Ron and Scarlett walked through the forest, they looked around and saw more cobwebs around the bushes and trees. Ron was a little on guard for the inevitable fight with spiders. Ron luckily didn't have arachnophobia but he didn't know if that would still be the case after encountering the spiders.
Soon enough Ron and Scarlett heard some skittering around, eventually Ron and Scarlett saw the spiders. There were 2 of them walking towards them, they were big, they came to Ron's shins and had fur all over their bodies with big abdomens.
*Chhh* The spiders hissed at Ron and Scarlett before focusing on Ron. It seems like they thought Ron was the easier target, not that they were wrong.
"Seems like they like you Ron" Scarlet teased Ron a little. She wasn't going to interfere in Ron's fights if they picked a fight with her she would take them on.
"Great, I'm the fan favourite among spiders" Ron groaned a little before getting ready with his whip. He was keen to test the whip against spiders to see how it would fare against them.
One of the spiders hissed some more and then jumped at Ron, it flew into the air wanting to latch onto Ron and pump him full of venom. Ron whipped at the spider that flew at him and hit it right in the face. A burning sound emitted and the spider was flung backwards. It rolled around for a bit before laying on its back and curling its legs inward, it was dead.
Ron didn't expect to kill it in one shot however the whip cut straight through its hard shell and burned its brain killing it instantly. The other spider looked at Ron and decided to retreat, it didn't think it could kill Ron and decided to report back to the hive.
Seeing the other spider retreat Ron had a bad feeling "You don't think we stumbled upon a spider hive right?" He looked at Scarlett who nodded her head and just said "Probably".
A spider hive would mean having to trudge through spider infested territory for a while getting pelted with spiders constantly. It was going to be a long day for sure. After continuing walking for about 20 minutes more spiders suddenly came this time they came to pick a fight with Scarlett.
"Looks like I'm not the favourite anymore" Ron teased Scarlett back for the earlier comment.
"Psh, let me show them I'm not easy to pick on" Scarlett scoffed at the spiders. It would be one of the first fights Ron had seen Scarlett do. "I suppose I could show you a technique you're going to learn," She said after thinking for a while. This made Ron focus a little bit more.
"One of your weaknesses when it comes to unarmed combat is piercing, you don't have the power to rupture their organs so you need piercing. Piercing is also useful to creatures with hard exoskeletons like these spiders". Scarlett explained while the spider was getting ready to jump at her.
The spider jumped at Scarlett hoping to latch on, Ron didn't look at the spider, only focusing on Scarlett. Scarlett on the other hand looked calm suddenly muscles in her right forearm and right hand bulged a little before her nails suddenly elongated and grew sharper.
Ron's eyes bulged out from surprise, he had seen this move before! ('Isn't this-') Before Ron could finish his train of thought Scarlett moved. She stabbed with her right hand straight through the spider skewering it onto her arm, it stopped moving instantly.
"With proper training and muscle control you can make your hands into sharp claws. The technique is literally named claws" Scarlett said looking at Ron not at all worried about the other spider that was still here.
"Believe or not I've seen this technique before, it was used by a very popular assassin," Ron said to Scarlett, surprising her in return. The assassin Ron mentioned was Killua from Hunter X Hunter. He never thought learning a move from an animated show would be possible.
"I thought your world wasn't that dangerous?" Scarlett was a little confused. Ron had told her about his world and that it was mostly run on money.
"Correct it was on an animated tv show" Ron explained to Scarlett the whole process. Trying to get her to understand that it was pure fiction in his world. Meanwhile the other spider also retreated back to the darkness.
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"I don't fully understand it but whatever seems like the spiders are testing us" Scarlett had a mild headache trying to follow everything Ron was saying, the culture shock was too different.
"Indeed, I wonder what will come next, maybe groups?" Ron had also noticed the spiders seemed intelligent and probably had a capable leader.
They continued to walk and soon more spiders had indeed arrived. These were different however, the first couple of spiders had jet black fur and nothing else of notice, these ones however had tufts of green fur mixed in between.
"I wonder what they can do, spit poison? Or maybe shoot some web?" Ron guessed its special ability from games he had played in the past it usually boiled down to these two abilities.
Sure enough the green tuft spider took a look at Ron hissed for a bit before shooting out a green stream from its fangs. Ron quickly stepped aside and the stream hit the ground making a hissing sound as the grass corroded instantly.
"Looks like it spits poison, goodluck with that" Scarlett gave commentary from the side, she made it clear that if something attacked Ron he would have to deal with it alone and only when he was completely outclassed would she step in.
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious" Ron groaned a little before getting the whip ready. He didn't want to get touched by that venom; he didn't have an antidote and zero wish points meant death if it touched him.
