MaeveMcCarthy
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Chapter 57
🕑 Added 2025-01-15 20:06:01 +0000 UTCThe two rows of sharp metal teeth clashed with a thunderous clang. Dotty felt her skull vibrate from the metallic snap, causing her teeth to tremble for a moment.
Half a dozen Corrupted Spider Constructs caught mid-lunge, shrieked and scraped as they were sliced cleanly in two. Their shredded bodies collapsed in a shower of silver fragments, leaving the street littered with twitching metal limbs.
She hunched forward on her knees, her chest heaving as she panted.
Finally, Dotty felt as though she had encountered every monster on the floor. She wished she could review Monica’s Quest to ensure that their work was complete here.
She glanced ahead, where more scattered remains of spider constructs lay piled, still steaming from dwarven flames.
Are we done? She glanced at Gromorlig beside her, who continued to look around gingerly.
Right at that moment, a high-pitched chittering carried over through the air, making Dotty’s head snap to the side.
A monstrous shape emerged from a side alley: a Corrupted Tarantula, its dented silvery armor still gleaming beneath a thick coat of ash. Its half-broken mandibles clicked ominously several times, thirsty for their blood.
Dotty took out Twilight’s Edge from the scabbard and readied herself.
“Hold on, lass,” Gromorlig said, gesturing upward. Dotty looked where he pointed, and just then, a woman screamed like a lunatic before a fierce shower of black flames descended upon the monster.
Dotty knew Heidi’s Skills well by now and she recognized the Fire Lance striking the monster and making it stumble. However, the attack was not nearly strong enough.
"This is the final one, lass!” Gromorlig yelled to Heidi. “You can turn it up!”
Heidi went all out.
Using Infernal Overload before the Corrupted Tarantula could regain its footing, Heidi summoned an Obsidian Nova.
Heidi summoned the black flames around her hands, and they swelled into a dense orb of seething darkness. She stood immobile for a heartbeat on the edge of the roof. Then, with a violent gesture, she hurled the sphere of obsidian fire toward the Corrupted Tarantula below.
The moment the orb connected with the monster’s dented armor, the darkness shuddered and imploded. There was a fleeting hush—as if the entire street held its breath—then the sphere detonated. A pulse of black flame erupted outward in a thunderous roar, sending jagged shards of searing darkness arcing in every direction. Annihilating power rushed across Dotty’s face, and she flinched, feeling the hairs on her arms prickle and taking several steps back to avoid being impacted by the corrosive energy.
Within that pulsing wave of shadowy force, the Corrupted Tarantula screeched, its metallic limbs thrashing as the black fire devoured its plating. The silver flesh beneath glowed for a split second before bursting into disappearing fragments. The concussion of the blast slammed it backward like a broken toy, legs curling involuntarily.
Even from several yards away, the windows of the buildings around the creatures all exploded in the aftermath of the shockwave.
When the flames subsided, nothing remained but a half-consumed husk of twitching metal.
For a moment, silence hung over the ruined street. Dotty lowered Twilight’s Edge, breathing heavily. Gromorlig just whistled, impressed.
“That’s my girl!” Gromorlig called, stomping his way toward the tarantula corpse. He patted a dented metal plate protruding from the cobblestone. “Perfect timing on every trigger, lass.”
Dotty barely heard his praise. She crouched to confirm none of the spiders were still twitching. Her attention kept wandering down the long boulevard leading back to the nest. Distant rumblings and explosions reverberated through Viscera’s deserted streets.
Gromorlig’s gaze drifted to her tense shoulders. “They can handle themselves,” he said, resting a reassuring hand on her arm. “The plan was for Tristan, Monica, and Ted to take the Matriarch—well, whatever’s left of it—once we lured the rest away.”
Dotty couldn’t shake the anxiety settling in her gut.
“I still hear fighting,” she said. “A lot of it.”
Another faint boom echoed from the direction of the nest. Her heart pounded. She remembered Monica’s orders—stay with Gromorlig, lead the spiders away, don’t return to the nest until it’s safe.
