Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO! THREE CHAPTERS WORTH OF HELLO!

BEFORE ANY OF YOU START SCROLLING DOWN, READ THIS.

ANYWAY, With that out of the way, I must admit that I’m around 80% satisfied with this chapter. While I do like how the battle turned out, there were a few times where it didn’t feel “Gon-like” in my opinion. Might be just me. But after doing so much math in here, I don’t plan on rewriting this any time soon. I will try to improve on the next boss battle, which should happen a bit later.

ALSO, I made a challenge in the den that I will repeat here. On the next main story chapter, I will be giving Gon two skills he earned during this battle. I want you guys to try and find out what they are, but please answer with the use of

[spoiler]Write answer here[/spoiler]

to keep possible spoilers hidden. Here’s a tip for you guys: It’s entirely battle related. Both skills. Think back to how he earns his skills during battle and we’ll see if anyone finds out the answer.

ALSO(2), I would like to make sure that today, marks the day where I fooled a certain demon lord with talks of slaughter. Not many will get this, but this isn’t a problem.

ALSO(3), There’s a Side chapter coming, with a bit more plot before the next main chapter, and the Q&A that I plan on writing afterwards. Lets hope this helps me get back the momentum I had when I first started releasing the story.

Have a good read!

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With my sword still unsheathed, I quickly parried the swinging claw that aimed to split me in half through the shoulder and redirected the blow to the side by tilting the blade. Kneeling at the moment to reduce the remaining of the impact helped me stop any possible damage, however my relief was short lived, as another claw came in cutting through the side.

Dodging the attack at the last moment with a forward roll, I found myself face-mandible with the creature, whose fangs seemed to be ready to take a bite out of my head. Not thinking twice before the monster aimed another attack at me, I quickly used my sure-fire escape technique.

Casting Unstoppable Charge on myself, I targeted a point right behind the monster before casting Focus Slash. Sadly I didn’t have enough time to charge it up, so I had to do with the simple base damage of the upgraded attack.

Thanks to Unstoppable Charge’s effect, I passed right through the spider, my attack hitting it square on the head as it received the bonus from the spell.

-129 (4733/5300)(Stagger)

Finding myself behind the spider who let out a furious Hiss while stepping back, I silently thanked the fact that its mandible seemed to be a weak spot before quickly turning back. With the tempting thought of trying to land a fully charged focus slash just to see its effect, I managed to hold myself back and take out one of the knives I had tied with the red silk.

Using all my strength, I managed to stab the short red blade between the cracks of the shell-armor.

-2 (4731/5300)

Are you kidding me?

Oh well, it’s not like this was the damage I wanted anyway. Setting the knife with the activation condition, I quickly took the other knife and prepared to stab it again. However, before I had the chance, I felt as something became stuck to my waist. Looking downwards, I managed to see a small strand of red silk coming from the bottom of its back.

“…I really need to be less aggressive at times…” I said while cursing my impulsive nature to try and squeeze one last attack.

The spider quickly took the chance and spun around quickly. The thread sling shooting me down the tunnel at high speed as I flew with a slightly bored face. I totally deserved this one.

Putting my arms in front of me just the moment I was about to make contact with the ground, I quickly activated my so trusty defensive skill, Nature’s bastion the moment I was about to crash-land. Stopping most of the damage, I felt a slight pain in my arms as I bounced off and rolled back up to a kneeling position.

-32 -11 (878/1000)

Trying to stand up, I grimaced as the pain from the leg injury got to me.

“tek-tek-tek…” The little sprite said in a dizzy-sounding manner while popping out of my cape and resting on my shoulder.

“Do know that I hold all of this as your fault only, okay?” I told the small bugger with an annoyed tone who shyly looked away.

“TEK-TEK-TEK! TEK-TEK-TEK!” It suddenly shouted to me. Blinking confused, I turned to it and saw as it used the claw-like stones to point backwards.

Following his lead, I looked back at the spider before cursing loudly and rolling forward to get some impulse and try to stand up. I barely managed to escape the place as the massive spider fell with its morning-star of a back, destroying the ground entirely.

Taking the moment where I felt the tremor to stop and turn back, I gave a brief look towards my energy meter and saw that I had around seventy-two points to spend.

I quickly took the chance to go and charge ahead with my Talon-strike skill. Leaning the sword downwards to my right, I took on the blade in a mad dash forward before finalizing with an upward strike to the left. The blade cut through the rock beneath the spider with ease before coming up from below and slashing through it.

Since I didn’t have much energy left, I simply twisted the blade around before bringing it back down in a wide lateral swing, using the momentum I gathered to turn myself and roll away, just in time as the spider spun around aiming its claws at me.

-48 -43(4642/5300)

Quickly turning back to the massive spider, I saw as it recovered itself from the attack and turned straight to me, not even hesitating before swinging the right claw in my direction. By instinct I thought of bringing my sword to parry the attack and absorb the damage, but the idea quickly went away when I noticed how the two scythe-like claws shone hotly.

Rolling away, the red-hot magma almost hit me as it was spewed over from the dripping claw. For a moment, I simply thought that it would be bad parrying one of those attacks, seeing how it would make all the magma simply fall onto me. I did it once in one of our fights, and even with my fire resistant gear, the damage was fairly high.

However, once I remembered that I still have some of the explosive silk stuck to my body, it went from being bad to downright horrible.

Changing mind from waiting for an opening to attack, I quickly sheathed my massive sword at the briefest chance I got in a classic move most Monster Hunter players knew, and turned my back to run away.

What? Coward move?

Try saying that once you are a one fraction of your health and you have a massive quadrupedal wyvern that can kill you with a roar. Literally.

Well, in this case it’s more like a spider that can kill me by throwing a bit of fire, but you get the point. Dashing down the tunnel, I quickly made my way towards a more open area, probably a major mining point seeing how there were a few mine-carts and ore veins here and there.

Keeping an eye on my back as the spider pounced at me, wanting to take a bite off this tasty golem, I rolled towards the side, letting it speed right past me and into the center of the room. My sudden change in direction launched the small sprite away, but while I recovered myself it quickly jumped on my cape and hid itself behind me once again.

I took the chance I found to pick one of my throwing knives and start scrapping off the piece of silk that was stuck on my body. By the time I was done scrapping the last remnants of the dangerous silk, the spider was already making its move towards me, charging straight on without a care in the world.

Thankfully, it was a fairly easy attack to avoid, so I jumped aside at the last moment. Much to my surprised, however, the Impaler kept on its charge until it reached the wall behind me before starting a nimble climb that took it to the ceiling.

Damn it.

Knowing exactly what was awaiting me, I started running. However, this time I started running towards the spider, instead of away from it. With my leg stinging and not giving me access to my full speed thanks to the earlier damage, It took me some effort to dodge the web shots as the spider tried hit me with its silk once again.

However, the scary part was what came following that moment, as the spider drew arcs with its claws, which, when it was dripping with magma, meant that it was spread almost literally everywhere. Add that to the silk already spread around the ground and you get yourself a very dangerous show of fireworks.

