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"Oh, do look out!" Em Teedee said.

Tenel Ka leaped in front of the beast as the other young Jedi Knights fell back, scrambling for their lightsabers.

Jacen tried to focus his dazzled eyes as the glistening creature thundered forward.

A bone-jarring roar emanated from a gullet deep behind its clacking jaws.

The monster was spiderlike and enormous; spines like wicked thorns sprouted from every joint. Its body core was crimson, splotched with a jagged marking on its back that looked like a death's-head.

Jacen recognized the creature. "I think that's a combat arachnid," he said. "They're very rare and very deadly. I never thought I'd get to see one."

"Aren't we lucky," Jaina said. She drew her own lightsaber, but Tenel Ka was bearing the brunt of the creature's attention.

The warrior girl held her lightsaber up-fight, her jaw set, her face grim. She swept the blade back and forth, ripping a gash of light through the air. "Stay back!" she snarled.

The monster reached out with a long clawed foreleg, trying to grab Tenel Ka, but she slashed low, slicing off its footpad. The creature bellowed and reared back, jab bing its spined legs at her like an armful of lances. Slashing again, the warrior girl drove in and severed another of its many legs.

Lowbacca ignited his molten bronze light-saber with a roar of challenge, and stepped forward.

"Do we have to kill it?" Jacen said, trying to think of an alternative.

Drool slathered the.combat arachnid's grinding jaws, and its many bulbous eyes looked like black pearls reflecting the lines of light that danced over its polished exoskeleton.

Jaina said,?This is one creature you're not taking home as a pet, Jacen."

Reluctantly lighting his emerald-green lightsaber, he stood ready to fight beside his friends.

Teeth bared, Lowbacca planted himself next to Tenel Ka, swinging his lightsaber like a club. He nipped off several sharp spines that rose from the combat arachnid's back, but one of the creature's fore-limbs flashed out and tore into his fur, making the young Wookiee stagger back ward.

Lowbacca?" Em Teedee scolded. Lowie roared in pain as he looked at the shallow wound along his rib cage.

Jaina chopped away another flailing leg, but the combat arachnid had too many limbs--and now it was angered and in pain. The beast pressed them back, trapping them between a pile of fallen rock and the wall.

"Uh-oh, looks like we can't get out," Jacen said. He stood in front of his sister, his green lightsaber held high, but the combat arachnid swatted him aside, knocking him into Tenel Ka. In the instant the warrior girl lost her balance, the creature struck. It grabbed Tenel Ka and lifted her up into the air, ready to kill her.

"No!" Jacen cried. "Tenel Ka!" He tried to reach the monsters mind through the Force, but the creature reared up and trumpeted a challenge.

Bellowing, Lowie charged into the fray.

The enraged combat arachnid knocked him backward, its spined limbs jabbing like sharp spears in every direction. Its jaws clucked together, ready to shred flesh from Tenel Ka's bones.

Jacen didn't think he could attack in time to save his friend. The creature was too powerful. It could sustain a great deal of damage and many more wounds before it suffered a mortal injury. Jacen drew a deep breath, determined to attack anyway.

Just then, Jacen saw a movement in the opening out into the sunlight. A tall hairy silhouette appeared. It let out a deep-throated, yet somehow melodious, Wookiee roar and fired a powerful blaster rifle. The dazzling energy bolt splashed across the combat arachnid's lower set of eyes; another blast followed, and a third struck the remaining eyes on the spider creature.

The combat arachnid's thick shell was too strong to be split open by a mere hand weapon, but the creature hissed and flailed.

With a shuddering spasm it dropped Tenel Ka and backed up against the wall, its jointed forelimbs writhing and clawing at its eyes.

The female Wookiee voice growled, and Jacen, who was closest, could hear