Chapter 53 - Episode 53: Aranian, The Broodmother. (1)

Francesca looks at the walls while crossing her arms uncomfortably. She takes a deep breath and exhales deeply. Michael is laughing at Francesca. Ivonna looks back to check her clan members. She's worried about them and doesn't want them to be traumatized because of joining the exploration. Emma, Hans, and Leonardo at the far back to make sure nothing happens and also to protect their clan members.

We are walking in silence, there are no other sounds but our footsteps. Everyone is nervous and uncomfortable with the atmosphere here. Whenever there's a screeching sound coming from in front of us, most of them immediately stop moving and covering their ears. Michael looks at the dark path.

"Is it still far away?"

I look at him and shake my head.

"It's not that far. Why?"

Michael is pointing his eyes towards Francesca. I look at her and she's wrapping her body with her arms while looking down. She's mentally exhausted. I look back and most of them are feeling the same.

"There's a place that is safe from those spiders and centipede. We can rest there for a bit."

Ivonna turns her head towards me.

"That's great. We should go there. I will tell them about it so they will feel a bit better."

I nod while looking at Francesca. She's still looking at the ground and I don't think she heard what I said and just too focused on comforting herself. I approach her and put my hand on her shoulder. She's startled and looks at me. I'm pointing at the darkness that only I can see.

"We are almost there. You can rest for a bit."

Francesca is squinting her eyes and she doesn't see anything.

"It's too dark for me to see. But thanks for telling me..."

I raise my eyebrows and nod. Francesca headbutt my shoulder gently and then smiles.

"I'm feeling better now. You don't have to worry too much."

We enter the entrance and everyone is standing still and looking at the big egg in front of them. They're looking at it in awe. The egg is pulsing and it makes them feel uncomfortable. I tell them that it's fine and explain that it won't hatch near the future. I also tell them that it can't be destroyed and nothing they can do about it.

After everyone is feeling better, we proceed to go further into the cave. We are standing in front of two tunnels. I turn around and look at them.

"Let's go to the left tunnel first."

They all nod with understanding.

We walk deeper into the tunnel and crawling sounds are coming from in front of us. I lift my hand to tell them to stop moving. I grab my chained sickles and run towards those sounds. For the others, they all saw me running towards the darkness. I kill the spiders that are swarming the walls and the path. I come back and everyone is looking at me with disbelief. I tilt my head.

"What's wrong?"

They all shake their heads. Michael sighs.

"Nothing is wrong..."

We continue to walk through the cave. Then we are at the end of the tunnel. A giant spider is sleeping and swarmed by spiders and crawling on her body. Some of the players are scratching their bodies and covering their necks with both of their hands. Emma, Ivonna, and the others walk toward me. Ivonna is looking at the giant spider.

"Is that the boss?"

I nod.

"Yeah. Lady Aranian, the Broodmother."

A screen appears in front of each of us.

[Lady Aranian, the Broodmother (Boss)]

Level: 350

HP: 294.000

STA: 6.800

ATK: 3000-4000

DEF: 600

MDEF: 600

I look at them and walk to the side. Everyone is looking at me with confusion. I tilt my head toward Lady Aranian.

"It's yours. I will be watching you guys from here."

Ivonna looks at Michael and Francesca. They both shrug. Ivonna then prepares her equipment and tells her clan members to do the same. They all nod and readying themselves. Ivonna approaches me.

"So, are you really going to watch from there?"

I nod.

"Yeah. I'm rooting for you all from here."

Ivonna smiles and nods with understanding. Then she walks back to the others.

Everyone is prepared for battle and Ivonna with her friends is a briefing with their members. They're making a strategy for the battle. They're listening to the players' suggestions and discuss them with everyone. No wonder so many players are starting to join her clan. Ivonna and the others are respecting their members' opinions and considerate toward them.

Ivonna then lifts her shield and spear. She immediately runs towards Aranian to wake her up. Some of her members then approach her and taking care of the spiders. Aranian opens her eyes and stands up. The ground is shaking because of her footsteps. Ivonna immediately grabs the aggro and lures Aranian towards her into the corner. Michael, Hans, and Leonardo start attacking Aranian from behind, while Francesca, Emma, and the rest are killing the spiders.

