Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Against the Spider Queen
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'Seeing it for real, it's no joke.'
Spiders the size of my knees crawled toward me from all directions, and just watching them swarm made my skin crawl like bugs were skittering across it.
The knight commanders seemed to feel the same, judging by the way the electricity, ice, and flames surging from their bodies expanded even further.
"Leave those to us, so don't worry about them and just charge ahead, Delta."
Lize gave me a light shove. Taking that as her signal, the spiderlings surged toward me like sheep flocking to a shepherd.
"As if!"
Of course, they didn't so much as graze a fingertip before getting swept away by ice and fire.
It was an exquisite display of control—sweeping away a wide enough area to clear my path without catching me in the crossfire.
Each of the knight commanders had some kind of area-of-effect attack, so they handled crowd control flawlessly.
Claudia just swung her greatsword around, and spiderlings burst like overripe fruit, the lightning coiling around the blade making her effective range massive.
Lize was the same—before the spiderlings could even attack, the thick frost fog and ice fields blanketing the area slowed them to a crawl, leaving them shivering and freezing solid.
No need to even mention Erika. She simply cloaked herself in flames and swung her weapons wildly, and the fire spread on its own, incinerating every spiderling in sight.
"Here to feed me?"
Arachnaira—the one who'd been summoning spiderlings and hanging back near the wall—composed her expression as I approached and flashed a seductive smile with a sultry voice.
"Nope. Here to kill you."
"Kill me? You? Me?"
She cackled in response. I calmly assumed my stance. Plenty of time, anyway. Before the buff wore off, the knight commanders would finish off the spiderlings and join me.
"Think you can?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"You've got a reason to doubt it right here."
Squish. Her slender fingers clutched her breast, kneading it softly. Then she teasingly brushed the pink tip at the edge.
She added a cute moan and flirtatious wriggle. The motions were so natural, like she'd done this a thousand times.
No, not like—she definitely had. As a boss that lured and devoured humans, it was her schtick.
"You're seriously misunderstanding. My reaction earlier wasn't because I lost my head over your chest."
"Really? Then why don't we let my body ask yours directly?"
Regaining some composure while chatting with me, the spider queen removed her hand from her breast, her face now blooming with an even more bewitching smile.
Sure, she was a seductive man-eater by design, but this was my first time as a player actually falling under her charm.
Boss fights didn't usually involve chit-chat. Unless it was the boss monologuing at you.
"If you can, go ahead."
I moved first. Charging at Arachnaira, I sidestepped the dark gray patches blanketing the floor while keeping an eye on her arms and legs.
The spider half's left front leg rose. A poison-coated strike.
Like how blocking Lize's attacks still built up frostbite, any contact with Arachnaira's leg attacks—block or parry—built up poison stacks. Best to roll dodge.
I rolled past the slamming leg, slipped to her side, and swung my sword. A faint gash bloomed where the red blade grazed.
"Kyaaang!"
A strangely erotic moan escaped her. When she'd taken hits from the knight commanders earlier, it was pure pain. This felt more like she was playing along.
Or maybe still trying to seduce me.
"It really hurts, you know."
Arachnaira slinked her body seductively, bringing her fingers to her lips. She stuck out her tongue, slathered saliva on them with a lewd lick, and rubbed the scratch.
Utterly relaxed.
Compared to the knight commanders who chunked over 40% of her HP in three hits, my damage was chump change she could afford to tank.
'Let's see how long that lasts.'
I closed the distance again. The spider queen thrust an arm at me. Grab attack. I rolled backward twice to evade.
Her arm sliced empty air, and I countered with a slash. This time, a red line etched across her pale, smooth skin.
She fiddled with the cut on her forearm for a moment, her face twitching as she forced the grimace away and glared at me.
"No resisting now. Keep it up, and I'll punish you."
"Told you—if you can, do it. All talk so far. What's the holdup?"
That hit the mark. Arachnaira's expression finally twisted into the vicious snarl she'd worn against the knight commanders. No more pretending.
