The room was filled with countless threads.
Amidst them, the two women lay buried, their eyes closed as if asleep.
However, I could still sense the presence of their magical power, indicating they were alive.
It seemed they were merely unconscious.
That brought some relief, but naturally, I needed to rescue them from this situation.
Still, it wouldn’t be possible to save them unless I dealt with the thing in front of me first…
I fixed my gaze on the spider man.
He shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “What a bother.”
“I have to prepare my meal now. So, it’s a problem if you get in my way,” he said.
“Well then, that’s all the more reason for me to interfere,” I replied.
“If you think you can,” he taunted.
As he spoke, he once again snapped his fangs together, and orange sparks flew from around his mouth.
“!”
Earlier, he had ignited the thread wrapped around his fingers.
That meant those threads were made of a highly flammable material.
The entire room was covered from wall to ceiling with that thread.
Which meant…
“…!”
Realizing the danger, I kicked off the floor.
I leaped forward to stop his movements.
But just at that moment—
The threads he had spewed toward all directions caught fire with the sparks.
In an instant, the flames erupted, sweeping through the room in a fiery explosion.
“Ugh…!”
“Hahahahaha!”
The spider man laughed as he leaped backward, crashing through the window and escaping outside.
Air rushed into the room from the broken window, causing the flames to flare even more intensely.
The scorching wind was already starting to sear my skin.
This is bad… At this rate…
I glanced up at Diana and Iris on the ceiling.
The flames hadn’t reached them yet, but being at such a high position, they would soon succumb to the heat and smoke.
There was no time to waste.
I immediately activated my magic horn, imbuing it with water attributes.
With flames this intense, ordinary fire suppression wouldn’t be enough.
I needed to extinguish it all at once.
A sphere of swirling water began to form over my raised hand, expanding as I continued to pour in water-attribute magic, raising its power to the very limit without turning it lethal.
Will this be enough?
When the water sphere grew to about the size of a large embrace, I focused my intent.
At that moment, the water sphere burst, sending countless water droplets scattering like arrows in all directions.
The water arrows pierced through the flames, swiftly extinguishing them.
At the same time, Diana and Iris, freed from the spider threads, fell from the ceiling.
The water arrows had severed the threads.
I caught their falling bodies with both arms as they dropped right above me.
“Guh…!?”
But no matter how much I had strengthened my body, it was impossible to catch two adults with a child’s frame.
At best, I managed to soften their impact with the floor.
I gently laid them down, letting their weight settle.
They were breathing, with no visible external injuries.
They seemed alright.
After confirming their safety, I stepped over to the shattered window with the gaping hole.
Looking down, I saw the spider man in the center of the garden, looking up at me.
“Oh dear, my grill is ruined. I prefer my food well done, you know.”
Even in this situation, he was still concerned about his meal.
That meant he still had plenty of confidence.
People who heard the commotion peeked out from their homes, but the moment they realized a monster was present, they slammed their doors shut and retreated indoors.
I had no choice but to handle this myself.
I was the only one in this country capable of facing a monster of the sixth-magic-horn class.
I leaped from the hole in the second-floor wall, landing to face the spider man.
“Oh? Are you really planning to take me on seriously, little brother?”
He wiggled the two feelers near his mouth, sneering at me.
“Stop calling me that. It’s creepy.”
“Oh? Then what should I call you?”
“How about… Spider-Man Slayer?”
“…”
The spider man visibly bristled with irritation.
“Do you understand? I’m very displeased right now because you interrupted my meal.”
“I figured as much.”
I deliberately provoked him, pushing his anger to its peak.
“It seems I’ll have to deal with you before I eat. I don’t usually like children since there’s not much to them, but I suppose I can think of you as a little appetizer.”
“Trying to eat even that—how greedy of you.”
“Shut up!”
Right after the spider man’s roar, threads woven into a spear-like shape shot from his mouth.
His target: my chest.
But I already knew how flammable those threads were.
In that case—
I quickly deployed my magic horn and fired a fireball.
I aimed precisely to shoot down the spear of thread flying toward me—or at least, that was what I thought.
For some reason, instead of burning out, the ignited thread spear grew stronger in its flames and came straight at me.
“!?”
I leapt sideways, narrowly dodging it.
The thread spear pierced into the ground without losing momentum, tearing up the earth as it burned.
If I had taken that head-on, it would have killed me instantly.
“Oh? Are you panicking? What happened to all that big talk from earlier?”
“…”
“This is just the beginning, you know?”
Right after saying that, he began rapid-firing thread spears.
And this time, they weren’t just ordinary thread spears.
He lit them directly with those flint-like fangs as he shot them.
The flaming spears flew at me like a machine gun.
“Damn…!”
I desperately dodged them.
Even with my enhanced physical strength, the sheer number of attacks was overwhelming.
In fact, the flames were starting to graze my feet.
“If you don’t move faster, you’ll be roasted!”
The spider man seemed to be enjoying the situation.
At this rate, I would eventually wear out and be caught completely.
I had to change the tide of the battle before that happened…
It’s already proven that his flames can be extinguished with my water magic.
So, it’s likely that my water magic could also counter these attacks.
But the problem was that there were so many attacks, I could barely find time to construct my magic.
There were other concerns as well.
Even if I managed to put out the fire, it was possible that the thread spear would still retain its lethality.
If I only extinguished the flames on the surface, the spear would still remain at its core.
That would render my efforts in constructing magic useless.
They say offense is the best defense, but in a situation where I can’t even launch an attack, all I can do is defend and wait for an opening.
If only I could create a magic barrier like Ayra’s…
A barrier…?
Wait, that’s it!
There’s a barrier that even I, who can’t use standard magic, can create.
I can repurpose an attack spell for defense.
By intentionally not specifying a complex transformation in the magic infused with attributes, I can stabilize it near me.
An offensive spell is inherently strong enough to serve as a powerful defense.
For example, in the case of fire magic, it’s like holding the fire in your hand without releasing it, using it as a shield.
Even if water magic was used against it head-on, holding it up like that should be enough to block some of the attack.
And since I wouldn’t need to actually cast the spell as an attack, I could skip the extra steps in the magic’s construction.
That means I could manifest the magic faster.
With this approach, I could construct the magic during the gaps between his attacks.
With my plan set, I immediately put it into action.
I dodged the incoming flaming spear and deployed my magic horn.
I infused it with magic and added water attributes.
While evading the next flaming spear, I continued to layer more magic power into it.
After a few repetitions, I activated the constructed spell.
With this!
I extended my arm toward the incoming flaming spear.
A solid, stable water shield materialized in front of my hand.
The flames were absorbed into the shield and vanished.
The magic power had been neutralized.
All that remained was the thread spear, which bounced off and fell to the ground.
It was clear that it worked effectively against physical attacks as well.
The effect of layering my magic horns was working well.
Just as I gained confidence from my success, the spider man suddenly vanished from sight.
“Too bad.”
“!?”
Suddenly, I heard his voice near my ear, and a jolt shot through my body.
Before I realized it, the spider man’s face was right next to mine.
When did he—!?
No sooner had I realized it than I felt a shock in my abdomen.
“Guh…!?”
The spider man’s heavy fist dug into my stomach.
My body flew back several meters from the impact.
With a child’s body, I flew even farther.
“Ugh…”
I couldn’t breathe…
The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even cry out, and I collapsed on the spot.
If I hadn’t been using body enhancement magic, my bones and organs would have been destroyed.
He looked at me writhing on the ground with a mocking gaze and muttered:
“You let your guard down too much.”
