Between the arachne's own momentum, Tillius' strength, and the quality of his newfound weapon, the polearm bit deep into the crashing limb before ripping free in a spray of foul-smelling ichor. The short-lived joust left the legionary with shaken arms, throwing his aim off although the sheer bulk of the target made it a difficult proposition to miss at all. It struck somewhere at the abdomen, betraying the expectation when instead of bouncing off the carapace it bit deep with a small explosion of steam. Brittle and fragile from the flame, it seemed, on top of being partially cooked within.

Gray's empowered shot followed neatly after, slicing through like molten knife into a block of butter, the sheer kinetic force the last straw onto the spider's back as the swollen abdomen practically popped in an explosion of gore and half-cooked insect flesh. The spray blanketed the immediate area, though thankfully it didn't seems to be toxic if still horribly unpleasant.

The beast shuddered, having taken a wound that it could not just shrug off. The mad dash petered out, legs the size of tree trunks drawing great furrows onto the loamy ground as it still persisted in dragging itself away. It had slowed just enough that one could feasibly catch up on foot, a feat neatly demonstrated by Rezello's grim approach despite a recent shower of insectile gore.

---

The black fire, Fia’s namesake spell, had done a number on the luring arachnid. It was clearly hurting from not only her magic, but from the assault of those sword masters. Engelbert specifically took the spider head on, literally, ramming his sword deep into the carapace of the spider’s cranium, the lure it had once used broken beyond the strings it had managed to puppet it before. Quickly overwhelmed, the nightmarish monster turned tale and fled, crashing into all manners of timber just to get away. Engelbert was taken along for the ride, and some of the others started to pursue it.

Fia took a few steps towards the direction of the others, but stopped just short of following through completely. She turned to the others who were hunkered inside of Roxas’ barrier. Gray stayed behind to fire his bow, Nanashi remained on guard, and Roxas was still treating the injured Dimitri. Despite the damage the spider managed to do escaping, the ranged follow up from the party was enough to hurt it considerably. Amazingly, despite losing it’s abdomen, it continued on, yet slowed enough for those chasing on foot to easily catch up. Fia felt little need to rush. Content that those three would be fine taking care of themselves as well as watching their rear, Fia continued on towards the others.

Separating the party like this was not the brightest idea, but there were still people who needed to be saved, Engelbert probably not one of them given the circumstances. The arachnid monster made a mess fleeing, but at least it was a straight line. Fia didn’t anticipate needing to first the monster anymore than what those who ran ahead would need to finish it. But perhaps she could ascertain where it was going or if there are others in waiting. For the later, perhaps she could lend a little bit more fire power. But again, they had to find the missing hands.

---

Carnatia leapt backwards as she struck at the creature's lower half, shattering its illusion and revealing the grotesque form hidden beneath its beautiful visage.

For a moment, a passing thought of how apt an analogy the situation was—pretty on the outside by hiding their ugly inner self— to some of the noblewomen she knew in the court of Westernant when she was still part of a ducal family passed through her mind. Amusing thought, but Carnatia decided it was not the time to indulge in it and instead focused back on the battle.

She watched as their group capitalised on the opening she had given them, barraging the creature with various attacks on their own. She then watched as Engelbert hung on to his greatsword lodged in the creature, as the creature fled, carrying Engelbert with it. It was a daring move, one that would be the sort of thing that would be sung in ballads by bards, especially in her fief that romanticised the derring-do tales of knighthood.

Still, in this case, she wondered if that was perhaps the best move, considering it was probably best not to rush into things headlong. The creature was clearly intelligent enough to try using illusion to trick them, what to say it was not leading them to a trap?

As the other in her group gave chase, Carnatia decided the worst-case scenario was if ambushers were at the ready to separate and took out their group who had abandoned their formation to give chase in a rush. It would be especially worse if their healer who had decided to stay behind got ambushed.

And so, rather than giving chase, she walked over to Roxas and Vesemir instead.

"I will keep guard while Lady Roxas takes care of the wounded here. In case anything happens, it wouldn't do for us to have our healer out of commission."

She sighed, "Frankly, it would be more prudent to simply let that creature flee and attempt to find its tracks while proceeding carefully later should we give pursue, but what is done is done."

---

Roxas looked up to everyone huddling around before still applying the pressure to stop the bleeding. "He's still bleeding. I have pretty much no mana, so if we encounter anyone else heavily wounded.. I can only apply medical knowledge. We haven't stopped to recover since the last fight. I wouldn't even be able to produce the basic healing if I wanted."

