“The decisive victory of the Vanara wars was, in all honesty, an utter embarrassment to our nation. More of an embarrassment to our then-king, to be more accurate. The war started due to the extraction of a captured Vanara by the rest of their members to the forests in the West. Not because they kidnapped the crown prince at the same time mind you, but because they rescued one of their own from a zoo. That’s a story for another time, but the Vanaras put this knowledge to good use.

On the final attack on the capital, they were faced with near-insurmountable odds against Shostran’s troops. While our troops couldn’t fight well in the Vanara’s home field of the forest, we could certainly defend a familiar city. Our then-king wasn’t exactly interested in defense however. He just wanted his “pet monkey” back.

So the Vanaras had some of their most evasive [Scouts] dress up as their previously imprisoned comrade and attracted the attention of the Shostran army. Guess what happened next? To put it briefly, a wild goose chase ensued where the then-king split his troops and sent them away from the city, and our current king used this opportunity to sneak himself and the Shostran rebel army into the palace, where they staged a coup.

Goodness, am I glad I retired before that war even began, I’m not sure I would have lived this long with the weight of that kind of embarrassment on my shoulders!”

- Excerpt from the memoirs of a Veteran of Shostran’s Royal Army

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The hounds charged towards the eggs.

Raise the nets! Click shouted through their Skill.

On the floor in front of the [Juvenile Dungeon Hounds], the wide netting placed there rose an inch off the ground thanks to the [Webslinger Spiders] sitting far above the fray. While the sticky silken strands would have been an unnoticed nuisance for one of the adventurers who had previously invaded the cavern akin to a leaf stuck to their boot, to the hounds, it was…

The first few predators to run into the ground net slowed as thick strands of spider silk weaved between their legs. Each individual strand wasn’t enough to stop, or even properly slow them down, but the strings that hadn’t immediately snapped were beginning to bunch up.

The hounds behind the leading force were almost entirely untouched by the webbing, yet the procession as a whole was being forced to slow. One of its members in particular ignored the change in pace and continued to charge headfirst without looking ahead and ended up tripping both the hound in front and itself.

Click flicked their head around for a brief instant, and instinctively felt the eggs hatching at an even more rapid pace.

Things are speeding up here, but we still need to buy more time for the plan! [Command Subordinates], start spitting webbing and venom, whatever you have at the hounds in front and anyone trying to worm their way around the sides!

[Webslinger Spiders] let loose their shots, the globules of webbing and venom acting as mere distractions rather than substantive threats. But it was enough to hamper the recovery of the already fumbled charge.

When one hound had the brilliant idea of sidestepping its brethren and taking an easier path, a sticky or spicy projectile landing right next to its eye pushed it back into the crowd, making it decide somebody else was better off taking that kind of hit.

It was a tense half a minute as the hounds continued to work their way through the sticky netting despite the tumbling pileup, but they were making solid progress. Click knew that as soon as they sorted themselves out, it would be over for the eggs. The spiders didn’t have the tools, weapons, or attention span to prepare for this big of a swarm.

But that’s why Click thought of an alternative.

An instinctual flash of knowledge lit up once more in Click’s mind, and they knew that all of the eggs that were to hatch now had finally done so. Not wasting any time, the [Spider Army Commander] mentally barked a series of orders to put their master plan into motion.

[Command Subordinates], newly hatched baby spiders, stay put where you are but stay out of the way of the other spiders. Stay along the walls and ceiling away from the exits.

[Webslinger Spiders], start collecting the discarded egg sacs and bundle them together in the net of webbing you made earlier.

The hounds all stopped and began to collectively chew through the silk stuck to their leaders’ legs.

Click could feel the spiders within the massive webbed structure moving, though nothing specific. Now that the spiders had hatched, the instinct that let the lead spider know their current physical state was quickly beginning to wane, and that wasn’t to say anything about Click’s lack of tracking on the other spiders.

It would come down to the next few seconds, and the hounds were already poised to charge…

The first [Webslinger Spider] emerged from the massive web with a net filled with slimy red wrappers.

While the other spiders were more focused on the attackers or their fellow arachnids, the [Dungeon Hounds] all looked over to what those red and blue spiders were carrying.

As seconds passed, the commitment to another blind charge began to fade and was replaced with something more focused.

The smell of baby spiders hatching is what brings all of you here, same as when the rest of us were first born, Click thought. But besides the newborn spiders themselves, the only other things with that same scent are their egg sacs!

Click sent one more order, and the other emerging [Webslinger Spiders] began to swing themselves and their cargo over the heads of the [Dungeon Hounds].

Their heads turned as one to follow the arachnids as they passed by.

Moment of truth…

The hounds were at an impasse. The scent of newborn spiders was fresh in the air, and while it was strongest in its original location in the far distance, it was fresher and closer right here! And every second they waited, the scent got farther and farther…

Some hounds towards the back, realizing they would barely get a nibble after the others, opted to run after the [Webslinger Spiders] who were on their way out of the cave’s corner. The others in front of the deserters realized the same thing and joined their running brethren. And like a chain reaction, more and more hounds began to follow the rushing crowd away from the spiders’ home, leaving only a few stragglers left who knew better.

