Okay. So, I need to fight these animals. There are two remaining that aren’t dead or immobilized. Itor is about to be knocked out. There’s a good twenty-five feet between me and the monsters; fifteen of those feet are going to be after I jump from this carriage.

I don’t think there’s any way for me to actually save Itor. There’s only about half a second between now and him being out cold. So instead of trying to save him, I’ll use the impact as a way to mask my charge. For me to have any sort of chance here, I need to get the drop on them.

I grip the nearest object near me. It’s a decent-length wooden pole. Yeah. This could be used as a weapon.

Right when that creature strikes Itor’s head, it’s going to be in a lot of motion, and probably won’t notice my own sudden movements. It’ll also make a loud sound, which should be able to mask the noise of me moving the canvas tarp and at least the beginning of my moving toward them. It’ll also hopefully draw the other monster’s attention away from me. This should let me get one step toward these things for free without them noticing.

For the second step, it’s gonna take some quick calculations, but I think I should be able to get it for free too. If I throw something over to the side of the two spiders as I take my first step, it’ll hopefully draw their attention in that direction as it lands. And if I throw it at the right speed and angle, I think I should get it to land right as I’m taking my second step.

If the first spider sees the thrown object while the object is in the air, it’ll probably snap its head to look at whatever it is. That quick movement of its head should get the attention of the second monster, especially as the sound of the object hitting the ground rings out.

Okay, that’s the plan. Quickly and quietly get out from under this tarp within the next half-second, grabbing something to throw as I stand. During the motion of my getting up, take one step. This action should be covered by the animal hitting Itor.

Then, while I’m stepping, throw whatever I grabbed at the right speed and angle, distracting them during my second step. That much movement should be enough to get me within range to attack them.

I spring my plan into action. The spider slams its metal orb into Itor’s head and I leap from my hiding place, scooping up the nearest small object I can find. It’s small and metallic. I hold that in my right hand and the wooden pole in my left.

I throw it as hard as I can at the ground a few feet away from Itor’s spider. Just as I predicted, the spiders are currently looking at Itor as he falls to the ground.

I lunge forward, taking my first step. If I can just take one more and get out of the carriage, I’ll have a chance. It would be bad to try and fight these things in an enclosed space; the only thing that gives me a chance here is that I know how these things fight in the open air, so to change the environment would be to give up all my knowledge of the scenario.

I look at the small object I just launched into the air. I wanna get a better look at it. It looks like a nail with a piece of string looped through it. The piece of string goes back into the cart and is connected to… oh shit. Fuck. I’m so fucked. The nail has a string that connects it to a tarp that’s lying here in the cart. It isn’t long enough; the string’s gonna interrupt the nail’s path.

I watch helplessly as the nail soars through the air, only to stop suddenly as the string is pulled taut. It then falls straight down toward the wooden floorboards of the cart. Powerlessly to stop it, I simply watch as the nail falls to the floor.

Thunk.

The monsters immediately snap their heads in my direction, their glowing yellow eyes directed straight at me. I can see their needle-like stingers dripping with venom.

Okay. Okay. I need to calm my nerves. Calm down. Look at this from a new perspective. I am now in a situation where these two monsters know of my presence. I am in an unfavorable location. I am aware of their fighting style. I am aware of their intelligence. Goal: Escape my current location and fight them in the open air. Obstacle: The monsters in front of me are likely aware of my goal and will try to stop me.

It seems like the monsters think slowly, though; they took a couple minutes to make a plan beforehand. They are unlikely to immediately spring at me.

I don’t think I should continue my charge forward. These monsters prefer sneak attacks while their opponents are distracted or otherwise not on their toes. If I were flying through the air at them, I think they’d take advantage of that to attack.

While attacking Itor and Magna head-on, they seemed to use one of two methods. Either they jumped at their heads, or feinted and somehow increased their body weight to attack their legs. They seem to rely on getting you on the ground, where they can fully immobilize you by either breaking your legs or knocking you out.

It makes sense that they’re pack animals. They rely on distraction and trickery as a core fighting technique, so more numbers means more opportunities to get the drop on a target. In that sense, I’m at a pretty significant advantage; most of their pack is already out of commission.

I land on the floor from my lunge forward and don’t take another step. I’m standing at the edge of the cart and the monsters are standing there staring at me, unmoving. I can faintly hear them chittering back and forth with one another.

I hate letting them communicate with one another, but since I’m standing up here and it’s a decent drop to get on the ground, I can’t charge forward without basically giving them a free attack on me.

I survey the objects in the cart. I see two more wooden poles, a few crates, some sleeping bags, that tarp… yeah. Not much. At least I have backup weapons if the pole I have now breaks.

The chittering stops. Suddenly, the monster on the left opens its mouth and lets out an ear-piercing screech. I hurriedly raise my pole, prepared for battle. The monster half-lunges forward a few feet, the backs up again. It jumps forward again, then backs up. It keeps doing this all while letting out that painfully loud shriek.

What? I’m confused. Is this some sort of attack? I stare at it for a couple seconds, waiting for it to launch itself at me. It doesn’t. It just keeps jumping forward a bit, then backing up.

