Chapter 17: Bounty Hunted

It was the morning of day four. Nelly and Enchanted came across a vast plain. There was nothing but silence, only the gentle breeze and the rustling of tall grass could be heard. Before Enchanted and Nelly's stomachs rumbled, that is.

"We should find at least something to eat," Nelly told Enchanted. "It's been quite a few days since we last ate something."

Enchanted nodded, agreeing to Nelly's notion.

Though as far as the plain stretched, there were only rabbits who ran away from people, and they were too tired to catch them.

They would head back to the forest and look for a tree with some fruit hanging on it. Alas, after an hour of fruitless search, they managed to stumble across one a few blocks away.

It was a tree with only two apples next to a freshwater pond.

"Nelly, look!" Enchanted pointed to the tree.

"Whe- OH!"

Happily, they both rushed to the tree and the pond, but as they were nearing the place, two figures got to it first and noticed the pair as soon as they went closer.

"Look, it's them!" He pointed to the magic map and alerted Shatadru. "Let's go!"

Nelly and Enchanted skidded on the moist ground and stopped in their tracks.

"Nelly, run!" yelled Enchanted, as he turned back and ran.

Webby unleashed three of his spiders hiding from his palm, jumping onto the ground and then climbing and hopping from tree to tree. In only a few seconds, they spun a huge spider web suspended between two trees.

Nelly ran between the trees, getting caught in the spider web. She struggled her way out, only to find her limbs entangled and stuck to the cobwebs.

The spiders crawled on her and then pierced their fangs into her skin, injecting venom. Nelly felt drowsy, then her lungs tightened and tightened as she gasped out for air to death. Shortly, a cannon's fire followed.

Webby and Shatadru were chasing down Enchanted using their magic map. There, it showed their opponents' location using a marker that resembled a pin.

As they were on the location of Enchanted's marker, he was nowhere to be found. Webby and Shatadru searched around the area, to no avail.

"He's not here at all," said Webby. "Are you sure that the map works?"

"Well, it should," Shatadru squinted. As he was looking around his map and his surroundings, he noticed that a new pin appeared. "But, uh, Webby, I think there's another guy going for us."

They both looked at the pin. It was rapidly heading in their direction. They looked up in front of them, and saw none other than Unikern himself, walking towards them with a determined look on his face and holding a bloodied iron sword.

"Stand back." Webby unsheathed the Dragon Fish out of his hilt. Its elegant, ornate blade shone amidst the forest's shadows. Unikern couldn't help but comment about it.

"No signs of blood and wear and tear at all. Shame it had to be yours."

Unikern raised his sword and slashed it at Webby, who then raised the Dragon Fish in the blink of an eye and blocked the blow heading toward his head.

"That thing's better off with me instead."

Unikern tried to push his weapon down against Webby's, but he was overwhelmed by the sheer force that came with it. It is as if an actual piston was pressing at him, acting against his direction.

Webby pushed Unikern's sword upwards and managed to get it off his hands. Unikern was also pushed back from the force of the Dragon Fish, falling and landing on the ground, defenseless.

Webby saw an opportunity to strike, so he tried to slice off Unikern in that spot, but he retaliated quickly, rolling to the side as the blade missed and hit the dirt.

Unikern stood up and grabbed his sword from the side. Things are getting a little too serious now. He recognized how much of a threat the Dragon Fish posed to him. It surely wasn't any weapon, evident by someone smaller and weaker suddenly overpowering him.

In return, he took out his fishing rod and lashed the line at Webby. It caught his arm, so Unikern reeled the fishing rod and pulled Webby closer to him. He readied his sword in his other hand and swung it at Webby as he was being tugged toward Unikern.

Unikern let go of the fishing line from Webby and started clobbering his iron sword against his opponent. Webby, in return, parried every hit from Unikern with unparalleled speed; both blades clashed and banged against each other, producing a clanging noise and bright orange sparks that flew across the air.

Eventually, Unikern got tired of attacking Webby, his attacks becoming slower and more sluggish every second of the fight. Suddenly, he coughs uncontrollably and gasps for air.

"*gasp* *cough* *cough* *cough*, I- *wheeze* *cough*"

"Are you noticing something now, Unikern?" commented Webby, lowering his weapon and sheathing it on his back.

Unikern dropped to the ground all of a sudden, coughing up blood.

"You! What…" he watched a spider crawl down his from his sleeve followed by many others, returning to Webby as he extended his hand, touching the ground. "What is this?!"

"Haven't figured it out?" asked Webby, as he gave out a smug smile. "Every time I hit my weapon against yours, a spider crawls to you, thanks to your sword acting as a bridge from me."

"That's- *cough* cheating." Unikern closed his eyes and stopped breathing.

Boom!

A cannon fired.