Spiteful Healer

Chapter 36: Darxon Hideout (4)

Awaiting Aegis and his party at the bottom of the long, dark staircase was a narrow hallway of dark grey stone, illuminated sparsely by flickering torches on the walls. The air was damp and heavy with a vile scent lingering on the end of their noses.

Just by reaching the bottom of the staircase, Aegis could hear the approaching footsteps of enemies that’d been aggravated by the magical lure on his shield. A group of two more shadow assassins had appeared, spotting the illuminated party and their ignited weapons. Before approaching, one of them attempted to dim the light of the flames while the other shifted into mist to maneuver around them and attack. The burning weapons were too effective, however.

An arrow from Darkshot pierced the dimming assassin while the flames of Aegis’ shield, once lifted, blocked the assassin’s shadow movement skill from allowing him to maneuver around Aegis, forcing him into attacking his shield while Lina and Rakkan carefully maneuvered around to swing their blades at the target.

Before the Assassin could even think of escaping, he was defeated, but the one in the back that’d become illuminated by burning arrows from Darkshot saw this defeat, cancelled his dimming skill and turned to flee.

“Don’t let them run, or we’ll be in trouble.” Lina shouted as she dashed forward. Aegis resisted the urge to follow, knowing his lure was just as likely to aggravate more enemies.

“Pinning Shot!” Darkshot fired over his shoulder, piercing the calf of the fleeing assassin and rooting him to the ground with vines, which allowed Lina and Rakkan to catch up and finish him off.

“Phew.” Darkshot said relieved.

“Good call… we don’t want to be fighting too many of these guys at once.” Aegis said as he walked forward slowly, listening for footsteps echoing in the distance as an indicator of whether or not he’d aggravated something.

The long corridor had siderooms that were few and far between, and by the time the party had reached a room, they were unoccupied - Aegis’ lure was aggravating the occupants into attacking before they reached them.

They continued down the hallway battling no more than 3 shadow assassins at a time until they arrived at an odd doorway on the left wall. The wooden door was sealed shut with planks nailed across it to prevent it from being opened, and in the wood were the words ‘DON”T OPEN’ crudely carved into it by a bladed weapon.

Aegis stopped in front of it and read the words out loud. “Don’t Open. You think one of the quest objectives is behind this door?” He asked all of them, though it was mainly directed to Lina who always had an answer. She, along with Darkshot, shrugged back unsure.

“Nothing’s reacting to your lure from inside, right? So it can’t hurt to check.” Darkshot replied. Aegis thought that made sense and lifted his hands to the planks, preparing to pry the door open.

“Ah, well, that doesn’t mean it's empty. Boss enemies aren’t affected by Lure, or monsters above level 15.” Lina stopped him. Aegis turned to the group, now more cautiously holding onto the planks that barred the door shut.

“I think it’s likely something’s behind the door, boss or quest objective, I’d like to check it, if there aren’t any objections.” Aegis asked calmly. Rakkan made an agreeing nod in the direction of the door as he held his sword steady.

“J-just be careful.” Lina warned as she too held her daggers up. All of them positioned themselves closely to the door as Aegis yanked the planks off, taking a bit of prying with his shield. Once the last plank was pulled loose, it was possible to push the door open. It squeaked eerily on its rusted iron hinges revealing a large pitch black room beyond. The floor of the ground transitioned from paved stonework into rough brown dirt, but the room was large enough that the light from their weapons couldn’t illuminate the back wall, it extended beyond their vision.

Aside from that, there were no distinguishable features, just a large open room with no source of light. Seeing the size of the room, Aegis hesitated stepping in, as did the others.

“Based on the size of this room, I’m going to go out on a limb and make an assumption… but chances are if we want to find the source of the poison we’ll have to end up fighting a boss eventually. You guys ready?” Aegis whispered to them while holding his shield up, he looked to each of them to see them nod once more before stepping into the room.

