313 Not Returning

Vy could hear her heart in her ears as sweat trickled down her face. El signalled her to remain as quiet as possible. They both remained hidden behind two large trees, hoping that the spider beast would not hear or see them. 

The rest who came with them also did their best to remain hidden. Some of them covered their mouths to prevent themselves from making any sound. Vy could not resist sneaking a peek of these spider beasts that constantly terrorised them. 

Vy carefully tilted her head and looked out from beyond the safety of the tree. In the distance, she could see a giant spider, about the size of a fully grown lion. It had eight long legs and a large round body. 

It had the upper torso that looked vaguely humanoid before ending with the head of a spider with curved fangs protruding from its mouth. Vy squinted her eyes and realised that the spider beast had six eyes, each of them was like a round red ruby bead. 

Realising that she might be staring at them for too long, she quickly hid back behind the tree. But her secret viewing from the tree had caught the attention of the spider beast. 

Carefully and swiftly, the beast crawled towards their hiding spot. Vy held her breath as she could hear it coming towards them. The closer it got, the louder its steps. She held her dagger close to her heart, taking in deep breaths through her mouth. 

-The element of surprise is the way to win.- she said to herself. 

As the spider beast passed the trees they were hiding behind, Vy quickly looked out into the distance behind the beast. After ensuring that it was the only one, she leapt out of her hiding spot and lunged onto the spider beast from the back. 

"What are you doing?!" El whispered in a state of shock. 

But Vy had no time to explain her actions. Everyone else watched on in awe and shock. Some retreated further away from the spider beast. Others abandoned the rest of them, running for their lives back to safety. 

Vy had climbed up onto the back of the beast. Swiftly, she clung onto the humanoid torso of the spider beast and positioned her dagger. With one clean sweep, she cut through its neck. 

Black blood splattered and gurgled from the wound. It splattered across the nearby trees and poured out of the wound. The spider beast tried desperately to turn around to see who was on its back but it could not. 

The beast continued to spin round in circles as Vy clung onto its body for dear life. She had hoped that by slitting its throat, the beast would become incapacitated. But the spider beast was more resilient than she thought. 

Vy gritted her teeth as the continuous spinning made her dizzy. El wrestled within herself on what to do next. She could not bring herself to leave Vy her. So, she decided to make herself useful. 

El drew her sword and dashed out from her cover. Mara tried to stop her but El charged out quicker than she could hold her back. El swiftly cut through the spider beast's legs with her sword. 

She was able to hack through two of them before her blade got stuck. But El did not give up. She wriggled her sword out of it and began hacking at it. The spider beast attempted to squeal out in agony but Vy impaled her dagger into its skull. 

With that decisive move, the spider beast fell to the ground with a thud. El escaped out of the spider beast's clutches in the nick of time with Mara's help. Vy stood notorious over the fallen carcass of the beast. 

"We killed it!" Vy exclaimed with joy.

El and Mara swiftly shushed her. 

"Are you insane?! Are you trying to get us killed?!" Mara exclaimed in a hushed voice filled with anger. 

"This is amazing, but we gotta get out of here!" El urged them. 

Vy bit her lip, she knew they were right. But the successful kill was an adrenaline rush for her. She felt like she could kill ten more of them with no problem. 

"We should bring this carcass back to camp. To analyse it," Vy suggested. 

Mara looked at Vy as if she had just said something absolutely insane. 

"Are you out of your mind?!"

Mara pushed Vy and pointed her finger at her, "You endangered all of our lives for this… this kill! Do you have any idea of how this could have gone if El did not step in to help you?!" 

Vy gritted her teeth, she did not like to be pushed around. She knew it was a reckless decision but she trusted her gut. She made that move knowing the outcome would mean that they were victorious. 

Despite knowing she was right, Vy held her tongue, she did not want to argue with them. Not over something so trivial. It was simply not worth it. Vy tried to walk past Mara but the woman pushed her back. 

"Where do you think you're going?" Mara asked Vy in a cold tone. 

But it was a rhetorical question. 

"You're not going back with us."

El, seeing the situation unfold before her, quickly inserted herself between the two women. 

"Mara, think about this-"

Mara turned to El, their faces inches apart. "I've already thought this through, El. She's not going back to camp."

Vy remained silent. She watched as El tried to defend her in front of Mara. But the woman was not about to change her mind. The others, who had remained behind fell silent as well. 

From the look on their faces, Vy could tell whose side they were on. It was certainly not hers. 

Vy looked around at the Jungle around her. It looked scary, she was not going to lie about that. But something inside her told her that she could survive it. She had been through much worse. 

Gripping the dagger tightly in her hand, Vy turned her attention back to El who was still fighting to defend her. 

"It's alright, El," Vy said. 

"I respect your decision, Mara." Vy placed her hand over her heart, "I'm sorry for putting all your lives in unnecessary dangers."

In the distance, she could hear the footsteps of multiple spider beasts coming their way. The tapping of their eight legs against the ground sent rhythmic shockwaves in all directions. 

Vy bent down to clean the blood off her dagger before giving a word of caution, "You all better leave. There's a few more coming this way,"

Some looked at her in disbelief while her words struck fear in the heart of others. Mara couldn't care less if it was real or false. All she cared about was the safety of the others. She quickly signalled to everyone else to return back to their camp. 

El was reluctant to leave Vy in the middle of the Jungle like this. With only a dagger as her only weapon. As she looked at Mara who was moving fast back towards their camp, she also turned to look back at Vy. 

There was a certain calmness to Vy she had never seen on anyone else. But even though she was confident that Vy would survive on her own, El could not bring herself to leave her here like this. 

So, she did the only thing she knew she could do. El handed Vy her sword and the small amount of rations she had brought along with her. 

"I can't accept this," Vy was touched by El's kindness, no words could express her gratitude. 

El simply pushed the items back to Vy. 

"Don't worry about me! I'll be alright. You take good care of yourself!" El said before giving Vy a quick hug. 

After that, she waved Vy goodbye and rejoined the rest of her group who headed back to camp. Vy watched them leave as she buckled the sword and its sheath around her waist. She kept the rations together with her own. The spider beasts were getting closer. 

Knowing that the bag of rations would only slow her down, she quickly stashed the bag in the gap of a nearby tree before remaining hidden. She drew her sword and bide her time.