Knights, Let’s Smash Them

94 – How to set fire to our holy land (3)

First of all, I narrowed down the categories of monsters, but so far all of this has been speculation. I haven’t been able to find any evidence that could definitively prove it.

Besides that, even if it was Arachne, there was one unanswered question.

Arachne is not a common monster in the northern regions. Wild Arachnes roaming around naturally are even rarer, especially unless there is a dungeon.

A monster that usually lives in the thick forests of the central or southern jungles of the empire.

No matter how high the temperature is in the northern part of Monterto, it is not very suitable for Arachne to build a nest.

First of all, it is Monterto. As it was frequented by people, the probability that Arachne, who was extremely wary of people, could build a nest was too low.

“…… Whatever it is, you have to move fast.”

People have already been arrested.

There is a high probability that Petra was also captured by him.

If it was Arachne, which spits paralysis poison and specializes in raids, it would not have been easy to counter with only two inexperienced squires.

Awesome.

My teeth were chipped.

I didn’t send Petra very well, so it bothered me even more.

No.

Even if I didn’t tune her to the tune in the first place.

If she had just persuaded her knights or awakened Petra early, she would have been able to safely return to the capital.

If by any means she is not safe…….

I honestly felt like I couldn’t forgive myself.

“Irpin! Go to the search headquarters right away, inform them of the monster’s work, and find a place where Arachne can nest nearby! Call for reinforcements too!”

“Oh, I see!”

The cave. Lush wetlands. Cliff. Lungs. Ruins.

Arachne builds her nest with spider webs, and builds her nest in suitable places to store her prey that she has hunted.

“Andrei, let’s continue the search with me. I’ll leave an X mark on the tree, so Irfin can see it and follow it.”

You can’t just waste time. Because I had to find it as soon as possible.

Irpin disappeared along the trail she had followed, and Andrei, who was left behind, watched her lifeless and drooping Laverancia, and lightly swept the ground around her.

“Over there.”

I lifted the crossbow on my back and went deeper into the forest.

***

Petra opened her eyes in the dark. Her mind was in a hazy state, as if she had drunk alcohol. But somehow, her body didn’t move.

It must have been the way to get out of Monterto and head for the capital.

The lead squire, who was advancing along the winding forest road, suddenly bounced off his horse as if caught on something.

She was startled, and as she and the other squires hurriedly got off her horse and tried to help him, her memory was interrupted with a deafening roar.

“Ugh… ….”

Chjijijijik.

As she pulls her arm, something sticky stretches along her arm and sleeve.

“Huh?”

It wasn’t just the arm that was covered with something strange.

Her stomach, neck, legs, and virtually her entire body were covered in something gooey.

And then I slowly began to feel it, a disgusting smell.

“─!!!”

It didn’t take long for Petra to realize where she was now.

From noble mtl dot com.

This was a giant spider’s nest.

There is only one type of monster that hunts humans with spider webs.

Arachne.

Did you get attacked while you were getting off your horse?

Petra bit her lip, trying to stay as calm as possible.

Fortunately, the monster didn’t seem to notice that she had woken up.

She twisted her body as hard as she could to free herself from the cobwebs that were restraining her.

The right arm managed to regain freedom, but the problem was the leg.

It’s not enough to be tightly bound and breaking through with your hands.

Fortunately, the sword he was wearing around his waist was still intact, so it seemed like he would have to pull it out somehow.

No matter how tough a spider’s web is, it’s just a thread in front of sharpened steel.

Petra caught her breath. She slips her wrists tightly into the cobwebs that hold her tight and wiggles, reaching for the sword at her waist.

If you make a noise or something, it might irritate a spider that might be there.

“Heh, uhhh, huh… ….”

After several grunts, her fingers reached the hilt of her sword with difficulty.

“Eh, uh!? Hey, where is this!!”

A familiar voice came from her.

Turning her head instinctively, she saw the silhouette of a man struggling not far from her.

“What is this?! What, like a spider web…… !! Ugh! I can’t move!! No one? Chief Petra!?”

