"The prey came to me of its own accord. How can I be so grateful? There is nothing I can do to repay it."
Arachnaene looked down at us, resting her chin on her right hand, her right arm supporting her chest, and her left elbow resting on the back of her right hand.
The pose was so striking that it made the naked figure look even more prominent. I didn't really want to think about the pink bumps visible through the green hair.
'... ... Has there been an update?'
I rolled my head blankly. When I installed the NPC retouching mod before, I didn't touch the bosses' appearances.
After completing the first round, I couldn't overcome the dissonance between my voice and my appearance, so I erased it.
After that, the Darkest Light mod came out, and I was so busy digging into that that I didn't have time to worry about anything else. So all I remember is up to the first release.
It seems that while I was immersed in the NPC retouching mode, the NPC retouching mode also went through quite a few updates.
'Yeah. It would be strange if you didn't.'
Even before the announcement that the last update for the mod was released, various patches were released to fix minor bugs, so why didn't the appearance change mod get an update?
"delta."
I quickly stopped thinking and came to my senses at the sound of Lize's cold voice right next to me.
When I turned my head, I saw Lize staring at me indifferently, literally spewing ice and cold air around her armor.
I couldn't see his expression because of the helmet, but it was even more creepy because I couldn't see his expression.
"Where are you looking?"
The moment I heard her ask where I was looking, I realized why Lize was reacting this way.
As soon as I looked at the upper body of the human figure, I froze in a daze and fell into thought, so I mistakenly thought that I was distracted by that bare chest.
In reality, I was surprised because it wasn't covered in leather like in my memory, but rather had no thread on it, but in any case, if you only looked at it from the outside, it was a situation that could be misleading.
"...."
I need to clear up the misunderstanding, but I don't know where to start, so I'm speechless. Should I first explain why I froze when I looked at the chest?
'If you keep your mouth shut like this, the misunderstanding will get worse, so you have to say something.'
"delta."
Lize called me again. I gave up making excuses and waited quietly for her next words. No answer came to mind right away.
"If you want to see my bare chest that much, I'll show you later. So just turn your eyes. Okay?"
However, what came out of Lize's mouth was completely beyond my expectations.
When Erica and I heard that, we both raised our heads in surprise. Claudia was looking at us with an expression that we could somehow guess from her helmet.
This time, I couldn't help but be frozen in place for a different reason. Just now, I really thought my ears were malfunctioning. What are you showing me?
"Oh, sis. What did you just say… ?"
"Quiet, Erica. You need to concentrate."
Erica tried to ask back with a trembling voice, but Lize cut her off with a single stroke.
If he had spoken in a playful tone like usual, I would have just let it slide, but his voice was quite serious, so I didn't think I could just ignore it.
'After we defeat that, the first thing we need to do is clear up the misunderstanding about Lize.'
If you're not careful, you'll wake up in the same bed the next morning.
And both of them naked.
"Ah, I get the gist of it."
As if she had heard our conversation, the Spider Queen giggled, deliberately emphasizing her chest. A lump of fat the size of her head changed shape with the movement of her fingers.
This time I quickly looked away. One misunderstanding was enough.
"The guy in the middle is really important to you guys, huh? Okay. I'll suck him off first. Very slowly. While listening to his screams before he dies."
A green tongue popped out between her green lips and licked the corner of her mouth.
"That won't happen."
Claudia slammed her greatsword into the ground with a bang! Yellow lightning struck nearby. Not only the greatsword, but also Claudia's body was struck by lightning all over.
A thunderous roar rang out, and the entire greatsword was covered in lightning, sparks flying continuously.
"You won't touch our talented new member even once. Do you think I'll let you do that?"
Just standing nearby made my skin tingle a little. It felt like the hairs on my whole body were standing on end.
Lize and Erica also took a step forward. The cold and flames engulfed the surrounding space, creating an extremely low-temperature frost fog and an extremely high-temperature haze.
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"That kind of reaction makes me even more curious. I wonder what kind of beautiful expressions you'll make when you're held helplessly in that man's hands and you have to listen to him scream."
Arachnaine smiled at me. I accepted the smile indifferently and took a small step back. Not too close, but not too far away.
It was according to the pre-planned plan.
Since I've confirmed that the boss's aggro bounces to the target being attacked through the rock civet, I can leave the first attack to the knight commanders and I can stay far away.
And when the pattern of summoning baby spiders came, I was going to step forward and fight Arachnainera, while the knight commanders focused on dealing with the baby spiders.
This strategy would have been unimaginable if it had been a fully single-player game like Blizzard 4, but it is completely possible for us now.
"Okay, as a reward for coming all the way here, I'll suck every drop of your blood out of you. Come here, cuties."