I-it worked. It worked! Click said in their mind as they began jumping up and down from their alcove in the web fortress. We’re not all going to die!

The remaining hounds, five of them, began to growl.

I have a bad feeling about this, [Observation].

 

Statistic	Amount
Health Points	45, 47, 50
Body	23, 25, 28
Intellect	11, 13, 25
Soul	15, 14, 20

Skill Name	Level	Description
Iron Fangs	5, 6, 7	Teeth are reinforced to be harder and sharper
Pack Tactics	3, 4, 5	Instinctively understand the desires of the rest of the pack
Prey Detection	7, 4, 15	Instinctually sense the location of prey, and its movements

 

Click couldn’t remember the exact values of the attributes the newborn [Dungeon Hounds] had, as the lead spider only bothered to check the first time several days ago. But the levels in each of their Skills…

They’re high, Click thought to themself while staring at the three stragglers, taking in their scarred forms and vigilant expressions. They’re not newborns, or if they are, they’ve definitely earned their place at the front of the pack. These are the last hounds I wanted to stay back.

The fifth of their members, the one at the back, pointed their nose at the web fortress and let out a single bark. Click didn’t need [Decipher Language] to understand what it meant.

“Our food is there.”

And just like that, the trio charged towards the baby spiders.

A swarm of hounds would have eaten us all, but three? Even if they’re the toughest of the pack, we’re ready for them! Click stood up on their legs in defiance of the surmountable obstacle, the humble hill carved out of the unconquerable mountain, and mentally shouted out in challenge.

[Command Subordinates], release the rest of the rope whips! Bored, show them your acrobatics!

Silken weapons let loose, their distinct twang echoing across the small corner of the cave as they flew down towards the hounds.

The hounds’ ears twitched at the sound of the weapons releasing, but they looked up at them with recognition. Rather than dodge however, they simply picked up the pace and began to run through the attack with confidence, as if trusting their Health Points to absorb enough damage to get to the end.

Wait, they recognize our traps? Click thought. Have they attacked us before? We let several of them go to save us the resources of having to unnecessarily kill them, but I thought they would just die of starvation out there. Only the truly desperate ever came here. But it looks like they survived and came back stronger. We won’t give them the chance to do it again.

The whips landed with nigh-unerring accuracy. Normally, it would take several just for the damage to be noticeable, but the first one alone elicited an exceptionally loud yelp from the front hound. And rather than leaving a bruise underneath its fur, the weapon instead drew blood.

The others paused for a moment and looked at their brethren in surprise. Their gazes quickly shifted to the weapon itself, and saw bits of something solid sticking out of the end of the whip.

Teeth.

Their teeth, woven into the whips to give them a literal bite!

That upgrade is too recent for any of you to know about, but not as recent as this one!

The spiders took full advantage of their predators’ moment of shock and unleashed their greatest weapon.

When Click first saw all of the [Webslinger Spiders’] practicing their death-defying acrobatic stunts, the brilliant idea of having spiders use the force of the rope whips to travel eventually came to mind. However, they couldn’t be incorporated into an attack all on its own, as the force of the impact between a spider and a [Dungeon Hound] would turn the spider into a smear.

But there was one spider who could survive such an impact…

Bored flew towards the ground at incredible speeds, with the daredevil [Webslinger Spider] sitting right on top of them, and impacted one of the hounds. The sound of crunching bone echoed out in a single note as the predator was flattened into the ground.

The [Alpha Dungeon Spider] quickly got up, not too worse for wear thanks to their target’s soft flesh absorbing almost all of the blow, and jumped at the spider in the front of the group.

The other surviving hound quickly got over its shock and jumped into the fray to protect its brethren.

To Bored’s benefit, the massive spider knew better than to let itself be flanked on opposite sides, and quickly repositioned themself to have both opponents directly in front.

Mandibles and chitin flew to meet fur and fang, three highly leveled combatants pushing each other to their limits. The [Alpha Dungeon Spider] never looked more alive.

You’re losing this fight, but you’re happy, go figure, Click thought. But as much as keeping your fighting instincts satisfied will make you easier to order around, I can’t afford to lose you here. [Command Subordinates], everyone get in there and distract those hounds!

It didn’t take long before the other spiders joined the battle. They weren’t worth much in the clash of the (relative) titans, but the quick bites and retreats of the [Shadow Spiders] and drop-ins and spittle of the [Webslinger Spiders] did plenty to offer enough distractions to their enemies to allow Bored to land decisive blows or avoid them.

Eventually, even with their higher stats and learned experiences, the two hounds fell.

The small corner of the cavern rang silent. Click took in the absence of sound and raised their mandibles in a smile.

Looks like we’re going to live.