Spider Queen Arachnainera – 3

“Prey walking right into my grasp, what should I do with such gratitude? I have nothing to repay you with.”

Arachnainera supported her chest from underneath with her right arm, propped her left elbow up, rested her chin on the back of her right hand, and looked down at us.

Given her posture, her ample bosom, completely unclothed, seemed even more emphasized. I didn’t particularly want to think about the pink protrusions visible between her green hair.

‘……Had there been an update?’

Frozen blankly, I racked my brain. When I had previously installed the NPC Retouching Mod, the bosses’ appearances hadn’t been altered yet.

After completing the first playthrough, I couldn’t overcome the dissonance between the voice and appearance, so I deleted it.

From then on, the Darkest Light Mod came out, and I was so engrossed in it that I had no time to pay attention to anything else. So, what I remembered was only up to the first release version.

Apparently, while I was absorbed in the Darkest Light Mod, the NPC Retouching Mod also seemed to have gone through quite a few updates.

‘Right. It would be strange if it hadn’t.’

Even the Darkest Light Mod had released all sorts of patches, along with minor bug fixes, until the declaration of its final update came out. So, why wouldn’t a visual alteration mod have updated?

“Delta.”

At Rije’s chillingly cold voice, heard right next to me, I quickly stopped thinking and snapped back to reality.

As I turned my head, I saw Rije looking at me indifferently, literally spewing ice and cold around her armor.

I couldn’t see her expression because of the helmet, but precisely because I couldn’t see her expression, it was even more chilling.

“What are you looking at?”

The moment I heard her ask what I was looking at, I realized why Rije was reacting this way.

As soon as I looked at the human-shaped upper body, I froze blankly and fell into thought, so she must have mistaken it for me being distracted by those bare breasts.

In reality, I was surprised because she wasn’t covered in carapace like the appearance in my memory, but rather completely unclothed. But anyway, if you only looked at the surface, it was a situation sufficient to cause a misunderstanding.

“……”

I needed to clear up the misunderstanding, but I didn’t know where to even begin, and my words caught in my throat. Should I first explain why I froze while looking at her chest, of all places?

‘If I just keep my mouth shut like this, the misunderstanding will only deepen, so I have to say something-‘

“Delta.”

Rije called me once more. I gave up on making excuses and quietly waited for her next words. At that moment, no answer came to mind.

“If you want to see bare breasts that much, I’ll show you later. So look away. Understood?”

However, what came out of Rije’s mouth was something completely beyond my expectations.

Erica and I, who heard those words, were startled at the same time and snapped our heads up. Claudia, for some reason, was looking at us with an expression that was predictable even inside her helmet.

This time, I couldn’t help but freeze blankly in a different sense. I genuinely thought my ears had deceived me just now. Show what?

“U-Unnie. What did you just say……”

“Quiet, Erica. You need to focus.”

Erica tried to ask back in a trembling voice, but Rije cut her off sharply.

If it had been her usual playful tone, I would have just let it slide, but because her voice was quite serious, it seemed I couldn’t just brush it off.

‘After we subjugate that thing, I’ll have to clear up Rije’s misunderstanding first.’

If I make even a slight mistake, I might wake up in the same bed the next morning.

And what’s more, both of us naked.

“Aha, I roughly get it.”

As if our conversation was heard entirely, the Spider Queen deliberately emphasized her chest and giggled. A mass of fat, similar in size to her head, changed shape with the movement of her fingers.

This time, I quickly averted my gaze. One misunderstanding was enough.

“That man in the middle must be very important to you, huh? Understood. I’ll suck him dry first. Very slowly. While listening to the screams he’ll let out until just before he dies.”

Between her green lips, a green tongue darted out, licked the corner of her mouth, and went back in.

“That won’t happen.”

Claudia slammed her greatsword onto the ground with a KWAANG! sound. Yellow lightning swirled nearby. Not just the greatsword, but lightning was also coiling around various parts of Claudia’s body.

A KWAREUREUREUNG! thunderous sound echoed, and the entire greatsword became covered in lightning, continuously spitting sparks.

“You can’t lay a single finger on our esteemed new member. Do you think I’d let that happen?”

Just by standing nearby, my skin tingled slightly. It felt like the hairs on my entire body were standing on end.

Rije and Erica also stepped forward. Cold and flame encroached upon the surrounding space, creating extremely cold frosty mist and extremely hot heat haze.

“Such a reaction only makes me more curious. Like, what beautiful expressions you all will make when that man has to listen to his own screams while helplessly captured.”

Arachnainera gave me a knowing smile. I indifferently accepted that smile and retreated a little. A distance that was neither too close nor too far.

It was according to the strategy we had set beforehand.

Through the Rock Centipede, we confirmed that the boss’s aggro would jump to the attacked target, so for the first attack, we’d leave it to the Knight Commanders, and I just needed to stay far away.

And during the pattern where she summons baby spiders, I would step forward and fight Arachnainera, while the Knight Commanders would focus on dealing with the baby spiders.

If it were BraDk 4, a complete single-player game, it would be an unimaginable strategy, but for us now, it was entirely possible.