She looked up to Gray. "I'm open to suggestions, but I cant leave him and that means I can't go with you to look for others. So.." She left the option to the group, looking back to the bleeding.

---

Roxas looked up to everyone huddling around before still applying the pressure to stop the bleeding. "He's still bleeding. I have pretty much no mana, so if we encounter anyone else heavily wounded... I can only apply medical knowledge. We haven't stopped to recover since the last fight. I wouldn't even be able to produce the basic healing if I wanted."

That was quite the predicament. Carnatia was of the opinion as a healer, Roxas would be one of the more, if not the most, integral part of their group to ensure they survived the expedition. In her own case, she wasn't sure what would have happened if Roxas wasn't there to heal her after the golem fight. That was why Carnatia had given her the brooch, after all, but it seemed even that was not enough to meet the continuous demand for healing magic, not to mention those barriers she had erected.

Rummaging through her pockets, Carnatia took out the red gemstones she had brought along from the vaults earlier. She had meant to sell them, but ensuring their group had access to healing magic was more important. After all, she couldn't sell them if she was dead.

"I'm not sure if you could make use of these, but I picked up these mana crystals earlier. Their charges have already been drained, but there should still be some inside. Make sure to ration them," Carnatia said, as she offered the gemstones to Roxas

@Visyn

The shinobi fades his demonic ki as the giant spider fled the battle, the offensive team was enough for them to pursuit the weakened creature. He sheathed his blade and walks nearby with the elven healer woman.

"I'm staying with Lady Roxas." The shinobi to rest of the remaining crew.

Thankfully the conundrum of pursue wasn't one that needed a decision just yet. Through the gaping yawn in the treeline that was the wake of the arachne's passing came two figures, ghastly blue glows from within Engelbert's helmet painting Rezello's mask in an eerie afterglow in their purposeful trudge through toppled trunks and overturned stumps. The former raised a hand as he walked within the sphere of Vesemir's lantern, waving a jagged and twisted object the length of a man's leg that soon enough was revealed to be one of the beast's slavering mandible.

"The beast is slain." He proclaimed with undisguised grim satisfaction, dropping the macabre trophy for everyone to see. It's a shelled segment covered in thick, bristling hair, with a single hook-shaped fang extending from the tip. Perhaps an enterprising sort can finagle a weapon or a decoration out of the whole thing, but for now it's a representation of vengeful justice dealt in the name of the arachne's countless victims over the ages. "No sign of the people nearby though."

Well, no sign save for a single severed leg that was discarded in haste when Carnatia stabbed the beast. As for where the rest of the person was... well, considering the state of the spider's abdomen, it's probably scattered all over the immediate area. And speaking of that-

"...I've got to say, you all could use a shower or three."

The battle had just ended, quicker and easier than a certain someone had expected. The spider's gigantic feature sprawled in a path it had made earlier, roughly 70 meters away from Vesemir and Roxas.

"The beast is slain." Exclaimed Engelbert as he returned to their employer to show off his kill. However if one would look closer, maybe that was not entirely true yet.

The humanoid being, gruesomely attached to the spider's head, twitched and raised its lanky being, a moment later it reached its bony arm out, while the other covered its face, which wailed eerie sobs.

Red blood slowly ran down from her face, onto her arm, and slowly but surely intertwined with the oozing greenish gore that started to puddle below.

_______

While Neglebert and the others celebrated their small victory, Gray picked up his sword again and regrouped with them. He advised them to continue their search.

"I don't think any of us can find a suitable stream to wash it off. Not until the morning anyway. Let's keep moving, every second counts if we want to save those poor bastards."

"What about Dimitri?" Asked Vesemir, ready to move on, but still showing some reservations. Gray's eyes gazed at Roxas, who had voiced her decision to stay.

Vesemir's frown deepened.

"Who can say there will be no other monstrosity waiting for us in that thing's lair? I don't think I can be assured that it is a wise plan to go without our healer."

"I don't think we have time to debate this, if you ask me. And if you value your men's life, you will listen to me and get your legs moving." In audible exasperation, Gray walked and said to them. "Ever read about how spider eat their prey? It doesn't munch them like sausage, it injects poison. Worst kind of poison. You'll see it soon."

"And oh, spider is not really a social creature."

