9 – The Cobwebs

After Alan and his friends left, Elaine's orange cat climbed down from her bed, then spoke in a feminine, human voice. "You actually let those kids fight that big spider? I'm pretty sure they won't be able to handle that monster. Their level is way off."

Elaine lit her tobacco pipe with a tiny drop of fire from her finger. "They have a freaking wyvern. That beast will be able to beat the spider easily."

"I know, but we don't know whether they can get that wyvern to fight." The cat sighed.

"If you don't agree with my decision, why didn't you protest earlier?" Elaine snorted. "I'm afraid of spiders; you don't want to fight anymore. So, I have a brilliant solution. You know it, right? My sales are down. I need those cobwebs to fulfill someone's order. Only a few gigan arachnids are accidentally carried up into the sky. Hence their webs are highly sought after."

"The thing is…."

"I already know your answer very well." The shop owner interrupted the cat's words. "You swore not to speak in front of anyone but me. You really want to hide your identity."

"Please." The cat's voice rose slightly. "Don't make this into another argument."

"You started first." The shop owner scratched her hair, then went inside the house. "Whatever."

***

"I never understood it," Alan muttered while Brunch pushed the chunk of ground he was sitting on. "Why are so many people afraid of spiders and cockroaches? Well, maybe it's only natural that they are so big, but most of them are small. They won't be able to kill you. They are not snakes or bears."

Celia, standing while looking forward, responded. "What are you most afraid of, Al?"

Alan thought for a moment. "The state of having no money."

With stiff movements like a robot, Celia turned her head to the young man. "I wanted to share my opinion about why they have such irrational fears. But that seems impossible. Your fear is so real and logical. You wouldn't understand other people's fear of trivial things."

Alan was speechless hearing that. "Then what is your biggest fear, Celia?"

"Other than the possibility of being unable to return to our original world forever?" The female fighter cleared her throat. "Maybe about the size of my bust."

"Sorry?"

The female fighter checked her chest. "Maybe you can't see it because it's covered by the armor, but my boobs are above average. I'm afraid they continue to grow to an abnormal size. My back would be sore a lot. I can't imagine that pain coming to me every day. Not to mention the possibility that people will comment on it, and sometimes they are rude."

"But they will stop growing at a certain age, right?" Alan grimaced.

"I know that, but I still feel worried…. This is what I want to say. You will never understand the irrational fear in someone."

Alan decided not to ask any further questions. It was like he really couldn't understand such a thing.

"Is that what we're looking for?" Celia narrowed her eyes.

"It seems so." Alan stood up, watching the vast spider web in the distance. Those webs connected with lots of rubble in the air.

And Alan found a black spider the size of a sedan car wrapping around a giant bird. Or rather, Alan guessed that it was a bird from its shape. He couldn't be sure because that animal was almost perfectly wrapped like a mummy.

There are also many creatures that have been wrapped like that and scattered in the spider's web. They didn't move, so Alan couldn't tell if they were alive.

"Are there humans among them?" Celia gulped.

"There's no use thinking about that." Alan kept watching that spider monster. "We better get ready."

Upon receiving a hand signal from Alan, Brunch sped up her flight. The chunks of ground where Alan and Celia were standing moved even faster.

Only a few seconds later, the spider beast noticed their presence. That creature then jumped, fired a loose web of it at one of the chunks, and swung. When it released the web, it fired another into a wall, then swung again.

That monster does it continuously.

"Damn it!" Celia cursed. "That monster is too fast!"

Yes, Alan also did not expect this. Elaine did say that the monster had high agility, but Alan didn't expect it to be this fast.

The young man tried to shoot water and ground projectiles. However, he could not hit his target.

"Looks like we should run." Alan hissed. He has a bad feeling about this. Several of his shots hit the target when fighting the giant wasp at that time, which is very different from now. It seems like the spider's level was far from theirs. "Brunch, let's get out of here!!!"

Too late. The monster's final swing was quicker than ever. All of a sudden, that creature is already very close to Celia.

The female fighter was about to attack but couldn't do anything when the spider's web shot wrapped around her body.

Then, that monster hugged Celia's body with its eight legs and swung away.

Alan couldn't even react. The incident took place in a matter of seconds.

"You bastard!!!" Alan tried to shoot that spider again, but his efforts were still unsuccessful.

This spider cannot be compared with its smaller counterpart. The movement was completely unpredictable.

Celia tried to get away, but miraculously she didn't scream in fear.

"Hey, Brunch. You want Celia to be free, right?" Alan hissed. After observing for a moment, he continued. "Get me close to Celia as possible, then distract the spider. Let me save her."

This is a big gamble, but he has no other choice.