The inside of the boss room is dimly lit with torch sconces adorning the walls. The wall themselves have pillars embedded within, seemingly carved out of the stone. The room has an open floor plan that is at least 500m long and wide with a height of half that.

Warning You have entered the lair of the Black Widow.

I can already hear the sounds of swords clashing against the spiders’ carapace. The vanguard is occupied by the hundreds if not thousands of spiderlings. Compared to this, the group of spiders I fought before was nothing. Besides, these spiderlings, although the same level as the other spiders, are an upgraded version. Despite this, the vanguard of over 1,000 players seems to be managing.

A path has been cleared toward the centre of the room, so our group goes in unhindered. If it weren’t for us needing to save our strength, I would be fighting along side the vanguard. Each spiderling should give 30 experience, similar to the other spiders I fought.

Our group stops in the centre of the room, just outside of the boss’s range based on information from the scouting group.

“Everyone be ready! It could spawn at any point!”

It is the calm before the storm and everyone is on edge. Some of us won’t make it back, but I think everyone here has accepted that. Otherwise, they would be cowering in safety. A few minutes go by, and by this time the vanguard has taken care of at least half of the spiderlings, but this is not without heavy losses. When I fought the spiders, I only had to deal with one at a time, two at the most, but my back was always covered. However, the situation here is entirely different. An open floor, surrounded by enemies, while fighting with unreliable allies.

While I’m think of this, some rocks fell from the roof. Not many pay attention to it, but Ilyena beside me becomes on full alert.

“What’s wrong?”

“The boss room should be made of a highly resistant material. Notice how none of the walls are even scratched. Yet now, rocks are falling from above. What monster would be strong enough to damage the ceiling.”

Then it dawned on me. The only thing strong enough for that is the boss. Assuming the boss need to physically come in contact with the ceiling to break the rock, it could only mean one thing.

The boss is directly above us.

I grab Ilyena’s hand and start guiding her towards the outside of the group. She was resistive at first, but quickly became submissive and allowed me to lead her. Players watch as we go by, but only fleeting glances. By the time we make it to the edge, that is when the panic started.

“It’s above us!!” A male player points to the ceiling and shouts.

“AHH!”

“HOLD YOUR GROUND!”

At this point the boss, reacting to the panic, leaps towards the ground. This is why I silently took Ilyena towards the edge. It’s legs spread out ready to pierce through our defence. It crashes to the ground with enough force to shake the room. Dust comes up from the middle of the group where it landed, and screams of horror can be heard within.

“SHIELDS!”

Those players from the bigger guilds are quicker to respond, but they cannot escape from the feeling of terror. When the last scream fades, the room becomes quiet. The vanguard on the outer perimeter are still fighting, but they know the boss has arrived.

At the dust begins to settle, the knights with their large tower shields move to the front, surrounding the boss. Knights boast the highest defence of all players, so they are the frontline fighters. Finally, it’s figure becomes visible. It is a similar size to the Colossal Arachnid, but with a major difference. The Black Widow is an arachne. The spider part of it’s body is a sleek black shade that blends into the darkness. On it’s underside is the characteristic red hourglass. The upper human half is that of a hideously beautiful woman. Hideous in the sense that she has no regard for lower life forms, but beautiful in the sense that if she were human, she would be a 10/10 beauty. Two long green health bars exist above her head along with the words: Level 20.

Over ten bodies of those unable to escape her surprise attack lay at her feet. I am disappointed to see that Zhaos has escaped unharmed, but a few of his red guards have met their fate. Their bodies will disappear in less than a minute, leaving some of their weapons and armours on the ground, but no one is will to get close to the Black Widow.

“MAGES!” Davion yells, “FIRE!”

Suddenly, magic fills the air as dozens of spells are shot towards the Black Widow.

“ARCHERS!”

There are fewer archers than mages; however, plenty of arrows fly towards her nonetheless. All the attacks hit her and manage to shave off a few tiny slivers of her first health bar. My heart drops at the thought. It is only then that I notice I had not let go of Ilyena’s hand, but rather had squeezed it tighter. Realizing this, I let go and ready my blades.

