Inside the Tower, Team FRIK was on the fourth floor. Unaware of the warning back at the guild. The atmosphere in the party was growing tenser by the second.
Kael and Irene were locked in a heated exchange, their voices cutting through the otherwise quiet floor of the Tower.
"Quit it! I said what I said, deal with it!" Irene snapped.
Kael did not back down. "This is ridiculous. You can't be a supporter who only supports one person! You need to be useful to the entire party."
"I-I am useful!" Irene retorted, stepping closer to Kael.
"Fugo's actions with my weapons benefit the whole party, don't they? Without him, those spiders would have overrun us an hour ago!"
"Fair point, but what about the day Fugo gets sick or injured? What then? Are you just going to bail on the rest of us because your precious swords aren't
in use?"
"Heck no! I need the money."
For a moment, Irene faltered. Her mouth opened, but no response came. The hesitation was brief but was enough for Kael to seize the opportunity.
"That's what I thought."
"You're unreliable Irene. You can't continue to play favorites in a team that's supposed to trust each other with their lives."
Irene's hand started to shake with restrained anger. "God, I'm beginning to hate you!"
"Hate me all you want. Doesn't change the fact that I've never liked you either."
The weight of his words made the tension in the air even more stifling. Renjiro and Fugo, who had been silently observing stepped in before things spiraled further.
"Enough!" Renjiro's voice was firm but calm, as he placed himself between them.
"Irene, Kael, now's not the time for this. We're in the Tower"
"Don't forget these creatures would love to pick us off while we're distracted."
Irene crossed her arms and looked away, but the redness in her cheeks betrayed her emotions. Kael's jaw tightened as he turned his gaze to the ground, seething.
"Kael" Renjiro continued, "Your eyes are the best in the dark compared to the rest of us. I need you to stay focus on our surroundings, ignore Irene for now."
He then turned to Irene, "Listen Irene, don't take Kael's words to heart. We all understand your position, and that you weren't the one that chose to be this way. From here on, at least be more logical in your decision making."
Fugo, who had been silent till now, finally spoke. "And it's wrong to fight among friends."
"We've all made mistakes, and we've said things we did not mean. Let's stop this now, okay?"
Irene's nodded to Fugo's words, her anger slowly withering away. Kael on the other hand remained quiet, still feeling frustrated.
This mess started an hour ago...
Kael had been walking at the rear of the group, as usual. He was looking at all the angle of their surroundings while they strolled.
When he looked up to check the ceiling for anything closing in, his left foot stumbled over a loose rock.
"Wha?"
In that brief moment, two venomous spiders shot their webs toward him, their ambush perfectly timed.
Turns out those spiders were constantly staying in Kael's blind spot, with every move he moved his head. These spiders were smarter than the average ones, no one accounted for that.
The sticky webs hit its mark wrapping Kael's leg and arm, pinning him in place.
What made the situation worse was that one of the spiders was not the usual black kind. The one on the left, hanging on the ceiling, was red, indicating that one was poisonous to the extreme.
They had encountered that type once before and knew the red spider webs could slowly kill any human with their wet webs, soaking into the skin.
"Shit! I'm stuck!" Kael shouted.
Irene quickly reached into her pouch, pulling out a small vial antidote. The antidote was recently developed after the Spider and Rabit Capturing Event and was rather pricy. Her hands shook as she uncorked the bottle.
"Relax, I'm here." she assured Kael.
She pulled out a knife and began cutting through most of the webs first. She was about to hand over the antidote to Kael right after, but Fugo's voice suddenly echoed from behind her.
Another red spider appeared, and it lunged webs at Fugo.
"Fugo!" Irene gasped, rushing towards him without hesitation. The antidote that was just meant for Kael was pressed to Fugo's lips instead.
Kael managed to break free from the few remaining webs with a dagger hidden in his pants, but the venom from the webs had already seeped into his bloodstream. It was not going to push his body to immediate danger, but the poison was gradual.
Overtime, Kael knew his body would react and move weaker, sluggish even.
He staggered back, watching as Irene sighed in relief while she helped Fugo regain his strength.
Once Renjiro dealt with the spiders, a few minutes had passed. Kael turned to Irene, his face pale but his eyes blazing, "Just curious, why didn't you give me the antidote?"
"You can't use my blades silly, why would I give it to you over Fugo?"
Kael stopped abruptly, wondering to himself, "Did she really just say that?"
This was how the argument escalated....
Back to the present, the group walked in silence with tension between Irene and Kael so thick, it began to stifle the other two.
Kael broke the silence, his voice directed at Fugo but loud enough for Irene and Renjiro to hear.
"Hey Fugo, tell your friend there that she's wrong when she's wrong. If she can't accept it, and stop acting like a spoiled idiot, then she's not a worthy companion at all?"
Irene flinched at the harshness of his words but chose to ignore it.
