23- Glint's Power

"We have to contact the others." Corona remembered that they'd promised to do so. She wasn't sure quite what that ominous machine was capable of, but it would probably be wise to have back up.

"Yeah," said Hunter. He put his manacle closer to his mouth. "Lumen, can you read me?"

"Hunter?" he replied. "Did you find her?"

"We did," he said. "She's in Padan. At the house where we first met her."

"I understand," Lumen said, even though he didn't know what house Hunter was referring to. "We'll be on our way."

"How is Richter?" Hunter asked.

"He's resting," Lumen replied. "Lucky him."

The transmission ended.

"Fools!" Glint yelled. "You can call for an army if it suits you, but they won't be able to help you. Thanks to my synthetic spider, this place is surrounded by a powerful web barrier. They can't get in, and you can't get out."

"How is this going to prove your power over us, if you won't take us all at once?" Hunter asked, annoyed.

"You talk too much," replied Glint. "What did I ever see in you? Oh wait, nothing!" Her spider suddenly shot a thread, which wrapped around Hunter's body.

"Hunter!" Corona exclaimed. She looked to Aqune. "We have to do something. We don't have room to call our spiders, but…"

"Right. Oracle's kindness!"

"Oracle's soul!"

Corona shot an arrow at Glint, who narrowly dodged it. Still, Corona only needed to distract her. She ran to Hunter's side, and was attempting to untie him, while Aqune worked from the other side.

"Maybe I should kill you first!" She lunged at Corona with her knife, slashing her arm.

Screaming, Corona reflexively moved back.

"Stop it!" Hunter said, who was finally freed, and transformed himself. He ran in for an attack, only to be pushed back by the large machine spider.

"I'll try!" Aqune declared, rushing at the spider with her sword. Before she could hit it, the spider fired a barrage of bullets, which knocked the handmaiden to the ground.

"I'll get him!" Hunter shouted, much angrier after seeing his comrades hurt. As he was about to fire a blast, though, he was hit by the same attack as Aqune.

"We can't even get close to Glint," Corona commented.

"I have an idea," said Aqune. "You two keep the spider busy, and I'll strike her from a distance away." Though she was uncomfortable with the idea of actually hurting the girl, Aqune knew she could deal a lot of damage with her electric attacks.

"Got it!" replied Hunter. Both he and Corona set their sights on the machine.

"Shockwave!" Aqune threw an attack towards Glint. However, the girl took the blow intentionally with the manacle on her arm. It seemed to absorb much of the blast, but was now dented a bit.

"That's…" Aqune said.

"Exactly," replied Glint. "Your old ally's manacle. And his spider is inside. If it's to be destroyed by accident, I wonder what would happen to the spider?"

"That's cowardly!" Corona shouted.

"Oh, is that how you want to put it? Because I call it practicality." The machine spider launched yet another barrage of bullets at the three.

It was then when Lumen, Magma, Igneous and Sparkle arrived.

"That has to be it," Magma said. "But… something's weird."

The outside of the house was now covered in a thick webbing. It was quite the grotesque scene.

"What is that?" asked Igneous.

Magma reached out his hand and touched it, but was instantly repelled backwards a bit.

"It looks like web, but it's got to be some kind of barrier," he replied.

"Oh no!" Sparkle said. "I hope Hunter and the others are alright."

"Well, I'll blast through it and find out," replied Lumen, hoping to impress Sparkle. "Just watch me!" The boy quickly transformed into Rider armor.

"Are you sure, Prince?" asked Igneous. "If Hunter and the others are inside, you could hurt them."

"Well, what else are we supposed to try?" Magma responded. "Go for it, Prince. Just be careful."

Lumen nodded.

Blessed Darts!" his attack hit the side of the building. For a minute, the web it hit seemed to vanish, but it quickly reformed.

"How?" Lumen said, stunned.

"It looks as if you almost got it," Igneous spoke. "Let me try." He too transformed.

"Flamethrower!" A section of the web was ignited. But then the flame dissolved.

"It looks like attacking doesn't work," Sparkle said, disappointment shown in her voice.

"We can't give up," Magma replied. "Even if we have to keep attacking it again and again until it weakens."

"Good idea," Sparkle replied. "Oracle's Purity!"

"Oracle's Devotion!"

Now, all four were transformed, and ready to attack.

"If only we could use the Oracle Keys," Hunter spoke. The three of them were only getting pounded.

"But even if we did have that power, we would still risk hurting Wave," Aqune replied. She didn't know what would happen if a manacle were destroyed, because she'd never seen it happen. Perhaps the spider would be fine in manacle space. But then, would it be stuck there forever? Regardless, it wasn't a risk she wanted to take.

"I know that," said Hunter in frustration. "But, if we could at least use that power to destroy the spider, we would have the advantage."

"Maybe, I could try to make them work again," Aqune said, as she darted aside to dodge an attack, a difficult feat in such a small room. "Spirit Oracle made them in the first place, so perhaps… I could make them again."

"But how will you get the chance?" asked Corona, also narrowly missing a shot. She didn't know how long it would take, but doubted she and Hunter could hold it off alone for too long. Not when they were already tired anyway.

"Whatever you're planning, you'll never get the chance!" yelled Glint. "Go, my spider!"

Threads shot again from the spider in all directions. There was nowhere to dodge. This time, all three of the Riders were caught in the synthetic spider's grasp.

"Oh man…" Hunter said, trying his best to squirm away. But it was tight.

"Now you're not so mighty, Spider Riders," Glint mocked. "You're like helpless little flies, about to be eaten by the spider. Except, my spider doesn't eat. It uses heavy artillery."

She signaled for the spider to fire bullets again. There was no way to dodge the attack.

Hunter groaned in pain, as the smoke cleared.

"At least… that broke the threads," he said. "Are you guys okay?"

He looked to the two girls on either side of him. Both were at least conscious.

"I guess," Aqune replied.

"But… this is getting bad," said Corona.

"Well you're persistent," Glint muttered, annoyed. "But, I suppose that will make me look all the better when I kill you."

"Still no luck," Igneous sighed. The four had been attacking the barrier constantly, but no matter what, it would reform.

They were surprised when from up above, Buguese's transport arrived. He beamed down before them.

"Spider Riders," Buguese said. "At last, I've found you."

"Hello there," Lumen said. "As you can probably see, we've run into quite a problem."

"Where is Aqune?" asked Buguese, who didn't care about much else at the moment.

"Presumably, she's inside with Hunter and Corona," Igneous spoke. "But we don't know any more than that. There's a strong barrier around the house, and we haven't been able to destroy it."

"I may have a way," Buguese responded.

They looked at him, curiously.

"I didn't know what to expect from Aqune's warning, so I brought along a very powerful weapon. Since we were first attacked by Richter, I had begun development on a new type of Machine-Sector. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready until now."

Buguese then unleashed an enormous mechanical beetle.

"That's… actually pretty impressive when we don't have to fight it," Lumen commented. "But what does it do?"

"For now, self-destruct," Buguese replied.

"Huh? How is that going to help us?" Sparkle asked.

"Because it will release an enormous amount of energy," Buguese replied. "If your attacks are not enough to destroy the barrier, this should be. Now stand back."

The Riders did so, and Buguese hit a switch. There was indeed a large explosion, which reached the walls of the house. The Insector jumped for the opening. It seemed that he made it inside. But then, the Riders could only watch as the web sealed around the hole once more.