The back-and-forth continued, but it was less a fight and more me toying with her unilaterally. Red lines multiplied across her upper body.
"I'm not going to let you die easy—guhck!"
Arachnaira, glaring daggers in full rage, took a blue dagger straight to the ribs and choked out a gurgle.
"Coming to help, Delta! You held out great!"
The dagger arced back to Lize's hand, defying physics. The spiderlings charging the commanders were all cleared.
Their corpses littered the floor—charred by lightning, frozen solid by chill, reduced to ash by fire.
"Aaaah! My precious babies!"
Seeing it, Arachnaira shrieked in near-hysteria. Her composure was gone.
"Precious babies you send into battle?"
"Probably trying to toughen them up. Too bad the opponents were way too strong."
"...You know, Erika, you seem quiet, but you sure don't hold back on the snark."
"If you're saying I take after my sister, I'm not letting that slide, Claudia."
Erika and Claudia traded barbs oddly while following Lize. Sisters gonna sister—Erika had that sharp tongue too, in her subtle way.
Confirming Arachnaira turning toward Lize, I quickly backed off. No need to pull aggro and complicate things.
Plenty of time left on the bloodied sword buff, and if it expired, I could potion up and reactivate.
Good thing the Silver Dawn Knights route let me stock basic potions via Iris.
Incidentally, there were potions that restored less but regenerated infinite uses on rest. Useless in Nakra mode where any hit was a one-shot, so I never grabbed them.
"Grraaah!"
A agonized scream echoed through the boss room. While I'd zoned out thinking, the commanders were steamrolling her. Wounds visibly covered her body.
"How dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you!"
Arachnaira staggered back.
That line meant her HP was under 30%. I pulled two potions from my belt pouch and downed them.
Basic ones, so no full heal, but better than nothing. I stabbed the sword into my gut, let it drink blood, then yanked it out.
'Come to think of it, why no pain?'
First time testing this ability, I'd hesitated forever because of the motion. Weirdly, zero pain. Wound even closed on its own.
That's why I could use it casually now, like inputting a command. If it actually hurt, I'd have agonized over it plenty.
Unclear if it was just the bloodied sword or all self-harm buffs.
"Delta! Your turn no—kch?!"
Erika started yelling at me but got cut off, yanked away mid-sentence. Arachnaira had grabbed her. Her body floated high.
'DoT field still up?!'
I hurriedly checked the spider queen's lower half. The flames rippling across the floor finally faded from view.
Back-calculating the DoT duration, Erika must've hit her right after HP dropped below 30%.
The massive damage canceled the pattern, delaying the summon by a beat. And unluckily, Arachnaira followed with a grab.
'Never thought the timing would screw up like this!'
Replicating this: HP under 30%, then huge damage to cancel pattern on one hit, lingering hitbox after, delayed summon, then grab.
Four conditions—near impossible to force. Commanders handled damage fine, but timing was brutal.
I'd hoped it wouldn't happen. But here we were.
"Come out, all of you! My children!"
Arachnaira's bellow rang out, followed by countless eggshells cracking as spiderlings hatched.
Lize and Claudia froze mid-rush to save Erika, eyes flicking between me and her.
"You annoying pest!"
Arachnaira ripped off her iron helm like paper and wrested the katana from Erika's grip, hurling it aside.
Erika struggled desperately, but even a commander couldn't overpower a boss monster. Her armor crumpled like tin foil.
"Delta! Stick by me first! Hurry!"
Lize yanked me close and unleashed a frost storm. Spiderlings approaching me got obliterated. Her eyes stayed locked on Erika.
"This is... getting dangerous!"
Lightning crashed around Claudia. Over ten spiderlings fried in one bolt, but twenty more filled the gap.
Green goo smeared her silver armor, growing. Hoped it wouldn't eat through her or Lize's plate.
"Not a drop of blood left—I'll drain you dry!"
Arachnaira bared her fangs and shoved her face toward Erika.