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149. Agreement

Snow was pleased with Arachne’s words. She spoke, “I, Snow, in the name of the God of Darkness and Light will help Arachne break out of this castle.”

A flash of light erupted between the two, causing a ripple of dizzying effect. They both stood stunned, realizing what had happened. A small yin and yang tattoo appeared on her right hand as a reminder of what their agreement was.

It was powerful and a bit uncomfortable. An unbreakable vow that tied both of them together, knowing full well that it could have difficult repercussions; Snow wanted to take a chance.

Honestly, she wanted to use Arachne to fight against the King himself if it was even possible. Her mind was whirling, trying to figure out the best solutions.

“With our vow intact, I would like you to fight alongside me,” Snow bluntly spoke out her thoughts. Trying to hide this fact was stupid, and she knew that without the spider's help, they might not have a winning chance.

“Why would I agree?”

“Because if you and I, plus these three vampires, and whatever members of my guild joins, we can win.”

“And if I say no?” Arachne gazed down upon her with an amused expression.

“Then, you won’t get out of here, and if I die, you lose this chance.” Snow bluntly said she crossed her arms, waiting for her answer. To give it a bit more push, she said, “Don’t you want to escape and kill the King?”

Arachne frowned when she heard the word, King. Instead, it seemed to grate on her nerves at the thought of being trapped because of him.

“Fine. I’ll help you.”

“Good.” Snow glistened with an eye-catching smile that calmed both Arachne and the vampires. She stuck out her hands. “Partner, for now?”

Arachne gazed down at her outstretched hands. She then looked back at Snow and then back at her hand. Lowering herself to Snow’s height, where her belly touched the floor, Arachne leaned forward and grabbed a hold. “Partner.”

For the first time, Snow didn’t feel disgusted at the spider before her. Instead, she felt a temporary kinsmen between the two. They broke apart, allowing Arachne to stretch out her legs a few times.

“Before we go,” Snow interjected.

Arachne was ready to head straight towards their adversary but was stopped by Snow.

“Please free the trapped people in your webs. They are my people.” Snow said.

Arachne nodded, waving her finger in the air.

“Also, I was wondering if you know where all my teammates are? You know the ones that invaded the castle with me?” She asked, hoping that Arachne could point her towards the direction that she needed.

“The group of humans?” Arachne thought it over. She closed her eyes, sensing the area around her. It took a moment for her to speak. “The first group is heading towards the King’s chamber and will be entering right about now.”

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Alarmed at what Snow heard, she tensed.

“The second one will be here in a few minutes.”

Snow replied. “We better go, which way towards the King’s chamber?” Snow hurriedly asked. She was already at the edge of the pillow mound, ready to scale down.

Arachne grabbed hold of Snow, throwing her up in the air. Snow flailed around, shocked at suddenly being airborne. She didn’t understand what just happened.

“Grab on,” Arachne said as she fell on top of Arachne’s back.

Snow tried her best to turn in midair like the cat but failed as her knee hit the side of Arachne’s back. Even her butt was painfully hit against its side, while her hand grabbed whatever she could. With a moan, she pulled herself up, trying not to fall to her death.

Arachne jumped downwards, scaring everyone who was waiting below in alarm.

“Oh my god!” One of the girls screamed. “It’s Arachne!”

The Players scrambled into action, bearing arms as they all thought they would get trampled on. There was a handful still cutting up the webs around a few players that were still trapped. Still, many were awake, wrapped in blankets. They were given soups and bread to fill up their tired bodies.

Arachne stopped herself just short of a few feet from smashing into the nearest Player from her land. She gazed down at a player who was underneath, smiling a bit wickedly.

“Get ready!” Olgom shouted, his battle-ax in hand.

Snow got up, realizing that they would all attack. She shouted, “Stop!”

Everyone froze. Searching for the voice. When they saw Snow standing, on Arachne’s back with her hand against the side. They gasped.

“We don’t have time to fight. I need you all to move out now!” Snow ordered. “One of our group is probably in the process of fighting the boss of this castle. We need to go assist!”

Confused at her outburst, they stood in place.

“You heard the lady.” Olgom was the first to snap out of the stupor. He slammed the end of his battle-ax onto the ground with a loud thud. “Let’s move out!”

Scampering feet could be heard, running around as pots and pans were put away. Some were woken awake, but they all hurried to get ready to move out. It didn’t take long.

Snow leaned over. She tapped Arachne’s shoulder. “How close is the group that’s about to arrive?”

“They are here.”

With an unexpected yell, a large group of Players stormed through the same door that they had come through.

“A spider?!” A familiar voice sounded out in alarm. “Why a damn spider?!”

The first to enter was Mike, he had a glowing white sword filled with electricity wrapped tightly around it. “Who cares. We kill it now, and we go save the others!”

They saw a large group of Players not too far away from Arachne. They turned their gaze at them, wondering who was making all the ruckus.

Mike halted, confusion riddled his gaze when he saw the others nonchalant attitude amongst the crowd. Arachne lazily stared back unamused with their sudden appearance.

“What in the world is going on here?” Mike spoke, gaping in front of him. His teammates all slowed down when they saw Mike not moving forward.

They even saw Snow standing on Arachne's back.

“Mike. Glad to see that you made it up safely,” Snow called from above.

“Snow?” Mike gaped, putting away his sword. He took a half a step forward but halted. Arachne was staring him down, making him incredibly uncomfortable. “What are you doing up there?”

“No time to explain. I need you guys to follow,” Snow tapped Arachne to go.

Arachne took it as a cue. She turned around, going a bit deeper into the room. The others quickly followed, not wanting to get left behind.

“If we go through this route, we should be able to enter from the side doors,” Arachne said, while quickly moving through the room. She ended up at another large door, and with a push of her legs, she kicked it open.

“Is there something I need to know?” Snow asked. She grabbed on, hoping not to fall off, but it wasn’t as easy as she thought.

“Yes, you will only be able to take a handful into the room,” Arachne said. “I’ll assist as best as I can.”

Arachne started to shift, her body shrinking to the point where Snow jumped off her back. She was now the size of a human with long black hair that reached up to her knee. Beautiful black and white traditional Japanese dress with spiderweb design was lined at the edge of her clothes. Her hair was pinned back by a spider clip that took a handful of her hair into a bun. Red eyes stared back. 

“I didn’t know you could change shapes.” Snow said, running next to her.

Throwing her hair back, Arachne rolled her eyes. “I just don’t want to.”

They came upon a door that was twice their size, but not as big as when Arachne could fit through.

“You first,” Arachne waved her hand in front of her. “I can’t go past it until you break it.”

Break it? Snow wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but she could hear the Player’s footsteps racing behind her as they finally caught up.

With one hand after another, Snow pushed open the door. The loud creaking sound of the door erupted open, allowing her to enter.

Arachne didn’t say anything as she was watching intently, but she followed behind when Snow walked through casually.

They entered into the long hallway. Snow continued forward; this time, they came upon a second door. With a push, Snow opened the door again and entered. It was a huge reception room, where it could hold a large number of people. Already, people were fighting against a tide of gargoyles, sweeping up from above.

Everyone dashed forward, crashing against the waves of gargoyles that persisted on the previous parties. The gargoyles realized that the new swarm of people made fighting a lot more challenging.

While the ones that were still fighting cheered in delight at the appearance of help. Any second now, they would have been overwhelmed.

Snow saw a large number of dead bodies all over the floor. Quickly, with a vast amount of energy in her body, she clapped her hands together in prayer and shouted, “Resurrection.”

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