Erina's blood ran cold. She was too shocked to even speak.

  A blur, and Erina cried out as a leg struck her too. She tumbled roughly across the concrete, a streak of bright green ether in lieu of blood marking the floor where she'd been struck.

  The spider shrieked, a high-pitched grating noise as a steel arc sliced through its leg and severed the tip. Akira leapt up with a powerful side kick, a deep boom resounding on impact as they were both launched away from each other.

  Wait, no. That couldn't be right. Akira wasn't skidding to a halt and straightening up several yards away. Akira was on the floor with the spider's leg still piercing her… except she wasn't.

  Uncurling out of her ball on the floor, Erina shook her head and looked again. The blood was still there. The severed tip of the leg was still there. She unmistakably saw Akira get impaled, but there she was totally untouched—not even a hole or a bloodstain on her shirt.

  The spider crashed loudly to the floor, limbs twisting and flailing every which way as it righted itself. Where its head should've been instead curved up, joining to the hips of an enlarged human woman's torso. It had long, dirty orange hair and far too many insect eyes on its face. The tsuchigumo—

  "Erina!" barked Akira, snapping her to attention. Her sharp gold eyes were locked on her with burning intensity.

  Erina tried to move her legs and stand, but couldn't. Spider silk entangled her foot, rooting her on the spot. When did she get ensnared?

  From behind her came the skittering of thin hard legs on the concrete—

  A flying knife whizzed past Erina's head and sank into the abdomen of the spider sneaking up on her, making it jump back with a screech.

  The tsuchigumo lunged at Akira, forcing her to turn back. "Tch!"

  Erina raised an orb and let it rain down an array of beams behind her back. Glancing over her shoulder to confirm the spider was dead, she created a small cube dotted with equally spaced holes and pushed it down to her feet. The sponge-like construct shrank as it split and multiplied, then erupted in a series of tiny explosions to cut the strands and free her.

  Akira somersaulted to the side, the tsuchigumo's leg smashing the concrete in her place. A booming side kick ripped that leg clean off and sent it flying out of the underpass. Shrieking in pain, the monster backed away, spraying a stream of sticky silk to keep Akira dodging.

  Those golden eyes found a split second to look away and confirm Erina's status in between acrobatic flips and rolls. "You just gonna make me do all the work?!"

  "R-Right!" Erina thrust her hand and twirled it, drawing a spell circle into the air behind the giant spider. The spear of light formed in her grip and flew into that spell circle, breaking back down into a concentrated point of energy in its center.

  Able to move her legs again, Erina entered a stance and slashed her arm. The spell circle fired the spear into the tsuchigumo's back at high speed. She slashed her arm again and the spear vanished so that two more could fire and strike the spider. The next slash, and it was four.

  The tsuchigumo screeched like nails on a chalkboard. The stream of silk stopped, the monster unable to keep its head up and its back straight under the constant barrage. Akira stopped flanking and kicked off straight into the air, aiming for its hanging head.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Erina had no doubts about what happened next.

  The tsuchigumo's jaws snapped forward and cut her in two. Akira's upper half vanished into its maw while her lower half struck the monster's front ineffectually. At the exact same time, Akira rolled, deflecting herself over the top of its head and swinging around with a fistful of its hair.

  There were two of them.

  Akira slammed into the side of its head with a powerful kick, sending the tsuchigumo reeling as she bounced back with the recoil. The giant spider shrieked as its hair pulled taut, yanking it and Akira right back at each other. The second kick sent Akira flying to the ceiling of the underpass, ripping its hair from its scalp in the process. This time, the tsuchigumo buckled, its massive head kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt as it smashed to the ground.

  "Erina!" Akira called out from above.

  The spear returned to Erina's hand one more time. The triple acceleration rings formed before her, and she launched it straight into the skull of the tsuchigumo.

  The underpass flashed, briefly illuminated from within by the hundred branches of lightning. The back half of the tsuchigumo's head ceased to exist, painted all over the inside of the tunnel instead.

  Akira landed in front of the body, dusting off her hands as Erina ran up. "See?" said Akira. "Easy job."

  "Are you okay?" asked Erina. "What happened?" The other Akira was nowhere to be seen.

  "Nothing to fuss over." Akira folded her arms, traces of fading static barely visible at the edges of her figure. "You should take care of yourself first before thinking about anyone else in a fight. You're no help to anyone if you become a liability."

  Erina lowered her gaze and nodded her head.

  "…Well, don't beat yourself up over it." Akira gave the tsuchigumo a bonus kick to the head. Venom dripped from its destroyed skull. "This was the riskiest area. The other two should be a lot safer. We'll split up."

  "Split up?" repeated Erina.

  A pointed look at her. "I'm not your babysitter." Akira held her gaze for several seconds. "Look, you'll be fine. If anything goes wrong, make a run for it and send up one of those lightning trees to signal me. I'll come as fast as I can. Same as if you bring down anything pretty humanoid—they're the ones that grow back. 'Kay?"

  Erina nodded meekly. If this was Akira's idea of an easy job, that didn't give her a lot of confidence.

  A fat little snake sat in the middle of the alley.

  Peeking around the corner with wide sparkling eyes, Erina couldn't believe how cute it was. It had big beady eyes and a plump body with a short, stubby tail. It looked so rotund she couldn't believe it could move at all. It was like a plush toy. She wanted to take it home and cuddle it.

  "Fuck!"

  An angry old geezer's voice just came out of its mouth.

  "It's been days," the tsuchinoko grumbled. "Where the hell's all the booze at, huh?!"

  One well-placed shot between the eyes silenced it. Erina's expression was as if she'd just discovered walking garbage.

  "Never mind," she said. "You're not cute at all."

  After a few minutes of searching, she found a few more huddled around an empty glass bottle. These ones didn't seem to talk, instead making bird-like chirps and chitters as they nudged the bottle back and forth with their heads. Cute! Still, Erina had already committed, so she dispatched them too.

  Whereas the spider infestation was all but throwing themselves at her, Erina could barely find any of the little snakes. The few she found were hiding under cars, inside empty dumpsters, or tucked away in other places that were a pain to get to. Not to mention, they heard her coming; more than a few times, Erina would round a corner to the sight of the fat little things hopping away or squeezing somewhere she couldn't get to them. They were getting less and less cute by the minute.

  Erina lifted her phone to her ear. "Akira?"

  "'Sup?"

  "I'm having difficulties exterminating everything in the area."

  "Hmm. What kind of pest is it?"

  "Tsuchinoko."

  "Oh shit. Round 'em up, will you? Their organs fetch a great price on the black market. Vocal cords especially."

  "But how do I catch them?"

  "Good question! Wish I knew." A grainy monster's howling came through the other end, followed by a dull slam. "Busier than I thought over here, so—!"

  Akira hung up.

  Erina put her phone away and touched her chin in thought. "Hmm."