Day 1

“You are lucky you know, not even slightly hurting after walking for 5 hours,”

Neither of us was as nervous as we had been when we first walked out. It wasn’t as though It was completely different. The question of the next time we’d see civilization was a bit worrying though since we weren’t even walking on a road. 

*yeah yeah, I get it, you have baby legs. You don’t need to always be so-* Her taunt was cut short as seriousness from her bled over to me.

I immediately drew my dagger from my belt and lowered my centre of gravity. My eyes searched for what she noticed. As I did, she also lowered her body, readying herself for an imminent attack.  

“Which direction?” My eyesight wasn’t as good as hers, nor was my field of view.

*There are three to the right and one to the left,* She took a second to confirm something before continuing. 

*They look like mantises, but they’re sandy grey. It’s weird though, they aren't moving.*

I was so used to her simply rushing into fights, so the cautiousness left me concerned. 

Making my concern apparent, she quickly explained, *Usually, the things I fight attack me,* as though it was obvious, before asking me, *Why aren’t they moving?*

“It’s probably a trap. Plenty of creatures do something similar, where they blend into the environment, and jump out when something comes close enough.” It was something that seemed obvious to me, but I guess she hasn’t experienced everything yet.

*But, they aren’t even hidden?* 

“You got this close without noticing them right, You are also taller than the monsters around here, so you have more of a vantage point?” The last point was more of a guess but seemed to satisfy her. 

The monsters hadn’t noticed us yet, or at least didn’t think we had noticed them. So, after some deliberation, we decided to attack them before they started to move. 

*I’m going to use Charge Rush on one of them on the right, you go and hold the other one off.* 

It wasn’t much of a plan, more of a splitting of responsibility, but I couldn’t come up with anything off the top of my head.

“And if I can’t hold it off?” I wanted to make sure there was a plan B.

*If you can’t hold it off, just shake it off, and I’ll try taking care of it.* 

The plan was so she didn’t have 3 on her simultaneously, since they weren’t what she was used to. Along with that, though she had attempted to hide it, she also wanted me to get better at fighting. Through that, I could tell she was worrying about me a lot more than I had thought, which meant she had somehow gotten better at hiding her emotions. 

Just to make sure, I gave a follow-up question, “And if you can’t hold it off?”

 

*I’ll eat you to get a power-up.*

After her attempted joke, she shuffled around a little, as though embarrassed. I say as though, but I could feel she was. 

“Is the big bad spider embarrassed by her horrible sense of humou-?”

*We’re about to start fighting.” She cut me off.

“Yeah yeah,” retorted, before breathing in, preparing myself for the fight.

 

A silent countdown rang, my nerves, no, anticipation began to take hold of me. 

I didn’t look at the target which lay a couple metres away, instead focusing on an area off to the distance. I wasn’t sure if that would do anything, but I would prefer if it didn’t notice I had seen it. 

 

Now!

 

On our signal the spider dashed forward, smashing into one of the mantises to the left, and I towards the one to the right. Unlike the spider, I only managed to get a couple of metres closer before the monster reacted. It lept towards me from its laying position, its claw-things stretched out to restrain me. The monster stood a little shorter than me, and its body was less than half my body in width. And, like the other mantises-monsters the spider had fought, its legs were practically twigs, but with their armour, That was a weakness hard to take advantage of with only a small knife.

I immediately saw its eyes, large spheres on either side of its triangular head. Despite the creepiness of its head, the most intimidating part of it was the arms. The thickest parts were the size of my thigh, and with spikes reaching sizes as large as my hand along them, it would incapacitate me at best, if I caught me. 

Despite how dangerous this was, It didn’t make me nervous, nor was I scared of it.

I guess spending months with a spider larger than a bus numbs your sense of dread for unnatural things.

While its pounce was fast, in comparison to the speeds a mantis is known to have, it wasn’t impossible to react to. Even the rat's pounce was faster. 

As the claws attempted to grab me, I dove down under the bug, with my dagger in my hand and attempted to find a literal chink in its armour. Its response was fast and unexpected. Seemingly without a second thought, it dropped down, attempting to squash me under it. 

I managed to roll to the side, but my right arm was caught under it, along with my knife. I twisted my body around and wrapped my legs around one of its twiggy legs, threatening to attempt snapping it. While it could hold me there, it wasn’t able to turn its body, so it had no way of reaching me. It realised this itself and attempted to stand back up which also released my arm. With it no longer trapping me, I could get a better grip on the leg and started to try snapping it. But It violently shook its leg, flinging me off some distance, leaving me to tumble on the sandy dirt.

I started forcing myself up, the arm it had sat on was a little sore from being squished, but the mantis was already chasing after me, not giving me a second to breathe.

Needing to evade its attack, I rolled out of its way, before stumbling to a stand.

I moved a little forward while it wasn’t facing me, but it whipped around, forcing me to slow my approach.

I had reached an impasse. Unlike the other monster, which moved largely out of instinct, this one seemed to have more planned movements, being able to prepare for different scenarios when its attack didn’t work. 

