Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: The Spider Queen's Grasp
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“Prey walking right into my parlor? How thoughtful. What can I offer in return? I’ve got nothing fitting.”
Arachnaira propped her chest from below with her right arm, elbow bent and propped on the back of her right hand as she rested her chin, looking down at us.
The pose accentuated her utterly bare, massive breasts even more. As for the pink protrusions peeking through her green hair, I had no desire to dwell on them.
‘……Did it get an update?’
I racked my brain while frozen in a daze. Back when I’d installed the NPC retouching mod, the bosses’ appearances had been left untouched.
After beating the game once, the disconnect between their voices and looks had been too much, so I’d deleted it.
After that, the Darkest Rite mod came out, and I got sucked into it, with no time for anything else. So my memories only went up to the vanilla launch version.
It seemed the NPC retouching mod had gone through quite a few updates while I was lost in Darkest Rite.
‘Yeah. It’d be weirder if it hadn’t.’
Even Darkest Rite had pumped out patches and bug fixes right up until they announced the final update. No way a visual overhaul mod would skip updates.
“Delta.”
Lize’s voice, icy as could be, snapped me out of it from right beside me.
I turned my head to see her staring at me blankly, frost and chill billowing literally around her armor.
Her helmet hid her expression, which somehow made it even more chilling.
“Where are you looking?”
The moment she said it, I realized why she was reacting this way.
I’d gone rigid and spaced out staring at the humanoid upper body, so she must’ve thought I was fixated on those bare breasts.
In reality, I’d been shocked because it wasn’t covered in chitin like I remembered, not a stitch of clothing in sight—but from the outside, it was plenty misunderstanding-worthy.
“……”
I needed to clear it up, but I had no idea where to even start. Should I explain why I’d frozen up staring at her chest, of all things?
‘Staying quiet like this will just make the misunderstanding worse. I’ve got to say something—’
“Delta.”
Lize called me again. I gave up on excuses and meekly waited for her next words. Nothing came to mind right now.
“If you want to see bare tits that badly, I’ll show you later. So look away. Got it?”
But what came out of Lize’s mouth completely shattered my expectations.
Erika and I jolted in unison, snapping our heads up. Claudia was eyeing us from under her helmet with an expression I could pretty much guess.
This time, I froze for an entirely different reason. For a second, I thought my ears had betrayed me. Show me what?
“Uh, sis. What did you just……”
“Quiet, Erika. Focus.”
Erika’s voice trembled as she tried to ask, but Lize cut her off cold.
If it had been her usual playful tone, I could’ve brushed it off, but the dead-serious voice made that impossible.
‘After we take this thing down, clearing up Lize’s misunderstanding has to be priority one.’
One wrong move, and I might wake up next to her in the same bed tomorrow morning.
Both of us naked.
“Aha, I get the picture.”
Having overheard our exchange, the spider queen deliberately emphasized her breasts with a giggle. The blobs of fat, head-sized like the rest of her, shifted shape with her fingers’ movements.
This time, I whipped my eyes away. Once was enough for misunderstandings.
“That guy in the middle must be super important to you all, huh? Got it. I’ll eat him first. Real slow. While you listen to him scream and fuck right up to the brink of death.”
A green tongue slipped between her green lips, licking the corners before sliding back in.
“Not if we can help it.”
Claudia slammed her greatsword into the ground with a thunderous crash. Yellow lightning crackled nearby. It wasn’t just the blade—bolts coiled around her body too.
A booming thunderclap echoed as the entire greatsword became engulfed in lightning, sparks flying nonstop.
“You won’t lay a finger on our promising new recruit. You think I’d let that happen?”
Just standing near her made my skin prickle bit by bit. The hairs on my body stood on end.
Lize and Erika stepped forward too. Chill and flame invaded the space around them, birthing ultra-cold frosty mist and scorching heat haze.
“That reaction just makes me more curious. About the faces you’ll make, helpless as you listen to that guy screaming in agony.”
Arachnaira flashed me a smile. I met it coolly and took a small step back. Not too close, not too far.
Just like the plan.
We’d confirmed via the rock centipedes that the boss’s aggro bounced to whoever attacked. So for the opener, leave it to the knight captains while I hung back.
