sorry for the wait guys! I have been rather busy the last few days.
A massive spider stood before Kora and the rest of the band. It's name was [Arachna Regem], or Spider King.
'Totally an original name' thought Wraith sarcastically as he walked ahead of the rest. 'So the [Nephila Regina] is its mate?'
The white cloaked kid unsheathed his taidachi, gripping it in both hands in a traditional kendo stance. Miho stood a little in front of him, ready to block any attack meant for his partner. The pair studied the massive beast before them, waiting for it to attack first.
It had three hp bars floating next to its head, and being larger than a large bus, it was pretty far off the ground. It stood between the players, and the labyrinth, blocking their way. The King had already taken many lives, and Wraith vowed to avenge them.
"Shall I attack?" Asked Miho quietly, lest the monster actually heard them. As if it could understand Japanese!
Wraith shook his head, stepping forward. Miho took the hint, understanding that he was going to take a crack at it. As he stepped, Wraith could swear the things eyes flash red for a moment.
'Well, at least I have gotten its attention' he thought. He spread his legs a little past shoulder width, and had the large sword in front of him. The King will fall.
It moved, quickly. Wraith barely had enough time to jump backwards before the thing's front pincers snapped where he was.
He stopped his backward momentum, digging his feet in the ground. He then sprang forward, slashing vertically. He managed to slice one of the front legs, causing the spider to retreat.
Wraith saw a small sliver of hp dip off the monster. Good, only ten thousand more hits left, if he was lucky.
Deciding to press his advantage, Wraith ran forward, getting ready to slash again. The thing came to meet him, swinging a leg to strike Wraith. Smiling at the futile attempt, he jumped. He landed on top of the limb, and ran up it, using his [Acrobatics] skill to be able to balance in almost any situation. Take this!
He lunged forward at the last second, slashing downward with a [Vertical]. His taidachi slashed through the face, right between the eyes, leaving the Kind wounded.
Wraith backflipped off, ready for his next assault.
"Wow, you did a little damage" said his friend standing beside him. "Now my turn."
The giant ran forward while the spider watched them. It saw his advance, and met it with its own. The man threw out a punch that caught the monster unaware, knocking it back several meters. Then, he kept going, and tackled it, rolling on the ground. Somehow, Miho managed to get on top, and pin his opponent down with his legs. He then threw punch after punch at the poor arachnid's face, until it bucked him off.
He landed a couple of meters away, and was about to rush in, but Wraith beat him to it. Lunging forward, he slashed across the recovering monster's left eye, giving it the status effect of [Partially Blind]. It now had over one hundred eighty degrees of a blind spot. A place where Miho can focus on literally pounding it.
Wraith then raced to the other side to serve as a distraction. The spider's unfounded eye gleamed with malicious intent as it aggroed onto him. Wraith smiled behind the mask. 'This next attack will ensure our victory.' He promised to himself.
As Miho was about to hit the King, it charged Wraith. The white cloaked Mage stood firm, waiting for the right moment to strike. He watched his prey cover ground quickly, waiting, waiting, now!
He jumped straight up, using a little magic to make his leap higher than should be possible, even in a game. The spider, not being able to look up at that angle, kept running for some odd reason only the Cardinal System would be able to explain.
He landed right on the arachnid's back, and plunged his taidachi deep inside, injuring something important. The boss's hp dipped lower, over halfway through the first bar. 'Wow, I did hit something!' He congratulated himself.
Remembering the only thing he knew about spider anatomy, Wraith looked at his next target: the abdomen, where the heart was supposed to be.
The monster was bucking hard, trying to dislodge its unwanted rider from his perch. Wraith yanked his sword out out of its back, and jumped in rhythm with the spider, managing to land right behind it. It stopped, and looked around, trying to find him. Wraith took that opportunity to stroll along its side, to a rather exposed part of the abdomen. He grinned, and sliced his razor sharp sword through the tough flesh.
He saw a notification telling him he hit a sensitive area. The spiders first hp bar was fully depleted, and the second was halfway through. Readying another attack, he raised his sword, but his victim ran away. Now he knew how to beat this thing. Easy.
"Fire at the abdomen!" Came an order from behind them.
Wraith whipped around, to see the three archers draw their bows with arrows notched at the string.
"No! You will only aggro it!" Shouted Kora. "Don't!"
All three fired in unison, using a skill that turned each arrow into three. Wraith followed the trajectory of the nine bolts with his eyes, and saw them near their target: the pink flesh exposed when the exoskeleton was broken. Right before they hit, the King turned to the side, and they bounced harmlessly off of its hard shell.
Everyone froze in place, watching the monster continue turning until it faced the archers. It too, stopped moving, and its eyes flashed red, signaling its next prey.
Miho ran up to Wraith quickly. "What should we do? It's halfway between us and the archers, and it's much faster."
He may not be the sharpest arrow in the quiver, but he could follow a situation pretty well.
"Throw me" muttered Wraith. "Throw me now!" He then sheathed his sword, standing in the Battou stance, known for its power attacks and lightning quick follow ups.
Miho wasted no time, since the monster started moving towards the archers. The pikemen looked ready to defend them, but Wraith knew exactly how that was going to end up, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
Miho grabbed a hold of his companion around the waist, and spun a few times, building power. When Wraith was released, it felt like being shot out of a cannon. Thankfully, he managed to control his trajectory, and aimed his head at his target. In the second he spent in the air, he unsheathed his sword, and drove it forward, feeling it connect with the back of the spider.
