Hidden in the Shadows

-----Fabian's POV

Still grasping hold of the letter my sister left for me, we continue to stare out the window as it seems as though the sounds of explosions are not stopping, with smoke polluting more and more of the city in the northern sector. It definitely screams as if we're under attack, but from what? I can't really see clearly.

Leon: "Let's go."

All of a sudden, the north part of the wall collapsed from an even larger explosion.

Fabian: "Y-yeah!"

I stuff the letter into my pocket before running outside the mansion with Prince Leon. With us now being outside, the sounds of screams and the explosions could be heard a lot more clearly. Not wasting anymore time, we both start running through the streets where we came from.

Fabian: "Who's attacking us?"

Leon: "I don't know."

A part of me thinks that it's my mother's doing, but seeing that even our civilians are all gone just like what sis explained in the letter, I'm starting to think this is something else. Plus whoever is attacking us is clearly coming from the outside rather than in the city.

Fabian: "Don't we have quite a large army? How have they made it all the way to the capital itself?"

Leon: "We don't have any towns in the north as it's a mountain range with dense forests. But you're right. There should be guard posts at the north anyways with hundreds of soldiers... This doesn't make any sense."

We continue to sprint down the roads until we finally left mom's territory. We're in the southern part of the city now, but even down here, we can see many people scrambling into their homes as the sounds of explosions could still be heard in the distance. To be honest, I'm quite scared to what we might find, but seeing the prince wanting to run off like this, I can't just leave him alone.

Leon: "Let's hurry."

It's honestly commendable how passionate Leon is right now. His city is under attack and he wastes no time in trying to help. But I guess that's a light user for you. His magic is for these kinds of situations.

.....

After running for quite some time, we fail to see any soldiers as we continue to run towards where the screams and explosions are coming from. But after turning around a corner, we stumble across a couple bodies, one being a normal civilian and another being a soldier. The bodies are one thing, but what caught our eyes was-

Leon: "Spiders?"

Next to the dead bodies, a spider just a little smaller than the bodies is lying next to them. Leon wastes no time to sink his blade into the head of the spider, making sure it's dead. Meanwhile, I quickly check the dead bodies, and after checking their pulses, they both seem to be alive and breathing just fine. Maybe their just paralyzed from the venom? I've never fought spiders personally, but from what we learnt in school, spiders are quite dangerous if they get too close. Luckily for these two, they seem to have killed the spider before it's venom took effect.

Fabian: "They're alive! But not moving."

Leon: "Let me try healing them."

Kneeling down beside me, Leon covers his hands in his light magic before attempting to heal both the civilian and soldier. I wasn't quite sure whether it'll work or not, but it doesn't seem like Leon's magic is doing much for them.

Leon: "Okay. We'll carry them."

Fabian: "What?"

Leon: "We're not just going to leave them here. Help me move them into this house."

I follow where he's pointing, and there does seem to be a house with an open door. Quickly, we both drag the bodies into the house, with Leon taking the soldier while I take the civilian. We successfully manage to get them inside as we both take a heavy breath.

Fabian: "Why are spiders attacking? Aren't they more passive?"

Leon: "I, don't-"

Suddenly, Leon collapsed to the ground with a considerable amount of force, but I quickly notice his back is completely covered in webbing as he's now stuck to the ground. I quickly look up, and it was there that I found the culprit. It's a spider roughly the same size as the one outside as it's red eyes glare at me. It tries to fire another webbing at me, but I quick singe it with my flames before quickly doing the same to the webbing that's all over the prince. Taking care to not go overboard and hurt the prince.

Fabian: "Prince! Get up!"

Leon: "..."

No response. It did look like he hit his head pretty hard... I guess it's just you and me now, huh.

With it being on the roof, there's no way I can reach it with my sword, so I opt to focus purely on magic. But with this house being made of wood, I worry about setting fire to this place... Shit.

