After they returned to where they were originally–
Arisu immediately cast "Distance healing" for Tamaki, and then charged towards the Arachne warrior. She stubbornly aimed at the spider"s front legs.
It seemed like she was doing it both to stall the enemy"s movement in addition to drawing its attention to herself. She was creating a chance for my familiars to attack.
Hiding behind Arisu, the two spirits remembered the principle that they had to go around the enemy"s back. Attacking from both sides would reduce the power imbalance between them and the enemy. That was the tactic for now.
The Arachne warrior couldn"t focus only on facing Arisu. The wounds were increasing on its body, plus…
"Whole body electric shock."
Mia"s electric attack slowed the warrior down temporarily.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Arisu let out a shrill cry, charging and sinking her blade into the Arachne warrior"s chest.
Blue blood spurted out of its chest like a fountain.
Arisu and the spirits leaned forward further, increasing the intensity of their attack. As the stiffness in its body wore out, the Arachne warrior writhed from side to side, its shoulders and abdomen sustaining wound after wound.
I thought that we had won already…
Yet the Arachne Warrior leapt up immediately after the stiffness left its body.
Oh no, Arachnes could jump?
The enemy leader rose high above Arisu and the spirits" heads, heading in the direction of Tamaki and the legendary Arachne she was battling. It was likely planning to protect the highly valuable legendary Arachne that was stronger than itself.
It must have taken the enemy aback that the legendary Arachne and Arachne warrior had been drawn so far apart. This was our plan at work…
If we let it land, things were going to go badly. I immediately shouted out, "Mia, finish it off!"
"Got it! Gravity!"
Things had happened so quickly, but Mia immediately understood what I was thinking.
A level 7 wind spell, "Gravity" would affect the gravity around the Arachne warrior in the air.
It didn"t understand at all what Mia had done as its huge body was crushed by its own weight, losing all speed and plummeting to the ground.
The sound of bones cracking was clear. It seemed like a few of its legs had snapped. It wouldn"t be able to stand up anytime soon.
Even so, the Arachne warrior still spat out webbing at Arisu and Tamaki, who were trying to approach it.
"Ah, ah!"
Arisu was coated in sticky webbing from her face to the rest of her body.
"Go, fire spirit!"
Immediately, Arisu"s body started burning. The fire spirit from behind used its magic to burn Arisu along with the webbing.
In the earlier battle, we had already confirmed that webbing was weak against fire, so we had explained the plan to the fire spirit ahead of time.
From the leaping flames charged Arisu. Her spear"s head stabbed deeply into the immobilized Arachne warrior.
Letting out a haunting death wail, the Arachne warrior fell to the ground.
Its huge body disappeared, leaving behind four blue gems.
So it was equal to forty credits…that meant that it was quite a formidable foe. But because we were stronger than it, we didn"t really get that feeling.
Speaking of which, we need to proceed to the next plan with no time for picking up gems.
"Retreat!" I called out.
Indeed. Defeating the Arachne warrior meant that the Arachne army had already lost its leader.
The legendary Arachne was not a leader, so it wasn"t necessary to defeat it. Plus, there wasn"t any way to attack it at our own leisure in the middle of an enemy army.
Taking advantage of their chaos seemed like the best chance to retreat.
"Whole body electric shock."
Mia cast magic on the legendary Arachne, slowing down the monstrous warrior for just a moment.
Tamaki took the opportunity to escape its attack range.
She and Arisu used "Flying" to launch into the sky, the two spirits following them.
"Great, is everyone here?"
From the point of view of the enemy, we had escaped forward. We needed to make it into the airs.p.a.ce of the battle in between the citizens of light and the Arachne. At our current level, being caught in friendly crossfire wouldn"t be a threat to us. On the contrary, the chaos of the battlefield was exactly what we wanted.
Flying ahead, I flew over the forest, which was 20 meters above the ground.
The Arachne fired arrows at us, yet their aim was seriously off. 20 meters was a bit too high for the coa.r.s.ely made bows and arrows of this world.
Ahead, the Arachne and the huge tree familiars-tree people, were engaged in an epic battle.
The tree folks waved their limbs, which were arms made of branches and legs made from roots, ravaging the Arachne.
The Arachnes" webbing was too insignificant to have any effect on them.
The Arachne tried their best to surround the tree folk in the distance, shooting burning arrows at them. Some were lucky enough to find their targets, and the fire blazed bright, burning outwards from the middle. Was it because of magic, or because the power of the arrows themselves?
A citizen of light magician immediately used water magic to pour huge amounts of water all over the tree people.
But because of this, the magician was exposed without defense to the enemy.
This was the Arachnes" true goal. The spider people shot a huge amount of arrows towards the defenseless magician.
On the side of the citizens of light, a group of men with gigantic shields gathered together, trying to protect the magician…
Yet all their efforts were for nothing. The magician was attacked by countless arrows and became almost like a porcupine.
In the midst of a hectic battle, we charged into the battlefield.
Both sides immediately panicked, attacks ceasing on all sides.
Hm, a good chance. We looked backwards at everyone else…
And realized-
The legendary Arachne had already crept close behind.
It had jumped over to us. Using its freakishly high leaps, it chased us, following close behind the fire spirit at the end of our ranks.
"Wait…this…"
Before I could form a complete sentence, something happened.
The legendary Arachne gripped its red-tipped spear"s eerie silver handle.
It charged forward with an attack. The long silver handle seemed to extend at top speed. Or perhaps we should say that what extended was the jumping red and black tip?
