Rune Seeker

“This really doesn’t look like a research facility or anything like that,” Hiral said as the group moved cautiously down the hall, the floor and walls still covered by thick webs.

“Maybe it would if there wasn’t a spider’s nest built inside it?” Wule offered. “I think I’ve seen doors like where we came in, blocked off by more webbing.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Hiral agreed with a shrug, but then the party reached the next room.

This time, they stood on some kind of second floor balcony ring that looked down over a large central chamber. Within the webbing below, Hiral could vaguely make out long tables and benches, complete with some kind of unfamiliar equipment on them, though they were definitely crystal. Maybe this was the research equipment that felt like it was missing?

More pressing, though, were the six cocoons dangling from the balcony on the other side of the room, and the creature in front of them.

Slim and almost graceful, the thing stood on two legs with obvious feminine qualities, a beautiful gown of woven silk covering her from just below her bare shoulders to trail along the webbed floor. Her skin—no, it was a fine carapace—was a perfect alabaster white, and the eight red eyes on her face looked far too fitting. Beautiful, even, above a mouth that smiled warmly at her new guests. Her pair of human-like arms was accompanied by four other distinctly spider-like legs sprouting from her back to cross her chest and wrap around her waist as if they were just an odd corset.

“Not… what I expected,” Yanily said evenly, while Hiral eyed the strange woman until a name appeared above her head from his View ability.

(Mid-Boss) Lady of the Web – Unknown Rank

Stranger still, unlike the other monsters they’d fought, her health bar wasn’t particularly long, but it was yellow.

“Do we have to fight her?” Nivian asked quietly, and the party got a notification window as an answer.

Dynamic Quest: Update

You’ve interrupted the Lady’s meal and ruined her appetite.

Save the researchers before…

Hiral didn’t even get to finish reading the notification before the Lady of the Web pulled a fang-like dagger from within her robe and slammed it into the cocoon to her side. Green veins of venom spread within the sac as it twitched and thrashed. Then liquid began leaking out of the bottom, the whole thing deflating rapidly. Seconds later, it hung like an empty wine-bladder.

The notification window reappeared.

… before she does that.

Researchers remaining: 5/6

“Definitely fighting her!” Seena said.

Energy pulsed from Seeyela, forming one black doorway to the side of the party and another on the ground level.

“Go,” Seeyela said, pointing at the portal.

Nivian went through without question, charging out to meet the Lady of the Web shield-first.

Yanily and Left followed behind the tank, but the portal popped out of existence as soon as the double appeared below.

“Three is the limit, for now,” Seeyela said, breathing like she’d just run a marathon.

“No problem here,” Right said, stepping up on the webbed railing and then leaping off.

“I’m good up here too,” Hiral said, drawing his RHCs and moving around the balcony to get a better angle while Nivian engaged the Lady.

His shield caught a thrusting dagger, green liquid splashing where they met, and the vines sizzled dangerously. Another stab, another parry with his shield, and even from a distance, Hiral could see the powerful venom eating through the shield. Worse still, a second fang-dagger appeared in the Lady’s other hand, and she thrust out with it as well.

Nivian’s Orbital Shield swept in to take the new attack, but the blue light flickered at the first touch of venom, and Nivian leapt back just a second before the barrier fell completely.

Hiral fired off a Distracting Shot to buy the tank some breathing room, and Yanily darted in from the side, his Reed Spear Style a blur of thrusts.

Thrusts the Lady of the Web parried with her two daggers, feet not even moving.

Arms-a-blur, the Mid-Boss deflected thrust after thrust after thrust in spite of how Yanily’s spear bent and curved to try and get around her defense, then shifted her weight and kicked out. Straight and true, the blow caught the spearman in the gut and sent him sliding back, though he managed to stay on his feet.

“Not… too bad…” Yanily wheezed into the party chat.

Left and Right came in at the Lady’s sides while Nivian dropped his smoking shield and summoned a new one.

Without even turning her head, the Lady of the Web deflected Left’s Dagger of Sath once, twice, three times, and simultaneously turned aside Right’s haymaker with a simple twist of her arm. His blow whiffing past, Right stumbled in front of the monster, and she brought her knee up and across to hammer into his chest. Despite being off balance, Right managed to get his left arm in to soften the blow, but still careened off to the side and blocked Nivian from re-engaging.

Hiral took his shots as Left and the Lady continued their exchange, neither able to score a blow, but his shots seemed to do little damage, slightly reducing the yellow health bar—only to show red underneath. At least with the Distracted debuff on her from his first shot, she was moving slightly slower, and just in case, he fired off another DistractingShotas soon as his RHC was off cooldown.

However, unlike last time, as soon as the bolt struck the Lady, a spiderweb-like pulse of energy washed over her from the point of impact, and a blue dot appeared within her health bar.

What?

