Ernie shook his head.

"Why not?"

"I don't know," Ernie said. "I guess I'm scared."

"You shouldn't be," Natalia said. "Once you get everything out in the open, it's going to be such a relief."

"I guess," Ernie said. "It's just that... I don't know. I guess I've been kind of a jerk, and I don't know if they're going to forgive me."

"You won't know unless you talk to them," Natalia said.

Once the students were dressed in their gear, Strange led them to an elevator that required a key card. "Quickly now," he said as the elevator rumbled to life. The elevator car took them to a large room, where armed soldiers stood watch as a team of engineers manned a series of complex control panels.

"Now then," Strange said, clearing his throat, "your test will begin in a few moments, but I wanted to make something clear. Though you may not see me, I will be present at all times. However, my role is simply that of observer. If you get into trouble, you must rely on your wits and one another."

"Wait a minute," Todd said. "What if we fall off a cliff or something? I mean, you're not going to let us die, right?"

"Let's hope that it doesn't come to that," Strange said. He nodded toward one of the engineers.

Harley watched closely as the engineer input a series of commands. Once he pulled a switch, the air was charged with electricity. Jagged bolts of plasma jumped across Tesla coils. There was a flash of light, and then the Relic Hunters were gone.

The jump platform had delivered them into the heart of a rain forest that was blanketed in mist. The sounds of birds and insects echoed all around. Everything was washed in green, from the leaves in the branches to the ocean of ferns that covered the ground. The trees were wrapped in moss and fungi, while flowers clung to creeping vines that drew brightly colored hummingbirds.

"They're actually faeries," Natalia said as she inspected the birds through her Phantasmoscope.

"Of course they are," Strange said as an enormous butterfly landed on his forearm. Strange smiled as he watched the wings of the creature rise and fall.

"That's a-"

"Winged Croaker," Strange said. Faeries could mask their true nature so humans couldn't see them.

"That's a Croaker?" Todd said. "It's disgusting."

"No kidding," Ernie said with a wrinkled nose. "It's almost as ugly as that..." His voice trailed off when he saw Catalina glaring at him. She was standing next to her Digger imp as he splashed in a puddle.

The Croaker looked like a fat toad with stubby wings. Its lumpy body was covered with warts, and two tusks jutted up from its jaw.

"I suppose it's all a matter of perspective," Strange said as the Croaker leaped into the air. Its tiny wings started to beat so fast that they were nearly invisible, but somehow they managed to carry the corpulent faerie into the distant shadows.

"All right," Strange said once the Croaker disappeared. "Mr. Swift, have you checked our coordinates?"

Xander was looking through a pair of binoculars. "We should be less than a quarter mile from the temple."

"Excellent," Strange said. "Lead the way."

Xander entered the thick mist with Strange and the other Relic Hunters trailing behind. Sprig walked next to Max as a white tiger. Her fur was matted from the condensation that dripped from the leaves. She was intrigued by the monkeys that were jumping from tree to tree.

It wasn't long before rushing water drowned out the sounds of the forest. Xander led the Relic Hunters over a fallen tree that spanned a river. In the distance, a waterfall shot down the side of a cliff, feeding the river as it sped beneath the natural bridge.

"Look," Brooke said as fish with rainbow scales jumped into the air and splashed back into the river.

Natalia knelt beside her and watched tiny faeries with tails like mermaids. Their translucent wings were barely perceptible as they shot into the air to hover in front of the girls.

"Come on," Raven said as she walked past the fairies. "We don't want to get left behind in this place."

The Relic Hunters continued to wind their way through the forest until they came to a trail marked by a statue worn from age.

"What is it?" Ernie asked.

"I'm not sure," Todd said. "It kind of looks like an elephant."

"Maybe it's an eagle."

"It's a panther," Xander said, just as something shot out of the branches above.

Kenji's drake leaped from his shoulder. The tiny dragon wrapped his claws around a startled bird before bringing it to the ground.

"Wait, it's a parrot," Natalia said.

