"But is it really okay just the two of you?" (Yuna)
Spiders that are still living in the forest might come to the village.
"I'm not so soft that I'm worried about bears. For me, you should go to the capital without rest." (Deborane)
Deborane waved her wrist as if to shoo the puppy away.
"Besides, we've defeated this many. Even if spiders come, it won't be that many. I'll defeat them." (Deborane)
That's called a flag.
But someone had to report to the adventurer's guild, and they also had to deal with the defeated spider.
It's faster for me than Deborane to go to the royal capital, and I couldn't dismantle a spider.
It might be the right person in the right place.
"I got it" (Yuna)
I would take turns riding Kumayuru and Kumakyu to go to the capital, so when I tried to get Kumakyu to rest and sent him back, Kumayuru and Kumakyu reacted by saying, "Kuu~n."
"What? All of a sudden, they're screaming." (Deborane)
Kumayuru and Kumakyu were looking outside the village.
Did it show up again?
When I checked with my detection skill, I noticed a spider coming towards the village.
"It looks like another one has appeared." (Yuna)
It was a flag after all.
But since it's just one, it's not even a flag.
"It's a convenient bear. Well, like I said earlier, I'll defeat it." (Deborane)
Deborane and Lanz started walking outside the village.
The spider was coming toward us.
Yeah? It's far away and it's not clear, but it seemed to be a little bigger. And the color seemed red.
As I watched from the sidelines behind Deborane, a spider sped up.
"Lanz!" (Deborane)
"Okay!" (Lanz)
It's coming.
As expected, it's a little bigger and red.
The two held their swords.
The red spider jumped in front of the two. The red spider raised into the air and sent a thread towards Lanz. Lanz tried to block it with his sword, but his body and sword were wrapped in thread.
"Lanz!" (Deborane)
The red spider in the air was pointing its sharp legs at Lanz. Deborane twisted his body and swung his great sword to the side. The great sword hit the spider's leg. Thanks to this, the trajectory of the red spider's legs was shifted, and the position of its landing was shifted.
Deborane swung his great sword and attacked, but the red spider avoided it.
What was this red spider?
The way it moved was completely different from the spiders I'd defeated before. Plus, it's a little bigger and the color was red.
"You must be joking. How could something like this appear?" (Deborane)
Deborane looked at the red spider in disbelief.
When the red spider clicked its mouth, its body glowed red, and it attacked Deborane.
Deborane swung his sword, but the red spider avoided it.
"Bear! Attack!" (Deborane)
Deborane screamed with a look of urgency on her face.
I immediately shot an ice arrow, but it was easily dodged.
Too fast.
"Go away!"
I had a bad feeling, so I shot ice arrows like rain at the red spider, leaving no chance of escape.
The red spider's body glowed red, but countless ice arrows attacked it.
"Did you defeat it?" (Deborane)
So, it's a flag.
What appeared from under the ice arrow was an unharmed red spider that glowed red. A golden "WW" pattern appears on a part of its body.
Red spider eyes looked at me.
In a chilling moment, I unconsciously released the bear's wind magic. My intuition told me that I have to defeat it here.
The red spider was attacked by bear wind blade.
I thought it had been cut into pieces, but there were three marks left on the ground where the bear's wind blade passed through, but the red spider was not cut.
Are you kidding?
The red spider withstood bear magic.
The red spider seemed to be angry, as it clicked its mouth. Just when I thought it was going to attack, it left us and disappeared into the village.
All we could do was to see it off.
"You must be kidding. I can't believe such a thing exists." (Deborane)
Sweat formed on Deborane's forehead.
Then, as if he had just remembered, he looked at Lanz.
Lanz, tangled in the thread, fell to the ground and did not move.
"Lanz!" (Deborane)
Deborane reached out his hand to help Lanz who was wrapped in a thread, but the moment he touched the thread, he let go.
"Damn, it’s a numb thread." (Deborane)
Numb thread?
It seemed that if you touched spider thread directly, you would feel numb.
"Move away!" (Yuna)
I grabbed the thread with my bear puppet and forcibly tore it apart.
"Lanz, wake up!" (Deborane)
"D-Deborane-san. I'm sorry. My body is numb." (Lanz)
There's also the possibility of being attacked by that red spider.
This was not the time to hide.
I casted a healing spell on Lanz.
I imagined toxins disappearing from his body.
"Move." (Yuna)
Lanz moved his arm.
"Hey, you can even do something like this?" (Deborane)
That's not the case now.
"What's that? Its movements weren't normal." (Yuna)
After a short fight, I realized that this was no ordinary spider.
It moved fast, dodged my attacks, and even withstood bear's wind magic. This was no ordinary spider.
"That's King Spider." (Deborane)
"King Spider?" (Yuna)
The master of spiders.
