Chapter 28. We can kill it.

Grainy, charging towards the spider without even a proper weapon in hand.

“Tch!”

If she could stop the superior individual with that, it might have been meaningful, but just charging in was a pointless death.

She wasn't someone who deserved to die like the cow thief, and it felt wrong to just stand by and watch Grainy die.

But it wasn't realistic for me to throw my body in front of the superior Arachne to block it either.

Therefore, I chose to stop Grainy first.

Recalling American football, I lowered my body to drop my center of gravity.

I spread my legs moderately, and putting my weight forward, I wrapped my arms around Grainy's waist.

Kuuuung!

A shock as if I had been hit by a car was transmitted from my shoulder.

My feet slid back about a meter before I stopped.

“Calm down!”

“Do I look like I can calm down!? That thing, that son of a bitch is now after my cows……!”

“Are you going to just hang on with your body?! Do you think that thing will even bat an eye at that?! You should at least attack with a weapon!!”

“Let me go-!”

But Grainy showed no sign of listening.

The fortunate thing was that the superior Arachne had not yet paid any attention to us.

It seemed to be prioritizing the side with the barn, probably because of the large number of cows inside.

I thought it would ram its body into the barn and eat the cows right away, but the superior individual was surprisingly approaching the barn slowly.

As if it knew the cows couldn't escape.

“Pol! The spear!”

I commanded Pol while holding onto Grainy.

Pol quickly retrieved Grainy's spear from the storage and brought it over.

“Give it to me!”

Grainy snatched the spear from Pol and rushed at the superior individual.

Even in a state where she had half-lost her reason, the skills ingrained in Grainy's body had not disappeared, as she launched a smooth, piercing thrust.

“Die!!”

The spear lodged itself in the superior Arachne's abdomen.

-Kiiiiiiik!

Perhaps it hurt to have its belly pierced, as the superior Arachne swung its legs in all directions.

“Kuh-!”

Grainy tried to pull out the spear but failed, and was sent flying by a kick from the superior individual's leg.

The spear shaft broke easily from the superior individual's violent movements.

Because of its massive size, the broken spear was barely visible.

But if it had drawn its attention, that was enough.

Pol and I immediately ran to the fallen Grainy and helped her up.

From being stabbed by the spear and the vibrations created by our movements, the superior individual's attention turned towards us.

“Over here, over here!”

Grainy shouted at the top of her lungs.

A desperate struggle to lure the creature away from the ranch, even using herself as bait.

……But did she really have to do that while Pol and I were right next to her?

-Kiiiiiiii!!

The superior Arachne came after us.

Just as a little distance was about to form, the creature leaped up.

A massive body flying towards us, having pinpointed our location.

‘Damn it. A jump with that bulk.’

It was a spider with unnecessarily good mobility.

We scattered in different directions.

The creature landed where we had been, and a huge cloud of dust rose.

I tried to cover my nose and mouth, but I was a beat too late and ended up swallowing the dust.

Cough, cough.

Coughs burst out one after another.

Dammit.

If my breathing wasn't smooth, my movements would inevitably be restricted.

And with a dangerous monster nearby, that could be a fatal problem.

It was just like being caught in a spider's web.

In that case, the countermeasure was the same.

If I moved, that thing would detect me.

For now, the best thing to do was to wait quietly for the dust to settle.

The problem was whether the other two besides me had made the same judgment-

Fortunately, no one moved until our vision cleared.

Pol was sprawled out as if he had hit his head while rolling incorrectly, and Grainy was standing awkwardly, panting for breath.

Click-clack-clack.

The superior individual, seeming flustered that it couldn't feel our movements, opened and closed its mandibles, making a sound.

It would be dangerous if it just swung its legs around, but the damn spider bastard didn't seem to have any intention of doing so.

It was as if we had been given a moment to catch our breath.

Just as I was spitting out the dust in my mouth and watching the superior individual's movements, Grainy let out a string of curses.

“Hoo. Hoo. Damn spider bastard.”

‘Oh…… she's thinking the same thing as me.’

It seemed her reason had returned after confirming that the superior individual had moved away from the ranch.

“Ms. Grainy. Don't move. That thing is detecting us by vibration.”

“You think I don't know that?”

I tried to speak to Grainy, but an annoyed reply came back.

Well, since she was a veteran mercenary, it was natural that she would know, but I just said it just in case.

Her displeasure was so obvious that I quickly changed the subject.

“What happened with your trip to the city?”

“I confirmed that the report went up to the mayor. He said he would report it to the lord right away, so I'm sure they'll take some action after some time passes.”

So she came back without getting an answer.

It meant that the outcome would depend on how sane the lord of this place was.

-Kiiik.

The superior individual, which had been waiting for our movements, turned its body.

It seemed to have given up on catching and killing us and was now aiming for the cows in the barn again.

“That thing again?!!”

“Ah, come on-”

Grainy dashed out before I could stop her.

What was it about the ranch that made her lose her mind like that whenever it was involved?

Just as I was wondering what to do.

“Ugh.”

Pol groaned and got up.

“You okay?”

“Yes……. What about the spider?”

I silently pointed towards the ranch.

Grainy, having lost her spear, was throwing rocks at the superior individual.

She should have gone to get a weapon first.

She's lost her reason again. For a person who's old enough, her mental fortitude is so weak.