It wasn’t like the plans were genius, but it weakened the only advantage I had against a monster double my weight who had weapons for arms.

Our fight became a shuffle between me and the mantis thing, just waiting for one of us to slip up. 

And my stamina was worse than it was.

But after a minute of prattling around, I remembered. I’m fighting with the spider. With.

While I hadn’t been concentrating on her fight, I had an idea, based on some things she said. With that, I formed a plan.

“I’m coming” I yelled to her, despite not needing to, and explained my thoughts to her.

I b-lined towards the mantises she was fighting, whom she had also been at a standstill with. Groups are often stronger than the sum of their parts. And since these monsters were more strategic compared to other ones we had seen, she was having difficulty fighting it without taking any damage herself. She had to be more cautious of that than me because if she got hurt, she couldn’t just rely on a skill to heal her.  

Running under her, I managed to gain the attention of one of the other bugs for a second, before it seemingly ignored me. I continued to run towards it, not paying attention to the mantis chasing me a bit behind. As I got close, the one in front took notice of me. But it was still dealing with the spider, who was manoeuvring around, attempting to get an attack in. But it was taking advantage of the blind spot underneath her. 

While she could try squishing it like the mantis tried to do to me, they were probably able to get out of the way, since she stood taller than the mantis. It would also leave her more vulnerable since while she stood, they could only reach her legs, and while they could also reach her stomach, their pincers weren’t made to attack upwards like that, especially since they couldn’t grab onto anything.

So, with that option off the table, she didn’t have many options when it came to dealing with them, other than a battle of stamina. 

But, while she couldn’t hit them, they were also unable to do much, since she could always lift a leg if they got close to it, or just move out of the way. Even if she couldn’t always see them, she had pretty good situational awareness.

I, on the other hand, didn’t have the issue. If I got cut, I would heal from it in a couple of days. So unless I was on the brink of death, any damage could be healed by the next encounter with a monster.

But I didn’t have the same issue. If I got cut, I could heal it in a couple of days, assuming I didn’t take too much. And I was going to take advantage of that. 

She, understanding my plan, started funnelling the two bugs toward me with attacks. I slowed myself and turned to face the mantis behind me. It was lagging behind a little, but not by much. Catching up, it immediately pounced. I was already prepared for that and moved out of the way. But instead of counter-attacking, I took the opportunity to attack the mantis the spider had lured to the left of me. It was distracted by the spider but it, with its enormous eyes, was able to see me coming. 

It lept to my left while I ran towards it, but as its body stretched forward for an attack, I dove to the right, landing in a roll to a stand. It gathered its bearings fast, as it turned to face me again. I could see another of the mantises who were focusing on me. I don't think they thought of me as a threat, and more so of a nuisance. The one in front of me attacked, and I managed to get out of the way, close to another one. But the spider attacked it before it could follow through with its strike, allowing me to sidestep again. I could hear from the spider that the third one took a swing at it.

We continued that type of dance for a while before I finally found an in. 

One of them was lounging at me while moving to my left, attempting to funnel me towards the other. Usually, the spider would attack one of them, forcing them to retreat, but instead, she moved her full attention toward the third one, who had been sending attacks her way the entire time.

So, instead of allowing myself to be funnelled towards the waiting bug, I charged towards the attacking one. It was caught off guard for a moment, but adjusted, and launched its pincers early. It managed to pierce my arm, but because it was simultaneously moving to the left, its grip wasn’t as tight, and I could pull my arm free, leaving a gash on my arm. I winced in pain, but continued to move, adjusting my momentum and then jumped towards its back, where its wings stood. For some reason, most of the bugs weren’t able to use their wings to fly, or at least, not to a useful extent. And so they were ornamental. They were also the only part of their body without proper armour. The easiest place to land a hit with a knife. 

It, having a 270-degree field of view, could see where I was aiming, and spread its wings before I landed. I landed on its back and grabbed the base of its left wing to stop my momentum. It flailed its wings, hitting me on the head. The force the wings landed on me was much smaller than the cockroaches, so it was barely a struggle. From my lying position, I pulled myself up its back, reaching my right hand, with the knife, and stabbed the base of the wing.

 Then, before the other mantises could come to its aid, I pulled the knife out with a little effort and kicked it off, rolling away. The mantis I stabbed turned as fast as it could, while the other one stood beside it, both looking at me. Now they were both cautious of me, which was exactly what I wanted, since now their actions would be slower, despite the fact they had a clear advantage. Because, if the spider needs to be cautious of taking damage, so do they. And they weren't used to fighting something that didn’t think like that. 

A while was spent with them attempting to attack before they noticed what we had done. While they had been scooching around me, the spider, not needing to worry about multiple attacks, had dealt with the third mantis. 

But It was far too late for them to prioritise correctly anymore. After the spider came, the fight became far simpler. I took only a few minutes to kill the 2nd one, and the third one shortly after. 

*that was fun* the spider said, her energy seeping over to me. 

