How to Get Eaten by Monsters: A Guide by Harold, Part 4

 A large shadow shot towards the ground at a rapid speed. Thanks to Harold's warning, the members were able to jump out of the way just before it crashed into the spot they were standing.

 The ground rattled as the object that crashed into the earth slowly stood up. Eight legs that was capable of ripping apart anything and eight eyes that seemed to bore a hole into their berry souls.

 'Spiders are technically not insects though.' The fear and terror that the spider was given off seemed to have broken Harold's brain a little as that silly thought popped into his mind.

 "Tch!" Liam clicked his tongue and raised his shield.

 "Jade! I'll stop its movements while you try to damage it as much as possible. Jasmine, cast protection spells on Jade; I'll manage somehow. Floria, if you have MP left, use fire spells to control its movements." He quickly issued his orders and everyone nodded.

 "Harold." He called out to the final person and Harold whipped his head up.

 "If anything happens, lead this party." Liam did not wait for a response and leapt into battle.

 Harold extended his hand but then retracted it and just watched as his teammates went into battle.

 'I guess I can be considered useless once again.' He mocked himself with a bitter smile and sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.

 'Status.' He chanted and the ever-familiar window opened before him.

 [Harold

 Level: 5

 Job: Thief

 Race: Human

 Status: Alive

 Strength: 10 Speed: 13 Perception: 24 Vitality: 12 Intelligence: 10 

 HP: 120/120

 MP: 80/100

 Skills: Dissect Disarm Trap Hack Slash Unlock Stealth Hide Breath

 Dash Perseverance Concentration

 Titles: Reincarnator

 ]

 'Huh? My Perception has gone up.' Harold was a bit surprised until he remembered that his perception would be of no use in his current situation.

 'Damn it. If only it was Strength or something else that had increased.' The Perception stat was not useless so long as you had other stats to back it up. In Harold's situation, the perception stat won't make a difference.

 'Wait, I got a new skill.' Harold zoomed in on the skill that had not been there and he focused on it and the rest of the items on the Status disappeared as the description of the skill came into focus.

 [Concentration

 Skill Type: Active

 Description: When activated, increases all stats by 10% and Perception by 25% for three seconds.

 Cooldown: None.

 Cost: 20MP per activation

 ]

 'How can I use this?' Harold knew that the skill was currently stronger than anything else he had at the moment. The only problem was how he could use it to fight.

 'With my remaining MP, I can only use it four more times. That means a total of twelve seconds before I can no longer fight. How can I get the best out of these twelve second?' He wracked his brain for ideas when something flew over and landed besides him.

 "Jade!" Harold called out to the man and helped him up as quickly as possible.

 "Hey kiddo." Jade smiled weakly and Harold noticed that a portion of the man's shoulder had been torn off.

 "Sorry, but please tell Liam I can no longer fight." He said and his eyes went blank and Harold knew he had fainted.

 Harold gently laid the man on the floor and grabbed the weapons Jade had dropped and stood back up.

 "Twelve seconds, lets see how long I can last." Harold breathed in as all expression vanished from his face and the look of a killer took over.

 Jade wielded a pair of short swords. Harold normally used a dagger to fight so the weapon's weight was a bit familiar to him.

 On the front lines, Liam was still blocking the spider's attacks, Floria stood with her hair fluttering in the wind as she let loose spell after spell, Jasmine too was not slacking as she casted enhancements that buffed Liam and healed his wounds.

 Despite all that, they were nowhere on equal footing with the spider. Jasmine's expression was deadly whit from the overuse of MP and Floria was already staggering.

 Liam was bravely holding on but his shield was chipped in numerous places and multiple wounds covered his body even with Jasmine healing him.

 "[Stealth], [Hide Breath]" Harold activated those skills and felt 10MP vanish from his body and activated his final skill.

 "[Concentration]" He held the sword to the air and slowly dashed into the fight.

….

 "Damn it!" Liam cursed as one of the spider's legs cut deep into his arm and he leaped back.

 'What do I do? How can we all get out of here alive?' Liam wasn't just fighting the spider for nothing. Ever since that had engaged the creature, no monster had approached them, perhaps content just to watch on or too busy fleeing from whatever was happening.

 The spider roared and Liam raised his shield to defend when a shadow blitzed by and two small wounds appeared on the front legs of the spider.

 "Harold!" Liam called out and Harold looked at him and stepped on the head of the spider and flipped backwards.

 "[Hack]." Harold felt his MP reduce as he struck at the spider where he had wounded it previously. Two spider legs flew into the air and Harold dug his heel in and leapt back, dodging two more legs that whipped in his direction.

 [MP: 50/100]

 Harold looked at his remaining MP and knew it would not last him again. The only reason he was able to cut off the spider's legs was the fact that it was distracted by Liam.

 'That tactic won't work again.' Harold gripped the swords tight and called out to Liam.

 "We have to-" His voice cut off when he saw a large shadow with eight appendages looming behind the man.

 'More spiders? I thought it was only that one… wait, didn't we see more at the beginning?' A cold sweat ran down Harold's back and he looked at the spider they were 'fighting'.

 It did not have anything resembling a human face but he could still see the mocking expression it had the creature it viewed as lower than them.

 "[Dash]" Harold leaped forward with all his might and pushed Liam out of the way. As a result, the second spiders blow bit into his arm and slammed against the ground.

 "Gireeeeekkkkk!" The spiders screamed and the earth rumbled as a hole appeared below Harold and he fell into it alongside the two other spiders.

 "Harold!" Liam called out to him and Harold extended his arm. At this distance, perhaps Liam could still reach out and save him. He may lose an arm, but it was better than his life.

 The hand he was expecting never came. Instead, all he got was a sorrowful look from Liam who didn't move an inch.

 'Why?' was the question anyone would have asked. Harold already knew the answer to that question.

 'I guess we just weren't close enough for him to warrant risking his life for me.'