“Alright, as a reward for coming all this way, I’ll suck you dry, leaving not a single drop of blood. Come here, my darlings.”

Having uttered the final line of the boss room entry cutscene, the Spider Queen spread her arms wide, and taking that as a signal, the three Knight Commanders simultaneously charged in.

The one who initiated the attack first was, as expected, Rije. Rije, who instantly approached the Spider Queen’s flank, swung her twin daggers towards its right rear.

The ice-covered daggers grazed its body several times. Then, after dodging a hind leg that slammed down onto the ground, as she was about to charge in again, she abruptly stopped her movement.

Beneath her feet, gray spiderwebs were spread.

“You’re on a spiderweb, aren’t you? It’ll be hard to move, won’t it?”

Arachnainera cackled and lifted a hind leg. Immediately after Rije ducked, a sharp claw narrowly grazed the shoulder part of her armor.

Green liquid dripped onto the silver armor.

Taking advantage of that opening, Claudia charged in. Holding the lightning-covered greatsword with both hands, she rotated her body counter-clockwise, twisting her arms widely, and swung it down from top to bottom as if slamming it.

A KWAANG! sound, as if the entire valley was vibrating, echoed. Centered on the spot where the greatsword was slammed down, lightning spread in a circle. Yellow flashes filled the boss room.

The attack didn’t stop there. Claudia seemed to pause her movement for a moment, then immediately pulled out her greatsword and raised it upwards.

This time, the greatsword swung from bottom to top, pointed its tip at the ceiling, then went behind her. Perhaps to prevent her posture from twisting, she took her left hand off the hilt and supported it with only her right hand.

Claudia used that brief moment to turn her body and reverse her stance. A KWAANG! sound echoed once more. The lightning that struck a moment later directly hit Arachnainera’s body.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

A bright yellow flash gleamed, and a shrill scream burst from her mouth.

‘I roughly know what kind of skill that is.’

Just like the other Knight Commanders, Claudia was also using the skills she used in boss battles exactly as they were. The recent attack was also one of the boss battle patterns.

Given the size of the greatsword, and because it was an attack enchanted with lightning in addition to the swinging force, Claudia was a boss whose single-hit destructive power was unrivaled.

Instead, there were also many openings, so if you just dodged, each attack was a damage window. But with that huge spider body, such quick movements couldn’t possibly be possible.

“You rotten creature!”

Arachnainera, who took Claudia’s attack squarely, stumbled and retreated. Of course, the only injury she sustained from taking that direct hit was a faint sword mark.

Now it was Erica’s turn to step forward. Raising her right foot halfway up, placing her sword-wielding right hand against her left flank, she stomped her foot forward with a loud KWAANG! and swung it horizontally.

The blade sliced through the Spider Queen’s body.

Along the trajectory of the swung sword, a wave made of flames surged. As if a tsunami was sweeping onto land, the wave of flame swept away the entire fan-shaped area in front.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

An even more desperate scream burst out. Completely covered by the flame field from beginning to end, flames rose from Arachnainera’s body.

It meant she had been afflicted with Burn, one of the status effects.

If afflicted with Burn, they receive continuous damage proportional to the caster’s attack power for 15 seconds, and cannot recover battle fatigue while the burn persists.

Since the Spider Queen isn’t a humanoid boss, the option of not being able to recover battle fatigue doesn’t have much meaning. But the continuous damage proportional to the caster’s attack power will hurt quite a lot.

That’s because the caster is Erica.

“Eeeek!”

Arachnainera hissed, flipped onto her belly, and sprayed green bodily fluid nearby. Having received information beforehand and knowing that it was poison, the Knight Commanders quickly retreated.

Her face, which had been full of composure when Rije first charged in, could not be found at all. Her expression was twisted like that of a demon.

“It would have been good if you had quietly become nourishment for our children!”

‘Huh? That pattern is already coming out?’

What Arachnainera just uttered was the line that appears right before she summons baby spiders. That is to say, it also meant that the boss’s HP had already been reduced by as much as 40%.

The attacks she took were Rije’s combo attacks, the lightning-enchanted greatsword’s full-charge attack, and the flame field’s full hit-

‘It was already time for it to come out, I see.’

The other two, excluding Rije’s combo attacks, were attacks that guaranteed death if hit squarely, even in vanilla. Considering the spec difference between the two bosses, it was entirely plausible.

Furthermore, the Spider Queen is a biological type enemy, so she takes additional damage from fire and lightning. Since the elemental affinity was overwhelmingly in our favor, there was nothing more to see.

The situation was unfolding more easily than expected.

“Children! Awaken!”

Arachnainera shouted at the top of her lungs. As if answering her call, a Jjijikgeorimyeo sound of eggshells tearing could be heard from all directions. The Knight Commanders gathered by my side.

“It’s starting now, Delta?”

“Yes. Please just do as I told you. I will handle that giant one.”

I drew my blood-stained sword, stabbed it into her belly, and sucked up blood. After confirming that the blade was dyed red to its limit, I pulled out the sword. An ominous red glow swirled around the blade.

Before long, baby spiders born from eggs began pouring down.