Give Me Some Water (3)
“Not Emmy, it’s Emmy!”
“Got it. Emmy, water please.”
Cliche appears, dragging along the whining Max.
“……?”
Cliche tilts his head at the temple interior thick with poison mist.
“What an unusual interior. What are those on the ceiling? Chandeliers?”
Of course, they’re no chandeliers.
Max’s face drains of color as he spots his comrades bound tight in spiderwebs dangling from the ceiling.
“Emmy!”
“Oh, Max!”
Emmy responds to Max’s cry, biting her lip hard. Her long beard trembles.
Her face flushes beet red with humiliation.
A female orc at 18! Prime age for fearless dominance and brutal brawls. And here she is, webbed up like a chandelier.
What an utter humiliation!
Meanwhile, as Max reels from this sudden catastrophe...
H otse and Unicef enter the temple too.
“These... damn... spider... bastards... how many... are there... kahk... ptooie!!”
“Ho ho ho. It’s not ‘damn,’ it’s ‘yemi.’ Or was it ‘yemmy’?”
And finally, Roin steps into the temple.
“……Gasp!?”
Roin instantly senses the crisis gripping the orc temple.
She quickly identifies the massive monster looming deep within.
“Spider Queen Curequium!”
Roin breaks out in cold sweat.
The Spider Queen Curequium. Any society on a national scale harbors terror of this vicious monster.
Roin herself had heard plenty of scary tales from village grandmas in her childhood.
Curequium starred as the villain in those ghost stories more times than she could count—a named monster of pure dread.
Though she’d retreated deep into the western jungles to avoid humans, her legend still haunted most people.
Meanwhile.
“Hm……”
Spider Queen Curequium squints down at the temple entrance.
“Oh my? What a cute little thing.”
She winks playfully at the pink-haired boy Cliche standing at the front.
A moment where Cliche’s universally adorable looks win hearts regardless of race.
“Be careful, Cliche. Even you can’t underestimate her.”
Roin whispers in Cliche’s ear.
Curequium is a fire-weak spider-type, yet she survived a great demon’s flames—a true powerhouse.
Her webs can bind even Sword Master aura. No way even Cliche could snap them lightly.
But Cliche just wears a sullen expression.
“I’m a dragon. Spiders don’t scare me.”
Petite frame, pink hair and all, Cliche still clings to his pride.
The pride of a dragon that once ruled the world with colossal might.
But.
Roin whispers a bombshell to such a Cliche.
“I hear Curequium once killed a dragon long ago.”
……!
Cliche’s eyes snap wide at her words.
Curequium, overhearing, flashes a seductive smile.
“A dragon, huh. A name you only hear in ancient myths these days. True, I’ve slain one. A hatchling not even a millennium old, mind you. Oh ho ho ho!”
“……”
Cliche stares at her in shocked silence.
Unicef steps forward in his place.
“What do you plan to do with those orcs? Lay eggs under their skin for larvae to burrow out? Or just suck their blood and guts dry into mummies? Or cocoon them alive, crush ‘em to mush, and……”
Curequium’s face twitches uncomfortably at the ex-great demon’s gruesome words.
“Eek... I was just gonna exile them from the temple... That’s way too brutal!”
Now Hotse chimes in.
“These days... young... spiders... are so... damn... disrespectful... no manners... back in my day... spiders stayed... proper... spun silk... at home... cooked meals... that’s a proper... spider! Roaming... outside... willy-nilly! World’s... too harsh... for you... reckless brats~~!!”
“……What’s with this boomer?”
Curequium crosses her arms, incredulous, clearly pissed off.
“Ho ho ho. Spiders live long and learn, huh. Even sassing a great demon.”
“Damn... wench... kahk, ptooie~~ I’ll... show you... my hot... kukri... muscles... just a bit~~”
Unicef and Hotse roll up their sleeves, striding forward cockily.
By their vibe, they’re ready to wipe out every boiling spider in the temple.
“Oh!”
Lizard King Ioldrum and Orc Queen Emmy eye them with faint hope.
Maybe a way out of this mess.
But.
Ting!
The moment Hotse and Unicef step forward, they snag Curequium’s webs.
“Huh?”
Unicef and Hotse blink in confusion as floor and ceiling flip.
