Squish Squish

Cypius let out a long, drawn out sigh. Though he warned 6, as much as he could, it was ultimately 6's decision, and if he wanted to risk his life at the spider's nest, Cypius could do naught but accept it.

The knife in Plono's hand resumed its work, chopping at the vegetables for dinner. She knew her father, and she knew this wasn't the kind of matter she was qualified to stick her nose into.

That didn't mean it didn't matter to her.

No tears came, not for a rude man who she only met the day before, but knowing another life would be taken by the creatures who killed her mother, and all the people she knew and loved in the village, hurt her deeply.

Even Karkum had emotion on his face, though that emotion was annoyance.

"If the kid returns, he is sleeping outside." Karkum bluntly stated, shutting the door once again, leaving the father and daughter to their own devices.

The dim light of dusk covering the Folrost illuminated the figure of the 'innkeeper' walking back to his inn, devoid of guests.

"Hey Trivrium, can you give me directions towards the spider's nest? It's getting dark, and I'm sure I could find the rest of the way by memory, but I'd really prefer that convenient arrow you gave me before." 6 asked.

[Ask, and you shall receive.]

The common proverb appeared in front of 6's eyes, followed by an arrow pointing outward, away from the forest he just exited.

"Right, cool. I'd like a sword I can light on fire with a magic word then, please."

As he expected, he received no response from Trivrium, totally ignoring his request. He called her a liar in his head, not truly meaning it, and began walking, not directly in the direction of the arrow, but slightly off course of it. He intended to approach the spider's nest from a slightly different direction, not intending to take the exact same course as the warriors from Folrost would've likely taken on their unsuccessful mission to the nest.

This was so that in the worst case scenario that he had to turn tail and run away immediately, it wouldn't be 100% obvious where he came from. Just a minor protection in the case that the infestation was caused by an individual rather than natural causes.

The information he had gathered to this point led him to the belief that someone or something caused the nest to form on purpose. He wasn't certain of this by any means, but it seemed the most likely based off of his current information.

The biggest thing he needed to find to cement this belief was motive. Right now, he had no idea why someone would want to do this, aside from a crazy attempt to become detached from their land.

Given that Cypius assured him that that would basically be a suicide attempt, he couldn't assume that it was the motive, especially not when there had to be other, more likely to succeed, methods, especially for someone who knows their land like its inhabitants would.

Until he had this information, or something more solid to believe, he had to continue attacking the problem from an unbiased perspective, so that he didn't let his suspicions cause him to lose sight of the bigger picture. So far, he hadn't gathered enough information to eliminate any possibility.

Once the spider's nest was within view, and 6 once again had the chance to appreciate how massive it truly was, he began observing more carefully.

While steering clear of any area covered in webs, to avoid alerting the spiders of his presence, he watched for activity in the area of the nest in front of him.

According to the information Trivrium provided, the spider's have a way to tell when the webs are touched, so until 6 was prepared he needed to steer clear of them. Honestly, it reminded him of the caution his team needed to take when approaching the smokey shadow that killed him.

Hopefully the stealth the shadow complimented him on would be more useful this time.

In the distance, he could clearly see spiders dotting around the nest.

There were at least 80 he could see, spaced out around the exterior webs that surrounded the nest that resembled an egg. They were definitely large, much larger than the big spider he saw in the forest of Folrost.

They were closer to the size of a cat, slightly larger than an average one. They weren't very colorful, either grey, black, or brown. It was too far to see the more delicate details, but 6 could basically confirm what spiders they were based on the detailed information on the spiders discovered so far that Trivrium provided.

The grey and black spiders were only capable of basic attack, he needed to be wary of allowing them to get close, as they would try to swarm him and bring him to the ground, aiming to trap him with webs.

The brown ones, on the other hand, were more dangerous. They were marginally more agile, and were slightly venomous. It wasn't enough to kill an adult, but enough of it could incapacitate one, and even a slight amount could make fighting difficult.

6 suspected these spiders, and the likelihood of more spiders inside the nest sharing this trait, was the reason behind Trivrium providing the Protective Blessing for this mission.