His sword was buried deep inside the abdomen when he slammed into it. Recovering quickly, he tried to withdraw his sword, but it wouldn't budge. His eyes widened in fear at this new developement. Not good at all.
As quick as Wraith moved through the air, the King spun to face him. Wraith turned to run, but was tackled by the massive being. He was thrown on his back, and saw the pincer things closing in. 'Damn I wish I knew more about spiders' he thought.
"You leave him alone!" Came a shout, and then the spider was removed from Wraith's presence. As he stood up, he saw Miho running at the spider. Wraith put two and two together, and got that the King was drop kicked. Simple enough I suppose.
He stood, and withdrew his okatana from his inventory, glad he didn't discard it yet. He chased after his friend, as Miho was sure to need support to kill this thing. And then all hell broke loose.
Argo told us the most recent area that the Queen Spider Nest was in. The tall trees casting dark shadows everywhere, leaving little light to see by. Thankfully, there is no such thing as true darkness in a video game. I had my ax, Ironhead in my hand, with a brand spanking new buckler on the other arm. Aoki was a little ways back, ready to Fireball anything that snuck up on us from a flank, while Silica was right beside me. If we encountered anything, I would charge it, Ana's try to knock the enemy off balance, where Silica and I could easily finish it off.
My eyes were peeled, searching for the telltale signs of spider webs. As we were walking, I did catch a glimpse of some small ones, so I knew we had to be getting closer. It was almost noon, and I would have liked to be back before sunset. My grip on the ax was tight, since I know now the power one had with a weapon in hand, but I kept going.
A notification appeared in front of us, saying we were entering a dungeon. Smiling, I thought, 'At last! We can finally find this damned Spider Queen!'
"Hey, let's hurry up a little. I think we are close" I said, motioning to the other two.
"We are" said Silica. "I can hear sounds of fighting."
"You can?" I asked, tilting my head.
"Yeah, I put a few points on the [Detection] skill" she explained. "So I can hear better than average."
"Ahh." I said. "Well, which direction is it?" I looked around, not able to pinpoint anything.
"Forward. We were going the right way." She said, and walked ahead of me. "Come on!"
I sighed. "Well, there went your 'I'm gonna carry the team!' attitude" said a sarcastic voice next to me.
I glanced to see my old friend, with long blonde hair. She was smiling teasingly. "You should either ditch them, or trust them. Nothing in between will suffice."
"But I do trust them" I said, now walking. "And I like it when Silica does stuff like this. It tells me she could probably survive on her own, but she wants to stay with Aoki and I."
"Who are you talking to?" Asked the fire Mage from a few meters back.
"Just to myself." I called back hurriedly.
"That was close" said Nancy with a smile. "I would like you all to myself" she tilted her head as she kept pace with me.
This time, I spoke much quieter. "No thanks. I have friends now".
"But we all know what will happen when" she paused to collect her thoughts. "When your brain spirals out of control."
I nodded slightly. "Yeah, I do know. I can already hear them."
"All those voices, compounding in your brain. All the same, but different somehow, leading to mass confusion. You won't know yourself" she laughed. "But if you let me do my job, then you will never have to deal with that."
"I will manage' I said, gritting my teeth.
"Oh come on!" She skipped to right in front of me, her white dress swishing. "We all know how that will turn out!"
"Hey! Hurry up! Tohaku is fighting the Queen!" Shouted Silica from up ahead.
"Well, I better go, talk to you later" I said to Nancy.
I slid my shield onto my back, and coupled it with my battle ax. I then brought out a [Tribal Cry] tomahawk from my belt, and dashed forward. I raced past Silica, and took in the situation.
Mayoko was running around, killing little [Brood Guardian]s quickly, and efficiently, while Tohaku was toying with the Queen. All of her legs were trapped in ice, and frozen to the ground. He was laughing as stalagmites of ice protruded from the ground to pierce her soft underbelly.
I ran up to him. "Well, it looks like you have the situation under control" I said, looking at [Nephila Regina]. "I am guessing you don't want any help?"
"You would not be correct. My magic does very little damage against this kind of enemy. Would you please have Aoki torch it?" He smiled. "I would be very grateful."
"As long as I get the drop" I said.
"Yes, agreed." He said.
"Hey, Aoki! Burn it!" I yelled behind me.
"Sure thing!" She called back, and prepared a chant.
A few moments later, I was roasting some meat by a large fire in the clearing. I had chopped some logs down, and piled them in the center where Aoki lit them. Tohaku had silently handed over the [Spider Fang] to me, and I planned to craft Silica a better knife than what she had, since I was sure the [Wolf Fang Knife] wouldn't work out well for much longer.
When I had judged the meat to be finished, I passed them out on plates I had gotten from Agil a few days ago. After everyone had gotten a plate, I noticed we were one person short.
"Hey, where is Miho?" I asked after I swallowed a piece of meat.
"I left him to fight with the ALF, since they needed an attack Mage for a little. We will be joining them shortly." He explained. "We wanted to do this quest to further ourselves in the Elf War Campaign Quest"
I nodded. "I have been thinking about joining that one, does it give decent xp and col?" I asked.
"Decent, but it continues through floor nine. If you don't like collection quest after collection quest, don't join it." He said mournfully. "Just grind."
"Hrmph. Well, ok." I said. "I guess there will be more quests along the way."
"A lot more" he said. "This is a MMORPG."
"Touché" I said, and continued eating.
'I wonder how Miho and Wraith are doing up right about now.'