‘Let’s see what kind of shape I’m in.’ In the blink of an eye, I scaled one of the kingdom trees. Trees taller than giants made up the majority of the great forest canopy. ‘I’m a bit slow, not jumping very high, but my magic feels stronger so that makes up for it in my movements as long as I have mana.’

Casually leaning from the tree like a monkey I slowly looked out over the forest floor and focused on the singular goal of hunting. I almost became an animal, and as far as I was concerned, the wargs had become my prey.

‘The tree tops are safer than the ground. Giant spiders are dangerous enough when they aren’t above you, and with their acid spit that melts iron, I’d be in for a tough fight if they surrounded me without me knowing. The soldiers tend to be bad climbers too.’

I jumped from tree to tree, avoiding any webs I saw and using magic to lessen the noise from all the movement. If there was one thing I learned quickly, it was that monsters were far easier to kill when they didn't see you coming. Because of this, I had all of my gear, firmly fastened in place with leather straps. My large knife at my belt, my smaller knife, my spear, my ax, and my sword, all strapped down or in my storage so as not to rattle around while I moved.

After picking up the trail from a small pack of wargs, I followed it, tracking them by a combination of scent and tracks, even from far above them.

Before long growling and barking echoed from the forest floor along with whimpers. As I got closer I began to understand why. The wargs were locked in combat with several of the giant spiders.

‘Holly sparks… It’s bad enough that the spiders are hunting the other animals?’ My first instinct was to run. After all, it would have been insane to take on 5 wargs and 7 giant spiders at once. Luckily none of them had noticed me, so it wouldn't be difficult to just turn away. Maybe it was the alcohol… But I took a moment to think twice. ‘On the other hand, there fighting right? What would the numbers look like after the fight ends, something more like 0 to 3?’

One meal was only going to hold me off for so long. I needed money, and I needed food. Furthermore, if I went back empty-handed I wouldn’t have a place to spend the night.

I further analyzed the situation, taking another, more critical look at what was happening.

‘With those numbers, I don't see this being a close fight. Especially if the spiders were bold enough to start it themselves… First, let's try to even the odds, I just need to make sure they can’t trace me.’

pulling out my spear, I lobbed it across the forest, striking a spider right through the abdomen. ‘Well… It hit at least.’

I quickly ducked behind the tree to stay out of sight. ‘My aim’s a bit off. It’s still going to die, but since I missed its head it won’t be nearly as valuable.’ Letting out a mental sigh I slowly inched around the tree to get my eyes back on the fight. ‘5 to 6’

It was clear the spiders were the predators, but with one down it was almost an even fight, and Warg's teeth and claws were more than sharp enough to cut the spider’s thread. Not to mention their thick hides made them almost immune to the venom from the webs. More growls and roars mixed with cries as acid spit and bloody guts flew across the forest floor.

‘Sense when could wargs jump so far…’ It felt like something had changed in the great forest, and it was making me even more anxious. By the end of the gruesome battle, the wargs ended up losing two, while the spiders lost four, retreating into the treetops, wrapping their prey in cocoons of webbing and dragging them away.

‘I have to get them before they reach the nest.’ I put a tracking spell on one of the wargs that was still alive so I could find them later, and tailed the spiders. I wasn't worried about the remaining wargs following us. The forest floor was thick with webs, and even though they could be cut down, it would take a long time to get through so many.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘You guys are pretty weighed down right now huh.’ Even though the wargs couldn’t follow them, they weren’t going very fast, so it was easy to catch up with them and wait a bit to make my move to make sure we gained some distance from the wargs just in case.

Finally, I found the perfect place to make my move. They were escaping across a thin web that connected several trees. It was a long stretch that led them right into clear sight. “Gotcha.”

I hurled my ax across the forest, cutting off several legs of the spider in front, making it stop and block the path for the one behind it. ‘Perfect. Now, I can’t scorch them without damaging their parts, but a little fire should help me out here.’

