As soon as the pair landed on the bridge, both along with the rest of the players turned and faced the incoming swarm. By the time Hazel and Chegyaeyi got to the bridge, the army of spiders was a lot closer than before, rushing toward them like a black sea. Though, there was a considerable difference compared to before.
Along with the swarm of infant spiders...there was also a familiar species of spiders marching toward the bridge. To the point where when each of their eight legs made a step, the very earth they stood on trembled.
“What...is that?” Chegyaeyi questioned with widened eyes, displaying her shock.
“That is the Spider Sentinel.”
Standing out among the swarm of spider infants, the spider sentinel could be seen as it trekked closer to the interstate bridge. It was very easy to see due to its sheer size compared to the human-sized eight-legged infants crawling along the street.
Chegyaeyi continued to stare at the spider sentinel, completely surprised by the goliath of a monster coming their way. Even the other players were taken aback by the creature, telling Hazel that this was likely their first time seeing one in the flesh.
Meanwhile, Hazel smiled while keeping her eyes peeled on the sentinel.
“How do you suppose we deal with that monster?” Chegyaeyi questioned, already looking for a solution to deal with their new foe.
“That’s just it,” Hazel declared. “You guys aren’t going to be dealing with it. I am.”
The Lizardfolk whipped her head in Hazel’s direction with a confused and hesitant look on her face.
“You’re planning to take down that monster alone? Ms. Thatcher, I understand that you possess power, but there is no way that you could accomplish such a feat on your own.”
“That’s where you're wrong,” Hazel evilly grinned. “I have a spell that can accomplish said feat with relative ease, actually.”
The Lizardfolk's brow arched skeptically as if she doubted Hazel’s words. “And may I ask what this spell is?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. For now, just focus on the infants.”
Hazel and Chegyaeyi then turned their attention back to the infant spiders, just as the eight-legged monstrosities entered the cursed minefield like their siblings in the first wave. Once again, Hazel waited until a good majority of the initial horde covered the cursed bombs blanketing the area, making sure that the explosion would annihilate them and then some.
The players watched the swarm get closer and closer, closing the distance between them in seconds. The tension in the air was high, but Hazel kept her cool and waited for the right moment to strike. Just as she watched the entire minefield get covered, she immediately snapped her fingers to trigger the bombs.
Another chorus of purple explosions was displayed once more along with the dozens of scorched corpses of the infant spiders flinging in the air. Many of the players covered their ears, having no desire to go deaf from the loud noise while also keeping their eyes peeled on the ground level that was currently covered in explosions.
The smoke soon settled, allowing Hazel and the others to watch the rest of the spider swarm march over to the bridge, even crawling over their dead and charred siblings in the process. As soon as they saw the swarm maintaining their steadfast march, the players immediately took action and launched their first barrage of spells and arrows into the sea of black rushing their way toward them.
More explosions occurred followed by the various screeches of dying spiders as they were crushed in an instant, flung in the air, or cut to ribbons by a blade of wind barreling toward them. Instead of assisting in the long-range barrage, Hazel carefully observed the Sentinel, watching it get closer and closer to the bridge like the rest of its smaller siblings attempting the same thing.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Noticing that it was getting close to their location, Hazel was just about to conjure her Entropy Sickle and hurl it at the sentinel. However, her attention was then pulled away when she heard thwipping noises. When she looked down to see what the source of the sound was, her eyes widened upon seeing multiple strands of webbing attached to the bridge.
Hazel’s Astral Eye darted toward the other end of the web and bore witness to several spiders crawling on it, using it as a makeshift bridge to get to the interstate faster. Seeing this, she clicked her tongue irritably while glaring at the spiders.
That was when she remembered something regarding the new spider species that would be joining the swarm. The Web Weavers. Seeing the web bridge immediately told Hazel that this could’ve possibly been their doing.
