Chapter 54 - Episode 54: Aranian, The Broodmother. (2)
Chapter 54 – Episode 54: Aranian, The Broodmother. (2)
Emma smiled excitedly.
"Yes! Come and help us!"
I immediately swing my sickles and throw them at the spiders that are crawling on the walls. The sickles are stuck on the wall and I pull it as hard as I can. I look up and the albino spider is still hiding on the webs. I immediately run to the wall and starting to climb the wall.
Emma and the others are looking at me with confusion. Francesca looks up and is squinting her eyes. Thanks to the flare that Leonardo used, she can see the albino spider.
"Let him be! Just focus on your own!"
I climb up the wall while killing the spiders around me. I keep climbing and I almost reach the webs where the albino spider is at.. But then the albino spider notices me and immediately runs away. It's impossible for me to walk on the webs since it's so sticky like super glue. I click my tongue and look down while hanging on the sickle that I stabbed on the wall.
Since the albino spider is gone, I look around and start helping them by killing the spiders that are crawling down the walls. I jump and stab the sickle on the wall while the other sickle hits the spiders. I will keep doing that until I'm close to the ground. I look up for a second and the albino spider is there again.
"You little…"
I'm not going to catch that spider now. It will be impossible for me to do that. I need [Moonsteps] skill to climb up the wall and surprised him, or there's another way to climb up so fast without getting noticed by the albino spider. But for now, I'm going to help them defeating Aranian. When I'm close to the ground, I jump down and land in the middle of the battlefield. I slash my sickles and help those who are in need. I look at Ivonna and she's still luring Aranian while Michael and Francesca are attacking her.
The spiders keep coming endlessly from above and it makes Leonardo and Hans confused. Hans looks at me.
"Trev, are the spiders keep respawning? Because there's no end to this."
I nod.
"Yeah, this is the second phase. The spiders are spawning to help Aranian with no EXP, no drops, nothing but wasting and distracting your time from Aranian."
Leonardo sighs.
"I knew it. So we are basically waiting for Michael and Francesca to deal enough damage to go to the third phase."
I'm humming with an agreement.
Everyone is looking at Michael and Francesca. Hoping for them to end the second phase as soon as possible. But it seems impossible for them both to end the second phase soon since they don't have enough damage and power. They both know and Ivonna as well, but there's no other way.
Ivonna and Francesca suddenly turn around and look at me. They both nod while looking at me. I smile and then immediately approach them. Michael is surprised and chuckles.
"Welcome to the party! As you can see, there's nobody other than the two of us here. The party is kind of boring, so we are happy that you came."
I scoff.
"Yeah, this party sucks."
I hook my sickles on Aranian's body and lift myself on top of her. Michael, Francesca, and Ivonna are surprised and shake their heads with disbelieve, I'm looking at them while shrugging. Then I start to attacking her head from the top of her body. She's starting to resisting and wiggles her body.
My sickle passive skill [Rupture Blade] only lasts for half a second and can't stack them up because of that. It also barely does any damages. Damn boss-type monster with their 95% status resistance. But thanks to the other passive skills I have, I deal with quite a lot of damage. I really want to use my new sickle, but I want to keep it a secret from everyone for now.
Aranian is screeching and wiggling her body. The third phase begins. I throw my left sickle at Ivonna and my right sickle at Michael and Francesca. The three of them were confused.
"Grab them! I'll lift you guys!"
Without hesitation, the three of them grab the chain. I pull them up and we are standing on Aranian's back. I stab both my sickles on her body. I tilt my head toward the sickles.
"Grab them and hold it as tight as you can."
The three of them are holding the handles and then suddenly Aranian climbs up the wall. Everyone is surprised and looks at us with their mouths wide open. Michael is suddenly looking pale. He looks at me while yelling.
"I'm scared of heights!"
Francesca is snoring and hiding her face. Ivonna looks at me.
"What is going on now? What is she going to do?"
