The spider yōkai shrieked. It was a terrible sound. Euryale’s ears felt like they were going to burst, but she couldn’t afford to cover them. Her hands were not only coated in burning hot blood, but she was holding her sword, which she needed to face off against this thing.
“Filth! I’m going to devour you!”
Euryale had no time for a comeback. She raised her sword to deflect the next attack. The leg went wide as she redirected it and stabbed into the ground several inches from Menippe’s leg. Standing up from where she’d been forced to crouch, Euryale raised her sword, prepared to hack the creature’s leg clean off—
“Gya!”
—pain struck her in the chest. She could almost hear her ribs snapping as something heavy and powerful slammed into her, slapping her away. Her feet left the ground. Everything whizzed by in a blur before, without warning, her back exploded with agony as her backward momentum was halted.
Her world went black, then white. When she came to, Euryale discovered that she’d been pinned to the wall by numerous spider webs. Her back ached, the dull pain jolting her mind into forced awareness. Dominating her view like an abysmal creature from the Sanzu River was the spider. It glared down at her with unblinking red eyes. Maliciousness permeated its very being, wafting from it like dark miasma. In that moment, Euryale realized that she was going to die.
“You’re mine now!”
“Not if I kill you first!” a voice shouted before a figure leapt onto the spider’s head and slammed a pair of twin batons into its skull.
Shock flashed through Euryale like a bolt of lightning. The spider jerked back, cracks appearing along its head and gushing black liquid. It shrieked, an angry, vengeful sound. Meanwhile, the figure who’d injured it leapt back and stood protectively in front of her.
“Polydora…”
It was Polydora, crouched low and ready to defend her comrade.
As the spider yōkai glared at her with seven multi-faceted eyes, Polydora realized that she didn’t have a plan. She hadn’t been thinking about anything, other than saving her friends, when she leapt in front of the giant yōkai. Although, considering her adversary, she didn’t know if any plan that she conceived would work anyway.
“You morsels have an unusual amount of backbone,” the yōkai said in its grating, rock scraping against rock, voice. “That is most unusual. Even yōkai normally become slobbering idiots when confronted by me.”
“I am not a weak-willed coward.” Polydora twirled her batons around and adopted an unorthodox fighting stance. “I am a yama uba, a proud race of warriors, and I will not cower before the likes of you.”
The giant spider seemed to grin at her, though Polydora couldn’t be sure. That was just the feeling she got as it stared.
“Is that so? How amusing. To think that a little slip of a girl like yourself refuses to cower before me. Very well, then. Listen well, young one, for it’s rare that I give out my name to others. I am Ōtsuchigumo, the oldest and most powerful tsuchigumo in this world. Fear me or fight me, it makes no difference. You will be devoured either way.”
“That arrogance will be your downfall, for I have no intention of losing to the likes of you,” Polydora declared.
“Then let us test that conviction!” Ōtsuchigumo reared up on his hind legs. “Come! Struggle in futility! Come try and defeat me!”
Polydora did just that. She launched herself at the monster. There was no more time to think. Now was the time for action.
Her feet slid on the ground as she ran. She rushed forward, toward the beast that stood nearly ten times taller than her. Ōtsuchigumo crouched low, as if eager to devour her. As she continued running, he lunged at near lightning speeds.
Polydora sunk low to the ground. She ignored the pain in her knees and shins as she slid along the ground, ignored the feeling of her clothes and back being scraped apart, and instead focused all of her attention on Ōtsuchigumo as he flew overhead. He must not have expected this, for he did nothing to respond as he missed her.
Responding quickly, Polydora used the ground as a stabilizer and kicked out with her legs. Her feet cracked against Ōtsuchigumo’s abdomen with a sound akin to gunfire. Her knees jarred painfully, and her hips slammed back against the ground with bone-cracking force. She bit back a yelp. Despite the pain, her attack had been successful. Ōtsuchigumo flew higher into the air, flipping end over end, and landed on his back.
