### 340

The Skryza shrieks a deafening cry as your Kai blade steals its life away. Its legs buckle and its gross body crashes down, staining the dusty soil with the dark ichor that pours from its many wounds. Its sprawling legs continue to twitch and convulse for several minutes, even after death has laid claim to its evil soul.

As you step back from the dead spider, you hear the buzzing of giant direflies. They are swarming in readiness to return. You suspect that they must be attracted by the bitter stench of the Skryza’s blood, but it is also the opportunity for vengeance that is drawing them here. For years the Skryza has trapped and consumed thousands of their kind, but now the time has come for them to wreak their revenge.

Before the direflies appear, you escape into the trees. The webs prevent you from heading directly north, towards Gazad Helkona, and so you are forced instead to go east and detour around them. For five hours you trek through the dead forest before stopping to rest on the trunk of a fallen tree. You must now eat a Meal or lose 3 ENDURANCE points (you cannot use Grand Huntmastery in this instance, for there are no flora or fauna that you can forage for in the petrified forest of Helkona).

To continue, turn to 239.