Rune Seeker

Hiral’s searing bolt of Impact signaled phase two of the battle against the Lady of the Web. The blast thunked into her shoulder, dropping the first few percent of her health bar, and Nivian charged in.

The tank’s whip snapped out, all three lashes cutting across the Lady’s chest. Flames and lightning sizzled on contact, and eight glowing eyes turned in his direction. The webbing on the floor rippled outward from the force of the Lady’s lunge as she launched herself to intercept the tank, both fang-daggers coming in from opposite sides. Even faster than she’d been in her earlier form, the Lady covered the distance in a heartbeat, and Nivian barely got his two shields up to protect himself on either side.

Blue shimmered and vines rotted at the first touch of green venom, and the daggers continued their charge unhindered, but Nivian dropped straight down through a black hole in the floor. Missing by inches, the Lady snapped her head down to look at the portal even as Nivian dropped out of the air behind her, his whip already lashing at her back.

But it was the spear in front of her that caught her attention. Yanily’s Reed Spear Style came at her in a barrage of thrusts, filling the air with the bending and warping attacks. The spearman forced the Lady of the Web back a step, though her daggers parried aside each and every reaching attack.

Hiral hit the Lady with a Distracting Shot, and then felt a familiar wave of energy wash over him.

You have been buffed by: Target.

Object of the Target Debuff cannot hide from your eyes for 210 seconds

You inflict 15% more damage to object of Target Debuff for 210 seconds

“You’re going to need your One-Man Army buff for this,” Seena said from beside him before making a shooinggesture.

“Got it,” Hiral said, sprinting to the side while he pulled his triggers one after the other.

Unlike the previous shot, the Lady didn’t simply let the shot hit her; the spider-leg appendages on her back snapped out to turn aside the blasts.

That’s fine. It’s all a distraction anyway.

With her attention split between Yanily, Hiral, and Nivian, even the Lady of the Web didn’t have enough eyes to keep track of the whole party, and Left and Right weaved in from behind her. Whatever “plan” Right had, he’d apparently explained it to Left, and the two trailed purple smoke-streamers behind them as they charged the Mid-Boss.

Right went high, leaping into the air to slam a kick into the Lady’s back, then flipped up and over. Left ducked low, his Wing of Anella sweeping past the monster’s legs. Frost climbed from where the wing passed, but a simple flex of the knee shattered the ice, and the Lady turned her attention on the double. A lash from Nivian’s whip instantly snapped her eyes back to the tank, the Infuriate part of his ability still working, while Left and Right crossed paths and doubled back.

Yanily came in at the same time, his Dancing Spear Style whipping around to keep the Lady’s daggers busy, but her back appendages quickly joined in to deflect his attacks. With the legs dealing with both Yanily and Hiral, and Nivian’s Infuriate quickly fading, the Lady again lashed out at Left and Right as they darted in to attempt quick hits.

An Orbital Shield caught the Lady’s blow, giving Right the split second he needed to get past the attack, and he continued to circle the Lady without being able to land a hit. But, Hiral saw, the purple smoke lingered in the air like it had weight.

Of course—Infernal Conjuration! That smoke has slowing and debuffing properties. They’re not actually trying to land hits now; just to slow her down.

With that in mind, Hiral stopped trying to weave in his Distracting Shots, and instead fired only the debuffing blasts.

In the center of the furious melee, the Lady spun and weaved, all her limbs working in terrible unison to keep the entire party at bay. But then, one of Hiral’s shots finally got through, and with the debuff effect of the infernal smoke, her movements slowed just a fraction.

Yanily changed to a barrage of thrusts, avoiding the back appendages that moved to intercept the swinging spear, and he scored his first solid hits against the boss. One, two, three, four times his spear tore chunks out of the Lady’s body—and her health bar—while Nivian’s whip snaked around one of her wrists.

“Fall back!” Seena shouted into the party chat, and the whole group jumped away, though Nivian’s whip simply extended as he retreated. Then four fireballs roared out from above Seena’s hand at the slowed Lady of the Web.

Slowed, but not immobile, the Mid-Boss slashed across, severing the whip, then leapt straight up to twist in the air and land against the ceiling feet-first. Her back appendages hooked onto the webbing as the fireballs exploded below. Although she was forty feet up, the Lady still couldn’t completely escape the licking flames as they seemed to crawl up the purple smoke that clung to her.

Even that small lick of flame set the Lady howling in pain and took out a chunk of her health bar, then slowly degraded as the flaming purple smoke burned around her.

“She doesn’t like fire,” Hiral said, pointing out the obvious.

The Lady’s distracting pain allowed him to score a pair of solid hits, bringing her health down to about three-quarters.

“She’s still too fast,” Seena said, the two totems growing out of the balcony beside her and turning their flaming eyes on the Lady. “But at least now we don’t need to hold back.” With that, the two totems began spitting firebolts at the monster on the ceiling.

The Lady wasn’t going to just stand there and take the punishment, though. She darted out to the side as she ran along the ceiling, then cut hard—straight toward Seena. Firebolts pack-pack-packed behind her as she ran, not quite fast enough to catch her. She drew back her twin daggers, then launched forward so powerfully the ceiling actually cratered from her push.

The power of the jump alone was enough to turn Seena to paste, not even including the lethal daggers swinging for her—and there was no way she was fast enough to dodge. Luckily, she had a big sister looking out for her. Seeyela’s black doorway appeared in front of her like a shield. Already mid-air and moving like a runaway cart, the Lady of the Web couldn’t do anything but pass through the door and out the other side, which hung horizontally five feet above the floor.