Kael did not stop there, he went on to say, "A fool who can't even make me a bow, or a proper sword for Renjiro does not deserve to be considered a supporter. Your value this team...what even is it?"
Fugo sighed deeply, the weight of conflict getting to him as well. He exchanged a glance with Renjiro, who shook his head slightly.
Renjiro did not interfere that time, because he too thought it was important for Irene to hear those words.
In fact, he was glad Kael was the one who said it, instead of him.
He wanted Irene to take this as fuel, fuel to improve and get better than her current state.
For now, there was nothing more they could do but keep moving forward and hope the tension would ease with time.
Then, a loud scream echoed ahead. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Renjiro was the first to react, charging towards the sound as full speed. "Who's there!?"
He had no way of knowing what was ahead, but he still imagined a scene of the last time he encountered adventurers being attacked. A swarm of bats, biting and chipping away at human flesh without mercy.
Renjiro did not realize it yet, but that moment ended up leading to his team's unfortunate encounter. Deep down, he was expecting another swarm of bats.
When Renjiro caught sight of a middle-aged man with a white badged pinned to his shirt, his feet froze. The man was forced against the wall, by a creature unlike anything Renjiro had encountered.
"The heck is that!?"
Its body was shrouded in black, with two long legs, a whip like tail, leathery wings with claws.
Its face resembled a spider, with four glowing eyes that burned with malice.
The others caught up to Renjiro, also becoming frozen into place.
"What the hell is that?" Kael muttered, reaching for his bow. But as his fingers brushed the arrows, he felt the venom inside of him, spreading faster. It was starting to slow his movements enough for him to notice a difference.
The man pinned against the wall screamed, "NO! Get away!"
He cared not for his own life, but for the young ones who arrived to help.
"DON'T SAVE ME!"
"RUN!"
The creature's head tilted, curious about what the man was yelling. It pressed harder against the wall, crushing the man's skull with sickening force. Blood splattered across the floor as the man's body went limp.
"Damn it!" Renjiro mourned, drawing his sword.
He charged at the monster ahead, swinging at the creature's neck. But the monster ducked with inhuman speed all while its tail shipped forward to clash with the blade.
"What?" Renjiro was bewildered by the force of the tail. It knocked him back, throwing him off balance. As he stumbled, he looked up shocked to see the creature already above him.
He lunged his tail at Renjiro's chest.
BLOCK!
Renjiro managed to block the strike with his sword but fell hard on his back.
His heart pounded in terror as the monster raised its claw, about to strike at the human's throat.
This monster was unlike any other. It had experience in combat and the intelligence to apply the proper moves. It was only for a moment, but this monster clearly puts thought into its attacks unlike the rest of the encounters
up till now.
SHOOT!
Three arrows whizzed through the air, drawing the monster's attention. Kael's aim was precise, but the creature swatted the arrows aside with a flick of its wings.
It tilted its head toward Kael, its glowing eyes narrowing in a grotesque parody of amusement.
"KKEKEKEKHEHHEKEHE," it chittered, the sound chillingly close to a laugh.
"Me?" Kael whispered. He froze under the monster's gaze, his breath becoming unstable.
His legs refused to move, the venom in his body and the fear in his heart locking him in place.
"Move, Kael!" Irene shouted.
"Is this it?" Kael wondered.
He tried his best to move, but...his will slowly shatter upon falling victim to the monster's terrifying gaze.
"He's...he's going to kill me."
Kael was sure of it.
Kael was on the verge of losing his composure entirely, but Fugo's voice reached out to him before that happened.
"Calm down Kael, he's not going to reach you."
Fugo stepped between the line of vision of Kael and the monster, easing Kael's nerve for a bit.
"Thanks for that. I really...couldn't stand it's glare." Kael said, taking deep breaths.
Fugo nodded at his comrade, then faced the monster.
"Get through me first...whatever you are."
The creature's gaze has shifted to Fugo now.
Like Kael, Fugo succumbed to the monster's intense gaze. "This pressure!"
The man breathed heavily, fighting the urge to close his eyes.
The monster's red glowing pupils, bore deep into the very soul.
Fugo wished to protect.
Never had he felt his arms and legs trembling this badly.
"This must be it..."
A storm of thought plagued his mind, "This is the Tower. What is means to traverse it? Give away our lives, to these creatures...No warnings, no guarantees. Just life and death moments"
He clenched his sword tighter, "I can't hesitate. Not if I still yearned for change. Not if I want to protect Lina, my team..."
"I'm terrified. Absolutely terrified..."
"But fear, will reduce my chances."
Most of all, the memory of Takeshi's words flashed in his head, now of all times.... "Second? Sounds about right! You have always been pretty pathetic. Who in their right mind would recruit you?" Takeshi said.
"Currently, the cavernous floors are nothing but a joke. I imagine these areas are where you'll spend your entire life before death." Takeshi also said.
A roar that came from the depths of his soul, erasing all the doubts in his mind.
Fugo charged.