Scarlet Asger

Tar doesn’t say anything for several seconds. But then, out of nowhere, he appears in the air in front of me looking rather weary.

I frown.

Are you okay? Seriously. Tell me what happened!

“I said something I shouldn’t have,” Tar says in my mind. “So I was punished.”

Punished how? You look ragged.

“Let’s just say it wasn’t pleasant,” he says with a visible shiver. “And I can’t explain anything about what I said before. If I break the rules again, telling you more than you’re allowed to know right now, then I may very well be locked in the palace for months.”

Oh.

I stare at him for several seconds, just taking in his ragged appearance for a bit before eventually sighing.

Okay.

But you better tell me what you were talking about as soon as you’re allowed to, do you understand?

The tanuki nods his head before vanishing from Earth as he asks, “So what’s your plan for dealing with these variants?”

I focus on the nest again.

This one shouldn’t be as dangerous as dealing with the knights was. Mostly because these spawn are all weaker than me, and I highly doubt they’ll leave their little queen unattended to. Meaning not all of them will be heading towards me at the same time.

Then there’s the fact that the only one I’ve seen spin any thread so far is the queen, with none of the arachnids even seeming to have the ability to.

So my plan is to bring several of them out into the open in the clearing where I’ll fight them, relying on my blood regeneration to keep me afloat. And hopefully getting a level in it in the process.

Then I’ll repeat that until all of the little ones are dead before going after their queen.

Tar stays silent for a few seconds until eventually asking, “And if the spiders have skills you aren’t expecting?”

I’ll deal with them as they come.

It’s what I’ve always done after all.

“True,” Tar mutters, only to sigh a few seconds later and say, “okay, fine. I actually think this plan has a lot of merit to it without too much risk.”

My face lights up into a brilliant smile at that one sentence that I will remember for the rest of my life. And more importantly, whenever Tar is calling me reckless or tries to say that everything I do is risky.

Tar snorts at that in my head.

I narrow my eyes on the nest for a few seconds before trying to use blood boil on one of the spiders in it. But it looks like they’re out of my range, which seems to barely extend just to the edge of the nest, about two dozen or so meters in front of me.

Which is unfortunate.

“You weren’t planning on fighting in the trees anyways,” Tar says, pointing out the obvious.

Yeah, fighting those things in the trees would be a pain. They clearly have a lot more maneuverability than me, even if I should be more physically stronger than them.

Anyways, if I can’t get them to come out here while still in this tree, then I’ll just have to go out and meet them.

I jump down from the tree into the clearing before walking a little bit deeper into it, with the spiders instantly taking note of me the moment I cross the halfway point of the clearing. Then about half of the current 15 – a few more were hatched in the time that I fought the knight apparently – begin to leave the web in my direction.

Seven of them? I think I can handle that.

Back With the Others

Belle constantly paces back and forth out of worry over her idiotic – and quite possibly suicidal – best friend. Meanwhile Michael repeatedly looks between his terminal and the direction that Scarlet and his sister went, worried about Emily.

After several minutes of excruciating silence, they hear sound coming from the East before each of them looks up to find Emily jogging over to them while waving.

Belle notices Michael letting out a pent up breath in relief, but she simply walks over to Emily and asks, “Where’s Scarlet? Is she okay? Did she get hurt?”

Emily quickly grows both surprised and a little flustered at the repeated questions before Michael comes to her rescue, saying, “Calm down, Belle. Let Emily have some time to answer in between the questions.”

She…

Scarlet’s best friend takes in a deep breath before letting it out again.

Then, after being given a few seconds to catch her own breath, Emily finally answers, “Scarlet’s fine. She is planning on dealing with the rest of the demons on her own, but I helped her kill the two knights over there.” A smile blooms on her face. “Even got a couple levels from it too.”

Michael pats her on the head, but Emily just pushes his hand away.

So she’s still there, fighting?! Should I go to help? Would that make things worse?

“Yes, it would,” Artemis answers in her mind before mentally grumbling, “and that stiff wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if you did.”

Belle blinks in surprise.

Why not?

“I don’t know,” he grumbles again. “he was complaining one day to me about reckless girls, so I know I would get an earful for letting you do something reckless like that. Something that will not only get you into unnecessary danger while you’re at such a low level against those much higher leveled enemies, but something that could get his contractor in trouble too.”

Reckless girls… he’s talking about Scar, isn’t he?

“Scar? If you mean his contractor, then it’s very possible,” Artemis says, not sounding as arrogant as he usually does when talking to other people. Something Belle still doesn’t really understand and gave up trying days ago.

Belle looks down with a sad expression on her face before lightly kicking at the ground, only to look up at the green trees – trees that would otherwise be completely bare of leaves if it weren’t for the adjusted temperature caused by the dome making the winter not harsh enough for the leaves to fall.

Eventually she looks down again with a look of determination having replaced the sadness on her face.

If I’m a liability for her right now, then I just need to get stronger till I can help her. And not only just her, but Arthur, mom, and dad too!

“Whatever motivates you to fight more is fine with me,” Artemis says while sending her the feeling of a thumbs up through their bond, which makes Belle’s lips quirk up slightly in amusement.

“We shouldn’t just sit here while she’s dealing with the variant,” Belle says to Michael, briefly surprising him before he eventually nods his head and says, “You’re right. Let’s go deal with the other demons while she handles the variant.”