I threw my arm forward and a small arrow of fire shot out of my palm lighting up the thin webs and sending both spiders falling to the ground. ‘And then before they can recover.’ I jumped down to a lower branch, swung from it to an even lower one, and from there leaped several dozen feet and landed directly over the uninjured spider, jamming my longsword into its neck to cut its head off. ‘So far so good.’

Quickly flicking my sword to wipe off any blood or acid I turned to face the last one. ‘It’s injured, so it shouldn't be too hard. I just have to watch my–’

It spat acid at me in a stream that I was just barely able to dodge because of the distance. Without even thinking I reflexively countered by throwing my large knife at it, but it dodged, escaping with just another scratch, despite having three missing legs.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me…’

My mouth went dry and I could feel sweat dripping from my brow. I knew the right move was to charge it before it could create more acid, but I hesitated, freezing up, wondering if I missed my window already, or if I ever even had one.

Acid dripped from its mouth onto the ground like syrup that melted everything it touched. It wasn’t like the other one. You wouldn’t be able to tell from appearance, only from the way it drooled after spitting. ‘Why is one of these here!’

It was a steamer, rather than a spider, the difference was that the one in front of me could regulate how much they spat out at a time, leaving some in the tank, so then when you closed in thinking you had a window you’d get your face melted off.

In a panic I threw my other knife, hoping to end it without getting close. It flew through the air striking the spider in the abdomen, missing its head, making the attack far from lethal because of its small blade.

All I had left was my sword, which I kept regripping over and over. No matter what I did I couldn’t get it to sit in my hands quite right as I carefully watched for the spider's next move.

‘Come on…’ I tried to steady my hands, but the longer it stared at me the more nervous I got. It felt like I was just waiting to die again. ‘I need to move. I need to do something…’ A part of me wanted to just throw my sword at it too so I wouldn't have to get close, that way I wouldn't have to risk the acid burning through my skin to the bone… If I missed though, I would be dead, no questions asked.

I slowly circled around it, deciding to wait for it to spit at me again before I charged, nervously keeping my eyes on its mouth as the acid stopped dripping to the ground like someone had fixed the leaky faucet. ‘It’s about to make it’s move.’ Out of nowhere, a warg bit its head off.

Chills ran through my body as I frantically tried to make sense of what was happening. I looked over to the cocoon the spiders were carrying away, and one of them was now empty.

‘It was still alive!’ I quickly looked over to the other one which was also clearly moving but seemed to be struggling to break free.

My stomach turned. My gut was telling me to run again, but I was running low on mana, so scaling trees was a bit more difficult, and outrunning wargs that were faster than any other I had seen seemed like a no-go. I felt like I had to fight, and I knew I didn't have time to think. I had already hesitated way too much.

‘Gotta make this quick.’ I rushed in and swung my sword, but the beast grinned menacingly, deflecting my blade with its teeth. I quickly struck it with the pommel of my blade sending it to the ground, but it was back on its feet in a flash.

‘This dog is sword-fighting me with its teeth?’ I groaned. ‘This is why I hate this place…’

My hands regripped my blade again as the other Warg finished freeing itself and they grouped together. I tried to take a deep breath to calm down, but before I could they charged.

I stuck one with my sword as it jumped, blocking the other with my arm. The pressure of its jaws clamping down on my armored hand nearly snapped my bones as it forced me to the ground. ‘One down.’

Pushing the corpse off of me I let go of my sword and changed my focus, letting go of my sword to better maneuver at close range. It continued gnawing at me, biting into my arm and placing its claws on my shoulder. Leveraging my own weight I flexed my arm and flipped over the top of it, jabbing its ribs as hard as I could to make it let go.

It whipped its neck around to my other hand, which unfortunately had no protection due to budgeting reasons. ‘Eat this.’ Just before it closed its jaws water shot from my fingers, enough water to fill its throat till it choked and gagged, starting to twitch as it pulled away from me.

Finally catching my breath, I stood up, pulled my sword from the other warg corpse, and easily decapitated it while it was choking.

It was finally over. ‘Ok I did it, that's two. Two down Four to go.’ My feet stopped still as my thoughts repeated. ‘Two down… Four to go… Sparks.’