TEOCH 37

I managed to dodge the first attack, but the ground beneath me shook violently, making it hard to maintain my stance.

As soon as I regained my balance, I checked on my comrades’ positions. Rikiel was hovering in the air, holding onto Tristan, while Rehas and Damian were struggling, caught in horizontal webs far off. It seemed Rehas had gone to rescue Damian, only for both to end up stuck together. I quickly adjusted my posture and ran toward them.

“You came just in time, Rohan! Get this off us!”

“I was about to! Rehas, take Damian and get as far away as possible. No matter what, you must not draw the Queen Spider’s attention. Understood?”

“You mean hide well? That’s no problem!”

As soon as I cut the webs binding them with my sword imbued with purification energy, Rehas hoisted Damian onto his back and dashed in the opposite direction of the Queen Spider. With the Queen Spider now descended from the ceiling, there was nothing those two could do.

It wasn’t that they were incompetent; it was just the nature of the Queen Spider’s attack patterns. When fighting the Queen Spider, close-range combat was far more advantageous than long-range. While Tristan, Rikiel, and I kept the Queen Spider’s full attention, it was better for those two to stay hidden.

After confirming that Rehas was escaping safely without getting caught in any horizontal webs, I turned and charged toward the Queen Spider. The Queen Spider, which had been letting out ferocious cries while glaring at Rikiel and Tristan in the air, immediately turned toward me as it noticed my approach. I shouted to the two.

“Rikiel, come down! You mustn’t get too far from the Queen Spider!”

Before I could finish, a web shot out from the Queen Spider’s rear. It hadn’t been aiming to attack me but to bind Rikiel and Tristan with its web. Rikiel narrowly dodged the web, and, seeming to understand my warning, he shakily descended to the ground.

The Queen Spider used different attack patterns depending on distance, and the farther away you were, the harder its attacks were to dodge. If we didn’t induce close-range combat with simple attacks like foreleg strikes, charges, or leaping pounces, it would be incredibly difficult to deal with.

As Rikiel and Tristan took their stances and charged at the Queen Spider, it raised its massive body, lifting its left foreleg high. It was the “foreleg strike” pattern. With a glance to the two, they immediately dashed toward the Queen Spider’s flank. Meanwhile, I stood at its front, analyzing the attack’s trajectory. Not only was its left foreleg tensed, but its right foreleg was as well, which meant…!

—Kiiii!

The Queen Spider’s blow, carrying its full weight, slammed into the ground. I narrowly dodged the first attack but didn’t let my guard down, immediately leaping aside.

The Queen Spider’s right foreleg sliced through the air where I had just been. If I hadn’t anticipated the follow-up attack and dodged at the precise moment, that blade-like right foreleg would have cut me in half.

The impact of the attack sent the entire web trembling violently, and I gripped a vertical web tightly, springing forward like a shot. The footing was a bit unstable, but it was manageable…!

“Rikiel, Tristan! Now!”

Perhaps because its full-force strike missed, the Queen Spider staggered, trying to regain its balance. Tristan, having just steadied himself, swung his sword at the Queen Spider’s second leg.

His strength wasn’t enough to do more than nick the surface, but I hadn’t expected Tristan to inflict major damage, so that was enough. The area struck by Tristan’s sword split open, exposing the flesh, and Rikiel seized the opportunity to drive his blade deep into the wound. At that moment.

[Queen Spider has been afflicted with the “Paralysis” status effect. “Guardian’s Blessing” reduces the status effect’s potency. Queen Spider’s movement is slowed by 50% for 30 seconds.]

[Queen Spider has been afflicted with the “Regression” status effect. “Guardian’s Blessing” reduces the status effect’s potency. Queen Spider’s defense is reduced by 30% for 30 seconds. Queen Spider’s recovery is reduced by 20% for 30 seconds.]

Perfect. I cheered inwardly and rushed toward the Queen Spider. Though the Guardian’s Blessing reduced the effects, having both “Paralysis” and “Regression” applied simultaneously was a massive advantage.

The Queen Spider, barely regaining its composure, roared fiercely to intimidate me, but its attacks, slowed far beyond normal, weren’t too difficult to dodge.

