In just a few short seconds, the spiders seemed to have discovered their first feast after rebirth, crawling toward the group at an unimaginable speed.
The spiders pouring out from the concave mountain wall quickly surrounded the four of them in the center.
...
Kisho and Amos ran at the very front, one on the left and one on the right.
Kisho's aura was more solid; when it swept across the rock walls, countless dead spiders fell like rain.
Amos, meanwhile, used the massive aura formed from "Ren" and "Hatsu" to shield the four of them, pushing away and crushing the stragglers crawling toward them.
Jet-black fluid, yellow-white silk, and bluish-brown spider blood splattered everywhere.
The horrifying scene made Tonpa, whose collar Kisho had grabbed and was holding in his hand, scream wildly.
"Ahhh! Above! Above!!"
"In front—watch the front! They're crawling over, ahhh!"
Kisho: "..."
He really wanted to raise a hand and cover his ears.
But since one hand was busy holding Tonpa, covering only one ear didn't seem like it would help much.
"Sigh."
Kisho let out a breath and looked toward the crevices where countless rock-dwelling spiders were crawling out.
"Still, this really does shred your sanity."
Frowning, he glanced at C·L, who was sprinting half a body-length behind him, and asked:
"Mr. C·L, are these spiders venomous?"
"The venom isn't lethal. It mainly paralyzes the nerves. However, their silk is extremely sticky, and it carries venom as well."
C·L looked at Kisho and spoke calmly as he ran, "Be careful not to get stuck. Otherwise, you won't be able to escape."
Kisho nodded, dodging a strand of silk shot from a bizarre angle, his brows knitting slightly.
On the wall around the corner ahead, spiders covered the surface, along with a massive web formed from countless threads.
Tonpa saw it too. His bean-sized pupils shrank until they were almost invisible.
"Kisho, Kisho!! A spider web, ahhh!!"
Kisho: "—Shut up! Scream again and I'll toss you here to feed the spiders!"
Tonpa: "..."
He instantly fell silent.
Kisho tilted his head slightly to glance at Amos's position and shouted:
"Amos, catch."
Before the words had even finished, he hurled the forcibly silenced Tonpa toward Amos.
Midair, nearly caught by spider silk, Tonpa broke down immediately:
"Ahhhh—!!"
Amos sighed, leaped up, and caught Tonpa in midair, then, thoroughly annoyed, chopped him sharply on the back of the neck.
At once, the world became quiet.
Kisho gave Amos a thumbs-up and smiled faintly.
After the smile faded, his expression turned serious.
While running, he slowly raised both hands. Whirlwind and raging flames churned in his palms before he fused them together in an instant.
"Fire—Whirl—!"
With a shout, he threw the finger-length Fire Whirl forward.
After leaving Kisho's control, within just a few seconds, the Fire Whirl expanded into a blazing tornado over two meters tall.
Countless spiders were swept into it, burned to ashes, and flung outward.
Amos stared at the scene in astonishment, then turned to look at Kisho with the same expression.
This kid—while he himself had been training relentlessly—hadn't slackened for even a moment. In fact, who knew what he had gone through to raise his strength to this level in less than half a year?
Amos pressed his lips together slightly. With a close friend of the same age running ahead like this, he couldn't afford to relax either.
With a booming crash—
The Fire Whirl slammed into the mountain wall ahead, and in an instant, the blazing flames devoured the massive web.
Afterward, huge cracks spread across the black rock face.
The stone shattered, revealing a hollow space behind it—a passage leading somewhere deep within the mountain.
From beyond the hollow came distant voices—
"Did someone come?! … Is anyone there?!"
"Is someone here to save us?!"
...
Kisho's expression stiffened slightly. A complicated emotion flickered in his eyes, only to harden into resolve a moment later.
Amos frowned. "Hey, you're not thinking of going—"
"Mm."
Kisho nodded. "I can't just stand by and watch them die. Besides, I have the ability to save them."
Amos: "...You idiot!"
Kisho grinned and looked at Amos and C·L.
"How about you go ahead? I'll head over alone. I'll be out soon."
As he spoke, he tossed another Fire Whirl toward the endless swarm behind them. The tornado swept through, instantly clearing the field.
"Alright."
C·L nodded slightly, agreeing without hesitation. Turning to the displeased Amos, he said:
"Since he has that kind of ability, it's enough to handle whatever is inside."
Amos fell silent for a moment, then gave a slight nod.
C·L looked back at Kisho and quickened his speech:
"Rock-dwelling spiders are scavengers. They use their webs to control prey, then inject venom and wait for the prey to rot before consuming it."
"If you pry open the carapace, beneath the venom sac is the gall gland. The fluid inside can alleviate the toxin."
Kisho silently memorized C·L's words. He nodded heavily and looked at him.
"Got it, Mr. C·L. Thank you. You're really a good person."
C·L: "..."
After a brief silence, the corner of his lips curved into an ambiguous smile.
Amos: "..."
"Then I'm off."
With those words, his figure flickered and vanished from where he stood.
"You guys get going too! I'll catch up soon!"
...
Fire Whirl consumed a large amount of oxygen, so in the twisting cave, Kisho refrained from using it again.
A simple wind vortex was enough.
The boy ran to the end of the cavern. Above the suddenly widened rock chamber hung three enormous spheres wrapped in spider silk.
To preserve their food longer, the people inside the silk spheres had their heads exposed.
The moment they saw Kisho, the three of them cried out in desperate pleas, as if seeing a savior.
But Kisho's full attention was fixed on the mother spider before him—one as large as a truck.
The giant spider detected its prey, scuttling rapidly toward him on its long legs before raising its abdomen high—
"Whoosh—!"
Dodging a strand of arm-thick silk, Kisho watched as the yellowed, foul-smelling thread splattered onto the ground, turning into a large sticky puddle.
"Ugh."
"Gross."
Complaint aside, Kisho had already moved beneath the giant spider.
From his sleeve, he drew out the long-unused triangular spike and infused it with aura.
An unmistakable pressure condensed—then erupted.
With a "squelch—"
The triangular spike pierced through the spider's body, tearing it cleanly into two halves.
Countless spider eggs spilled from its split abdomen and smashed onto the ground.
Kisho glanced at them in disgust before looking away. He then leapt onto the spider's back and drove the spike down into its head from above, finishing it off completely.
"This should be it."
Holding a fist-sized gall gland that emitted a strange smell between two fingers, Kisho muttered to himself.
A short while later.
The three people who had fallen from the dissolved silk spheres followed behind Kisho as he smashed through another section of rock wall, carving a new passage out of the mountain's interior and leading them out of the cavern.
Behind them, blazing flames left a trail of scorched ruin.
Then the three who had been rescued were astonished to discover that the boy who saved them suddenly vanished before their eyes, as if he had never existed at all.
...One day later...
Kisho appeared at the exit of Blackrock Canyon.
An airship was parked there, and more than a dozen examinees were resting around it—some standing, some squatting.
Sweeping his gaze across the area, Kisho, unsurprisingly, saw Amos painting, C·L reading, and the pitiful Tonpa still lying to one side, fast asleep.
"Used one day and seventeen hours. Slower than expected."
Perched atop the airship, Biscuit looked at Kisho and smiled faintly.
"But congratulations on passing the first stage of the Hunter Exam. Once the time limit ends, you can rest nearby for a bit~"