49 Predicamen

"Alright little one, what I need you to do is run in there." Leo was now trying to convince this small tiger cub o run into a dark cave, when it clearly was afraid of the dark. He did not know if it was because of it being so young, or if the tiger cub assumed that there were big spiders within the cave.

After several minutes, Leo was about to give up before he remembered what had happened earlier. Pulling out a big cooked piece of meat and tying it onto a small stick with rope, Leo waved it in front of the little tiger cub as if he was trying to bait it like a fish.

After but only a moment, the tiger cub was following the piece of meat with its eyes as some small drool slowly came out of its mouth. Since it was so young and innocent, it did not see that Leo was clearly baiting it with the meat.

"Ok, here we go!" Leo called out as he slowly walked towards the cave with the big chunk of meat dangling in front of the tiger cub. Like this, they started to journey into the cave. Leo felt rather bad that he needed to do this, but once the Spider Queen was slain by him, he would treat this small cub extremely well.

The cave was desolate with not even many rocks within it for the first two miles. Leo felt that something seemed off, but he kept moving forward with the tiger cub. They continued until Leo saw a light within the distance.

Choosing to lay low, Leo decided to give the tiger cub the big chunk of meat and to rest for the time being. If no spiders were roaming outside freely, it could only mean that they were burrowed within here and might still be sleeping until the next day.

Once the tiger cub finished its meal, it was now full of energy and started to run towards the light. Up until this point, the cave was dark and desolate so the tiger cub thought that the only way out would be towards the light. Leo kept a close eye within the surroundings as he followed very close behind.

"What the hell is that?!?" Leo couldn't help but crouch down behind a boulder with the tiger cub safely within his arms. Within a short distance away, there were massive piles of webbing spread out throughout the cave they were in.

What made Leo shake with goosebumps all over his body, was that there was also a massive wall of webbing blocking the other side of the cave's exit. Around these webs were some big and unusual looking spiders compared to the ones he faced thus far.

His hypothesis was that within that massive wall of webbing that spanned at least a mile high, the Spider Queen was located. It was also not out of the question that those spiders on the outside of the webbing were some of the stronger spiders that this Spider Queen gave birth to.

There were hundreds of webbing piles and Leo felt his head spinning. "What did I get myself into?" he thought as he scanned the area. Even if there were only a dozen or so spiders living within each webbing pile, that would equal thousands upon thousands of enemies; hungry enemies.

Looking at the tiger cub within his arms, Leo came up with an idea that he did not like very much. "If I can get this little guy to scout a single webbing pile, it might give me a good idea on how many spiders are in each. With that information, I can hopefully come up with a better plan."

"Even if I was surrounded by dozens of spiders, they couldn't do me too much harm thanks to my bronze skin. The only issue is, if thousands were to make a move against me at once, how quickly would I die before even knowing how I did?" Leo thought as he released the tiger cub out of his arms.

This time, the tiger cub seemed to be very curious as it slowly paced itself towards a webbing pile. Taking a quick look within it, the tiger cub simply chuckled to itself before turning around back towards Leo.

"What is it, little guy? Could it be that there are no sp- "before he called out towards the tiger cub, to his surprise, the tiger cub being so young and careless, actually lit the webbing pile behind it with its tail flame. Leo was not expecting this to happen and suddenly dozens of big spiders started to crawl out of the webbing pile.

Crunch!

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Even if he acted sooner, there was no way for Leo to save the tiger cub from being crushed to death by the massive spiders who were now lit ablaze from its flame. A small tear started to drop from his eye as he saw what the screen had told him.

-After a 24-hour cooldown, you can re-summon your summons who fall in battle-

Without wasting anymore time, Leo darted into a different looking webbing pile that seemed human shaped nearby. He was unsure if the spiders would be intelligent enough to realize someone else besides his little tiger cub was present here.

"I do not care if someone drives me out of the city later, that tiger cub will be my new companion. If anyone treats it poorly, they will have to deal with me!" Leo thought as he watched the spiders slowly creating another webbing pile, now that the one they were living in up until now was gone.

Leo felt very strongly for this tiger cub because of its sacrifice for him. He also felt rather guilty allowing such a little creature to be put into harms way due to his poor planning. Though there was no way for Leo to know that this would happen, he still felt a level of guilt.

"Twenty-four hours, huh?" after catching his breath and realizing that the spiders were not going to try and hunt him down at least for now, Leo was now in quite the predicament.

"So, if I am unable to use the tiger cub's tail flame, I will be in much greater danger if I try to escape here alone. But, if I wait an entire day in my enemy's territory, death is inevitable." Pondered Leo as he tried to come up with a plan.