---

The elven healer gave a heavy sigh. "Give me a damn moment then." She clicked her tongue lightly and continued working on Dimitri. Once she felt he was safe enough to move, she picked him up bridal style and moved back to the camp and set him down. She talked to Forbann quickly, giving him some clean cloth.

She moved back to the others and looked up to Gray. "He'll either be dead when we get back, or somehow survive." She looked to Vesemir with a awkward smile. "I tried my best, but without time to help, I did what I could." She looked to Gray and Engelbert. "I'm ready as I can be without mana."

"That one definitely didn't mind munching its prey." Engelbert reminded, not-so-subtly gesturing the severed leg nearby. "Who knows what else is different to regular spiders? If we are moving, we should not accept assumption as facts." The blue glow slowly faded out of the knight's helmet, leaving it as dark as it usually were. He's... withholding his opinion at the moment. Rescue attempt was good and all, but when survival prospect was slim and the party was exhausted they'd go well past valor and into the realm of stupidity. Not to mention that finding the creature's lair wasn't exactly easy in this woods. None of them were expert tracker.

Leaving the decision making to Vesemir, Engelbert turned his attention to something he could more reasonably deal with. Armored gauntlets reached for his belt, pawing the leather slots before taking out a slightly dented silver flask barely larger than a finger.

"You did well, lady Roxas. I have just the thing to tilt the odds in his favor." One could almost imagine the amiable smile from his tone as he strolled back to the camp and administered the potion into Dimitri's wound. There's some slightly disturbing squelching noise as well as the caravan hand's pained grunt as the knight-errant made his way back, carefully storing back the now empty flask in its slot. "He should live, though he'd be famished when he wakes up. Small blessing that he's unconscious, it's not a pleasant experience. Moving on - I have five more of the potions if necessary, but I hope we can reserve it for emergency only."

---

The spider didn’t get terribly far before it succumbed to boiled blood and burst. The glow of Engelbert and the light of the lantern at either side of the gaping trail the beast left behind as it attempted to flee were still bright and visible. As Fia strode forward, towards the remains, she noticed the mangled body part. Evidence of a recent meal, but also evidence of a more than likely gruesome reality.

It didn’t take much time at all for Fia to catch up where the arachnoid beast laid. Rezello and Engelbert were there in some ways admiring their handiwork, and in others, dealing with the putrid mess the busting abdomen had left upon them. Fia wasn’t bothered much by the innards of the spider, stepping confidently through the muck. Fia couldn’t doubt Engelberts words. As he explained to Gray, this beast was unlike your typical house spider. It lured in pray towards its trap using the corpses of past prey. It sang with magical allure. Be it employing the talents of its lure or of its own volition didn’t matter.

“We certainly cannot trust what we know for this creature, darling.” said Fia as she walked near the head of the beast. The broken elven remains still somehow embedded in the spider cranium. Fia rested a hand on what remained. “Still, we are not entirely out of options. If any of them are still alive, we should find them. If not, well, we’ll have our closure.” Engelbert seemed to believe survival was slim. It was in the way he spoke before walking back down the path Fia picked up on. She didn’t blame him. After what they had witnessed and the humanoid remains, it was hard to believe anything else.

Fia looked down towards the camp. Though her third eye, she saw Roxas meeting up with Forbann. Shortly after Engelbert showed up as well. They had said their thoughts and it seemed Dimitri would pull through with something Engelbert pulled from his pack. Fia stood up straight. While the venom of the beast could have some use, Fia resolved to harvest after giving it one more try to rescuing the others. Vesemir appeared conflicted.

Fia stood up, yawned, and closed her eyes. Though it looked like she was sleeping, she was trying to listen. If she could hear even a whisper of an insect, nocturnal birds, anything that lived in the area, she could transform herself into that animal and ask what they knew. Perhaps the spider’s lair was nearby, recent pray, activity, if there were others. Animals were smarter than what humans gave them credit for. Selfish for the right reasons, and far from oblivious. If this proved fruitless, perhaps it was then time to accept the fates of their seduced comrades. Many of the others seemed to have lost hope already.

Gray rubbed the back of his head and said nothing. Though a disagreement with Englbert could reinforce their disguises, he thought it was not worth the trouble and would prefer to keep discord at a minimum.

Walking past the hunk of white monstrosity, blood painted its pale exterior like blood upon the snow. The humanoid attached had stopped moving, petrified in its eternal yet restful weep, at least until time and decay claimed her. If that thing could rot, that was.

