My head was spinning. The situation was so seriously bad that coincidence after coincidence led to the worst possible outcome.
Lize was losing ground as she was unable to properly attack from range while fighting to protect me, and Claudia's weapon of choice was a greatsword to begin with, so her limitations were clear.
Erica, who was captured by Arachnaine and on the verge of having her blood sucked alive, went without saying.
'Is there a way? There has to be one.'
I slashed at the spider that was swooping towards my face with one stroke of my sword, then focused on thinking of a solution to overcome this situation.
First, saving Erica is the top priority, then making sure Lize and Claudia don't get overwhelmed by the swarm of spiderlings, and both have to be done almost simultaneously.
I racked my brain desperately to come up with a solution for each situation, but no solution could come to mind that could handle them all together.
There is a way to handle both, there is a way… … .
'there is.'
Suddenly, a ray of light flashed through my mind. If I did it right, there was a solution that could deal with both of those issues at once and overcome this situation.
'... ... Is it possible?'
However, even I wasn't sure if this would work.
If things didn't go as I wanted, or if Arachnaine's behavior was different from what I expected, I would have to die without a fight. This time, it was a gamble that left it to chance.
'No. Even if we stay like this, we'll still die.'
I made up my mind. Yes. Even if I stay like this, I'll still die.
Erica will die first, and then Arachnainera, who has recovered her health, will rush at us, and either she will die by having her blood sucked out just like Erica, or she will be eaten alive.
If I was going to die anyway, it would have been better to bet on the one with the higher probability.
"Claudia!"
I called out to Claudia. The situation was so urgent that I didn't have time to use honorifics. The head covered with a helmet turned in my direction.
"Lightning storm! At full power!"
Claudia and Lize flinched at the same time when they heard what I said. Although it was a sentence that cut off both the beginning and the end, it was obvious what it meant.
"Are you out of your mind, Delta?! Then you'll die too!"
"It doesn't matter, so hurry up! If you don't use it, we'll all die!"
I shouted in a threatening tone, omitting all formality and manners. Claudia hesitated for a moment, then changed her posture as she held the greatsword, as if she had decided to trust me.
As if trying to buy time to use it at its full power, I saw Claudia striking lightning indiscriminately around me. I turned to Lize and blew up two baby spiders at once.
"Lize! Can you survive on your own?"
"I can do it, Delta, what are you going to do?! Two of you are too many!"
"Throw it over there!"
"what?!"
Lize let out a gasp of shock. The place I pointed to with my finger was where Erica and Arachnaine were entangled.
Erica was desperately struggling to push away Arachnaine, but it was clear that there was a limit to that. If left alone, it would only last 30 seconds at most.
"Are you out of your mind, you?!"
"There's no time, so do as I say quickly! That way, we can save Erica too!"
Lize just stomped her feet, then looked back and forth at her younger brother who was about to be captured by Arachnainera and killed, at the swarm of baby spiders rushing in from all directions, and at Claudia who was preparing for a lightning storm just as she had said.
Then, as if he had made up his mind, he caused a frost storm and froze the surrounding area.
"Are you sure?!"
"I've never been unsure!"
"Oh, really! Just wait and see after this is over!"
A wall of ice formed beneath my feet, and my body was lifted upward. With a "Kwaang!" sound, my body was lifted into the air and flew straight towards Arachnainera.
I turned my gaze slightly and saw Claudia preparing for a lightning storm. With a slap, lightning began to gather around her body. She spread her knees shoulder-width apart and raised the tip of her greatsword toward the sky.
"Die quietly, you little thing!"
Erica bit her lip and glared at Arachnaine, who was thrusting her fangs in to suck her blood. The armor she was wearing was nothing more than rags.
Then, when he saw me flying towards him, he opened his eyes wide.
I checked the bloody sword. The buff still has enough time to last. All the conditions are met, so from now on, I just have to do what my body tells me to do. I fell down.
I gripped the sword tightly with one hand, and grabbed the back of Arachnaine's neck with the other. A large recoil came to my left arm that was holding the neck. I gritted my teeth and supported my weight.
