"...."
I carefully opened my closed eyes. Judging by the fact that I was still alive and not dead, it seemed like the plan had worked. Or maybe I had died without even feeling any pain and was in the afterlife.
Then the pressure that had been squeezing my arms to the point of crushing them eased, and I fell down, crashing to the floor with a thud. My butt was aching, so this wasn't the afterlife.
I looked up. There was a gaping spider's mouth right in front of me. I looked up again. I saw Arachnainera, her eyes rolled back, her mouth open, and her entire body twitching and convulsing.
The four pairs of spider legs on the lower body were waving around uncontrollably, and the human arms were hanging down. It seemed that he was still somewhat conscious, but had no room to act.
In contrast, I was quite fine.
The plan was a success.
'It was close.'
At the last moment, when lightning was about to strike my head, I reflexively closed my eyes.
If Arachnaene hadn't come close to devouring me, and there had been even a little more space between us, I would have definitely been struck by lightning.
Although I did my best to calculate all the details and commit the act, I naturally reacted that way because I thought there could be some mistakes in the calculations I made in my head.
From the beginning, it was a method that came to mind on the spot after looking at the directions of Claudia, Lize, and Arachnainera. Because time was short, there was no time to verify the calculations.
'Is this the power of a full-charge lightning storm?'
I looked around. The baby spiders that had filled the area were all electrocuted and sprawled on the ground without a single exception, and the ones that survived were unable to approach because they were still reeling from the lightning strike.
What Claudia just used was a technique called 'Swirling Lightning Storm'.
An attack where you raise your greatsword towards the sky, concentrate your mind, and then bring it down, detonating a circular shockwave centered around you and laying down a plate in a wide area nearby, scattering a huge amount of lightning.
As you can infer from what I said about blowing as hard as possible, the range and attack power will change depending on how long you concentrate. If you concentrate until the end, you can cover the entire boss room like you did now.
Of course, this isn't a technique that comes from vanilla, but was added in the Bella mod. If you don't break it with a weapon with high stiffness, it's a pattern that will cause the entire boss room to be covered in floorboards.
The reason I didn't use it before is because it's impossible to distinguish between pianos.
Lize and Erica each have their own way to survive, but I can't do that. If I just go ahead and do that, I'll get caught up in it and die too.
Wasn't that the reason I induced Arachnaine's grab pattern in the first place? So that you would take the lightning and shockwaves instead of me.
"Mr. Delta!"
Erica, who had come up to me without me noticing, lifted me up and stepped back in an instant. The distance between me and the Spider Queen widened significantly.
I turned around to check on Erica. She was a little out of breath and had a lot of small wounds all over her body, but she didn't seem to be seriously injured.
In return, the armor was completely ruined. The helmet had long since been torn off, the upper body was barely covered by the shoulders, and the lower body was left only below the thighs. It was embarrassing to even call it armor.
"Erika, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"That's what I have to say!"
Erica shouted, grabbed my shoulder, and pushed her face close to mine. Her red eyes, filled with all sorts of complex emotions, came right up to me.
"Are you crazy? Who would do something so reckless?"
"We're both alive, so it's okay. Don't get too worked up. If you do, you won't even realize you're hurt. You'll just collapse later."
"That's not important right now!"
"If that's not important, then what is?"
"...."
Erica closed her mouth as if she was speechless at my rebuttal.
Yes. Whatever crazy plan I executed, whatever nonsense I did, Arachnaine was eventually neutralized and we both survived.
Nothing was more important than that.
"...It's something I told you last time, Mr. Delta. Dying while subduing monsters is something that can happen to our knights at any time. If that happens, I'm willing to make the sacrifice—"
His voice softened slightly, as if he had nothing else to say.
"Not me?"
"yes?"
Erica's face looked blank for a moment.
"I don't know about you, Erica, but not me."
He released the hold on his shoulder. He stood up, pushing back Erica's body, which was approaching him in a way that was burdensome.
Sacrifice? That was a very funny thing to say.
Not even in a desperate crisis that could not be overcome, but at best, one of the Knight Commanders of the Silver Dawn Knights sacrificed himself to this early-to-mid game boss. Do you think I would just let that happen?
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And even if such a crisis comes my way, I will somehow find a solution within my own line.
'We have to save these guys no matter what.'
The Knight Commanders of the Silver Dawn will never betray the protagonist unless the player strikes first. In Blizzard 4, there were no allies as solid as these four.
Because it means that you can trust them unconditionally in any situation. How could you possibly let such allies die?
"...Mr. Delta. What is that-"
"Erika! Delta! Are you okay?!"
