"Phew, what a vile thing," Rumy jumped away from the corpse, but her blades and hands up to the elbows were covered in disgusting fluid. "And it stinks too..."
I looked at my swords; they, too, didn't smell like roses.
"Are you alright?" I turned to the princesses. They still hadn't fully recovered from the sonic attack.
"My head is splitting; I can't believe you can still stand," Hilda vigorously rubbed her temples, trying to regain her composure.
"It felt like that sound was turning you inside out," Katrina sat on the ground, clearly not ready to get up.
"No, well, it was unpleasant, like the screeching of metal, but I wouldn't say to that extent," to my surprise, only Rumy and I had managed to endure the attack with minimal losses. "Ragni, how about you?"
"Me?" the girl lay sprawled on the cave floor. She raised her hand and concentrated her energy on it. The hand was covered in scales, but only for a couple of seconds, it immediately returned to its normal state. "I don't know what that creature did to me, but I can't even partially transform. We'll have to come up with a new way to warm the clutch."
"Alright, keep watch at the entrance. I'll freshen up a bit," Rumy, holding the handles of her blades with disgust, headed towards the exit.
"I'll go with you. I need to wash off this spider's blood too," I also needed to get rid of the remnants of the spider's blood.
"I'll drag it towards the exit; we don't want this place to stink," Rumy casually grabbed the spider's hind leg and dragged it towards the exit. It was astonishing how she could handle that hairy claw without any aversion.
"But what are you going to wash your hands with?" I asked.
"Just with snow, what else? There's no other choice," Rumy dragged the corpse to the edge of the cliff and buried her hands and blades in the snow. "Even solid water is still water; a little effort, and everything will be fine."
She rubbed her hands and blades with the melting snow. The weather was already far from pleasant, and the thought of plunging my hands into the cold didn't warm me up.
"Don't worry; later you can warm up with fire magic," Rumy pushed me onto the nearest snowdrift without ceremony.
The cold pierced my skin like needles; it was terrible, but I tried to endure the pain. I tried to gather a small fireball in my palms, but the more my hands shook, the smaller the fireball became.
"You see, even a golem has some advantages," Rumy smiled and helped me wipe the blades. I washed my hands, and once again, I tried to warm myself up with fire magic. "Once upon a time, there was a little spider, but it met a shoe its size. Goodbye, little creature."
With a single kick, Rumy sent the once fearsome monster flying.
"Acha..."
Rumy and I exchanged glances. Neither of us made that sound. From below the entrance, there was a suspicious clanging sound. We smoothly unsheathed our swords and prepared for a fight.
The sound grew louder until it was right at the edge of the cliff. A shining blade emerged from the abyss, hooked onto the edge. It was a blade I knew all too well, especially with the shining orb at the hilt, reminiscent of the back of a skull.
"Just a bit more," with heavy panting, the head of the owner of that blade appeared above the edge. Silver hair and green eyes emerged, staring at the four swords pointed at her. "What a warm welcome."
Her narrowed eyes conveyed annoyance.
"Rizel? What are you doing here?" I smoothly returned the swords to their sheaths.
"Looking for a cake, damn it. Now help me up already!" The girl tried to pull herself up the edge, but her hands gradually slipped on the snowy stone.
We took her by the hands and pulled her up, but following her, another pair of hands in red-gray gloves appeared. After the necromancer, we hauled up a warrior with blue hair.
"Well, any more surprises?" I leaned over the cliff, but no more visitors seemed to be coming.
"No, we needed to reach you as quickly as possible, so we traveled light," Asura brushed off her dress and nodded respectfully towards Rizel. "Turns out, Rizel is quite adept at climbing rocks, using her scythe as support."
"I didn't think you'd catch up with us. Does that mean a group of valkyries will arrive soon to take the disobedient princess home?"
"Everything is fine. We cut part of the way through the Wanderer's Path. Afterward, we had to run," the necromancer took a deep breath. "Considering that the so-called road ended three kilometers south and two kilometers down from here."
"The reason for such haste must be very serious."
"Yes, we found out who poisoned Ascareza. And they weren't ordinary monsters; they can wield magic."
"And they look like big black-gray spiders?"
"Um... yes."
"And we just defeated one, albeit with difficulty. By the way, we tossed its carcass down below."
"Really?" Rizel leaned over the abyss. "Hm, I thought it would be larger. Well, I guess we worried for nothing."
"But thank you anyway for coming. Your help would have been useful, Ragni," I said.
We returned to the nest where our comrades were already waiting.
"Why did it take you so long?" Katrina nervously twitched when I appeared from the dark passage.
"Just so. They offered two beaten for each beaten, so I took them up on it," I gestured towards the newcomers.
"Rizel, Asura, why are you here?"
"Well, Asura found out what kind of creature it was," Rizel pointed to the severed head in the corner. "And it wasn't just an ordinary monster. These are very ancient creatures; necromancers created them in my grandmother's time."
