Chapter 55

“Look at that! The prey came to me willingly! What do I do to thank you? I don’t have anything to give back.”

Arachnae leaned forward, supporting her chest with her right arm and propping up her chin with her left elbow, gazing down at us with a smirk.

In that pose, her ample bosom, completely bare, was even more pronounced. The pink markings peaking through her green hair were not something I wanted to think about.

‘…Did the update happen?’

I was lost in thought, trying to remember. When I previously installed the NPC Retouch Mod, the bosses’ appearances had remained untouched.

After completing the first playthrough, I had deleted it because I couldn’t stand the uneasiness between their voices and appearances.

From then on, the Darkest Light Mod came out, and I was too busy playing that to pay attention to anything else. So all I remembered was the initial release version.

It seemed that while I was deep into the Darkest Light Mod, the NPC Retouch Mod must have gone through quite a few updates as well.

‘Yeah. It would be strange if it didn’t.’

The Darkest Light Mod had also released various patches alongside minor bug fixes before the final update announcement, so why wouldn’t an appearance modification mod have updates?

“Delta.”

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Lize’s cold voice next to me.

Turning my head, I noticed her silently staring at me with an icy aura radiating around her armor.

I couldn’t see her expression because of the helmet, but it was even more chilling not to see it.

“What are you looking at?”

The moment I heard that, I realized why Lize was reacting this way.

I had been staring vacantly at her human-form upper body, so she must have thought I was fixating on her bare chest.

In reality, I was surprised because she wasn’t covered in armor but rather completely exposed, but from an outsider’s perspective, it was enough to misunderstand.

“…”

I needed to clear up the misunderstanding, but I didn’t know where to start, so I was at a loss for words. Should I explain why I happened to freeze while looking at her chest?

‘If I just stay silent, the misunderstanding will deepen, so I have to say something—’

“Delta.”

Lize called my name again. I gave up on making excuses and waited patiently for her to continue. At that moment, I had no answer.

“If you want to see my bare chest so badly, I’ll show you later. So turn your eyes away. Got it?”

But what came out of Lize’s mouth was completely unexpected.

Both Erica and I jerked our heads up, surprised by what we heard. Claudia seemed to have a knowing smile behind her helmet.

I found myself stiffening for an entirely different reason. Just now, I truly thought my ears had deceived me. What did she just say she’d show me?

“Um, sister, what did you just say…?”

“Quiet, Erica. Focus.”

Erica tried to ask again in a trembling voice, but Lize cut her off sharply.

If it were her usual playful tone, I might have brushed it off, but her serious voice made it impossible to overlook.

‘I guess I need to first resolve Lize’s misunderstanding after we defeat this boss.’

If I wasn’t careful, I might wake up next to her in the same bed the next morning.

And both of us naked.

“Ah, I get it now.”

As if our conversation was being listened to, the Spider Queen chuckled, deliberately emphasizing her chest. The round mass, about the size of her head, jiggled with her finger movements.

I quickly turned my eyes away. Once was enough for misunderstandings.

“That guy in the middle must be really important to you all, huh? Alright. I’ll eat him first. Slowly. Listening to his screams right before he dies.”

Her green tongue darted out from between her green lips, licking around her mouth.

“That won’t happen.”

Claudia slashed her greatsword down into the ground with a THUD!, yellow lightning crackling nearby. Not just her greatsword, but lightning was also engulfing various parts of Claudia’s body.

RUMBLE! The sound of thunder echoed, and the greatsword became engulfed in lightning, producing sparks continuously.

“You won’t lay a finger on our shiny new recruit. Do you think I’d let you do that?”

Just standing nearby made my skin feel prickly. It felt like every hair on my body was standing on end.

Lize and Erica stepped forward. The cold and fire began to consume the surrounding space, creating a frigid mist and a blazing haze.

“Your reactions only make me more curious. I wonder how beautiful your faces will look when you have to listen to that guy’s screams as he’s helplessly caught.”

Arachnae winked at me. I received that smile with an expressionless face, stepping back a little. It was a comfortable distance, neither too close nor too far.

It was part of the strategy we had set.

Now that I confirmed that the boss’s aggro redirected to the attacked target through the Rock Centipede, I could leave the first assault to the Knight Commanders while I stayed at a distance.

When the pattern of summoning spiderlings came, I would be the one to fight Arachnae while the commanders focused on the spiderlings.

This was a strategy unthinkable in a fully single-player game like Brightest Darkness 4, but it was perfectly viable for us now.

