Man-Eating Spiders were not very intelligent.
Their way of thinking was simple. A small number of humans were prey and food; a large number of humans were enemies that threatened them.
In the former case, they had two choices. If the prey looked easy, numerous small Man-Eating Spiders rushed in to subdue it. If the prey could not be caught easily, the Spider Queen hunted it herself.
And though we were ‘prey that could not be caught easily,’ we were still prey and food. The Spider Queen fought us herself, and the other spiders did not try to join the fight.
“Haaah!”
Gritting my teeth, I charged the Spider Queen. I kept throwing torches and swung my sword without rest.
As though telling me to back off already, the Spider Queen opened her mouth threateningly. When I threw a torch into it, I saw her roar.
‘We can’t…… move on to the next phase!’
The intelligence of each individual Man-Eating Spider was not high, and above all, they did not have the authority to make decisions.
On a battlefield where the Spider Queen had joined the fight, every decision was hers. It had been the Spider Queen who had raised our threat level to prey that could not be caught easily, and who had directly entered the battlefield.
In other words, it was also the Spider Queen’s role to raise our threat level to that of enemies all the spiders had to rush in and bring down.
“Hnnngh!!!”
I gave the Spider Queen not the slightest opening. The instant I gave that monster time, she would give the ‘order’ to attack us.
Fighting the Spider Queen alone was already overwhelming. If the other spiders rushed in to surround me and attacked my exhausted allies in the rear, our annihilation would be certain.
‘The way she gives the order. The pattern……!’
She lifted several forelegs, then rubbed them together violently to make a spine-chilling sound.
It was the signal that defined us not as ‘prey the Spider Queen could catch herself,’ but as ‘enemies the entire swarm had to rush in against.’
Which meant that if I kept pressing the Spider Queen without giving her time, I could defeat her.
“Tch!”
A gigantic leg came crashing down. Her counterattacks grew fiercer. She was burning with rage at me, having realized that she could not send the ‘signal’ like this.
I, too, devoted myself to wounding the Spider Queen rather than protecting my own safety.
From this point on, it was a race against time. I moved assuming my armor would block any attack that was not too serious.
Other than attacks where the Spider Queen put her full weight behind a thrust or a downward strike, I took them all and poured on my own attacks.
I cut off legs. I pierced eyes. I carved away flesh.
More than half of the Spider Queen’s eyes, which had seemed numerous enough to disgust me when I first saw her, were now closed.
Some were half-burned, stuck together, and sunken in; others had been pierced by my sword and dripped revolting fluid.
‘It’s almost over. Just a little more, a little more……!’
But my own strength was also already near its limit. I had spent most of the stamina restored by the Song of Vitality.
I had not taken a fatal blow, but I could not avoid scrapes and injuries appearing all over my body. The sticky, damp sensation at my side did not seem to be entirely sweat.
But the Spider Queen was no different.
Quite a few of her dozens of legs had been severed. She had lost countless eyes, and her body was a wreck.
‘Now!’
The Spider Queen’s movements slowed. I ran toward her head.
The most dangerous position. A place where, if she simply moved her head and opened her mouth, she could swallow me in one gulp.
“……!!!”
But the Spider Queen’s strength had already been drained enough. Countless torches had burned the monster’s body, and the Song of the Winged Hunter rang out behind me.
She was slow. The Spider Queen could not react to my attack.
“Hup!”
I thrust in my sword. Very deeply. So deep that I was afraid to pull it back out.
The monster convulsed violently. Dozens of legs trembled.
“Is it over?”
With that, the Spider Queen breathed her last.
“Ha……”
With all the tension leaving me, I sank to the ground, unable to overcome my exhaustion.
The Man-Eating Spiders fled with a rustling sound. They had noticed the Queen’s death.
In an instant, I had gone from ‘prey that was somewhat difficult to kill’ to ‘a dangerous, powerful enemy strong enough to kill the Queen.’ It was only natural for Man-Eating Spiders who had lost their Queen to flee.
“We survived……”
In this world, death was not so far away. I would have to grow accustomed to countless deaths. Whether ally or enemy, those who fought were bound to die.
But the desperate moment when I might die was unbearably painful. Painful enough that I never wanted to experience it again.
‘Still……’
The relief of survival and the satisfaction of victory turned into pure pleasure and began to churn my brain violently.
With a bright smile on my exhausted face, I looked at the women behind me.
“It’s all over. Let’s go now.”
But the expressions of the rear line were not good.
“……Captain.”
Dana looked at me sadly.
“I think those sisters…… are going to die……”
We had won. That was beyond doubt.
The spiders were gone, and I had survived.
But death was not over yet.
***
The battle was over. I checked the extent of the damage.
First, the most important person: myself.