After evading a horizontal swing of its right foreleg, I drove my sword into the Queen Spider’s right leg, where the wound had split wide open. In normal circumstances, the Queen Spider’s high defense would have prevented my sword from penetrating deeply, but with its defense lowered, things were different.

Boom!

A loud explosion rang out, and chunks of flesh scattered everywhere. Thanks to the “bombardment” effect triggering, the Queen Spider lost one of its legs, and I quickly retreated to avoid its next attack. For the first phase, it was a surprisingly successful outcome.

But the Queen Spider wasn’t foolish enough to keep fighting while burdened with multiple status effects.

“We did it…!”

“It’s going back up now. Let’s stick to the same strategy!”

Despite its paralysis, the Queen Spider climbed back to the ceiling with unbelievable speed. Tristan and Rikiel turned their backs to me and ran in the opposite direction, while I joined Rehas and Damian, who were hiding in a corner of the nest. The two, who had been watching the battle, looked at me with eyes full of excitement.

“What the heck, that was amazing! That Queen Spider might be huge, but it’s not that scary!”

“It’s only manageable now because it’s the early phase! One mistake could be irreversible, so don’t let your guard down!”

Rehas checked the next crack to target and stood up, while Damian, with “flame” wrapped around his staff, climbed onto my back.

Yes, things were going smoothly so far. That was a relief to the point of tears, but whether the goddess of luck would continue to favor us was uncertain.

The strategy I devised overnight focused all our strength on the early phases, so it was inevitable that we’d hit our limits as time went on. My hope was that those limits would come as late as possible, but…

Unfortunately, our limits arrived much sooner than I had anticipated.

“Rikiel!”

“Huff, huff…!”

Far off, Rikiel was staggering, looking like he might collapse at any moment. Tristan, standing beside him, hurriedly supported his body, but the real danger was to me and Rehas.

Because Rikiel failed to use “taunt” in time, about three hundred spiders were closing in on us. Damian, hiding in the corner, instinctively raised his staff.

“Damian, put that staff down! Using ‘flame’ now is a waste of mana!”

“B-but the spiders are coming!”

“I know! Rehas, use poison to bind their legs!”

Rehas, who had been aiming at a crack, swapped his bombardment arrow for a poison mist arrow and notched it. I infused my sword with purification energy again and deflected incoming venomous projectiles. As the spiders writhed in the thick poison mist, Rikiel, catching his breath, finally used “taunt.”

Regaining some composure, Rehas notched another bombardment arrow and pulled the string taut, but his trembling fingertips, strained to the point of visible veins, betrayed his fatigue. The situation I had feared while planning our strategy was slowly taking shape.

The fight with the Queen Spider had already reached the fifth phase. Without a clock, I couldn’t gauge the exact time, but it felt like roughly two hours had passed.

The Queen Spider, clinging to the ceiling, had lost four of its legs, but we hadn’t managed to damage the front legs it used for its main attacks or the back legs it used for movement.

Cutting off one leg per phase wasn’t a bad result, but the problem was that our comrades’ stamina and mana were starting to run dry.

“Is it because of our level limitations?! If we were at least level 8, we could’ve lasted until the sixth phase…!”

We were now at level 5. Before entering the boss fight, we were at the cusp of level 4, but thanks to the subordinate spiders Tristan and I steadily took down, we leveled up early in the third phase.

If we had focused on leveling up, we could’ve done so much faster, but we deliberately timed our level-up to maximize Damian’s mana efficiency. By recovering full stamina and mana upon leveling up, we aimed to maximize the number of times he could use large-scale magic.

But now, in the fifth phase, even the stamina and mana we had scraped together were nearly depleted. After driving off the subordinate spiders this time, Damian wouldn’t be able to use large-scale magic anymore. At best, he could manage a small-scale “flame” or “confusion” once or twice.

Moreover, Rikiel was significantly fatigued from overusing “taunt.” Unlike the others, he also had to manage the flight parasite, which must have added to his exhaustion.

Parasites that involve physical transformation, especially when combined with “enhancement,” drain stamina faster than others, so it was only natural that repeatedly using it would take a toll on his body.