The Black Widow makes her first move. She rushes towards those knights at the forefront. They all look ready to collapse in fear, but steadily hold their ground. She lunges towards one of the knights, and the poor bastard can only curse his luck as the attack hits and he is sent flying backwards.

Those nearby take advantage of this to launch attacks against her. Despite being surrounded and attacked on all sides, she is not taking much damage.

“Ilyena, let’s go.”

“Mn”

Brandishing our swords, we rush side by side towards the boss. We weave through the line of players and with perfect synchronization we leap into the boss’s back. The Black Widow is too occupied with the knights and warriors, that us two assassins go unnoticed. We continuously stab the boss while trying to not be thrown off. The damage numbers keep popping up without end. In the midst of this, my One-Handed Sword skill becomes level 2. I can’t focus on the notification, but I briefly see that it grants me a 20% boost while wielding one-handed swords.

The orderly positioning has already been disrupted. The boss jumps towards a warrior with his shield raised, and Ilyena and I are thrown off in the process. A small damage number appears as a chunk of my health is taken away by the fall, but it could be worse. When I look up, I see that warrior has already collapsed. However, another steps up to take his place.

I look around and see those so called leaders standing in safety near the edge of the battle. So, we have to risk our lives, while they stand by and watch? Each are surrounded by a handful of elite guards as they observe the battle.

By this point, the boss’s health has dropped to 1/4. The losses have lessened over time as the weaker players got weeded out. Ilyena and I work towards burst damage and use a switching tactic to deal continuous damage to the boss. The mages, unable to support rapid use of their spells, have switched to a rotation based approach. This is similar to the tactic we used to fight the Colossal Arachnid.

The knights have been taking the brunt of the damage, but since the priests are constantly healing them, they are just barely able to hold out. One of the knights, a particularly large fellow, sends a powerful attack at the arachne. This causes Black Widow to retreat a few meters; however, she uses this opportunity to spit out a noxious poison at the fellow.

He blocks the majority of it with his tower shield, but a bit splashes on his body. Suddenly, green damage numbers appear on his body as his health slowly gets eaten away by the poison. The priests immediately cast their holy magic on him, but their is no detoxifying spell at their current level. Thankfully, with the priest’s intervention and the knight’s high base health, the poison wears off before his life is claimed.

Note to self. Do not get hit by the poison.

By chance, I see a certain red haired girl off in the distance while I am watching the knight go behind the frontline. She is firing arrows from a position closer to my location, so the spiderlings cannot reach her. However, I hope she will be safe, but if she has lasted this long she should be fine.

Back to the fight, Ilyena is ready to switch with me, so I run up and replace her. This time, rather than jumping onto the boss’s back, I go around behind her, and aim for her underbelly. I had seen this move in a very famous movie where one of the protagonists is having a life and death battle with a giant spider. In this, the character somehow gets underneath the spider and stabs upwards into her belly. This causes the spider to be heavily wounded and retreat, thus ending the battle.

The Black Widow doesn’t seem to notice me, so I rush underneath her while activating my cloaking skill. That red hourglass is only inches away from my face, but I take a hard swallow before thrusting my bronze short sword right into it.

Critical hit!

The Widow squeals in pain, but I hold my ground and continue striking her. Those in the surroundings are not going to pass up this chance, and take advantage of her distraction to dish out massive amounts of damage to her.

The arachne retreats, leaving me crouched on the floor where she was just moments ago. Her health finally drops below 50%. The first green health bar shatters and the boss bellows in rage. She backs off from the nearby players and a pale light starts gathering around her. This must be one of her hidden moves.

“Keeping attacking her!”

“We cannot let her finish charging that spell!”

“ARGGHH!!” A warrior disregards his safe and rushes towards the boss. He charges up a powerful strike and releases it on the boss, but other than shaving off a bit of her health there was no effect. The boss is still charging her spell, and by now the density of the light has increased tenfold. Mages and archers bombard her with spells and arrows, but the boss’s attack is uninterrupted.