Although 80 spiders was a lot, especially considering their size and the fact that this was only one small side of the massive nest, it should be nowhere near enough to wipe out as many people of Folrost as it did.

6 shrugged his shoulders, figuring he would ask about that when he returned. For now he would assume that either there used to be significantly more spiders on the outside that have since been wiped out, or they swarm over from other sides of the nest once a fight begins.

He approached the webbed area once he was satisfied with his reconnaissance. He was careful when touching the webs covering the ground, not making any noise. Every step was extremely soft, hardly leaving a mark, he was doing his best to disturb the webs as little as he possibly could.

The spider he was approaching, slowly, was busy, moving the webs at its feet to further wrap up a roughly squirrel sized mound of webs. It was unclear what exactly was in the web.

A yard away from the spider, he paused, surveying the rest of the spiders in his field of view to see if he had been noticed.

Seeing that none of them had reacted to his presence so far, he pounced.

He drew the knife at his waist, jumping at the spider and immediately stabbing it through the head. The blade slid through with ease, and the spider's legs collapsed, crushed under the weight of 6 jumping onto it.

Its body squelched, leaking a unique goo from its grey corpse.

"God, that is foul." 6 cursed, hating himself for choosing this method.

The spiders around took notice of him immediately after he jumped, turning to him just as he crushed their compatriot. He rolled off of the dead spider, taking his knife out as he did. He broke into a run, not towards the nearest spider, but toward the next most isolated one.

The spiders didn't sit idly waiting for him to kill them, however badly he wished they would. All at once, they began converging onto his location, aiming to take advantage of their superior numbers.

He took note of this as he ran, his eyes not locked onto his target but darting about, keeping track of his surroundings.

Although he had the Protective Blessing of Trivrium, he didn't want to rely on that to survive, so allowing himself to be trapped inside of a pile of spiders wasn't on his to do list.

When he reached the lone brown spider, putting him comfortably on the outer edges of the now circular formation the spiders created, he skipped jumping this time.

The spider jumped at him on its own accord, aiming to sink its fangs into his shoulder. He dropped back, dodging the spider entirely, and pivoted on his heel, turning 180 degrees to face the spider once again.

It landed just behind him, but as soon as its feet made contact with the ground, 6's foot crushed its head, killing it instantly.

His maneuver cost him time and put him more towards the center of the circle of spiders, a risky move to kill a single spider. Six spiders were near enough for him to have to immediately deal with, not enough to put him in severe danger on their own, but enough to slow him down until the rest of the spiders could surround him.

With a quick check to the other sides of the spider's nest, not seeing any more spiders appearing yet, he took action. He headed toward the four spiders approaching from his left, aiming to take out the larger threat first, his knife ready to pierce the first spider.

Using the knife like an ice pick, stabbing the spider directly in the eye, he withdrew the knife and kicked the corpse away, sending it hurtling to the side, out of his way.

He swiped his knife down, cutting two legs off of the smaller than average grey spider attempting to grab onto his leg, then threw the knife into the head of the fourth spider, the one furthest from him in the group. It pierced the grey spider's head with ease, bringing its 'run' to a halt, the corpse sliding slightly as its legs stopped running

Ignoring the injured spider at his feet, he grabbed the third spider by its brown body, picking it up. It tried to get out of his grasp, angered by its failure to bite him while 6 was dealing with the other spiders, but failed.

Its short legs were incapable of touching 6, and it couldn't move itself with nothing to grip onto.

Unless the spiders had other methods, this was a simple and effective way of dealing with a single spider, especially if you needed to study a live one.

6 looked at it up close, examining its eyes and the way it reacted when he held it.

Its beady eyes didn't betray anything, aside from the contempt you would expect from anything trying to kill you. Though it certainly had more emotion than a regular spider, it didn't seem intelligent. Given the appropriate size and convenient web abilities a spider should have, 6 thought a spider like this wouldn't make a bad pet.

Though, it was a little too ugly, and weak, for his taste.

Smiling, satisfied with his short examination of the spider, 6 squeezed both of his hands together, killing the spider with a sickening crunch.