I'm pointing at the webs and they're looking at them.
"She's going to rest and regenerate her HP. Don't worry, she's not going to regenerate her HP to full, only a third of her max HP."
Francesca groans.
"Are we going to do the second phase again?! Can we interrupt her from regenerating her HP?"
I shake my head.
"No. After this, we are going to be in the fourth phase. Only fighting and nothing else. We can't interrupt her from regenerating her HP, she will become invulnerable in the meantime."
Michael raises his eyebrow.
"Then what are we doing here if we can't do anything to her?"
I smirk.
"Because, after she regenerated her HP, she won't be going to go down to the ground. She will be hanging on her threads while attacking and throwing her webs at us. So the reason why we are following her up here is that we need to cut off the thread so she will fall to the ground. Trust me, it will be easier to defeat her this way."
They're humming with understanding. Francesca is pointing at the albino spider.
"Hey, that's your prey. Are you not going to take him down?"
I smirk and raise my eyebrow.
"I will after we land on the webs. I need to be careful to not alert him or he will run away from me again."
Francesca is chuckling.
"Good luck with that. Oh, it seems that we are almost there."
Aranian immediately lay down on the webs and fall asleep. I look around and I see the albino spider is hiding in the crack on the wall. Francesca is elbowing me on the ribs.
"Go get him."
I nod.
Since nobody else is up here, I equip the Moon's Series. I use [Moonsteps] and disappear. I reappear in front of the albino spider. I startled him and run away from me. After chasing him for quite a while, I manage to attack him and kill him. I immediately walk toward him and check the drops. But it surprised me that there are no drops, then I realized that I'm not using my daggers. If only I equipped the Lazy Luck Daggers, it will drop the item that I need. I fall on my knees and realize how stupid I am. It will be hard to find another albino spider and it makes me kind of sad.
I get back to Ivonna and the others. I remove my equipment and they're looking at me and furrow their foreheads while resting on top of Aranian's body. Ivonna tilts her head.
"What's with the long face? It ran away?"
I shake my head.
"No. I killed him, but there were no drops…"
Francesca is frowning.
"Well, there will always be next time."
I sigh and sit beside them.
"Yeah, but it will be hard to find another one."
Aranian opens her eyes and stands up. We are surprised and immediately hang on to something. Aranian jumps down, but she releases her threads on the webs. We are falling and it's quite fast, then Aranian stops. Ivonna slips and falls off from Aranian's back. Everyone on the ground is screaming when they see Ivonna falling off from Aranian's body. I stab my sickle and jump toward her and grab her body. I tilt my head.
"Be careful, or you will die."
Ivonna smiles.
"Thank you."
Michael and Francesca pull us up and we all holding on to my sickle. I look up and pointing at her spinnerets.
"We need to cut off the threads from her spinnerets."
They all nod and we climb up to her spinnerets. We are slashing the threads as hard and fast as we can.
*Snap!*
The threads snap and we are falling to the ground. I remove my sickle from her body and then throw both of my sickles at the wall and hook it. I scream.
"Hold on to them! We are going to jump off!"
They nod and we are holding them both as tight as we can.
"Now!"
We all jump off Aranian's body and hit the wall.
*Bam*
Aranian is hitting the ground so hard that the whole cave is shaking. She's not moving and falls unconscious. I look at Emma.
"It's your chance to attack, she is stunned for 1 minute! Don't waste your time and hurry!"
Everyone is looking at each other and immediately surrounding Aranian and attacking her relentlessly. Ivonna, Michael, and Francesca land on the ground and join them. I'm watching them from up here while they're all bombarding Aranian with all the skills they have.
Because she's stunned, she receives double the damage. In a minute, they manage to get her HP below 40%. As soon as Aranian stands up, she's screeching so loudly. Ivonna screams.
"Everyone get back! I don't what is she going to do but brace yourself!"
Aranian burrows herself into the ground. This the fifth and the last phase. The ground is shaking and everyone is on guard. Emma is looking at me.
