"Zhang...Han…" he said between breaths, with both surprise and hints of worry.
The spider was coming for him, so there was little time for conversation.
Vaien's first move was to grab onto the hairy and long spider legs right beside him and yank on it with all his strength, gritting his teeth harshly as he felt the sting of his muscles.
A leg was ripped off the spider right next to the other that it had recently lost. It still twitched as it flew through the air, detached. The creature went ballistic from the loss of its appendage, it crept away from Vaien in a skitter and its mouth clacked together as though under fear and alarm from the sudden attack.
It turned to throw out more silk, perhaps its best defense, but Vaien rolled to the side and took cover behind another cocoon to evade it.
Zhang Han was still trapped against the wall, but his fear had dissipated.
After all, Vaien had it distracted so the spider had no reason to attack him, an immobile target. He silently watched as Vaien evaded another two nets of silk thread. His brow creased faintly as a sense of anxiety gnawed at him.
He didn't like standing around and watching.
Sure, his right arm was trapped solidly along with the laser bow, but he drew out his laser gun with his left hand. His aim wasn't as good with this hand, but…well, he already avoided shooting Vaien who'd been wrapped in the cocoon earlier, so why not?!
He focused his aim best he could and shot at the spider's head.
It skittered downwards and towards the entrance of its hideout to avoid the blast, and that created an opportune moment for Vaien to attack. He rolled forwards then lunged, slamming into the beast with his shoulders.
The spider was already unbalanced since it was already missing two legs on one side and Vaien's shove was the final straw. Although it tried to resist with its own strength, it lost out and toppled over.
Legs sticking into the air and flailing wildly, the spider was stuck on its back and vulnerable. Vaien swiftly crushed down on top of its underbelly with his elbow and there was a gruesome squishing noise that made Zhang Han's stomach churn.
Spider was...to say....smooshed flat as a pancake, its insides leaking all over the floor.
Zhang Han stared at the goopy mess of carapace and insides and averted his eyes just as fast. It probably wouldn't taste good, just like how awful the pterodactyl was.
Vaien rushed over to him, Zhang Han felt his face being grabbed.
"What are you doing here?" Vaien asked sharply, his tone a mix of wonderment and concern.
Zhang Han just lowered his pupils to stare at Vaien's hand holding up his chin, coated with a bit of whatever liquids were inside the spider, with disgust.
"To look for you and Kalla."
"..." Vaien knit his brow. Yeah, that answer was an obvious one. He just blurted his question out at Zhang Han because his initial reaction was to be angry, after all, Zhang Han could have died in a single bite of that spider or anywhere along the way here. "Fine. Kalla and I got trapped by this dumb spider."
It happened suddenly. Vaien stepped out into the same clearing that Zhang Han arrived at earlier only to see that Kalla had already disappeared. While searching for signs of Kalla he stepped on top of a silk thread, attracting that spider beast, then Vaien was ambushed from within the forest.
Although the spider wasn't adept at fighting hand to hand given the speed at which Vaien crushed it, nor did it have a poisonous bite, it was good at sneaking up on prey and entrapping them in its folds of unbreakable spider silk.
So that was how both Vaien and Kalla unwittingly got dragged away.
Zhang Had patiently listened to the story, then just said, "Can you remove your hand? It has spider blood on it."
Vaien flinched and gave a quiet grumble as he took his hand away from his face.
Zhang Han quickly rubbed his cheek of slime. Good. Slight relief.
Running his eyes over his body, from Vaien's first glances it seemed that Zhang Han was uninjured, anyway. He proceeded to rip away the silk pinning Zhang Han's arm to the side of the enclosure. Then Vaien suddenly smelled fresh blood.
He grabbed Zhang Han's hand forcefully.
"What's this?" his golden eyes focused on the bloody cuts over Zhang Han's palm, the ones he'd gotten from trying to tear the cocoon off of Vaien earlier. The blood on his other hand had mostly clotted and stopped bleeding, but when the silk was removed the cuts on his right hand started bleeding again. Vaien held both his hands and stared intently. "I knew there was the unique scent of your blood..."
Zhang Han lightly cocked an eyebrow. Ah yes, his blood with a unique scent. He tugged his hands away. Such a trivial injury he got in the heat of the moment, he barely noticed it, although they left a few drops of crimson on the ground, it could hardly be called severe.
Vaien pursed his lips. "Does it hurt? See, this is why I told you to stay-"
He was given no more time to complain when Zhang Han interjected, "So Kalla's in one of these?" he motioned at the cocoons. "How do we know which one?"
There was silence. Vaien did not know, and now that he knew Kalla was more than likely alive in one of them, he was almost reluctant to get her out and get into another argument. He was still transfixed on the blood at Zhang Han's hands.
"Well, we can start with size, I guess?" offered Zhang Han, finding no better ideas. "The ones that are too big or small probably aren't hers."
Rolling his eyes, Vaien marched over to a nearby cocoon that was person-sized. "What a pain in the ass. My sister just had to follow us all by herself, go off and get into trouble. Now we dig her out like this…ugh, maybe I shoulda just left her!"
Zhang Han cared little about the sibling love-hate relationship. He took a closer look at the silk traps. It also seemed that older cocoons took on a darker cream color, so if he just searched for ones that are about the right size and a purer white than the others...Zhang Han spotted on the other side of the enclosure and pointed at it.
"Try that one."
Vaien went over and pried open a first layer of spider silk, then began tearing it apart bit by bit. Finally, a chunk of dark reddish hair spilled out along with a muffled and irate sound.
As Vaien peeled away from silk, the more clearly they heard it.
"Fucking spider, this fucking this dumb insect...I swear I will punt that bastard into the ground and tear out its damn fucking eyeballs one by one…"
The curses continued. Vaien continued removing the spider silk with great forbearance until Kalla's face came into view, at which point he whacked her on the head.
"Shut up Kalla! So noisy!"
"Fuck off!" Kalla hissed back. "This is all because you were trying to run for good."
Vaien stopped tearing away the cocoon and retorted, "No. It's cause' you followed us like a dumbass! The only reason we left in the first place was because you destroyed our home. Get it?"
They exchanged a few more insults.
"..." Zhang Han listened in without much change in expression.
Kalla was able to remove the rest of her bindings with her own strength and continued to rip them into shreds with vehemence. Her hair was a total mess, so was Vaien's, plus he was covered in the spider's juices.
All in all the two looked even more primal and wild than usual.
After all this arguing Kalla finally said, "Hmph. Was I just supposed to let you go and never see you again, then?!" her face scrunched up with hints of depression and sorrow, but she quickly shifted back into disobedience. "So what if I was following you two? And you know what else...I even had to put up with your sounds of dumb lovemaking for over an hour one night?! 'Aaah Zhang Han...' one-hundred times, you two were so noisy. Don't you have any sympathy for me?!"
Vaien had become somewhat bloodthirsty. He smiled mirthlessly as he asked in a low tone, "What is it you heard? Care to repeat it?"
Kalla suddenly averted her eyes as she dusted off her clothes, pouting her lip. She'd stepped past her brother's bottom line, if she went any further she'd be beaten to a pulp again.
"Whatever," she huffed. "Just know that you can't get rid of me that easily."