Erica muttered something with a blank expression, but was soon overshadowed by Lize's voice that resonated loudly. Lize, who had come running with an extremely urgent look, stopped right in front of her.
"Then. Look, are you okay? Did you keep your promise this time too?"
I intentionally laughed with my arms spread open in an exaggerated manner. Lize just stared at me. I couldn't see his expression because of the helmet, but it probably wasn't a very good expression.
"Okay. I'll tell you more later. What about you, Erica? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Huh? Oh, that's right. Yes. I'm fine, too, Sister. I'm not hurt at all."
After asking if Lize was okay, Erica, who had come to her senses in a fluster, nodded repeatedly. Why is she talking nonsense by herself again?
"Gyaaaah!"
A tearing scream was heard from over there. It was a familiar voice.
A scream was coming from Arachnainera. Claudia had come close and started striking Arachnainera with her greatsword.
Every time the greatsword was swung, legs were cut off, abdomens were torn, and armor was shattered. Seeing this, Lize and Erica also seemed to come to their senses and grabbed their weapons again.
"Yes, that's right. I still have that."
"I'll take care of it right away, Delta. Don't move around recklessly and stay by my side."
As the lightning strikes died down, the baby spiders began to swarm in groups, but before they could do anything, they were all swept away by Lize and Erica's attacks.
In particular, Erica created a huge fire as if to vent her anger for what she had been through. The baby spiders that touched the flames turned into piles of ash without even making a sound.
It didn't take long for the number of living, moving figures in the cave to dwindle to five.
"Ugh. Heck. Haaak...."
Arachnaene, with most of its body torn off and only its human upper body remaining, was crawling on the floor, weeping tears and green fluid, trying to escape.
"Where."
"Gyaaaah!"
Poof, Claudia stabbed the greatsword into his lower abdomen. Her mangled fingers desperately scratched the floor. It was a futile effort.
"Whew, barely finished."
Claudia let out a short sigh and threw down her armor soaked in venom. Fortunately, the green liquid didn't seem to melt away at the armor.
Erica didn't even have any armor to throw away. The little bit of armor that was left had long since fallen off.
Although Lize still had the original shape of her armor, it was meaningless since there was more green than silver. Lize also took off her armor that was soaked in poison.
A sweaty white sleeveless top and dolphin pants the color of her own hair were revealed.
"Come to think of it, Delta."
Claudia, who was fluttering the chest area of her sleeveless dress and blowing air into it, came up next to me. I turned my head to see what was going on.
"The situation was so urgent earlier that I didn't have time to ask."
Now that he has some free time, a sly smile appears on his lips again. What is he trying to say?
"How did you know I could use Lightning Storm?"
'Oh, it was this way.'
I thought it was because I had used informal language for a moment, but when I thought about it carefully, Claudia was definitely not the type of person to find fault with me for using informal language in the same situation just a moment ago.
Rather, if you had praised me for being able to survive because of me, I would have praised you.
"I heard it from Lize."
"Really? Wow, you just told me everything?"
Lize responded with, "Huh?" but when she saw my gaze, she seemed to have convinced herself and quietly shut her mouth. Instead, she didn't forget to open her mouth and say, "Add one more debt."
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts… … sob."
Arachnaene was in a helpless state with a greatsword stuck in her stomach, shedding tears and repeating only that she was in pain.
If someone who didn't know the situation before saw it, they would think it was a situation where a peerless beauty was mortally wounded, naked, with a sword stuck in her stomach, and was crying in pain, so they might feel sorry for the Spider Queen.
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But we knew it was a monster, and Erica had barely escaped death from it, so feelings of pity were out of the question.
Moreover, it is a monster that has already killed hundreds of people. Their corpses are scattered throughout the boss room. That was just a strategy to gain sympathy.
'I guess I can leave the aftermath to you.'
After seeing the knight commanders approaching Arachnaine with their weapons raised, I turned around and headed deep into the boss room.
A place that is blocked by spider webs during the boss fight, but can be entered once the Spider Queen is defeated.
Lize, Erica, and Claudia didn't show any reaction when they saw me moving around alone. They probably thought I was going to do something stupid again.
I entered a cave filled with corpses that had died after being sucked dry of their blood by Arachnaine.
'eww.'
As soon as I entered, I frowned at the sight of the withered, twisted human corpse that greeted me. Even though the face was withered and twisted, the expression of pain was still vivid.
-AAAAAAAHHHHHH!
'Oh, surprise.'
As I walked inside, I heard a scream from behind me and I flinched in surprise. It seemed like the subjugation was over.
I continued on, past where the cobweb-covered wall should have blocked my path. Finally, at the innermost dead end, I saw what I was looking for.
'Found it.'