Then, when she summoned spiderlings, I’d step in against Arachnaira while the captains handled cleanup.
Unthinkable in single-player Brutal 4, but totally doable for us now.
“Come on, as thanks for making it this far, I’ll suck you dry to the last drop. Come to mama, cuties.”
With that—her final line from the boss room entry cutscene—the spider queen spread her arms wide. Taking the cue, the three knight captains charged as one.
Lize struck first, of course. In a flash, she closed on the spider queen’s flank and swung her twin daggers at the hindquarters.
Ice-wreathed blades grazed the body multiple times before slamming toward the ground. She dodged a stomping rear leg and lunged again—then froze mid-motion.
Gray spider silk coated the floor beneath her feet.
“On my web, are we? Bet that makes moving tough.”
Arachnaira cackled and raised her rear leg. Lize ducked just as the sharp claw whistled past her armor’s shoulder.
Green liquid dripped onto the silver plate.
Claudia seized the opening, charging in. She gripped her lightning-clad greatsword two-handed, spun counterclockwise with a massive twist, and brought it crashing down.
The whole valley seemed to shake with a colossal boom. Lightning radiated in a circle from the impact point. Yellow flashes filled the boss room.
But she didn’t stop. Pausing a beat, Claudia yanked the blade up overhead.
This time, swung low to high, the tip pierced the ceiling before arcing back. To keep her stance from twisting, she released her left hand from the hilt, bracing with her right alone.
In that instant, Claudia pivoted, swapping front and back. Another boom rang out. Lightning struck Arachnaira dead-on a beat later.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
A brilliant yellow flash burst, followed by a shrill scream from her mouth.
‘I get the gist of that technique.’
Like the other captains, Claudia was deploying her boss-fight moves intact. That last one was straight out of the pattern repertoire.
With the greatsword’s sheer size, plus swing force and lightning enchantment, her single hits had unmatched destructive power among bosses.
The tradeoff? Huge openings. Dodge once, and each attack became pure downtime. No way that massive spider body could evade that nimbly.
“You rotten bitch!”
Arachnaira staggered back from the direct hit, but the only mark was a faint blade scratch.
Now it was Erika’s turn. She lifted her right foot halfway, pressed her sword arm to her left side, then stomped forward hard and slashed horizontally.
The blade carved across the spider queen’s body.
Flame waves rippled along the swing’s path. Like a tsunami surging onshore, the fire swept the frontal fan-shaped area clean.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
An even more wretched scream erupted. Flames rose from Arachnaira’s body, fully bathed in the fire field from start to finish.
She’d caught the burn status ailment.
Burn dealt continuous damage proportional to the caster’s attack power for 15 seconds, and prevented combat fatigue recovery for its duration.
No big deal for a non-humanoid boss like the spider queen, but that proportional DoT would sting plenty.
Especially since the caster was Erika.
“Eeeeek!”
Arachnaira snarled, flipping her belly and spraying green fluid nearby. The knight captains, forewarned it was poison, retreated swiftly.
The smug face from when Lize first charged was gone. Her expression twisted demonic.
“You should’ve just quietly become food for my babies!”
‘Wait, that pattern already?’
That line came right before summoning spiderlings. Meaning the boss’s HP had already dropped 40%.
The hits? Lize’s combo, a full-charge lightning-enchanted greatsword strike, and a full fire field hit—
‘Yeah, makes sense.’
Minus Lize’s combo, the other two were insta-kills even in vanilla on direct hit. Factoring spec differences, it tracked.
Plus, as a beast-type enemy, the spider queen took bonus from fire and lightning. Our matchup crushed.
Things were going smoother than expected.
“Babies! Awake!”
Arachnaira bellowed. In response, eggshells tore with crackling sounds from all around. The knight captains fell back to my side.
“Now it starts, right, Delta?”
“Yeah. Just like we discussed. I’ll handle the big one.”
She drew her bloodied sword and stabbed her belly, sucking in blood. Confirming the blade fully crimsoned, she pulled it free. Ominous red light pulsed along it.
Soon, spiderlings hatched from the eggs and rained down.