Out of curiosity, Hazel scanned the swarm with her astral eye, searching for the new spider species that was already causing them problems. That was when she spotted a couple of the eight-legged monstrosities that looked different compared to the rest. They were slightly larger than the infant spiders and bore a white design that looked like a web on their abdomen.
Another thing she noticed was that when a couple of the spells clashed against the web bridge, instead of being instantly destroyed, they maintained their structure as if the attack did nothing. It was clear that those webs...were not normal at all. And she already guessed as to what was responsible for this, eyeing the abnormal spider with the web design on its body.
Noticing this, Hazel quickly appraised the monster to see what she was dealing with and wasn’t surprised by what the description said.
Level 12
A spider species known for their specialty in weaving their webs into anything they desire from bridges, traps, and the like. Web Weavers are one of the most dangerous spider species because of the properties of their webbing, displaying incredible durability against physical and magical attacks.
Hazel grimaced. “So, that’s a Web Weaver, huh? It’s certainly living up to its name, I guess.”
According to the descriptions, these Web Weavers seemed to generate some kind of special web that was highly resistant to certain attacks, which explained why the barrage of magic spells and arrows didn’t destroy the web bridge when it made contact. Hazel knew that this bridge was going to cause problems in this wave.
More web bridges were created, getting attached to the bridge and allowing a couple of members of the swarm to climb on to get closer to the players without suffering from the barrage attack below them.
But that wasn’t going to last very long. Hazel stared down at the multiple spiders climbing on the web bridge with a narrow gaze. Then, she raised her hand, directed it at the multiple monsters, and fired several mana bolts at them.
After doing this for a while, her aim had improved significantly as each of her bolts struck the head of a spider, killing it instantly. Sadly, when her bolt struck the web after going through the spider, all it did was dissipate upon contact.
Hazel’s brows creased irritably. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
If they wanted to take down those web bridges, then they needed a stronger attack. Thankfully, Hazel had such a spell that could possibly do the job, but was faced with a bit of a problem as she turned her gaze from the web bridge to the spider sentinel, now only a couple dozen meters away from them now, and getting closer by the moment.
“Dammit...” Hazel grumbled, looking back and forth between the bridge and the sentinel. “If I use that spell on either one, that’ll be thirty seconds before I could do that again on the other.”
Hazel’s initial plan was to use Entropy sickle, pretty much one of her most powerful spells, only second to Entropy itself, and hurl it at the Spider Sentinel to kill it. However, with the web weavers' incredibly durable web bridges making a scene, she feared that she would have to change her plans.
Her gaze trailed down to the web bridges before locking on to the source of the problem, the Web Weavers. Even as she glared down at the trouble arachnids, they were still spewing out webs and molding them into bridges for the rest of their siblings to climb on.
Even if she took down the spiders climbing the web bridge, she still couldn’t get rid of the webs. Not without her Entropy Sickle. But before she could do that...it would be best to deal with the Web Weavers first. It would be pointless to use her spell to destroy the webs if those pesky eight-legged monsters were just going to make more of them right after.
Using her Astral Eye, Hazel scanned the swarm to locate all of the Web Weavers present. It helped that the web-shooting monsters were standing completely still as they continued to craft more web bridges, making them sturdier and more troublesome for the players by obstructing their view of the swarm below them.
“Chegyaeyi, you’re gonna have to get off the bridge and deal with any of the spiders that manage to get past our defenses,” Hazel told the Lizardfolk.
Hearing this, Chegyaeyi firmly nodded, knowing what her next task was. “Understood. I’ll leave the bridges to you then.”
Hazel gave the lizardfolk a thumbs-up as she left. “You can count on me for that.”
Chegyaeyi said nothing and simply went to the other side of the bridge to jump off it. While doing so, she gathered some players to act as support in facing the surviving spiders that came their way.
With the lizardfolk focused on that, Hazel kept her attention on the swarm, the web bridges, the web weavers, and most importantly, the Sentinel spider as well. She took note of all of the chaos happening around her before letting out a heavy and tired sigh.
“This is such a damn pain in the ass...”