Spider Queen Arachnainera – 4

‘Seeing it in person, it’s no joke.’

As I watched spiders, knee-high in size, swarming from all directions, I felt a ticklish sensation, as if bugs were crawling all over my body.

The Knight Commanders seemed to feel no different, as the range of electricity, ice, and flames rising from their bodies expanded even further.

“We’ll handle those, so don’t worry and run, Delta.”

Rije lightly pushed me. Taking that action as a signal, the spiderlings swarmed towards me, like sheep around a shepherd, as I approached the Spider Queen.

“How dare you!”

Of course, they couldn’t even touch a fingertip and were all swept away by ice and flames.

It was an incredibly exquisite control of power, sweeping a wide enough area to secure space for me to run, yet not sweeping me away in the process.

Since each of the Knight Commanders had at least one area-of-effect attack, the cleanup was certainly thorough.

Claudia just had to swing her greatsword around for the spiderlings to burst with thuds, and because lightning was wrapped around her blade, her actual attack range was much larger.

It was the same for Rije; the spiderlings, far from attacking, would slow down and struggle due to the thickly spread frost mist and ice field around them before they could even approach, often freezing solid.

Erica, it went without saying. She was merely wielding her weapon while enveloped in flames, yet the flames spread on their own, burning all the spiderlings to ashes.

“Did you come to be eaten by me?”

Arachnainera, who had summoned the spiderlings and retreated briefly to the wall, composed her expression as I approached, then spoke in a rather alluring voice and smiled with her eyes.

“No, I came to kill you.”

“Kill? You? Me?”

Cackling laughter returned. I calmly took my stance. There was plenty of time anyway. The Knight Commanders would clear all the spiderlings and join in before the buff wore off.

“Can you even do that?”

“Why do you think I can’t?”

“There’s a reason right here, darling.”

*Squish*, a slender, long finger grasped her own chest and gently kneaded it. Then, she lightly stimulated the pink protrusion at the tip of her breast with her finger.

Charming moans and seductive gestures were added. Her movements were so natural that it seemed like an action she had done quite a lot until now.

No, it wasn’t just that it seemed like an action she had done a lot; she probably had done it a lot. Arachnainera was a boss that lured humans to use as nutrients.

“You’re seriously mistaken about something. My initial reaction wasn’t because I was mesmerized by your chest.”

“Really? Then, shall I ask your body directly?”

Having regained a little composure while conversing with me, the Spider Queen’s face, after taking her hand off her chest, now bore a much more captivating smile than before.

According to the setting, she was a monster that lured and devoured people, but this was the first time a player was actually being seduced like this.

It’s not like you could converse with a boss during a boss fight. Unless it was a one-sided rant from their end.

“If you can, then try it.”

It was I who moved first. I charged towards Arachnainera, glancing sideways at the floor to avoid the dark gray areas, while simultaneously observing the movements of her arms and legs.

The left front leg of her spider body was lifted. It was an attack coated with potent venom.

Just as freezing accumulates even if Rije’s attacks are parried, Arachnainera’s leg attacks also accumulate venom status regardless of whether they are parried or defended against. So, dodging by rolling was the correct move.

I rolled to avoid the slamming front leg, burrowed into her side, and swung my sword. A shallow cut appeared where the red blade brushed past.

“Kyaaang!”

A strangely alluring moan escaped her lips. If her reaction to the Knight Commanders’ attacks earlier was clearly one of pain, now it strongly felt like she was doing it out of courtesy since she allowed my attack.

Or perhaps she was still trying to seduce me.

“Really, that hurts, darling.”

Arachnainera twisted her body with a sensual voice and brought a finger close to her mouth. Then, she stuck out her tongue and went “bleh,” letting saliva drop onto her finger, then rubbed the spot where the scratch remained.

It was an action full of composure.

Compared to the Knight Commanders, who blew away over 40% of her HP with just three attacks, she must have thought my attack was well worth taking the hit.

‘Let’s see how long that thought lasts.’

I closed the distance again. The Spider Queen extended an arm towards me. A grab attack. I quickly rolled back a couple of times to retreat.

Arachnainera’s arm sliced through the air, and I took advantage of the opening to swing my sword. This time, a thin red line was etched onto her white, smooth skin.

The Spider Queen, who had been fiddling with the sword mark on her forearm for a moment, twitched her eyes as if trying hard to suppress a distorted expression, then looked at me.

“You shouldn’t resist. If you keep doing that, I’ll punish you, okay?”

“I told you. If you can, then try it. What are you doing, just all talk?”

Perhaps that was the decisive blow, as Arachnainera’s expression finally turned vicious, just like when she faced the Knight Commanders. It seemed she was giving up on wearing a mask now.

The exchange of blows continued thereafter, but to call it an exchange was an overstatement; in reality, it was more like my one-sided mockery. The number of thin red lines on the Spider Queen’s upper body gradually increased.

“I will never let you die peacefully- *Cough*!”

Arachnainera, who had been glaring at me with a face full of anger, was directly hit by a blue dagger that flew into her side, letting out a gasping sound.

