The Hunt Continues

Behind 6 was a massive sea of spiders, covering the entire ground.

They blanketed the entire area, blotting out the green fields he had been so happy to reach with the motley of colors they had, ignoring the ends of the spider webs.

In just the few moments he turned around, he could see significantly more varieties of spiders than he fought previously.

Aside from the grey, brown, and black spiders, he could clearly see flashes of red among them, and several spiders that varied in shape and size.

There were at least 10 varieties of spiders chasing him, and that was only at the front of the sea, only the fast ones.

Behind them there were surely even more spiders, spiders which didn't specialize in movement and large spiders that would naturally move slower.

The tiny spiders in the front worried him the most. There were more than he could hope to count, making up the largest number by far, and they were the spiders that would give him the most difficulty in general.

He had no way to deal with anything in large numbers like that.

A flamethrower would probably be his best bet, but the odds of finding something like that on this planet were slim to none.

As the spiders chased him, they visibly slowed down the further they got away from the nest, as though they were getting weaker as they separated from it.

Luckily for 6, this meant he could gain some distance, and it turned this pursuit into a stamina chase rather than a speed chase.

Unluckily for 6, however, with the sheer number of spiders there were behind him, he couldn't take advantage of their separation from the nest.

Just the weight of the countless spiders would be enough to kill him, much less their active murdery desires toward him for invading their territory and killing their spidery friends and family.

Hell, maybe the large spider he killed was the parent of some of these guys.

It would certainly explain why they were so determined to chase him down.

As the distance between him and the ocean of spiders behind grew, 6 began taking the time to adjust his breathing and focus on maintaining his stamina.

If he let himself become worn out and allowed the spiders to catch up, it was basically over for him.

Hiding wasn't even an option for him, because of the absolutely lack of structures or anything he could use as cover for miles, and even if it were, hiding from this many spiders just didn't seem like a smart idea.

After what felt like forever, the spiders were so far behind 6 that he could hardly see them anymore. At this point, they had to be moving as a snails pace, or there's no way they would've fallen as far behind as they had.

6 made the bold decision of stopping to take a break from running, instead choosing to watch from behind until he could see the spiders approaching once more, to gauge exactly how fast they were moving now.

Huffing to catch his breath, exhausted from the non-stop running, he stared at the distant black line across the fields.

Oddly, despite the extended period of time he waited there for, the black line seemed to be no closer.

If he wasn't mistaken, it seemed like the black line was in fact getting further away, as if the spiders were returning to the spiders nest, giving up on chasing 6 down.

In the distance, the spiders were returning to their nest. The sea was significantly smaller already, now more of a lake, as many spiders had already turned away long ago.

The only spiders that continued chasing 6 did do to ensure he left.

Once he was intimidated, the stronger and more important varieties of spiders turned around and allowed their weaker compatriots to continue the chase.

6 didn't notice this, as he was too busy running away from them, but if he had, he surely would've gotten ideas about turning around to wipe out as many weaker spiders as he could.

He was equally unaware that this would've been the death of him. Had he noticed and taken that course of action, the spider's he believed to be tiny and easy to deal with would have revealed the source of their confidence in continuing the chase, another small spider, one that hid amidst the rest.

The other spiders gave it its own area, none of them trespassing into its space while they ran.

It had a stark white body, reminiscent of a polar bear, and lacked the hair that most of its compatriots had.

Instead, it was smooth, and it lacked any chinks between its joints that the larger spiders shared.

The body of it had a metallic glow, and its legs were sharp, like needles that were burned so hot that they turned white.

Compared to its fellow spiders it was on the smaller side, only the size of a regular tarantula, but it was far more dangerous.

The only hints of color, the only breaks in its pure white exterior, were the eyes and fangs of the spider.

Just shy of glowing, the eight eyes of the spider were purple, a deep purple that seemed to take in more than there was to see.

Most spiders share a commonality of bad eye sight, but this one was different.

While the rest of the spiders began retreating, abandoning the chase for 6 entirely, it was the only spider that stayed, unmoving as it's eyes trained upon where 6 was resting.

Just below the its eyes, the sharp fangs of the spider hung. The fangs were mostly white, but bold stripes of red spiraled down them, as if ruby blood was coursing through them, culminating at the tips of the fangs, which were dyed in the same deep red, like a pool of deadly venom.

