Invisible Enemy

The statue was full of giant spiders that were weaving webs throughout the Coral Labyrinth to catch prey. The string used to make webs is as strong as iron.

They were awakened beasts, Iron Spiders, and their leader, Iron Spider Matriarch, was The mother of all the Iron Spiders, as big as a house and utterly deadly. It was armored like a hover tank.

Their sheer numbers intimidated Arthur a little, but he was confident they could pull it off; after all... they were the protagonists of This Era!

They started the battle from afar, in a Narrow Corral Hall, where they couldn't be, surrounded, opting to let Zane and Brave Shot the Spiders and the rest defend them.

The spiders rushed at them like an avalanche, but they managed to break their momentum and hold the line, killing the advancing spiders swiftly.

But where one was killed, two took its place; at the time, Arthur felt like they were endless.

Their iron-like web was hard to cut, but it stuck to them easily, so they had to dodge it. Arthur was especially affected by their web, as his Danger senses didn't see it as dangerous since it didn't hurt him.

He couldn't help but say out loud, "I've been relying on my aspect too much this whole time; I didn't think I would have trouble crushing bugs without it!"

Kaelen replied, hurriedly, "Well, technically, Arachnids, and it's more like slashing really..."

Arthur simply replied with a scoff while yelling "Nerd!" Kaelen's lips twitched, but he didn't say anything and continued fighting.

The spiders seemed to have no end, and they were getting tired, so they defended Arthur as he went above the Grey Fog, and he took them with him.

Their plan was to attack from afar and retreat using Arthur's Aspect until the spiders went back to the statue and keep doing it until the Iron Spider Matriarch was dead.

Arthur once again looked at his friends that were treating the Grey Fog that he called his room as if they owned it, making various requests of him like he was their maid.

He muttered under his breath, "Lucky bastards, who would be so kind as to entertain you for as long as I did? I'm practically a saint for not kicking you all out into that horde of Iron Spiders!"

Abner heard him saying something he couldn't make out and asked, "Arthur, did you say something?"

Arthur shook his head. "No, you must have imagined it." Abner just nodded and muttered under his breath, "Weird, I'm sure I heard something."

After a few hours, all the spiders left, and The Cohort got kicked out of Arthur's room and started attacking the Spider Nest again.

This time The Iron Spider Matriarch made an appearance; since she was as big as a house, her strength was much more than a human-sized Awakened Tyrant should possess.

(I will assume she is an Awakened Tyrant, since her rank was never stated.)

The moment she showed up, Brave and Zane started targeting her, but the Iron Spiders were jumping in front of their Arrows to defend their mother.

Arthur Cursed the Awakened Tyrant: "So those sons of bitches called their mother, huh? I guess they must really want to start calling me Father! Hahaha! Too bad, I'm not too much into moving houses or raising this many kids!"

Abner yelled at Arthur, "Be serious for once! We are outnumbered, and that Spider Queen is stronger than all of us!"

As the Iron Spider Matriarch approached, Arthur hid behind his friends and retreated into the Grey Fog, shortly taking his friends with him.

Arthur sighed and complained, "Just how long will this take? Maybe we should have just stayed back at the castle."

Glorielle laughed and said, "Wasn't this your idea? the castle is too boring anyway; at least battling those spiders is better than sitting around doing nothing."

Arthur's lips twitched as he said in an even tone, "And you wouldn't be saying that because I go on hunts more often these days and can't be your TV, right?"

Glorielle smiled and sincerely said, "Hah! You caught me! But you understand, right? Without your Divinations this place is boring!"

Arthur sighed and replied, "Sure, I understand." After a few hours, the spiders left, and the cohort who got kicked out of The Grey Fog by Arthur retreated deeper.

Although negligible since his aspect evolved, other people staying still consumed essence, and he's been keeping his friends for hours then going to battle only to consume more essence by staying in the Grey Fog again.

They went to find a place to sleep, and groups of two people kept watch every two hours.