By the way, my only other death came from the other time it decided to do that. It was also the second closest I got to killing it.

Knowing what to expect from a never ending pinpoint bombardment, I came up with an infallible tactic. Taking one of the sonic bombs tied to my belt, I twisted my body and felt as the throwing weapon mastery taking effect, and threw the bomb towards the spider, aiming for it to get as close as possible.

The moment it exploded, a ringing sound echoed in the room, and I heard as the small sprite seemed to squirm in pain for a moment. However, I didn’t have the time to worry about it. Even though it had ben stunned for a moment, the spider would usually stab its feet through the rocks to fixate itself, so something that simple wouldn’t be enough to bring it down.

Following that, I quickly brought up the inventory window and removed an ice knife.

However, I didn’t aim at the spider, but at its feet. Almost instantly, the knife froze up, getting two of the legs caught up in a block of ice right before the spider recovered itself from the sudden shock. For a moment, it simply poked at the ice confused, as if it had never seen anything like that before, but seeing how it didn’t affect it, the spider quickly resumed its bombardment, hanging itself from the ceiling shooting the silk and spreading magma everywhere as the ice melted down.

I grimaced before going back to escaping. From the looks of it, my plan had failed. While I thought so, I started racking my brain for another idea, seeing how I was about to run out of places to escape.

Then, the spider suddenly stopped and the two legs that were stuck in the ice earlier slipped out. The lack of support seemingly surprised it, as the other legs soon followed and the spider lost all of its grip on the ceiling, falling down to the ground and slamming it with its back hard.

-13 (4629/5300)

It took me a moment to process what happened, but I finally changed my dash to aim towards the place where the spider was. With its back towards me, I jumped up on its abdomen and stabbed the other string-tied knife through it, this one sinking in nicely thanks to the softer part.

-10 (4619/5300)

Probably feeling me on its body, the spider quickly started shaking from one side to the other, trying to throw me out. Holding on the knife for dear life, I managed to stick on for long enough to it calm down and set up the activation , however, it quickly started to attack me with its claws, not fearing stabbing her own body to get a clean hit on me.

Dodging to the side, I couldn’t help but feel that this was too much of a good chance to let go. Taking the moment it took to recoil the claw, I quickly kneeled on its abdomen and took out the sword, activating focus slash and aiming for a full charge.

Sensing the danger, the spider brought both claws down on my body, and I felt pain cursing as one of the blades managed to hit my left shoulder.

-132 (746/1000) (Bleeding) (Minor shoulder damage.)

I grimaced in pain, but didn’t let go of the charge until a whole two seconds had gone by. Letting go of the skill, the blade made a simple and beautiful arc downwards, the motion hitting the spider right down the middle of its head as a sky-blue trail formed behind the slash.

-173 (4466/5300)

Although I felt marveled by the large number, I didn’t let it linger too much, as I quickly used the momentum of the attack to roll forward and out of the spider’s stomach just as it brought down another attack.

-10(736/1000)

Falling to the ground in front of it, I quickly turned around, seeing as it tried to stand back up once again. Looking at my remaining energy, I decided that I shouldn’t let go of this opening yet. Quickly casting the now recharged Unstoppable charge, I darted forward while using Fang-strike, the two hit-combo from my Long sword technique.

Bringing the sword down in one powerful motion, I followed by taking a step forward, stabbing the sword deeper and twisting it. Though I aimed at the spider’s head, I barely missed the target and ended up hitting the claws, which absorbed most of the damage.

Thankfully, the second hit ignored armor due to its piercing nature. Trying to land a full blown combo on the spider, I quickly spun my body around while keeping the blade in the same place, making me hold it almost to my back, then activated Talon-strike Second form.

My body spun around while making a circular motion with the blade and taking another step further. Much to my dismay, the spider managed to stand up at the time, so all I managed to cut were its legs.

For a moment I hesitated whether to try another attack or let it slide for now. Deciding that it would be better to not risk too much like earlier, I quickly rolled forward. Sadly, I was a bit too late, seeing how the claw managed to scrap my back, dealing some minor damage.

The excess movement also made me lose a fair amount of health thanks to the bleeding effect, while my left shoulder kept screaming in pain.

-50 -44 -92(Critical)

Combo! (X1.2)

-223 (4243/5300) (Leg damage)

-10 -10 -10 -43 (663/1000)

Seeing my health getting dangerously low, I thought for a moment whether I should go for a potion right now or not. In the end, I decided to be safe rather than sorry, so I quickly took one and chugged it down.

+199 (872/1000) (Bleeding stopped)

Silently thanking Sol for passing me a trick to enhance the basic healing potions, I stored the empty phial away before looking back at the spider.

It was having a bit of trouble to stand up from the looks of it. While I did wonder if it was thanks to the yank the legs took while it was falling or my critical slash back there, I didn’t know. All I cared was that it was good news for me.

For a moment, I felt like being a bit evil and trying to do something mean to it. However, before I had the chance, the spider suddenly let out one of its hisses, shocking me and the little pebble who had been tek-teking in amusement at my shoulder.

Looking confused at it, I saw as the spider raised itself and shot some web on its claw that had solidified by now, much like how it had done in our first fair duel. The first one doesn’t count since it was an ambush.

Not wasting the chance it used for preparations, I stepped in and brought down the sword with a wide swing, surprising the spider that tried jumping back to avoid the attack. However, while the spider had been agile, the silk wasn’t so lucky, and it quickly got parted in the middle by the blade.

However, it didn’t become shaken by that, as it quickly abandoned the idea of trying to tie me again and jumped back forward while spreading the two claws wide open. I jumped back to avoid the scissoring claws, however, the spider didn’t let its momentum go to waste, as it used one of its good legs to pivot itself into a spin that managed to land its large abdomen on my chest.

“CYGNASDAMMIT! WHY THE HELL DO YOU LIKE TO SEND ME FLYING SO MUCH?” I complained out loudly while thanking the gods I managed to bring Nature’s bastion just in time to dampen the damage.

Falling on my back, I heard the small sprite complaining beneath me as it tried to get to an open space.

-35 -11 (826/1000)

I rolled back up while grunting at the unresponsive arm as I tried to stand up. While my leg was at least stopping to hurt so much, my shoulder wasn’t in such a good condition. Hearing the sprite complain on my shoulder, I felt a bit like giving it a death glare for a moment, but gave up on distracting myself.

And right on time, as what I saw left me worried. In front of me, the nightmarish maze of strings started forming around the room as the Sulfuric matriarch kept on spreading its web everywhere. Not thinking twice, I quickly sheathed my long sword and activated Weapon Cycle, bringing out the trusty bow, Blazing Grace.

Time to put the most important idea to the test.

As they say, trial by explosive combustion.

I immediately picked a few arrows from my quiver and held with the same hand as I held the bow before nocking another one. Hoping for the best, I pulled the string the most I could before activating the quick shots skill, before following with a simple power shot.

