I was wakened up by Leon, he said it was time to go. We gathered our things and exited the small cave. Once out we checked our surroundings carefully. We went to the river to refill our canteens and wash our faces. Then continued alongside the river to the north.

After a few hours, we encountered a pack of wolves. They noticed us first. With a loud howl, they charged at us.

"Everyone get ready." Diana said.

When the wolves were closer I got a better look at them they were bigger than normal and the pack leader was way larger.

One of them jumped on me, it had enough strength to push me to the ground. It opened its mouth, full of sharp teeth, and was about to chomp on my head.

But I held its jaw back with my sword, and with gravity magic, I Lift it in the air and was about to crush it.

"Arata watch your right." Leon called out to me.

I turned to my side and barely dodged a sharp jaw from another wolf. It threw me off and I let the wolf I had up in the air, drop to the ground.

Now I'm facing two wolves.

One came at me. I swung down but it moved to the side. Once it moved the other wolf was right behind him and jumped at me. It was too late to dodge so I put my arm up to defend my face.

I let out a low groan trying to ignore the pain as the wolf bit down on my arm. I let out a current of dark blue lightning that paralyzed it. I was about to finish it off but the other wolf was on me. So I fell back.

Every time I'm about to cause a fatal blow to one of them, another one comes and prevents it.

"Everyone regroup." Diana yelled out.

Everyone obeyed and got into a circle with our backs to each other. Once there, I healed my arm. The wolves surrounded us and charged.

"Monty, Felix, Arata. break their formation." Diana ordered.

We followed her instructions. Right before they were on us. Felix and I used gravity to push them back, while Monty used strong winds to do the same.

This gave us a chance to cause some damage. The ones that were on us had no partner and were killed by the rest of the party. We did the same thing two more times before the wolves stopped coming at us.

There are fewer of them now, but it's still too many.

"Well, we might have to overexert ourselves here, but we can handle it. Right?" Diana said.

"We've done it before. So we can do it again." luna said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"So, before we do anything reckless. Does anyone have any ideas?" Diana asked, but no one spoke up. "Anyone."

"I might have something." I said after a moment of hesitation.

"Arata?" Leon said.

"Well, what is it, kid?" Diana asked.

"I need Felix to act as bait."

"Huh?" Felix said.

"what are you planning?" Julian asked.

"If Felix increases the strength of his stone body to its maximum. The wolves won't be able to harm him." I said.

"well yeah but that takes a lot of mana to use, and I can't afford to waste any right now." Felix said.

"It'll be for just a few seconds. when you feel like you got enough. Make your gravitational pull stronger."

After I said that he made a puzzled expression.

"Make your pushy thingy stronger. After that, leave the rest to me." I told him.

"Why did you say it like that, I understood the first time." He yelled out.

"So, you on board with this?" I asked

"Screw it, why not." he said.

I smiled "well whenever you're ready."

"Whatever it is you're planning. It better work." Julian said.

"Trust me. I'm putting myself in more danger doing this." I said seriously.

"Hey wai-" Leon got cut off by Felix.

"I'm ready." He took off. As soon as he did I levitated in the air as high as I could.

I need to be high or else the wolves will see me. I've always dreamed of flying but this doesn't feel good. If I lose concentration I can fall to my death. Okay, I'm high enough, now I have to wait for the signal.

Down below I could see Felix running around gathering wolves. A lot of them followed him, but the ones that didn't, stayed surrounding Leon's party.

After about a minute the wolves caught up to Felix and he fell over, and all the wolves jumped on him. He then increased his gravity.

He couldn't make it strong enough to crush the wolves because he's concentrated on keeping up his reinforced stone body.

Once he did I charged up dark blue lightning and dropped. I felt the pressure that Felix was emitting and pulled myself towards him. I used gravity to fall faster.

Before slamming to the ground I concentrated on a mana shield along with a small layer of gravity pushing outward from my body. To reduce the damage that will be caused by the impact. I made a sphere of lightning around myself that would scatter in all directions once I crashed.

The wolves noticed me and tried running away but it was too late. As I crashed to the ground lightning exploded everywhere. The wolves closer to me died on impact and the surrounding ones were paralyzed.

I knew that lightning to this extent of power couldn't harm Felix with his stone body to its strongest level.