But she could practically feel the clash of mana from here.
“They’re fine,” Gromorlig repeated, but this time his voice sounded uncertain.
“I have to go back,” she said shakily.
Gromorlig arched an eyebrow. “We set a plan, lass.”
Dots of sweat beaded on Dotty’s brow. She wasn’t sure how much of her conviction came from reason and how much from fear. But she knew with absolute clarity that Monica would do anything to protect her—and Dotty refused to abandon her in return.
Before Gromorlig could protest, Dotty dashed off toward the nest. Heidi descended from the roof and stood beside Gromorlig, confusion turning to resigned acceptance on her face.
“I don’t have any more Mana. I don’t think I could do anything against the Boss anyway.”
Gromorlig let out a long sigh, then waved Heidi forward. They followed, though Dotty was already a blur disappearing around the corner.
*
Monica moved in perfect sync with the frantic beat of Ted’s mandolin. Monica didn’t know how Ted was doing it, but he had somehow been able to adjust to her getting Mana Sense to Bronze Rank and helping her despite the fact that he wasn’t able to see what she was seeing right now.
Through Mana Sense, she saw faint golden echoes left by every twitch of the Black Widow’s limbs. Its entire body shimmered in her expanded perception, especially the weak points spiderwebbing across its obsidian-black carapace.
She locked her gaze on a crack in the plating near its right flank as the Black Widow tried taking her head off with its unnaturally sharp legs. Her fists still blazed with Obsidian Impact, and she slammed a three-hit combination precisely there.
Her strikes all landed, triggering Shatterpoint.
Special Effect - Shatterpoint: If you strike the same spot three times within 5 seconds, the third hit deals 300% additional damage.
A series of spiderweb fissures snaked outward from the impact zone after the empowered hit, and black blood spattered on the ground.
She felt the monster reel from the blow—saw it physically stagger, as though it hadn’t expected her combo to land. But Monica, the strongest Avatar in battle, had timed her attacks perfectly thanks to the Bronze Rank Mana Sense and the monster’s decreased defense. The Black Widow was much stronger and faster than in her Matriarch form, but it was also more vulnerable.
Monica’s Mana Sense blazed, showing her every minute tremor in the Boss’s posture, every shifting plate in its carapace. Then, with each new strike she delivered, theBlack Widow’s armor lit in bright gold lines in her enhanced vision, creating more vulnerabilities around it.
Jagged cracks splintered deeper, and the Black Widow’s movements became desperate.
A wisp of fear flickered in its eight cold blue eyes, a first sign that even this monstrous transformation could taste panic.
One more punishing combination, fueled by Ted’s accelerating melody, drove the spider backward until its lean obsidian body trembled. A chunk of black carapace finally broke free under Monica’s onslaught. Black blood dripped across the stone floor, making Monica smile like a maniac, like a predator about to bite off the neck of its prey.
She crouched, readying a final Obsidian Impact. Just as she prepared to leap in for the death blow, the Black Widow suddenly went eerily still. The abrupt shift sent a tremor of warning through Monica’s enhanced senses.
Multiple wires burst outward from the spider’s abdomen, but not toward her. Instead, they latched onto huge piles of half-eaten silver ore heaped around the edges of the nest.
It yanked colossal lumps of ore toward itself in a single savage pull. In a disturbingly swift motion, the Black Widow began devouring the raw silver, stuffing its maw with shattered chunks. Streams of liquefied metal slid across its jaws, and the effect was instantaneous—deep gashes along its exoskeleton closed shut. Newly repaired plates sealed over the wounds, leaving the black carapace shiny and smooth.
Monica’s eyes widened. She watched in horror as the monster’s entire body seemed to have healed up in a manner of seconds. It felt like the Black Widow had just ingested half a ton of silver without even swallowing it.
Feeling Fury of the Phoenix starting to run out, Monica clenched her jaw.
“Ted! We need to end it! Now!”
