[V8C22] What I Was Most Afraid Of
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the Boundary“BROTHERRR!!”
Oliver screamed as he flew in a straight line towards his target. While Tia followed behind him, pouncing up and down like a cat, she listened closely.
(…There’s Monsters around. A lot.)
She heard the sounds of battle all over. Mages’ incantations, screams, and shouts. The sound of a large body moving around came from a giant centipede in front of her.
Then, moving on top of that giant centipede was a silver-haired Arachne.
Tia understood at first glance. This one was the same as her.
Just as Tia was particularly strong among Harpies, that Arachne held power that rivaled some Greater Monsters.
A white web was woven across the trees next to the centipede and the Arachne, and Frederik was bound inside it.
“Let’s go, Oliver!”
With her Magical Leaping Device, Tia jumped into the air way above Oliver, then landed softly on Oliver’s back as he flew in a straight line.
Since Oliver won’t stop until he hits an obstacle, this way Tia could control his heading by pushing down on him from above.
Oliver flew on a slant towards the ground. Ahead of him laid the giant centipede and the Arachne.
The Arachne stopped moving to spew threads at Oliver.
In order to project large amounts of that sort of thread, she had to have some stored up first. Besides, she’d just expended a huge volume of silk during the battle against Frederik.
In the end, before the Arachne could produce any thread, Oliver’s spear bore down on her.
The Arachne moved rapidly along the centipede, dodging the attack. Oliver’s attack only barely did any damage to the centipedes back.
Once Oliver landed, he deactivated his flight magic. He couldn’t pull of the same kind of mobile fighting style with flight magic that Frederik used.
Instead, he thundered across the centipede’s back, aiming for the Arachne.
“Haaah!”
The Arachne dodged his powerful lunging strike. Oliver refused to give up and attacked again.
…In the meantime, Tia approached Frederik and took out a lantern and a torch she’d borrowed from the Lange Hamlet. With a small stick, she transferred the lantern’s flame to the torch.
Hers was a simple lantern, made from a club-sized stick with an oil-soaked rag wrapped around it. The flame would be unlikely to last long.
“Pefu. Frederik, are you okay? You awake?”
While she called to him, she focused on brushing the flame past the threads around Frederik’s hands.
If you wanted to cut a spider’s threads with a sword, you needed to know the trick. If you did it wrong, your sword would just get stuck in the web, so it was easier just to burn it away with fire.
Frederik’s throat wavered. His eyes opened just a crack; looking at Tia as he asked “Why are you here?”
Tia noticed the signs of fang bites around Frederik’s neck.
(He’s probably been injected with poison.)
The poison that Arachne used was not a poison to kill her prey. Instead, it was a paralysis poison that held her prey steady so it wouldn’t run away on her.
While he wouldn’t die immediately from the poison, Frederik was more injured than she’d first thought. He was bleeding all over, and his skin was covered in bruises. By human standards, he was gravely wounded.
Once she burned off the threads wrapped around him, Frederik’s body listed to the side. She expected to see him just limply fall to the ground, but Frederik just barely managed to land on his feet.
His hand grasped around for something — His spear, probably.
“Frederik, I can’t see your spear anywhere around here.”
In between a series of unnatural, wheezing breaths, Frederik moved his lips.
“R U N”
His voice was unbelievably weak. But with her good hearing, Tia could hear his message loud and clear.
Warbling “Pyororo,” Tia thought.
(Oliver can’t beat that spider. I can’t carry Frederik by myself.)
The Arachne was a threat, but the centipede was also dangerous. If that massive body ran over you, most humans wouldn’t make it out of that okay.
For the time being, she should carry the wounded Frederik to a safe place.
“Oliver! Frederik’s alive! Help me carry him!”
“Roger that!”
Now, it was the Arachne who chased after Oliver as he doubled back towards them.
She must have stocked up enough thread by this point. The Arachne spewed a fierce stream of silk… but Tia batted it away with the flame of her torch.
“Hmphhmphhmph! Hmphhmphhmph!”
With heavy breaths, she waved the torch around, then reached for an additional torch she’d stashed in Oliver’s belt. After lighting a fire on that one as well, she now had two torches.
As she burned away the spider webs with both torches, Oliver lifted Frederik onto his back.
“Let’s go, Tia!”
“Piyopp!”
Oliver carried Frederik while Tia used the flames of her torches to burn through the spider webs.
