I travelled deeper and deeper into the cave. Although it was getting progressively darker, I wasn’t that worried. After all, the path as of right now was a straight line, so light from the cave entrance could still illuminate my path somewhat.

Not even two minutes into my journey, I could hear the terrible screech of another Octalicum. Tensing myself up, I got behind Ihwa and strained my eyes to look for the red eyes of the spider that seemingly glowed in the dark.

Since Ihwa couldn’t see in the dark, I had to instruct her on where to block.

“Above!”

“[Scutum]!”

Ihwa cast the shield just in time before it dropped onto us from the ceiling. I wasn’t the one who had to maintain the shield, but I could still feel the sheer weight of the spider stabbing all of its metal legs into the shield.

But, unlike the other spider, this one was stronger. Realizing this, I grabbed the collar of Ihwa’s shirt and dragged her a bit away.

Then, I watched as the spider completely break the shield in just twenty hits using physical strength alone.

“Twenty hits, that’s the limit.”

Ihwa nodded and conjured up the shield again. Just like that, with me occasionally dashing out to damage it, we continued to wear the spider down.

However, something unexpected happened by the time Ihwa conjured her fourth shield. The spider delivered an unusually hefty blow, almost smashing the shield apart in one hit.

“Make another shield,” I ordered, feeling that something was amiss.

Ihwa nodded and made another layer of shield, just in time for the spider to raise two of its front legs up.

However—

“W-What?! Aura!?”

—A bright red hue suddenly covered its legs. Knowing that it was too late to dodge, I shouted,

“Make your shield as thick as possible! Quick!”

Although Ihwa definitely couldn’t see what was going on, she could feel the gravity of the situation due to my desperate voice. She conjured up a layer, and another, and another. By the time the ninth layer was up, the attack connected.

Sparks sprayed from the impact, though, for just a moment. After that, the spider’s legs tore through Ihwa’s shield like a hot knife through butter. 

Ihwa, realizing that her shields were useless, reinforced her front body with Aura. As Ihwa took the attack, I could see her coughing up a bit of blood before getting sent flying through the air and into the hard ground.

I knew that the spider’s next target was me.

I also knew that I couldn’t let it hit me no matter what. So, as its legs stabbed in my direction, I opted to dodge instead of block or parry.

Dodging its attacks was easy thanks to my high DEX stats, but wounding it was another matter. Let alone its metal legs, I couldn’t even put a scratch on its underbelly—the softest part besides its eyes.

I wasn’t going to win by any normal means, and going for its eyes while its vigilance was high was simply suicidal. So, I decided to do the thing any sane person would do.

“Fuck this, I’m out!”

I ran away from the giant spider, picking up Ihwa on the way.

However, what the spider lacked in attack speed, it compensated in strength…and movement speed.

“Dammit! Why are you so fast?!”

As if to mock me, the spider screeched loudly again, further giving me a headache.

I was left with no choice and decided to put Nira to good use.

‘Nira, slow it down for me!’

{Whatever will you do without me…}

I didn’t have time to entertain her sarcastic remark right now, so I threw her to the ground and heard as she turned humanoid.

“Alright, come on, you spider bastard!”

‘Good, this should buy me a few seco—”

“AHHHHH!”

Hearing Nira’s loud scream and a loud thud, I heaved a heavy sigh.

‘Nope, what did I even expect?’

I glanced over my shoulder. Nira was knocked into the wall of the cave so hard that there was a hole, but overall, she didn’t look too injured. Just…passed out, I suppose.

The problem was the spider. It didn’t care for Nira and instead continued to chase me.

‘At this rate, even if I get out of the cave…’

…The Octalicum would just simply chase me down in the forest.

As I was thinking about what to do, I heard Ihwa groaning.

“Y-You’re up?”

She nodded. Then, she pointed a finger at the spider.

“[Scutum]...”

Another purple shield occurred. However, this one was different. Aside from its size, which was big enough to block off an entire section of the cave aside from a small gap near the ceiling, its structure was fundamentally different. In short, it was made to handle Aura attacks.

“H-How?”

I stared at her in bewilderment.

But she didn’t respond. Instead, she continued making the shield thicker. 

“W-Wait, stop!” I shouted. “You’re going to run out of Aura!”

I could see it in her rapidly palling face. If the fact that she’d made at least a dozen shields before wasn’t enough, this surely was. After all, she needed to weave several layers of Aura together to make an Aura-resistant shield.

Ihwa ignored my words and continued to reinforce the shield until she passed out. I placed a hand on her chest to check her Aura reserve.

‘...Barely above zero.’

Just a bit more and she’d have gone into Aura-exhaustion.

