"Mars... we need... to run away"

hearing Victoria's voice low and shaking Mars looked down at Victoria he saw the panic in her eyes and reached down with his free hand and slowly patted her head to try and calm her down as he asked in a gentle tone

"why do we need to run Victoria?"

"enemies... a lot is coming"

as Mars looked at Victoria he noticed that her fur was standing strait and she was slightly shaking

"but Victoria... why do we need to run from weak enemies?"

after asking Victoria she looked like she calmed down a little and after a few seconds her horns flashed again

"enemies... weak?"

"yeah they are weak, those spider are masters of ambus.h.i.+ng so they never expect to be ambushed themselves"

as Mars answered Victoria he looked straight into her blue cat eyes for a few seconds

"and besides if we ran, we would not be able to eat boar meat tonight"

perhaps remembering the taste of boar meat Victoria stopped shaking and let go of his hand as she looked at Mars for a few seconds before her horns flashed again

"then... what should i do?"

still petting Victoria Mars counted the spiders that was moving ever closer in an almost perfect encirclement

"...well let's do it like this, Victoria can you leave a shadow decoy here and then slip out of the encirclement without the spiders noticing?"

looking at Mars being completely calm Victoria licked his hand where she had bit him as her horns flashed

"yes... spiders dumb"

hearing that the strength had returned to her voice Mars smiled and gave her head one last pat before separating his hand

"then do that and when i spring their ambush early keep your distance and hit them with magic while prioritizing the slightly bigger spitting spiders, they should be the ones in the back of their encirclement"

"okay"

"and a.s.sume all of them have deadly poison all over their bodies, while i can heal it if it get on me i can't heal the poison if it gets on you so avoid as much as possible, if they go after you too much then just run away, then i can hit them from behind if they chase you"

"okay"

"then let's do this, you go ahead i will draw their ambush"

as Mars looked Victoria melted into her shadow and almost instantly a shadow decoy appeared in beside him to replace her

"...now then"

as Victoria had left his side Mars drew his bone sword and held it in his right hand with the tip of the blade hovering right over the ground as he closed his eyes and focused on counting the spiders

"5...12...21...27...34 in total"

as he confirmed the number of invisible spiders that was slowly moving closer to him Mars got a little scared but quickly shook his head as he opened his eyes and prepared while motivating himself

"...if it was just me i would have run away, but with Victoria here i should be a easy, besides i have a good enough grasp on all of my powers to use them all at once now"

as he was listening to the spiders moving in Mars started to circulate his mana and made a shadow orb he grabbed in his left hand and stood still and waited a few seconds for the spiders to get a little closer

"just a little closer..."

listing to the spider legs moving softly all around him Mars focused on the closest spider that was preparing to jump him and sink its fangs into him

"NOW!"

as the spider jumped Mars moved, throwing the dark orb at another spider that was preparing to jump at him while he moved as a ghost under the first spider in the air and slashed his bone sword slicing the spider in half as he started to summon his dragon flame while calmly walking towards to next spider

"what's wrong...? COME AT ME!"

using his dragon flame Mars made a s.h.i.+eld of fire that covered his back like a cloak quickly shooting some fire arrows at another spider he dodged a acid shoots from a spitting spider by tilting his body while he ignored the acid being shoot at him from behind as it hit his fire s.h.i.+eld and evaporated he charged at the next spider on the chopping block as a spitting spider was. .h.i.t by a spear made of darkness and nailed to a tree

"yes, just like that Victoria!"

as Mars yelled out to his companion he moved in on a spider dodging the first leg by tilting his body slightly to the side it hit the fire s.h.i.+eld behind him and was quickly set aflame as the spider let out

a scream that was cut short by Mars stabbing his bone sword though its brain ending its scram as he moved to the next spider gliding over the forest floor like a reaper

"come on COME ON!"

while wearing a ferocious smile Mars looked like he was gliding over the uneven forest floor as he moved with near perfect footwork and shoot out fire arrows only stopping briefly while he was stabbing a spider in the head only to quickly turn into blur again as he became faster and faster while he was killing spiders

"just a little more!"

having stabbed, chopped and sliced more than 20 spiders while moving like a blur Mars was a little out of steam, as he was unfamiliar with live combat with a sword he was making a lot of unnecessary moves but was still unhurt if only because of Victoria covering him when made a otherwise fetal mistake with some well placed sears of darkness and relieving pressure by rapidly killing the spitting spiders

"4 spiders left, lets wipe them out!"

yelling out to motivate Victoria as well as himself Mars shoot some fire arrows at a spider setting it on fire

as it screamed in agony while being burned alive he stabbed another spider in the head piercing his sword though its brain ending its life as it collapsed on the ground

"You got the rest right?"

Mars got no verbal response however 2 darkness spears shoot out and hit the 2 last spiders killing one instantly and nailing the last one to a tree as it quickly bleed out and stopped moving

"phew... good job Victoria"

sitting down on the grund Mars put out his dragon flame while breathing heavily and sweat was pouring down his body

Victoria jumped out from her shadow and ran up to him while purring happily as her horns flashed

"spiders... weak and dumb"

"yeah just like i told you"

while he was catching his breath Mars made another orb of darkness and threw it at the same spider as the last orb of darkness, the spider that was still alive was covered in darkness liquid and still struggled attempting break free from the glue-like darkness liquid, as Victoria noticed a spider was still alive she tilted her head as her horns flashed

"Mars... why mean to spider?"

"...well i am not mean just to be mean i am testing something"

as Victoria heard his explanation she tilted her head to the other side as her horns flashed again

"testing... something?"

looking at the confused Victoria act even more cute then usual Mars petted her head as he explained

"i know my new spell makes a orb of darkness that explodes into a thick glue-like liquid that evaporates if it is exposed to light, but i want to know more about it"

"like... what?"

"well for example if its poisons or if it has other effects like a numbing or calming effect after prolonged exposure"

as Mars was saying some advanced words Victoria took a little time to process what he was saying before her horns flashed again

"but... why need to know?"

"because... sometimes knowledge is power"

as Victoria absorbed his slightly philosophical words she closed her cat eyes for a few seconds, before opening her eyes and giving Mars her blankest look as her horns flashed again

"why?"

looking at the blank look Victoria was giving him Mars let out healthy laughter as he petted her on the head for a few minutes before he gave her a gentle simile

"well if you don't get it it's fine, but think about it sometimes"

standing up Mars stabbed the last spider putting it out of its misery and used his flame to burn the corpses and quickly gathered the 34 magic beast cores from the ashes before he grabbed the leg of the boar and called out to the still slightly confused Victoria

"come on let's go home and eat some roasted boar meat"