WHAAAAM. The Lady hit the ground hard enough to shake the building, the webbed floor rippling out from the impact right back in the center of where she’d started, flames still lingering in the air. Health bar dropping another ten percent, the Mid-Boss pushed herself up, one of her back appendages snapped off at the middle and another mangled horrifically.

Appearing out of the lingering flames, Yanily came at her like a whirling storm, his Dancing Spear Style trailing fire with every motion, thunder rumbling in the air. He scored a trio of deep cuts across the Lady’s shoulder, chest, and thigh before she got her blades up to keep him at bay—which just left her open for Right and Left to charge in from behind.

Still trailing purple smoke, Left played the role of distraction, occupying the two remaining back appendages while Right once again leapt into the air.

Maybe the Lady ignored him because his last jump-attack hadn’t hurt her, or maybe she was too busy dealing with Left and Yanily. Either way, he hit her hard this time. Purple flames burst out as the Lady’s back buckled beneath the weight of Right’s punch, her whole body jerking forward while Yanily parted the dagger defense with a pair of quick slashes.

With the Lady now wide open, Yanily smoothly set his feet and lowered his spear into the telltale uppercut position before solar energy streamed into his boots. His blade cleaved across the Lady’s chest as he shot up into the air, where he spun his spear around, pouring more solar energy into it. Back down he plunged, spear aimed for where the Lady’s heart should be… but she managed to shift her weight back just enough that he crashed down right in front of her.

“Graaaah!” the Lady shouted, the spear’s blade punching through the top of her foot.

Yanily leapt back again—though he left his spear behind. “Seena,” he said simply, and once again the fireballs began to form above Seena’s hand.

Hiral fired off a pair of Distracting Shots—anything to slow the Mid-Boss down—and though one got slapped aside by a fang-dagger, the other made it through.

The Lady snarled as her eyes locked on Seena. She tried to move away, but the spear pinned her to the ground. Another snarl, and her fang-daggers came around to slap uselessly against the magical, charred wood making up the spear’s haft. As the third ball formed over Seena’s hand, the Lady of the Web looked up at her again, then tossed aside her daggers and grabbed the spear in both hands.

The fourth ball of fire appeared as the Lady heaved at the weapon, though it held firm in the ground, the jagged edges of the vicious blade catching on something.

“Die!” Seena shouted, hurling all four balls of fire in the Lady’s direction.

Eight red eyes glared at the incoming salvo. Then, seemingly giving up her pinned limb, the Lady crouched and leapt straight up, maiming her own foot in the process, but escaping the deadly fire racing for her.

“Thought you’d do that,” Seeyela said, her voice quiet in the group chat.

A black portal appeared in front of the four fireballs, while a second opened right where the Lady was about to land on the ceiling.

The Lady’s feet touched the webbed ceiling at the same time the four fireballs shot out of the portal, and it almost looked like she’d be able to push off again, but her wounded limb faltered under the weight.

BOOOOOM. The explosion consumed the Lady of the Web and filled the room, heat and flame rolling out and raining down on the floor far below.

Hiral threw out a wave of Rejection to keep the firestorm away, then caught movement within the swirling flames. Something coming down from the ceiling. Using the way the flames moved to track its fall, he pulled the triggers of his RHCsonce, twice.

“No quest notification,” Hiral said into the party chat, pulling his triggers again as soon as they were off cooldown, while Seena’s totems still shot their own firebolts.

“I see something,” Wule said, tossing a ball of cold into the lingering flames and smoke from the incinerated webs. Then, with his other hand, his threw the rotating ball of fire from his crown to Nivian, buffing the tank with fire resistance. “Don’t let her get away!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Nivian said, barrelling into the burning webbing that fell like rain in the center of the room.

Hiral held his shots.

“Found her,” the tank said a second later, and there was a heavy thump, then a second, and something shot out of the side of the dripping flames, trailing smoke and fire the whole way.

The Lady of the Web skidded to a stop and stumbled, her ruined foot again failing her, but it was practically the least of her injuries. She was covered in head-to-toe burns, smoke curling away from charred flesh. The entire left side of her face was nothing but a ruined mess, and her left arm was little more than a twisted hunk of burnt meat. Above her head, her health bar sat at a measly fifteen percent. Still, she turned towards one of the hanging cocoons.

“She’s going to try something,” Hiral said, pulling his triggers and hitting her with a pair of shots that tore chunks of blackened meat off her chest.

“No, she isn’t,” Seeyela said, and a Gravity Well appeared on either side of the Lady, the increased gravity visible even from where Hiral stood.

Bad leg buckling, the Lady dropped to one knee, but her few good eyes remained locked on the cocoon.

Hiral fired shot after shot into her chest, her body bucking back with each blast that ripped another piece of her away. Still, even while suppressed by the increased weight of the Gravity Wells, the Lady didn’t give up. She reached out with one arm to pull her a step forward.

“Any time now, Sis,” Seeyela said, and Hiral glanced over at Seena to see another barrage of fireballs growing over her hand.

But there was something else about the way she was circulating her solar energy—something different than what she usually did for her fireballs.

It’s like she’s casting Spearing Roots too…

And just like that, with one hand, Seena threw the four fireballs, while the other jerked into the air, sharpened roots bursting out of the webbing around the Lady to impale her from a dozen angles. There, held in place by the roots and gravity, the Lady couldn’t do anything but howl at the incoming fireballs.

It didn’t help.