"Kegh." Kai coughed. He could feel his throat burning up while his hands were wet with blood.
Ophelia dropped her cloth from shock and tore off another piece of fabric from her skirt before she felt a hand grabbing her arm.
"No. It's enough. I'm fine." Kai said, blood leaking out from the right side of his mouth. "Let's deal with that first."
"But-" Ophelia bit her lips nervously and sighed, she made a water shield around the boy and ran towards her teammates.
"How is that boy holding up?" The female on the tree asked as she grabbed another arrow and loaded it with fire.
"He's poisoned. We need to defeat this or make a run for it." Ophelia said, pointing her wand towards the spider as she watched the fire flow out freely. "What do you think, Anne?"
Anne stopped her arrow attacks and lowered her bow. She looked at the two men fighting the spider. "Gerald is doing fine. On the other hand, Zane is struggling to close the distance." She spoke her mind.
"Zane? Struggling?" Ophelia questioned, her eyes wandered over to the back of the spider and she could spot Zane.
Zane uses dual wield daggers, naturally, he'd be the best at close combat situations. His first priority was to close the gaps. But there was hesitation lingering in his dark black eyes. He breathed heavily through his damp cloth mask.
"Dammit." Zane murmured, looking at Gerald who was badly injured. He felt as useless as a rock but he couldn't take a step forward.
Ophelia caught on immediately. "By any chance.. does he have arachnophobia?" She asked.
Anne nodded and stood up. "I'll distract the spider. It looks annoyed by my constant shooting. Try to give Zane a wake up call. If we can get him out of his headspace, we can start getting on the more offensive side."
Creating one last fire magic blast, Ophelia made her way around the trees until she could see the tall shadow looming in. "Zane." She said in a loud tone, not enough to be a yell but it was inconsiderably loud.
Zane snapped his head back and saw a familiar figure approaching him. He looked away from her and turned his sight to the ground. "I'm sorry." He murmured. "I can't."
Feeling like Zane who she had always viewed as the strongest looking so weak now, it was a devastating sight. Ophelia went up to him and grabbed his hands tightly.
"It's alright if you can't. Everybody has their fears. Let's just run." Ophelia comforted, smiling brightly with her white polished teeth.
Zane looked up and felt like tears were slowly being formed in the back of his eyes. "Thank you.."
The two were in their own world, completely neglecting their background. The spider has lowered itself to the level they were on and it's face was right above the two of them.
"Move!" Gerald yelled, he was craving for a breather. He couldn't seem to catch a break. He rushed in front of the two and blocked the spider's sharp teeth with his blade.
Gerald held his ground against the tremendous strength of the monster. His hands were trembling and he could feel his legs sliding back. He peeked a look behind and saw Zane in an utter daze.
"What in the world... are you doing? Move!" Gerald mumbled in between breaths. He clenched his blade tighter and pushed his body upward.
Those big eyes that seemed to stare at every inch of his body. The way it moved freakishly terrified him to the core. The way the spider's mouth twitched with hunger made his body freeze. Zane froze.
Anne launched another arrow, this time she made sure of it that she hit the eye. She had to.
The spider hissed in pain when it felt another part of its vision being blocked and it's head aching in pain.
Ophelia grabbed Zane and started running, she was slowed down terribly due to the poor cooperation effort. She took control of Zane's weapons and placed matters into her own hands.
Zane sat down and leaned on a tree. He hid his face in his legs and covered his head with his arms. There was no way...he could fight that monster.
Ophelia swung the blade a few times in her right hand and gulped. Her magic seemed to have no effect on that thing. It would be best if there was something sharp to puncture its shell. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the white haired boy standing up.
'What is he thinking?' Ophelia thought, pissed at the boy for being so reckless. He should've just stayed where he was. Then she saw him putting one of his arms out and his palm open.
Though she might be wrong, she couldn't spare another thought. She tossed the blade in her left arm as far as she could. She wanted to watch for a while longer but felt wind blowing past her like a hurricane.
Ophelia slowly heated the blade up. "Gerald, I'm behind you." She yelled.
The weak spot of the spider was its eyes. But so what? What if they manage to stab into the spider's multiple eyes? It was not as if it was going to die just there and then.
Gerald used all his strength and swung his blade through the monster's mouth, but the spider caught a hold of it. It used it's teeth and bit into the iron of the blade.
Instinctively, Gerald let go of his blade and grabbed Ophelia's hand and made a run for it. He ran and didn't look back, as he knew the spider was following them.
With every movement it made, the forest shook, no matter how slow or gently the spider soared its way through the forest.
"What are you going to do with that?" Anne asked, looking down from her branch at Kai.
Kai shrugged and stared at the spider's body slowly moving away from them as it chased after the two. He stared at the blade at his hand and back at his leg. Feeling like his head was drunk with poison.
Everybody has their own limits. Whether you can bypass that, it depends on your own capability. But one should never overestimate themselves.
"Shoot at the part of the spider where the leg and body are connected. In between there is one of the more fragile parts of its body."
Anne paused and grabbed another arrow. "It's eyes are out of my aim zone. So I'll take your word for it." She pulled back the string of her bow as she felt the tip of her fingers bleeding. Her arm trembled but she released it without a second thought.