That wasn’t enough, she even yelled at her whale.

Even if she calmly judges the situation, she is provoking the monsters when it is not enough.

‘That idiot…… !!’

But Petra said she had to be silent. She might have taken out a weapon, but she made the same noise as herself, because it was almost certain that Arachne would find out if she did.

She sped up a bit instead. Petra gripped the hilt of her sword and pulled with all her might.

Jjijik, jjikjjik.

The restraints of the cobwebs around her hilt were loosening. I felt like I could do a little more.

“No one!? If anyone has happened, please help!!”

Even in the midst of this, the apprentice knight’s reaction became even more intense.

She just panicked.

This isn’t the first time Petra has been attacked by monsters and nearly died. Even at the time of the Great Expedition, dozens of knight-level skilled men were dying ridiculously every day.

Because he was an administrator of the Knights in such a hell, he couldn’t be safe.

But it wasn’t the squire.

He came in after the expedition, and he was a newcomer who had just been granted apprenticeship.

It was only natural that a normal judgment would be impossible from the point of view where the spider’s web was wrapped around the body.

However, if he revealed his location here, he would have no choice but to be helplessly attacked by additional monsters.

Petra focused on the now, trying to ignore the cries that distracted her.

Stick.

Jjijik.

It was a bit difficult at first, but once you got used to it, the spider webs came off easily.

Something sticky and sticky that hindered movement was just annoying, but the hardness of the spider’s web wasn’t that strong.

Finally succeeding in freeing her sword from its scabbard, Petra lifted her blade upward, cutting off the threads holding her body firmly together.

It was still full of thick things, and every time she moved her body, an indescribable discomfort came over her.

I didn’t have enough time to argue about trivial things like that.

“Huh, black…… Black…… I don’t want to die…….”

The young apprentice knight was now almost sobbing.

Fortunately, the monster didn’t appear even after making quite a fuss.

Are you out of the nest?

If you want to escape, now is your only chance.

Petra skillfully swung her sword and removed the spider’s web.

After regaining the freedom of the upper body like that, it was the moment when I was trying to tear off the spider web from the lower part of the body.

A terrible scream echoed through the cave.

Feeling that something was wrong, Petra pressed her half-raised body to the floor.

I glanced around and saw a huge silhouette.

Eight legs, a body like two wagons connected, and a horrifying cry that follows.

“Chic-cheep-cheese.”

It was Arachne.

“Go away! This monster bastard!!! Go away!!”

Squire groaned.

He struggled to get out somehow, but the more he moved in the confusion, the more the web became more complicated.

Unless you remove it accurately with minimal movements like Petra did. They don’t know that Arachne’s thread binds the body of its prey even more tightly.

“Kyaaa!!!”

“Gagging, gagging!!”

As if mocking him for struggling, Arachne let out a sharp roar and drove her tail into the knight’s body.

I was injected with paralysis poison.

‘That’s not good.’

Usually Arachne subdues prey by spraying paralyzing gas.

There was only one instance where a guy like that would ram a poison needle directly into his prey.

‘Predation’.

There is a risk that the victim will come to his senses and rebel in the middle with only the gas, which is weak in paralyzing power, as it eats the victim alive.

It injects powerful poison directly into the body so that it cannot even resist.

As the squire hanging from the wall sagged, Arachne began tearing off the webs that were entwining him one by one.

It was clearly an act of preparation for predation.

Petra couldn’t stay still any longer.

I can’t just stare blankly at my comrades being eaten right in front of me.

She quickly got up from her seat and ran towards Arachne.

If it was an opportunity now, when I was distracted by the prey, it was an opportunity.

“Got it!!!”

Arachne also noticed Petra’s presence belatedly, but this time she was a little faster.

The trail of the sword fell towards Arachne’s vital point. The part of the stomach where the poison sac in question is stored is the fatal weakness of this goddamn spider monster.

Because the belly was only covered with soft fur and not carapace, a light swing of a sharpened sword could inflict fatal wounds.

However, the blow that was aimed precisely at the vital point was terrifyingly successful.

