POV Julius Crimson

“Burn up.” Julius Crimson growled as he mentally commanded the flames surrounding him to flare up and begin eating into the spiders, trying to swarm him.

Feeling a slight resistance in the flames attacking the spiders, he focused on forcing the temperature to drastically increase, punching through their bodies and melting the ground around him in a quick white flare.

As his eyes took in the scene, the crackle of the fire and the heat called to him like a siren song, and he released the tight leash he had on the flames, letting it go wild and rapidly burn through his surroundings in wave after wave of surging blue fire.

The air before him began wavering from the heat, and as he reveled in the fire, several trees began toppling to the ground while the brush and shrubs around him immediately turned to dust. Seeing the fire begging to spread rapidly as tongues of flame licked his bare feet, he took a deep breath, and the fire followed suit and lowered in intensity as he forcibly calmed himself down.

“Gotta reel it in before the kid starts complaining. Need a damn cigarette.” Julius muttered as his hands reached into his pockets in a familiar motion but came out empty.

Just as he was about to enter the now-cleared entrance, he heard a scream and, glancing back, spotted a figure with a familiar mop of red hair falling down with her hands clutching a large scythe.

“Get away from me, you unshelled monster core,” Lina yelled out while swinging her scythe wildly.

Seeing tiny spiders falling along with her, Julius killed flames on the ground and sent a fire blast over her body, carefully weaving the flames around her and burning the spiders to ash.

“Hot, hot, hot!” Lina yelled out before landing perfectly on her feet. Without delay, she planted her scythe on the ground and squatted as she began digging through the gray ash.

Julius snorted in disbelief, seeing her utterly oblivious appearance as if she were on a field trip.

“Why are you down here, shorty? Where’s the kid?”

“We got attacked by spiders while destroying the webs on top, but I’m sure he’s fine. He seemed to have it under control.” Lina carelessly replied as she continued digging through the ashes without looking up.

“And what are you supposed to be doing?”

“I was waiting for Asani’s signal.”

“I meant right now.”

“Looking for monster cores.”

“You don’t plan on going back to help the kid?”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine on his own. I’ll find him when I’m done.”

“It seems you’re pretty jobless then. Come with me.”

“I don’t want to.” Lina looked up, shooting him a glare before continuing to dig around.

“I wasn’t asking. If the webs are destroyed up top, I’ll just throw you up from the inside. You can get your cores later.” Without waiting for a response, Julius quickly walked over, grabbed and threw her over his shoulder, and began entering the hole as she struggled.

“You thug! Let me go!”

“Shut up, shorty. I’m in a bad mood.” Julius smacked her on the back before continuing to walk inside.

“Perv! Lecher!” Lina pounded his back angrily, and Julius couldn’t help but snort at the surprisingly heavy hits.

“Who the hell wants an underdeveloped shorty like you? Stay still, Meraki.”

As he strode in, all Julius could see was white webs crisscrossed and spread everywhere.

Taking a deep breath, Julius gathered mana in his mouth, converting it into flames, and spat it in a long stream as he turned his head from side to side.

As the webs caught on fire, more spiders began swarming forward, and with each step he took, Julius sent out wave after wave of blue flames while keeping a heat zone of protection around his and Lina’s bodies.

Despite the fire burning scores of them to ashes, the spiders continued swarming him with no signs of stopping or trying to escape.

Watching them continually run toward him in a suicidal charge, Julius flipped Lina around and asked her in confusion.

“Shorty. What were you discussing with the kid? This is too easy. I could have done it by myself while you both rescued the student. And where’s Lionel?”

“It’s not shorty. It’s Lina.” Lina grumbled angrily.

“Dont care. Answer me.”

“So cranky. Is this nicotine withdrawal? You know, for a small fee of points, I can provide you with some cigarettes once I get my pack.”

“Shorty!”

As flames shot out of Julius’ nose, Lina gulped before answering meekly.

“I don’t know about Lionel, but Asani said there was a giant spider hidden in the central cavern. I was supposed to create a golem to attack it at his order. Come to think of it, I think I spotted him on the rock getting attacked by some spiders. Well, I’m sure he’s okay; I’m sure he’s not stupid enough to die.

“…he was getting attacked by spiders?”

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“Yeah. It looked like he got blitzed and knocked around a bit, ahaha.”

“Dammit. You couldn’t have said that earlier? I don’t have to waste on these small fry. Just stay close to me.” Julius immediately dropped her on the ground and began running.

As he ran, his legs, hair, and part of his arms became covered with blue flames as he began gathering mana in front of him and condensing it. Bit by bit, the mana began igniting the very air with blue flames hotter than before, and he mentally tried to force the unruly flames into a compact shape.

Feeling the flames rebel and begin spreading out of his control, he began focusing on the imagery he wanted and growled, “Tarākona Ahi!”.