Oh, wait. It’s probably a distraction. I look at the other monster. Sure enough, it’s snuck over to one of the impaled spider monsters and is trying to pull the stone spike out of it using it’s small mouth.

The monster that’s been stabbed into the ground is definitely alive, but is this really the best strategy? It has a gaping wound in its abdomen; it definitely isn’t in fighting shape. Whatever. I should probably try to stop their little rescue operation from succeeding.

I throw my wooden pole at the spider, like a spear. Of course, I’ve never thrown a spear before, so it veers wildly off target and lands a couple feet away from the monster, but it’s enough to distract it from its task of freeing its companion.

This is a great opportunity to jump out of this death-trap of a carriage. One of the spiders is nice and far away doing it’s own thing, and I think I can handle this other one on its own. I quickly snatch up the other two poles on the floor and prepare to jump out of the carriage.

The spider that was attempting to distract me stops screeching and jumps back, standing in between me and the spider that’s working on releasing the trapped one.

I leap off the edge of the carriage, throwing one of the two wooden poles at the defending spider as I jump. Hopefully this discourages it from attacking me while I’m in midair - at my weakest.

Surprisingly, this succeeds. The spider monster simply steps back, easily dodging the pole, and stands there, waiting for me to land.

Huh. It seems really protective of the other one. That’s really strange. It couldn’t be that it thinks this is legitimately the best strategic choice here. It just let me freely get into a better position without even trying to stop me.

Honestly, I’m surprised that these two don’t just run and abandon the impaled spiders. For all they know, I’m just as powerful as Magna and Itor - and they saw Magna easily take down two of their kind.

It just doesn’t make sense why they think this single defending spider is enough to hold me off while the other spider frees this spider, who’s largely going to be useless in combat.

Wait. Could they be an empathetic species? Considering their ability to communicate and form strategies with one another, it’s entirely possible that they have the emotional capacity to feel empathy for others of their pack.

Maybe this one in the front is some sort of leader and feels protective over the others, and that’s why it’s helping free the living ones…

I glance around at my surroundings. Only a few feet away, right next to me, is another impaled spider monster. I can see it struggling, so it’s definitely alive. It’s a gambit, for sure, but it’s the best chance I have. I can’t beat these spider-wasp monsters on an even playing field.

Keeping my pole raised in defense and my eyes on the monster standing closest to me - the one protecting the other two - I creep sideways toward the injured creature. The defending monster, which was originally slowly swaying back and forth and generally seemed restless, freezes. Ha, dead giveaway. You should practice more on your poker face, dude.

I look directly into the monster’s yellow eyes as I bring down my weapon and brutally slam it into the trapped creature’s body. I deliberately avoid the head; I need it to survive and express as much pain as possible. The monster’s stomach bursts open and its intestines spill out. Squeals ring out from its mouth.

The defending spider monster begins to lunge forward in apparent rage, but it stops itself and stays back. I can see it’s chest begin to heave sporadically. So that isn’t enough, huh? I bring my pole back up and - yet again - smash it into the dying creature’s already mutilated body.

The defending spider begins shrieking loudly and doing that fake-lunge that it had done before, but I know that this is just a ploy to distract me. I ignore the distraction and smash my weapon into the body of the creature. Again and again, I destroy the body of the creature that, at this point, is long since dead.

The defending creature still sits there. I can clearly tell that it’s incredibly emotionally distressed. Like I said before, it doesn’t have a good poker face. Well, I mean, it doesn’t really have much of a face, but it’s not good at hiding what it’s feeling.

Now that I’ve clearly demonstrated what happens when I reach a trapped monster, I look around for another one. I spot one about ten feet off. This one’s actually already dead, but judging by how these monsters have been acting, I don’t think they like me mutilating corpses either.

This is the most important part of my strategy. As casually as I can, I turn and begin striding toward my new target. My head is held up high, my weapon is lowered and hanging idly by my side, and I even fully turn my body away from the defending monster. I keep it in the corner of my eye, of course, but I look incredibly confident - and defenseless.

I’ve pretty much already won this battle. This defending spider monster is on the brink of attacking me out of pure rage, and it will not win a fight while ruled by emotion. Now, all I have to do is get it to attack me. Confidence, swagger, and nonchalance will get me there.

I reach the body of the dead spider. At this point, I’ve fully turned my back to the defending spider. I stomp down on the spider corpse’s head. A satisfying crunch echoes out as the monster’s exoskeleton collapses easily under my weight. Immediately, I can hear the monster behind me running at full speed in my direction.

Gotcha. There’s no conceivable way this thing is gonna feint and go for my legs when it’s this angry. I wait for a second, and the running sound stops. It’s jumped up. I duck down just in time as the monster soars helplessly over my head. When it lands on the ground, I’ve already begun swinging my pole down at it.

It notices just a bit too late, and, trying to jump out of the way, ends up getting its leg crushed under the force of my weapon. As it makes a sad attempt to escape with its destroyed leg, I simply walk up to it and crush its head under my foot.

I turn around to look at the other monster that was freeing his trapped companion and see the two of them already escaping deep into the forest. Oh well. No reason to provoke them if they’re just gonna run away.

I look around at the empty battlefield. With all the spiders either dead or out of the picture, the fight is over.