"Your grandmother?" Hilda wasn't present in our group at the tournament, so she wasn't aware of this detail.
"Yes, the Mistress of Death, Risa. Thanatos said that these spiders were the cause of the great plague. They aren't just monsters driven by instincts; they possess intelligence and can control other beings."
"Then maybe you should examine Ragni; after all, it did bite her."
Rizel became wary and moved closer to the patient.
"Hmm, the bite isn't deep."
"Yeah, I managed to shake it off before it caught me, but still, I can't shapeshift now."
"Hmm-hmm-hmm," Rizel licked the green liquid gathered from the spider's fangs and then tasted the dried blood from the draco-nessa's back wound. Slightly trembling, she grimaced, "Mmm, it's a neuro-paralytic venom. It blocks your receptors, making it difficult for you to concentrate."
"What?!"
"Well, you find it hard to concentrate because the venom blocks complex thought processes. Breathing fire and swinging fists you can do without a second thought, but to transform, you need to focus on your form. I'm afraid you won't be able to transform until the wound heals. At least two to three days."
"Oh no... I'll have to come up with a new way to incubate the eggs."
"Well, that's better than turning into a mindless bloodthirsty monster. If he had injected more venom, you could have become completely subservient to him. That's how he controlled Ascareza."
"But still," Asura contemplated the spider's head, "I can't believe such a little creature could defeat a white dragon. Sure, it's pretty big for a spider, but not really by dragon standards."
"To be honest, I don't like it either. The head size is too small. Judging by the marks on the draco-nessa's leg, I'd say he made at least four bites. Even if he was sneaking up on her while she slept, it's hard to believe she wouldn't notice."
...one hea... me.
It seemed like I heard someone's voice.
"Rizel, do you think he's not alone here?"
...etter ...will ...ish .. self.
And again, something was audible.
"Yes, if there were two or three of them, Ascareza wouldn't have been much of a hindrance for them. Moreover, Thanatos said there might be their nest somewhere nearby."
Kriiiito-oo-oo, hmm Rizel?? Anyone, please!!!
And now I was certain I heard a familiar voice.
"Riz? Don't you think someone is talking to us?"
Everyone fell silent and listened to the cave's silence.
"I thought it would work," now I was sure I heard the familiar voice.
"From here, perhaps?" I looked closely at the small skull crowning Rizel's staff. "The sound definitely came from here."
"Krito?"
"Hm?" The voice became stronger, and I finally recognized it. "Kurone? What's going on here?"
Rizel looked at her staff with interest; now not only I could hear the girl who was many kilometers away.
"How did she manage to get into my staff?" Rizel wiped the skull and tapped it on the ground.
"Ouch, don't hit it! You know how loud it is!!"
"And it seems you can hear us too."
"Yeah, I needed to get in touch with you, but you were too far away. So, I thought I could use some magical item as a conductor. But I could only reach you through the staff."
"Hmm, considering that we could transfer our magic to pre-charged items, it's quite possible, although very original," I recalled how we helped the kids with their performance, "So, what did you want?"
"Oh right! I thought we could find more information about these mmm Mental Spiders. That's how Thanatos called them. But in the Monster Hunters Guild, they only knew their name and that it's better not to mess with them. They don't even have any images of them. If you happen to find one, you can learn more about it, and then we can sell it."
"Don't worry, we've already dealt with one. If you want, we can even bring its head."
"Great, great. But if you could also bring an egg, that would be even better."
"Sorry, but there was no egg here. It seems the spider was alone."
"That's very strange... Spiders usually don't need much food. If it was alone, then there was no need for Ascareza to gather 'provisions'. By the way, other spiders sometimes kidnap prey and keep them in their lairs to feed their future offspring."
"Hmm..." I carefully examined the walls of the lair, "When we came here, there was no other cave on this slope."
S-s-s-s-s-s. The thin sound of metal scraping against stone filled the room.
"There's nowhere to hide here," Katrina gathered electricity in her hand and threw it towards the ceiling.
S-s-s-s-s-s.
The flash of lightning illuminated the room. One exit, a spherical ceiling, walls covered in icy edges. Nothing unusual.
S-s-s-s-s-s.
"Maybe we're worrying for nothing."
"Doesn't seem like there was another cave on this slope."
S-s-s-s-s-s-vum. The blade easily entered one of the walls as if there were no icy barrier.
"Or maybe not," I conjured flames on the blade and struck the weak spot in the wall. The wall burst into flames, revealing it was just a thick layer of spider silk covered in snow. "They masked it well. So, it could have sneaked into the lair, gradually poisoning the dragon, and then hiding back."
The web burned away, revealing an impressively-sized passage, at least fifteen meters high.
"Do you think there might be more of them in there?" Katrina approached the passage uncertainly.
"In any case, we need to get rid of the eggs. If they hatch, they can overrun all the northern ridges," Hilda nonchalantly slung her axe over her back and stepped into the passage. "I'm going to exterminate them all. Anyone who wants to help can join."