However, the targets and arrows of each skill were different. The multi shot I aimed at the various spots of webs spread around the room, while the power shot had a stun arrow and was aimed at the spider itself.

Right now, there are two things I’m testing and sincerely hope it works for the sake of my survival.

Seeing as the arrows from the multi shot started losing height just in time to stab themselves on the webbings, I withheld a cry of joy when I saw them igniting in flames, thanks to the bow’s bonus fire damage. Not even a second after, the silk started its usual chain reaction of blowing each other up. Except that this time, the maze wasn’t complete, so it was much easier to find a safer spot.

But the icing on the cake was that the spider stopped confused, only to become horrified at the sight of its own webbings blowing each other up.

Have you ever been in a situation where your room is completely messed up, but you know where each and everything was? I figured that the same thing had been happening here. While the spider was making a mess out of the room, it could find the safe spots with ease while avoiding the exploding web.

But now, I messed up her mess.

I AM THE MESSIER ONE HERE, YOU STINKING ARACHNID!

I don’t suppose that’s something to be proud of, though…

Shaking my head at the thought, I saw as it tried to jump away to avoid getting blown up by the nearby webs, however, the stun arrow reached it and activated its effect.

-19 (4224/5300)

Amplified by the effects of the power shot, the arrow left the spider stunned for a good three seconds as its body shivered in pain.

However, the sweep part was yet to come. Not wasting the opening, I nocked an arrow within the bow and stood still, waiting for Snipe, my skill that boosted my damage the longer I stood still.

While I patiently took aim at the spider, I saw as a nearby thread exploded near the it, knocking the beast out of its stunned state by making it stagger forward. However, things didn’t stop there, as my plan started to get into motion.

The knives I had set up on the spider’s body finally acted. Having set them to work only when subjected to a great impact, it took the explosion of the spider’s own silk to trigger it. As the upper knife exploded, slamming the spider down to the floor, the second one was set to a small delay before blowing up again. With the whole weight over it, the explosion didn’t have much place to escape, thus the full force of the impact was sent back to the monster before me.

As it became stunned by the sudden damage it received, I noticed as snipe reached around halfway of its total bonus, and decided that it was enough for now. Letting go of the string, I used my piercing shot skill the highest damaging skill from the bow, and soon after copied it with double shot. Unable to react, the two arrows hit it straight on the abdomen, seeing how the head was a hard spot to land the shot from the angle I was in, and quickly followed with a few other normal shots to stack up the damage.

-130 -354 -592 (-1076) (Stun) (Severe web-glands damage) (leg damage)

-60 -60 -32 -48 (Critical) -26 -25 -18

Combo! (x1.1)

-269 (2879/5300)

For a brief moment all I could do was stare in awe as the monster’s health dropped like a solid ball of lead inside a bucket of water. Even the small sprite on my shoulder was staring at the spider in shock and confusion.

“Give me an G! Give me an O! Give an N! And now go, Gon, Go!”

…

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

Surprised by the sudden cheerful shout, I turned around towards its source, and what I saw simply left even more speechless than the damage I dealt back there.

“The crawler got nothing! The damage is surreal!

If there was a high score! Gon would top it all!” Crys sung cheerfully while waving a pair of black and white pom-poms. Actually, her clothes looked slightly different too, but since she was at the cave’s entrance, it was difficult to say for sure. “Well… Not really, but since it rhymed, who cares?”

“…What the hell?” I said confused. “Actually, didn’t you do something like this a long time ago? Like in chapter 30 or something?”

“Please, no breaking the fourth wall in a battle chapter.” She stopped me before shaking her head. “Anyway, I just thought that I should warn you that Yuu and the others are on their way here!”

“Huh? Right now?” I asked in almost a shout, seeing how distant we were.

“Yes! They should arrive in a few minutes!” I frowned a bit confused, but didn’t bother too much with it. “They said it through the chat, but I figured you would be occupied with your fight.”

“Kind of difficult to keep track of the chat when one mistake and I lose half of my life, you know?” I complained to her, receiving a small giggle in response.

“Also, the spider recovered, so you might want to focus on it again.” She said while pointing her pom-pom towards the place behind me. I blinked and turned back only to see as the spider stood up angrily while staring four pairs of holes through my chest. “I’ll be here cheering on you!”

COME ON! IT’S THE SECOND TIME I LOSE MY CHANCE TO WAIL ON THE EFFING SPIDER JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE INTERRUPTED ME!

While I stomped my foot on the ground, I saw as the spider started breathing roughly, its body moving up and down in large strides as it kept on looking at me, its anger almost burning the air before me.

“…Any chance we can sit down and talk this over a cup of cold tea?” I asked worried.

The spider replied by simply making its usual motion of coating the claws with silk, however, it made a pained sound when it tried to do the action, and while the string did come out, it didn’t have nowhere as much momentum as it did previously. I gave a smirk before leaning back and picking another arrow from the quiver.

Taking aim at the spider’s head, I shot a couple of arrows at it, but it quickly brought its stone-coated claws to the front, making them bounce off harmlessly before falling to the ground. Not letting that leave me dispirited, I jumped to the side the moment the spider tried to jump at me and let go of two powershots in a row, both of which landed on its abdomen.

-22 -22

-44(2835/5300)

I grimaced, noticing how the damage wasn’t all that great, and decided that it was a good time to change my weapon back to the sword. However, the moment I was storing the bow, the spider quickly turned around and leaped forward.

Caught by surprise, I tried to jump back to avoid the attack, but ended up stumbling by the unexpected movement and took one of the claws straight to the chest.

-114 (682/970)

For a moment I stared at the number confused due to the difference between the previous values, but quickly remembered that the bow had less vitality than the sword. Changing to it deducted the difference in total health I had into actual health points. Probably.

Deciding to worry about it later, I quickly stood up once again when I saw one of the claws coming straight at me. Although I managed to avoid the claw, the spider quickly followed with a hip-check move, slamming me in the chest.

-67 (615/970)

Getting out of breath due to the attack, I barely managed to keep myself standing before changing my focus back to the spider, that had jumped away from me. Not really understanding the reason it did that, I quickly snapped out of my state and changed back to the Long sword.

Turning my attention back to the spider, I saw as it had turned away from me and headed to the small magma pool on the opposing side of the room.

This was one of the things I still wasn’t very sure about this monster. I couldn’t clearly tell for what reason it would so frequently go drink magma. I thought it was for the claw coating, but sometimes even without using it, the spider would simply stop and drink.

Well, this also usually meant that I get a free attack in, so I’m not exactly complaining.

Dashing after it, by the time I reached the spider, it had already drunk quite a bit, but still showed no sign of stopping at all. As its back started bloating and the dangerous red glow intensified, I quickly readied my blade for an attack. However the moment I did that, I stopped myself immediately, stomping my foot on the ground and taking a step back.

Why? Because the spider was doing something I haven’t seen before. And new things are bad when you are hunting a monster.