We both got up from the ground.

"Well, this will feel satisfying." Felix said as he looked at the remaining wolves who were on the ground twitching and unable to move.

I smiled. We both increased the gravity around us crushing all the wolves to death.

Six wolves were surrounding the rest of the party, and the pack leader was some distance away. This means that we are now equal in numbers.

"Now, charge." I heard Diana say.

I tapped Felix on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go."

"Yeah, you don't have to tell me." Felix responded.

Each of the party members focused on one wolf while Felix and I got the attention of the other one. Once all the wolves were dead we regrouped. It was time to face the alpha.

"Wow, that was some plan kid," Luna said

"Seriously, who would even think of doing something like that." Monty said.

"Hah hah. That's my son." Leon said.

"Hey, Felix played the most important part. Let's not forget." Julian said.

"Save the talking for later. We're not done here." Diana said. "But honestly, that was impressive."

"Leon, Arata you go left. Julian, Felix Right. Luna at the back. Monty support from here." Diana ordered. "Now, let's go."

We quickly surrounded the wolf. It didn't stand a chance to our combined attacks, and we killed it quickly.

"Good job you two. Honestly, I thought that bringing kids with us would slow us down, but you guys have been a great help. We might be able to go into more dangerous territory with what you two are capable of." Diana said to me and Felix.

"Ohh, you're giving us too much credit. Seriously I can't do much else" I replied.

"Hmm. If you say so." she then spoke out loud. "Everyone harvest the meat and start a fire it's time to eat."

"We're seriously going to eat wolf meat?" I asked Leon.

"Yup, we can't keep eating food rations forever." Leon said cutting open a wolf.

"I don't know what parts of the wolf are good to eat." I told him.

"Come here, I'll show you." he said.

After we ate wolf meat we continued on our way. I've never eaten wolf. The meat was bitter and it didn't taste all that good. I wonder if the wolf meat from my old world would have a similar taste.

— — —

4 weeks into our journey we came across a strange cave at the side of a mountain. Just standing outside of it you could feel the ominous aura coming out. This is a place to avoid or at least I would.

"So what's the deal we going in or what?" Leon asked.

"Give me a moment." Diana said. She was inspecting it closely trying to find any clues that what might be inside. "Hmm. inside there is a variety of insects. Still want to go in?"

"Sure. Insect types are weak." Julian said.

"I agree. And there might be something of value in there." Said Monty.

"Well if they're up for it, so am I." Added Leon.

"W-well I'm not." Luna said nervously.

"Well, majority vote says we go in." Diana said.

"W-wait, t-the kids. They're basically a part of our party now so let's include them in this decision." Luna said almost desperate.

"Hmm. Fine. Arata, Felix do you want to go inside?" Diana asked.

Felix and I looked at each other for a second.

"I stand with father, so yes I'll go inside." Felix said.

"Ohh come on. A-arata, please?" Luna said grabbing my shoulders.

"There is no point." I said getting out of her grasp. "Even if I side with you. We don't have enough people to back us up. I guess we have to in."

"Well, it's decided. We're going in. I'll take the lead." Diana said already walking inside.

We all followed.

Once inside Luna was shaking.

"Ahhh. I wish Emma was here." Luna muttered next to me.

"Huh? My mother?" I asked.

"Yes, she would comfort me at times like this." Luna paused and looked at me. "Actually, you look a lot like Emma. So try comforting me."

"there, there." I said patting her back.

"Uhhh. That's not helping." she said looking a bit disappointed.

"yeah, sorry. Im not good at comforting people. What are you scared of anyway?" I asked.

"The giant spiders, they creep me out. When I think of how long their legs are. I get all tingly." She said with her arms crossed.

"Wait giant spiders? Hey everyone uh. . . I want out of this." I said

I'm not arachnophobic but spiders still weird me out, and these are giant. Hell no. I'm out.

"What do you mean?" Leon asked.

"That I'm with Luna on this. I'm not up to going any further." I said.

"Hah hah. Are you scared?" Felix mocked

"That's right and I'm not ashamed of that. So I want out." I said.

"Ohh. Now I want you to come. I can't wait to see you piss your pants." Felix said excitedly.

"Ohh yeah. And what are you going to do? Get hard?" I said.