“What do we do now? The ranch seems hopeless. Maybe we should forcibly take her and run away……”

Pol muttered as he watched Grainy throw pebbles at the superior individual's sturdy body.

“Why is it hopeless? We just have to take care of that thing.”

If we could just take care of that thing, holding our ground here wasn't a very difficult task.

After that, we would just leisurely wait until the lord resolved the situation.

If the ‘Queen’ appeared, there would be no answer, but then we just had to not meet the Queen.

Seeing as it was named the ‘Queen,’ there was probably only one.

The possibility of a monster that originally lived cooped up in a cave actively roaming around just because it came outside was low.

Furthermore, the probability of it heading in this direction of all places was even lower.

“Can we catch it? It was stabbed with a spear and it's fine.”

“Why do you always repeat the obvious.”

Considering its size, which rivaled a blue whale, it was a matter of course.

Hoping it would just keel over and die from one spear stab was being too greedy.

“That thing's shell isn't as hard as I thought.”

Grainy's attack was excellent, but it didn't have the overwhelming feel of the Sword Saint's.

It was an attack I could sufficiently follow.

If Grainy's spear could pierce that thing's body, then I could cut it too.

If it came down to it, I also had swordsmanship.

‘I was scared for no reason.’

I reflected on having thought of fleeing without even fighting.

To make an excuse, it was because it was ridiculously large and an organism with an exoskeleton, so I had just assumed it would be hard.

The attack works.

That alone was enough.

Even though I couldn't cut it down in one blow, even the great blue whale was hunted by human harpoons.

“We can kill that thing.”

If there was a chance of winning, there was no need to run away.

* * *

“Where are you looking?! Look over here!!”

Grainy endlessly picked up and threw stones.

Damn spider.

This damn thing.

My ranch.

What kind of ranch this was.

Even when she jumped up and down around the spider, the huge spider didn't even react anymore.

Even if she ran up and clung to its leg, that spider would just shake its leg to get her off and go for the cows.

Like a person brushing off a bug on their body.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

Regret washed over her.

Was it because she had gotten too excited at the chance to clean up the surrounding monsters?

She had experience cleaning out an Arachne's nest during her mercenary days.

So she had just done as she had experienced.

If you set a fire in an enclosed space, they would either be cooked to death by the heat or suffocate.

However, the Arachnes that had settled in the cave were not ordinary Arachnes, and their numbers were dozens of times what she had expected.

The superior individuals, which she thought would be one or two, numbered in the dozens, and there was even a Queen.

The situation had escalated far beyond what Grainy could handle.

Who could have imagined that a rash judgment would lead to such a horrific result?

“No, it can't be-”

In the end, she had met the conclusion where the ranch, which was everything to Grainy, was in danger.

The spider that had reached the barn lifted a few of its legs.

Since the spider judged its surroundings by vibration, it seemed to be trying to figure out the contents by feeling the barn.

With just a slight application of force from the spider, the barn walls would collapse and the cows would be crushed to death by the debris.

And that spider would chew up and swallow all the cows.

Ah-

It was all over now.

“A weapon……. Any weapon at all……”

Grainy reached out and fumbled around her.

She didn't even wish to kill the spider.

The superior Arachne was a difficult monster even when Grainy was an active mercenary.

Although she hadn't completely neglected her training, Grainy's skills, having distanced herself from a fierce life as a ranch owner, could not be the same as before.

What was the point of living if she lost the ranch?

Even if she died, she had to land one blow on that spider.

“Here you go.”

Thrust before her eyes, a spear?

And it wasn't just one.

Grainy, who was handed four familiar spears, lifted her head.

“It seemed difficult to get close because of that thing's legs, so I only brought regular spears.”

It seemed Ben had scraped together all the spears from the storage.

She didn't need four.

……No.

She caught herself for thinking complacently again.

Hadn't she just been picking up and throwing pebbles because her spear had broken?

The more usable weapons, the better.

“There are only a few left, so be careful not to break-”

Because, a spear could also be thrown like this.

The spear that cut through the wind lodged itself in the spider's belly.

-Kiiiii?!

The spider that was about to unbox the barn turned its body.

“Ah.”

Ben sighed as he watched Grainy, who had just used up one spear by throwing it right after he said to use them sparingly.

‘Well, she quickly got the spider's attention in an urgent situation, so I guess that's fine.’

It was originally Grainy's property, and if he nagged any more and the atmosphere turned strange like before, it would be a disaster.

She was a senior mercenary and the original owner of the spear, so he should respect her decision.

“And, I'll be borrowing a sword as well.”

Ben briefly showed the sword he had brought from the storage.

A precaution against the blade getting damaged or stuck in the spider's body while fighting the superior individual.

It was thanks to Grainy showing what happens when you lose your weapon during a battle.

“You guys, you're going to fight with me……?”

“We can't just leave that thing be, can we?”

Tears welled up in Grainy's eyes at Ben's words.

When she belatedly looked around, the carcasses of Arachnes were rolling around here and there.

They had protected the ranch as promised while Grainy was away in the city.

Furthermore, they were trying to keep their faith until the end, even in front of the mighty superior individual.

To step up like this for the ranch after having met for only a day.

“I've thought of a plan. Will you cooperate?”

Ben's gaze was on the spider, which was fumbling around, unable to find the enemy that had thrown the spear.

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