(Time-Stilled World, 49 Kilometers from Forest Entry, Leo's Team, Day 4)
It began a couple hours after Patricia lit the fire.
For a while—two hours, to be exact, it seemed like her little act had gone unnoticed.
Like maybe, just maybe, the warnings had been exaggerated, and the forest didn't care about a flicker of flame that burned for less than fifteen seconds.
However, that illusion shattered when, without warning, a wooden spider dropped from the treetops like a curse.
THUD—
A sharp noise came from above, like the snap of a branch— only heavier, as by instinct, Patricia looked up.
'The hell?' she wondered, as she watched the underbelly of a six tentacled beast drop down on her.
She wanted to evade it, however, it was already too late, as by the time she noticed it's descent, it was already on the ground in front of her.
The creature looked like a spider, if it could even be called that, as it was clearly made from wood and had hollow holes where eyes should have been.
Its legs were long and jointed like spears and its entire body gleamed with the sickly sheen of wet sap.
"The hell is that ugly thing?" Patricia wondered out loud, as the creature did not hesitate and lunged straight for her.
"MOVE!" Leo shouted, reacting in a blur as he yanked Patricia sideways by the wrist, while Bob's knife sliced up from below— cleaving through one of the spider's legs and sending it skittering off to the side, as it hissed like rotting timber rubbed together.
The fight from that point onwards lasted mere seconds.
As Leo took out two more of its legs, completely immobilizing the thing before Bob stuck his knife through its mana core.
"What the fuck… was that?" Patricia gasped, breath uneven as she stared at the lifeless shell.
Leo didn't answer right away.
Neither did Bob.
Because neither of them had sensed it before it landed.
And that terrified them more than the creature itself.
"I didn't hear it," Bob muttered. "Didn't feel it. Didn't see it. Nothing."
"That thing was perched up there the whole time?" Leo asked quietly, his voice hard and even, as he slowly looked up toward the dense canopy above them, where nothing moved, nor did any shapes stir.
"We've been checking the ground this whole time," Patricia whispered.
"What if the threat comes from above?" She asked, as for the next few minutes the three of them took turns to lookout for threats from the treetops, however, nothing followed.
No creaks.
No rustling.
Just that same stretched silence, that they had been experiencing in the forest since the day they entered it.
"I think it's safe…. Might be a one off predator," Patricia suggested as they covered another kilometer, but then—
*CRACK*
.
.
*THUMP*
Another spider fell.
Then another….
Then another….
*CRACK-THUMP*
*CRACK-THUMP*
One.
Two.
Six.
Nine.
Twelve.
From every direction, they rained down on their location like snow under a blizzard, as dozens of those same wooden spiders began twitching and wildly attacking Patricia in sync.
"Brace!" Leo roared, already moving to intercept as one spider lunged for her face.
Bob hurled his dagger into another's thorax and drew a second one from his hip in a single, fluid motion.
The trio moved as one. Or rather—two moved to protect one.
Patricia tried to fight, but her panic ruined her aim. She blasted her offensive spells wildly in arcs that did more to scorch the ground than hit her attackers, as the spiders only grew more coordinated, more aggressive, never once shifting focus.
None of them attacked Leo.
None of them attacked Bob.
It was only her.
One of them even brushed past Leo's shoulder, completely ignoring him, just to try and leap onto Patricia's chest.
And that was when it clicked.
Bob realized first.
"They're not here for us," he grunted, driving his blade down through a spider's back.
Leo followed a heartbeat later, sweeping Patricia behind him.
"They're hunting her."
Still, they fought.
Still, they didn't let her fall.
And after three long minutes of violence, bark, splinters, and heavy breath, the last spider fell, Bob stomping its twisted head into the soil with a sharp crunch that echoed in the sudden silence that followed.
Patricia collapsed to her knees, sweat dripping from her brow, her arms trembling.
She looked up at them, her voice breaking into a raw, panicked rant.
"Why… why only me?" she whispered.
She tried to laugh. Tried to play it off. But her voice was too brittle.
"Why not either of you? Is it a gender thing? Or are these freaks just horny for redheads?"
Leo didn't speak.
He simply stared.
Bob, however, wiped the blood off his blade and looked down at her with a cold expression.
"Maybe," he said, voice flat as stone, "because you're a dumb bitch who lit the fire."
The words landed like a blow.
Patricia froze.
Her lips parted, but no sound came.
The three of them had been travelling together all this time and had never been attacked by spiders before.
The fact that it only started to happen now after Patricia lit the fire and the fact that it only targeted her, made it seem probable that they were only hunting her because of it, as between them three, they had done pretty much everything together, except that one dumb crime.
"Ridiculous! They can't be after me because of that…. Tell him Leo! He's speaking delirious nonsense!
Also, how dare you call me a dumb bitch! Your wife might be used to such insults, mister, but I'll cut your balls off if you show me that attitude!" Patricia retorted, trying to stand her ground and appear strong, however, all it did was make her look even more pathetic in Leo's eyes.
"You? Cut my balls? Bitch, you couldn't graze me if your ancestors spent the next seven generations trying—
Don't test my patience, because if I snap, it won't be the spiders who will have to kill you, it will be me!" Bob countered, as he puffed his chest and took a step closer to Patricia.
"L-L-Leo! Leo, he's intimidating me!" Patricia complained, clearly in panic, as Leo let out a long sigh and raised his hand for peace.
"Bob, excuse the bitch she's clearly in a lot of Duress.
Patricia, stop with the victim act. There are only three of us here, and if you start being a pain in the ass, neither me nor Bob have any qualms about killing you.
So your best choice is to own up to your mistake and start finding solutions to help yourself.
Because, if the next round of spiders being sent to kill you are 144 in number, then even me and Bob won't be able to save you—" Leo said, as his speech left Patricia absolutely speechless.
For a moment she opened her mouth in protest, as if wanting to convey how offended she felt at being called a 'bitch' by Leo.
However, soon she decided against it, as it was really how Leo said.
She only had the two of them to rely on, and antagonizing them wasn't going to help her at all.