It was spewing the thread from its back, but instead of shooting or collecting it with the front claws, it was instead gathering them with the rearmost legs. Looking at the scene confused, it took me a moment to see that it was using the rear legs to tie the string around the front ones.

I cursed myself once again before preparing to step in, however, the spider quickly reacted to the sound I made, because it quickly stopped spinning its tread and aimed the tip towards me.

“TEK-TEK-TEK!”

“I KNOW!” I shouted back just as I jumped away just as the massive bottom started to bloat before spewing a large chunk of magma.

Caught off guard by this new attack, I stared at the place where I had been just a moment before and saw as the molten rock splattered itself. While I looked at the scene shocked, I turned back to the spider and saw a horrifying scene.

It had tied large bunches of string around its claws, but it didn’t seem to plan on using the string to lift me up, like it had done previously. As the idea passed through my mind, I saw a small number appearing above its head.

-20 (2815/5300)

It took damage. Its own attacks damaged it. While most players would usually take that as a good sign, I sincerely got on the verge of panicking while the monster stared through me.

“Heeh… I think it went berserker…” I heard Crys commenting from the other side of the room. “Be careful master! It’s really, really mad right now!”

…

“…I think I’m starting to get arachnophobia…”

The moment my words left me, the spider darted forward with lightning speed, the coated claw aiming straight at my head. I jumped back to avoid being caught, but before I could open a good distance, however I miscalculated slightly the distance.

Rather, I didn’t miscalculate, I simply didn’t have much I could do, as the spider let some magma leak through its claws, igniting the thread and blowing me up almost at point blank.

-204 -24 (387/1000) (Sever Shoulder Damage)

-60 (2755/5300)

Flying backwards for a good few meters, I slammed my back on the wall painfully. Sliding down back to the ground. Hearing a surprised gasp from Crys, I quickly opened my eyes up only to see as the spider was already making a beeline towards me with its second claw lifted.

Shocked, I quickly dove to the same side of the claw while ignoring my now almost useless left shoulder. Luckily, this time I was too far even for the explosion, so I didn’t have to deal with it. However, the spider didn’t bother detonating it either, which left it still with one explosive claw of death ready to try and kill me. On the other hand, thanks to its head on charge furious charge, the Spider didn’t manage to stop in time and slammed itself on the wall, making a large crater and making some rubble fall down, hindering it.

-30 -10 -5 -7

-52 (2703/5300)

Not wasting any moment, I quickly took some distance while chugging down two health potions in a row.

+172 +143 (702/1000)

Grimacing thanks to the reduced effect of successive potions, at least I felt as my shoulder somewhat improved. Though it mostly went from severe damage to heavily damaged. While there seems to be a potion that improves this kind of ailment, I couldn’t make it yet, and the normal potion had only a minor effect on anything that isn’t bleeding.

By the time I had finished, the spider was already up and looking at me. For the first time I managed to get a good look at it and became surprised to see how almost every part of it seemed to glow red.

“Tek…Tek…”

Glancing at the sprite with the corner of my eyes, I saw as it moved around a bit confused by the shock. Half glad that it had somehow managed to hang on up to now, I changed my focus back to the spider.

Running to the side while circling it, I awaited to see its next move. Right as I expected, it took only a couple of seconds before it started doing something. Raising its whole body up in the air and making spikes sprout from all over its abdomen.

Recognizing the action, I quickly stopped and turned towards it. For a brief moment I considered if I should try and do what I had in mind. Deciding that it was as nice of a chance as I got, I raised the sword with some difficulty while using only one hand and held it over my shoulder, activating Focus slash and feeling the skill charge up.

Being faster, Much faster than what I had seen before, the spiders quickly brought its whole body down, smashing the ground heavily and making it cave in with the impact and spikes, almost throwing me out of balance at the moment thanks to the force behind the impact. However, it didn’t stop there, as it started to jump up and down while wildly smashing everything around it.

However, while I had already seen its tantrum attack before this time it had something extra. Every time it slammed on the ground, magma would spew out from its body, spreading everywhere and falling dangerously close to me. A small patch even managed to land on my leg, burning me.

-43 (659/1000)

Feeling the skill get on its maximum charge, I decided that it was about time to release it just when the spider threatened to slam me head on. The blade made a motion forward and sliced the abdomen of the spider just as it slammed the ground one meter in front of me. Sadly, it seems that it didn’t count as a counter for the skill, so I only dealt one damage. However, seeing as the spider raised itself once again to continue the attack, as if nothing had hit it, I quickly cast both Unstoppable charge and another instant focus slash, targeting the spot right on the other side of the spider.

Using it instantly, the moment I found myself in the open, I turned around, seeing the spider destroy the ground of the place where I stood before turning to me.

Thinking that simply letting it stop here would be a waste, I quickly forced my left arm to grasp the sword and held it to my side before casting my Charge-attack, Talon strike.

Feeling as the blade cut right through the middle of its body in its ascending trajectory, I found myself face-to-face with the spider, something that left me unsettled as I saw the claw approaching me. Feeling as it dug into my back, I became glad to the fact that it was the one that had already been blown up previously.

Before it could try and follow up with the other claw, I rolled forward, passing underneath its body in the process.

-135 -20 (504/1000)

-132 -130 (Critical) -130 (Critical)

Combo! (x1.1)

-431(2272/5300) (Bleeding)

Seems like I took extra damage from forcing my shoulder. While grimacing over this idea, I gave my sword a quick glimpse, seeing as its black blade had become a bit clearer thanks to its natural skill of converting toughness into attack. For a moment I simply stared at it blankly, before remembering the other skill that the sword had.

Wondering whether it would be a good idea to try this, I decided that it was now or never. Ignoring any attempt to open some distance between the two of us, I darted forward towards the spider while leaning the sword to the side, letting it cut through the rock as if it was butter.

Giving a look at my energy bar, I saw that I had twenty points remaining. Enough for two rolls. However, it was also starting to regenerate, so I guessed that maybe I could use another one or two rolls if I manage to buy myself enough time.

Seeing as the spider turned to me by swinging the coated claw, I stopped myself on the track, far away, letting the slash miss me by a wide margin before stepping in once again. Ducking under the second claw, I raised the sword in a sloppy upward slash that missed the target and hit the foreclaw of the spider. If that was even a thing, though.

-30 (2242/5300)

Dealing low damage, I prepared myself for any possible attack.

What I saw was the spider opening some distance from me.

Well, actually, it was leaning its whole body back while keeping its legs tense. For a moment I wondered what it was doing, but when it came to mind I couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit silly. The spider was going to head-butt me.

I mean, who else could ever claim to have a spider head-butting them?

Wait, not the time!

Snapping out of the comedy mode, I reacted quickly by stabbing the sword onto the ground and letting the blade sink deep into the rock until only the hilt was outside. With the same hand, I quickly activated the sonic bomb I had tied in my waist, hoping that I managed to reach it in time.

The sound ringed in my ears, which meant that for the spider it was akin to a nightmarish sound hell.