I felt thankful for her intervention and continued running away. However, a thin yet sturdy string of silk was shot toward the cave entrance. I quickly glanced back and saw that the spider used the small gap to shoot the silk.

Then, it pulled the silk hard, making the entrance collapse on itself, effectively blocking the cave off. Worse, it completely eliminated any illumination.

Now, even I couldn’t see in this dark cave. And I didn’t need to see to hear that the spider had just succeeded in breaking the shield.

Left with no other choice, I put Ihwa safely on the ground and made my way toward the spider, not wanting to involve her in the fight.

{Master…}

‘Aerin, can you see?’

{No…I’m sorry for being useless.}

‘It’s alright.’ I reassured her.

I gulped. The only thing I could perceive right now was a few gusts of wind tickling my skin and the sound of the spider’s steps shaking the entire cave.

‘Calm down now, I’ll have to make do with what I have.’

My eyes were effectively useless now. So, I closed them and instead focused on my ears.

Hearing a swooshing sound to my left, I dodged.

“Kuu…barely dodged that.”

Another to my right. However, unlike the first time, I couldn’t dodge it in time. Luckily, the spider didn’t use Aura, so all it did was knock the air out of my lungs.

“Haaah…haaaah…you’re toying with me, aren’t you?”

This continued for several minutes, with me doing nothing but dodge its attacks using my sense of hearing only. Since this was the first time I’d fought with only my hearing, I couldn’t dodge everything.

So, between the occasional hits and frequent searing pains that were sent through my body, I was slowly getting exhausted.

This fight would’ve ended with my death of it wasn’t for—

“[Light]”

—Nira’s timely appearance. 

“Whatever will you do without me…” 

Suddenly, the entire cave was dimly lit. This was enough for me to find Nira limping toward me with a ball of white light on the palm of her hand.

The spider wasn’t accustomed to the sudden light, however dim, so it closed its eyes with a loud shriek.

Big mistake!

I dashed at it, avoiding its wild attacks with ease. By the time the spider could see again, it was already too late—I’d already mounted atop its head.

“[Aura sharpening]”

 Holding Aerin up, I stabbed into one of its eyes. The spider shrieked, and I felt as if my eardrums were going to burst, but it didn’t matter right now. I powered through the pain and continued stabbing.

Four eyes.

“You dipshit!”

Five eyes.

“This is for Ihwa!”

Six eyes.

“This for Nira!”

Seven eyes.

“This is for me!”

By now, the spider was whimpering and slouching on the ground in pain. It still had another eye left, but I purposely left it untouched. 

It simply needed to see what I was going to do with it.

I knew that all the spider’s strength had left its body, so I hopped down and made my way to just before its head. As I stared at my reflection, which was full of cuts and bruises, in its eye, I saw Nira walking up to me and placing a hand on my shoulder.

“You okay?”

“I’ll be fine after I kill this thing.”

Then, I hovered Aerin just before it’s last eyes; Aura surged in my hand as an explosive red hue emerged from Aerin.

“Any last words?” 

The spider made small shrieks in its throat in response.

“I think it’s asking you why you’re doing this,” Nira commented.

The spider definitely didn’t have enough intellectual capabilities to ask this. But Nira did have a point. Why did I do this? This Octalicum seemed to be angry, and rightfully so. I killed its dead mate after all.

It didn’t take me long to come up with an answer.

“Survival of the fittest, you agree?”

“Good answer.” Nira smiled back.

Then, with a simple thrust, I tore the Octalicum’s flesh, muscles, skull, and brain apart, leaving it as no more than a limp corpse.

Immediately, I began converting its blood into power for Aerin. And—

—A translucent blue screen appeared in front of my eyes.

I involuntarily smiled. Then, as if all my strength had left my body, I fell down to the ground. Well, I would’ve, if it wasn’t for Nira supporting me. As my back leaned against Nira’s chest, I could see Aerin slowly manifesting from the sword.

Black hair that reached her back, red eyes, and pale skin; it was Aerin. Though, instead of the butler outfit she usually wore, she was now wearing a maid outfit; one that greatly resembled Ria’s outfit.

“Master…”

“Aerin…”

“...Is no one going to acknowledge my existence?” Nira sighed as her deep blue eyes stared into my eyes from above.

I didn’t let Nira ruin the moment. Beckoning Aerin to come closer, I squeezed her hand.

“Welcome back.”

Despite having been in a life-threatening battle just minutes prior, I felt relaxed. This was probably due to the presence of my two trusty swords.

Seeing no reason to hold back now, I let my consciousness slip. Though, not without giving them a final order.

“Take care of Ihwa, too.”