James had to spend more than an hour regenerating his PSI. He went through the dance of dropping his Powers and then adding them on one at a time as his Pool of PSI increased. He opted to activate the Augment Attribute for Dexterity and then activate Augment Skill for Evasion, just in case.

When his PSI was full for the third time, he used Shadow Sense to see inside the control room through the window. Something he had not noticed from the outside was a shimmering blue portal. He had never used Shadow Step through an object like this before but felt now was as good a time as any to test the theory.

He had a smile on his face when he reappeared in the control room and settled onto the balls of his feet. His arrival made no sound. Drawing his Glrick Sword, he crept over to the wall the Spider Queen was hiding behind and got ready to plunge the blade through the wall.

"Hold it!" Rocko shouted.

James paused and looked over at Rocko.

"Are you seriously considering trying to stab through the wall and hit the Spider?" Rocko asked.

James shook his head, 'No, actually, I was thinking of cutting a hole in the wall so I can see the other side and then using PSI Bolt and Flame Bolt to attack her. At least until she moved away from the wall.'

Rocko shook his head in disbelief, "Okay, let me get this straight. A concrete wall. Are you going to try and stab through that concrete wall? With your sword?"

James frowned and lowered his blade, 'Why not? It is an Enchanted sword.'

Rocko started to grin, "What makes you think that the sword would work well on the wall?"

James narrows his eyes at Rocko, 'It worked well on the goblins, cut through them like butter.'

Rocko laughed, "And you figured that your sword should cut this concrete just as easily as goblins because they are both made of concrete?"

James looked at his sword and then at the wall, 'You're saying it won't work, even if it is Enchanted? And you know as well as I do that goblins are not made of concrete.'

Rocko took a moment and caught his breath, "Oh, that was funny. This was your big idea? No, your sword can't cut through concrete. And even if you made a hole in the wall, what is to stop the spider from just moving to another wall?"

'We have to end this cat and mouse game,' James projected.

"I don't disagree, but this may not be the way to do it," Rocko added.

James sat down carefully on the chair to recover his Mana. He wasn't sure what to do next. If the Spider Queen kept hiding from him, James needed a way to get her to engage. But he didn't want to leave himself open at the same time.

James looked over at Rocko, 'Do you have any ideas?'

Rocko thought about it before speaking, "You have the option to leave through the portal, but would leave a lot Quests incomplete. I think you need to deal with the Quests completely to gain the maximum benefit of the Dungeon. And to do that, you need to deal with the Spider Queen."

James nodded, 'I agree, but how?'

Rocko considered his options, "I think that the Spider Queen is hiding because it doesn't have a target. With you hiding, you are not giving her the chance to attack. Given her situation, she can either stand where she is and continue to get attacked by someone she can't see, move forward and hope to find a target to attack, or retreat to a safe place and see if she can see her target."

James nodded, 'Makes sense. If I want to engage her, I have to draw her out. And the only way to do that is to make myself a target.'

Rocko agreed.

James looked out the small window. There was nothing on the other side of the chamber he could stand on, hang from or cling to. He could barely see the tunnel from the window but knew that he would need to open the door and go outside the control room if he wanted to return to it. There was no walkway or platform on the side the Spider Queen's hiding on. The roof had a slight dome shape and didn't have a lot of space above the control room.

James looked at the window sill and noticed that the wall was only about 8 cm (3") thick.

James looked over at Rocko, 'Do you think I can punch through the wall?'

Rocko didn't even look over at James, "No."

'How do we get at something hiding behind a wall?' James asked in frustration.

"Good question. How would you?" Rocko asked back.

James thought about it. He knew what he would do if he were back on Earth, "Smoke them out. Flank them. Or bomb the shit out of them."

"Well, you can't smoke them out, and you tried bombing the shit out of them, and that didn't go well. So you will need to flank them." Rocko declared.

Stolen story; please report.

'What about taunting them?' James asked.

Rocko turned to James with an incredulous expression, "What?"

'She is a Queen without pride. She hides. Can I lure her out?'

Rocko shook his head, "In what language?"

"Then we have to kick in the front door and take them out the hard way." James conceded.

James walked over to the door and opened it. All pretense for stealth was gone. Once he was on the metal grate outside the door, he stomped on it a few times, "Wakey wakey!"