But it seems that rage is something scary, as the spider only twitched for a moment as if the sound was nothing more than an annoyance.

However, that time was everything I needed to come up with another plan, as I quickly went on to my second trusty item, the stun knife. Pulling it from my bandolier, I quickly spun it around and held it in a reverse grip, seeing how I didn’t have time to throw it. Setting the activation to impact, I braced myself while seeing the spider release the tension in its legs and coming at me in full speed.

Stabbing the knife the moment the spider was about to touch me, I didn’t manage to stop it in time, as it kept some of its momentum even though it had been stunned.

-54(474/1000)

-12(2230/5300)

On the bright side, I managed to hold my ground and not be knocked back. Grabbing the sword once again, I started trying to bring it up to make the last cut, but with only one arm, it was a task that’s a lot easier said than done.

So, I did what any sane person would have done. I kicked the sword up.

Well, more like used my leg to give it momentum, but it doesn’t sound as amusing as kicking a sword.

Holding the sword with the blade turned towards the spider, I both pushed it with my right hand and with my right leg. While I’m almost sure it looked ridiculous, it worked just fine, so I’m not complaining.

With the sword making a wide arc and cutting the spider from underneath, it also reached its maximum stacks of the passive buff it could reach. Letting it pass over my head and quickly putting my feet back so I wouldn’t fall on my back, I quickly fixed my stance and used the sword’s skill. Shatter earth.

The sword who was back to its original form right after I crafted it, shone with a dangerous light as the waves that made its edge sprouted forward, forming dangerous-looking spikes as it dug deep into the ground. Ripping the earth apart while creating uncountable amounts of debris with the move, all of which with extremely sharp points that flew towards the spider with an unforgiving ferocity, the attack left a rift on the ground that advanced five meters ahead and was at least one meter deep.

-45 -73 -25 -58 -12 -76

-289 (1941/5300) (Bleeding)

Although I was surprised and please by the numbers, I didn’t get the chance, seeing how the spider recovered a lot faster than what I expected.

While the spider did get a light knockback from the attack, it quickly recovered itself and charged forward once again, except that right before it reached me, the spider stabbed one of its claw to the side. Recognizing the move as the one it used earlier, I jumped back to avoid the attack, however, this wasn’t enough. Much to my surprise, the spider spewed out magma from its back as it made the sweeping motion, some of it landing on me even though I tried moving away.

-78 (396/1000) (Burning)(Burning resisted)

I cursed in pain and thanked silently to the fact that my armor protected me from being scorched alive. However, I quickly fixed it by scraping the magma out of my clothes with the sword. Fixing itself up, the spider quickly followed the full spin with a wide slash with its claw that almost got a piece of me.

Sadly, while I did escape in time from the slash itself, the explosion still got me. On the plus side, I somehow managed to use Nature’s bastion just in time to save myself from the worst.

-13 -32 -13 -53

-111 (1830/5300)

-63 (333/1000)

Being sent flying backwards, I tumbled on the ground for a few meters before straightening myself up and standing again. Giving a brief glance to my shoulder to check if the little pebble was alright, seeing how it had been quiet for quite some time now.

“T-Tek T-Tek T-Tek…” It said dizzily while swaying to one side to the other. From the looks of it he was groggy from the explosion. At least he seemed to be fairly well otherwise.

Turning my attention back to the spider, I saw as it started knitting some more threads while watching me angrily. I quickly glanced at my health before sighing and chugging down yet another potion.

+98 (431/1000)

Ghh… Seems like the potions are quickly growing useless. Even though I still had a bunch more to fill my health with, with the rate that they were reducing in effectivity, I wouldn’t last much longer.

Under that thought, I finally took a deep breath and leaned my sword against my body, giving it support before slapping my own face with my good hand. I noticed how the Sprite flinched surprised for a moment before looking at me confused.

“Go to the crystal cheerleader wannabe.” I told the sprite while pointing to Crys, who was, seemingly, testing some new cheering routines. “Seems like I can’t try to pull the warrior any longer.” I opened my inventory and started pulling some new sonic bombs, knives and other accessories. “It’s time to show that spider how you use the tricks of the trade.” I said my badass line while putting on a ferocious smile.

“Master!” Crys called me, making me blink and look at her confused.

“What?” I shouted back.

“That was extremely corny!”

“Shut up!” I said back.

The Sprite looked at me confused, and then to the spider. However, since a good time ago the spider had been focusing solely on me. Seems like I really pissed it off this time.

The sprite briefly nodded before jumping off from my shoulder and darting away at a surprising speed through the ground towards Crys, who quickly lowered herself to ground level to try and calm down the sprite that still trembled in fear.

Looking back ahead, having finished my preparations, I once again grabbed the sword with one hand while cursing the lack of a decent one-handed weapon. Well, a hunter got to do with what he have, right?

Time to calm down and be a little less aggressive, as all good hunter should have learned by now.

What? I never said I was the best hunter around, did I?

Huh? Calling myself Huntmaster Wargon Sama at the start of the chapter? Not sure what you are thinking about…

A-ANYWAY!

As the spider finished weaving it’s threads around the claw, it looked at me angrily before raising the two claws up high. Knowing that sign to be something it usually did before lunging or jumping forward, I quickly readied myself.

The spider came at full speed against me, much like how I expected, and thanks to that I managed to easily run to the side, avoiding any attack it could try against me. However, much like how it usually did, after the charge it didn’t waste any time before turning towards me with its claws.

It took me a while to notice this but it seems this bugger can combo into this spin relatively easy.

However, the sudden twist also put a lot of strain into its leg, making them bend a bit too much due to the inertia. This meant that right after the attack it would have to take at least a second before it could recover completely for another attack.

Using that chance, I quickly tried using one of my skills to attack the beast, but sadly, it was difficult to reach a good starting position with only one good arm, so I had to contempt myself with using the wide reaching AoE skill from my repertoire.

All I need to do was to have the sword leaning to the opposite side of the arm that had the main grip. Taking a couple of steps forward, I quickly approached the spider while putting my right shoulder forward and leaving my body half-twisted. Just as it recovered itself I used Claw strike, first form.

The attack itself is very simple. A wide reaching sweep with all the strength of my waist behind it. While the damage isn’t all that different from talon strike, it lacks the charge-in effect and precision of a vertical slash that the other skill had. In exchange, it earned a knockback effect and a wide area of effect that was excellent when surrounded by smaller enemies.

But the knockback wasn’t something I would count on affecting large enemies like this.

How glad that I was wrong.

The spider, although it wasn’t blown back by the skill, did receive a stagger as the wide slash hit its legs, making one of the legs bend in and take a step back. Surprised, I immediately considered following with another one of my style skills to take advantage of the opening, but quickly changed ideas. I couldn’t risk taking another attack right now.

Leaping back, I saw just in time as the spider let its whole body fall to the side just as large spike speared its way from its back towards the place where I had been, a bunch of magma falling from it as it reached its maximum length.