It was fortunate that Tristan and Rehas’s stamina were largely preserved, but the fact that the two core members of our party were running out of strength was a critical issue for the boss fight.

“Whether it works or not, we have to finish this in the latter half of this phase. If we don’t, we won’t be able to drive off the subordinate spiders in the next phase!”

But no matter how I thought about it, it seemed hopeless. Even on normal difficulty, defeating the Queen Spider required surviving at least six phases, and with the increased difficulty boosting its health, we’d need even more time. And now we had to clear it faster? How?!

“Rohan, should I shoot now?!”

As I anxiously bit my lip, strategizing, Rehas, who had been aiming his arrow, shouted to me. Rikiel was already flying shakily with Tristan in his arms.

Yes, the priority was to bring the Queen Spider down from the ceiling. As soon as I nodded, Rehas released the string, and the arrow hit its mark, causing an explosion and a cascade of falling rocks. As Damian used his last “confusion,” the spiders thrashed and fell below the webs.

“You two, stay there!”

I immediately ran toward Tristan and Rikiel. Normally, I wouldn’t need to, but with Rikiel’s stamina so low, I had to close the distance to minimize his flight time.

Rikiel was flying toward me precariously, as if he might fall at any moment. With nearly half the webs collapsed from five rounds of falling rocks, he was struggling to find a landing spot.

I ran toward a suitable landing area and, upon arriving, urgently waved to Rikiel. He let out a sigh of relief and landed where I stood. Good, we made it this far successfully…

“Wait, why isn’t it coming down?”

Snapping to attention, I immediately looked up at the ceiling. The Queen Spider was gone. A dizzying sensation, as if my blood were rushing backward, coursed through me. I had anticipated a modified pattern due to the increased difficulty, but I hadn’t expected this.

Where had the Queen Spider gone? It wasn’t on the ceiling or on the webs, so where could it be? Then a possibility flashed through my mind. With so many webs collapsed from the falling rocks, the ceiling wasn’t the only place the Queen Spider could go.

If it wasn’t above or to the sides, the only place left was below.

“Rohan, watch out!”

At Tristan’s shout, I instinctively leaped aside, but it was too late. The Queen Spider, which had descended through the collapsed space, shot a web at me. The web, moving as if alive, wrapped around my body in an instant, causing me to lose balance and collapse.

Tristan and Rikiel rushed to cut the web binding me, but they had to dodge another web shot by the Queen Spider, forcing them to leap in the opposite direction. Thanks to their timely dodge, they avoided being completely entangled, but the webs binding their legs caused them to lose balance and fall.

While Tristan struggled to free his legs from the web, the Queen Spider, using its remaining four legs, rapidly approached us. I tried to emit purification energy from my body to dissolve the web, but it was futile. Even if the web’s resilience was neutralized, I couldn’t cut it while fully bound.

Was I going to be devoured like this?! The Queen Spider, now right beside me, raised its left foreleg high, its red eyes glinting. Just then.

“Rohan nim!”

Whoosh! A tremendous heat enveloped the Queen Spider’s flank. Damian had poured his last bit of mana into stopping the Queen Spider. With its leg severed, exposing raw flesh, the Queen Spider’s flank began to burn rapidly.

—Kiiii!

Screaming in pain, the Queen Spider retreated, and Tristan, having freed his legs from the web, rushed to cut the web binding me. It was a relief to escape immediate death, but the situation that followed was far from fortunate. No, if the Queen Spider’s attention turned to Damian in this state…!

Noticing the Queen Spider’s furious gaze shift to Damian, I shouted with a voice that felt like it would tear my throat.

“Damian, dodge!”

But it was too late. The Queen Spider’s state had already shifted to its “long-range attack” pattern. A large green orb condensed at its chest, and the venomous projectile, incomparably faster than the ones I had been deflecting, shot toward Damian. Rehas, realizing the situation, grabbed Damian and leaped to the left, but it was no use.

The venomous projectile obliterated Damian’s right upper body.

Without even giving him time to scream, his shoulder and side were blown to pieces.