She thought that would have stunned him, but Polydora was unprepared when he spat several webs from his mouth. Scrambling to her feet, she dove to the side, avoiding the webs but landing painfully on her shoulder.
Ōtsuchigumo flipped himself back onto his feet, and the earth seemed to shake as he did. Polydora almost lost her balance, but she quickly righted herself as the giant arachnid charged at her.
Legs like spears tried to pierce her in the chest. She struggled to dodge them, shuffling along the slippery ground. Her movements were awkward, however, and her clothing was torn from multiple near misses. Lines of blood were drawn along her skin, which burned as if acid had been poured into her veins.
The world around her evaporated as her vision narrowed, turning into something of a tunnel that blotted out everything in her peripheral vision. All she saw was Ōtsuchigumo as he tried to skewer her.
She continued to dodge. Constant movement was the key. Even if she should slip and fall, so long as she was moving, the chances of him impaling her lessened. She slipped past his left leg, which became embedded into the ground, then leapt over the leg that attempted to sweep her feet out from under her.
There was a brief moment of weightlessness as she hung in the air. Ōtsuchigumo spat several more webs from his spinneret, but she met them head-on with youki-infused strength. Even so, her bones rattled each time she struck a web, which were fired at her at the speed of human bullets.
He’s hardened them with his youki!
It was obvious. Even silk from a tsuchigumo should not have been this hard unless they were infused with concentrated amounts of youki. How she had not realized this until now was beyond her.
Web balls whizzed by her on all sides, ranging from the size of a pebble to a basketball. She did her best to guard against them, but a number of them struck her body, eliciting a yelp. She was spun around, her body rotating as a web impacting her side affected her centrifugal force. Unable to reorient herself in time, she slammed into the ground hard.
Gasping for breath, she tried to ignore the coppery taste of blood in her mouth and the pain in her chest. She struggled to stand, but soon realized that she couldn’t get up. Her body could still move, but it felt like she was stuck to the ground, which she soon realized was because she was stuck to the ground.
A web. She grimaced. Her entire front, from her chest to her feet, was appended to the floor by a spider web. He must have done this when I was too busy dodging his shots to notice.
Loud hissing took her attention away from her predicament. She looked up to see Ōtsuchigumo lording over her. His fangs dripped with acid, which splattered against the floor, eating right through it.
“And thus, the victory goes to me. You were interesting prey, but in the end, prey will always be nothing but prey.”
Polydora gritted her teeth as she struggled to rise. She didn’t intend to die here. Yet no matter how hard she struggled, no matter how her muscles strained, she remained inert. Her body wouldn’t budge from where it was stuck. She was trapped, a fly caught within the web of a spider.
Ōtsuchigumo leered down at her. Although his mouth did not allow him to grin, she could almost sense the smug satisfaction coming from him.
“Now… time to eat—graa!”
Ōtsuchigumo stumbled backwards on his remaining seven legs. He bucked and jerked, shaking his frame as if he was trying to throw something off. Polydora looked up to see that, indeed, he was trying to throw something off—or rather, someone.
It was Aspidocharme. She stood on top of Ōtsuchigumo, her massive halberd
buried deep within his abdomen. Cnemis and Thorece rushed around his legs. Every time Ōtsuchigumo tried to run into a wall, undoubtedly to dislodge his hangers-on, one of them would attack his legs, striking at the joints and making him rear back. Meanwhile, Oïstrophe and Androdaïxa rushed to her side.
“What are you all still doing here?” Polydora asked as they gripped her arms like a pair of iron vices. “I thought I told you to run.”
“Yeah,” Androdaïxa grunted, “you did.”
“We just decided not to listen,” Oïstrophe added. “Now, then, let’s get you out of here.”
Polydora braced herself as Oïstrophe and Androdaïxa heaved. The ground underneath their feet cracked as they yanked, and she could feel the intense jolt of pain as her arms were ripped out of their sockets. She yelped, loudly, and struggled not to let either of them see how much their actions hurt. At the same time, the webs that kept her pinned were torn free. She was hauled to her feet and her bones popped back into place.