"Trev, what is happening?"
Ivonna and the others are looking at me waiting for my reply.
"It's her ultimate skill [Burrow Strike]."
Michael is gulping.
"What does that mean?"
I'm hanging on the wall using my sickle while pointing at the ground.
"It means what it means. Careful with the ground you're standing on. She will come out from the ground to attack anyone near her every 10 seconds for a minute before she goes up to the surface."
Ivonna immediately screams.
"Get away from the ground! Run to the walls and start climbing!"
Everyone is running to the walls but some of them are not that lucky. Aranian comes out from the ground and snaps them up with her fangs and slashes them with her legs. They're good as dead. The others are climbing up the walls and stay there for a minute. Then Aranian is back to the surface. Ivonna immediately charges towards her and takes the aggro. The others starting to attack her again. But then Aranian burrows herself to the ground again. Everyone runs towards the wall and climbs up to avoid Aranian's attacks.
Francesca looks at me.
"What should we do? Is she going to keep doing that until we defeat her?"
I shake my head.
"Aim for her fangs and her front legs. Once you cut off her limbs she won't be able to use that skill."
Francesca nods with understanding.
"Thanks for the info."
After I told them that. They were aiming for Aranian's fangs and front legs. It took them a while to finally cut them off. Since then, Aranian couldn't do anything because she lost most of her legs and both of her fangs. They finally killed her after 4 hours of a hard fight.
[Voice of the World]
[Congratulations to [I*********n], [M*********s], [F******K], [P*********a], [B*****t], [R*********r], and the other [147 Players] on defeating Boss "Lady Aranian, the Broodmother". They are the first players to defeat it. The rewards are [25 status points], [Unique Mysterious Box], and [Fame +1.000]. May the Betelgeuse bless you!]
[1.000.000 EXP gained!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
"Huh, I got the rewards even though I only helped them on the second phase, how nice…"
I come down from the wall and walk toward them. Everyone is celebrating while surrounding Aranian's dead body. Ivonna takes the drops and shows them to everyone. She explains the drops and what it does to them, then she offers the drops to her clan members that need the items.
Emma runs towards me and hugs me.
"Thanks for helping us!"
Michael, Francesca, Hans, and Leonardo approach me. They're surrounding me and putting their hands on my shoulder. Francesca smirks.
"It feels like we did nothing and only following your instructions."
They all nod with an agreement. I shake my head.
"I'm only giving you some information. Compared to all of your hard work, it's nothing."
Ivonna approaches us after she gives the items to some of her members. She lifts her hand for a handshake. I look at her gauntlet and it is covered with poisons and webs, not just her gauntlet but her whole armor. She looks at her armor and chuckles.
"Ah yes. It's a mess…"
I grab her hand and shake her hand.
"Congratulations, for killing Aranian. Oh, it's okay. You deserve it. Everyone in here deserves it."
Ivonna smiles and nods then she falls to the ground and falls unconscious. I'm surprised and check on her. Turns out she's just sleeping. Francesca is chuckling.
"She's fine. She has a bad habit of falling asleep no matter what she's doing or where is she at. She can just snap and fall asleep when she's exhausted. Well, she deserves to get some rest after a long fight. Back then when we defeated Queen Arachne, as soon as you both left, she did the same thing."
Emma and I are looking at Francesca. I raise my eyebrows.
"Uhh, what?"
Francesca is smiling and lifts Ivonna and carries her on her back.
"We are done here. Let's get out because everyone is exhausted."
They all nod and walk toward the tunnel. Francesca turns around.
"Trev? You're not coming?"
I smirk.
"No. There's still another boss here. It would be a waste to not kill him."
They're looking at each other and shake their heads. Francesca sighs.
"We will be waiting for you at the surface then. Good luck."
They all nodded and left.
I put on my equipment and grab Ezira's sickle.
"I'll make it quick…"