Suddenly, the white light explodes in a flash and a white string shoots out in a circle around the boss.

You have been hit by Web of Restraints.

Your magic defence has failed.

You cannot move for 3 seconds.

Shit.

“What is this stuff?”

“Why can’t I move?!”

“Shit! AOE attack!”

I look around and see every melee class has become grounded to where they stand. Only the mages and those with high enough magic defence were able to resist. Three seconds may not seem like much, but in a battle where seconds can mean life or death, it is debilitating.

The Black Widow takes advantage of this and reeks havoc on those players unfortunate enough to be next to her. Those poor players never stood a chance. I can still move my head, and I turn it just enough to see that Ilyena is alright; however, behind her is another story all together.

Gem, who was focusing on the spiderlings, has shifted her attention towards the boss and is firing arrows at it. But, behind her is a spiderling ready to lunge and she is completely unaware. The spiderling rams into her, causing her to get knocked down. Her health plummets as a result. The spiderling then proceeds to jump on top of her and continuously attacks without rest.

“GEM!!!” I scream at the top of my lungs. Why didn’t I talk with her before the battle. She was that lone green dot I saw, yet I didn’t even try to contact her, and now this has happened. Memories of how we met run through my mind.

“Umm, since we’re both solo players... do you want to form a party?” She looks like she was having trouble saying this. Her eyes were partially downcast and she was fidgeting.

Gem begins to open her eyes and looks up at my teary face.

“Stop crying you big oaf. I’m alright.”

I want to back away once I realize how foolish I must look, but as I am about to move Gem rests her head against me and lets out a quiet “Thank you”.

"Before I forget." I hold the sword we just made. "This is for you."

I pass her the blade.

"But," She gets flustered and tries to push it back into my hands. "You were the one to make it."

“What! You’re already level 17?” She stares at me in disbelief.

“Haha, are you jealous?”

“Mph! I’m going hunting!” She starts stomping out the the room, but just before leaving she turns back around. “I will not be left behind!” Her voice is beaming with confidence and she has a look of determination in her eyes.

On of the players nearby her bats the spider off her and pummels it to the ground. By this time the 3 seconds has passed. It was the longest three seconds of my life. Gem remains laying there on the ground. Her health is in the red, and steadily depleting.

“Ilyena! Cover me!”

“Mn”

I rush out at full speed towards Gem, disregarding the boss entirely. We’re about 30 meters apart, but the distance seems a lot longer. There is a single spiderling between us, and I see it eyeing Gem on the ground. I come up behind it before it can jump, and launch a surprise attack that sends it flying. A critical hit was dealt and the spiderling then gets surrounded by other players and taken out.

Gem’s health is now nearly a sliver of red. One more attack would be more than enough to kill her.

“Gem. Listen to my voice.” I pick her up, careful to not disturb or cause damage to her. “You’re going to be alright. Just keep listening to my voice.”

I take out one of the level two health potions we were given. When I pop the lid, a fruity aroma is released from it. I carefully open her mouth, “I’m going to pour some medicine down your throat” and tip the potion down her throat. “It will taste a bit sweet.”

The potion immediately begins to take effect. A swirl of light envelopes Gem as her health bar stabilizes. I carefully pat her hair as the battle continues around us. When the last drop of the potion goes down her throat, I begin to see her health bar raising. I feel as if a weight has been lifted off my chest as relief washes through me. Living with Gem these past two weeks has ingrained her into my heart and she has become irreplaceable.

While I am lost in thought, her eyes start to open.

A brilliant smile warms her unblemished face as she looks up at me. “This is the second time you’ve saved my life. Thank you”

I cannot help but smile in reply to her, staring into her deep crimson eyes.

“Hey, you two! We’re still fighting over here.”

The two of us are rudely awakened by this comment; however, he has a point, We need to get back to the fight.

We look at each other and nod in agreement before standing up. I take a look at the situation with the boss, but it seems like not much has changed. The boss has around 3/4 of the second health bar remaining and everyone is fighting to their limits. Even those guild leaders can be seen attacking every once and a while.