-70 (Critical) (1760/5300)

-11 (1749/5300)

Grimacing in thought of what would have happened to me should I have followed my attack, I quickly tightened my grip on the sword before leaning my bad arm towards the sonic bomb tied to my waist. Activating it right where it was, the spider flinched slightly, but I quickly took the chance to run to its back where I quickly started charging up a focus slash.

The spider quickly got up, but instead of turning straight to me, it simply looked around confused.

By the time it finally managed to turn towards me, I had a fully charged attack ready to go. Casting Unstoppable charge on myself and letting go of the attack. The spider reacted shocked and tried exploding one of its claws to stop me, however, I was a bit faster and managed to go right through it with the skill, landing the initial blow right to the side of its head, missing the weak spot by mere centimeters.

-145 (1604/5300)

-30 -12 (1562/5300)

Having aimed to a spot right behind the spider, I found myself looking at its completely exposed back. Well, not completely, seeing how a few spikes had formed around it as a protective measures. I quickly lowered the sword and started charging another focus slash.

Not waiting for it to be fully charged, I quickly let go of the skill at the moment I saw the spider turning back. Not aiming at its body, and instead to the claw coming my way, I used something that most people would find odd.

I activated my armor’s skill, ignite weapon.

The blade impacted against the claw at the very edge while being engulfed into flames. As the sword was ridiculously long, it left barely out of the explosion’s main-damaging range.

-20 (411/1000)

But, with it not expecting me to force an explosion, the spider didn’t brace itself for the explosion, so it got thrown out of balance by the sudden impact, its body keeping the momentum as it spun around before falling to the ground.

-59 -9(1494/5300)

Out of energy because of the combo I did, I took some distance and decided to risk not getting an attack while going in. Quickly checking on my ammo in the bandolier, a thought crossed my mind. Wondering if I should go for it or not, I finally nodded and turned back to the spider with a smirk in my face.

Time to bring in the DoTs! Or damage over time, for those who don’t know much of MMO jargon.

With some difficulty, I managed to sheathe the sword. While I could go for a new Shatter earth, I would be risking myself to an attack too much, so I decided against it in the end. Having done the previous attempt more as a method of amusement, trying to copy that attempt could end badly for me.

Watching carefully, I wondered whether I should use another sonic bomb to leave it deaf once again. I had wondered whether the sonic bomb truly had become ineffective against the raging spider or if it was just shrugging off the stun effect.

From the last test, I found out that it was the second case, as it would simply muscle its way through the sound. Knowing that, I could use the chance to sneak around the monster as needed, however, I only had a limited amount of Sonic bombs left. While I did rig some with a mana crystal, I was a bit hesitant to use them twice and lose the bomb altogether.

In the end, I decided against it, so I simply grabbed the stun knife in my bandolier and dashed forward.

The matriarch looked at me furiously and raised its claw while letting some of the magma flow through, however, I quickly reacted by throwing the stun knife at it. Flinching thanks to the effect of the crystal, I managed to close in on it just in time for the effect to end, dodging the attack while slipping inside its heads range.

Having already experienced something like this before, the spider reacted quickly by leaning its body back and preparing a head-butt. While I was surprised with its reaction time, probably thanks to the berserker state it had gone in, I managed to react just in time by leaping forward and stabbing one knife in its forehead and pulling myself up.

“HI HO SCARLET!” I said jokingly while holding myself on top of it as it made its head-butt and soon followed into trying to shake me off.

While it did try to reach me with its claws, the way they were positioned left me just about outside their range, while the spikes could only be formed on the rear-most part of its body, leaving me on a surprisingly safe spot.

Deciding to capitalize on this chance, I smiled and started pulling out one knife after another from my inventory before stabbing them on its back.

-4 -6 -7 -3 -4

-24 (1470/5300)

-11 -15 -13

-39 (1431/5300)

While grinning to the sight of the bleeding taking its effect the more the spider moved around, I quickly went on to activate all the knifes I had stabbed in its back just as I noticed that the spider was making a beeline towards a nearby wall.

The moment its direction changed from forward to upwards, I lost my balance and fell on its rear-part, feeling as a spike pierced me instantly before letting me fall back to the ground.

-136 -12 (263/1000) (Bleeding)

GAAH!

Falling to my back as I saw the numbers raising up, I cursed the damned spider’s luck into landing a critical on me. Raising myself painfully, my annoyance quickly turned into amazement as I noticed the spider miss its footing for a moment, almost slipping out from the ceiling as the numbers climbed up.

-11 -30 -30 -30 (Severe poison.)

-101 (1330/5300)

AWWW YEAAAH!

I had kind of related spiders with being poisonous, so I didn’t really expect it to work at first, but it seems this type is easily affected by poison.

And I would also like to thank the realistic mode for allowing me to stack up the dosage to deal even more damage than usual.

From the looks of it, the effect didn’t just stop there, as the spider was clearly getting dizzy, as its clawed feet would often miss a good spot on the ceiling and slip off for a moment. Taking the moment it took to reach the ceiling as a chance for taking a breather, I opened up a couple of potions and downed them in rapid succession, seeing as the reduced effect somehow helped me up.

+83 +61 (407/1000) (Bleeding stopped)

Sighing in relief, I turned my attention back to the spider, seeing as it approached a seemingly random spot on the ceiling and raised its claw. Confused, I could only watch in confusion as it clawed the ceiling above it.

-30 (1300/5300)

For some time I simply stared at it before an idea appeared in my mind. Remembering the sub-skill I got from tracking, I activated it and searched for any important details on the terrain.

“Master, what are you doing? It’s getting boring simply watch it die to the poison!” Crys shouted from the far back.

“Calm down. I’m trying to understand what it’s doing.” I said while analyzing the skill.

“Boo! This way we can’t do the cheering routine we practiced!” Crys complained, making me blink surprised for a moment and turn towards her.

“We?” As I asked, I saw as not only she, but also Lieutenant and the small Sprite were holding Pom-poms in their hands/paws/claw. Behind them stood both Lily, holding Rio, Ozzur and Aura, watching the scene amazed. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”

“We were kind of bored, so we decided to watch you.” Ozzur explained while noting down something on his notebook. “I must say your fight didn’t disappoint.”

“Wait, you were there since the beginning?”

“No, we were in that cave up there.” He said pointing to the other side of the room where I saw a small hole halfway up the wall, only enough for two people to stand side by side. “But when the fight started to get rowdy, some magma started leaking, so we decided to relocate. Crys here guided us.”

I blinked surprised before shaking my head and sighing. However, something he said caught my attention.

“Wait, leaking magma? From where?”

“The ceiling.” Lily replied with a worried tone. “It were only a couple of small leaks, but we thought it would be better to move from there.”

“But it was really warm!” Rio added with a cheerful tone. “I liked it!”

While wondering what the hell that meant, I quickly changed my focus to the spider and tried using Strategic mapping once again. Probably thanks to the new information, I could somehow see as the map marked a hazard spot right where the spider was hitting its claws. I became grim face as I understood what was going on.