It was quiet, save for the sound of their footsteps on the stone and dirt, they could tell the room wasn’t too large based on the way it carried sound, and as they entered they spread out slowly. Darkshot remained near the door, Aegis walked up the center while Rakkan went left and Lina went right. After stepping about 3 meters into the room the flame from Aegis’ shield illuminated the back wall.

It was covered in thick white webbing with large cocoons of wrapped up objects hanging along it. At the base of the webbing was a collection of bones from a mixture of creature types, some looking human, others animalistic, suspended on webbing that was strung overtop a narrow hole in the floor. Aegis’ eyes followed the webbing upward onto the ceiling of the room where the dungeon roof had been destroyed in lieu of a rocky cavern roof covered in stalactite and thick webbing, and as his eyes continued to move straight up, he saw a set of 8 red eyes glaring back at him from the darkness with the visible text [Boss] floating over it.

In that instant there was a large slamming sound, the door of the room sealed shut behind Darkshot,

Quest Complete! Return to Priestess Clara.

“I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news.” Aegis said, and in response the gigantic spider lingering on the ceiling let out a horrific screeching sound that shook the cavern itself, before releasing its grip on the ceiling and spinning to drop down on top of Aegis.

Aegis dashed to the side at the last moment to avoid being crushed as the creature dug its eight black hairy legs into the dirt floor of the room, turning to face him while hissing. It had razorsharp mandiles that were dripping with a vile green liquid, as the drops touched the ground it sizzled puffs of smoke and singed the dirt black, leaving small craters behind as it melted away the floor.

“Something tells me I shouldn’t try to block that.” Aegis nervously took a few steps back, he could already imagine how badly it was going to hurt taking hits from this thing. Lina jumped into action by maneuvering behind the giant spider and slashing at it with her flaming daggers, and once she started the others all jumped into action. Darkshot released several flaming arrows into the spider’s hide. It lunged forward attempting to bite Aegis, but he chickened out of the shield mastery experience and instead decided to dash backward, watching the spider's mandibles pierce into the very earth and melt away the surrounding stone and dirt. Seeing it, Aegis’ decision to not let them touch his shield was reaffirmed.

Rakkan charged at the creature head on, running past Aegis, but the Spider spun around with incredible speed to slash out at Lina with its fangs. Aegis watched the red number appear above her head, and in the party interface saw more clearly that she had taken 540 damage..

“Minor Heal, Minor Heal, Minor Heal!” The next six seconds were spent by Aegis on healing while Lina stopped attacking and used her high agility stat to avoid the creature's fangs, each attack it made that missed would hit the walls or the floor instead, the acid whittling away the stone and turning the surface into swiss cheese.

The second heal was already enough to draw the aggression back onto himself. It spun around with freakish speed, its eight legs stomping into the dirt sending debris up around them as it hissed and bared its fangs at Aegis. A jump backward was enough to avoid the first strike, but the creature followed through with a lunge forward. Aegis tried to jump backwards again, but got caught in the momentum of the lunge and was forced to Brace it.

You take 125 Piercing Damage.

You take 112 Acid Damage.

Reinforced Copper Shield has been destroyed.

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He remained airborne, the attack knocking him back against the cave wall behind him with a loud thud. His back surged in pain as though his spine had snapped, and his right arm burned from the acid that had made it through onto his skin. But the two seconds he’d normally wait for the pain to dissipate wasn’t available, the Spider continued charging at him.

Equipped: Reinforced Copper Shield

It materialized on his arm in the last possible second and he forced it forward to Brace.

You take 131 Piercing Damage

You Take 110 Acid Damage.

Reinforced Copper Shield has been destroyed.

The second hit momentarily had him pinned against the wall off his feet. He couldn’t take a second to contemplate the pain, he had to accept it and dodge in spite of it. The Spider didn’t let up, it pulled its acidic pincers back, placing its front legs on either side of Aegis giving him no escape. He dropped down onto his stomach to dodge, the fangs piercing into the wall of the cavern behind him leaving giant holes.

