Scott shields his face from the wild branches in his way, his eyes focused on his surroundings. He isn't a fighter; the only athletic sport he does in his world is swimming. He isn't interested in martial arts, he dislikes fencing, and he strays away from anything soccer-related.

Scott has always known that he's a bit different from his peers. His hobbies aren't the same as his friends, and he doesn't have any male siblings to bond with, either. His older sister is always working at the hospital and his younger sister is just like him, coping herself up in her room, preferring to be alone. His mother, a known workaholic, is hardly even at home.

However, whenever she is...

Scott frowns, refusing to dwell on that topic any further.

Harrington said that the spiders are often prowling in this forest, he thinks to himself, coming to a stop before a small clearing. But I haven't seen a single one since I entered.

Was he mistaken?

Scott turns his head to look Harrington who trails behind him hesitantly. The latter notices his gaze and immediately straightens his posture, coughing into his hand in an attempt to restore his bruised dignity.

"What?" he says, grumbling.

Scott tilts his head slightly. "Are you annoyed?" he asks bluntly.

"Hell no!" Harrington quickly denies, his eyes growing wide.

"I see," Scott says in a softer tone. "You're still scared."

He knows his words come out as teasing, but he oddly doesn't mind.

"Why don't you shut up this time?" Harrington says irritably, taking out his X-Blade and gripping the two hilts with his hands. "Anyway, be prepared."

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Seeing his mentor's sudden guarded stance causes Scott to summon his glass blade. "Do you sense something?"

"Haven't you noticed?" Harrington says somberly. "It's too quiet here."

Scott absently twirls the hilt of the glass sword in his hand. Because he isn't fully aware of what he's doing, the weapon suddenly slips out of his fingers and drops to the ground with a loud clang.

At that instant, Harrington hears it.

"Dodge it!" he yells, letting his body fall to the earth, dragging Scott along with him.

As soon as the words come out of his mouth, a large spider leg comes whooshing down on the space where their heads previously were. Both of them hear the ground crack audibly from the impact.

Scott can practically feel Harrington's cold, clammy hand on his upper arm.

Harrington lets go of him and uses the sword in his right hand to slice off the leg, causing the spider to shriek in pain.

"Stand up, Scott!" Harrington orders.

Scott immediately obeys, grabbing his glass sword and putting some distance between him and Harrington.

"See that bar?" the latter says, quickly gesturing towards the visible HP bar of the enormous spider. "Its life is now 175/200. If you cut off its remaining seven legs, you can defeat it! If not, aim for its eyes to deal great damage!"

Scott nods, processing the important information in his mind. Gripping his sword, he charges at the spider.

The creature sees him coming and snarls, two of its legs flying towards his chest. Scott grunts and tries to slice off the appendages with his sword, but he misses and one of them pierces his shoulder.

There isn't any pain, but Scott grabs his shoulder anyway out of reflex and backtracks as fast as he can.

In his mind, he sees his HP points.

470/480.

It doesn't hit that hard, Scott realizes as he takes a short breath. That's a good thing.

He watches as Harrington charges at the spider. The latter's movements are slow, probably due to his fear, but his skill with the X-Blade is fascinating for Scott to see. The man probably trained a lot to be able to use dual swords effectively, and it really shows.

Taking advantage of his brief moment of respite, Scott observes the spider's attack pattern.

Fighting in this game is kinda tough if you're not really a good sword-user in the first place... Scott muses. But other types can most probably handle this monster easily, like the Sorcerer Type...

"..." Scott's eyes narrow when Harrington dodges a lethal pierce to his torso.

That movement...

Something clicks in Scott's mind as he observes further.

...I see it! It only moves its body in a clockwise direction...

Gripping his sword tightly, Scott rushes forward with renewed vigor.

...and its blind spot is right in front of me!