Judging by the reddened face of the Knight Commander the man has been drinking. He was persistent in challenging the spider bodyguard. The spider in question remained bewildered by the provocative actions of the knight.

This seemed like the opportunity to show these humans that the spiders were no pushovers.

“This Knight wants to duel you.” The King of Spiders explained to the spider bodyguard.

“Understood. I accept.” It spoke the latter in human language.

“Finally, let's go outside.”

Everyone followed the knight to the Palace Gardens. Aurelius II was already gone leaving the devastation behind.

“What the hell happened here?” The Knight Commander asked the question everyone was wondering about.

“Magical experimentation.” King of Spiders waved it off.

“Never mind then. All it means is that I won’t need to hold back against this…” The Knight Commander gestured towards the spider.

The two opponents faced each other only meters apart. One of them was a proud Royal Knight, a Knight Commander of the Aurum Ordin. He wore shiny and exquisite heavy armour. On top of his helmet, there was a golden wreath and in his hand, he held a sharp longsword equally magnificent as the knight himself. The other was a spider clad in decorative armour. The armour was bright orange and decorated with gold, it was more show than protection. In the spider's hand, there was an axe. The axe had a faint bluish mist seeping out of its edge giving the weapon a mysterious aura.

The crowd of nobles surrounded the two. They were already gossiping trying to predict the outcome.

“Well, then let's begin.” The knight closed the visor of his helmet with a clang. “Duel!” His longsword glowed in white light indicating that some sort of a passive or attack skill was activated, and then he charged at the spider with a wide swing.

The sword clashed with the axe sending a shower of white particles of light. Somehow an axe deflected the sword.

“Bastard!” The knight cursed. “Flay Flurry.” He unleashed a relentless combination attack.

The spider was at a disadvantage, he didn't have either the second axe nor the proper shield. However, the apt use of the buckler helped it weather the assault. The said buckler even if Reinforced +2 cracked under the powerful blows. The flurry ended and the spider took the moment to retaliate. It stepped closer towards the knight preventing him from making a full swing of the sword again. The knight prepared a thrust instead, but he didn’t manage to finish it on time, he was kicked by a powerful kick of not one but two frontal spider legs and then sent flying in the air.

The knight fell on his back, his armour making a dull ring. If anything, this was the perfect moment for the spider to finish the duel, however, the spider did the honourable thing and let the Knight Commander to stand up and continue. It was clear the knight was embarrassed, even outraged.

“It won’t happen again!” He promised. “Side Slash, Rend.” The longsword glowed brighter and swung towards the spider at incredible speed.

It was impossible to dodge or parry, but the spider managed to reposition so that it could take the hit better. The long sword hit the armour piece but despite two powerful perks the sword didn’t manage to penetrate the reinforced armour.

“How!” Even the knight struggled to believe in the sturdiness of what must have been just decorative armour.

A spider swung his axe to retaliate but the knight either dodged or parried the blows. They exchanged swings for a few more times.

“Aha!” The knight had found an opportune moment. “Piercing Thrust!” He did as the skill implied.

“[Bastion].” The spider used one of his own perks.

The sword clanged as if it just hit an impenetrable wall. “Argh!” The shock the knight felt in his hands must have been unpleasant. “So you have tricks of your own. Overhead Slash.” He remained persistent.

Once again, the spider welcomed the attack stepping right under the sword. Spider had two more uses of Bastion, so negating the attack wouldn’t be a problem. But it didn’t even need to use that. Instead, the spider raised the axe to block the coming slash and due to the spider’s unique anatomy he was able to lunge and even kick at the knight without losing balance; six legs had its advantages.

Sure, the sword hit the axe hilt and even managed to scar it, but once again the knight was sent flying. He landed on his back dirtying the not so shiny anymore armour even further. It was plain and clear that even if the Knight Commander had skills and expertise in duelling he had no experience in fighting monsters. And once again he made himself to look like a fool.

People were gossiping and trying to understand why the knight despite the power of his holy sword kept finding himself at a disadvantage.

The Knight Commander stood up, moved his sore joints and spat. “Come at me!” He took a defensive stance. “Alert.” He invoked another perk.

This time it was the spider who initiated the attack.

“[Ice Slash].”

The elemental attack gave the axe more range than it should have, hence surprising the knight. However, his Alert skill allowed him to react in time and block the icy assault with the side of his longsword. Magic washed over the holy longsword, and the longsword was fine but his arms were frosted. He could feel that bite even through his gloved hand.

“Ice Enchantment.” The knight identified correctly.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

However, the spider wasn’t here to chat.

“[Overwhelm].” It chirped.

The knight, of course, once again reacted in time. The sharpened edges of two weapons connected spewing magical sparks around. The Knight Commander was unable to parry, he had to weather the full blow. However, his arms strained from exertion, there was just a simple fact: the spider was stronger than him. The Knight Commander maintained the block not allowing the axe to slip past his longsword, however, he was forced down to his knees and to an embarrassing position.

“Empower Holy!” He screamed out of the top of his lungs.

This was his trump card and a special skill the holy longsword had. It provided him with a buff to his strength and resilience plus an Elemental Holy damage. Finally, he was able to push the oppressive axe up and stand proudly again as a Knight of Aurum should. Holy light radiated from the sword, and unexpectedly it even weakened his opponent. It might be his imagination but that dark chitin on the spider seemed to smoulder and burn.

The spider shrieked a terrible cry. The overwhelming weight of the axe lessened even further so the knight was able to push it away. “Holy Slash.” He used the power of the longsword.

