Escape (part 2)

Loki grunted. If that merchant wanted to keep his secrets, he had no right to object. Although he was curious, prying into matters that weren't his own wasn't fair and would most of the time result in trouble.

"Let's go," Loki said.

Before following him, Roan rapidly searched his backpack, took out a fedora hat, dusted it, put it on, and ran after his savior.

For a few minutes that felt like hours, they traveled through a labyrinth of tunnels. The stones marked with runes of power lit their way, chasing away the absolute darkness of the cave.

Following the wind, they arrived in a room large enough to house a Viking banquet of fifty or so people. Even their current source of light couldn't light the entire area, leaving quite a few dark spots.

Surrounding them were around fifteen silken egg sacs stuck to the walls or piled up on the ground. Each egg averaged 20 centimeters of diameters.

Loki's gaze traveled upward to see a fissure that could be large enough to pass through. However, it was ten meters above ground, without a ladder of sorts. It would be impossible to reach it.

"Just look at these egg sacs…" Roan said, poking at a web that stuck to his finger. "Urg. Hum. Why is it wet on top of being sticky?"

"What did you say?" Loki asked, his turned serious.

"I said it's wet and sticky."

"Shit," Loki cursed, since it was "wet" it could only mean one thing. "They were laid recently. Maybe a few minutes ago. Which could only mean that the female is still nearby."

"Ah…, let's make a tactical retreat, shall we?" Roan said, making his way behind Loki's back.

"No, it's a good opportunity to slay it," Loki said, preparing himself mentally for a fight. "Giving birth would tire out anybody. Be it a spider, giant, or human. She's probably hiding somewhere around here. Weakened and exhausted. She would have already attacked us if that weren't the case."

At those words, Roan eyed the surroundings more wearily, displaying his anxiousness.

"You have more of those glowing stones, right?" Loki said, searching the dark corners for any signs of danger.

Roan replied with a face drenched with sweat. "Hum… sort of."

"Good," Loki said, before asking the merchant to spread them around the room to shed a bit of light on this mysterious dark place.

Roan did as he was instructed and soon shadows dispersed to reveal more egg sacs, but no female giant spider. Loki searched for traces of its presence. Left side, right side, in the front and behind him. Nothing. His head then shot upward to focus on the ceiling. At first glance, everything appeared to be normal.

However, the more he stared, the more he felt that something wasn't right. Then, after a few moments, he spotted a small distortion. In complete darkness, he would have never discovered it.

But now, with more light in the room, a somewhat large area on the ceiling looked out of place. A meager amount of light was reflected, exposing an arachnoid shape. Not by much. If Loki hadn't looked for an irregularity, he probably wouldn't have noticed.

'Sneaky bastard.' He thought, 'Too high to reach with my sword. Also, I can't craft a throwing ax right now. Hum….'

Perhaps the spider wouldn't hinder their escape because of its current fatigue. But Loki wasn't willing to take the risk. Leaving their backs to a creature capable of perfectly blending into dark places, seemed like madness to him. Even more now, since he had the opportunity to deal with a weakened female giant spider.

With nothing else that came to mind, he gestured for Roan to hand over one of his spare glowing rocks.

"Aaah, humm, hun… careful, that one is a bit… hum fiery." The merchant said, placing a small stone in his savior's hand.

Too focused on the enemy, Loki paid no heed to his warning. He grabbed the stone and infused his mana into it. Loki furrowed his brows when he noticed that the soon-to-be projectile was sucking in more mana than the previous rocks.

'The fuck?' He thought, surprised by the amount of mana required. 'Hardly 2% of my mana is left.'

As he took aim, the stone shone red, emitting heat in his palm. Soon, as if it were holding back an explosion, it started to tremble, alerting Loki.

He discarded the rock by hurling it at the almost invisible large shape. Cracks rapidly formed on its surface while it traveled towards its target.

But before it could come into contact with the ceiling, the stone touched the almost invisible spider and exploded upon impact, fissuring the ceiling that somehow resisted a collapse.

BOOM!

The peculiar duo instantly covered their ears. Their eyes were forced shut because of the explosion's brightness as an enormous spider fell from its hiding spot.

It violently dropped to the ground with a piercing screech. In a raging pain, the spider went mad. It frantically rolled around, trying to extinguish the flames on its body. Its two front legs, longer than the others, clawed at air, the surrounding walls, and even the egg sacs.

Blurred vision and muffled hearing clouded Loki's mind. But with his current body, it took him less than five seconds to recover while Roan was still in the midst of it.

His senses recovered, Loki faced the monster, only to see a dying creature. The explosion had burst apart four of its original two meters long eight legs. A gaping wound from which an unending stream of green blood and guts poured out replaced half of the spider's abdomen.