‘My side…… I did get injured after all. I don’t know what struck me, though.’
I had several minor wounds. I needed treatment to prevent infection, but there was no major problem.
My armor had taken quite a beating. Spider venom had corroded it here and there, and parts had been scorched from melting away webs with fire.
But this much did not mean my finest armor had lost its defensive power. As long as I could have it repaired in time, it was damage I could bear.
‘Next, Dana.’
She also seemed safe. She was spotless, without a single wound. Fortunately, it did not seem that any spiders had targeted her.
‘Iris……’
To be honest, I had worried about her too. With her chivalrous sense of justice, I had thought she might push herself forward and get hurt.
But she had not broken the formation until the very end. She had faithfully carried out her assigned role: using a spear to defeat spiders from a safe place.
‘Dana’s sister.’
She was safe as well. It had paid off to have her fight behind me, in the least dangerous position.
‘Then, for now, we succeeded.’
Among the mercenary company’s members, no one had died or suffered a permanent injury. Every member had survived.
It could be called a perfect victory. I had staked everything on a gamble with low odds and achieved results. The mercenary company’s future was bright now.
“Ha……”
But the future of those collapsed before me did not seem so bright.
One of them was all right. She had a somewhat deep puncture wound, but she had somehow held on this far. Given enough time to rest and recover, she would soon be able to return to ordinary life.
But the others were not in such good condition.
“M-my arm……”
Her arm had literally been torn off. A Man-Eating Spider’s sharp teeth had ripped the woman’s arm away.
She was still bleeding. In a little while, the infection would begin.
She might die of blood loss before that.
‘The medicine we have……’
No. It could not save this woman.
And the other one.
“Ahh, ugh, uuuugh……”
I could see the Man-Eating Spider’s disgusting green venom flowing through her veins.
The Man-Eating Spider’s sharp fangs must have pierced her countless times. She might not have known when she was being bitten, but the spider’s venom had entered her veins through those teeth.
This woman was finished. Her body was stiff, and even breathing seemed difficult for her.
There was no antidote. Even if there were, I did not know whether I could use it for this woman.
“C-Captain. What are we going to do about those sisters?”
Dana looked at me with pleading eyes. I slowly shook my head.
“I’m sorry. I think it would be better to put them out of their misery now.”
“I-if we return to the village, there might be a way……”
“You heard what I said before I came here too.”
It was not an urgent situation. I had no intention of getting angry, nor was there any need to.
“The villagers abandoned them. If these women return alive, the villagers may instead fear that their own shame will be exposed.”
“No……”
“There is no way.”
I wanted them to survive as well. But I had to distinguish what was impossible from what was possible. I had no means to save them.
“We have no medicine to save the woman with the severed arm, and no antidote for the poisoned woman. We have nothing.”
I had expected this to happen. In truth, I had thought there was nothing to be done even if all three people we had rescued along with Dana’s sister died.
“Ah, ah……”
It was sad, but she too would be better off becoming accustomed to death.
It was hard for a thirteen-year-old child to endure, but it was something she might have to face again and again in the future.
One of the fallen women—the one whose body looked comparatively uninjured—desperately crawled toward me.
“P-please save them. Please. I beg you. I’ll do anything……”
“You won’t die.”
“Not me! The other two. Please, pleeeease……”
“I told you. There’s no way to save them.”
“There is medicine! There’s an antidote! We hid them in the forest. If you save us, we’ll give you everything. Money, medicine, antidotes……”
I tilted my head.
“You have those?”
“We gathered medicinal herbs while wandering through the forest!”
That changed things somewhat.
‘It’ll be a little troublesome, but……’
According to the plan I had made before coming here, we had to travel while carrying the by-products we had obtained from killing the spiders.
‘It isn’t dangerous. The spiders have scattered, and we’ll have to work a little harder, but……’
I had no interest in the money they had gathered. At best, it would be a pittance, and even if I took it, it would not be enough to help the mercenary company’s circumstances.
But if they really had medicine and an antidote, I could at least take these living corpses to where they were.
Strictly speaking, it was closer to a loss than a profit, but people were dying right in front of me.
If it was not impossible, and if it would not cause great harm to me and my mercenary company, I could help them well enough.
“All right. I understand.”
“R-really?”
“Yes. Let’s go. Iri…… No. You there, Dana’s sister. What’s your name?”
“Anna.”
“You carry the one with the severed arm. I’ll carry the poisoned one.”
With my armor securely on, carrying a poisoned person alone would not transfer the venom to me.
“Understood.”
It was dazzling. Dawn was breaking.
Enduring the heavy weight on my back, I walked through the forest.
‘In any case……’
We had won. Miraculously, without a single casualty.
The radiance of the sun, still out of sight, seemed to be celebrating my victory.