Echo pivoted her wings downward, causing her to lose some air just as the giant spider sailed overhead. It landed on the ground, coming to a skidding halt with its eight legs. Tirelessly, it crouched, ready to leap again.
She pivoted her wings to do a short dive towards it, breaking to the right just as the spider sailed past. Her hooves hit the ground and she faced the creature now at the other side of the room from her. Loud breaths escaped her lips, fatigue taking its toll on her quickly.
It charged her, closing the distance between them quicker than she anticipated.
"Hrk!"
Echo threw her body to the side in hopes of dodging, only for one of the spider's legs to clip her own. She was sent in a spin to the ground, her mouth losing grip on the sword as it went skidding.
Weaponless, she desperately pawed at the ground in front of her to approach her sword, but the spider was quickly upon her.
"Hah!" she screamed as one of the spider's legs held her down. She could feel its weight loosen a bit, the spider raising up to stab down with its claws. She tried to shrug it off, knowing she wouldn't be able to, until the leg completely lifted off of her.
Surprised, Echo rolled to face it, only for her to see Speck having thrown herself into its side.
"Aaah!" Speck cried, shoving with all of her might. The heavy, protective armour threw the spider off balance. She reeled back, only to ram herself into the spider's side again, shield first.
Miraculously, the spider flipped over and Speck jumped on top of it, pummelling at the spider's face with her shield. Over and over again, she smashed it downwards, the fangs failing to penetrate the thick plate. Despite its protective, rocky skin, the tip of one of the spider's fangs chipped off. It hissed, its legs flailing while it tried to regain the upper hand, only for Speck to keep it down.
Echo leaped in with her sword in her mouth, coming up in front of the spider's upside-down face.
"Now! Stab it now!" Speck screamed, smashing her shield down once more. With that, she wedged it in between the fangs, exposing the spider's unprotected mouth.
"Hraugh!" Echo growled through her hilt, shoving the sword down. The blade sliced right through its maw, pushing itself halfway into the flesh.
The spider hissed loudly, nearly deafening the bat ponies before flailing its limbs madly. Speck was thrown off and Echo was knocked back, the spider flipping itself over. With its front legs, it desperately tried to pull the blade from its mouth, its large limbs unable to grasp it.
Echo slid across the ground, hitting her head. "Augh!" she groaned loudly, throwing her hooves up to clench her head.
Speck landed roughly, managing to roll once and set her hooves on the ground, firmly. "Aaah!" she screamed, charging at the occupied beast. While it still desperately tried to remove the blade, Speck collided with its front, head on.
With her shield, she launched herself straight at the hilt of the blade with the shield. Like a hammer, she drove the rest of the blade in, eliciting another painful hiss from the spider. Before it could do anything, she rose her shield and slammed it down again, splitting the mouth open and spilling green blood everywhere.
“Die!"
With one, final smash of her shield on the blade's hilt, the blade sliced through the spider's face, cutting it effectively in half. She reeled back from the splatter of blood, watching the spider go limp.
It slumped to the floor in a messy heap of limbs and green blood.
---
Mosina couldn't see anything as she tumbled through the air with the spider. Not having a light crystal herself, it was difficult to see beyond the light from any of her companions. The last thing she remembered was it leaping towards her with its fangs pointed out.
She felt the spear in her hooves embedded into some part of the spider, so she held onto it tightly. It was in obvious pain, as every time she budged the spear, the spider spazzed and its limbs flailed. Finally, the body of the spider slammed onto solid ground, absorbing the bulk of the hit. Mosina still held onto the spear, feeling it drive even further upon the impact.
Holding her breath, she clung, until she realized that the body was no longer moving anymore. With a few grunts, she unfurled herself and nudged away a few spider limbs that were on top of her.
"Whoa..." she breathed, seeing the head of the spear driven deep into one of the spider's eye sockets.
It had penetrated through the underside of its head and out through one of the eye holes. She tried to pull it out, but the golden hoof-claws got in the way. Sighing, she pulled them off and tossed them aside, gripping the spear as tight as she could then heaved.
"Grrh!"
Her eyes held closed and she gritted her teeth as she pulled, but to no avail. Taking a moment to breathe, she loosened her grip on the spear, only to feel another pair of hooves latch onto the end of the spear, behind her. She opened her eyes, the world flooding her with light.
"C'mon, let's pull at the same time," Night Watch said from behind her. Mosina couldn't suppress a relieved sigh, turning around and smiling at Night Watch's smirking face.
"You wanna do something?" Night Watch asked, grinning and waggling her eyebrows.
"Okay, let's pull," Mosina muttered, sighing.
"No fun," Night said, giggling as she helped her pull the spear.
With one heave, Mosina and Night Watch managed to dislodge the spear and tumbled backwards in a heap of hooves and leather. Mosina yelped, feeling Night Watch's weight on top of her.
She opened her eyes, only to meet a pair of half-lidded magenta ones.
"No-mmph!" she squealed, Night Watch sealing her lips against hers.
---
"Echo! Echo, are you alright?!" Speck exclaimed worriedly, sprinting to her friend and coming to a skidding stop beside her. Echo was lying on the ground, belly-side up and breathing hard as though she had just run a mile.
"Yeah... Thanks to you, Speck, I'm alive," she said, giving a friendly smile.
Speck blushed, returning the smile and said, "We took that ugly spider on, easy! As a team!"
Echo giggled, moving up to her hooves. "Quick, let's go find the others."
"I think they're okay," Speck pointed out, pointing her hoof towards an orb of light at the other side of the room. Nodding to each other, they took off in a brisk gallop.
As they neared, they could make out the form of the other giant spider laying on its back in a pool of its own green blood. Slowing to a stop, they found Night Watch standing with her spear in her hooves and Mosina laying down behind her, her face flushed red and mouth open in shock.
"Are you guys okay?" Speck asked, curious.
Night Watch gave a large grin. "A bit roughed up but..." She glanced to Mosina behind her. "...Yeah."