A Friend of Fire

The cave had become pitch dark where they were now, and the path was separated into a fork with three options ahead of them. They were standing in the fork, looking at Graham who had taken out his lighter. The flame of his lighter tried to illuminate the surrounding area but was overpowered by Jacco's stronger headlight. The man with the trench coat concentrated on the flame in his hand and it burned brighter and brighter.

An image appeared from within the flame. It showed them the cave from above with two red dots visible. One indicated the divinator's location and the other one showed the target. It was not a clear aerial view of the cave, but rather, just a rough outline. According to the image, they had to take the left path to reach the lake where the Nhang resided. After that, the image disappeared slowly and the flame returned to normal.

"So what's at the end of the other paths?" asked Luuk curiously. His voice echoed in the dark.

Jacco shone his headlight into the middle path but the light hit nothing. It was just an endless corridor of pitch blackness. There was the occasional quiet screeching in the distance which could come from anywhere ahead of them and the sounds of water dripping that accompanied them.

"Maybe something dangerous?" replied Jacco.

"I'll use divination to find out," Graham said quietly, but the echo was still there.

Graham concentrated on the flame again. Slowly, another image appeared and got bigger and bigger. It showed a large chamber full of supernatural creatures. It was as large as a vast grassland where cows usually grazed, but it was inside a cave. There were unknown plants growing on the cave ground and there were also some kinds of trees. It seemed to be a kind of common hunting area for the denizens of the cave. The plain looked endless, so they couldn't see what was beyond it. The image then slowly disappeared.

"Yeah, we're not going there," said Jacco.

"How can plants grow in the dark?" asked Luuk in confusion.

Graham looked at Luuk with a clueless expression.

"Beats me," he replied shortly and then turned his attention to the path on the right.

The other three followed his gaze and looked at the rightmost path. The distance between the middle and the right path was big. It was also the only path that was constantly giving off an ominous feeling, so they were standing closer to the left part of the wall.

Graham focused on his lighter and repeated a question in his mind. The flame that was burning gently suddenly flickered and flared violently. There was no image formed in the core of the flame as usual. After that, the flame died and Graham held his head. He had got a splitting headache from a failed divination attempt.

"Are you alright?" asked Agatha in concern.

Luuk and Jacco were also looking worriedly at Graham. They had never seen a backlash of divination attempt, so they didn't know what had just happened.

"Don't worry about me. It just means whatever in on the right path doesn't want us to find out about them," he rubbed his temple gently with his right hand, "Let's just hope that they stay there and don't come out,"

Agatha looked relieved and then turned her attention to the right path again curiously. After that, Graham gestured at the group to proceed to their goal.

"Let's go," he said.

The others nodded and Jacco shone his headlight to the path on the left with Luuk as the spearhead. They walked carefully because that part of the cave was damp and the cave floor had become slippery. Their noses were penetrated by the earthy and moldy smell of the area and their exposed skin could feel the moisture in the air. The sounds of screeching were still coming from somewhere, making them more alert.

The uneven cave ground made it difficult for them to walk, let alone fight. It was a very disadvantageous spot for them. Luckily, there was no enemy in sight so far. In fact, there hadn't been any kinds of lifeforms during the whole ten minutes they were walking there. They had to slow down their pace because of the difficult terrain, but the corridor still hadn't ended.

"I'm glad I'm wearing boots," said Jacco. He could step safely on the slippery rocks thanks to those.

Graham helped Agatha who had slight difficulty traversing the ground at times.

"So she's a rich person after all. Although she's good at fighting, this kind of thing must still be alien to her," muttered Graham when he was away from her.

Luuk's light steps made it very easy for him to jump around, and his night vision helped him see in the dark. He was ahead of the group and was scouting the area.

"I can see the end of this corridor," said Luuk.

If he said he could see it, it meant the next part of the cave was close by because Look's eyesight was not boosted like Graham's. The group slowly made their way to the end of the corridor and caught up with Luuk, who was standing still. Once the others saw what was ahead of them, they also stood still.

"Hiss!"

The area in front of them was a large chamber with a lot of webs entangling the whole place. There were cocoons hanging down from the webs and some of them were open, revealing dried corpses of various creatures. There were sounds of hissing in the distance but they could see the source because it was too far. Jacco tried to shine his headlight into the space ahead of them but still couldn't see anything but webs.

Graham signaled at the group not to go anywhere. Since he had got enough information, he could use divination to get a glimpse of the creature creating all these webs. He took out his lighter and concentrated on the flame. He repeated a question in his mind.

'What is the name of the creature that created these webs?'

The flame in his hand burned brighter and slowly, an image appeared. It showed a giant spider with eight glowing red eyes. After that, the image shifted to an ancient book page that Graham was familiar with. It was the book in his possession. New words slowly burned into existence on the blank page, revealing information regarding the supernatural creature in question.

'J'ba Fofi is a spider-like supernatural creature that can grow up to 2.5 meters in leg span. Its carapace is very tough, making most attacks ineffective. Its bite is extremely venomous; it can kill a strong Contractbound in less than an hour if untreated. Its webs are very sturdy and sticky, serving as both detection and offensive tools. Despite its size, it can move very fast and can scale cave walls, where it's usually found, with ease even without the help of its webs. It's only weakness is fire.'