One thing for sure though, they didn't need an expert tracker to commence their search. The 'Snow Lady' wasn't such an inconspicuous creature it didn't leave any noticeable trail one can easily see even in the dark. After some turns and retakes, the track brought the team to a path that led them down the hill, which ended in a large but shallow cave. The ground around the site was suspiciously white, and sticky, like covered with white moss or a very thick smoke.

Upon closer inspection, the silkly thing was a spider web, and naturally, their guards were up.

But no more shrieking or singing was heard, and neither was the sound of movement on nearby bushes or branches above.

The air was foul and thick. From the entrance of that cave, they could see some bundles of white in a variety of sizes stuck in the wall, or suspended on the ceiling, or just laid down on the ground. Vesemir was the first to rush into the cave and approached one other bundle that looked like a human in fetal position.

"It's Stepan!" He announced. "I could use some help here!"

There were five other bundles that seemed big enough to be anything resembling wrapped adult humans. Thankfully none of them were high on the ceiling.

---

Roxas moved over quickly to assess Stephan. She helped pull or cut the webbing to get to him easier. She moved him to lay on his back, already looking for serious injuries. If he didn't have any, she would move on to the next cocoon and start getting it open. "Get these cocoons open! If it's still bleeding, it's a serious injury. If not, put some pressure on it to stop the bleeding!"

Roxas

---

Roxas moved over quickly to assess Stephan. She helped pull or cut the webbing to get to him easier. She moved him to lay on his back, already looking for serious injuries. If he didn't have any, she would move on to the next cocoon and start getting it open. "Get these cocoons open! If it's still bleeding, it's a serious injury. If not, put some pressure on it to stop the bleeding!"

The shinobi nods to the shorty elven woman healer. He unsheathes the tanto, a small size katana like that is more of a knife variant. The shinobi carefully open the cocoons in surgical way.

The unwrappings were done swiftly and efficiently, for the silky thread posed no meaningful resistance against the Shinobi's blade, or any blade in particular. In no time He had opened our cocoons from their bindings, in which two of the four were the abducted porters. Safe to say they were lucky-- very lucky compared to the other two bundles containing nothing but a partially rotting carcass, victims of the White Lady's previous hunt.

Thankfully the affair of the unwrapping wet and decomposing package was nothing but an insignificant spook for the shinobi.

Soon Roxas would examine them, but she had to take care of Stepan first.

The muscular Tretagorian man that was Stepan was unconscious, still fully clothed but with skin bluing and colder than bare polished iron. They knew he was alive because he was breathing, and no external injuries could be observed.

The other two seemed to be in a similar condition, but the last guy was missing a leg, with the silk wrappings seemed to be more prominent around the stump. Gray advised Nananshi not to tamper with that part for the time being.

"I think that's what's keeping him from bleeding to death."

Then he turned to Vesemir. at first, no words were coming out, Gray just shook his head, and Vesemir seemed to know what he was implying. It wasn't much of a good news, it seems.

Both men finally nodded in agreement, and Vesemir asked Gray to hold his lantern before speaking softly to Roxas first. "Dear Roxas, could you help me lift up our poor Stepan? I will carry him-- Those who still have strength, please lend me your aid. Let's take back these poor lands back to our camp."

---

Carnatia held back a sigh as the group decided to head into the spiders' lair. Objectively speaking, it was a risk. Gray said that spiders were not social creatures, but given that he, himself admitted earlier that most of the things they knew of this monster were things shrouded in legends, who knew what assumptions would be true or not.

Still, she did already consider that pragmatically speaking, it was also a matter of morale to show the members of the expedition that they would not merely abandon them should they find themselves in dire straits. And also the fact that they do need people to watch over the camp. Which meant that as long as their employer wanted to continue the expedition, attempting to rescue the missing workers was the pragmatic choice here.

Once they reached the creature's lair, Carnatia drew her rapier and stood on guard as she let the rest look around the lair. Eventually, they found the cocoons containing the missing workers.

Both men finally nodded in agreement, and Vesemir asked Gray to hold his lantern before speaking softly to Roxas first. "Dear Roxas, could you help me lift up our poor Stepan? I will carry him-- Those who still have strength, please lend me your aid. Let's take back these poor lands back to our camp."

Carnatia considered helping, before dismissing the idea. Purely strength-based physical work was not really her forte. There was a reason why she had resorted to using magic to augment her swordsmanship, she wasn't born with the physique necessary to employ her family's martial skills, after all.

No, better to leave that to the others.

