IWUAaDNW: Growth 3.2

In the other room, Gwen and Garmin were standing back to back, surrounded on all sides by my bugs. I was poking in, testing their defenses and avoiding their counterattacks much as I could. I kept my ants out of the fight, in case injuries happened, but the rest of my insects were fair game. Spiders, especially, were well adapted to this kind of surprise attack, and although I was refraining from actually stinging, the two were treating hits I was landing as if they had injured them, and “reset” if I killed them.

I’d hit Gwen five times so far, with two killing blows. On the bright side, she was very aware of getting struck from behind now, mostly by keeping her back to her ally. A sound strategy.

Garmin had only been hit once. It had taken three simultaneous attacks, and had cost him his right leg from a spider “bite” into the back of his kneecap. That spade-sword of his looked silly, but even though he was only using the flat sides of it, he was still able to swing it around like it weighed nothing.

I was getting a feel for his rhythm, though. Well, both of theirs; Gwen had already surprised me once by blocking a blow meant for him, which meant I needed to distract her first, which I did by throwing a spider at her shield and hanging on to it. Then, I feigned an attack with a high wasp in plain sight, knowing he would know it wasn’t real, so he would be wary for his sides, and when he swung with the sword to swat my wasp away, I precisely timed my real attack; a spider jumping from below directly at his face.

It landed. My spider’s limbs locked around his face and its fangs brushed against the sides of his neck, where his armor did not protect him.