As it pulled back he equipped the third of his 5 Reinforced Copper shields. Aegis was expecting another bite attack but instead it lifted its front left leg and attempted to stomp it down on him, forcing Aegis to roll out of the way at the last instant to narrowly dodge the impact, dust and dirt shooting up over his vestments. There was suddenly a bright red flash of light behind the Spider, causing it to screech out in pain and jolt around to face Rakkan who’d been slicing it on the side of its body the entire time.

Aegis wasn’t sure what, but Rakkan had used some sort of high damage skill to get its attention. It whipped around to strike him, but rather than take the full damage, he used his longsword to deflect the attack, taking partial damage instead as the fangs were redirected by his blade to barely soar above his head.

“Minor Heal, Minor Heal, Minor Heal!” Aegis shouted. He’d realized now what his role would be in this fight when the second heal finished and he’d regained the Spider’s attention. He saw a stream of red numbers coming from Lina and Darkshot’s attack on the spider, all he had to do was survive.

It turned to strike again at him with it's fangs, Aegis knowing their damage and the spider's attack rate, he knew he had to prevent it from striking him with its fangs somehow. Rather than try to jump backwards against the wall and get caught by a momentum lunge again, he opted to dash towards one of its legs, sliding under the right leg that’d been attempting to barricade him in.

“Gonna try something, keep moving!” Aegis shouted to the party as the spider rotated its body to follow him. He used the Spider’s own leg as a guard against potential fang strikes, but the Spider was unnaturally fast at turning, and in its turn took a swipe at him with its left front leg. The spiky hairs slammed into Aegis’ shield, skidding him across the dirt from the force, but it was easy to anticipate with Brace compared to the fangs.

You take 80 Crushing Damage.

It felt as though the bones in his arm had shattered, but at this point that wasn’t enough to distract Aegis. Once the Spider had finished its rotation with the leg attack, it pulled back as if preparing to lunge forward with its fangs again. He’d seen the attack already twice, enough to know that there was enough space between the spider and the floor to duck. He dropped to his stomach, causing the fangs to pass over him.

Having missed, the spider followed through with a left leg attack, which Aegis rolled from, and it felt all too familiar as more dust shot up onto his vestments. He jumped up to his feet as the Spider prepared to strike again, dashing to under the Spider’s right front leg once more for protection.

As it shifted its rotation, so too did Rakkan, Lina, and Darkshot maneuver behind to stay out of its view. The fang strike missed once more, and the spider followed through with another front left leg strike on Aegis as it rotated to keep up with him.

You take 76 Crushing Damage.

Once the leg pulled back, the spider pulled its entire body back for another lunge attack. Once again, Aegis dropped to his stomach, and the fangs passed over top of him. It couldn’t really be that easy, could it? He thought. It was repeating the exact same attacks.

“Good job Aegis, you’ve got his attack pattern!” Lina encouraged him.

“That fast?” Darkshot said, impressed.

“Like this, I still need a break to heal!” Aegis warned them.

“Tell me when to take his aggression off of you.” Rakkan spoke in his deep voice. The Spider attacked predictably for the next few hits, Aegis only taking damage from the leg swings. Once he got below 200 health, he told Rakkan to take the threat. In that short time Rakkan deflected a strike, Aegis was able to top himself off and take aggression back and continue.

The strategy worked well for two cycles of this, but just as Aegis was starting to get comfortable, the Spider’s body began to glow red and it let out a horrifically deafening screech, stopping its attacks as a strange steam began to come out of its mouth.

Aegis used the time to heal himself and Rakkan back to full.

“Back up until we know what it’s going to do for its enrage, Darkshot keep pressure up.” Aegis shouted. Rakkan and Lina listened without hesitation as they jumped away from the Spider, Aegis doing so as well. Darkshot continued to fire arrows but his mana had long since been depleted.