She sighed, "I would like to help, but unfortunately, I don't think I have the capability to carry them through a trek in the forest. I'll take point and keep guard instead, just in case. It's important to keep some of us free were we to encounter some difficulties along the way, in any case."

"That too... is a sound proposition, miss Carnathia." Said Vesmir flatly. With Stepan on his shoulder, the monocled elf started their arduous walk back to the camp, seemingly uninterested in pleading for aid any longer.

"Master Gray, would you be so kind as to pass the lantern to Miss Carnathia?" He asked, and the masked ranger nodded.

"Well after you, Miss." He added, gesturing to Carnathia to lead the way.

"It's dawning soon," Gray mumbled, looking up to the sky that was no longer pitch black. Finally, it felt like the night had been unnaturally stretched as if every shadow in this region conspired to lead them astray. Regardless, they had no reason to delay the evacuation.

"We need a stretcher then..." He glanced at Engelbert. "I hope you wouldn't mind having more stains in your snazzy-looking coat."

Then to Tillius, he said. "And two of your spears, Friend. Those paralyzed drunkards can take some rough hauling, but that bleeding Dimitri guy over there? Definitely need a proper means of transportation."

Besides, he was too tired to just carry someone in his back.

@Conscripts @A5G

A pair of ghostly glow lit up as they approached the spider's lair, telltale sign of Engelbert's scan on the immediate area. There's nothing with more than two legs in the immediate vicinity, or at least none that's larger than a regular bug. Not even any critter abound, but suppose the owner of the cave had spooked or eaten away all the larger animals... if there's any in the first place.

The coccoons were cut open, and the taken caravan hands rescued. They're afflicted by some sort of poison, the knight vaguely recalled how spiders tend to keep their prey fresh for longer period. The question was, did the poison ended up killing the victims? He couldn't remember that part.

Shrugging, Engelbert unclasped his cloak and took another look at it. It's dirty in the way that getting dragged across untamed woods would do to a fabric, though the make was sturdy enough not to rip at errant branches. The bottom end were singed and burnt at places thanks to the golem from earlier, and though he was spared the worst of the spider-guts spray there's still enough of the sludgy ooze stuck that it'll probably smell horrible in a few hours.

"A bit more stain wouldn't make any difference at this point." He laid the cloak on the ground before carfully lifting and placing the wounded porter in the center, before rummaging to relieve the man's belt and tying it into a tight tourniquet around the limb. Then the man was wrapped like an oversized luggage, the spider silk sticking to the cloak securely enough that there's no chance of slipping off.

"There's no head injury, this should be fine." He tried to reassure the rest of the party as he lifted the latest "baggage" by the cloak, the wounded porter barely swaying in the iron grip. On his other hand he casually grabbed the last porter, carrying him over the shoulder with ease. "Lead the way, sir Vesemir."

---

The healer hoisted the second man over her shoulder, still partially in the cocoon incase he was bleeding. She followed behind Engelbert and Carnatia. "Stop at the spider and get some venom if possible. It will let me analyze is quickly to see if I can do anything for the poison."

She frowned lightly. "I won't be able to do much without proper tools, but I should be able to at least alleviate some of it until their body can process the rest.. if they don't die."

---

The quiet night was just as silent as ever. Fia’s eye’s opened again. Besides the footsteps of the search party, there was not other chatter. The white abomination of a spider really had either scared off any others, or was the apex of this area enough to keep everyone silent. It hardly mattered, but it Fia hoped it meant likelihood of another of its kind to attack, let alone show was low.

It didn’t take long for the others to find the spider’s hovel, built within the confines of a shallow cave. Filled with webbing and the telltale sign of cocoons storing the arachnid’s meals. When it was all finished, it outcome was mixed. They had found the missing travel hands. Yet, two of them were in unstable condition, and even should they recover would require extra consideration going forward. The one with his leg missing especially.

“I don’t suppose Roxas could reattach that…” Fia said softly to herself. She looked up as the others gathered around to figure out transporting the incapacitated men back to camp. Gray went about directing the construction of a stretcher, and Vesemir took it upon himself to carry Dimitri. He was clearly tired and perhaps a little irritable. Fia didn’t mention it. It was now reaching dawn, everyone was tired, some were injured, and more were drained of any energy. With Engelbert and the others carrying the injured, Roxas commented on the venom.

“Actually, darling. I have a traveler’s potion kit. I don’t know if it will have what you need, but it’s something.” said Fia, “I can go about collecting the venom. I’ll catch up with you once I’m done, deary.”