By dividing their responsibilities in that way, the two of them escaped down the mountain.
From behind, she could hear the Arachne chuckling “Ho, ho, ho!” in enjoyment.
‘You mere flightless bug, don’t act full of yourself!’ — Tia, the Harpy, silently raged.
If she went back to her original form, she would trample all over this bug.
(…What am I doing?)
Carried by Oliver, Frederik desperately tried to hold his dim consciousness together.
His whole body hurt, and he couldn’t form a coherent thought. Every time he tried to say something, he coughed out bubbles of blood, making incantations an impossibility. As it stood, was he not just a big chunk of dead weight?
Oliver and Tia chose an area with denser tree cover to flee to. Probably because they figured it would be harder for the centipede to follow them there.
Frederik had tried the same thing just a minute ago, and fallen straight into the spider’s trap.
In fact, the spider webs were strung up all over the area.
But Tia burned through them right away, so the three of them were able to move through without getting caught on the spider webs. Tia was a childish little girl, but she was surprisingly perceptive.
(But at this rate, we’ll get caught.)
Neither Tia nor Oliver were particularly fast. On top of that, they had the burden of the wounded Frederik.
(…If it was just these two alone, they could make it out with flight magic and the Magical Leaping Device.)
But it would be impossible to fly while carrying Frederik. Both of their flight styles were just too unique.
Oliver flew straight up, then altered his heading. Tia, meanwhile, had her flight mode wings broken, so could only leap.
Neither of those two could fly while carrying Frederik’s heavy, lanky body.
Meanwhile, the Arachne was well-accustomed to moving around in the forest. She would lay webs in places with poor footing, and crawl along that webbing.
(I’ve… gotta do… something.)
Tia and Oliver came to a stop. Webs were stretched taught between the trees ahead of them. Tia burned the threads with her torches, but since this web was weaved much thicker than the ones before, so she couldn’t burn through it so easily.
He could hear Tia desperately muttering “Come on, burn, burn!”
The Arachne neared.
(Where’s… my spear?)
Frederik fumbled around with hollow eyes.
‘Spear, spear… right. I dropped it back there… But there is still one here… Oliver’s spear.’
The moment his fingers touched the shaft, the muscle memory returned to his body. He would always be a Lange. A Monster Hunter.
Power welled into his limp body. He stole Oliver’s spear and planted his feet.
“Brother, no! Brother—!”
“Shut up, you stupid little brother.” He muttered hoarsely as he stared down the Monster.
The Arachne and the giant centipede. The centipede seemed to be having difficulties moving around in this cramped space. It was pressing against some of the larger trees, so its body was leaning to the side a bit — Perfect.
Frederik first wedged the spear into the space between the giant centipede’s belly and the tree. Then, while coughing up a lung, he chanted. Even a brief chant to kick up a little bit of wind was a struggle.
‘Come on, work!’ He prayed as the wind magecraft activated.
A ball of wind formed on the spear wedged between the centipede and the tree. As a result, the wind blew the centipede off of the tree, rolling it onto the ground with its underside exposed.
He stabbed deep into its underside and, summoning all of his remaining strength, rended through the centipede’s belly. Then, the spear slipped from his fingers. At first, he thought he had put too much strength in it, but no.
From above the tree, he heard the Arachne laughing. In her hands she held the spear, pulled to her by her webs.
“You’ve done some good work, boy.”
‘I have to move,’ he thought. But he couldn’t stop his body from collapsing onto the ground. All of the exertion he’d done had only accelerated the poison circulating around his body.
Just as the Arachne raised the spear, aiming for Frederik, Oliver jumped ahead.
“BROTHERRR!!”
Crawling pitifully on the ground, Frederik looked up at his brother’s back and despaired.
(Stupid little brother. This whole time, I’ve been so, so afraid of this I couldn’t get anything done…!)
Oliver, who had lost his fear, surely would jump in to save someone, heedless of his own life.
And even worse, that ‘someone’ was himself. It made him want to die.
That was why he’d gone to the Wedge Tower. That was why he’d become strong.
(Oliver is… going to die.)
The spear came down with force; its tip cut through flesh. Fresh blood spattered, covering the surroundings.
Then, Frederik heard his brother’s voice.
“… Romy?”
The spear pierced through the upper body of a short, black haired girl.
Her lower body was that of a hideous spider Monster.