Inside-Outside-In

Shae

Entering the brutalist farm building through the large, unlocked door, a farmhand passing by with a big crate of something on a dolly stopped and asked the group, “You here for the bear?”

Melo replied, “Yes, that’s us.”

“Right, let’s get you to Falrin. He’ll explain the details.”

The farmhand moved the dolly so it was against a wall, then left it behind and began leading them deeper in.

The initial area was like a warehouse, full of crates and equipment.

Shae commented, “Reminds me of my old job.”

Zena asked, “Really? What was it?”

She nodded. “I worked in a warehouse moving boxes around. That was one of my jobs, anyway.”

“What were your other ones?”

“Only one other, and it was mostly just standing in one spot and talking to whoever came in the store. It was incredibly dull.”

“I can’t imagine you working a job like that.”

She shrugged. “Wasn’t much else available.”

The conversation ended as the group entered an elevator shaft. Rather than having buttons to press, it had a lever similar to a gearshift. The farmhand moved it halfway down, then into the slot to the right. Over the next half minute, the elevator followed the same pattern.

An elevator that can move in more directions than just up and down? Neat.

Shae was accustomed to elevators that didn’t require her to hold onto the rail along the interior they often had. This one also had a railing, but she was used to never using them, so she didn't hold onto it.

When the elevator shifted sideways, she stumbled right into Zena. No one else had stumbled, so she got a little embarrassed.

Her girlfriend asked, “Did you do that on purpose?”

“No, but I’ll keep that in mind for next time. The elevators I’ve been in before only moved vertically, so I didn’t think I would need the railing. The change in direction was unexpected.”

“I was wondering why you didn’t hold onto it.”

The door opened into a long hallway that was also both wide and tall. Several massive enclosures were on either side. Shae couldn’t see any of them yet, but she knew the spiders were just outside of view.

Zena grabbed her hand. Shay smiled at her, and they followed everyone else out.

They began the trek down the long path, and Shae got her first look at what she was supposed to be protecting, not hunting. Resting on a web that must’ve been at least 60 meters¹Nearly 200 feet. wide, was an enormous spider.

She didn’t know much about spiders, but she knew that some of them were fuzzy and had big eyes. These were those kinds of spiders.

The massive creature turned slightly to get a look at the sudden influx of people, and she could see the dim lights of the farm reflecting in its eyes.

She muttered, “It’s a giant murder spider, so why does it remind me of a puppy?”

The farmhand asked, “What do you think? I don’t know that language.”

Oh, I said my thoughts out loud and in English.

“I was thinking it’s surprisingly cute.”

Zena laughed, and the others got a good chuckle too, thinking of her nervousness back on the surface.

The farmhand laughed, too, but for a different reason. He hadn’t seen her behavior outside. “Yeah! I love them! Do you want to try petting one later? Some of them can be a little twitchy, though, so keep that in mind.”

“What do they do if I startle them?”

“They’ve been trained to not hurt people, but still have an instinctual reaction. If they get startled, they’ll usually throw a spell at you. They’re not super strong because they’ve lived in safety their whole lives, but a spell from a monster is still a spell from a monster.”

Right, even domestic animals are monsters in this world. Whether or not you can call this domestic, though…

“You know what? Why not. I’m ready to make an enormous, fuzzy new friend.”

“That’s the spirit! Say, would you be up for a date later?”

“Sorry, but I prefer snakes,” she replied, raising her hand that was still being held by Zena.

He shrugged. “Had to try.”

Being shown off by Shae made Zena very happy.

Still not quite used to dudes asking me out sometimes. At least I can openly be with Zena here. No one cares about two women being together.

Feels weird to think of myself as a woman, too. I don’t really feel like one, but it doesn’t bother me to be thought of as one now.

As they continued past, the spiders all varied somewhat in appearance. Just like how humans were all still humanoid but might be covered in scales or grow a tail or have glowing eyes, each of these spiders that were of the same species did not have the same appearance.

One had spines, another one had a rosette pattern similar to a leopard, and another was completely smooth. Shae would not be petting that one. If that particular spider was lacking in pets, it would have to receive them from its caretakers.

They eventually reached an enclosure where an older man was using earth magic to scoop up a pile of something that looked rather vile.

Probably spider poop. Oh my god, that’s such a big pile.

They waited around for a few minutes until Falrin reached a point where he could come out and speak with them. He was very businesslike and took them to one of the sites where a spider had been taken by the bear. The bear had discovered a tunnel system and had been digging deeper when it breached one of the pens.

The bear attacked the spider and killed it, taking it back to the tunnel to eat it. It was speculated that it had a Skill that allowed it to convert energy from what it ate into mana, which might be why it's eating so much.

The farmers and some people from the town had done their best to block off the tunnel from both ends, but were unsuccessful in stopping it.

The bear had then dug some more and returned to its newfound source of food just waiting to be eaten, having decided to stay somewhere in the tunnel.

Spiders caught in the bear’s web…

They couldn’t stop the bear from returning and none of the people here were fighters, so they hired mercenaries.

After discussing various other details, they had a plan. The bear had been attacking from one general direction, so they moved to that area of the farm.

Once Zena had learned of all the water mages in the vicinity, human and spider alike, she just had to wait for a new one to appear. Her detection ability was an Active one, so she only activated it every once in a while to check.

They set up in an out-of-the-way place so the bear wouldn't notice them, as it didn’t attack when people were around. They simply sat there in silence with two farmhands who had remained to assist with the spiders when it was time.

They had been worried that it would be another situation like their graduation test, where it had taken multiple nights to find their target, but that was not the case this time.