I'm chuckling because it's not the right strategy to fight Aranian. I'm waiting for Aranian to use her skill.

Aranian's shakes her abdomen then...

*Splat*

A huge web came out from her spinnerets and it hits everyone that is behind Aranian. So everyone is stuck on the web except for Ivonna. They're surprised and slowly freeing themselves from the web. The problem comes after they're getting hit by the web. The spiders are immune to the web and immediately crawl towards the struggling players to free themselves. One by one, the players are dead from getting bitten and attacked by the spiders. Ivonna immediately runs towards them and freeing them.

After everyone is free from the web, Ivonna changes her strategy and told everyone to stay on her back and lure the spiders towards them. but then Aranian's back legs are throwing webs towards them and everyone is stuck on the web this time. I'm chuckling and laughing at them. Emma is looking at me while struggling.

"Trev! We need some help over here!"

When I want to use [Moonsteps] skill, I remember that I'm not wearing them at the moment because I don't want them to know the identity of the culprit. I run toward Ivonna and leap forward. I land in front of her and I startled her. I tilt my head.

"Need some hands?"

Ivonna smiles and nods.

I tear the web around Ivonna and swing my sickles toward the spiders. I'm freeing them from the web while Ivonna grabs the aggro again and lures her away from us. After I free the last player from the web, I walk back to the side and watch them from afar. Ivonna is pointing at the legs.

"Target the legs first! Especially the two back legs. Don't stand behind her and stay on the sides!"

Everyone nods. Michael and Francesca run toward Aranian's back legs and start to attack them from the side.

Ivonna carefully lures Aranian while looking at her surroundings. She's making sure that there's nobody behind Aranian and nobody other than her is in front of Aranian as well because she doesn't want the others to get stuck on the web for the third time. That's one of the ways to defeat Aranian and it's the most effective compared to the other ways.

Michael and Francesca are finally cut off Aranian's back legs. Ivonna then orders the others to get on her back. Everyone is running towards her without asking a single question while luring the spiders towards them. Since Aranian's back legs are no longer there, she can't grab the web anymore. Everyone is relieved since they're safe from the web from now on, so they can be focusing on killing the spiders. Michael and Francesca can attack Aranian without worries as well, but they still have to dodge the attacks, because if they're not, they could die in just a few hits.

After a long fight. Everyone is focusing on Aranian now because the spiders are all dead. They managed to reduce a third of Aranian's max HP. When they're attacking Aranian, she's suddenly screeching so loudly. Everyone is covering their ears and then the ground is shaking. Everyone is looking around and they're immediately turn around and facing at the tunnel from where we came from except for Ivonna, she's busy aggroing Aranian.

This is the second phase of fighting Aranian. It's not that different from the first phase, but if Aranian is ignored for even a few seconds, she will run away and slowly regenerate her HP. So Ivonna has to focus on her no matter what happens. I don't think I need to tell Ivonna about it since she's already doing what she needs to do. She's not letting her attention be distracted by anything else even though the ground is shaking.

Leonardo is readying his spell, but he looks at me just to be sure if the spiders are coming from the tunnel. I smile and am pointing at something above us. Leonardo is gulping and use the flare and shoot it upwards. A bright spell is lightened up the area. Everyone is looking up and every single one of them is having goosebumps. Hundreds of spiders are crawling down from the huge webs on top of the cave.

Emma's whole body is shaking.

"The next time I'm agreeing to join the exploration in this place again, please tie me up and lock me in a room... I hate this place so much!"

Michael nods with an agreement.

"I couldn't agree more. So let's kill them all and then kill Lady Aranian as fast as possible so we can leave this damn place."

Everyone is nodding aggressively.

I'm squinting my eyes and I finally found it. The albino spider that will drop something that I need. Since it's a very rare monster and with its trait of being extremely shy, it's very hard to find. Right now, the albino spider is up above us and hiding from us. I'm swinging my sickles and join the battle. Everyone is looking at me. I smirk and raise my eyebrow.

"I want to have some fun as well, so can I join you guys?"