I mean, something like Goblin King?
"Deborane, are you sure?" (Yuna)
"I've only heard about it in documents and stories, but it's red in color, and when it uses magic, a golden crown pattern appears on its body. That's a characteristic of the King Spider." (Deborane)
When the bear's wind magic was released, a jagged pattern resembling grass appeared on the red spider's body.
"It is said among adventurers to run away if you encounter it. I have also seen it. It moves fast, easily blocks the sword, avoids magic, and withstands it. The attack is poisonous. Threads out, and those stiff legs can pierce even iron armor." (Deborane)
Goblin King also withstood bear's wind magic, but it still took damage. However, the red spider didn't feel like it was being damaged. I couldn't compare it with just one shot. It's definitely strong.
"Bear, I don't have any suggestions from earlier. I'll ask you directly. Can you defeat that?" (Deboarane)
Earlier?
...was it about going to the royal capital?
The impact of the red spider's appearance was so strong that for a moment I couldn't understand what he was saying.
"You must have felt the strength of that spider, too." (Deborane)
I felt it.
It's something I didn't want to fight if possible.
"Deborane-san, even an adventurer like me has heard about the King Spider. No matter how strong bears are, it's impossible." (Lanz)
"You defeated the Goblin King and Black Viper by yourself, right?" (Deborane)
Deborane ignored Lanz's words and checked with me again.
"Maybe you're provoking me?" (Yuna)
"Just to confirm. If you say you can't defeat the spiders, then I'll withdraw from subjugating the spiders. Don't feel bad about it." (Deborane)
"Is the material good?" (Yuna)
"There's no point in dying. There's a saying from adventurers that if you meet the monster king, run away." (Deborane)
If the armor was just hard, I could shoot it with bear flame from the inside. But it was not possible due to its size.
If I wanted to defeat it, the only way to defeat it might be to use a series of bear magic attacks, like when I defeated the Goblin King.
"It appeared in the past, right? How did you defeat it then?" (Yuna)
"I don't know the details, but I hear that he made many sacrifices, cornered him, and defeated him." (Deborane)
Many sacrifices....
Just from that short battle, I could tell that ordinary adventurers would not be able to compete against it.
"Even just one spider has more power than hundreds or even thousands of spiders. If you have a number of adventurers, you can defeat a spider like the one in the village, but the king spider has more power than hundreds or thousands of spiders. Even if you arrange them, you will only cause damage." (Deborane)
I agreed with that.
No matter how many adventurers were, if they didn't have the ability, they'd just ended up becoming a mountain of corpses.
"If you can't defeat King Spider, I'll make the villagers flee right away. Help me do that." (Deborane)
"Deborane-san, letting everyone in the village escape is..."
I didn't think it's possible considering the number of people.
"Use a horse" (Deborane)
"I saw some horses dead. We don't have enough horses."
"In that case, give priority to the young and leave the old behind. They will act as decoys for us to escape." (Deborane)
I felt angry at Deborahne's words.
"Are you angry? Me and Lanz can't defeat King Spider. If you can't either, we'll have no choice but to take the villagers with us and run away. And if we can't all run away, then let the young people who can rebuild the village escape first. It's obvious." (Deborane)
What Deborane said was correct. That's true.
Even adventurers couldn't defeat everything. If you say you'll defeat someone, no one will have a hard time if you can defeat them.
And Deborane suggested what he could do.
On the other hand, he was a coward who has a way to make everyone in the village escape, but I didn't want him to know, so I kept quiet.
I had no right to be angry at Deborahne.
Deborane acted more like an adventurer than me.
If I didn't want anyone to know about the bear's transfer gate, wanted to protect the village's residents, and couldn't accept Deborane's plan, there's only one thing to do.
"Okay. I'll fight. No, I'll defeat it." (Yuna)
Deborane laughed at my words.
I felt like Deborane was picking me up on something, but I couldn't help it. But I had bear magic in my bear equipment. This was neither the ocean nor a small space. Maybe I could defeat it if I didn't get too lazy.
But the problem was the King Spider had escaped into the village. Using great magic would cause damage to villages and people.
I regretted for not being able to defeat it before entering the village.
"Well then, let's head to the village for now." (Deborane)
"What are you two going to do?" (Yuna)
"I will tell the village chief. There will be no problem if you can defeat him, but in the worst case, I will ask him to decide whether to flee the village or stay until we inform the adventurer's guild in the capital." (Deborane)
It's best that no one got hurt.
But I also had to think about what might happen if I couldn't defeat it.
Should everyone stayed in the village and waited for the adventurers to gather, or should only those who could escape escaped?
The former might all die. The latter would mean abandoning the weak.
If I didn't have Kuma's cheating ability, would I be able to make decisions like Deborane?
Auhtor's Note
Deborane is an adventurer...