Resonance

Zmey felt something. He couldn't hold himself together. He felt as if he had no weight while lying flat.What happened just now? Wasn't he in front of the Spark Bug a moment ago?'Where...?' His thoughts screamed in his mind. He found himself closing his eyes. Yet, he could have sworn an orange flash of light had run through his eyelids.As soon as he felt a strange feeling that he could control himself at will, he immediately opened his stare. But, instead of any strange sight he thought of, it was the bug in the valley, littered with other dead ones.He creased his brows, rubbing his chin. He turned around, clasping one side of his waist in silent ponder.'I will fight by your side forever, tamer?' He then turned, glancing up at the creature. 'It's safe to say it's the one that spoke through telepathy now. It must be an attribute shared between a tamer and his tame. But... more unnerving is why I saw my Soul Land before losing my mind. I don't feel all right about this at all...'He sighed and wiped sweat from his forehead. He shook his head as if to shake off the thought. Then, he tested his assumed telepathic ability. He looked up at the Spark Bug, whose reptilian eyes watched him with calm and focused intent, and thought,'Spark... are you listening?'He swallowed. He creased his brows, straightening his back as he waited. Was the creature slow to react or processing something?Zmey shook his head in disappointment, turning around. He then began to stride down...'Yes, I do, tamer.' These few words brought him to a halt. He then glanced over his shoulder and chuckled with an excited hint.He mumbled, "Let's go and have some fun together then. Follow me."Meanwhile, at a greenspace in the depths of the mountain locked in the western part of the ruins...Bodies rolled over the ground one after the other. Screams followed. Two grotesque spiders, each under two metres tall, jumped one after the other. Their sticky legs poised towards the men struggling on the defence. And the legs bored into the dry, earthy ground.The spiders were two, while the red-jacketed guys were three.One of them jumped to his feet without delay after rolling to evade an attack. He gritted his teeth. Sweat huddled around his neck. His hands and legs trembled as he focused his mind to attack. Instead of defending like a complete weakling, they all were!He clenched his jaw with resolve. "What's the point of defending!? If we attack, we get hurt, but we can as well bring them down together. I know none of us has ever witnessed this kind of thing before... And it damn well seems a nightmare to me as well!""But... but..." he clenched his teeth tightly, "... we can't afford for anyone to remove us from this assessment!"The last statement seemed a warning. It got on a frail-looking guy's nerves. The guy rolled over onto his knees to stay off the ground. His eyes were wide with terror."Wh-what are you talking about? Getting removed!?"The other guy, tall but curling in minimal courage, yelled back, "Didn't you hear the Archsage? He said that they will remove us if we act like cowards!"The other gaped in shock. Their eyes grew wider. And their chests tightened.The guy continued, "Can't you see clearly!? Even..." he swallowed, "... If we have never seen beasts before, our senses should tell you these spiders aren't real. Can't you see that they are not attacking right now, but are waiting for us to do so!?Wounds may be real in here... but I damn doubt we can die! Let's join hands together - "The last guy, the one who seemed the oldest with tighter jaws, in his mid-30s, yelled into the air. "Don't act like our leader here. You're only full of assumptions. But there's no proof that we can't die."The first guy, most courageous, gripped the metallic handle of the sword tighter. He looked head-on at the giant, dark spiders and said in a gentle tone:"Well, I will do this alone then..."His legs bent a little, signalling his attempt to dash forward. The frail-looking guy was about to try to stop him. But something flashed before his eyes. He froze, and in the next nanosecond, he caught sight of a spider crashing to the ground from the corner of his eye.The surprise took everyone. Then, looking at the spider, they saw a silvery arrow having pierced the spider's abdomen. It lay dead, sleeping in its own pool of blood.The older guy almost threw up, feeling nauseated by the scent of blood."What the hell..." the frail-looking guy mumbled. All glanced backwards at where the arrow came from. The one that came into view was the easy-going lady, Skyler.She smiled as she moved towards them, with a straightforward expression. The feather-flanked end of a bunch of arrows showed behind her cascading hair. The silvery bow in her hand emitted a faint glow under the pitch-black sky.She said in a casual tone, as if familiar with them, "Hey, guys. I won't be hanging around with you after I kill this..." she stressed a sigh as the spider descended towards her, then drew her bow, shooting at it. The arrow found its mark in the reptilian eyes, then another to the abdomen sapped the last bit of life from it.Skyler chuckled, "Oh, I've already killed it. See you around."The guys continued looking at her with gaping mouths. She had already dashed into the woods before they realised it."Wow," the older guy exclaimed, eyes glued to the wasted monsters. "What an outstanding strength she has!"