“Eek!”
They scramble to untangle their ankles, but shockingly, Curequium’s webs hold firm against their strength.
To add insult, she wraps extra layers around the dangling pair.
“I’m so thirsty... no strength left……”
“Damn... wench... you started... the fire... why’re you... the thirsty one~~”
“Ho ho ho. You’re the one who lit it. Testing my patience.”
Even webbed up, Hotse and Unicef bicker on.
Curequium speaks to them in her sultry voice.
“You two get special treatment. Look forward to it.”
She bares her venomous fangs in a smile.
Right then.
“Let my comrades go!”
Someone stands before Spider Queen Curequium.
Blue hair, blue eyes. Roin.
Her body trembles with fear, but her eyes burn with worry and sacrifice for her friends.
‘I have to buy time!’
Roin glances back at blankly standing Cliche, thinking.
Surely Hotse and Unicef could break free eventually too.
Curequium giggles at the sight, amused.
“Such touching friendship, little human. But what can you do?”
Hotse and Unicef nod from behind in agreement.
“You bought... us 2 seconds... thanks~~!!”
“Ho ho ho. Comrade? Thanks, but I don’t associate with fallen royalty sans succession rights. Makes me feel like we’re equals—kinda insulting.”
Roin’s face twists in disbelief.
She’d mustered her courage, risked her life—and this is the thanks?
Churik-
Curequium’s webs shoot out.
Roin, who’d stepped forward, ends up bound and dangling upside-down from the ceiling too.
Hotse and Unicef greet her with grins.
“You’re... a chandelier... now too...”
“Ho ho ho. Welcome to the ceiling club. Wait, not floor—ceiling.”
“What are you idiots saying! We might end up spider food! Hurry and break those webs!”
Roin yells, face crumpling.
But Hotse and Unicef show zero tension.
“But... they won’t... break...?”
“If you can’t dodge it, enjoy it. Feels kinda like a hammock—nice vibe?”
“What the hell! We’re gonna die for real!”
By then.
“……!”
Cliche snaps to.
He’d zoned out from the dragon-slaying shock.
He takes a big step toward Curequium.
“Hm?”
Curequium narrows one eye, sensing his aura.
Something subtly off-putting.
Soon, black mist from Curequium clashes with Cliche’s pink aura.
Kururuk-
The poison mist recoils from the pink flow.
Not Cliche pushing—it’s Curequium pulling back.
Cliche asks.
“Did you really kill a dragon?”
Curequium smiles seductively.
“Of course.”
Cliche presses.
“What color scales did it have?”
“Hm…… Let’s see? What color was it? Probably……”
Curequium ponders... then.
“Who cares!?”
She’d faked thinking—a feint. She hurls a massive web net from her fingertips at Cliche.
A colossal net blanketing dozens of meters!
Even Unicef and Hotse’s faces change.
Tension finally creeps in.
Roin shouts.
“Cliche, dodge! Touch that net once, and you’re stuck forever!”
Cliche nods.
Whoosh-
He tilts his head slightly, and the web grazes his hair, splatting against the wall.
Hotse and Unicef sigh at the sight.
“That’s... seriously... dangerous...”
“Even Cliche-sama’s in for a rough time now.”
Roin asks Hotse anxiously.
“Are those webs that dangerous?”
If a Sword Master like Hotse says so, it must be insane.
But.
“Yeah... it touched... his hair... that’s gonna... tangle for sure...”
“Ho ho ho. Rub some cooking oil gently to peel it off. Or mousse and comb carefully... Ugh, sounds annoying just thinking.”
“It’s not gum! That’s not the issue right now!?”
Roin snaps at their utter lack of tension.
Splat-
Disaster strikes.
Slow-moving Cliche finally eats a direct hit from Curequium’s web bomb.
Given his sluggish moves, it was inevitable.
“Ho- ho ho ho ho. Last hope’s gone now?”
Curequium approaches the tightly bound Cliche.
To hang him from the ceiling.
“This temple’s our hideout now. The spider kin will rise again through its waters.”
She declares to everyone dangling from the ceiling.
Orc Queen Emmy and Lizard King Ioldrum glare at her, eyes bloodshot.
Is there truly no hope?
Right then.
A sound that beggars belief rings out.
Snap-