then there shouldn’t be as many of them to deal with, making it easy for us to keep them attacking us at the front and not overwhelm us with their numbers.”

  “May I ask how we plan to escape if their numbers prove to be too much for us?”

  Hazel smiled. “I’m glad you asked.” She then turned around and pointed behind them, on the other side of the interstate. “We’ll have the cargo transport stationed next to one of the buildings near the interstate. While the other players retreat, I’ll hold them off with my spells while also destroying the checkpoint to buy us enough time.”

  It wasn’t a solid plan, but it was the best Hazel could come up with on the spot considering their current timetable. She avoided having any of the players with them stationed on the ground in front of the interstate out of fear of them being unable to hold off the swarm.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Right now, their checkpoint focused more on ranged attack rather than close-quarters combat. Due to the sheer number of the spiders that were about to invade them, Hazel couldn’t afford to let any vanguards get swept up by the swarm and killed in the process.

  While on this interstate, her team more or less had the high ground, and she planned to abuse that advantage as much as possible. And with her spells like her curse bomb, it should be easier for them to deal with their portion of the swarm coming after them.

  Hazel continued to survey her surroundings, taking note of everything she saw that could either pose a threat to her plan or benefit it. From what she saw, they were a considerable distance away from the buildings in front of them. This was good since that meant that didn’t have to deal with spiders jumping off the buildings around them to attack.

  The most important thing for Hazel and her team was that they held the advantage of the high ground. By having higher ground, they could easily take down the spiders coming that way or climb up. And because of their low level, it should be easy for this group to easily dispatch the swarm.

  From what Hazel noticed when fighting the spider swarm, all of the infant spiders were incredibly weak, ranging from level 1 to at most, level four or five. All of the players on Hazel’s team were at least above level ten. Honestly, the only problem they had at the moment was the Spider Sentinels and the web weavers.

  Thanks to their previous experience, Hazel and the others knew that the sentinels were around level thirty or so, making them the strongest enemies that her team needed to face. As for these so-called Web Weavers, she had no information on them, and that concerned Hazel greatly.

  Information was vital when fighting your enemies. If you attack without gathering any important info on what you’re facing, then the chances of you dying to some unknown element by the enemy were high. And that was what worried Hazel regarding the Web Weavers.

  Judging from their names, Hazel concluded that these spider’s specialty was weaving webs. But all of the spider monsters could do it, so what made them so different? It could be that their proficiency with their webs greatly outclassed the infant spiders and even the spider sentinels that possessed the same ability.

  Instead of just simply shooting out the webs, perhaps the Web Weavers were capable of manipulating their webs to do more than just entrap their prey. Maybe they could build web bridges to make it easier for the rest of the swarm to attack Hazel’s team, or maybe it was something else that she couldn’t even imagine.

  Just thinking about the possible variables that could affect her plan involving the web weavers made her anxious. Hazel just couldn’t shake off the feeling that this new spider species would cause her a lot of problems when this fight occurred.

  And it was because of this growing fear that Hazel made a declaration regarding them. If she or any of the other players even caught a glimpse of the weavers, they were their primary target. This was the only way to avoid having her plan against the swarm backfire.

  Taking down as many of the spider queen’s swarm was their best chance to prepare for the Curse’s fifth stage. If Hazel and the others like Astrid and Zoe could reach over level thirty, then there was a possibility that they could take on the queen and take her down.

  While Hazel fretted over plans, a message panel from her chat room suddenly popped up.

  [Astrid Skogr: We just arrived at our checkpoint near Diamond Street. How’s your side going?]

  Hazel smiled, seeing the message. “Good, looks like they made it without trouble.”

  Due to the current radius of the queen’s range, it would’ve been nearly impossible for Astrid’s team to get to their checkpoint. That was if they hadn’t realized that bits of Back Cove Trail were still accessible without triggering the Queen’s detection. Of course, by using that path, it took them a bit longer to get to their checkpoint.

  If Astrid’s group made a mistake and accidentally got the dark elf within range, then their plan would’ve backfired big time. Thankfully, that didn’t appear to be the case.

  [Hazel Thatcher: We’re almost set here. Just clearing out the paths to make it easier to see the swarm.]

  Hazel glanced over to her right and left where she witnessed several players cut down the trees in the grassy area near the two entrances of the interstate. Since they were blocking their view because of the leaves and branches, Hazel felt that it would be best for all of them to cut the trees down.

  While they did that, Hazel soon got to work in setting up her little cursed bombs. Having Chegyaeyi carry her as they descended from the interstate, the pair landed on ground level before Hazel got to work on one last thing; it was bomb time.