Spoiler :

Not even a moment later, the spider’s claw pierced through the rock for good, a bit of magma gushing out from the ceiling before it quickly put its head in front of the stream, drinking it non-stop while some of the magma dripped down to the ground.

-30 (1210/5300)

At least the poison was still doing its works, I guess?

Sighing annoyed, I was silently thankful that it decided to stop there, or else the whole cave would have been flooded. Still, with the initial breach, it was probably only a matter of time before the whole place was filled to the brim with magma.

Wondering how I would deal with that, I saw as the spider finally decided that it had its fill and turned back to me. Approaching me from the ceiling, it quickly stabbed the two rear-most legs on the stone above and swung down at full speed as its claws covered themselves with brand new red-hot magma.

Well, since I had more than enough time to see that one coming, I dodged easily, however the spider didn’t stop there and let itself swing a full arc before falling to the ground with a huge impact that threw me off balance, almost making me fall over.

Turning towards me, the spider, much to my pleasure, kept itself between me and the magmafall, letting the molten rock pour on its back. Well, at the very least it looked like it wasn’t doing it on purpose, and had simply decided to stand where it fell.

Even if the magma fall was still only a thin stream, I decided that laying around waiting to see what would happen was a bad idea. The crack could expand or the whole ceiling could ruin down on us.

Recoiling its legs, the spider suddenly leapt forward with its claws wide open. As always, I dodged the attack by jumping backwards once and unsheathing my sword in the meantime. Half expecting the spider to follow with a claw swipe or something, however, the moment it landed the ground it sprung forward towards me.

Changing my momentum back forward and quickly followed with a roll. Passing right beneath the spider who stopped its charge the moment it noticed me trying to escape. As soon as my roll finished, I followed with another one to the side out of instinct, and saw as a blob of magma flew its way past where my head was and into the magmafall.

-30 -11 (1169/5300) (Poison burned out)

I gritted my teeth as I saw the warning that the spider wouldn’t be getting any more damage from the poison. Just as I had started considering simply delaying the fight, it seemed like I wouldn’t get much of a chance.

The moment I thought that, the spider turned to me and raised its claws up in the air. Recognizing the sign, I quickly prepared myself for another evasion. But I quickly changed my mind when I sent a glance backwards, seeing that on the path right behind me stood the others in the cave passage. While I did think that the spider was a bit too big to go through that passage, I decided that keeping its focus on me was a better idea.

Taking a step forward as the spiders started its charge, I threw its aim slightly off while at the same time stabbing the tip of the sword on the ground with the edge turned towards, holding the sword up with my good hand and using my whole body to support the blade while bracing for impact.

As expected, the spider impacted with the sword with all its force, making me skid a few meters back and almost reach the flowing magma even though the blade left a gash on the ground in front of us.

Even though it could cut through stone like butter, the blunt side is still blunt, so this should leave it clear how dangerous things were for me at the moment.

-76 (331/1000)

Right after I managed to stop the spider, it quickly followed with a swipe of its claw, aiming for my head as I tried to put my strength into keeping the blade where it was. I barely managed to duck out of the way just as the magma covered scythe crossed the air above me.

Paling while knowing that I was only two attacks away from dying, I grimaced for a moment.

But I soon changed my grim into a smile.

I mean, aren’t I in the perfect position right now?

My blade is literally digging into its head, there was a damage number flying up above, so this meant that it counted as an attack which I could link into a combo, and whatever attack I used right here and right now would land exactly on the weak spot.

I mean, yeah, I might be a couple of attacks away from dying… But things are getting pretty exciting right now.

…

Yeah, I think I’m trembling a bit.

Trembling and smiling.

Leaning my other hand against the blade, I quickly pushed it against the spider’s body at the same moment I activated an instant Focus slash. Seeing as the blade shone thanks to the skill, the spider took a step back as the oversized sword split its head in the middle, a hiss of pain escaping it as I held the blade high up above the two of us.

Recovering a lot faster than usual, the berserking spider quickly recovered itself and raised the left claw up high and aimed it at my head. Spinning the blade around as it made a perfectly vertical stand above me, I grabbed it with my two hands and activated Fang strike, aiming the attack at the incoming claw.

“NOT A CHANCE YOU BASTARD!”

The downward attack deflected the scythe from my chest to my legs. Feeling as it dug into my flesh, I grinned victoriously, as it meant that the damage I took was less than a blow straight to the chest. Using the claw as a support, my skill continued with the stab and twist motion hitting right in the joints of its legs.

-110 -105 -30 -42 (Leg Damage(Ignored))

Combo! (x1.1)

-316 (853/5300)

-62 (Heavy leg damage (Ignored)) -32 (257/1000)

Before I opened my distance again, I briefly let go of my sword and grabbed one ice knife from my inventory. Just as the spider pulled back the claw, I stabbed it on the very bottom of the blade, where the magma was constantly flowing out.

The blade immediately activated, forming a large block of ice that froze the entire of the claw. It was only for a moment, seeing how the heat quickly melted it, but that moment was what I needed. With the ice cooling the magma it solidified almost instantly.

A shrill of pain echoed from the spider as the still flowing magma suddenly found a jam in its path, the part right before the claw bloating painfully.

-40 (Severe channel damage) (813/5300)

This time, not even the spider managed to recover quickly, so I quickly leapt backwards before tightening my grip on the sword.

I have no idea how the hell its inner body works, but I’m sure as hell the magma it soaks the scythes with is the same one it drink. From the looks of it, the same could be said for the one it started shooting from its back a few moments ago. Heck, I’d even bet that the silk was somehow related to the magma itself.

Taking my sweet time downing the last two potions for the day, I watched the spider painfully hold its bloated claw into the other.

+42 +21 (320/1000)

With enough health to survive one last blow and no more potion to count on with meaningful effects, I prepared myself for the last showdown.

For a moment I hesitated whether to be the first one to attack or to wait for it to go first. However, my blood was still pumping at full power and I was raring to go at it. Knowing it was a bad idea seeing how my next potion would at most heal me by one point, I hesitated in deciding what I should do.

Finally, I decided that I’d spend my time the best restocking my ammo. Hearing as Crys led the trio into making the cheering routine, I couldn’t help but smile awkwardly at the scene while I grabbed another sonic bomb.

Aura quickly covered her ears with her paws seeing the scene, but as I blasted the bomb, Lieutenant mas mid way into a stunt, and caught unaware by the blast, the cat was knocked back into his tail while meowing in surprise.

I snickered before focusing back on the spider whose body was now slowly losing the dangerous magma glow that had been covering it. Decided to ask Cyg what the hell happened here later, I took it as a sign that the spider had been knocked off from its berserker state by the pain.

Taking advantage from the brief stun and deafness that followed the Sonic bomb, I moved to the side while dropping a small package behind as I advanced to the side. Closing my eyes as the spider regained its focus, only for the flash bomb to explode.