“I should get back.” I look at Gem.

“Mhmm," She looks at me with pleading eyes. "Be safe."

“Haha, I should be saying that to you.”

Before I could even turn around, I feel a soft peck on my right cheek. A tingling sensation rushes through my body as I look at Gem in bewilderment. She only responds with a mischievous smile before running off to fight more spiderlings.

It takes me a moment to clear my head, but I take off back towards the boss.

“So,” Ilyena looks at me with a hint of jealousy, “Who’s she?”

“She’s a close friend of mine.”

“I see.” She says as if in thought before turning away. “If that were me would you react the same?” She mutters under her breath.

I don’t think I was supposed to hear that.

The battle with the boss continues on for another ten minutes before her health finally reaches the red zone. The Black Widow’s eyes become a blood red shade with a black slit down the centre. She backs off in a similar pattern to when she was charging Web of Restraints.

“EVERYONE ATTACK HER!” A player in close proximity to the arachne yells “DO NOT LET HER CHARGE HER SPELL!”

“We cannot let her succeed!”

This time, rather than a light surrounding the Black Widow, it is almost as if she is devouring all the light and energy around her. A vortex forms, gradually building up momentum, as it swirls around the boss.

I throw everything I can at her, exhausting my supply of thrown weapons. It seems everyone is doing the same and not holding back. I fear what will happen if we are not successful.

The vortex is now strong enough to throw off my balance, and it only gets worse the closer we get to the boss. The mage’s spells are losing their effectiveness as the mana gets absorbed and the archer’s arrows cannot fly straight against the wind. At this rate we will all be doomed. I make a split second decision to charge in towards her.

I use the same tactic I used earlier, where I went beneath her and attacked her underbelly. This is the most effective strategy I can think of at this time.

Ilyena tries to stop me, by grabbing onto my hand. “Don’t get any closer! You’ll Die!”

“Don’t worry. I know what i’m doing.” Oh, how many people had those as their last words.

I shake off her hand and rush in. The vortex is almost unbearably strong at this point. However, when I get within 5 feet of her, it vanishes almost like being in the eye of a storm. The boss is too busy chanting to pay attention to me, so I slip around behind her and position myself underneath that red hourglass.

“Here goes nothing.” I stab both my blades with all my strength into her belly. All I hear is a horrendous screeching before I am sent flying out of the already dissipating vortex. My gamble appears to have worked; however, my health is left in the yellow, edging on the borders of red.

“It’s attack was canceled! Now is our chance!”

A bombardment of spells and arrows fly towards the boss and a huge chunk of her health is shaved off. There are too many attacks to keep track of, but everyone is trying to kill her as fast as possible. Even members of the vanguard have joined in the assault causing the Black Widow’s health to decrease at a visible rate.

The boss spits out her poison in retaliation at a few nearby players. A few were lucky enough to dodge, but some got covered in the poison. Green damage numbers were everywhere as panic set in amongst those effected. The sound of their screams were terrifying as they slowly died. The melee players, which were the majority, fared better due to their higher base health. However, everyone else suffered unless they were quick enough to bring out their health potions.

Only 5% of her health remains at this point.

Everyone is showing signs of exhaustion, and I am no different. My movements have become slower, and I have run out of stamina potions with all the attacking and dodging. I shouldn’t have been cheap and skimped on potions before coming, but there is no medicine for regret.

The addition of the vanguard players fighting the boss has been godsend. However, their casualties are no joke. The difference between levels makes a big difference when it comes to resisting the boss’s attacks.

When the boss gets to 1% of her total health, she begins the process of launching her special attack, as if in a last stand. That vortex once more starts circulating around her, but it is picking up it’s pace faster than it had previously. It only takes a few seconds before it gets to the speed it was at previously, but showing no signs of stopping.

"Ilyena, do you trust me?"

The same strategy I used last time won't work in this situation.

"Maybe..."

