"Drop the cocoons and run!" Solaris shouted at the top of his lungs. The Spider monster had fallen between him and Eclipse and Shadow, effectively separating them. Eclipse gritted his teeth and glared at the Spider. It slowly turned its gaze towards him, chirping in its demonic manner. He slowly let down the cocoon he had picked up and prepared to run. The Spider opened its mouth, preparing to shoot a blast of magic at them. Eclipse took off the moment he saw it prepare its attack, but came to a jarring halt when he saw with horror that Shadow wasn't moving.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!" Eclipse shrieked. He quickly dove in front of Shadow and cast a barrier spell just before the Spider launched its attack. The impact shattered Eclipse's barrier and threw him and Shadow into the wall behind them.
"Shadow! Eclipse!" Solaris hollered from the other side of the Spider. A high pitched note rang in Eclipse's ears as he lifted himself out of the wall and shook his head to clear it. He glanced over at Shadow, panic written all over his face. But Shadow wasn't looking at him. He was staring at the ground by the Spider's feet, a look of pure terror on his face. He was holding his chest with one hand and he was visibly sweating. His breathing was heavy and his entire body was shaking.
All Shadow could see was the Spider's red eyes, gleaming at him. The rest of the world had gone dark. All he could hear was his frantic breathing as his heart threatened to leap out of his chest. He wanted to move, to run, to scream, but his body wouldn't let him, rather, the Spider wouldn't let him. It's gaze made his voice catch in his throat and his legs unable to even twitch.
"Shadow! Get a hold of yourself!" A sting suddenly came across his cheek and he was no longer looking at the Spider. Shadow's eye widened as he took in Eclipse's stern face. "Focus!" Shadow's breathing was still heavy, but he had stopped trembling. His vision cleared and he could think again. Eclipse glanced wearily at the Spider, then grabbed Shadow's wrist and started running. A loud blast sounded behind them and another short wave of dust followed their tracks. Eclipse quickly pulled them behind a huge crystal and huddled down. He peeked out behind the crystal. The Spider was looking around. He let out a small breath of relief before turning back towards Shadow. His eye was wide with fright and he had curled himself up into a ball, wrapping his wings around his body. He had started trembling. "Hey! What's the matter?" Eclipse whispered. Shadow's eye narrowed slightly and he swallowed deeply.
"I… can't handle spiders…" He said weakly. Eclipse felt a small spark of rage flare up in his chest, but one look at how bad Shadow had reacted and he pushed it down. Eclipse clenched his teeth. He glanced behind the crystal, then back at Shadow. He put a firm hand on Shadow's shoulder and leaned close to him.
"Stay here until you've calmed yourself down." He whispered. Then without a moment to spare, he leapt out from behind the crystal and joined Solaris, Fia and Rolla. Shadow listened to the sounds of magic blasting behind him and gripped his arms tightly, digging his nails into his skin. Frustration gnawed at his mind, making him bite through his lip. Stupid. Stupid! Stupid! How are you supposed to go on future missions if one measly spider is all it takes to make you freeze?
"What happened to Shadow?" Solaris called as Eclipse ran to his side to assist him with magic.
"He's unable to fight right now." Eclipse growled. "But he's safe, so focus on the spider." Solaris simply nodded. He would ask more about it later. Solaris brandished his daggers and jumped at the Spider. The Spider raised its legs to stab at him as he ran, but Solaris' agility outpaced the spiders, allowing him easy access to the Spider's underbelly. With a moment to spare, Solaris let out a flurry of slashes at the soft belly. The Spider screeched in pain and quickly spun itself around, being too big to move much farther from its current position. The Spider stabbed at Solaris with it's legs, driving him out from under the space under its belly. Meanwhile, Fia and Rolla hovered above the Spider, casting a slew of fire, lightning and other spells at it's back. Eclipse raised his hands and joined them from his spot at the Spider's side. After a good couple minutes of continuous attacks, the Spider was still standing.
