Spider's Web

We woke at early dawn. With how careful we were making our way through the forested area, I barely had any hunting done. We settled on a breakfast of some wild berries that were hopefully not poisonous, then set out again.

“Say,” I struck conversation. “Do you happen to know the town of Riche?”

Mana tilted her head. “Doesn’t ring a bell… why?”

That was my immediate goal. I wondered if Mana recovered enough to at least take us there, but if she didn’t even know the place, it was a moot point anyway.

We were probably at least a day away. Possibly more, since I wasn’t familiar with the exact lay of the land.

But I was starting to worry that we weren’t going to make it there at all.

Case in point, after about an hour of walking we suddenly ran into a shape passing between the trees. I was getting ready for a bear or something, but reality was worse.

“Found you!” called the familiar shape of the curly-haired woman dressed in black. “Found you again, haha!”

I hadn’t even heard any jetpacks nearby—meaning that she probably wandered the area by foot, perhaps waiting for this exact encounter.

I clicked my tongue and rushed at her with Tarisha.

Perhaps getting a bit careless due to rushing the fight, I got slashed a few times but ended up making the robot a broken mess in the end like usual.

“Saga! That cut looks really bad… are you alright?” Mana asked, running at me worriedly. “Let me heal you.”

There was a nasty cut on my leg that stained my clothes and dripped down, but I was used to this amount of pain.

“Hah, there’s no need.”

“…Don’t be silly, I bet it hurts a lot. Besides, it might leave a trail behind, right?”

I hadn’t considered that. I let Mana use her magic to close the wounds, then wiped off the blood using cloth torn from the robot.

In fact, it was a source for clothing (bad taste as it was) I hadn’t considered before. For now I just grabbed a few more strips of cloth and we went on our way.

I had a certain fear, however.

Even if we assumed Three sent the various robots to look for us, I doubted it was just plain luck we were found so easily. More likely, once one of them found us and got defeated, it had a way of transmitting its location in some manner—thus allowing Three or whoever was in charge of these dolls to narrow down our whereabouts and start combing the area.

It went without saying that this was very bad for us.

So bad, in fact, that I opted to completely change our trajectory in order to try and lose them.

“H-hold on, Saga! I can’t keep up!” said Mana, rushing after me while panting.

I felt bad for her, but this was no time for holding back. I could see we were slowly getting cornered like flies in a spider’s web. The frequency of robots passing overhead increased as well.

Just as I feared, around midday the worst came to pass.

It started simple enough, with us finding ourselves against yet another robotic Two.

“Haha, you can’t run away forever!”

They really had some NPC-like dialogue, huh?

I started fighting against that one without thinking about it too much, other than the fact it was yet another doll we came across without it flying to scout for us.

Just as I was about to finish her off, however, I heard a shriek coming from behind.

“Look at what we have here!” said another voice. “Caught you at last!”

It was probably only luck that my throat wasn’t cut at that moment as I turned around in horror, eyes widened.

There was yet another Two clone that appeared right behind me. Or rather, behind the other girl.

“S-Saga…!” yelped Mana from her grasp.

The robot held a knife against Mana’s throat. I just barely parried a strike from the other one I was fighting as the other one laughed.

“Now, girlies, do give up and wait for Master Three,” said Two cheerfully. An eerie smile was stuck to her face. For a mechanical doll, it was a scarily realistic rendition of the real woman.

I felt my eyes blaze, but dropped Tarisha to the ground and raised my arms.

“Hah, fine. I give up,” I said. “Three wants us in one piece, right?”

“E-eh?” said the shocked Mana as I approached them.

Seemingly pleased with this, the other one lowered her weapons and came to flank me.

I looked at Mana with cold eyes. She probably couldn’t understand my purpose, but I was obviously not going to give up like that.

I just had to make sure she wasn’t in any danger.

She wasn’t someone born to this life of battle.

She wasn’t me.

“We’ll come with you,” I spat. “Just get your hands off of her.”

Still smiling, Two actually did as I told her. I was probably lucky she was just a robot and likely incapable of any deep thought.

“Saga, I…” she started. I noticed another Two somewhere up ahead. They now seemed relaxed enough. It was probably time.

“Stupid pieces of junk,” I breathed as I took action.

Pulling Mana toward me with one arm, I used the other to summon Tarisha and slash with her concurrently.

A single Two crumpled down as her head was torn off, while the other took action immediately, brandishing her knives.

“Naughty girl! I’ll punish you!”

I parried a blow, dodged another and finally stuck the sword through her face. Sparks ran through her head and she collapsed, too.

“Stay close to me!” I barked. “We’re running off!”

The third one came running from nearby. Just as I accelerated, I felt something grab my leg. Mana and I fell to the ground hard.

Apparently the one I cut off earlier was still alive. Bother.

Rolling and kicking it, I rose to a crouching position, which I then used to jump and spin for a powerful swipe that took care of the new attacker.

“They’re right there!”

“Hurry up!”

Clicking my tongue at these nearby voices, I hurried to grab Mana’s hand, but by the time we rose two other Twos appeared from within the woods.

And it wasn’t just them.

“—I finally found you. Do you girls realize how much time you made me waste on you?”

Turning around, it was just like I feared. Hovering in the air nearby was a familiar boy—C, aka Three.