As soon as they discovered that their teleportation scrolls were blocked, the spiders rushed at them.. Twenty spiders, each as tall as a man and thrice as wide were rushing towards the group.

Helios was the first to react, his burning hatred towards these arachnids having enhanced his reflexes.

Half of the spiders were advancing towards them by swinging from the ceiling. A surprising feat considering their gargantuan size, the strength of their string seemed to be defying the laws of physics.

The swinging spiders were much faster than their counterparts which were charging at the trio by skittering on the floor, but even the latter were surprisingly fast, their legs moving so fast that they were a blur.

While James was preparing as many batches of Lava Saw armies as he could, Helios decided to buy him some time.

He took his shield and started spinning around in place. As if trying to show the spiders what high speed really was, Helios was spinning to the point James got a bit dizzy by just looking at him with his peripheral vision.

When Helios finally launched the shield it shot out in an arch, as fast as a speeding bullet. Controlling its trajectory with mana, Helios managed to cut the webs of the spiders as they were swinging. Each time the shield hit a spider's string, explosions rang out. The strings were as tough as steel. But Helios didn't spin around just for fun, he had put a lot of power into that shield throw.

With one simple move, Helios had not only slowed down the swinging spiders, but even the ones that were running at them were slowed down. When the airborne spiders fell, some of them fell even on top of the other spiders. Helios was hoping that it would have crushed some of them, but the spiders turned out to also be extraordinarily tough. They got up with nothing more than a few scratches.

But the results of his move were good enough. A few seconds of slowing down all the spiders was all that was really needed.

James’s saws were ready.

Having managed to prepare several batches, there were now what looked like thousands of saws ready for battle, so many that it was impossible to even count.

He didn’t waste any time, not that he could afford to. The spiders were almost upon them, and Helios had warned them that it would be all over if they had to engage in close quarters combat.

James launched the saws with so much force that it felt like he himself would be sent flying by the powerful winds they produced.

There were at least 50 saws for each spider. The spider’s dark red eyes were like a bullseye for the saws. Guided by SARM, they tried to attack the most vulnerable areas.

But the spiders proved their toughness yet again. They were a lot quicker and even tougher than James thought. In just a few strikes they were able to destroy almost half the saws.

Even the saws that were able to hit their eyes did much less damage than expected, never mind the ones that were striking their bodies.

Somehow, these spiders were sturdier than the chimeras that had bodies literally made out of stone. Was the level difference that great?

This was bad news for their immediate safety, but if they persevered, the levels James would receive would indeed be worth it.

The thought of the mountains of xp he’d receive motivated James even further, as if the impending doom wasn’t enough.

It wouldn’t take long till the saws wouldn’t be able to keep the spiders occupied and off them anymore. So James had to act fast.

The saws were obviously very useful, but they were lacking firepower.

He couldn’t make them stronger without sacrificing casting time, that’s the whole reason why he made them so shoddy and weak in comparison to his more powerful saws.

But there was something else James had been meaning to do. He had a lot of other spells in mind, but almost none of them seemed useful for the situation. There were just too many enemies.

No spells seemed up to the task, except one. All it would take is to add one additional feature to the saw army, which wouldn’t even take much more time.

“Helios, take out the biggest shield you have. Lunaris, hide behind the shield.” James told them.

Like a true soldier and a trusting friend, Helios did as he was told without hesitation, without even asking what James had in mind.

James prepared another batch of tiny saws, and sent them flying. He then immediately refilled his mana pool by draining mana from the necklace.

James hid behind Helios’s shield as well.

“Oh, and as usual, cover your ears.” He said, realizing he was damaging his friends' hearing way too often.

And just as quickly as he refilled his mana pool, he spent it all.

Immediately, hundreds of explosions shook the room.

James had used all his mana to detonate all his saws. Seeing as they didn’t do enough damage on their own, James decided to turn them into actual bombs.

Hundreds of saws all exploding at once. It felt like a barrage of missiles was striking the room, as if cluster bombs were dropping right next to them. Nothing could survive that.

But they couldn’t even check to see the aftermath yet. Thousands of pieces of shrapnel were flying around the room, striking even them without discrimination. Luckily, the shield was holding strong. This was not the first time the group had to hide from his saws behind a shield. James's unorthodox approach to spellcraft was powerful, but it had many drawbacks.

Before they could check if the spiders were dead, a fang penetrated through Helios’s shield.

Helios immediately sprang into action, thrusting forward with his shield with all his might.

Expecting another attack, the three of them started desperately casting wind spells to push the spiders back for at least a few seconds so they could run or conjure a more powerful attack.

But as soon as they looked around, they noticed that all the spiders were dead. Dead was even an understatement, most of them were blown to bits, hundreds of pieces of smoldering spider were all around them . A leg here, an eye there, it was a gruesome scene.

The spider that had attacked them was the most intact one, but it had been so weakened by the explosion that it had died just from Helios’s shield thrust. But even in its incredibly weakened state, it had enough rage and power to cut through the shield like butter.

The group didn’t have any time to relax though. Having sensed the death of its brethren, the spider hive sent another wave at them.

