The Spider Forest's Struggle (3)
Even Lawrence hadn’t expected that stroke of luck.
A tiny explosion.
The cloud of dirt kicked up by Shadow Spear had thrown up a kind of smoke screen.
He couldn’t afford not to use it.
“You fucking—!”
“Aaaah! My leg! My legggg!”
“Where’d he shoot from? Find the mage first!”
Lawrence cast Shadow Spear again.
No need to aim.
Not because he could see them.
Because he could hear the screams in the thick dust.
“Someone pick up my leg!”
“Get your potions out, damn it! Someone put that bastard’s leg back on!”
He felt no pity.
If they’d been slower to react, it would have been the boy screaming instead.
This was all their own fault.
The fury Lawrence had been forced to swallow through this wretched pursuit had already reached its limit.
Shadow Spear answered that rage.
The moment the spear took shape, it shot toward the enemy.
The second throw.
By the time the roar of the explosion faded, so did the screams.
He checked the pain in his chest.
It wasn’t as bad as he’d feared.
Should he cast once more?
No. Any more than this would be excessive, no matter how he looked at it.
Shadow Spear had originally seemed like a spell that should have been enough in a single use.
Since spellcasting had cost him time, he decided it was better to keep watch on his surroundings.
Lawrence reached for his crossbow.
The ambush had worked.
But Shadow Spear wasn’t perfect.
Surely there were mercenaries who had escaped the spell’s blast.
And on top of that, he’d cast a second Shadow Spear.
It had been enough time for his position to be exposed.
That suspicion proved right.
Keeping the possibility in mind, the boy’s eyes caught a suspicious movement.
Something like a wild beast was charging at him.
“Fire Tail!”
He cast the spell almost on reflex.
The whip of fire lashed the beast charging in.
Crack!
A vile stench stabbed into his nose.
With a sound like flesh burning, the beast split apart.
There was no spray of blood.
The cut surface exposed to the fire whip seemed to melt as chunks of flesh dropped away.
“Me… ra…”
What in the world was this?
Even though this wasn’t the time, his thoughts refused to settle.
His ragged breathing betrayed how shocked he was.
But the panic lasted only a moment.
Regaining his composure, Lawrence looked more closely at the thing.
Blackened arms and legs.
A body soaked with blood and wounds.
On a face painted with fear and pain, black tattoos stood out clearly.
The thing that had charged him like a wild beast was human.
It was him.
The pursuer Lawrence had targeted with Shadow Spear.
Hadn’t he died?
Even after taking Shadow Spear?
What shocked him even more was that the man had still managed to dash this far in that condition.
And over such a distance, too.
He had even pinpointed Lawrence’s exact position.
A chill ran down his spine.
This wasn’t the time to get arrogant about the power of his magic.
A monster.
Get a grip. The pursuers were all mercenaries.
None of them were people he could afford to underestimate.
He picked up the crossbow he’d thrown aside.
In the spot where the dust had settled, four mercenaries lay exposed.
He couldn’t be sure whether all of them were dead.
Judging by the pained groans, at least some were still alive.
Still, since they couldn’t move from where they lay, they no longer posed a threat.
For now, if he added the tracker who had died here, that made five down total.
Three.
There were still three mercenaries alive.
He hurriedly scanned his surroundings.
Where had the survivors gone?
He couldn’t see them. Just as Lawrence had hidden himself, the surviving mercenaries were using the terrain too.
Damn it.
The curse rose up under his throat.
He’d been too hasty.
In the confusion of the ambush, he’d forgotten what mattered most.
It was too late for regret.
Having sorted out the immediate danger, Lawrence slowly got to his feet.
He saw no more movement nearby.
The others were probably just as alert to his every motion.
Chances were this place had already been exposed.
Not just the corpse of the tracker, but the use of Fire Tail itself was the problem. Fire was a lantern in this darkness, blazing brighter than anything else.
He’d need to slip away as carefully as possible, without being noticed.
If he went to the place he’d already picked out, he might be able to throw them off for a while.
The instant his foot touched the ground, agony spread through him.
Lawrence bent reflexively, the pain in the sole of his foot like it had been torn open.
Then something hissed overhead.
He threw himself flat in a panic.
Carefully lifting his gaze, he saw a quarrel trembling in the trunk of a tree.