Hiral hesitated, but the only way to figure out the trick to the fight was to test, so he pulled the trigger on his other RHC. Like before, as soon as the searing bolt struck, the spiderweb pattern of energy spread out across the Lady, as if it was dispersing the impact, and a second blue dot appeared within her health bar. The health bar that didn’t otherwise move.

No damage. Why no damage? Is it only melee attacks like the barricade spider? No, that can’t be right. My first shot hurt her. So, what is it?

“Hiral?” Seena asked, solar energy pulsing and her wooden totems growing out of the edge of the balcony.

“Wait!” Hiral shouted at her, eyes locked on the totems. With the speed they fired off their firebolts, the Lady would have a hundred of those little dots in the blink of an eye. “Look at her health bar; there’s some kind of trick to hurting her. No totems.”

Seena scowled, but the totems turned to dust the next second. Meanwhile, Right, Nivian, and Yanily had rejoined the fray below, moving to surround the Lady of the Web, though she somehow still managed to turn aside most of their attacks.

Most, but not all. One of Yanily’s thrusts finally got through and caught the Lady in the hip. As with Hiral’s shots, the spiderweb pattern of energy seemed to disperse the impact, negating any damage done, but one of the blue dots vanished from the health bar.

“Sorry if this backfires,” Hiral mumbled into the group chat, taking aim and pulling the trigger.

The searing bolt cut through the distance in the blink of an eye, traveling without the Lady even trying to parry it aside, and struck her center-chest. The blue dot predictably returned with the pulse of spiderweb energy, and then vanished again as Right swept in from the side and drove his fist into the Lady’s ribs.

Like the blow that had hammered the massive barricade spider to the ground, Right’s punch exploded with power. It was a shockwave of flame and force that rippled the hanging cocoons nearby, and it should’ve sent the Lady of the Web rocketing into the wall. Instead, with the disappearance of the blue dot in her health bar—and the spiderweb of energy—all the force directed at the Lady simply vanished.

“I’m starting to understand,” Hiral said, taking aim but holding his shots as Seena and Seeyela joined him. “Like the barricade spider, the dots in her health bar negate hits. If we hit her with anything ranged, it’ll just add another dot.”

“So it’s just like the big spider?” Seeyela asked.

“No, I did some damage before the dots started appearing,” Hiral said, watching the ebb and flow of the battle below. “There’s more to it, but I don’t yet know what it is.”

Like she had eyes in the back and sides of her head—which, technically, she did—the Mid-Boss practically danced between the four attackers, her daggers a blur of parries and counterstrikes. Nivian’s two shields, thankfully, always seemed to be in the right place to deflect her attacks, but it also meant he wasn’t on the offensive. This left the Lady with just three possible threats, and her blades worked in perfect harmony, until Right, again, got into position and launched a haymaker at her.

As if she didn’t see the coming blow—or was simply ignoring it—the Lady turned her attention on Left and burst towards him with a flurry of attacks. Right’s punch slammed into her back harmlessly as, at the same time, she caught Left’s dagger with her curved blade, swept it out to the side, and lunged in with her other dagger for his heart.

Nivian’s Orbital Shield swept in and took the blow, green venom splashing against the barricade and dispelling it within a second. A second Left took full advantage of. His high Atn let him see everything happening—even if his body couldn’t quite keep up with it—and he jumped back while shaping the Wing of Anella over his left shoulder. Blue flame burst out in the form of an eight-foot, feathered wing, small ice crystals hanging mid-air in its chilling aura. Left twisted to the side, bringing the wing down and across like another shield.

Already committed to her attack, the Lady of the Web’s fang-blade and forearm stabbed into the blue flames, the wing instantly turning a sickly shade of green. Recoiling in pain, the Lady’s smile faltered for the first time, her white-carapace hand covered in a thin sheen of frost as she drew it back. Left, meanwhile, took another step back to get out of her lethal range, though the wing on his shoulder simply fell apart in a shower of green embers.

Not missing the opportunity, Yanily and Right continued the assault, the spearman reaching first with a barrage of thrusts. One, two, three times, his spear tore into the Lady, chunks of her yellow health bar dropping off ten percent at a time, and then Right came in with a left uppercut, his fist glowing with a Rune of Impact just in front of it.

WHAM. His blow caught her square in the chin, but instead of snapping her head back and cutting her health bar in half, a spiderweb of energy pulsed out across her body, and a green dot appeared in her health bar. Before anybody had a chance to even process that, Yanily’s barrage of spear thrusts continued, scoring two, four, six hits in quick succession, none of which the Lady tried to parry. More dots filled up her health bar as the pulses of energy negated each of his blows.

“Fall back!” Hiral shouted at the same time Seena yelled to stop attacking. “You’re just adding layers to her defense!”

And with that defense finished, the Lady of the Web went on the attack.