Reclaimers

-----Fabian's POV

Soldier1: "Everyone okay?!"

Everyone, including Leon and I were panting after dealing with the incoming spiders. Lucien dealt with the brunt of the spiders so it was up to us along with the soldiers to deal with the rest. Sadly, we did end up loosing quite a few soldiers, numbering 18 bodies with 32 other soldiers sustaining some injuries. Most of the deaths actually came from these white spiders that focused more on spraying the soldiers in webbing, however the webs immediately dissolved through the soldier's armor before melting their flesh. I myself couldn't do much with my fire magic since I could easily start a forest fire if I go too hard, so I limited my magic to much more smaller and precise magic, only hitting the spiders at a distance. However, many of those white spiders managed to flee once we had taken the upper hand, leaving us somewhat displeased that we couldn't avenge the deaths of the soldiers immediately.

Leon: "Take it easy for bit."

Soldier: "Thank you, my prince."

Leon ended up tending to the wounded immediately after the fight was over, hoping for us to not lose anyone else.

Lucien: "We keep moving!"

Despite Leon's attempts at healing the soldiers, Lucien cuts it short as everyone began to move at his command. With everyone now moving, I do my best to follow as I walk up next to Leon.

Leon: "I never knew the headmaster was this hungry for battle."

True, he never did seem like the aggressive man back in the academy. He was always smiling and took care of the students and teachers. But now, he's like a different person entirely, even muttering to something that we can't even see, something that we had no idea of until recently.

Fabian: "It's like he treats these soldiers as disposable pawns."

Leon: "Not just the soldiers. Also us."

Now that he mentions it, Lucien only once acknowledged us once, but after that, he hasn't spoken to us and doesn't check up on us, specifically the prince.

...

Soon enough though, we arrive just outside the walls of Maemont as we all stay hidden inside the forest. I myself can't see too much from all the branches, but it doesn't look like there's any sign of spiders or those elves on the walls.

Lucien: "They don't seem to have noticed us yet. Is everyone ready?"

Everyone nods behind Lucien while I check up on my legs once again. Bending down like this, it still appears that my skin hasn't broke, so I should be fine to fight again. And in the next moment Lucien raised his sword as all of us charged out from the trees, quickly approaching the west gate. Thankfully it was wide open for us as we all flooded inside of the city, and it was there that I saw that all the buildings inside Maemont were completely covered in webs with spiders climbing over the roof tops. But my sights were fixated on the giant spiders off in the distance, especially a certain one which had the same coloration as the white spiders before, only this one was massive and even looks to have plating similar to those armored spiders.

Leon: "Arch-spider?"

Fabian: "What?"

Leon: "You see it right?"

Wait, so that's what an arch-spider looks like? There're not well documented as their extremely rare and usually are quickly dealt with because of how much of a threat they pose. From what I know of them, their the strongest subordinates to a queen spider, usually acting as a leader of the weaker sub-species. Their front legs are razor sharp, able to easily slice through armor, making it severely dangerous to attack head on. But staying back also proves to be dangerous as they're capable of using magic that's able to attack our minds. Thankfully it doesn't seem to have spotted us; not yet at least.

Lucien: "Everyone, kill as many as you can! I'll handle that one."

Not wasting a single moment, Lucien, almost as if he teleported, charges forth towards the arch-spider in question with the other 3 giant spiders surrounding it. Even with the wound that doesn't seem to be healing, Lucien is still the best chance we have so it makes sense that he'll take on the highest priority target first, however I still fear for him.

We engage the spiders around us as we end up drawing the attention of spiders that were hiding inside all the buildings. I'm not even going to attempt to count how many of them there are, but it's a lot. The white spiders from earlier tried to climb up to get the high ground, but they were quickly dealt with by arrows and magic, and after seeing the damage the soldiers are doing to the houses, it makes me believe that I can finally go all out and not worry about destroying some buildings.

My eyes catch a few spiders on top of a building as I quickly dispatch them with a large fireball. They didn't have enough time to dodge as the roof of the house exploded in flames, burning the spiders to a crisp almost immediately.

Leon: "Looks like we can go all out."

Fabian: "Yeah."

The prince and I end up partnering up, with me dealing with groups of enemies, while he takes out the higher priority threats with his light magic, mainly those white spiders as we've already seen how much damage they can do.

Soldier: "Hn!"

I quickly turn to my right to see that a soldier has now been pinned down by a spider. I quickly draw out more of my flames, forming a whip before immediately slashing at the spider's abdomen before it could sink it's fangs into the soldier. The spider quickly retreated off of the soldier, allowing me to use a bit more force as I fire of a blast of flames at the spider, engulfing the spider completely.

Soldier: "Thanks."

I turn my attention back to Leon as I watch him easily kill a wave of spiders with light magic that were approaching us. But in the distance, it seems as though Lucien has already began combat with the giant spiders, in fact he's already killed the 3 giant spiders it seems, leaving only that arch-spider left. For a spider that big, I would've thought it's movement would be slow, but surprisingly, it seems to be dodging some of Lucien's attacks while making counter-attacks of their own.

Leon: "Do we help him?"

Fabian: "We'd only be getting in his way."

At least that's what I think after he created distance from us. If we try and go there now, we'll only be a burden, hindering how much he can use against that spider, possibly even killing him.

Fabian: "We'll continue fighting off these spiders. We don't want them making the headmaster's job harder."

Leon: "Right."

And so, we continue to fight off the waves of spiders that are flooding out of the buildings. Sure I may be able to walk fine now, but close combat wouldn't be ideal as I don't think I'm agile enough to dodge attacks in time, so I choose to stay back with Leon, assisting the soldiers with magic, focusing on groups of spiders, hoping to thin the horde out a little to make the soldiers job more easier.

I'm glad that the spider's aren't attacking us all at once though, only attacking in waves that are more or less comfortable to deal with. The soldiers seem to be having not many issues as well with the support of mages. And after fighting off spiders for sometime now, a loud screech suddenly erupted all throughout Maemont. In the distance, I saw the giant arch-spider had finally been defeated as it collapsed to the ground with Lucien now standing atop of it, almost as if he's a hiker climbing all the way up a mountain. In no time at all, the spiders scattered, retreating just like they did before, leaving the city to us.

Cheers from the soldiers erupted from our small victory, but was soon quelled as Lucien collapses, sliding off of the arch-spider's body and crashing into the ground. Quickly rushing over, Lucien was pretty torn up as he could barely stay conscious, but the only notable injury was still that massive slice down his chest from his fight with Kaede.

Soldier1: "We'll rest here until Lucien recovers. Cover all entrances to the city.

Solders: "Yes, sir!"

I had a hunch that this person was some sort of commander, but now it's evident as all the soldiers quickly moved out at his word. Leon attempted to heal Lucien once more, but that wound on his chest didn't show any signs of closing up just like last time.

Leon: "Do we have any more bandages?"

Soldier: "Here."

A soldier quickly passes some cloth Leon's way as Leon quickly bandages over the already existing, bloodied bandages with the new ones. Usually I'd think of replacing the bandages, but with a wound like that, I think it's the correct choice as Lucien would likely suffer major blood loss during the changing of the bandages. At least with this we can stop the bleeding a bit better.

Suddenly, an explosion could be heard not too far away, followed by many screams coming from the east side; towards the capital.

?: "How dare you!"

A voice echoed in my head as another explosion was heard, followed by even more screams as the soldiers around us took up defensive positions around Lucien and Leon. At first, I thought this was the voice of that same monster, but it appears more aggravated than the one I heard back home. Maybe it's because we pissed her off? Whatever it is, Lucien needs to wake up, like right now...