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My body naturally moved into the next movement, like when I was performing a drop attack on the mid-boss in the Rune Dungeon.
He stepped on the spider's carapace with his left leg, turned his body halfway around, faced the Arachnaine, and thrust his bloody sword hard into its collarbone.
-Phew!
"AAAAAHHHH!"
The Spider Queen struggled in pain. As a result, she lost control of Erica, and Erica rolled to the ground, desperately trying to move her body to retrieve her weapon that was lying nearby.
I shouted with the sword stuck in my collarbone.
"Erika! Flame barrier! Hurry!"
"Yes? Yes, yes! Understood, Mr. Delta!"
The Japanese sword in Erika's hand burst into flames. With this, Erika will be able to survive the lightning storm. Rize must have already finished preparing her defenses. Now, only I am left.
I pulled the sword out of my collarbone, stepped on the bridge, and jumped up, making it look like I was floating in the air in front of Arachnaine.
'Please, please, please!'
I looked at Arachnaine, writhing in pain, and prayed to myself, please move just like I predicted, just like in the game.
"This cheeky guy!"
And as if to answer my prayers, Arachnaine grabbed me with a distorted expression.
'Okay!'
What I just did was a kind of pattern induction. Each boss has a skill that they always use when the player meets certain conditions, and of course there was a way to induce that as well.
In the case of Arachnaine, if you jump within arm's reach of the upper body, it will unconditionally cast a grab attack.
Once you're caught, there's no way to free yourself under normal circumstances, so the developer probably thought that by designing the algorithm that way, they could restrict the player's actions.
However, users used magic with extremely long landing delays and intentionally jumped at appropriate times to induce grab patterns to ensure a guaranteed hit with the magic.
The magic is matched as magic, and the damage from the grab can be avoided as the damage zone because Arachnainera misses the player due to the hit stiffness.
It's not that the timing is that hard to get right, but once you get the hang of it, it's definitely a useful skill, and my aim was similar to that.
Leaping high up on the ice field created by Lize, then using a falling attack while in that state to make Erica miss, then pulling out her sword and coming down, jumping once more to induce a grab pattern.
'I'm really glad it worked out.'
To be honest, it was a plan I wasn't sure about either.
There was no guarantee that Arachnaine would miss Erica with the drop attack. She could have just endured the pain, ignored me, and killed Erica.
Moreover, there was no guarantee that Arachnainera would use her grab pattern on me while I was floating in the air. She didn't jump from the ground, but rather stepped on the spider legs and made an imperfect leap.
It was a plan where if even one of the two went wrong, we would have to pay the price with our lives, but since this was the only method that came to mind in that situation, we had no choice.
'It's truly fate.'
I let out a sigh of relief and looked at Arachnaine who had caught me.
"We meet again. Right?"
"Please, you came here to die! If that's your wish, I'll let you die!"
The old-fashioned speech and charming voice from the beginning disappeared without a trace, and all that was heard was a cracking voice and harsh speech.
"I will chew you up and devour you without leaving a single bone behind!"
Zzz, this time the mouth on the lower abdomen opened wide.
That doesn't mean I'm going to eat you with my human vagina. It would be more accurate to call it a spider's mouth.
Of course, that was up to each person. Because of its location, there were quite a few people who thought it was a human genitalia.
'Is this safe?'
There are two types of grab patterns: the human mouth sucks blood and kills the player, and the spider mouth chews the player.
However, when caught while jumping, the pattern of chewing through the lower mouth was 100% certain.
The second pattern that will protect me from lightning.
"How many times do I have to tell you?"
-Kwarrrrrrrrring!
When a loud thunderclap was heard from behind, Arachnaine suddenly stopped moving as if she felt something eerie.
It was the sound of thunder, signaling that the lightning storm was ready. I looked over Arachnaine's shoulder to see Claudia.
The dark grey steel greatsword was covered in lightning, making it difficult to discern its original form, and so was Claudia. A huge amount of sparks flew around the area.
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The baby spiders died with their bodies shaking and their legs curled up before they could even approach.
"If you can, try it."
-Kwaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!
Within moments, lightning struck.