After that, the image disappeared. The loud hissing in the distance was still coming strong the whole time.

"You guys saw that, didn't you?" asked Graham.

Luuk's expression was rather pale. He had known that they had to fight a spider, but now that reality was right in front of him, he couldn't hide his fear anymore. Graham noticed it and asked.

"Arachnophobic?"

"Only a little," answered Luuk shortly.

Agatha was watching the dark space ahead closely.

"What is our strategy?" she asked. Her voice was still calm and bright, "I don't have any fire attack,"

Graham looked at the group, observing each member one by one. None of Jacco's abilities would be effective to kill the spider. His Safe Zone, however, was extremely powerful if they were in a grief danger. Agatha's Sleep Ritual was ineffective against the spider, seeing that it wasn't even effective against the weaker Olitiau. Her blood explosion was the most powerful offense, but it was just blood, not like Fade's ability that could create a real fiery explosion. Luuk still had his Fiery Knife that still had some uses left, so it was best used wisely.

The group was waiting expectantly for Graham to speak. Among them, Graham was the one who knew everyone's capabilities in detail, so he was the one who usually came up with strategies. Finally, the man smiled meaningfully and then lit his lighter again.

"If we don't have fire attacks, why don't we create our own?" he said.

Graham walked closer to a spider web that seemed interconnected. He held his lighter close to the web and it caught on fire. The web burned slowly and brightly and the flame crawlingly spread to the surrounding web, unlike a normal spider web that would instantly be consumed by fire.

"Now, soak your masks in water and wear them," commanded Graham.

He handed his mask to Luuk who had taken out the big bottle of water from his backpack and dropped some of the liquid on it. Graham then wore the damp mask to cover his nose and mouth and watched as the others did the same. They seemed to have understood what he was about to do.

The burning web still hadn't burned completely and the fire was still spreading at a very slow rate. He focused on the fire and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order the fire to spread to the whole area quickly!"

With his order, the fire quickly spread to all the spider webs connected to it and quickly engulfed the room in flames. The originally pitch-black chamber was now lit by an orange light, enabling them to see even without their night vision. There were the sounds of screeching and hissing coming from all over the large chamber, most likely from the living creatures encased in cocoons that were being burned alive. Smoke rose to the air and started choking them. However, their soaked mask reduced the effect to some extent.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order all the smoke in this room to blow to the area ahead!"

Once he issued his next order, the smoke mysteriously blew to the direction in front of them, like there was wind taking them there, although there wasn't even a breeze in that cave. They were now at least safe from the smoke as long as they didn't stand where it was blowing.

"Screech!!"

The tough spider webs didn't burn easily, so they allow the fire to burn longer. They served as wicks for the flame. Graham, with his boosted vision, could now see the giant spider monster in the distance screaming in pain. It three times bigger than an Olitiau and was currently fighting three Tsuchinokos, although the latter was basically being massacred by the spider. However, the sudden flame turned the table around. The spider was now completely scared and didn't dare to move to avoid touching the fire, so the two remaining Tsuchinokos could corner it.

"Two Tsuchinokos are fighting the spider. Let's just wait until one side wins," said Graham.

The others could only see silhouettes, so they just trusted Graham's words. They stood near the entrance where the smoke didn't reach. The chamber was still burning and the fight continued.

One Tsuchinoko sprayed the spider with its venom and it melted some of the spider's tough skin, which made it scream in pain. One of its eight legs was now missing its hard outer skin and was exposed. The spider retaliated by biting the Tsuchinoko with its sharp chelicerae and completely pierced the snake's hard scales. The J'ba Fofi's venom entered the snake's bloodstream and it got paralyzed in an instant. However, it was not dead yet. The other Tsuchinoko sprayed the spider with its venom and the spider took a step back to dodge. It touched the fiery spider web by accident and the flame quickly spread to its body through its hairs.

"Screech!!!"

The spider was burned and it was screaming in agony. The Tsuchinoko used the chance to spray more venom and now it hit the spider's face, melting its outer skin and some of its eyes. The spider flung its front legs in anger and hit the snake, launching it backward. The Tsuchinoko hit a burning sticky web and couldn't get away from it.

"Hiss!"

It squirmed and shook violently to try to get away but the web was too sticky. The fire couldn't engulf the snake because it didn't have any inflammable body part, but now its weak spot was exposed to the angry spider. The spider used its remaining eyes to locate the snake because it had lost connection with its webs. It quickly stabbed the Tsuchinoko right on its weakness with its sharp front leg repeatedly. The other Tsuchinoko, which was still paralyzed, slowly died as well. The J'ba Fofi came out victorious from the fight.

"What's happening?" asked Luuk who could only hear the screeching and hissing of the creatures and their silhouettes.

The fire was still burning violently in the large chamber, taking down webs little by little. The part of the web that he burned first had completely gone now, but the others still served as fuel for the flames.

"The spider won. Now it's our turn," he said, "It's the creature's own fault for making webs out of highly inflammable material,"