The Jormongumo lunging at him forced Kaldalis on the defensive. At first, Kaldalis thought she was wielding twin daggers, but when she approached, they were clearly more like broadswords. The monster’s eight arms meant that with longer handles, the weapons could be supported by multiple hands, and the large blades could be wielded with deadly efficiency.

Kaldalis was unarmed, and it would take precious seconds navigating his menus to equip his sword and shield. So instead he was forced to back off, ducking under the first blow. He couldn’t use his weapon skills while unarmed, so he couldn’t evade the enraged snake-spider-woman.

He found himself leaning into the evasive fighting style he’d picked up against the assassin in Baimer, rolling his shoulder as the next attack came to try and minimize the impact. Unfortunately, it didn’t mean anything. The attack struck firmly enough to do damage, and his attempt to turn it into a glancing blow didn’t do anything to mitigate it. Thanks to his increased stats, though, he only suffered two hundred and six damage. A very manageable number.

“Kal,” Balrim barked. “On your left!”

Kaldalis took a half-step right, and Myrin bolted past him, carving into the Jormongumo. Right behind her, his spear tumbled through the air. It was a clumsy throw from Balrim, but Kaldalis’s dexterity - along with a healthy serving of unearned confidence - guided his hand to snatch the weapon from the air when it reached him. With spear in hand, Kaldalis quickly jabbed the enraged monster in the gut, and leaped back, trying to use the weapon’s reach to establish some distance.

The strike did two hundred and fifteen damage, though it failed to proc the poison on his spear. He didn’t expect to apply the debuff against the Jormongumo. Their natural poison likely meant that their affinity for the debuff was very high, making them very resistant.

Overworld aggro rules meant that after striking the Jormongumo, she wasn’t able to target anyone else. As she shrieked and lunged at him again, Kaldalis suspected that she would have kept her focus on him anyway, after his perceived betrayal. Her hands turned the two broadswords into a web of steel that Kaldalis could just barely keep ahead of. He tried to interrupt her by thrusting his spear towards her, but she was such a skillful fighter that his attacks were swatted aside with ease.

“I understand that you’re upset,” Kaldalis said as he danced back, struggling to keep just out of her reach. “But I’m sure we can reach a peaceful solution here. I promise, I’m not here to hurt anyone, least of all you.”

Instead of forming a coherent response, the Jormongumo screamed and redoubled her assault. One of her blades caught his spear and sent the head out wide before closing with the other. The weapon smashed into him, but Shrug Off meant that he was able to stand his ground, the ability shield letting him absorb the blow without taking damage to his hit points. Before he could bring his defenses back to bear, her weapons lashed out again. One of the strikes landed solidly, chipping out another chunk of his shield, but the lack of knockback or flinch meant that he was able to slip to one side and let the other attack pass him by.

“I’m not really sure where to go with that,” Kaldalis said desperately. “I am trying to listen to your issues so that I can address them, but I’m not getting anything I can use constructively.”

As she closed in, using her blades to pin him down, the Jormongumo’s lower arms reached for Kaldalis, attempting to grapple with him. While he wanted to deescalate the situation, he found himself gripped by sudden fear. Her reaching claws and bared fangs - along with the other monstrous aspects of her appearance - reminded him of Ara. Briefly, he was transported back to that night, alone in the jungle.

Kaldalis dove to the right, rolling quickly away from the Jormongumo. When he came up, he swept the head of his polearm through the Jormongumo, dishing out another two hundred and fifteen damage. As much as he wanted to end this with words, it was clearly not happening. Not to mention that his fight or flight instinct had been kicked into overdrive by the sudden reminder of what Ara had nearly done to him. If this was how she wanted it, this was how it would be.

The Jormongumo whirled, focusing intently on Kaldalis, even as Myrin circled around to keep hacking away at her serpentine body behind her. Before she turned, Kaldalis got a brief look at her back, where a half-dozen of Balrim’s arrows stuck out of her as well. Her blades swept in at him, and Kaldalis focused on dodging at least one of the two. He could take a few more hits to the shield offered by Shrug Off, and being willing to tank some damage meant he could go on the offensive in turn.

As one blade cleaved through the air right next to one of his horns, Kaldalis drove his spear into her shoulder, letting her other sword crash into his arm. The first weapon came back, and Kaldalis leaned back, letting the tip pass right before his nose. As the second blade came down in a harsh overhead chop, he let the blade come down on his shoulder, the special attribute of Shrug Off letting him physically ignore the impact to drag the blade of his spear across her cheek.