“Now, as a reward for coming all the way here, I’ll swallow you whole without leaving a single drop of blood behind. Come here, cuties.”

As the Spider Queen delivered the last line of the boss room entrance cutscene, she spread her arms wide, signaling the three Knight Commanders to charge in unison.

The first attack came from Lize. In an instant, she approached the side of the Spider Queen, swinging her twin daggers at her right rear.

The ice-covered daggers grazed her torso again and again. Then she dodged a descending hind leg and attempted to charge again, but suddenly halted.

There was a gray spider web spread beneath her feet.

“We’re on spider silk. It’ll be hard to move, right?”

Arachnae laughed and lifted her hind leg. Just after Lize hunched down, a sharp claw barely grazed the shoulder of her armor.

Green liquid dripped onto her silver armor.

Taking advantage of that, Claudia charged in. Gripping the lightning-covered greatsword with both hands, she turned her body counterclockwise, swinging down in a powerful arc.

The entire valley echoed with a CRACK! sound. Lightning spread outward in a circle from the spot where the greatsword struck the ground. The yellow flash filled the boss room.

The assault didn’t stop there. Claudia seemed to pause for a moment before lifting her greatsword up high.

This time, her greatsword swung from bottom to top, pointing the blade toward the ceiling before flipping back. To maintain her posture, she took her left hand off the hilt, supporting it solely with her right.

Seizing that brief moment, Claudia turned to switch her front and back. CRACK! The loud noise rang again. A delayed bolt of lightning struck directly at Arachnae.

“KYAAAH!”

A blinding yellow flash erupted, and a shrill scream escaped her lips.

‘I have a general idea of the technique being used here.’

Like the other Knight Commanders, Claudia was directly using the skills she had employed in the boss battle. The previous attack was one of the boss battle patterns.

Given the size of the greatsword and the power behind each swing, not to mention the lightning enchantment, Claudia’s attacks were unmatched in the boss category.

However, that also left her vulnerable, making it a deal time if avoided, but there was no way that gigantic spider could move fast enough to do that.

“You little rotten wench!”

Arachnae staggered back after taking Claudia’s attack full-on. Of course, the only mark left from that direct hit was a light cut.

Now it was Erica’s turn. She lifted her right foot halfway, placing her sword-hand against her left flank. Then she stomped forward aggressively and swung horizontally.

The blade sliced through the Spider Queen’s body.

Following the trajectory of her blade, a wave of flames surged forth. It crashed like a tsunami onto the front fan-shaped area.

“KYAAAH!”

An even more agonizing scream erupted. Flames erupted from Arachnae, completely engulfing her.

This meant she had received one of the status ailments: Burn.

When burned, the victim suffered a continuous damage proportional to the caster’s attack power for 15 seconds, and they could not recover combat fatigue during that burning period.

But since the Spider Queen wasn’t a human-type boss, the option of not recovering fatigue was irrelevant, but she would still suffer significant prolonged damage based on the caster’s attack power.

And the caster was Erica, after all.

“GHHHH!”

Arachnae hissed, flipping over and splattering green liquid nearby. The Knight Commanders, who had been informed beforehand that it was poison, rushed back instinctively.

The calm demeanor she had when Lize charged in had completely vanished. Her expression was twisted like that of a malevolent spirit.

“If only you had quietly become nutrients for my little ones!”

‘Huh? Is that pattern coming out already?’

What Arachnae just spat out was her line right before summoning the spiderlings. This meant the boss had already lost about 40% of its health.

The attacks that landed were Lize’s combos, Claudia’s fully charged thunder enchantment greatsword attack, and the flame area’s full hit—

‘So, it was about time.’

Excluding Lize’s combos, the other two could guarantee a lethal hit even in vanilla if they connected. Considering the spec differences between the two bosses, that made perfect sense.

Moreover, since the Spider Queen was a biomechanical enemy, it was even more susceptible to fire and lightning damage. The advantage was overwhelmingly in our favor.

The situation was unraveling more easily than expected.

“Little ones! Awaken!”

Arachnae shouted at the top of her lungs. As if in response, cracking sounds of egg shells echoed from all around. The Knight Commanders gathered near me.

“Now it begins, right Delta?”

“Yes. Just like I mentioned, I’ll take on that huge one.”

I unsheathed the Blood-Stained Sword and plunged it into my side to draw blood. After confirming the blade was stained red to its limits, I pulled it out. A sinister crimson light shimmered along the blade.

Before long, spiderlings began pouring out of the eggs.