His ears felt hot, as if they’d been held to fire.
The blood running between his fingers was a vivid red.
The thought that he’d barely survived flashed through his mind.
“Fuck.”
A curse came from somewhere nearby.
Not far.
Up and to the right. It had to be behind that rock.
He couldn’t see the man’s body.
But he hadn’t managed to hide the crossbow in time.
Lawrence crawled across the ground with desperate urgency.
The bloody taste of dirt in his mouth forced him back into reality.
A cold, frozen part of his mind whispered one thing:
He’d nearly died.
If his foot hadn’t hurt at that exact moment, he really would have died.
An accident that wasn’t quite an accident had saved him by a hair’s breadth.
Relief was quickly replaced by rage.
Lawrence ground dirt between his teeth and cast Shadow Spear.
Nothing changed just because they trusted a rock to protect them.
He would show them exactly how strong the mage they’d dismissed really was.
The shadow spear, refined in an instant, blew the rock apart.
“…?!”
Not even a final scream rose up.
The mercenary, smashed to pieces along with the rock, sprawled motionless on the ground.
The pain in his chest deepened.
At this point it was bad enough to interfere with his movement, if not quite a headache.
Still, it had been worth pushing himself.
Now there were only two enemies left.
This time he didn’t move from his spot.
They already knew where he was, and with only two enemies left, there was no need to expose himself.
He had already learned how terrifying the crossbow could be.
Staying put was safer.
If he stayed hidden here, the enemy would have no choice but to come to him, whether they liked it or not.
He could intercept any moving target with the crossbow, and if they got too close, he could use Fire Tail.
The mercenary count had already been cut down to two.
No matter how skilled they were, he didn’t think they could beat the speed of Fire Tail in close combat.
He was certain of it.
Among the mercenaries who had followed him, the most dangerous one had been the tracker.
That impossible movement, that speed that had made him seem like a wild beast—he had been terrifying enough to make death itself feel imminent.
The others were different.
As long as they stayed out of range of the crossbow, the advantage was his.
They knew that too.
That was why they remained silent and showed themselves to no one.
The longer they dragged this out, the better it was for Lawrence.
Once the pain eased, he could cast Shadow Spear again.
He only had to wait until the impatient men made their move.
Trees and rocks were no issue.
As long as he could identify their positions, he could blast them away with Shadow Spear.
But the situation did not flow the way Lawrence wanted.
With no one moving at all, the unwelcome guest suddenly descended from a tree.
“It’s a Forest Spider!”
The scream came from one of the mercenaries still alive.
More precisely, from one of the survivors who had been caught in the first Shadow Spear.
The Forest Spider began advancing toward the man whose life still hung by a thread.
“D-don’t come closer! Fuck! I said don’t come closer!”
It was a useless resistance.
Lightly dodging the sword swung in one hand, the Forest Spider drove a paralyzing stinger into the mercenary.
“F-fu… ck… s-s-s…”
The words came apart.
They never formed a sentence.
The mercenary was paralyzed in an instant.
The Forest Spider seized its prey, now unable to move.
From behind its rear end, a sheet of white silk burst out.
Before long, the mercenary had been transformed into a white cocoon.
The same was true of the mercenaries who were already cold corpses.
Forest Spiders descended from the trees.
As if collecting provisions for the road, they turned the mercenaries into cocoons and hauled them away.
“Goddamn it!”
“Everyone pull back!”
And then something unexpected happened.
Commotion rose from the rear, where the mercenaries had gathered.
A moment later, the clash of weapons rang out, followed by the Forest Spider’s own shrieking, tearing cry.
Only then did Lawrence understand the situation.
His mind went cold.
The eight enemies he had seen weren’t all of them.
Those were just the vanguard.
The ones who had set out first to identify the target’s position.
That meant there were still more enemies in the rear who hadn’t arrived yet.
As many as twelve mercenaries, perhaps.
And he had fought with everything he had, never realizing it.
If he had waited until his strength recovered…
His body shivered.
Terrifying.
Still, it was fortunate that the Forest Spiders had stepped in.
Of course, that was only if he survived here.
Covering his mouth, Lawrence held his breath.
He didn’t want even the faintest sound slipping out.
Not if he wanted to avoid being noticed by the true master of this forest.
They were not the same as mercenaries.