The Spider Queen, who had just said the last line of the boss room entrance cutscene, stretched out her arms, and using that as a signal, the three knight commanders rushed in at once.
The first to attack was, of course, Lize. Lize quickly approached the Spider Queen's side and swung her twin daggers at her right rear end.
The ice-covered dagger slashed past his torso several times. Then he dodged the hind legs that were slammed into the ground and lunged at him again, but his movements suddenly stopped.
There was a gray cobweb underfoot.
"It's a spider web. It'll be hard to move."
Arachnaine laughed and raised her hind legs. Just as Lize bent down, sharp claws narrowly grazed the shoulder of her armor.
Green liquid dripped down onto the silver armor.
Claudia took advantage of the gap and rushed in. She grabbed the lightning-covered greatsword with both hands, turned her body counterclockwise, and swung her arms sharply, swinging them downwards as if she was striking.
A loud bang! The entire valley shook as if it was shaking. Lightning spread out in a circle from the spot where the greatsword had struck. Yellow flashes of light filled the boss room.
The attack didn't stop there. Claudia paused for a moment, then pulled out her greatsword and raised it upward.
This time, the greatsword swung upward from below, its tip pointing to the ceiling, and then fell backward. Perhaps to avoid distorting his posture, he took his left hand off the handle and supported it with only his right hand.
Claudia took advantage of the moment to turn around and change direction. Kwaang! The sound rang out again. The lightning struck a step too late and hit Arachnainera's body directly.
"Gyaaaaaaah!"
A bright yellow flash of light appeared, and a shrill scream burst from its mouth.
'I have a rough idea of what kind of technology it is.'
Like other knight commanders, Claudia was using all the techniques she used in boss battles. The attack just now was one of the boss battle patterns.
Claudia was a boss whose single blow destructive power was unrivaled, as she had a large greatsword, and her swinging power was enhanced by lightning strikes.
Instead, there were many gaps, so if you just avoided them, each attack would be a time-limited attack, but with that large spider's body, such quick movements were impossible.
"What a worthless guy!"
Arachnaine, who was hit by Claudia's direct attack, hesitated and stepped back. Of course, even after being hit by a direct attack, the only wound left was a light stab wound.
Now it was Erica's turn to step forward. She raised her right foot halfway up, placed her sword-holding right hand against her left side, and then swung her foot forward strongly, swinging it horizontally.
The blade slashed through the Spider Queen's body.
A wave of flames surged along the path of the sword's swing. Like a tsunami crashing into the ground, the wave of flames swept away the entire fan-shaped area in front of it.
"Gyaaaaaaah!"
An even more desperate scream erupted. Flames rose from Arachnaine's body, which was covered in flame plates from beginning to end.
It meant that he was afflicted with a burn, one of the status abnormalities.
When burned, you will receive continuous damage proportional to the caster's attack power for 15 seconds, and you will never be able to recover from battle fatigue while the burn continues.
The Spider Queen is not a humanoid boss, so the option to not recover battle fatigue doesn't really make sense, but the sustained damage proportional to the caster's attack power will hurt quite a bit.
Well, the caster is Erica.
"Eeeeek!"
Arachnaine groaned and flipped over, spraying green fluid around the area. The knight commanders, who had been informed in advance that it was poison, quickly retreated.
The relaxed expression that had been there when Lize first rushed in was nowhere to be found. Her expression was distorted, like that of an evil spirit.
"I wish you had been a good nurturing presence for our children!"
'Huh? That pattern is already out?'
What Arachnainera just said was the line that came out right before summoning the baby spiders. That meant that the boss's health had already been reduced by 40%.
Even if you say it's a hit, it's the combo attack that Lize used, the full charge attack of the lightning enchanted greatsword, and the full hit of the flame plate.
'It's about time to come out.'
Except for Lize's combo, the other two attacks are guaranteed to kill you if you hit them directly even in vanilla. Considering the difference in specs between the two bosses, it was quite possible.
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Even the Spider Queen is a biological enemy, so she takes additional damage from fire and lightning. The matchup was overwhelmingly favorable for us, so there was nothing more to see.
Things were going easier than expected.
"Children! Wake up!"
Arachnaine screamed at the top of her lungs. As if in response to her call, the crackling sound of eggshells breaking could be heard from all around. The knight commanders joined me.
"Are we just getting started, Delta?"
"Yes. Just do as I say. I'll handle that huge thing."
He pulled out the bloody sword, stabbed it into his stomach, and sucked out the blood. After confirming that the blade had turned red to its limit, he pulled out the sword. A sinister red glow surrounded the blade.
Soon, baby spiders began to pour out of the eggs.