CHAPTER 433: TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL

The fight didn’t take long. Not because the spider monsters were so easy to defeat, quite the opposite - they were so tricky that the team decided that they didn’t have time to deal with them all, they had to take care of the injured first. Damien and most of the remaining Espers held the spiders back, while Clara and the Guides proceeded with the rescue. They cut Lane and Ethan out of the webbing, lifted them up with Clara’s thread ability, and moved on to look for the other two missing men.

Adrian and Jasper were in a better state, as it turned out. Because they were in the part of the tunnels that had been mostly blocked off by the rockfall, the spiders couldn’t get to them. Even Jasper, who had attempted to rush out to help Ethan and Lane, got stuck in the narrow passage. A spider was blocking his way, trying to spew its sticky threads at the man, but thanks to the fact that they were fighting one-on-one, and the spider didn’t have enough space to set a proper trap for Jasper, they were still more or less in a standstill. Although Jasper was also partially entangled in the web, and had to be lifted up with Clara’s golden threads, he wasn’t cocooned to the point of being rendered immobile as Lane and Ethan were.

As for Adrian, since he was still unconscious and unmoving, hidden somewhere among the rocks behind Jasper’s back, he had missed the whole incident. He was injured from the fall, but that was about it. Shortly after he was lifted from the tunnels and given recovery medicine, he was able to finally regain consciousness.

With all of the victims of the collapse out, the rest of the team also escaped from the tunnels, quickly blocking the hole with multiple large rocks, so that the spiders couldn’t follow them. They would have to return down there eventually to clear the dungeon, but...

Now was hardly the right moment. Their team was barely strong enough to handle a swarm of monsters of this caliber when they were at their full force, let alone when two of their Espers were temporarily not fit for fighting!

The only reasonable course of action was to withdraw. Not only from the tunnels, but from the whole dungeon. In fact, even that was going to be difficult, since three of their members were tangled up in the sticky web to the point that they could hardly walk, as even if the threads were cut apart, their limbs would quickly get stuck together if they weren’t careful. And on top of that...

Ethan had lost an arm. All that remained was a short, spiky stump extending from his left shoulder. There wasn’t even any hope of recovery for him, since his limb had been turned into nothing but shredded, bloody pulp...

And not even the best healer could do anything about that. Even if they were to recover whatever remained of his arm from the monster’s stomach (which they hadn’t, because who had time to worry about recovering minced meat from one of the spiders’ insides when they had multiple other monsters attacking them?), it would be a miracle if anyone could use it to recreate a whole, functional arm.

How could they possibly continue their raid like that? They had to leave the Gate, dissolve the webbings, heal the injured, and rethink their strategy first. The only reason why they were still in the main cave was that they were waiting for the sun to rise...

"Here. You must be hungry." Damien sat down next to Lane, bringing him a mess-tin full of thick stew. He was about to hand it over to his boyfriend, but...

Lane spread his hands helplessly. Or rather, he attempted to. Because his arms were once again glued to his torso. The spider threads had been severed earlier, but since they were still stuck all over his body, the moment he had lowered his arms, they had gotten reattached again.

...Of course, with his abilities, he could have easily dealt with it, but why would he? He was supposed to be tired and injured, in a lot of pain. Which he naturally was, but that wouldn’t have normally stopped him, if it wasn’t for the sake of putting on a show.

Damien let out a sigh, picking up the spoon, and scooping some stew. "Let me help you with that."

"Mn. Okay." Lane obediently nodded his head, and accepted the food without any hesitation.

An extra benefit of being injured and immobilized. He could be spoiled and taken care of by his boyfriend!

The stew wasn’t anything special. Pretty tasteless with gummy meat and powder-like texture to the sauce, just like the Association’s rations tended to be. But it was warm and filling, and when fed by Damien, it almost tasted good... Lane accepted a spoonful after a spoonful, until the whole mess-tin had been emptied.

"I’ll get you something to drink in a second. Water with some recovery medicine should be good..." Damien was about to stand up, but Lane quickly reached out, grabbing onto his clothes. Or, more like pinching, since his movements were greatly limited, but that was enough to stop Damien.

It was also enough to get some of the webbing on Damien’s uniform, but Damien didn’t really care about that. He just gave Lane a questioning look.

"No recovery medicine," Lane whispered almost soundlessly, so quietly that no one but Damien could hear him.

"...What?" Damien furrowed his brows, looking at Lane in confusion. Although he was no medical expert, it was easy to tell that Lane was severely injured...

But Lane just shook his head in response. "Don’t."

It was true that he had multiple injuries. He also had a stash of the Recovery Pills, as well as his healing ability, but he was purposely restraining from using any of that.

The reason was simple: he NEEDED serious injuries to ensure a solid cover-up for himself, and his SS-rank physique was already working against him, causing him to recover at an astounding pace... Not fast enough to actually heal before they left the dungeon, his injuries were too grave for that, but still. He should be trying to worsen them as much possible, not heal them! And common recovery medicine, while incomparably inferior to the Recovery Pills, would still boost his innate recovery speed...