Three mind-numbingly boring and almost completely silent hours later, Zena pointed at one of the walls, having sensed the bear.

One of the farmhands, Melo and Tria had all been asleep, and after waking all of them up they prepared. They had to wait for the bear to begin clawing through the wall before they attacked, or else it would be harder to catch it.

Once it broke through and was partially out of the tunnel it had dug, the whole team charged while the farmhands hurriedly tried to usher the spider away. They had fully opened the gate and were going to corral it into a different pen.

While they did that, Konial started with his usual lightning strike. Shae had hoped that the bear would be covered in its own water magic or something similar to make Konial’s attack more effective, but she couldn’t see any non-standard attributes to the monster other than its size.

It stood up on its hind legs and let out a roar while also emitting a massive blast of water from its mouth. Konial was thrown backward by the force, and he yelled when he hit the wall of the pen with a crunching sound.

She spared a quick glance to make sure he hadn’t broken his neck or something, and saw him writhing on the ground.

They would keep an eye on him as best they could during the fight, but they wouldn’t be able to heal him with the bear still here.

Tria shot a searing blast of light at its eyes, and it was immediately followed up with Melo’s knives. The light disoriented it somewhat, but it was clever enough to know it should dodge. One knife missed, and the other clipped the side of its head, leaving a cut behind.

It roared again in fury, but without water this time. It charged forward and swiped its claws. The attack was too fast for Melo to completely dodge. The claws gouged into his side, but not deeply enough to be a serious concern at the moment.

Zena and Tria both attacked with their spears while Shae ran behind. Melo tried to assist with a telekinetic dagger strike, but his aim was off due to his injury.

Tria attempted to create an illusion of something moving near it to distract it, but she wasn’t skilled enough with illusions yet to make something decent mid-combat.

Shae’s eyes glowed red as her kick slammed into the joint of its right hind leg. The leg crunched and bent in a way it shouldn’t, and the bear swiped at her with its front paw.

She heard Zena yell, “SHAE, DO-” but didn’t hear anything else as the water from the first attack coalesced and slammed into her side. She hadn’t taken the roar attack head-on like Konial had just a bit ago, but it was still a hard hit.

She rolled across the pen and was abruptly yanked sideways as her leg caught on a strand of webbing.

She was severely disoriented and heavily bruised all over, so she focused her healing magic entirely on her mind and dulled her sense of pain, causing her entire body to glow red and her head to glow green.

The bear charged at Melo, who was still standing there and trying to attack, but because he was weakened, he made for an easy target. The bear had been closer to him than anyone else.

Tria shot a light spell again, successfully hitting its head this time and causing it to stumble. It roared again in her general direction, with more water coming out of its mouth and the water all over the pen flying at her in a torrent. She was able to dodge the worst of it, and Zena stabbed her spear right into its throat at that moment.

It didn’t die immediately, but was now bleeding and choking on its own blood. Shae managed to get herself free of the web, and despite her injuries, she and everyone but Konial kept attacking it until it finally died.

With the fight over, Shae and Zena went to Melo and Konial respectively to heal them. Konial kept pressure on his side as Shae just focused on getting the wound to stop bleeding.

The rest could be healed afterward, but it would take much more time and mana. She had already spent a large amount of it on her three main Active skills.

I really need to get something else fully adapted already. If I had acid magic or something, maybe I could’ve melted it a bit.

She looked at the bear and noticed that its fur had a slick sheen to it.

Ah, so it was oily. Maybe that made it better at swimming or something?

Everyone gathered outside the pen, with Konial having to be helped because of a broken leg.

The farmhands came back, having apparently secured the spider.

One of them asked, “Is it over?” while looking right at the dead bear.

Despite the obvious answer, Zena still told him, “Yeah, it’s over. It’s dead. We’re pretty wrecked, though, so we’re going to rest for a while.”

“Thank you,” he replied with his palm up. “The poor girl was so scared…”

It took Shae a moment to realize he was referring to a spider and not a person.

One of the farmhands left to inform some people, while the other went to check on the poor girl and the other spiders.

Shae and Zena, meanwhile, would heal the men a little bit at a time as their mana recovered slightly and then was spent again.

She wanted to heal them faster, but she just wasn’t capable of that yet. Maybe if she spent all her mana and used her health and stamina for it as well, like what Elna had done, then she might do a bit better, but Shae had no desire to experience that kind of burnout. Elna had looked awful, even after recovering for a week.

Konial complained, “This was not my fight. I couldn’t even use my lightning a second time because there was water everywhere. I don’t think it even did anything to it the one time I did hit it.

Shae said, “Its fur was super oily or something, so maybe that’s why.”

He huffed. “Typical.”

He had the pain resistance skill maxed out, which is how he was able to sit so calmly now, but there was still only so much it could do to help serious injuries. He was still very clearly being careful about his movements and his voice was strained.

Tamyre didn’t have healing potions or anything like that. The closest thing to a healing potion that Shae knew of was a type of specially-made drink that did boost healing speed slightly, but it wasn’t something that would instantly heal a wound over and regenerate lost blood.

But even if someone didn’t have healing magic, the presence of magic within the body was already enough to increase a person’s healing speed, at least to an extent.

The farmhand from earlier came back with more people who helped out with calming and taking care of the spiders, and others began sealing up the tunnel.

The mercenaries were left alone as they gradually recovered, though someone did give them some water to drink.

Shae was leaning on Zena, who was holding her tight.

She apologized, “Sorry for getting caught up in its water attack.”

Zena kissed the top of her girlfriend's head. “It just means we need to improve ourselves.”