The boss is too desperate right now, and besides if she has a decent AI, she won't fall for the same trick more than twice.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

There is not much time left before whatever spell she is casting is released.

"Depends on what you want to do."

At that point it will be too late. I've made up my mind.

"I'm planning on getting up close to her."

If she only has 1% health left, then she will die in only a few hits. The problem is, no one is willing to risk their life to get close to her.

"Suicidal idiot!"

Plus, there should be a bonus for last hit. Perhaps even special loot.

I smile in response before dashing towards the boss. I can hear insults from the peanut gallery as I do so, "that idiot is looking to get himself killed" "what does he think he's doing?" "He's not the main character of some web novel, it seems he's lost his mind.", but I just ignore them.

Ilyena hesitates for a second before following me while mumbling. "At least wait for me before rushing off to your death."

The vortex is strong enough to disturb my balance, but somehow I manage to keep my footing before reaching the eye. This time rather than being distracted, the arachne notices my presence immediately. It is the feeling of being watched by a predator while I am the prey. Ilyena soon makes it into the eye and the balance is broken.

The arachne releases a high pitch shriek before spitting poison at us. Apparently she cannot move while the special move is activating, so we have an advantage over her. The poison is easily avoided by utilizing our innately high dexterity as assassins.

Ilyena takes the left flank while I go right. She arrives first and unleashes a flurry of attacks, distracts the boss long enough for me to reach her other side. Our attacks are non stop, leaving no room for retaliation. If the boss tries to attack one of us, it is nimbly avoided and the other takes advantage of the opening. Occasionally, a few arrows or thrown weapons make it inside, but they all miss their mark.

Eventually, the boss collapses and I send one last strike against her flank. This causes that last sliver of health to fade away and her body to turn into pixilated dust. My level reach 18, and I sweep up the drops on the floor without looking at them carefully.

Congratulations You have defeated the dungeon boss: Black Widow. Your contribution is at 7%. You are ranked first in contribution.

You will be given the following based on your contribution:

30,000 Tor

1,500 experience.

Your name will be entered in the Hall of Fame. Do you wish your name to be known? Yes No

I unconsciously select yes, kneel on the ground and start hyperventilating. My level once again increases to 19.

“Quinn! What’s wrong? Are you alright?” Ilyena asks with concern in her voice. “QUINN!!”

Her voice snaps me out of my daze. “Yeah, i’m fine.”

“Hmph. We should get moving before the vortex settles” She then proceeds to activate her cloaking and rushes out of the centre. I then follow close behind her with cloaking activated.

When I get out, I see the surviving players celebrating. They are hugging each other, slapping each other’s backs, smiling, and laughing.

““WHOoooOOOAaa!!””

“I’m still alive!”

“We did it!”

“It’s finally dead!!”

System Announcement

The first island has been cleared.

The First dungeon boss has been defeated by players:

Quinn

Ilyena

Cinder

Silverslinger

Scarlet flash

Turiel

. . .

Zhaos

Miles

Davion

Celeritas

Ambriel

. . .

Gem Red

. . .

After reading the system announcement, I take a look at the drops. Aside from a pile of coins and 30 high quality spider silk, there is a pitch black silk cloak.

“Hmm.. Cloak of Infinite Shadows.” When I put it on, I feel as if I were blending into the shadows. It has an active option for concealment, and just by wearing it, I am harder to detect.

While I am admiring my new cloak, something crashes into my back, knocks me to the ground, and falls on top of me.

“Uuugh”

“Hehe.” A very feminine laugh can be heard, “You should pay attention to your surroundings.”

I turn my head to see Gem looking down on me. “You’re one to talk.”

“Alright, get off me.”

“Mmm... Nope.” She says playfully.

It was at this moment that another server announcement came up.

Congratulations

You have cleared the first stage.

A teleportation portal will be opened shortly, which will lead you to the teleportation hub.

From this location you may return to Fairhaven, or go directly to the second island.

Not every island will have a settlement and some will require one to be built.

Welcome to the Vlymm Isles.

“Shall we go?”

“Mn”

“Mhmm”