Chapter 4 - Attack, Fight Back
The next day, Kari corralled her fellow Alfheim representatives into an empty classroom.
"Report," the Weasley haired girl commanded.
"Right Asuna, so there are something in the forest called Acromantula. The natives, centaurs, they have torsos of a human, but from the waist down they have the body of a horse, said that they would meet us at noon at the edge of the forest. If not all of us can make it, then we will need to send someone to reschedule a time that is good for us all. They will lead us to a nest of the pests and we can go all out."
"Is that time good for all of us?" The newly named Asuna questioned in her commander voice. She received nods of compliance and eagerly voiced replies.
Later that day, at five till, the group started to gather at the edge of the forest. They were fully equipped in their armor with their weapons. They had to wait a bit for the centaurs who were precisely on time. The centaurs guided them deep into the forest.
After approximately half an hour, the group arrived at a rock formation. It was covered in spider webs.
"Is there any information that you can give us before we go in there?" Asuna asked the centaurs.
"The Acromantula is a highly dangerous, giant spider. I do not suggest that the foals be near hear." Firenze cautioned.
"We thank you for your concern, but we are all highly trained." Asuna replied evenly. "How many of them are there, Aya?"
"20... 30... no, there's 36 of them in there." The albino replied after a few moments of intense concentration.
After that, the group of 10 fanned out to cover the most ground possible. Aya and one of the brunettes quickly scaled a tree to get to two separate vantage points to fire arrows from.
Then, the attack commenced.
Most of the group charged right in with a blade. There's a single mace wielded and a single claws user.
They slashed, hacked, and bashed their way through the giant spiders. The two archers shot down any that dared to try to flee. They made quick work of the spiders. To the centaurs' surprise, after an Acromantula died, it shattered into millions of small blue polygons.
After finishing up with the giant spiders, they grouped up with the centaurs.
"Did we get all of them, Aya?" A few seconds later, the albino girl gave a quick nod in confirmation. Asuna turned her attention to the centaurs, "As you won't be able to access their nest, is there anything that you would like us to collect from it?"
The centaurs conferred a little away from the group.
"Well," began the spokesman of the centaur, after they finished their discussion, "we would appreciate it if you would collect the Acromantula silk so that we may put it to good use, as we cannot get to most of it ourselves."
With a nod all around, the Alfheim members got to work for a long three hours of collecting all of the spider silk that the eye could see.
They turned over the silk to the centaurs and returned to the castle.
The weeks passed seemingly with little else of notice. To ensure that they did not hunt the forest dry in the first few weeks, they arranged with the centaurs to only take out a nest of Acromantula during the first weekend of each month, so there were no more hunting trips that month.
Saturday, October fifth, the Alfheim group set out into the forest again, only this time it was early in the morning, and spent their time there almost exactly the same way as they had the month before.
That afternoon was spent in Hogsmeade. They took turns tailing their main target.
When it was Silica's turn, there was a large gathering at a pub called the Hog's Head.
She discreetly followed, then took up residence in a nearby corner, so she could hear what was going on.
They were starting a club where they would learn defense! That was good because their defense teacher was literally teaching them nothing.
As she observed the pub, she noticed two other people in the pub who weren't in the new club or worked there. One was a woman she didn't recognize and the other was a student.
Silica made sure to try to memorize the two faces that weren't supposed to be at the meeting, just in case.
Soon, the meeting ended and she switched out with Argo. Later that night, while waiting for their meeting to start, Silica realized that she probably had the most to report.