"Damn!" Eclipse cursed as, once again, he shot a fireball at the Spider's face. "How is it still standing?" Solaris hopped next to him after dodging another round of the Spider's legs.
"It must have tough skin or a shell or some kind of magic buffs assisting it." He huffed. "If we can't break through that, we won't be able to kill it."
"How do we break through then?" They quickly dodged out of the way as the Spider stomped its leg at them.
"We either wear it down or break through with one big attack. But I doubt it'll give us the time to prepare anything big."
"Shit!" Eclipse stomped his foot in frustration.
"All we can do now is wear it down so try your best to hold on." Solaris said before leaping back into the fray.
"Of course!" Eclipse raised his hand to let out another wave of fireballs at the Spider. Just then, a series of quick beams shot at the spider from an upward angle. The beams pierced through the Spider's body and it let out a screech of pain. Eclipse looked up at where the beams were originating from and saw Shadow hovering in the air, five magic circles surrounding him. He had both arms raised towards the spider and a fierce look on his face. The beams continued shooting at the Spider like a gatling gun until the Spider was near collapsing. Puncture holes littered it's body and it's blood was streaming from it's freshly delivered wounds like rivers of purple.
"Now's our chance!" Solaris roared, his mighty voice echoing in the cave. "Attack!" With one last surge of fighting spirit, Eclipse, Solaris, Fia and Rolla unleashed every last bit of magic they had left into attacking the Spider. It screeched one last time as it collapsed, sending a gust of dust towards them. Solaris quickly rushed in and severed its head in one clean stroke, sealing its fate. For a moment, no one moved as they watched the Spider's purple blood ooze from it's now beheaded neck. Then all at once, victory hit them and they all slowly fell to the ground one by one in exhaustion. Small cheers echoed in the room and once everyone had regained their footing, they met up one last time by the Spider's corpse.
"That sure was one hell of a spell." Rolla smiled, patting Shadow on the shoulder. He gave a tired smile back, almost looking withered.
"It sure took a lot out of me." He breathed.
"For a second there, I thought we were going to have to kill it without you." Eclipse stated, his voice laced slightly with irritation.
"Ah, sorry." Shadow said in a defeated tone. "I'm deathly afraid of spiders. I can usually reign it in but this one came out of nowhere and was bigger than anything I had ever seen. So… I froze." Eclipse glared at him for a moment longer before letting out a huff and turning his head away, his arms crossed.
"That's stuff you tell us before we go looking around caves." Shadow gave a small apologetic smile.
"Mission's not over guys." Solaris said in a commanding, but easy voice. "Let's go free those miners."
~ * ~
Shadow let out a sigh, flopping onto his bed face down.
"I think I've had enough stress and anxiety to last me a lifetime." He said in a muffled voice.
"Yeah, I'm wiped." Eclipse yawned, sauntering over to his own bed. After freeing the miners, most were left unconscious so they had to fly them back to the city before they could return home. A light knock on the door frame and the two turned their heads to look. Solaris was standing in the door frame.
"Tomorrow morning, we're back to regular schedule." Solaris was met with protestful groans.
"Do we need to?" Eclipse whined.
"We must maintain our bodies in order to keep up with the up and coming missions. So yes, we do." Solaris countered. He turned and left the room. "I'll see you two tomorrow morning." Eclipse groaned as he left. Shadow smiled over at Eclipse.
"I'm sure he'll let us go easy tomorrow. After all, we just went on our first mission." Shadow reassured him.
"He better."
Shadow sprang up from his bed, panting. His whole body was shaking. His left hand stung. He looked down to see a black mark on the back of his hand where the baby spider had bitten him. He lifted his hand to get a closer look, then let out a heavy sigh before sliding out of bed and exiting the room. I must be seeing things. He quickly used the bathroom and returned to his room.
"Shadow?" Eclipse's tired voice called out into the dark as Shadow lifted the covers of his bed. "You're awake?"