Almost immediately, a sleek, wingless dragon made of flames formed, and he sent it crashing forward ahead of him, its mouth open in a silent roar as it swept through everything without stopping, leaving behind only ashes that softly floated about.

As Julius burst through the opening created by the fire dragon, his attention immediately went to the most enormous spider he had ever seen, slowly unfurling its body as numerous smaller spiders trailed down. Almost blocking the hole above it from its sheer size, its black hairy leg was swinging in the air and slammed against a small balled-up figure holding a large shield.

Thwack!

The figure flew straight into the wall, and as they fell to the ground, a trail of blood was left behind like ink smeared from a paintbrush.

“Kid!”

Cursing his inability to create mana barriers, Julius continued running as he controlled the fire dragon to fly ahead of him as fast as possible. Even as he approached, the giant spider struck the shield again, breaking it into pieces that flew all over.

As it reared up to strike again, Julius sent the fire dragon to attack the raised leg while crafting flames on the ground beneath the spider and sending fireballs toward its eyes.

A black shadow yanked Asani to the side at the last moment, toppling him over.

With a surprising display of agility, the spider easily dodged the fireballs and fire dragon while it slammed its legs on the ground, forcibly stomping out the flames.

There was a momentary lull as Julius and the spider stared at each other. Then, one by one, various spears of different shapes and sizes began to appear, along with sparkling bottles filled with black liquid. As he watched, a shield appeared before Asani, and his entire figure seemed to fade away.

One by one, the floating spears begin to fly at the monster while the potion bottles drop with mini explosions that don’t catch the spider’s fire.

The spider nimbly avoided spears aiming for it. Still, as if they had a homing signal on them, the weapons relentlessly pursued the spider until they found a spot to penetrate or slash across the spider’s body in a vicious manner.

“You doing that?”

“Nope.” Lina cheerfully replied.

“What a vicious kid. Shorty, go and treat him and get him out of here. I’ll take care of this big boy.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lina muttered as her eyes flashed red, and she began running toward the last spot Asani was in.

Turning back to the spider, he gave it a dark smile.

“You’re dead.”

It was the only warning he gave it.

Allowing the lure of the flames to consume him, Julius allowed his entire body to ignite in bright blue flames, burning away the last bit of his clothing. Watching summoned weapons relentlessly attack the spider, Julius couldn’t get angrier.

Even injured, the kid hadn’t given up. As someone contracted to protect him and having failed in that regard, he couldn’t be caught slacking anymore. It had to go.

As mana gathered in his hands, they began glowing with a blue-white light. Dashing straight at the spider, he struck out with a punch. As it tried to slam its legs at him, he quickly opened his hands and positioned one behind him, and white flames began to shoot out, blasting him up into the air. With a quick flip, Julius landed on the opposite side of the spider.

The moment he landed, he dashed directly under it, jumping upward and slamming flame-covered fists into the hard abdomen and pulling himself up while green puss sizzled as it leaked out and dried on his hands. Slamming his feet into the spider’s body and hooking them in, he began relentlessly pounding it.

Fist, elbow, knee, head, he continued ripping out any piece of its body he could grab while it shuddered and shrieked as it tried to dislodge him from its body.

When the smaller spiders began crawling on the extensive body to get him, he simply sent out repeated shockwaves of flames while ripping the body apart.

Eventually, the spider stopped flailing, and Julius found himself surrounded by burnt spider parts like macabre confetti as he panted from exertion.

Taking several deep breaths, Julius slowly began calming down, recovering pieces of his body as the flames went away and trying to regulate his remaining mana and calm his body down.

Once he was back to normal, fully naked except for blue boxers that matched his hair, he began walking to the last place he saw Asani.

As if sensing his arrival, a shield was pushed down, and the bloody body appeared. Spotting Asani sitting still with a potion in his mouth, Julius sighed with relief.

“Kid!”

“Shut the hell up and stop screaming. My head is pounding.”

Seeing the normally emotionless face covered in blood while the golden eyes calmly evaluated the surroundings and hearing the familiar rude tone, Julius couldn’t help but laugh. It seemed that the kid was fine.

“You’re doing a shitty job protecting me; you know that, Crimson?” Asani replied in a dry voice as he rolled his golden eyes.

“My bad.”

“Whatever. How long have I been out?” Asani asked calmly as his eyes looked over the cave, taking in the shredded pieces of spider confetti and ashes floating in the background.

“Couple minutes. I saw you get slammed. How are you feeling?”

“Like shit which is what I assume I look like,” Asani replied dryly, “Why are you almost naked?”

“Flames are too hot, and I didn’t have time to take my clothes off. Boxers are made of my hair, so it’s heatproof.”

“Gross.”

Seeing the disgusted expression on his face, Julius burst out laughing, “Maybe so, but it’s more comfortable than metal boxers and way better than being naked.”

