As much as I want to stay and defeat the hair-weave spider first, I really can't turn my back to Todd, who is quite literally on his back.

Shitshitshithsit-,,

I bolt away from Mal and the hair-weave spider, throwing myself at the white spider, successfully bumping into its side, which in turn leaves us both tumbling away from Todd and into a tree. The tree groans under the pressure of both our weights, but I don't have time to consider that. The spider turns on me, eight solid legs and a bunch of powerful mandibles all working to break me down.

I'm able to keep a few at bay with my hands and feet, but in my misguided focus, I miss how the white spider leans in closer to my human upper half, quickly sinking its fangs into my soft flesh. My side is penetrated, flesh crushed under the pressure, parting to allow a generous spray of blood to splurt out of my side.

I grunt and punch the spider's head, forcing it to release me, but I can feel it injected something into me. Something dull and slippery and cold. The wound left seeps not only my blood, which is cyan for some damn reason, but also some purple-ish liquid, which I can only assume is poison.

The spider hardly relents, instead throwing itself at me once more with a hiss you wouldn't expect to come from a bear-sized spider.

Due to completing conditions, skill (Poison Resistance) has been gained

Skill (Poison Resistance) has gained a Level

I hardly pay the blue screen any mind as I throw myself back, getting some distance between me and the furious arachnid. Both Todd and Mal have tried ganging up on the hair-weave spider, but that won't work, I don't think, at least. Maybe. Either way, I might just have made a miscalculation. Chitin armour is a good skill, but I don't think that's the only part of my defence. I think being in this humanoid form is having an effect on my defence, but only regarding to my upper body.

Working with these assumptions, I shapeshift into my fully insectile form, for the first time in a good while. My perspective shifts and I'm suddenly as low down as the white spider. Good.

...Then again, I don't have to be low down, do I?

No, a simple command changes my perspective yet again, and I soon stand a good bit above the white spider, looking down snugly.

The white spider seems rattled, but doesn't back down. No, she simply throws herself at me once again, mandibles clicking together and legs spread wide to seem scary. With such a large target, I have no problem delivering a harsh kick to her entire body, sending her flying into a tree, which is easily broken. It might have been the same tree we almost felled earlier, but I can't know.

Skill (Poison Resistance) has gained a Level

I sway where I stand. Damn, she's in for the long game.

"Shit!"

Todd and Mal seem to be having troubles. I can't be too long.

Hm. Maybe... I don't need to be big to do this-?

I hate having this be my idea again, but if I'm right, I could easily put a stop to this battle in mere moments.

Right. Let's try.

My first order of business is to get a hit in on her and pry open her carapace. I might not have hands to hold her down with, but a few feigns and near-misses I finally land a solid hit on her back, my sharp claw-like leg causing just the tiniest crack in her defences. Almost good enough.

She just have realized her situation was starting to get compromised, and she turned to run, but I wouldn't let it. No, I simply shrunk down to the size of a dog, about twice my smallest size, and went into pursuit. As quick as she was, especially in these woods where every tree was covered in her webs, she wasn't fast enough to evade me.

The second I catch up with her, I landed another devastating blow to her abdomen, a fair few shards of chitin simply going flying.

Skill (Poison Resistance) has gained a Level

The white spider shrieks and attempts to pick up the pace, but I'm already close enough to finish my plan. A few more hits and I finally open up a big enough of a gash to fulfil my plan. The insides are lime-green as the other ones, stringy internal organs easily visible. I latch myself onto the open wound, shrinking down to my smallest size, which would be two feet long and half a foot tall.

I stare at the insides. My mind is brought back to something I read in passing in that book the old man showed me. Eat alive. Favourite food. Innards. I try swallowing, but I find my mouth not dry as I'd hoped, but filled with saliva. My stomach growls with a hunger I hadn't realized I felt.

I couldn't help myself, really. It wasn't part of my plan, but... I ate. I ate and I fed and I devoured what was inside that creature. Every little piece of her. It was so good, so good that I wanted to cry. But insects don't cry.

Grand Weaver defeated

You have gained EXP

You have gained (22) Levels

Skill (Poison Resistance) has gained several (12) Levels

Skill (Munch) has gained several (59) Levels

Skill (Munch) would like to (EVOLVE), please choose between the options below:

Bite (Poison, if Skill (Poison Resistance) is absorbed, or Bane of Spiders)

(Passive) Bite increases damage dealt by biting attacks as well as jaw strength. Venomous Bite (if Poison Resistance is absorbed) gives the Poison property to any bite attack. Bane of Spiders causes additional damage to Spider-type monsters.

Devour

(Passive) Causes higher damage and more EXP to be given if enemy is eaten alive. Gives a small chance of gaining a skill previously possessed by the enemy.

Consume

(Passive) Allows the user to eat any material or creature without receiving negative buffs such as Poisoned, Drunk etc. Easier to gain resistances.

...I-, I'll save this for later, I have to do something about the hair-weave spider!

I burst out of the empty husk of the white spider and fly back to where we started as fast as I can. I'm there within seconds, but even so, I'm too late.

The scent of blood is adrift in the air, enticing my senses in a way I hate more than anything, and I lay eyes on the carnage. The hair-weave spider stands drenched in red, dull black strands now a slight red colour, that same liquid dripping from its fangs and onto the bloody ground.

There was Todd. His body, although mutilated, was not dead. Otherwise, he would've been in a cloud of black dust, and he isn't. He lacks an arm and a leg, the latter of which is nowhere to be found, but the arm is tied up in the hair on the hair-weave spider's back.

Mal is beside him. Breathing shallowly. Chest going up. And then down. Now, that is. Maybe not in a minute. Maybe not in a second. Maybe not now.

It turns to look at me. Black eyes showing nothing. I don't know what Mal lost. He's bloody. I can't think. A wound somewhere on me pulsates. Blood and poison traversing my body.

I attack, but I don't think.

When everything is over, when I can see again, it's already dead.

It reminds me of my days as a child, when I'd go out into the barn, the barn dad kept locked and told me never to go into since there might be snakes or foxes or bats in there, but I went in there, and inside I would find these little spiders, small and round and big-eyed with these long stringy legs, and I'd hold them and dangle them in those long stringy legs, and I'd pull them, one by one, and the spider wouldn't say anything but those big eyes seemed to only grow bigger, and in the end, it was just a little ball, a ball full of big eyes, and I left it there. There in the barn.

I stared at the big-eyed ball.

Hair-Weave Queen Spider (Venus) defeated

You have gained EXP

You have gained (13) Levels

I'm Proud of You.

Beside me, Todd poofed into a cloud of black dust.