But the slight pause had messed up with Ted’s Skill, interrupting the rhythm of the battle, changing its tempo. And before the Bard could re-adjust, the spider vanished—Monica sensed only a whip of displaced air. Then something slammed into her ribs from behind. She barely had time to register another incoming attack and raise her bracers to shield her head before the impact sent her tumbling headlong across the nest. Her golden bracers fractured further under the terrifying force.
Pain battered her skull, her chest, her arms—she felt bone grinding beneath the Golden Flame’s frantic healing attempts. The next assault came before she could reorient: a leg stabbing at her core. She twisted away on reflex, but it still grazed her side, opening a ribbon of red across her torso through the now useless Nightshade Battle Wear.
The wires encircled her so quickly she missed dodges by hair’s breadths.
Ted’s music sped up trying to match the new tempo. Yet the healed Black Widow had redoubled its efforts and, just like Monica had planned, tried killing her opponent as swiftly as possible. Monica’s arms trembled from each blow that cracked her bracers further—only the Divine graded item stood between her and death right now. She forced out a snarl of defiance, calling on the Golden Flame to knit her flesh. But already, she felt her Mana resources burning away and the strength from Fury of the Phoenix ebb away.
Worse, the spider was now more methodical. It baited her Phoenix Step attempts, flicking wires to corner her in cramped angles. Each time she tried to vanish in a burst of flame, it predicted her path. Not even Mana Sense was enough anymore.
Finally, one vicious sweep took her legs out from under her, flipping her painfully onto her back.
Before she could roll away, silver wires whipped around her wrists, pinning her arms to the ground. The spider slammed another leg onto her sternum. Monica gasped—her ribs felt like splinters piercing her lungs. She summoned the Obsidian Flame in a frenzied attempt to burn the wires restraining her, but the reinforced metal refused to buckle. Despite Fury of the Phoenix raging in her veins, she couldn’t break free.
This is it, Monica realized. I can’t do anything.
Not even with her supernatural battle instincts she could see a way out of this.
There was only one outcome ahead.
Death.
She would come back, but not the others.
Ted would die first.
Then, Monica imagined that the creature would go after Sir Tristan who, too, would fall almost instantly against this terrifying monster.
She only hoped that Gromorlig had the sense to bring Dotty away and that the girl had obeyed her—that she had stayed away.
Monica looked into the blue cold eyes of the Black Widow, ready for her impendind death when, suddenly, a shadow fell from above. The spider’s eyes flicked upward, but not fast enough. Dotty dropped down in a silent arc, jaw set in fierce concentration, Twilight’s Edge raised high. Mid-fall, darkness crackled around Dotty’s blade—Magic Rend flaring to life, followed instantly by Void Slash. The sword emanated sparks of purple energy.
The Black Widow spasmed as the intangible wave of antimagic cut through its defenses. Its armor, strengthened by silver, faltered under the combined aura of Magic Rend. Terror flared in its eyes. It tried to shift its legs off Monica and pivot, but Monica’s opened her mouth and, with her head and neck being the only mobile part of her body, bit down the monster’s leg, making it stumble.
Right after, Dotty’s blade tore forward in a savage diagonal.
In a single, fluid motion, Twilight’s Edge parted the Black Widow’s reinforced carapace as though it were made of paper. The obsidian shell screeched a final time, snapping in two.
With unstoppable momentum, Dotty’s swing severed the spider’s head clean off, slicing through metal, flesh, and black veins.
The monstrous body collapsed, limbs buckling like a toppling statue. Dotty landed in an awkward sprawl, thrown off-balance by the full-force swing. She crashed onto her side, and Monica heard several cracks that might’ve been the shattering of stone or Dotty’s own bones.
Monica stared at the Black Widow’s head landing right beside her with its eight eyes dulling, flickering, and finally extinguished.
Its body twitched once, then the entire form slumped, collapsing inward on itself.
Threads of black and silver dissolved into the open air, leaving only a puddle of black ooze and what Monica recognized as several threads of mithril.
Then, a bright notification flared across Monica’s vision.
