10 – A Benefit

Brunch continued to push the chunk where Alan was standing. The spider monster shot webs, and the Wyvern used extreme maneuvers to dodge. Several times Alan was almost falling because of that.

"Now, Brunch!!!" Alan shouted at the top of his lungs as the spider began to swing again. "Attack!"

The Wyvern diverted her flight and rammed the spider. Alan's chunk of ground was still going because of the momentum from Brunch's push.

While the Wyvern scuffled against her opponent in the air, Alan fired ground bullets around Celia. Those things stick on those cobwebs.

"Come on!" Alan was frustrated as his chunk started to slow down, then stopped altogether about 10 feet from Celia.

"Hmph!" The female fighter mumbled in a muffled voice. Her face was covered entirely.

Alan glanced at Brunch, who was still fighting the spider. Some parts of the Wyvern's body were entangled in webs and decorated with bite wounds from her enemy. But fortunately, her movements were not hampered.

The young man took a breath to calm down, backed up to the end, ran as hard as he could, then jumped.

"Arrrghhh!!!" He managed to cling to a ground projectile that stuck to the web. His feet also rest on other projectiles.

If he didn't prepare the projectiles for a foothold, his feet would stick and possibly get tangled up in the cobwebs. That would be very troublesome.

The young man used a special knife to sever some of the webs stuck to her body, then made a hole in the part that covered Celia's face so she could breathe better and speak more clearly.

"Aah... Air..."

"Are you okay!?" Alan asked fast. "I can't free you now because these webs are so sticky! It's not just taking off what's wrapped around your body! We'd better deal with that later! The most important thing is to get out of here first!"

Besides that, it would take a lot of time. The webs that wrapped Celia would stick to Alan's body.

"Holy sh*t!" Celia screamed. "You know what!? I feel like an adult film star in the mummification genre!!!"

Under normal circumstances, Alan would have been curious about Celia's statement, but now was not the time for trivial chatter.

Alan cut several pieces of the cobwebs holding Celia's encased body in place. However, the young man didn't do it thoroughly, or the female fighter's body would fall.

"Brunch! Are you done!?" Alan summoned the Wyvern. "It's time for us to go!"

The Wyvern was still overwhelmed by the increasing number of wounds and webs entangled in her body.

"You can do it, Brunch!" Alan gave encouragement.

"Yeah, I'll make you my favorite dragon if you manage to do whatever it is!" Celia added. "I can't see, so I don't know!"

Ultimately, the Wyvern managed to bite off part of the enemy's mouth and pulled it off. The spider immediately convulses, making its grip on Brunch's body loose. That creature's body then dived down.

Alan grimaced at Brunch's condition. The Wyvern had difficulty flying. Her breath ragged, and her mouth groaned in pain.

However, she was still able to push the chunk to approach Alan.

"Thanks a lot, Brunch." Alan cut off the remaining webs that held Celia's body.

"Ouch." The female fighter groaned as her body fell into the chunk.

Alan then approached the Wyvern. "I will untangle the webs in your body…."

Alan was surprised that the giant spider had swung again, even though it was still far below. The young man quickly cut the webs that entangled the Wyvern's wings and body.

Without being ordered, the winged orange beast pushed that chunk away again, sending them fleeing from the spider.

"I feel useless," Celia grumbled. "I'm missing the action."

Alan glanced at Brunch, who was struggling to push the chunk. Luckily the spider's swing speed wasn't as fast as before, maybe because of the wound in its mouth.

"Trust me, Celia." Alan took a deep breath. "You would be better off not seeing any of this."

"What? Did something bad happen?"

Alan massaged his forehead. "Well, you'll find out in the end anyway."

***

Elaine's eyes widened as soon as Alan and the others arrived at the shop. "What the hell happened!?"

Of course, she was shocked. On top of the chunk, Celia's body lay still, wrapped in webs. Meanwhile, Brunch was curled up, covered in wounds.

"You could say things didn't go smoothly." Alan sat on the ground.

Celia added. "Yeah, there's some hiccups."

Elaine looked at each of them one by one, still bewildered by what was happening. "Your opponent is only a gigan arachnid! You guys are inexperienced, but you have a wyvern! She can easily take down that spider monster!"

Alan shrugged. "The thing is, Brunch can't make a big fire."

"What?" Elaine froze for a few seconds, then muttered. "Ah… Most likely, he was exiled by his fellows. A wyvern that couldn't…." The shop owner stopped her words when she realized that Brunch's body was twitching. "Ah, sorry. I have no right to talk about that in front of you…. What's her name again?"

"Brunch," Alan responded. He didn't expect a beast like her to have such a dark history.

Celia cleared her throat. "Can we put the conversation on hold? It might be fun, but there are a lot of things to do. One is to get me out of this. Please, I have to pee so bad. The last thing you want is a friend who smells like urine."

"Ah, I'll get you a special liquid that removes the stickiness of those webs, as well as some medicine for Brunch." Elaine entered the shop but immediately stopped walking. "But you guys can be proud. The Cobwebs you've collected are quite a lot. I'll pay you two well."

"Ah, it turns out my mummy-like state has a benefit." Celia refers to the webs all over her body. " I'm going to try to hold back my pee so these webs don't smell terrible."

Alan stroked Brunch, who was closing her eyes. "I also have to apologize to you, Brunch. There was a bit of a misunderstanding, and that made you suffer the most."

The Wyvern only nodded.