The drake turned his head to hiss as she approached.

"I wouldn't do that," Kenji said. "He gets territorial when it comes to food."

Natalia pushed her way past Kenji, and that's when the drake sprang.

A STICKY SITUATION.

With his mouth spread wide, Sparky leaped at Natalia, but Max was quicker. He grabbed the drake by his neck before his tiny teeth could sink into Natalia's nose.

"Be careful!" Kenji shouted as Sparky whimpered. The drake tried to break free. He was flapping his wings and kicking his legs, but Max wouldn't let go.

Kenji rushed over to wrap his arms around the tiny dragon, stroking Sparky's neck as he cried.

Natalia stood rooted to the ground, her face drained of color as she tried to catch her breath.

"Next time, listen to him," Max told Natalia. The drake hissed while Max walked away, but it was nothing more than a false sense of bravado. The Bounder was trying to save face.

The Relic Hunters pressed forward, but the path was choked by vegetation. They tried to use the statues as markers, but most were lost in the thick undergrowth. The sun was fading, and as night set in, tensions in the group mounted.

"I don't think we're going the right way," Yi said. His hands were lit like torches, and even though they provided light, they were also drawing enormous insects.

"Hold up," Xander said.

Yi walked over to where Xander was standing. The flames around his hands revealed a massive spiderweb stretched between two trees like a roadblock.

"I'd hate to see the spider that made this," Ernie said.

"That makes two of us," Todd said.

"Three of us," Ross said.

"Can we go around it?" Kenji asked as his drake landed on his shoulder.

"I'm not sure we'd want to," Xander said.

"Look," Yi said, pointing into the branches overhead.

"I don't see anything," Ross said.

"Maybe not, but I can smell them," Denton said.

"Me too," Ernie said.

"There it is again," Yi said. "Something is up in the trees. I think it's a-"

Yi couldn't finish his sentence, because a white gelatinous substance, like a giant spitball, was covering his mouth. He tried to pull it away, but it stuck to his hands. Max could see the panic in Yi's eyes, but as the changeling's body burst into flames, whatever was choking him burned away, allowing Yi to breathe again.

A second dollop of goop hit Brooke in the face, sending her into the ferns. Honeysuckle tried to pull it off Brooke as another glob struck Kenji's drake, wrapping around his wings so he couldn't fly.

Ross and Todd grabbed flashlights that were hanging from their belts. They shined the beams up into the trees' branches, and then they recoiled.

"They're Blight Spiders," Max said. With their six arms, eight eyes, and bristling hair, they looked just like the monsters on his Round Table card.

"Any suggestions?" Xander asked.

"They hate fire." Max raised his Codex gauntlet, and a captivity orb shot from his palm. The Blight Spider that he targeted leaped out of the way, and the orb zipped past and fizzled in the branches of the tree.

Max let three more orbs fly, and though the first two missed, the last struck its target. The Blight Spider screamed as it clawed at the prison. Sparks of energy flew, but it couldn't break free no matter how hard it fought.

"We can't get the webbing off Brooke's face," Natalia said as she struggled with Honeysuckle. "She's suffocating."

"Hold still," Yi said as he raised an index finger to the webbing. A flame leaped from his fingertip, melting the sticky substance.

Brooke's eyes were wild as she gasped for breath.

"Look out," Denton warned.

Max turned in time to see a spray of webbing race toward him. Yi shot it out of the air with a fireball. He shifted and sent another volley at Kenji's drake. The flames melted the web, releasing the tiny dragon so it could join the fight.

Sprig pounced on one of the Blight Spiders before it could reach Raven. Harley took aim at another with his freeze ray. He managed to hit it in the leg, but the rest of his shots missed. The Blights were quick, but they weren't too quick for Ernie.

He ripped off his backpack and dumped the contents onto the forest floor. Then, in a blur of speed, he ran toward one of the Blight Spiders and pulled the backpack over its head. The Blight screamed, trying to break free. Ernie grabbed a vine that was hanging from a branch and used it to wrap the Blight Spider like a spool of thread.