“Die!” she screamed into his face, her weapons flashing back and forth as she tried to cut him to ribbons. “Die and rot!”

“Make me!” Kaldalis yelped back at her. She finally broke through his shield, forcing a hiss out of him at the pain that he was suddenly vulnerable to again.

Activating Endure, he was able to reduce the incoming damage as her blades raked down across the front of him, the blows going from two hundred and six damage to one hundred and sixty-five. As soon as he took the damage, Balrim chucked him a healing potion, quickly restoring him to full.

“Don’t ask the monster for death,” Balrim yelled. “I don’t think that’s a good tanking strategy!”

“I’m just trying to start a dialogue here!” Kaldalis called back.

He drove his spear into her chest, plunging it in deep. The attack would have been a mortal wound in any other circumstance, but it still only did two hundred and fifteen damage. Finally, though, he got a proc of poison, applying the debuff that ticked away at her health a little bit more.

Blades crashed down on Kaldalis’s shoulders. He took the damage easily with his Endure cooldown running, but instead of rearing back for another strike, the Jormongumo pressed down. It didn’t make the weapons do damage again, but her strength against his produced immense pressure. The Jormongumo reared up, raising another foot of her serpentine body beneath her to give her leverage to bear down hard enough to force Kaldalis to his knees.

Kaldalis stabbed her with his spear again, but she just kept pushing down. Her lower arms grabbed his shoulders and upper arms, and her weight forced him to the ground. He tried to flail and kick free of her, but her grip only tightened. Blades hit the ground on either side and suddenly there were more hands. Pinning him down. Blocking his escape. Supporting her weight as she came down on top of him.

Sudden horror and revulsion filled Kaldalis as the hissing monster’s hair cascaded down over his face. He couldn’t see anything, just hair everywhere. His muscles locked up in terror and he froze. Somewhere in that mass of dark hair was a fanged mouth. Even before he saw or felt it, traumatic memory coated his mouth with the sunflower oil taste of Jormongumo venom.

The bite never came.

After a moment, the hair cleared. A gloved hand swept through the mass covering his face, clearing his vision.

Kaldalis was briefly terrified by the sight of an eight-eyed face hovering over his, but the anger in her expression was joined by something new. Fear. They’d passed the threshold to send her running, and given how long Myrin had been allowed to hack away at her undisturbed, she was likely near to dead.

As if to confirm that, Myrin held her sword aloft, but was waiting to bring it down, as if she knew that one more solid strike could end the Jormongumo’s life.

Standing over them was Dalgaard. Her hair was wound around their fist, holding her face back from Kaldalis’s. In their other hand was a dagger pressed up against the Jormongumo’s throat.

“Can we talk about this now?” Kaldalis asked. Despite the situation, he could clearly hear the fear in his own voice. He was shaking, but still he forced himself to be still and walk through the motions of trying to make peace. “This doesn’t have to end in death.”

The Jormongumo twitched her chin up and down. She was trying to nod, but the knife at her throat and Dalgaard’s grip on her hair was stopping her. This was the chance he wanted. Someone with authority and a following could help bring this to a happy conclusion.

With her on their side, maybe they wouldn’t even have to fight Ara at all-

Just below her chin was a side-to-side motion.

Dalgaard sawed her throat open.

Blood drenched Kaldalis’s face and chest.

He sputtered, spitting and trying to wiggle out from under the monster’s body as it collapsed, twitching and thrashing weakly in her death throes.

“Why?” Kaldalis managed as he struggled to free himself. He couldn’t get any headway until Balrim and Myrin moved to his aid, half-lifting the corpse to let him slide out.

“You know why,” Dalgaard said, staring down at Kaldalis as he tried to wipe the blood from his face and neck. “You’re treating this like it’s still a game. To me? It’s not. This is not a paragon run. I’m going to do what you’re too cowardly to. This threat is ending today.”

They jerked their chin towards the building beyond, where Voker and the other mercenaries were gathering to make their assault. “Get your ass off the ground. It’s time for the final boss.”

Kaldalis wanted to spit a biting comment at them about who was treating this like a game. But as soon as he did, he was going to have to blurt out the big secret, and as much as Dalgaard probably needed to know for Kaldalis to get what he wanted out of the upcoming confrontation with Ara, he had to hold his tongue. Hopefully he could get Dalgaard isolated to pass it on quietly instead of announcing it to whatever loudmouth assholes had thrown their lot in with Voker.