I slumped to the ground, and pulled off my t-shirt, wrapping it around my arm which was bleeding a worrying amount, “yeah, It was” I grunted through my heavy panting. I then noticed a grin on my face. 

I sat and lay in the sticky, bloody mess that I was, as the adrenalin started to fade.

“My god does the hurt though,” I groan through gritted teeth. Despite my odd willingness to be the one taking the hits, I hated doing so. I even continued to use my busted arm when fighting them making it worse.

I lay for a while longer, before building the courage to stand up and walk to the bag I put down just before the fight. 

*yeah yeah,* she teased, *stop whining… Do you think you can eat them?* 

At least she was nice enough to ask after I had caught my breath.

I pulled a water bottle from the bag and drank.

“Well… I don’t know, might as well try.”

Day 2

/Species: Human/

Class: Beast tamer (2)

 

Titles:

  ____

Level:

  9 (97.5%)

            Equipped: 

  Bronze-Centerpide neckless…

  Steel shortsword…

 

Stats: 

  (3 stat points not allocated)

  Strength:16+(4)

  Agility: 21+(7)

  Stamina: 19+(2)

  Constitution: 19

  Mana: 18

  Intelligence: 25

Skills:

  ___

Class skills:

  Tame monster.

Special skills:

  Regenerator (2)

 

The numbers had grown since we left the city, nearly entirely due to the spider. And the effects were noticeable. I could lift things nearly double my weight with some effort, and that's as someone who hasn’t worked out in a good year. Along with that, I was able to run faster than I ever had been able to. Though I wasn’t sure how fast, It was fast enough to be an athlete, not world-class, more like regional, but once again, that was a person who doesn’t even run. The stamina was noticeable, but only for walking. I had tried to run at full speed, but I still got tired pretty quickly, so it doesn’t seem to stack with other stats. I wasn’t quite sure about ‘Constitution’ and I wasn’t going to cut myself to figure it out either. I hadn’t had any use for the mana stat yet, and I didn’t think intelligence was affecting my literal intelligence.  But despite that, a new thing appeared: the word “Equipped” along with a “Bronze-centipede necklace” and “ Steel shortsword”. After I killed one of the mantises, I got a message in the form of an irritation, similar to the one when I hadn’t used my stat points. After focusing on it, I got another message this one a screen that asked, 

[1 Item(s) to collect runs out in (2 hours), Collect item(s)?]

I had somewhat gotten used to the whole magic screen thing, and so just rolled with it and accepted. 

And after, a shortsword just appeared in front of me. It was short, obviously, only about half the length of my arm. Its guard was practically non-existent, just being 2 small duds on either side of the hilt. The balse was a sliver-grey colour, with an odd greenish hue. Other than that, it didn’t have any distinct features. 

I had always loved bladed weapons, so getting a proper sword was amazing.

 

I also got another piece of info, after “Opening” the name in the status window

 

Emerald-glinted Steel shortsword(sharp)

    (+3+5+0+0+0)

I wasn’t sure what the (sharp) or Emrald-glinted meant unless it was just telling me the obvious. 

But either way, the weapon was a heaven-send. My dagger… It wasn’t even mine, was it? Ha, I didn’t even give it back to Brandon.

 “Sorry.”.

Anyway, I hadn’t been able to do much with the dagger since we left the city. Since I couldn’t get close enough to an opponent to use it without taking hits myself. And nearly everything had a form of exoskeleton, and since It didn’t have any leverage, I couldn’t get past that. Even when stabbing the mantis earlier, while It seemed effective, It was a one-off, and didn’t do anything apart from putting them on guard. 

Now, next time we fight a mantis, I could probably aim for their legs to do damage.

Along with that, I had more reach. 

*Will that make a difference?* The spider was pretty unconvinced, which wasn’t too surprising, She’s very much a brute force fighter. She had made plans but didn’t have any finesse to her movements. I guess she was also only like, a couple of months old? 

‘Has it really been that long? I could have sworn that-’ The thought surprised me, somehow, despite my age, I was usually homesick after that long,  but…

*Are… Are you good?* The spider asked, concerned. It was only at that that I realised I had stopped walking. 

*Your parents?* She wasn’t familiar with the idea, but she was able to understand my own emotions.

“Ye- yeah, and my… my brother.” My eyes started to water.

“Will I ever… see them again?” The question, directed towards no one, left a lump in my throat.  

They were on the other side of the ocean, and on top of that, they would have probably needed to leave our home. Even if I got there, could I even find them? 

Along with that, was Michal even… 

The spider was squirming on the inside, unsure of how to react, or how to help. Which left her to take the option that came to mind first.

*I think I see something over there.*

 

My mouth cracked into a smile, which then turned to a grin, unable to hold it back, I started to laugh. 

*See, I can do jokes!* the spider exclaimed, making that weird clicking sound.

To anyone outside, it would be insane. Frankly, even to people who could hear our thoughts, I would seem insane. A joke without a punchline. Not even a setup. And only half intentional.

But, somehow, the perfect way to lift my spirit.

After a while, we continued walking with no real direction in mind. But, I was thankful to be going with her.