“I’ll join in, Delta! You held up well!”

The dagger returned on a trajectory that almost ignored the laws of physics and landed safely in Rije’s hand. All the spiderlings that had charged at the Knight Commanders were completely cleared.

The corpses of spiderlings, scorched by electricity, frozen by cold, and turned to ashes by flames, were lined up on the floor.

“Aaaah! My cute children!”

Upon seeing that sight, Arachnainera screamed as if wailing. There was no trace of composure left in her appearance.

“You call them cute children, yet you send them into battle?”

“Perhaps she was trying to raise them strong. But the opponent was too strong, so they couldn’t endure and died.”

“……If you look closely, Erica, you seem quiet, but you’re secretly the type to say everything you want.”

“If you’re trying to say I’m like my sister, I won’t let that slide, Claudia.”

Erica and Claudia exchanged strange words and followed behind Rije. As if they weren’t sisters, Erica did have a side where she subtly didn’t hold back her words.

Confirming that Arachnainera had turned her head towards Rije, I quickly retreated. After all, if aggro jumped, only I would get a headache.

Although the buff duration of the Blood-Stained Sword still had quite a lot of time left, even if the buff wore off, I could just replenish my HP with potions and use it again.

It was fortunate that in the Silver Dawn Knight Order route, I could procure a moderate amount of low-grade potions through Iris.

Incidentally, there are also potions whose uses regenerate infinitely with rest, even if the recovery amount is a bit small. I just didn’t get them because they were useless in a Dark Souls-like mode where anything you get hit by is a one-shot kill.

“Ugh!”

A desperate scream echoed in the boss room. While I was lost in thought for a moment, the Knight Commanders were unilaterally pushing Arachnainera back. The number of wounds on her entire body had noticeably increased.

“How dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you!”

Arachnainera staggered and retreated.

Her saying that line meant her HP had dropped below 30%. I took out two potions from the bag at my waist and gulped them down.

Since they were low-grade, they wouldn’t fully restore my HP, but it was better than nothing. I stabbed the sword deep into my stomach, absorbed blood, and pulled it out again.

‘Now that I think about it, why don’t I feel pain?’

Because of the nature of the action, when I first tested this special ability, I really hesitated for a long time before stabbing it in, but strangely, I felt no pain at all. Even the wound healed automatically.

That was also the reason why I could now use it so casually, as if inputting a command. Honestly, if I really had to endure pain and stab my stomach, I would have thought about it a lot.

It was unknown whether only the Blood-Stained Sword was an exception, or if all other self-harm type buffs were like that.

“Delta-ssi! Now it’s Delta-ssi’s turn- *Gasp*?!”

Erica, who was about to shout at me, couldn’t finish her sentence and was suddenly dragged away. Arachnainera had snatched Erica. Her body floated high up.

‘Was the field still active?!’

I quickly checked the Spider Queen’s lower body. Only then did the sight of the surging flames on the floor disappearing come into view.

If you calculate back the duration of the flame field, it was clear that Erica had attacked immediately after the Spider Queen’s HP dropped below 30%.

Due to that immense damage, the pattern was canceled, delaying the summon by one beat, and of all things, with terrible luck, Arachnainera used a grab pattern.

‘I never thought the timing would get so twisted!’

To reproduce this situation, an attack must land immediately after Arachnainera’s HP is reduced below 30%, immense damage must be dealt to cancel the pattern in one attack, the attack hitbox must remain for a while after the damage is dealt, and Arachnainera, whose summon pattern was canceled, must use a grab.

Since there were four conditions attached, it was a situation difficult to even attempt intentionally from the start. Even if the damage-related conditions were met because they were Knight Commanders, the attack timing was truly close to extremely difficult to match.

So I thought, ‘no way,’ but I never imagined that ‘no way’ would actually happen.

“Come out, all of you! My children!”

Arachnainera’s voice echoed loudly, and soon after, countless sounds of spiderlings tearing eggshells and coming out were heard.

Rije and Claudia, who had rushed to rescue Erica, stopped abruptly as if overloaded. Their gaze alternately turned towards me and Erica.

“You annoying thing!”

Arachnainera tore off Erica’s iron helmet as if tearing cardboard, then even roughly snatched away the katana in Erica’s hand and threw it.

Erica struggled desperately in her own way, but no matter that she was a Knight Commander, she could not defeat a monster that was a boss by force. Her armor crumpled like paper.

“Delta! Stick close to me for now! Quickly!”

Rije sharply pulled me and created a frost storm. The spiderlings approaching me were swept away at once. Even so, Rije’s gaze was constantly directed towards Erica.

“This is a bit…… dangerous!”

Lightning struck down around Claudia. More than ten spiderlings died from a single lightning strike, but more than twenty spiderlings filled their place.

The green liquid staining the silver armor gradually increased. I wanted to believe it wouldn’t melt Claudia and Rije’s armor.

“I’ll suck you dry, leaving not a single drop of blood!”

Arachnainera, with sharp fangs, thrust her face towards Erica.