"Whoa. Calm down there Arata, that was inappropriate. How do you even know something like that?" He said amused.

"It doesn't matter. How about me and Luna stand guard outside." I said.

"Y-yeah. I think that's a great idea." Luna said. "Let's go."

"Hold it." Diana stopped us. "I have a better idea. How about you two take the lead down this cave."

She grabbed both of us and put us up front.

"I don't thin-" Luna got Interrupted.

"That's an order." Diana said.

"We understand." I said.

We were now leading the group. With one hand holding my sword and the other, I lit a fire to light up the cave.

After some walking, we saw a spider web the size of a wall. I stopped immediately and looked around. I saw nothing but then I shot out a fireball to light up the area in front of me.

Once I did that there was a spider the size of a dog sitting on the floor some distance away. Both Luna and I yelped in surprise, but the spider ran away.

"What was that?" Luna asked.

"It was an infant spider. It probably got scared and ran." Diana said.

"So you're saying that thing was on the small side?" I asked surprised.

Then we heard loud hissing deeper in the cave.

"The mother of the small one is here. Everyone get ready." Diana called out.

I shot another fireball to light the way. And there was an even bigger spider, this one the size of a car. It was probably sneaking on us but since it was now spotted. It started running to us.

Like I said I'm not really arachnophobic, but something like this froze me. I fell backwards. It was on us. My whole body was tingling. Like if small spiders were crawling on the surface of my skin.

I raised my hand and used gravity magic to crush it to the ground. I lost my control and the spider exploded everywhere.

"Hah hah. That wasn't so bad. Right?" Diana said patting my back.

"Yeah. I think I can keep going." "What about you?" I asked luna.

She shook her head. I brought the flame on my hand closer to her face. She had small tears coming out of her eyes.

"Are you crying?" I asked.

"Shut up. I'm not crying." she said with a shaky voice.

I sighed. "Well, whatever. Let's go, we're leading remember? If you stay close to me I can push them away." I told her.

"O-okay." she said looking away from me.

We then began walking.

"So, do you have the same curse as me?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" I replied confused.

"The spiders. They trigger a curse deep inside you to make you fear them." She said.

Well, I guess you can think of it as a curse. I'm not afraid of them they just weird me out, and seeing one that size for the first time took me by surprise.

"So do you?"

"I guess." I said.

"So how did you overcome it?" She asked. "You crushed that spider while I just stood there frozen."

"When was the last time you fought a spider?" I asked.

"I've never fought one, but I came across one before. That's when the curse first triggered." She said.

"Well, it can be fixed." I told her.

"Really? How?" She lit up.

"By constantly being exposed to them."

"Oh." She looked down again.

"This is a great opportunity. We could get rid of the curse. For both of us." I paused and looked at her. "Remember if you feel like it's too much just stay close to me."

"Yes, I'll do that." she said quickly. "It feels weird being comforted by a 6-year-old."

"Well Just so you know, that wasn't my intention." I said.

She only smiled as a response.

After some walking, there was an opening to a bigger part of the cave. There was a hole at the top covered by logs and leaves. There were various holes along the walls. And inside was filled with spiders. At the center, there was one that stood out the most. It was different in color and size. Looks like a giant tarantula.

"It looks like it's guarding something." Julian pointed out.

"You guys ready?" Diana asked.

"W-wait. I feel so nervous that I need to go to the bathroom." Luna said embarrassed.

"I don't think there are any bathrooms here, so just go around the corner. There aren't any threats the way we came through so you should be fine." Diana said.

"Got it, I'll be right back." Luna said walking away.

"Hey listen. Being here might be bad for Luna." I said to the group.

"Why is that?" Diana asked.

"Because of her fear of spiders."

"can't she just tough it out? Like you did?" Diana said.

"It's not that simple. What she has is more than a curse. It's a mental illness. If the situation becomes something that she isn't able to handle, she might go insane." I said seriously.

"So how is she supposed to get rid of the curse then, and doesn't the same apply to you?"

"Everyone is different. Some people have it worse than others. I can handle it." I said.

"Okay, if she breaks down. I'll trust you to get her out." She said.

"Got it."

After some time Luna returned.

"Alright, let's go." Diana announced.

We all nodded but Luna was hesitant. At Diana's signal, we all jumped down.