Intelligence could be seen in the spider's eyes.

It was thinking, weighing its option, choosing whether or not it was worth hunting 6 down on its own.

The flowing red in it's fangs coursed, sometimes flowing fast, like a riptide struggling to tear through the fangs to strike 6 on its own accord, and sometimes it slowed, coming to a halt like the gentle pull of a tide at night.

Compared to the other spider's found on the outside of the nest, this one seemed the most unnatural.

All the others seemed larger than your average spider, to a dangerous extent, but they remained in line with what you would expect from a spider.

But the white spider with red fangs was something you'd see in a dream, it was surreal and looked out of place.

As 6 rested, he watched the spider-tide's retreat. At this point, it was obvious that they were no longer chasing him, or else they would've already reached him.

For safeties sake, he waited until they were totally out of sight upon the horizon to turn and begin his trek toward Folrost, which he had run a significant distance away from.

Now that he had confirmed a few things, he was less worried about the spider's coming to Folrost. it was definitely a large enough distance away that even if they did decide to attack, they should be so far from their nest that they'll be too weak to properly fight.

If that happens, it should be easy to send them packing no matter what their numbers are, especially considering that Cypius was there, as well as Plono and Karkum, who he could tell were no pushovers themselves.

In fact, he was probably the weakest out of all of them, and that was including the Protective Blessing of Trivrium which was only temporary.

The tiny white spider in the distance watched 6 walking in the direction of Folrost while he was lost in thought.

It was impossible to tell if it knew where he was headed, but it stayed in place until 6 began reaching the edge of its vision.

Then, it began walking.

It didn't return to the nest, nor did it head toward 6.

It simply walked perpendicular to 6, keeping the same amount of distance between them, while also not getting any further away from the next.

The spider was confirming that 6 would not be returning, protecting and guarding it's nest.

When 6 finally reached Folrost, it was already late at night. There was nobody walking on the streets and there was hardly any light left in the village, aside from the bright moon.

He headed towards the inn, excited to turn in for the night after all the fun he had to day.

The windows in the inn were dark, save for one, betraying the fact that Karkum was still awake.

"If I'm lucky there'll be leftovers for me to eat." 6 said, his belly rumbling.

He clumsily stumbled up to the door of the inn, intending to walk directly in, but found the door wouldn't open when he attempted to open it.

Despite twisting the knob harder and trying several things to get the door open,, he ultimately failed.

He began looking around him, searching for something he could use to pick the lock, but there was nothing suitable nearby, and he didn't feel like scavenging the entire village in the hopes of finding something useful.

Besides, he wasn't even sure if the locks here worked the same as locks he was used to.

This place probably wasn't as advanced as Trivrium, but they could definitely have some way of ensuring the safety of its peoples homes, better than the regular crappy home locks that any amateur could pick on his homeworld.

Without any other convenient option remaining, he had to resort to his final one, the one he truly wanted to avoid.

Being polite.

"Hey Karkum, I'm sorry I'm back so late, but could you please let me in?" 6 said, just above speaking volume to avoid causing too much of a commotion, while he knocked.

He waited for a few seconds but heard no response, or any other indication that Karkum heard him.

"Hello?" 6 said. "I just wanna get into my room."

Suddenly, the light in left on in the inn flickered out into darkness, as if it was trying to tell 6 that no one was home.

With the moonlight, 6 could just barely make out the figure of Karkum walking to his room through the windows of the inn, ignoring 6's requests.

6 sighed, realizing Karkum had no intention of letting him in whatsoever.

"Fine, fine, but I want a discount next time I pay for my room!" 6 said, not quite yelling.

[You do not pay for your own room]

"Alright, alright, don't you start with me now Trivrium. I'm helping you out, you could at least be sweet to me."

Trivrium didn't respond after 6's words, leaving him ignored once more.

"Great, great. Guess I'll go to Cypius and see if he has a key."

Outside Cypius' house, 6 moved toward the door with the intention of knocking on it, before something stopped him in his tracks.

"I swear, if you open that door without knocking, properly, I shall slam it shut in your face the moment you open it."