While it usually didn’t count too much on its sight, I did notice that it would have no other option than to look for me in the literal sense after I last sonic-bombed it.

Seeing as it became blinded, I ran to its side while holding the sword ready for the strike, preparing myself to attack the moment at a moment’s notice.

Then, the spider jumped back.

Leaping back far away and almost reaching the wall behind it , it quickly protected its head with the good claw while skittering from one side to the other. Watching it in confusion, it took me a moment to understand what was happening.

“It… Went on the defensive?” I asked shocked.

Used to seeing the spider always trying to attack me, it took me a few seconds to process its movement as a defensive maneuver. Caught unaware by that specific move, I blinked surprised before shaking my head. Seeing the spider climbing up the wall starting with its rear-most legs, I snapped out of my confusion and ran forward while pulling out a throwing knife with one of my hands.

Throwing the ice knife at the spider’s feet, I saw as it froze her in place and held her half-way into the transition between floor and wall.

After one or two seconds the ice melted, but I was, by then, close enough to land an attack. Approaching from the side so that it wouldn’t have as much chance of seeing me, I activated Fang strike once again, seeing how it’s my instant skill with the highest damage output.

Landing on its back part, the attack landed cleanly, but was soon countered by a spike forming from its shell and aiming at my body. Twisting myself, I managed to barely dodge the attack before dealing another briefly charged Focus slash.

-43 -38 -153 (Critical)

-234 (574/5300)

Right as the blade left the spider’s body, I tried using roll to escape the vincinity, however the spider reacted a bit faster, and twisting its body, it managed to slam me on the wall with a body blow.

-96 (224/1000)

Becoming breathless from the attack, I shook my head and rolled away the moment the spider gave me some breathing room, only to see as the spider turned its body away from where I was and twist the back down before sprouting dozens of spikes toward the wall.

Getting up, the spider seemingly heard me, as it twitched for a moment before turning towards me and waving its claw in a random way as if trying to wave me off. I watched it for a few moments before getting a rough grasp of what it was doing.

It was trying to keep me at bay.

Shaking my head at how different it had become, I tried circling it again, but it quickly turned towards my side, looking at me with every step I made. I didn’t get an exact idea of how long it would get deaf for the sonic bomb, but from the looks of it, the time was shorter than what I expected. Cursing, I thought whether to attack or wait for it to move first, but I decided that it was better to let it do its attack first.

After some annoying seconds of wait, the spider finally stopped and stepped forward.

Spending a few seconds watching me warily, it finally threatened with an attack, advancing with a wide motion of her claws and brandishing it in my direction. I readied myself for the attack, but right as it was about to connect, the spider stopped and jumped to the side it was swinging the claw.

Surprised, it took me a moment to react to the spider’s feint, and by the time I followed it with my eyes, it was already a few meters away, bringing down the now solidified magma upon me.

I reacted by dodging to the side, but the spider had two claws, and not only one.

Unable to escape the second one in time, I reacted by instinct, raising my hand and activating nature’s bastion.

-32 (192/1000)

Deflecting the blade aside with my hand, I soon followed with an instant upwards focus slash that split right through the middle of the head, only to be deflected by the first claw a few centimeters away from the head.

Surprised, I followed with a Fang strike, but it parried the first part of the attack and threw me back, throwing me off balance before trying to head-butt me. I dodged by leaping backwards and opening some distance.

The beast never gave chase and simply watched from its spot.

-98(Critical) -30

-128 (446/5300)

With the distance between us, I couldn’t help but feel confused at its sudden change in pattern, seeing as it watched me while threatening to charge ahead, only to back down and enter a prowling position.

Compared to the remainder of the fight, it was completely different. Extremely cautious and strangely defensive.

While I wondered what was the reason, I saw with the corner of my eyes as the magma started to slowly creep towards my feet. Grimacing, I quickly started moving away and seeing as a good half of the room already head a thin layer of magma around.

Focusing for a moment, I decided that it would be better to take the fight a bit away from the molten rock and towards the drier area.

However, if I turned my back, I was sure that the spider would try to attack me...

While I felt conflicted for a moment, I blinked surprised before smiling wryly. Isn’t that exactly what I want to do?

Turning my back towards the spider, I made my way to a clearer area, closer to where the others were. They looked just as surprised as the spider, and waving at them only served to make them even more confused.

Hearing as the spider started to give chase a few seconds after, I quickly made way to a good place and stopped, straining my ears to wait for the spider’s to do its thing.

When the footsteps stopped, I quickly activated roll to the side, taking some distance and turning back as I activated Focus slash.

The spider reacted quickly. As soon as it passed over my head and landed on the ground, it skidded and turned to me, trying to catch me off guard.

Focus slash takes two seconds to charge. From the moment I started, and the spider turned to me, one second had passed.

It hesitated for a brief moment, less than a fraction of a second, but soon gave chase, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to attack.

It took it one tenth of a second to spring forward, plus half a second to spread apart its claws.

Trying to buy me some time, I leaned backwards, finding out at the worst possible time that I couldn’t move when charging the skill. However, the little movement I did was barely enough to miss the first claw.

Then, I released the fully charged attack.

And the second claw touched me, piercing me right through the chest.

In an instantaneous motion, the blade in my hand split the air at a frightening speed, slicing the spider’s head faster than it could bring the claw up in defense. Usually, it would have stopped there, however, in an almost golf-like swing, I twisted the blade back and it raised itself as the complimentary part of Focus slashed acted.

-160 -180

-340 (106/5300) (Bleeding)

-102 (90/1000) (Bleeding) (Countered)

Seeing the numbers, I widened my eyes.

So close. So very close.

Grasping my hand around the blade, I twisted it mid air and forcefully brought it back down upon the spider, aiming for its head. Although it took a moment to react due to its low life, it barely managed to raise the claws, blocking the attack.

-31 (75/5300)

-11 (64/5300)

-20 (70/1000)

Pushing down my sword, I tried to force it until it cut through its body to deal the final attack, and while the spider’s legs quickly gave in due to the lack of strength, Its claws still persisted as a constant hiss echoed.

“GO MASTER! JUST A LITTLE!” I heard Crys shouting cheerfully.

I gave a grim beneath the frown of effort and raised the sword slightly.

-11 (53/5300)

-20 (50/1000)

“OZZUR!” I shouted to the journalist as the spider’s claws raised due to the sudden lack of counteracting force.

“What?” The mummy asked me after a moment of shock.

I grinned and forced the sword down once again.

“Don’t you effing dare let me die after this, you hear me?”

-58 (0/5300)

-20 (30/1000)

“What?” he asked me confused.

“IT’S DEAD AND DONE! NOW HEAL ME ALREADY YOU BUFFOON!” I shouted angrily. “I DON’T WANT TO LOSE MY HARD EARNED EXPERIENCE!”

-20 (10/1000)

---

(Dead) Author's corner: Numbers are evil. EEEEEVIIIIIL!

Tables are stil eviler, though....