This chapter is dedicated to frostwingak  (AKA: Mister Ninja)

[For best experience possible, play youtube video and turn on sound whilst reading]

§*§*§*§*§*§*§*§*§*§

Arachnophobia ~ Fear of spiders

The door swung open to darkness.

"Strange..." The Ninja muttered to himself. It was usually livelier at this time unless... no. It couldn't be a surprise party, could it? The last was only last week so there should be at least a month left until the next birthday. Nothing happened recently to deserve a party anyway. Nonetheless, it's not like being greeted with darkness was a problem. His family probably just went out to the shops for something, toilet paper most likely; he couldn't remember how often running out of said commodity had lead to more than one embarrassing situation.

It was just strange though. Or rather it was unsettling. Unsettling to the ninja who had grown accustomed to the dangers that lurked within the dark.

Patting the wall as he stepped inside, Mister Ninja recoiled as his fingers touched n adhesive object. As the lights flickered on he brought his fingers to his face and grimaced at the stringy substance coating his fingers.

Cobwebs.

He shuddered. He always did hate spiders and it didn't help that the feeling wasn't mutual.

For as long as he could remember, Mister Ninja always did have a persistent roommate which has since grown to be a persistent family. Spiders were drawn to him like iron filings to magnets and although he wasn't a total arachnaphobiac, Mister Ninja wasn't their biggest fan either - in fact quite the opposite. Something about all the blood-sucking and cocoons didn't strike a bargain with his ninja ways and recent studies showing that spiders had mini claws freaked him out even further. Hence, Mister Ninja figured that the best way to avoid the problem was exactly that. Avoid the problem.

Making his way into the living room, avoiding the problem became much harder than it usually was. Either his imagination was working in overdrive or Mister Ninja had failed to notice the loose cobwebs dangling from the ceiling for the past few years. Mister Ninja would like to think it was the former but his gut was telling him otherwise. His gut ea telling him something was wrong and it wasn't the Mexican food he had eaten the day before.

The cobwebs grew thicker and more frequent as Mister Ninja delved deeper into the house. He never realised how many light switches there actually we're until now and his creeping suspicions only grew larger as did the wad of cobwebs he had since wrenched from the ceiling. Sticky, disgusting, slithery. There were so many words to describe the moist texture of the organic strands yet there were no words to describe how sick it made him feel just to touch them, let alone bundle them into a world-sized ball of web.

Mister Ninja continued to rip strand after strand of web from the ceiling as he advanced, the diameter and strength eventually equalling steel ropes. Mister Ninja could feel a sweat start to break upon his brow at what monstrosity could have created a web so large but he was distracted from his thoughts when a tug on a thread the size of his arm brought a cacoon larger than himself crashing down to his feet.

With his quick reflexes, Mister Ninja evaded the neatly wrapped stalagmite and with a quick look upwards, he could feel the blood drain from his leaving it as white as the web above. Excluding the cacoon at his feet, there were two identical ones, save for the sheer size, dangling from the ceiling and nestled in between them was the most gigantic eight-legged arachnid he had ever seen.

Mister Ninja backed up in horror, clapping his empty hand over his mouth to hold in the scream. The spider was at least twice the size he was and although it was motionless, a slight disturbance of the intrinsically designed web could cause him to be his next feast. It was a miracle that he had escaped her vision up to now bu-

Suddenly the spiders head rotated a full 180*, it's malevolent eyes fixated upon Mister Ninja's terrified stature. It's body rotated soon after and as it descended on a thread wide enough to support an elevator, Mister Ninja was helpless to the fate before him. The people inside the cacoons were no doubt his parents and sibling and if he didn't do something fast, he too would soon be tucked up inside a hardened case of nightmarish string.

The spider took it's time as it leisurely scuttled towards Mister Ninja who was already paralyzed by fear without even needing the help of the toxic venom which would soon ensue. It's thin legs stabbed the carpet underneath, puncturing holes as it got closer and closer until-

Before he knew it himself, Mister Ninja had unsheathed a shadow sword and the eight-legged beast had been reduced to a seven-legged one. Said beast quickly hissed in pain causing corrosive spittle to fly everywhere, dissolving the top few layers of Mister Ninja's flesh.

Grimacing in pain, Mister Ninja held is pose steadfast. His body was now on autopilot, something he had trained years to perfect in case a situation such as this arose. Naturally, he predicted he would freeze during a zombie apocalypse or something along those lines but he was glad muscle memory had started to kick in or he would already be dead.

In response to the attack, Mister Ninja channelled his chakra into a thin shield over his skin to prevent further damage before sending a ball of mana towards the spider. He cursed under his breath as his foe dodged the attack and swung the blade as he narrowly escaped a flurry of sharpened claws. He felt his sword connect but at the same time, a warm liquid drenched his body before hardening into concrete. Mister Ninja's body quickly collapsed under the weight and the spider was quick to squirt another goblet of liquid web to finish the job.

In a last-ditch effort, Mister Ninja focused all of his energy into a final pulse shockwave. He felt the cacoon encasing him shatter as he released the pulse but that was all he felt before the trade-off took its toll. The sudden energy outburst took everything from him and as he slipped into oblivion he could only hope that he wouldn't become something's meal.