“Where is Thoe?” she asked, remembering their comrade who was injured.
“With Ioxeia,” Androdaïxa told her. “They have gone on ahead, though I doubt Ioxeia will go far. We do not know what lies in wait, after all.”
Polydora nodded noncommittally. Most of her attention was taken by the battle. Aspidocharme had leapt off Ōtsuchigumo’s back and was now attacking one of his legs. Cnemis and Thorece were keeping him corralled between them, and every time he turned to attack one of them, the others would attack his flank.
“Let us join them,” Polydora declared. Oïstrophe and Androdaïxa readied their weapons, a large mace and a massive chain-link sword respectively, and charged in with her at the front.
Polydora came in fast and hard. As Ōtsuchigumo turned around to attack Cnemis, who backed away, her twin scimitars weaving intricate patterns in front of her, Polydora darted forward and slammed her two batons into their foe’s leg. Ōtsuchigumo shrieked and spun to attack her, but Thorece and Aspidocharme rushed forward and combined their attacks to take out one of his legs.
Oïstrophe and Androdaïxa went in together. As Ōtsuchigumo attacked Aspidocharme with his spinneret, they went underneath his massive body and attacked the soft under abdomen. Oïstrophe’s mace slammed into his body, cracking the thin armor like it was paper. Then Androdaïxa came in with her chain-link sword, which split into multiple segments and raked across the area that had been devastated by Oïstrophe.
Blood spilled from the open wound, splattering against the ground and covering Oïstrophe and Androdaïxa, who shrieked in pain as it burnt their skin. The two yama uba fell to the ground and writhed in pain as blisters appeared all over them. The putrid scent hit Polydora as she and Aspidocharme ducked underneath Ōtsuchigumo, grabbed the two, and, ignoring the feeling of their skin being seared, dragged them out from underneath the gigantic arachnid.
“Help get the blood off them!” Polydora shouted to Aspidocharme, who nodded and pulled off her shirt. Together, they did what they could to wipe away the worst of the blood. Luckily, it didn’t look like the blood was fatal, as it didn’t eat through their skin, but Oïstrophe and Androdaïxa would need to wash off if they didn’t want to have massive scarring.
A quick glance at the battle showed that things were turning south. With only two people fighting, Cnemis and Thorece were having a hard time of it. Forced on the defensive, they could do little more than retreat.
We need more warriors.
She glanced at Menippe, who remained stuck to the ground, trying to pry her foot off the web. Leaping into the air, Polydora shouted as she thrust both batons into the web. Hardened by the cool air, the web shattered as she struck it. Menippe offered her a nod of thanks before hefting her spear and rushing to join the battle. Polydora then did the same thing with Euryale, cracking the webs that kept her pinned to the wall.
“Thanks, Poly,” Euryale said as she picked up her sword where it lay. “You know something? You’re not half bad.”
Polydora frowned as Euryale raced toward the battle. “What is that supposed to mean?” she asked no one in particular before she, too, leapt back into the fray.
The battle became a blur to Polydora. Lunges and thrusts came and went. Attack and counterattack. Concepts like time became meaningless as blood and sweat intermingled in her vision.
Euryale slashed through Ōtsuchigumo’s rearmost right leg. Blood spurted from the wound as the spider yōkai released an agonized shriek.
With two legs now gone, the arachnid became unable to maintain his balance and fell onto the ground. She was surprised he had been able to remain standing for so long, considering most arachnids needed all eight legs to remain standing. In either event, Polydora, and the others, descended upon their enemy like a horde of ravenous hyenas. Cnemis hacked at Ōtsuchigumo’s other legs, taking two more off and leaving a third hanging by thin muscle fibers.
The spider yōkai struggled to stand on his feet, but Menippe leapt onto his back and, with a ferocious shout, stabbed her spear into the same spot that Aspidocharme had. His piercing wails, which sounded like the last cries of a dying banshee, rocked the walls.
While he writhed and shrieked, Polydora launched herself into an all-out sprint and thrust her batons into Ōtsuchigumo’s head.