The other spider seemed intent on just watching what would happen. It was clear it was going to retreat the moment the green tuft spider would perish. Ron waited for the spider to shoot venom again before going in for the kill, spiders needed time to reproduce their venom and in that moment it would be vulnerable.
The green tuft spider got tired of waiting and shot another green stream of venom at Ron who again sidestepped and quickly rushed the spider. Not expecting Ron to rush at it, it wanted to jump away to gain some distance but it was too late. The whip suddenly came and cut open its head, burning its brain the same as before.
The smart thing would've been to kill the watching spider first since then it couldn't give intel back to the leader, yet Ron and Scarlett were interested in what other spiders they might have in store.
"Want to bet you're next?" Ron said to Scarlett. It was clear what sort of pattern was happening here.
"That's not even a bet and you know it" Scarlett deadpanned at Ron.
And like Ron predicted a new green tuft spider came a short while later and was keen on attacking Scarlett, the way she dealt with it was plain and extremely simple. She just picked up a rock from the ground and hurled it hard at the spider with the rock exiting out the other side.
"Show off," Ron scoffed. She didn't even move to deal with that spider.
"Little jealous?" Scarlett teased Ron, it was no secret he was a little envious of her prowess.
"Whatever, lets see what the next spider is" Ron played it off like he didn't care even though he really was a little jealous. He wanted that kind of power in order to explore the tower fully.
They bantered while they walked through the forest, sure enough the next spider however it wasn't quite what Ron and Scarlett had expected.
"Isn't he a little big for a spider?" Ron asked nervously. In front of him was a huge spider that towered over him hissing at him. It was definitely a scary scene and even scarier realisation hit Ron a minute later, if this wasn't the mother spider was the mother even bigger?
"Seems like they're bringing out the big ones now" Scarlett said. The spider would still be no problem for her however Ron might fare differently. Still she was giving him a chance first before she would jump in.
Ron on other hand got serious and concentrated on the spider, since entering the kindling stage he only had to concentrate and he would enter the meditative state heightening his senses. A small amount of pressure exuded from Ron as the big spider turned its attention to him.
It seemed to hesitate whether to engage in combat or not, this was not what was told in the intel so it seems the intel was false. The human in front of it was stronger than they had estimated. The humans had to be eliminated before they could grow stronger.
The big spider charged at Ron wanting to bite him in two, Ron lashed out with the whip hitting its face. The spider hissed in pain but was still alive this momentary lapse in judgement caused Ron to be slapped back by a flailing leg. Ron quickly got back up and wiped the blood from his mouth, he got lucky that it wasn't a hard hit or else he might have been crippled.
The spider seemed to regain its senses as it hissed madly at Ron and rushed at him once more. ('Seems like this spider can't jump') Ron noted as it got closer, if it could jump it would've done it a long time ago. Ron readied the whip once more this time not aiming at its face.
*Crack* The whip shot out at one of the legs of the spider cutting it off cleanly causing the spider to stumble a little. Ron jumped back and repeated the process for all 8 of its legs causing it to be immoble, after that Ron finished it off.
"Phew, got a little cocky at the beginning there" Ron breathed a small sigh of relief.
"Indeed you did, never be cocky about unknown opponents of the same strength as you" Scarlett told Ron. It may seem hypocritical of her as she's done nothing but be cocky however the spiders were way too weak for her to be serious.
"Still it seems these spiders are going to get tougher. Should we continue?" Ron asked Scarlett for her opinion. She confirmed they were getting tougher however still no trouble for her so they moved on.
Soon enough another big spider came down and wanted a fight with Scarlett. Scarlett obliged and the two fought, the spider rushed at Scarlett however instead of dodging Scarlett just stood there. When the spider was within striking distance she simply punched and smashed the head of the spider in. It wasn't showy, it was just simple.
"Think there are bigger spiders?" Scarlett asked Ron.
"Only the mother is probably bigger, these spiders seem extremely simple otherwise" Ron noticed how the spiders only had one special each. The regular ones can jump and are agile, the green tuft ones can spray venom and the big spiders are sturdy.
They walked further into the forest and it seemed like the cobwebs got thicker and more frequent. No more spiders came down, it seems like they gave up? That didn't seem likely though.
Skittering could be heard from time to time so the spiders were still here but they were only observing for now, almost as if they were waiting for someone or something. *thud* *thud* Faint thuds could be heard almost as if something big was making its way over them.
The thuds came closer and soon they saw what it was, a gigantic 10 metre tall spider was breathing at them, soon all sorts of spiders came out of the shadows all in total there were 10 normal black spiders, 5 green tuft spiders and 2 big spiders.
*Ding* an alarm rang out in Ron's mind but he didn't dare to check it now, they were surrounded by spiders everywhere and they all wanted them both dead.