As if the first wave hadn't been colossal, this time the mere numbers were scalp-numbing. James couldn’t even count the number of spiders he was seeing, it must’ve been at least 100. Some were smaller and weaker, but many of them were just as big as the ones before.

He didn’t have the time to count them though. They already knew how to kill them, but there were just so many of them. It was a race against the clock. If only one out the hundred spiders reached them, they were done for. But at least this time around they were sure their weapons were effective.

“Helios, do your thing with the shield if you can. Lunaris, transfer your mana into me.” They didn’t even have time for James to drain mana from the necklace, and he didn’t even have enough mana left in the necklace either. Dealing with this many spiders would take even more saws, which meant even more mana was needed.

Lunaris almost hesitated, wanting to ask what he was planning. Using someone else’s mana wasn't exactly a straightforward process, one needed to filter it and process it before being able to use it. But she didn’t say a word. This situation was the definition of an emergency, they had to hurry.

Lunaris placed her hands on James’s head and continuously transferred his mana into him, making sure his mana pool would stay full no matter how much mana he spent.

Having become proficient at using Mana Drain, James was able to purify the mana Lunaris was transferring into him quite efficiently. There were drawbacks, some potency would be lost since he couldn't dedicate the needed time to processing it properly, but it was good enough. It was better than no mana. Now he could focus on ceaselessly casting spells.

Helios had the important job of buying them some time.

It seemed like the previous scenario was repeating itself. James had admonished himself for being so useless without Helios's tanking, and he swore that he would do better the next time.

But he was starting to discover his limitations. Being in this world of magic and levels was almost intoxicating. Being able to create his own spells that turned out to be very powerful was a feeling that seemed to have gotten to his head.

But what he lost sight of was the fact that he wasn't some god or genius. Even with the arcane simulation, he couldn't just will a skill into existence that could solve all his problems.

He had his friends with him, which solved a lot of his problems. But his friends weren't resources or weapons to him. He loved them, and he needed to keep them safe.

This is how he had been his entire life. His strength was also his weakness. His weirdness and creativity was paired with impatience and recklessness, even an odd absence of logic sometimes.

His strength was that he could think in his own weird way, and as such he could make his own skills. But it was a double-edged sword, he couldn't really create those skills while training in a safe and sound environment. He had to throw himself into reckless battle and figure it out in moments of crisis.

It was the kind of deep personality flaw that was hard to change even after experiencing rebirth in new world. A mix of chronic impatience and laziness and many other unflattering traits. Those same things that he managed to turn into a strength, into a unique way of thinking and doing things, were also what was constantly getting him into risky situations.

Lunaris was pouring mana into James, and James was conjuring wave after wave of saws, while peaking behind Helios's shoulder to keep an eye on the battlefield. Helios had taken out several shields out his storage ring and was throwing them like a madman. He didn't even seem to care about getting them back, he was throwing a shield with all his might and then immediately throwing another, trying to slow spiders' advance even by just a few seconds.

James decided to assist him, decreasing his potential firepower and throwing in the first wave of saws as a way to stall the spiders. A few seconds after, the second wave followed, and then the third, and the fourth.

Sending the saws into battle without exploding them right away was as good as losing them, but the few seconds of not being pierce by a spiders' fang was worth it, even if the spiders would crush the saws swiftly. Crowd control was just as important as damage.

The SARM-guided saws were weak, but for a few seconds they didn’t allow a single spider to reach them. Wave after wave of saws would join the fray, dozens of saws being destroyed every second.

But James still didn’t detonate them. He had to make sure the explosions would kill all the spiders at once. If any of them were still alive after he destroyed all the saws, he wouldn’t have the time to conjure another wave.

Given the large number of spiders, James had to create more saws than ever before. But the more he waited, the more saws were destroyed by the spiders.

Around the 10th wave, he was beginning to feel exhausted, and his rate of creating saws was slowing down.

The spiders probably destroyed several waves’ worth of saws already, but the mere buzzing of the thousands of saws was so loud that it was a good indication that he had enough of them.

“Umm, Helios, take out another shield just to be safe.” That many explosions and that much shrapnel flying around was very risky. He really had to find another type of spell as his weapon. The saws had been kind to him, but they just had too many drawbacks.

As soon as he was sure they were safe, James detonated the saws. They had their fingers deep inside their ears and even used some mana to block the sound, but the explosions still hurt their ears, they were just so loud.

Luckily, Helios didn't need his hands to keep the shield steady, he decided to use his mana to hold the shield and keep them safe from the shrapnel, while burying his fingers deep inside his ears. Curing deafness wasn't hard in this world, but he still didn't want to risk blowing up his eardrum.

When the shrapnel wasn't hitting the shield anymore, they dared to sheepishly look around.

The giant wave of spiders was dead.

Unfortunately, they still hadn’t won yet.

They could feel the steps of a gargantuan creature approaching them. Each step shook the ground, even it hadn't even entered the room they were in yet. The room was enormous, there was a huge distance between where they were and the next room. Yet they could still feel the creature's every step.

The trio braced themselves yet again. They couldn’t teleport away, and the main threat was about to show itself.