Nearby, Catalina's Bounder imp tore into the soft earth, looking for a place to hide. One of the Blight Spiders jumped down from the branches. It opened its mouth to unleash a torrent of webbing at Catalina, but Max hit it with a captivity orb before it could attack.

At the same time, Denton scaled a tree and launched at one of the Blight Spiders. They both fell off the branch and landed in the ferns below. Somehow the Blight landed on top, but Denton coiled his legs, growled, and kicked hard.

The force sent the monster flying backward. Max unleashed another captivity orb, hitting the monster in the chest. It hovered in the air, howling and screaming as it fought to break free.

"Nicely played," Strange said from a safe distance. He was standing with his arms crossed as though he were observing another scenario in the SIM Chamber.

"Is he just going to stand there and watch us get slaughtered?" Raven asked before she swung a fallen tree branch at one of the Blights.

"Probably," Max said. He watched as a length of webbing spun Todd into a cocoon. Ross was next, and before either of the Toad brothers realized what was happening, they were hanging upside down from one of the branches. They wiggled and writhed, but they couldn't break free.

Another Blight Spider landed on top of Harley and bit him in the shoulder. Even though the Blight's teeth couldn't penetrate the protective fabric of the jumpsuit, the pressure was painful. Harley reached up with his free hand to grab the monster by its neck and flipped it onto the ground.

Kenji's drake swooped down, spraying flames from his mouth. The Blight crouched, covering its head with two of its arms while the other four grasped at the drake. It didn't see the captivity orb that Max had shot until the ball of energy slammed into its back.

Frightened by the orbs, the rest of the Blights fled to the shadows of the forest. Denton scaled the tree where the Toad brothers dangled like ripe fruit.

"Should we leave them up here?" he asked.

"As much as I'd like to, we better cut them down," Max said. "I doubt we'll score many points for abandoning members of the team-even those two."

With a single swipe of his claws, Denton cut them both down. The Toad brothers landed with an "Oomph!" on the soft forest floor, but it was a long drop.

"Now that every monster in the forest knows we're here, what's the plan?" Raven asked.

"We need to find the temple," Xander said.

"Please tell me somebody has the map," Raven said.

"That was Ross and Todd's responsibility," Natalia said.

Todd, whose legs were still wrapped in webbing, struggled to open his backpack. His gloves stuck to the zipper, and he couldn't break free. He did, however, manage to open the compartment where the map was resting.

"Here, let me help," Ross said as he reached into the backpack. He pulled out the map, but it was stuck to his hand.

"You two are nitwits, do you know that?" Raven said, walking over to pry the map away. There was a loud rip. A portion of it was stuck to Ross's hand while Raven held the rest.

"Okay, this is the temple," Raven said, pointing to the center of the map, "and this is where they were supposed to drop us off."

"We're not that far off track," Harley said. "There should be a stream nearby that'll lead us straight there."

"Let's hurry up before something else shows up and tries to turn us into a midnight snack," Todd said.

THE TEMPLE.

Finding the stream wasn't difficult. The forest had come to life thanks to luminescent mushrooms that were stuck to virtually every rock and tree. They cast the dense landscape in a strange yet beautiful glow. Firefly Pixies added their glimmer to the mix as they danced through the forest to the musical sounds of night creatures.

"I've never seen anything this beautiful," Natalia said after one of the pixies blew her a kiss.

Being the jealous sort, as most faeries were, Honeysuckle rolled her eyes. She despised others of her kind, particularly if they were beautiful, so when one of the Firefly Pixies flew too close, she leaped from Brooke's shoulder to chase it away.

"What do you think, Sumner?" Xander asked as the Relic Hunters stood beneath the canopy of trees.

Max looked around the clearing. Yi was glowing like an ember as he stood next to Ernie. Raven had the hood of her jacket pulled tightly over her head, and the Toad brothers kept looking over their shoulders and into the shadows of the forest whenever they heard a noise.