So close. Kanaru felt like Rodnir was too close to him right now. He didn't know what attacked them, and it wasn't the time to grow shy and hide away. It was just that Rodnir was so nonchalant that it was getting contagious. The man grew angry at the hit, but he immediately jumped in with the fact that they were squashed together like this.
"Sorry. I will have to make you endure my weight a bit longer." Rodnir chuckled and kept the stance as if nothing was happening above them. He could feel movement on the thing, but he savored this moment instead. After all, if it was any life-threatening, he would know. He would have personally destroyed it even before it would find its way to them.
"Rodnir, it's not the time for this. We could be dying…" Kanaru whined a little, seeing how the space illuminated by the faint wisp decreased. Whatever it was caved in more and more. Kanaru didn't want to be stuck in small spaces. Rodnir's presence didn't make it any better.
Seeing the concern in Kanaru's eyes, Rodnir thought he already had his fun for now. Moreover, the hair was creeping around his other hand. He then pushed back a lot harder behind him to escape. However, the web had grown so thick above them that it turned solid like a landmass. The king's ward hissed. "What in the world is this?"
The cape moved at Rodnir's action. Kanaru caught the motion and the things the cape hid behind the faint light Rodnir was holding. In the darkness were seemingly hair-like ends that crawled closer to Kanaru's head. However, they wouldn't advance to spaces where the light touched them. The same couldn't be said for his legs. He could feel how the hair was wrapping around his ankles and knees.
Then, small glowing eyes reflected the light from Rodnir's faint wisp. Kanaru watched as the eyes multiplied by pairs, realizing what those things were.
"Rodnir, we're being attacked by small beast-born spiders. Covey said they're scavengers, though." Kanaru started shaking his legs to keep the webs from solidifying around it. "I don't think they know we're not dead yet."
"Spiders, huh? The only scavenger spiders I know drag bodies underground. Let me offer you this unknown species to draw." Rodnir laughed, ignoring how much Kanaru kicked up. He figured the prince was also trying to get the hairy thing off, but he found a problem with it. One of Kanaru's knees surely kept on grazing against a spot he would rather not have Kanaru feel.
His hand trembled as he glared at the hand producing the faint wisp of light. Even something so small could bring about inconveniences. No wonder everyone panicked whenever he used his magic on a wide scale. Well, it was not like he wanted to suffer, either. However, right now was not the time to think about humiliation—the worst side effect his magic could bring.
When Kanaru's concern turned into panic and fear, Rodnir slammed the faint wisp against the fibrous landmass on top of them. The light exploded into flames that burned all of it in less than a few seconds. The spiders shrieked and fled, most dying from the instantaneous combustion of their hunting ground. Rodnir sat up in an instant and shot down the giant spider crawling all over.
Right, they were attacked by one big momma spider that produced webs that imitated tree roots. It would build a hunting ground for thousands of its young to feed. This was the first time Rodnir saw one of these in the wild, not in the books he read in his free time. Seeing the patternless bulb, the king's ward grew sure. He just didn't realize that his knights were also caught up in the hunting ground.
"—! Your Grace!" Sir Heinz spat out one small spider as he rose from the ashes of the threads. He then drew his sword to fend off the bladed legs of the momma spider. It was injured, but the light beam was so thin that it didn't punch too big of a hole.
"Please preserve the spider's body shape," Rodnir said as he drew light beams to cut through the spider's skin. However, it wouldn't go through the other side. If they wanted the thing to die, they could only make it bleed to death.
Kanaru only moved to lean on his side since Rodnir was sitting on him. He stared at the giant spider, which stood three meters tall. If the spider made a ring with its legs, that was how big the bulb was. Its eight eyes were also black, helping it camouflage in the dark. Kanaru could only see it because Rodnir kept on shooting a laser beam to draw on its skin.
The spider soon turned toward Rodnir, but one of the knights engaged his partial beast form. He jumped at it and stuck his sword on the bulb. The other knights also staked their swords on it. Then, the eel knight unleashed electricity to fry the spider's insides through the metal swords. At the attack, the spider squealed in pain and dropped to the ground.
In an instant, the enemy was killed. The knights just retrieved their swords carefully before running off in a direction. Three of them must have fallen victim to the spider after fighting the group of wolves that spotted their traveling group earlier.
Rodnir got up to stand and reached out a hand to help Kanaru up. However, he felt sudden prickly sensations under his clothes. He quickly pulled on the front of his button-up shirt and started flicking small spiders off him. Some spawns must have hidden inside his clothes when the fire blazed. With his cape wrapped around Kanaru instead, the spiders could simply crawl inside.
"Rodnir! Let me help!" Kanaru noticed what was going on and quickly pulled down more of Rodnir's shirt to remove the spiders. After all, they were sinking their fangs on Rodnir like thumb-size fleas. Who wouldn't want to bite such a rather fair skin?
Rodnir was forced to strip off his top just to shake off the little things. They even left bite marks on his skin in their wake. The marks would even swell into small bumps that felt uncomfortable and itchy at best. No matter. He would just heal them after eating.
Even if Kanaru fished for an ointment from his bag, he started to snicker. "It's good that they didn't get inside your pants, Rodnir. I can't imagine what we're going to do if they bite you down there."
"I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to do if that happens." Rodnir only laughed, but his face was twitching from the itchiness. It was good that Kanaru's ointment worked well… and that his hand was the one caressing Rodnir's body.
"Is it over yet?" The chef knight called out, and Rodnir saw how the turtle shell was unveiled by the vanishing ashes. "My insides are getting cooked in here!"