"Bathroom." he said simply. Eclipse grunted and quickly fell back asleep. Shadow slipped under his covers and laid down but sleep wouldn't come. His hand throbbed and he couldn't get this ominous feeling off his back. He turned over and looked at the wall, slowly drifting to sleep with his thoughts.
When Shadow woke up again, the pain in his hand was gone but the black marks were still there. He looked around. Eclipse wasn't in the room. He quickly pulled a pair of gloves out of his subspace and put them on before leaving the room. Everyone was waiting for him at the training grounds.
"It's unlike you to sleep in." Solaris commented.
"Guess my first mission wore me out more than I thought." Shadow gave a nervous smile.
"As I had been explaining earlier…" Solaris started, turning towards the group as a whole. "We'll be doing ten laps around the field, light sparring and another five laps around the field before lunch. Rinse and repeat."
"But we just got back from a mission!" Eclipse complained, slouching in despair. Shadow gave him a sympathetic pat on the back.
"Suck it up and deal with it." Solaris turned and started running. Shadow let out a small sigh before starting after him. For a while, everything was going fine. He worried less and less about the spider bite as the laps went on and on without incident. He had completely forgotten it by the time everyone had finished their laps and the sparring began. As usual, he was paired with Solaris. And as usual, they didn't leave it at just light sparring. At first it was a short exchange of blows, then they started an aerial battle and then magic got involved. As they battled, Shadow noticed that he was feeling more tired than normal. He was just a bit slower, just a bit heavier. Solaris landed a hit that sent him flying for the ground. Shadow landed on his feet but as he did so, a sharp pain suddenly shot up his arm making him stagger. He quickly numbed the pain with magic and stood straight before continuing. But he could still feel a light throbbing and he couldn't get it out of his mind. He ended up losing the spar. When morning training was done, they all breaked for lunch.
"Who's on lunch duty again?" Rolla asked.
"I thought we agreed to just appoint Shadow as the chef." Eclipse stated.
"We did." Shadow affirmed.
"Sorry, it's become a habit." Rolla smiled.
"It's ok! I'll start preparing right away." Shadow called as he ran off to the kitchen. Once he was out of sight of the group, he leaned against the wall and slowly let himself sink to the ground. He removed the glove to see the black marks had grown bigger. Shadow took a deep breath before putting the glove back on and slowly standing up. As he walked to the kitchen, he slowly released the spell that numbed the pain in his hand and left it as he worked on lunch. Once Shadow had finished lunch and the pain in his hand had steadily grown weaker, but not yet faded. He ignored it as he brought out sandwiches and passed them around to the rest of his squad.
"How is it?" he asked. He heard satisfied murmurs from everyone and saw numerous thumbs of approval. "I'm glad you like it!"
"And I'm glad we appointed you chef." Fia smiled.
"Yeah. You make the best meals." Eclipse agreed. "When you wake up on time that is."
"That was just today! I'll keep track of it." Shadow promised. "Anyways, isn't today chore day? I'm not cleaning the entire lodging on my own again." Fia and Eclipse stiffened, Rolla ate her sandwich faster and Solaris ignored him. Shadow gave them a disappointed look. "Sometimes I wonder who's supposed to be the responsible one in the group." he sighed, staring them down. "I'm not wiping this place top to bottom by myself this time, alright? If I have to clean everything on my own again, I'm going to make each and everyone of you clean everything again with a toothbrush."
"Even the laundry?!" Eclipse shouted.
"Toothbrush, no exception." Shadow glared.
"How would that even work?"
"You'd have to figure it out."
"What?!"
"I'll let you guys finish your lunch, then it's chore time. I'll be watching…" Shadow glared out among the group.
"What about you!" Rolla burst. "You can't supervise us and clean at the same time! Don't think you're not going to do chores too!"
"You underestimate my magic." Shadow replied simply, turning away and walking back inside the cabin. "I'm starting on the bathrooms. You had all better be working on something by the time I'm done. Or else!" he called as he left.