I was immobilized by vines, my joints were covered in a thin layer of frost, making it even harder to move, and on top of all of that, A giant boulder in the shape of a spider was charging right at me…
At that moment, there was no plan, just a gut reflex. When fighting spiders and in a pinch, there was one thing every adventurer alive would fall back on. 'Fire!'
I spewed out a breath of fire so hot all the frost began to melt, leaving only the venom that would soak into the plants and cause them to wither and burn. The spider's living armor may have protected it from getting seriously hurt, but a deep fear of fire was basically hardwired into them, so even protected as it was, the heat was enough to make it shrivel back and panic for a second. That panic made it lose control of the spell of vines tying me down, and allowed me to easily take control of it with my own plant magic. Once I was free to move again, I ran through the last remnants of my fire in the air and slid under its belly, jabbing my spear through a crack in the rocks. 'Spiders are weak to heat, not specifically fire, so… Please work please work please work…'
I curled up as best I could, causing the earth below me to sink a couple of feet just to be safe as I released all the lightning runes at once, letting out a terrified yelp as I felt some of the electricity tingle on my skin, as the air boiled around me.
After a few seconds, I slowly opened my eyes to see my spear handle right in front of me, still coursing with faint traces of electricity, making me yelp again and almost bringing me to tears. 'Zapy magic… Is so scary…'
"Chika! Are you around here?"
"CHIKA!"
'Did they win already? Maybe I was worried about them for nothing.' "DOWN HERE!" I shouted. The spider fell straight down over the little hole I made, but my spear was long enough that it didn't completely cover it, instead sitting like a pitched tent.
"Guys… Did the spider just talk?"
"Are you drunk already?" I shouted, "Help get this thing off me!" I yelled again, still shaking from the adrenaline and feeling of near-death. Almost getting killed by monsters was something I had experienced before, but… For one reason or another, that time it felt completely different.
Thankfully, with me having leverage from underneath, we quickly moved the corpse, Ted helping me out of the pit a moment later. 'This is definitely different… Then being alone. Even if I did fight by myself. I'm already starting to calm down…'
Roaren squatted down, looking at the spider's face up close. "Are you injured at all? We should address anything now, even if it's minor."
'I can tell you're so concerned…' I sighed. "I'm fine… Thanks, guys."
"That's good, I can't pick up a scent because of this nasty stink, but I heard a girl scream a moment ago, so they might be close."
'He heard a– o-oh… mm…'
"Good job, Roaren, we should get moving then."
"I uh…" I muttered.
"Which way did it come from? Are we going in the right direction?"
"Guys… I think–"
"Yeah, it was from up over this ridge. We should pick up the pace, they might be in danger."
"So are we just going to leave these materials then?" Dabai asked, looking back.
Ted clapped his hands. "We can always come back for them, let's hurry and–"
"GUYS!" I shouted, finally interrupting them.
"Uh… What is Chika? Are you hurt after all?"
"I'm pretty sure the scream you heard was me…" I muttered, looking to the side.
"I heard two, though, and they sounded farther away."
Stiffly pointing to the hole, I turned and looked away even more. "I… screamed twice… And the hole I was in would have caused an echo… Making it sound farther away…"
Suddenly, a dead silence hung in the air, replacing any nervousness or rush that was previously felt.
'This is so awkward… Should I explain? Will that make it better? If I just keep talking, then maybe…' "I-I used a lot of electric magic really close to myself, fire wouldn't work because of the rocks, and because the electricity was so much I… Kind of screamed because I thought I might die…"
Still, the awkward silence remained.
'Don't tell me that's what finally makes them realize I'm a girl…' My chest tightened even more, unsure about how the thought made me feel.
"Pft…"
"PAHAHAHA"
They all burst into laughter except for Dabi, who was able to hold himself back. "That's so like you, I guess you're so strong you even scare yourself sometimes!" Ted yelled as he continued to laugh, heartily hitting me on the shoulder again.
"Ha… Haha…" 'I guess… There are some upsides to being alone too… I never have to feel this embarrassed…'
Tagart staggered over and kicked the spider, taking another swig before sitting on top of it. "You've grown a bit taller, but that voice of yours sure hasn't changed yet." He joked, chuckling along with the others.
Roaren shook his head as he folded his arms. "Hey, don't worry about it, kid, we've all screamed like a little girl once or twice. Although… I doubt any of us did it because we were afraid of our own strength…"
'I am a little girl, though… So why is this still so embarrassing…'
Ted burst out laughing again, almost falling over, while Dabi gave an awkward thumbs-up. "We won't tell anyone."
'These guys…' The heat in my face started to fade as my embarrassment slowly switched out for a soft, somewhat warm feeling in my chest as it loosened. Letting out a puff of air, I slowly walked back over to the spider I had killed and threw Tagart off of it so I could get a closer look. "We should probably still try and hurry. But we don't have to rush so much, we can't do a little harvesting first. Instead of taking the entire body, we should only take parts that are valuable, otherwise, our storage will fill up too fast. We are going to be out here for a few days after all. And besides… From the smell alone, I can tell none of its internals are salvageable… I wouldn't even try eating the meat."
'It really is huge… And its hair is white… Actually, its size in general is quite large.' I took out one of my throwing knives and quickly carved out the crystal eye. 'It's as big as my fist… No wonder it was so strong.' Standing up, I put it up to the sun for a moment before sending it to my storage. 'Since I fried it with so much lightning, this is the only thing that's still valuable… But it is what it is… It's the most valuable part anyway.' As I lowered my eyes, the others were all still standing there, staring at me. "What…" 'Don't tell me I did something weird again?'
Ted stepped forward. "If you don't mind, can I see that gemstone?" I pulled it back from storage and showed it to him. It only took a glance for him to be satisfied before tossing it back. "From what I understand, a caster could only have a gem that size if it was an elder spider; in other words, it would have to be over a year old… Judging from the white hair, that means they were probably born two winters ago…"
'That tracks…' "Its magic was strong… But since the stone is blue, it implies water was technically its best, even if it used earth more, so being born in the winter makes sense with what you're saying, but why so serious? For there to be a queen big enough to cause a swarm, it's not that crazy, right?"
Ted groaned as he stepped back over to the ridge and the others got to work harvesting the soldiers. "The queen would be strong, yes… But a hatchling queen wouldn't be able to give birth to soldiers and casters. Furthermore, it's extremely unlikely the first ones she hatched would survive, due to the nature of monsters' territorial conflicts. The fact that there are three spiders this old, this far away from the nest…"
I slowly looked back deeper into the forest. " Ah, sparks… You mean…"
"Exactly… And to make matters worse, if we didn't even know what we were getting ourselves into, no bloody way those girls had any clue what was out here."
'Well… It's not like I really cared that much about the rescue mission anyway, just might as well help if I can while doing my quests… But if we are assuming a queen that's at LEAST 3, probably 4 years old… Maybe I should really go find a new hunting ground…'