Spider Queen Arachnainera – 2

Spider Queen Arachnainera.

She was one of the bosses that absolutely had to be defeated to progress the main story in the Silver Dawn Knights’ route. In the early part, the target Claudia departed to subjugate, under the lord’s orders, was precisely this one.

It seems she herself, having only received a rough location without any information, couldn’t have possibly imagined it would be this kind of monster.

As could be inferred from her alias, the “Spider Queen,” Arachnainera was also a boss with the appearance of an incredibly large spider.

To be precise, only her lower body.

Her lower body had the appearance of a spider itself, with eight legs and grotesque patterns, but it had the peculiar form of a human female’s upper body attached to the spider’s head part.

She was even quite beautiful. Even considering that her body was covered up to her neck with a carapace, perhaps due to concerns about censorship if a woman’s naked body were exposed as is.

Because of that, she truly enjoyed cult-like popularity among certain demographics who prefer monster girls, and even if one didn’t particularly like monster girls, she was quite popular as one of the few beautiful female characters in BraDk 4.

Moreover, one of her death scenes was of *that* kind, which made her even more popular.

The patterns themselves were nothing special, befitting an early-game boss; even considering Dark-Light mode, there were only about 10 types. And there was only one phase.

Considering that late-game bosses on average easily exceeded 20 types of patterns, she definitely belonged to the easier side.

That is, except for just one thing: the pattern that summons countless baby spiders.

This pattern, which appears a total of two times-once when her HP drops to 60% and once when it drops to 30%-could be said to be the biggest challenge in Dark-Light mode Arachnainera.

In vanilla, she just summons about 50 spiders, so you can appropriately roll, dodge, and hit them to defeat them all one by one. If it’s too annoying, you can clear them all with area-of-effect magic.

However, in Dark-Light mode, it was different.

The number summoned leaps up: 250 appear when her HP drops to 60%, and a whopping 750 appear all at once when it drops to 30%. That’s why it’s 1000.

For computers barely meeting the minimum specifications, it was countless cases where they would get overloaded in the second situation, causing the main unit to make a loud, strained noise or simply crash entirely, unable to endure further.

First of all, the HP of the baby spiders themselves was so low that anything that grazed them would kill them. It was only 1 HP in the first playthrough, and even in the highest playthrough, it was only 11.

It’s because the number is so fucking high, and they swarm all at once from all directions.

Moreover, like their mother, the Spider Queen, they even accumulate poison. If you allowed a baby spider to attack you, you’d either die groaning from stun-lock or die wheezing from poison; it was one or the other.

“That’s why I said we needed a type of attack magic that could continuously sweep a wide area. What fits that perfectly is you, Erica, isn’t it?”

Or, use the magic obtained by defeating the Burning Golem.

To reliably deal with the baby spiders, an attack that could project damage ‘continuously,’ ‘over a wide area,’ and ‘quickly’ was essential, and the magic that perfectly met those conditions was precisely the reward for defeating the Burning Golem.

Flame Spinning Ring.

A magic that creates a ring of flames centered on the caster for 30 seconds.

The casting speed was fast, the duration was also quite long, and mana consumption was low, but in return, the damage was miserably low. Yet, even with that miserably low damage, baby spiders could be defeated in one hit, so it was perfect for countering the summon pattern.

The strategy itself was to use the magic when the pattern started, run like hell, and repeat the act of burning the baby spiders until the boss room was completely cleared, so that says it all.

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

Having heard my explanation, the expressions of Rije, Erica, and Claudia gradually soured.

Iris backed out, saying it was a monster that didn’t suit her and that she couldn’t hold us back. Anyway, someone had to stay to guard the castle.

“Now I understand why Delta-ssi emphasized so much that we unconditionally needed to be able to attack a wide area. Baby spiders, huh…”

“Moreover, they have poison in their teeth and claws, you say? We absolutely have to catch them before they get close.”

“At first, when you said ‘a thousand spiders,’ I wondered what on earth it was, but then it makes sense. Among monsters, there are also swarm-type monsters, so I’ll just think of them as roughly a similar type.”

The Knight Captains each uttered a word. All three, even if they seemed to grumble that it was disgusting, showed no sense of fear towards Arachnainera at all.

“It’s here. We’ve arrived.”

I stopped speaking. The Knight Captains also stood in place, following me. We were at the entrance of a certain valley where the forest was densely overgrown.

Inside there, even though it was clearly daytime, it was dark because the trees were so densely overgrown. Only a few streaks of sunlight barely shone through the leaves.

“At first glance, it looks like a place that would have a lot of bugs.”

Erica said with a look of disgust. I agreed. I didn’t know when I saw it in game graphics, but after checking it directly, it’s no different from a jungle.

“Alright. Then let’s check again.”

Shring, we each drew our weapons. The horses were well hidden with the gem we used last time when we went to catch the Rock Centipede.

“The poison is applied where, you said?”