The spider suddenly jumped from the floor and flipped around, grabbing onto the ceiling, its mouth still bubbling. With a gurgling screech it spewed a dark green liquid from its mouth downward towards the floor, the direction seemed random and was closest to Lina and Darkshot. Both of them dashed out of the way as the acidic spew splashed onto the floor and cavern wall.

Both avoided the immediate damage, but the acid left a large section of the ground dissolved, leaving behind a large, seemingly bottomless hole where a second screeching sound could be heard from. Seconds later, a smaller black Spider skittered out of the hole and charged at Darkshot.

“Lina can you get up to it?” Aegis asked as he dashed towards the small spider while motioning to the boss on the roof.

“I think so with Shadowstep.” Lina nodded back.

“Rakkan with me on the babies, Lina and Darkshot stay on mom.” Aegis shouted as he slid along the dirt like a baseball player to get in front of Darkshot in time, blocking a strike from the small spider from hitting him. Darkshot put faith in Aegis and ignored the small spider in front of him, continuing to fire arrows at the spider on the roof. Lina thrust her daggers into the dirt to extinguish the fire on them before hugging a dark wall of the cavern.

“Shadowstep!” She shouted, suddenly morphing into a shadowy mist not unlike the assassins, she followed along the wall of the cavern to the top where the mother spider was until materializing on the Spider’s upside down stomach, and began stabbing it furiously - the Spider screeching out angrily as it shot another blob of acid down at Darkshot and Aegis.

Aegis now had the small spider's attention and dashed to the left to dodge the acid while Darkshot dodged to the right, and once the acid hit the ground it left another hole, and a second small spider skittered up and ran at Aegis.

They were only hitting for 30 damage, nothing compared to the boss spider, but now with two on him, it was getting hard to brace and his stamina was dropping. He was forced to pull out a trusty Rockjaw Steak and eat it as Rakkan arrived and began slashing at the first one that had appeared.

Aegis was under less enough pressure that he could heal himself while the two spiders continuously tried to flank behind him, but with Rakkan maneuvering to cover him, they never got their way. Meanwhile out of the corner of his eye, Aegis saw the boss furiously flailing about along the webbing and stalactites on the ceiling in an attempt to shake off Lina, she was having trouble staying on and fell off twice, both times shadow stepping back on. In this time, she wasn’t getting as many hits as usual - the only real sustained damage they had was Darkshot.

With that in mind, another blob of acid was shot at him, leaving a third large hole in the floor. The ground began to tremble and crack now, its integrity seriously damaged and Aegis wasn’t too keen on figuring out just how bottomless the pit beneath the floor was.

As a third small spider skittered out, Rakkan managed to kill the first one, much to Aegis’ relief as he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to handle three at once. The spiders, like shadow assassins, attacked incredibly fast, but they hit much harder, making his blocking not as effective.

“Multishot, Piercing Shot!” Darkshot shouted, finally having regenerated enough mana for another big attack. Three giant arrows flew through the air and pierced through the back of the Boss Spider while simultaneously Lina drove her daggers into the stomach of the glowing red spider.

It released another deafening screech of pain as several messages rolled up across Aegis’ peripheral vision.

Naruon the Broodmother slain!

You gain 2410 Experience!

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Constitution.

The group of them could relax for a second, but it was short lived as the boss lost its grip on the ceiling and began a freefall towards the deteriorated floor of the room with Lina still on its stomach.

They all saw it coming, but could do nothing to prevent it. The giant corpse of the spider slammed into the ground and shattered it, breaking it into multiple large chunks that fell downward into the room below the Spider’s boss room. Lina jumped forward from the stomach and onto a ledge of the cavern near Darkshot, managing to gain footing with him on a small part of the floor that held up, however Aegis and Rakkan fell along with the two small spiders, plummeting down into the dark room below along with the corpse of the boss.

“AEGIS!” Lina shouted out in horror as she watched their flaming shield and longsword freefall downward. Aegis could only brace for the impact alongside Rakkan and the two spiders, not knowing just how far down the hole went.