If a Forest Spider dragged him away, death wouldn’t be the end of it.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine what might happen to him while he was still alive.
The mercenaries who hadn’t been caught up in the disaster probably thought the same.
That had to be why they weren’t rushing in to help, even after realizing what was happening in the rear.
In the end, no mercenary showed himself until the screams had died down.
He understood.
One had to be alive in order to take the money.
For the moment, he kept scanning his surroundings, especially the trees above.
Just as in the prepared hunting grounds, the Forest Spiders moved through the treetops.
If they came, they would come from above, not below.
Fortunately, perhaps because he’d made himself as still as possible, the Forest Spider that had carried off the mercenaries had failed to notice Lawrence.
Soon their shapes vanished back into the treetops.
That dangerous moment had passed.
It was time to move.
He had to get out of here before the owner of this forest returned.
But the problem was the two mercenaries who were still alive.
What should he do?
As if reading Lawrence’s thoughts, a voice cut through the darkness.
“A truce, mage! I won’t target you anymore.”
The voice came from a large tree to the left.
It started from behind a half-rotted trunk, to be exact.
“You don’t want to die to a Forest Spider any more than we do, right? Same for us. Forget old scores for now and let’s get out of here first.”
Apparently, even the mercenaries wanted to avoid ending up as the Forest Spider’s meal.
Who could blame them?
Hadn’t he seen with his own eyes what had happened to the others?
Even Lawrence had gone pale at the sight.
It had to be just as sickening for them.
“How am I supposed to trust you?”
“If you don’t want to trust us, then don’t. We’ll leave first, so just don’t attack us. Honestly, Rio and I don’t have any grudge against you, mage. The ones who led this ambush are all dead already.”
The voice was still coming from the same place.
As though he were truly aggrieved, he pleaded in a pitiful tone.
But Lawrence’s eyes had gone cold.
Whether the mercenaries’ offer was sincere or not made no difference.
People weren’t meant to be trusted.
And correcting people was even less worthwhile.
These were mercenaries who had already let money blind them and followed him all the way here.
He had no intention of believing their absurd excuses, not even for a second.
“Fine. Then I’ll move first. I won’t go toward you. I’ll circle around the forest and leave, so wait in place for one minute. Then I won’t attack either.”
“Fine. It’s a deal.”
“Glad we can talk like civilized people. Once we’re out of here alive, let’s forget this ever happened.”
What a load of horse shit.
Lawrence cast Shadow Spear at once.
This time was the opposite of the first, when he had made it large.
He made it as small as possible, but packed it with as much force as he could.
He didn’t want them to realize he was already casting.
Fortunately, there was no sign of movement.
He didn’t hesitate.
As if flinging away the headache throbbing in his skull, Lawrence hurled Shadow Spear toward the great tree where the two mercenaries were hiding.
“Wh—!”
“Damn—!”
With a brutal crack, the giant tree was pierced through.
The two mercenaries hiding behind it were blown away like trash.
One died instantly.
The other had been half torn apart, but was still conscious.
“Y-you… fuck… ing bas…”
No need to care.
Hearing this would bring the Forest Spider back.
He had to leave before that happened.
Using the two men as bait, Lawrence quickly set off.
The leg that had been numb felt as heavy as lead.
The pain rising from his feet was enough to bring tears to his eyes.
Still, he had to keep moving.
If he wanted to live, he couldn’t stop walking.
He ran and kept running.
He heard a terrible scream behind him, but he didn’t look back.
His vision blurred into a pale haze, and that hurt too.
For some reason, tears kept spilling from his eyes.
He was already in enough pain to die, and now the forest path seemed determined to cling to him and drag him down as well.
His thoughts were a mess from the hammering ache in his head.
He didn’t feel like he’d really killed anyone.
Was murder always like this?
No. This was too different from any ordinary killing.
He hadn’t killed them with his own hands. He’d killed them all with magic.
Why had things turned out like this?
He didn’t know. From the ashes where his rage had burned out, only some unidentifiable emotion churned in muddy confusion.
I want to rest.
I don’t want to think about anything anymore.
He just wanted to close his eyes and fall asleep as soon as possible.
For some reason, the words left behind by those red eyes kept surfacing in his head.
That with any miracle too great, there was always a price to pay.
He was furious at himself for being unable to deny it.
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