“It’s the spider-shaped lower body. The human-shaped upper body doesn’t matter. Even if you get hit a couple of times, you’ll get poisoned, so you said to maintain distance except when attacking, right?”

“What about the web attack?”

“It’s best to avoid it if possible, but if it comes simultaneously with another attack, avoid the other one and take the web attack, you said. Even if you get hit once or twice, you can quickly tear it off.”

“If you get hit more than that, you won’t be able to tear it off, so you’ll have to be careful on your own.”

“I’ve explained all the behaviors it shows, so… Oh, and just in case. The place we have to fight might be quite disgusting. I’m telling you not to be shocked. Understood?”

“…How disgusting is it?”

“It’s hard to explain in words. You’ll just know when you see it directly, so just prepare yourself mentally.”

You can just consider it a degraded version of the Bug Dungeon we’ll have to visit later.

Conversely, that would mean the Bug Dungeon, which is an enhanced version of Arachnainera’s boss room, is truly a hellhole beyond imagination.

With the final check finished, we moved our steps towards the Spider Queen’s boss room. I, who knew the way, took the lead, and the other three were positioned to flank me from the sides and behind.

The path was incredibly rough. Tree roots were spread out everywhere, causing us to almost trip several times, and it was full of all sorts of weeds; the plant stems were so tough they wouldn’t even cut properly.

If Rije hadn’t cleared the path by freezing all the plants blocking the way and then breaking them, it would have taken much more time.

“…At a glance, it’s here. Right?”

“Somehow, I can already predict the interior scenery.”

The place we stopped was in front of the path leading much deeper into the valley.

Instead of weeds, trees, and plants, it was covered in spiderwebs.

Rije stomped on the ground once with a thud and lifted her foot. Spiderwebs stuck stickily to the bottom of her silver sabaton. Shaking her foot a few times didn’t easily dislodge them.

“This, can we really move properly?”

“Try not to step on places with strong gray light if possible. It’ll be hard to move properly.”

Even in the game, in places covered in spiderwebs, rolling was fixed to the slowest roll, and you couldn’t walk or run fast; you absolutely had to walk. It was right to avoid places covered in spiderwebs.

“But it’s gray everywhere?”

It’s just that it’s harder to find places not covered in spiderwebs.

“That’s why I said ‘if possible.’ There’s nothing we can do.”

“This, can’t we burn it?”

“Uh… well. I don’t really know. Why don’t you try it once?”

Erica, who heard my words, without hesitation infused her sword with flames and swung it horizontally. The flames swept through the spiderwebs, but they didn’t burn.

“It doesn’t work.”

Erica cleanly gave up and stepped back.

Actually, at first, I thought about asking Rije to freeze the floor and go, but I decided against it, thinking it would be better to fight on spiderwebs rather than on ice.

“Still, inside there, it should be somewhat okay. Let’s go in.”

From now on, since it was a straight path, Claudia took the lead and entered the valley. Next was Rije, third was me, and last was Erica.

In the middle, about ten to fifteen spiders the size of my thigh appeared in a line, but Claudia alone swung her greatsword and cleared them all out.

The ones that just appeared were the baby spiders that appear in the Spider Queen’s summon pattern.

The deeper we went inside, the spiderwebs surrounding the valley walls became thicker and thicker, and conversely, the number of spiders attacking us gradually decreased. From all directions, a musty smell wafted.

“…Ugh.”

Not long after, we arrived at Arachnainera’s boss room. As soon as that happened, Erica let out a groan. The other two also didn’t particularly show it outwardly, but they definitely weren’t feeling good.

All around, it was teeming with green eggs.

Not only the walls, but also the ceiling covered in spiderwebs and the floor near the walls were densely covered with round-shaped eggs. Beyond the membrane of the eggs, the silhouette of baby spiders was faintly visible.

Places where eggs weren’t laid were covered in spiderwebs, and places not covered in spiderwebs had eggs laid. Stuck here and there, the dried-up human corpses were a bonus.

“Oh my, are you guests?”

From among the eggs, a very seductive voice was heard, and the Spider Queen walked forward. Perhaps due to the thick spiderwebs covering the floor, there was no sound of footsteps at all.

As the distance gradually closed, its appearance could finally be seen clearly.

Overall green, with grotesque patterns, the lower body of a giant spider, and attached to the head part of the spider’s body, a beautiful female’s upper body. It was unmistakably the Spider Queen.

Her dark green hair hung long down to her waist, and because she wore nothing on her upper body, her pale, almost gray skin was exposed without reservation. Her eyes and lips were green.

Having confirmed us, the Spider Queen spread both her arms wide to her sides as if welcoming guests. In sync with that movement, her bare breasts greatly swayed.

Following the other Knight Captains, I was about to prepare for battle, but wondering if I had seen wrong, I paused my movements for a moment and looked at Arachnainera again.

‘…Oh?’

Why is she naked?