It fires another web my way, but I singe it once again. Do I just play defensive until Leon wakes up? As I was thinking that, another spider came around the corner inside the house, only this one was on ground level as it's red eyes were glaring at me as well.

Fabian: "...Leon!"

It's a bit rough, but I kick Leon's shoulder in an attempt to wake him up.

Leon: "Mm-mmm~ uh?"

Hearing him wake up was relieving to hear as I might not need to use my fire magic here.

Fabian: "Come one! Help me kill-"

Suddenly, the spider that was on the ground leapt towards the civilian that I dragged inside here. There's no time to draw my sword and engage, which leaves me only one option. I quickly collect mana inside my palm before shooting out a fire ball as it perfectly intercepts the spider, knocking it back and away from the civilian. With it now stunned, I draw my sword and get ready to engage, however the spider on the ceiling ends up firing another web my way, forcing me to quickly burn it. But that gave the second spider enough time to recover as it too began to charge at me. Just how on earth am I meant to block a spider? Do I focus on blocking the fangs? But then that'll leave me vulnerable to it's front legs. If I do manage to block all of that, there's still the stinger to worry about.

It was during my hesitation on how to act when a blade of light was flung my way, colliding with the spider in front of me, pushing it back once again. The prince must've hit it directly in it's eyes as the spider tumbles back with it's eyes closed, however no noticeable damage was done to it.

Fabian: "Cover me!"

This time, I'm the one to charge forward with my sword in hand. With the prince now keeping me safe from the spider above, I drive my sword straight into the spider's skull while it was still in a daze, causing it the screech in agony before collapsing. Not too long after, I could hear a loud crash from behind me as the spider that was on the ceiling was now on it's back and on the ground. I watch as prince Leon stabs the spider in it's abdomen, killing it quite quickly. With the situation now finally having calmed down, I slide my sword out form the spider's head before walking over towards the prince.

Fabian: "You okay?"

Leon: "Yeah, you?"

Fabian: "Just a bit shaken up."

Leon: "Yeah, no kidding. Thanks for having my back there."

Fabian: "No problem. Thank you as well."

If we were prepared for a fight like this, we'd have had no issue. But that surprise attack really did catch us off guard. Next time, we'll properly search houses before doing anything.

Leon: "There's doesn't seem to be any more in here."

Fabian: "Let's hide these two just in case."

We end up dragging the civilian and the soldier behind a couch in the corner of the house, covering them both of them in a blanket.

After doing so, we head back outside, but unlike before, the sounds of explosions have died down. I don't know whether to be happy about it, or scared, since it could either mean that our defenses have all been destroyed, or that there's no more spiders to kill. But my gut tells me it's the former as spiders were all the way out here and we're not even in the northern section of the city yet...

My theory would soon be correct as in the distance in front of us. We both see a massive spider, much larger than the ones we just dealt with crossing pass the street we're on with several smaller spiders moving by their feet. They seem to heading heading east so at least we don't have to deal with them; yet.

Fabian: "T-there's no way we can take them, right?"

Leon: "...The academy."

Fabian: "Huh?"

Leon: "Come on."

He storms off to the right, as I quickly follow. Sure the academy is quite a defensible location and it houses arguably the strongest soldiers and future soldiers in the kingdom. Seeing that many spiders, not to mention that massive one, we'll need help.

?: "My my, what do we have here?"

Turning around, my vision became a blur as bright blue flames came our way. But just in time, Leon erected a barrier around us, stopping the attack, however the bright blue flames broke the barrier almost instantly.

Leon: "Run!"

I didn't even get to see who or what it was that just attacked us, but what I do know is that it spoke, and in a feminine voice at that. But for it to destroy the prince's barrier that quickly, I'm sure we're no match for it as we are now. We increase our pace as we run straight towards the academy, but surprisingly, it doesn't appear that we're being chased by that monster. I just hope that those two people we saved earlier remain safe...