“[Bastion].” It chirped.

Once again the longsword failed to go past the armour, but the Holy element did its thing forcing the spider to shriek again in pain.

“Ha, I should have known. Holy is your weakness.” The knight smiled viciously.

He was no Paladin, so he couldn't cast those spells, but he had a holy sword and as long as Empower Holy lasted he would deal Holy damage.

The spider glared at him, the four eyes looked serious for the first time.

“[Dark Cloak].” A coat of darkness shrouded the spider.

“What is this? Never mind. Holy Flurry.” The knight unleashed a flurry of attacks.

They did hit but somehow he failed to land a good blow and the damage remained superficial.

“[Shadow Form].” The spider turned into a shadowy silhouette of darkness.

“What?” The knight's longsword went through the spider like it was just a cloud.

There was no physical damage but by the sound of the spider’s cries, he’d dealt a significant Holy damage. However, not expecting an incorporeal body he over swung the sword and the shadowy spider closed the distance and even managed to flank him from the side.

Now, the Knight Commander was wide open. The shadowy spider returned to its normal form and swung the axe threateningly, yet the enchanted stats allowed the knight to turn just in time and block that axe.

Or he would have done so, but it was all a feint.

“[Blinding Strike]” It wasn’t an axe but a fist which slammed right to the face of the knight.

This was a magical attack so even through a visored helmet he found himself affected and afflicted with Blind. Blind was the real debuff but also there was confusion within the knight's mind. He could understand an enchanted weapon doing this to him but not a fist. This meant that the spider here was also a caster. He should have figured this out earlier, Dark Shroud and Shadow Form were good indicators for that; he mistakenly had attributed those to the temporary skills the equipment could provide.

The punch didn’t manage to do much physical damage, due to the helmet and all that. So he was able to retaliate with the longsword in time and ward the spider off. Yes, he was blinded but he still could use his other senses to judge where the spider was. And unfortunately for the spider, he was trained to do that. The dance of those six spidery legs wasn’t as quiet as the spider assumed.

The spider had no intention of launching another melee attack.

“[Dark Bolt].”

A projectile hit the knight's leg and made him lose balance. And only then did he feel impending doom.

“[Slay]” A spider chirped ruthlessly.

The knight felt his whole life flash in just a moment. He raised his sword, “Smite.” He invoked using up the rest of the Empower Holy; making a move made out of desperation.

Once again the spider cried in a tortured voice, its aim worsened and the arms powering the descending axe weakened. However, the spider persevered but the axe strayed from the aim of hitting the head and slashed at the chest cutting the knight's chest piece in half and making a nasty gash in his chest. He was lucky it was not his neck. Blood oozed from the split chest and there was the sight of exposed ribs.

To continue would mean death. “I concede!” Knight Commander cried. “[Heal]” A golden wreath atop his head glowed in equally golden light, the light enveloped his body and mended his split ribs and opened flesh.

There was silence. Of course, there was, The Knight Commander knew that he had disappointed the nobles, that he had failed to protect the dignity of this kingdom. He struggled to swallow the idea that he was just bested by a monster. He even was forced to use the Wreath of Aurum to save himself from certain death. All of this just felt so unfair.

“Monster, you are a magus!” Even though he realised how indignant he must sound, yet he still shouted. “This duel was unfair!” The spider was more like a Paladin in this situation, and even then in duels like this, magic and all else was a fair play.

The Blind debuff wore off. He saw a spider standing there, the decorative armour half melted and its chitin smouldering. Yeah, the Smite did a number on the spider. Did he concede needlessly? – No, one more blow from the spider’s axe and he would have died.

The indignant cries from the knight were ignored and the nobles, servants and everyone around broke the silence and cheered the spider.

“This was amazing!” A young noble cheered excitedly.

“Best Duel I’ve seen.” A guard nodded in agreement.

“I thought they might die.” A woman voiced with worry.

“My spiders are really something.”

“I want bodyguards like these.” A merchant eyed the spider with the eyes of greed.

“…” A servant looked at the spider even with more terror than before.

Such and so was spoken.

“I… I apologise and retract my previous statement.” The knight stepped closer to the spider and offered his hand.

The spider chirped something happily and shook on it.

“Get a healing potion for the spider.” The Knight Commander shouted hoping to regain even if a smidgen of his honour.

He eyes the spider once again. He ruled that this creature was indeed a resilient opponent, something not to make enemies with. And this was just a spider bodyguard… He was unsure if he ever wanted to duel their general or someone like that.

“This was more intense than I thought it would get.” The King of Spiders finally stepped in. “Both of you did very well.” He congratulated. “I think the duel is concluded, and we can go back to celebrations, no?”

The nobbles seemed to agree and everyone walked back to the Great Hall.

The Knight Commander remained standing in his spot. At first, he thought that the barbaric monster didn’t belong here in the Palace and that the sight disgraced the Aurum Ordin and the knights as a whole. But now, he realised that there was more to the spiders, and also that they weren’t an enemy one would wish to make. The reality was that the monsters were already here, and if anything it was best to keep the relationship friendly. Or even better, use the might of this unlikely ally for the benefit of the Human Kingdom.

“Yes, I will do that. I will petition King Aurelius II to…” curry the favour with the King of Spiders and eventually enlist the spiders for the defence of the Human Kingdom, at least as mercenaries or something like that. “Yes…” Why use decent men to fight the looming war when you can enlist formidable monsters to do that for you? The price of such mercenaries will be hefty, but he felt that it will be worth it.

The plan began to hatch in his mind.