“Pinpoint Strike! ”
She and the others leapt away just as the arachnid’s head exploded, spraying blood, bones, and brain matter across the floor. Ōtsuchigumo’s body continued to squirm. His body became more spastic and jerky before, after several seconds, it twitched several times and went still.
Polydora stared at the corpse. It took her several seconds to understand that he was dead. Heavy and poignant, the sharp, putrescent scent of blood hung thick in the air. Her nose wrinkled as she wiped the sweat from her forehead.
With the battle over, her adrenaline high came down, and exhaustion set in. Yet she knew that there would be no rest for them yet. They still had to leave this place, and they needed to find Kotohime to help Thoe, Oïstrophe, and Androdaïxa.
“Let us gather the injured and catch up with Ioxeia and Thoe,” Polydora said. The others didn’t argue with her and helped her gather up Oïstrophe, and Androdaïxa. When the two were secured, being carried by Polydora and Aspidocharme, the group set off.
“Oh, man, that was tiring,” Euryale said, fanning herself with her free hand. “I never want to fight a giant spider again, for as long as I live.”
No one said anything to dispute her. They all agreed.
Lilian understood how precarious her and Iris’s predicament was. They were caught within a jorogumo web, which sapped their youki, meaning they were unable to use any techniques—even enhancement. Not only that, but they were faced with two yōkai, both jorogumo, which meant, provided they could escape from their entrapment, it would be a two-on-two battle against a superior force.
Jorogumo were dangerous to younger, less powerful yōkai like herself and Iris. Not only were their webs stronger than steel, but its ability to drain youki meant they couldn’t afford to cast any techniques carelessly.
The two before her were younger than she first expected them to be. If she had to guess, Lilian would have said they were only 416 years old at the most. While that seemed really old to humans and even some yōkai, jorogumo didn’t become supernal beings until they’d lived for 400 years. After turning into supernatural creatures, they aged faster than most other yōkai, growing at the same general rate as a human. The pair before her were perfect examples of this, as they looked like sixteen-year-old girls—if one didn’t look at their spider half.
“I wonder what we should do with you two,” the one on the right, Hilda, said, tapping her left index finger against her cheek. “When we heard that there were intruders, we were originally hoping to capture a man in our web. A nice, young man would have been a delicious treat. However… now we’ve got a pair of vixens, and I’m not really into female flesh.”
The other jorogumo, Katrina, sighed and pressed her palm
to her forehead. “Could you please focus on the task at hand? And stop making it sound like we eat people! I’m a vegan, remember?”
“Oh, relax,” Hilda said, waving her hand in the air. “I’m just having some fun.”
“I do not appreciate your definition of fun. Let’s just kill these two and toss their bodies into the lake.”
Lilian felt her heart constrict. She’d been in many dangerous situations, but rarely did she feel this helpless.
There must be something we can do to get out of this.
She tested the webs binding her. They were weaker than the ones that Jiāoào had used on her so long ago, perhaps because these two were young. Did that mean she could break out of them?
Maybe if I used a quick burst of enhancement, I could tear free…
It was a gamble, but with the situation being so dire, gambles were all she had.
“Ha!” Iris suddenly barked with laughter. “Do you really think a pair of pathetic yōkai like yourselves can kill us? What sort of delusions are you dreaming up?”
“Ho? What is this? Has the little vixen gained a backbone after remaining silent for so long?” Hilda cupped a hand to her left cheek and smiled. “Or could it be that your fear is causing you to bluster?”
“Think whatever you want, Spider Bitch.” Iris smirked. “But you should know that there’s no way some two-bit, secondary villain can defeat me and Lily-pad. A couple of old hags who aren’t even worthy of being considered the main boss battle could never defeat main characters like us.”
“I have no clue what you just said, but I understand that you insulted us,” Katrina stated flatly. Unlike her sister, who appeared amused, she looked angry. Her face was set in a scowl that made wrinkles appear on her forehead.
“Well, at least you understand that much.” Iris rolled her eyes. “I was worried your low level of intelligence meant I would have to spell it out for you.”
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