Kang—!!!

I heard a sound I shouldn’t have heard.

“What?!”

A metallic sound that accurately penetrates the eardrum. A tingling vibration then hit Petra’s wrist. The sword collided with something hard and bounced helplessly.

‘Iron plate…… !!’

Arachne’s tail was protected by something metallic.

Arachne Lani wearing her armor, Petra stopped moving in a panic at the sight of her nonsense.

“Kyaaa!!”

Arachne, who did not miss the chance, turned her body as if having a seizure and ran towards her Petra.

“Keep off!!”

Pu-wook, her face contorts in pain as the pain pierces through her abdomen.

A paralytic poison that spreads instantly.

Petra felt the power drain from her entire body.

Kagang, kang!!

The sword he was holding fell to the floor. Her legs went numb and her vision flipped.

“Oh no…… Okay…….”

It was only a few seconds.

The spider’s web wrapped around her body once again as she lost all control.

Her ankles and legs are tightly bound, and her hands and body are tightly tightened unlike before, when there was still space left to move even a little.

“Kuh, huh… ….”

The cobwebs that stretched across her belly, chest, and nape strongly pressed her against her breath.

Even in the midst of that, all of Petra’s senses were alive.

She just can’t move because her muscles are paralyzed.

A victim captured by Arachne will die her death, she said, feeling the sensation of being eaten.

Will she become like that herself now?

‘I don’t want to die like this, please… ….’

Tears welled up under the pupils that were paralyzed and wide open.

The first person that came to mind was her parents.

From noble mtl dot com.

She was Petra from a rural village far from the capital, so after she got a job with the Imperial Black Lion Knights, she didn’t see her very much.

I didn’t know that her daughter had been killed by a monster, and when I remembered the faces of the two people who were waiting for a letter, I burst into tears.

And then.

It was Luvern Alroy, no one else.

‘If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have been so mean. To think that someone like me would try to redeem him as if anything had happened.’

Lubern Alroy was a great man.

In just a few years, she has risen from an unknown stranger to an important position in the Imperial Black Lion Knights.

A name worthy of being called a hero, respected and followed by countless people.

It is natural for any woman to be attracted to such a male.

However, I cannot draw a happy future now.

That’s why I regretted it all the more.

Even the last scene, because I was swayed by my own emotions and acted grumpy.

Shararak.

Poof, for an instant, the force that seemed to pull his body lifted him up into the air.

Petra now looks like it’s dangling from the ceiling.

Blood began to rush to her head.

But I didn’t feel the pain I should have felt. It was the effect of Arachne’s paralysis poison.

She was now sure that her death was near.

I don’t know how long it’s been since she’s been captured, but no matter how much she calls Luvern Ailo, she won’t be able to find herself right away.

‘Sorry…… Administrator…….’

In his fading consciousness, the last wish he had was that he would not feel guilty about his death.

In addition, I felt sorry for the two apprentice knights who were to be caught up together and meet a terrible end.

If only she had paid more attention to herself.

If I had reacted more quickly, I wouldn’t have gone this far.

The moment the web of death covered her face as she gave up even her last hope.

Crispy!

Something on her that flew through her air brushed the string of her thread that was holding her to her ceiling.

The fixed thread breaks, and the feeling of falling helplessly to the floor rushes in.

“Turn it off!?!”

Petra screamed as the floor got closer and closer through her half-naked vision.

She didn’t fall to the floor.

Instead of her, there was someone’s hand gently embracing her own back.

The cobwebs that blocked her eyes and mouth were loosened.

Even in the dark, her eyes that haven’t lost their light shimmer in front of her eyes.

A sight like a dream.

“Petra! Are you okay!?”

“Heh, heh, heh! Uh huh…… !!”

Tears poured incessantly.

Hope, relief, fear, sorry. A mix of emotions forced Petra to gasp for her breath and burst into tears.

Her lubern then pulled her into her own arms.

“What an asshole.”

Towards the giant spider monster, he radiated more fierce anger than ever before.