A hit that shouldn"t have landed pierced the fire spirit from behind.
The familiar let out a final wail.
My connection to the familiar broke off.
One hit-a single hit, and it killed a level 8 familiar.
And to think Tamaki could deal with an opponent like this…
I swallowed.
That was all the trepidation I allowed in myself.
"Wind spirit, attack the legendary Arachne. Block it off."
To regroup, we needed time.
At this time, I decided to abandon my familiar for this cause.
"Mia, stop it with magic."
"Okay. Gravity!"
The legendary Arachne was shot out of the air by Mia"s gravity magic, landing on the ground.
But as it was falling from 20 meters high, it escaped the functional range of "Gravity". Before it hit the ground, it found a perfect moment to spit out spider webbing at the ground.
The webbing spread like cotton candy, catching the Arachne"s body like a mattress…
The legendary Arachne jumped up and came directly at us.
The wind spirit came in between.
Once again, the legendary Arachne used its spear, attacking with full force.
Pierced through the abdomen, the wind spirit was immediately dead and disappeared with a wail.
Once again, I turned forward. She had earned us the bare minimum of extra time. "Thank you," I muttered.
We escaped into the crowd of the citizens of light.
Hundreds of them aimed at the legendary Arachne at the same time.
As the order was given, they all shot their arrows at the same time. I originally thought that even a legendary Arachne would have difficulty fielding arrows raining down…
But when I turned back again, it opened its mouth.
It spat out webbing. The white silk expanded outwards like bubbles.
I realized it was a shield. The white wall blocked out all the arrows that were flying in its direction.
It landed tentatively on the ground, letting out an howl.
This growl made the earth shake, stopping all the citizens of light who were preparing their next arrow on the bow.
No, the people were crying out. Proud men were abandoning their weapons, escaping with their backs to the enemy.
"Oh no, it"s the effects of the howl!"
I only noticed my mistake when it was too late.
I had completely forgotten that an overwhelmingly strong enemy could create such an effect with its howl.
In this moment, I sank into doubt. Should we escape with the citizens of light or stay, and try to at least finish off the legendary Arachne?
I bit my lip hard.
"Hm, He He, we need to see this through."
Mia patted my shoulder. She said this casually, waking me up from my funk.
We gazed at one another.
The slender girl smiled awkwardly, as if saying, "that"s why I can"t deal with He He". It was almost a bitter smile.
"Think about what you value the most."
"Is that so…is that so."
I nodded, glancing at everyone.
"We"ll leave it to the citizens of light! Let"s distance ourselves from the battlefield!"
Our backs to the enemy, we escaped. We didn"t fly in the air, but ran on the ground to avoid being noticed.
What was most important to me-
Of course it was Arisu, Tamaki, Mia.
What mattered was my companions.
Ah, Lucia counted as well. She was currently slumped on my back, powerless.
That"s right. Our team was winded. My MP was almost depleted, and Lucia was so tired she couldn"t stand up.
Under these conditions, how could we face a monster on the level of Mekishu Grand?
To protect my companions, I didn"t care how many citizens of light I had to sacrifice.
If sacrificing their lives was enough to save my companions, I would be happy.
Cries and wails started up behind us. Was it the legendary Arachne beginning its murderous rampage?
How were the Arachne doing now, without their leader?
But none of that was our business. We ran towards the deeper parts of the forest.
All the noises became distant.
"This should be a good distance."
Panting heavily, I stopped, collapsing into a sitting position on the ground.
I let the weakened Lucia lean in the shadow of a tree.
Ah…how exhausting.
Raising my head, I saw Arisu and Tamaki glance around worriedly. Mia also sat down, panting hard.
"He He, did you notice?"
"Notice what?"
"In the end when we were escaping, the legendary Arachne spat out large quant.i.ties of webbing, trying to stop us from getting away."
I didn"t. I looked around at Mia.
"Don"t worry. Someone stopped it."
"Who?"
"The citizen of light soldiers. They drew away the legendary Arachne and told us to hurry up and run."
I shook my head. I really hadn"t noticed.
What did this all mean?
"He He, they have hope."
"Hope?"
"Towards you, and towards us. They saw us mess with the enemies, and realized that we wanted to push everything towards them for the sake of escaping from the legendary Arachne. They knew that it was all to make it to the next battle."
"Are you saying…they knew they would be sacrificed?"
Mia nodded. "Exactly."
"They must"ve seen the explosion Lucia caused. I think that they must know about how we charged into the enemy camp and caused a big riot."
Ah, that made sense. Lucia plus the magical attacks were a formidable combination. Even from a distance it would be a stunning explosion.
"But…why would they do this?"
"They were like the mayor of that town; like the people who opposed Mekishu Grand and bought time."
"They bought us…time."
"And how did that end up?"
"About that…"
I looked up at Arisu and Tamaki. The two of them were in the dark and stared back with blank expressions.
"You"re right. Because of that precious time, we were able to beat Mekishu Grand. We needed the time to summon Arisu and Tamaki, and reorganize our forces. They gave their lives to earn us twenty minutes."
I see-I nodded.
"We"re…their hope."
"Yeah, hope. We"re what they imagine as hope. But He He…"
Mia"s expression was dead serious as she faced me.
"What are you planning to do? Have you made up your mind? Are we going to become heroes to them?"
Mia laid the choices before me.
The lives of my companions and the road to becoming a hero, weigh those two on a scale-
The youngest member of the team was telling me.