'Hum, it'll die soon.' Loki thought, grabbing a still confused Roan to pull him behind an egg sac, far from the spider's rampage. Then, he stood there, waiting for the female giant spider to bleed to death.

Although he was quite intrigued by what kind of rune Roan had drawn on that stone, he kept that question for later. After all, distraction in front of an enemy could only attest to one's lack of knowledge in the art of combat. Unless it was done on purpose, he had learned to never lower his guard as long as the enemy still breathed.

The spider's vigor progressively declined. With only her remaining legs, it couldn't move her enormous body. It knew that it was doomed. Only instinct forced it to struggle for its life. Loki could finish it off right now. End its suffering.

But why should he take the risk of harming himself? Could it be considered cowardice? Not at all. To his mind and most Vikings, courage meant to control one's fear. By no means would a tactical retreat be called cowardice, as long as it was justified.

Although they praised warfare and violence, they also praised intelligence and cunningness. There was no point in risking death by attacking an enemy that was about to die. Mindlessly charging at an opponent, now that's what Vikings commonly called "stupidity."

After a few more seconds of struggle, the female giant spider's movement finally stopped. So did its screeches. And so did its life. Loki stared at the corpse wearily, then decided to check on it. Leaving Roan to his recovery, he walked to the giant spider with his shield in front of him.

In range for a strike, he cut down one of its remaining four legs, but no reactions came. Loki circled the 4-meters-long creature shortened to 3 meters because of the explosion. Then walked up to its head, and drove his sword into it. The spider's body slightly trembled, then stopped.

'Was not completely dead, hun?' Loki thought, content with his finishing blow.

"Oh, my head…" Roan complained, stumbling to his feet next to an egg sac. He supported himself using a nearby rocky wall before walking towards Loki, who was still examining the spider's corpse.

"Urg. Did you inject every drop of your remaining mana in it?" Roan asked, pointing at the spider's abdomen. "Because it sure shouldn't have gone all BOOM! At least not that kind of boom."

"I didn't know it was an exploding rock instead of a glowing one." Loki said, "Just what was it, anyway?"

"Hum… an experimentation," Roan replied, holding his chin in between two fingers. "To put it simply, it was the rune Kenaz mixed with Uruz and Dagaz. Better result than I expected, though not the best. I could probably make fireworks out of those, hehehe. I'm sure it'll sell great!"

"What are… fireworks?" Loki asked, intrigued by the unknown word.

"Hum, basically an explosion that's just for show. I'll show it to you someday." Roan said.

Loki shrugged, thinking that after today's event, they would probably never see each other again. Not that he cared, anyway. He was happy to be alive. It was all that mattered.

"Let's get out of here." He said, heading for the explored tunnels.

"What are you doing?" Roan asked, looking outraged. "We should first gather some part of this disgusting but interesting creature. Seeing how it could turn almost invisible, chances are it has a mana core! Moreover, we could sell those two gigantic leg-like claws. I know a woman who would be quite interested in those items."

Loki sighed. Not because he found the merchant's proposition stupid, but because he was disappointed in himself for not thinking about the mana core. He had been too hasty to leave, even though there shouldn't be any more enemies left in the cave.

Then, he felt his mind 'relaxing' when his passive skill Cool-minded deactivated. It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulder. He felt… more normal, more… human, or half-giant in his case.

With a fresh point of view on the matter, he reflected again on Roan's proposition. A mana core only formed in beings capable of wielding magic. Depending on its size, it could be sold or used for various things such as crafting and replenish one's own mana. So it would indeed sell at a satisfying price. Although he didn't what kind of currency this world had, Roan did.

As for the spider legs, they could be used to create weapons or simply for research. They could be sold for a good price, though probably less than the mana core.

"How about we split the profit fifty-fifty?" Roan said.

Loki pondered on his offer. It could be considered fair since, without Roan's rune crafting, he didn't know if he could have brought down that monster. However, he had saved the merchant. Taking that into account, Loki made his offer.

"Sixty-forty, plus my a reward."

Roan was about to argue but stopped when he read seriousness in Loki's frozen-blue eyes.

"F,f,fine." Roan stuttered. He couldn't help it since he had difficulty letting go of money.

Feeling that it wasn't appropriate, Loki forced back his laugh, coughed, and pointed at the corpse's two long legs. "Can you tell me how we are supposed to carry these?"

"Hehehe, don't worry," Roan said, smirking while showing his backpack. "I'm a merchant, remember?"

"Why do you say that as if it justifies everything?"

"Because it does! Hahaha!"