The next day they were harassing the Iron Spiders again, and this time unexpectedly, The Iron Spiders came out of The Ground, where they Stood Arthur then realized The Awakened Tyrant had laid traps for them!

Arthur thought to himself, 'This is why I hate intelligent monsters!' Arthur and his friends were surrounded; they couldn't protect Arthur while he went above The Grey Fog this time.

So Arthur didn't even try to do that; it was stupid with so many nightmare creatures all around them.

After a minute of Battling the Iron Spiders, the Iron Spider Matriarch reached them. Arthur Cursed the Tyrant Again.

"Giving all those births must be tough on you to take this long to walk our way, huh? If you like it so much, then go make more in hell! Where all of you, and your spawns, can belong!"

Arthur then chuckled a little and continued, "Although I'm not sure if it's big enough to hold you."

Alec and Kaelen laughed a little despite the tense battle they were in as they said, "That's a good one, Arthur!"

The rest were too focused on the battle to care about his jokes; even Brave and Zane had to summon sword memories and help them fight up close with the Iron Spiders.

Arthur although not in possession of a combat aspect, had his Danger sense, so in this battle he thought he was doing pretty well as long as he didn't get caught up in their webs.

The Iron Spider-Matriarch attacked Arthur because she saw him use his aspect to leave last time.

Arthur Barely Dodged; although The Iron Spider Matriarch was big, she was an Awakened Tyrant; she was in no way slow, and he also had to dodge some Spider webs attempting to trap him as well.

He Cursed the Iron Spider's whole race in his frustration. "Bastards, don't you know shame? If you're all born so ugly, then at least have the decency to go die on your own!"

Zane quickly joined Arthur and said, "There were not too many behind us, so Brave can defend you. Leave with the others!"

Arthur's eyes widened as he hesitated. Zane was going to take his place fighting an awakened tyrant while the others were too busy holding back the other spiders to interfere. He wasn't sure Zane, who was an archer, could do it when even he struggled.

Abner quickly yelled, "DO IT." Arthur sighed as he went near the back with Brave and concentrated, using his aspect as fast as he could.

Before he went above the gray fog, he heard the sound of bones breaking along with an impact from behind him.

As the gray fog appeared and slowly took him to the Sefirot Castle, he saw his friend's head flying from behind him, and his eyes widened.

He instantly tried to summon all of his friends above the Grey Fog, but... The Crimson Star representing Zane was missing; he was dead.

None of them said anything for a long time. Eventually, Arthur lowly muttered, "We will avenge him. No matter what."

All of them nodded. As Arthur contemplated how this happened to begin with, 'we changed locations every time we attacked; how did they know where we would be? Luck? No, I doubt it'

Arthur summoned his Runes.

Name: Arthur

True Name: [The Fool Who Does Not Belong to This Era]

Rank: Dormant

Soul core: Dormant [720/1000]

Memories: [Blade of Darkness], [Battle Hungry Armor], [Chaos Ring], [Amulet of Light]...

Echoes:—

Attributes: [Fated], [Hunter], [Fate Affinity]

Aspect: [Lord of The Mysteries]

Aspect Rank: Divine

Aspect Description: [You are a Divine Fool; your acrobatic abilities are beyond the norm, and you possess plenty of strange and wonderful abilities]

Flaw: [Comic Relief]

Flaw Description: [You are a joke in everyone's eyes; they can't take you seriously].

Specifically, he looked at his attribute [Fated]

[Fated] attribute description: "The strings of fate wrap tightly around you. Unlikely events, both good and bad, are drawn by your presence. there are those who are blessed, there are those who are cursed... but rarely both."

This was the reason he almost died to the Stone Saint, and the reason his friend died, it was all because Fate wanted them stuck here or dead.

So Sunny Weavers' favorite could gain his lineage and do whatever Weaver was planning for him.

Arthur did not consent to that decision, so he decided, 'I will get all of my friends out of here and ruin whatever you have planned, Weaver. It was a mistake to make an enemy of me!'