“Whatever. Update me on the situation.” Asani rudely ordered, still looking around the place as if he were searching for something before his eyes focused on something behind Julius.

“Lionel is MIA. Spiders are dead.”

“Are you sure?”

“What does that mean?”

“Take a look behind you.”

Julius immediately turned around, but the scene behind him looked the same except for small rumbling sounds coming from the ground.

“I don’t see anything?”

“Tsk. Your eyes are really just for show. Don’t you have, I don’t know, heat sense?” Asani replied in irritation.

“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but I’m positive it’s not how that works.”

“So you don’t send out waves of fire like echolocation to determine the position and size of objects?”

“…Okay. That is exactly how that works. How do you know that?” Julius replied with a somewhat surprised expression.

“My eyes are very good.” Asani gave him a sharp smile. “Check it.”

Complying obediently, Julius sent out quick pulses of fire that swept across the visible area.

As he observed the path of the flames, he felt his flames disappearing when approaching the widening hole in the ground. Focusing his flames on the spot, a large limb appeared as it exited out of the hole before it wavered and disappeared once more.

Forcing flames to constantly blast the figure, the entirety of it was finally exposed.

It was a spider that was slightly larger than the previous one. Rather than the black hair that the other spiders had, this one was completely white with silvery white strands that looked firm. The legs seemed to be made out of metal and shone with a wicked light. Its eyes glowed red rather than green, and it had silver armored plates surrounding its body.

As it spun around and chittered, green liquid dripped from its jaws, sizzling as it fell to the ground. Unconcerned with the two of them, the spider chittered angrily as it agilely spun around and ate pieces of spiders lying around it.

“Any chance those silver plates are just for aesthetics?”

“You wish. How’s your mana?”

“Low. I can’t do what I just did any time soon. Yours?

“Same.”

“Shit.”

“No need to worry. Our backup is coming. You just have to make sure he doesn’t kill you or me by accident and follow my lead.” Asani replied while slowly standing up and wiping the blood off his face.

Seeing the sharp smile Asani gave him as a shotgun appeared in his hands while the mimic wrapped itself around the neck with multiple snake heads hissing, he somehow felt a bit reassured.

“What’s the plan, kid?”

“Drink this and surround it with flames. Then go drag Lionel here while I keep it occupied.” Asani replied as he tossed a potion bottle with black liquid inside.

Catching the bottle and sniffing the contents, Julius gave Asani a skeptical look.

“Poison?”

“Just shut up and drink it, Crimson.”

“If I die, it’s on you. I’ll haunt you,” Julius muttered as he threw the potion back.

Shuddering at the immensely bitter taste, Julius glared at Asani as he began laughing.

Almost immediately, he felt his lacking mana begin to regenerate slowly.

“You can create potions, kid?”

“Nah, I have a storage gift. It’s where I get all my weapons.”

“Useful. You trust Lionel to help?”

“No, but it’s your job to keep an eye on him.”

“Should I just kill him first?”

“Can you do it quickly?”

Julius considered it for a moment before shaking his head. “Not with the mana I have now. It’ll be drawn out.”

“Then just drag him here and make him take point. Ah, but if he does try anything, I will be blowing his head off immediately, so save your mana since you might have to take the spider on by yourself while I snipe him.”

“And where is Meraki?”

“Hopefully, getting ready to make a cannonball. You remember what I said, right? I signal you, you dodge. Got it?”

“I got it, you rude punk.”

“Still talking shit to me after I almost died when you’re supposed to be protecting me?” Asani asked with a snarky expression.

“Don’t know why you’re blaming me. Everyone else stuck to the plan. It’s you that fucked it up by getting caught off guard. Also, you’re a shit scout. Look at that thing.”

“It was camouflaged, and this one was underground.”

“Aren’t your eyes supposed to be good? Who’s fault is that? Also, nobody else but you got attacked by a ‘camouflaged spider’. And then you somehow managed to miss an even bigger one.’”

“Accidents happened. At least I saw this one. You were about to relax, thinking you were done. Besides, I almost died. Who’s fault is that?”

“But you didn’t. And I said I was sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough. You owe me one. Say it.”

“I owe you one. Say it.” Julius parrotted with a laugh, fully expecting him to begin glaring again.

Instead, he received a gentle smile that sent chills down his back.

“Glad you agree. I’ve been looking for a guard dog, and I think you’ll do. Think about it.”

“Pass.”

“You don’t have a choice. Go fetch Lionel. It looks like he’s done rescuing students. Time to put the bastard to work.”

Julius: “……”

Asani chuckled as he began aiming his shotgun.

Sighing, Julius brushed his hair back before stepping forward as a ring of fire began surrounding the silver spider.

“Stay behind me, kid. And don’t die. I’ll be back.”