He heard the shuffle of claw-tipped feet as they scrabbled on the other side of the wall. From this distance, he was only four meters from the corner of the wall the Spider Queen was hiding behind. James stood with his sword and shield at the ready, facing the corner. He prepared a PSI Bolt for as soon as the Spider Queen showed her face.

Finally, the Spider Queen scrambled around the corner and charged him. Once it was in view, James released the PSI Bolt and held up his shield. The spider moved fast and slammed into him. It was about the size of a pony but with a lot less mass. After the initial clash, James followed up with a Shield Bash. The Spider Queen attacked James with a quick attempt at a bite. His shield blocked the Spider's mandibles, but James was caught off guard by a bright flash of light that erupted in front of his eyes. Although he was blinded, he could still see some of his displays. One of the displays was kind enough to tell him that he was Blind. He was sure that the Blindness would last for several seconds, but his Magic Resistance and Debuff resistance reduced it to only a couple of seconds. Much less than he would have otherwise been affected. Both parties stood motionless for a couple of seconds. He was Blind; she was Stunned. Taking a chance, James Lunged with his sword and hoped for a severe wound. Had he not been Blind, he would have seen that his sword was turned aside with a flash of blue.

Pulling back, James reset his stance as his sight returned. A quick slash of a claw-tipped leg told him that the Spider was also active. Now that he could see again, he activated the Power PSI Bolt. He was prepared to drain the Crystal if it was necessary to kill the Spider Queen and stay on the defensive. The Spider Queen was turned at a 90-degree angle to him as its feet were firmly attached to the control tower wall, which made things awkward, but James kept his blade flashing at the Spider Queen's eyes and the shield between him and the spider's mandibles. The Spider Queen used its Dodge ability several times to avoid James' sword and once to avoid a PSI Bolt. At this point, it was a battle of attrition.

James had to avoid the mandibles, the two forward legs with claws on the end of them and a couple of Magic Bolts. Although they didn't do much damage, he was still surprised at how strong they were, considering they had to get through his shield, armour, and Hardened Skin II and then have 75% of the damage reduced by his Magic Resistance. At the end of that, he still noticed the hit.

While performing their dance, the Spider Queen changed tactics and cast two Spells on herself. A hardened shell appeared around her, which seemed to work similarly to James' Harden Skin II at reducing damage. The second Spell caused two images of the Spider Queen to appear, flanking James. Illusions; Magic Resistance didn't seem to help against illusions.

It made sense that the Spider Queen in front of him was the real one, but they all appeared to be exact copies, and he wouldn't be surprised if the Spell caused the caster to reappear randomly in one of the three locations. Not taking any chances, James used Darkness from his shield and then activated Shadow Step to retreat to the tunnel entrance. Once there, he started the four-second activation time for PSI Ball. The Spider Queen was in the area of Darkness, and the three versions were attacking the space that James once occupied. A second before James had activated the PSI Ball Power, the Spider Queen cast another Light spell. Although it was not as bright as the first one, it dispelled James' area of Darkness.

All three images of the Spider Queen were caught in the blast, but much to James' chagrin, none of the spiders disappeared. With the Darkness gone, they finally noticed him at the tunnel entrance and moved to attack. James activated PSI Ball again, but two images suddenly disappeared before the ball connected. Their timer having run out. James used another charge of Darkness and was about to step back when the Spider Queen launched a Web Bolt. Trying to dodge to the side, the Web Bolt caught his shield and caused it to stick to the guard railing of the walkway.

James crouched down behind the shield and launched another PSI Bolt at the Spider Queen. She turned with another Web Bolt that didn't seem to do much as she was firing blindly into an area of Darkness. Her second attack was a Fire Bolt. Not as strong as a Flame Bolt, but still effective against someone who was webbed. Not so much against someone with Magic Resistance. The second Fire Bolt burned up the webs and released his shield. He was seared a little, but his protection helped. He wanted to switch to his bow, but the Web Bolts were too effective. They didn't cause damage, like James' PSI Bolts, but they prevented him from moving. The two combatants exchanged two more Bolts. James was frustrated that the Spider Queen was hitting him, even though there was a zone of Darkness between them. It was more due to his bad luck as the Bolt would continue straight until it hit something. On the flip side, his PSI Bolts seemed to ignore the Spider Queens Hardened Shell spell, which helped cause more damage. When the Darkness disappeared, the Spider Queen launched a cloud of greenish mist that spread out to surround James. James wanted to chuckle as he recognized the familiar flavour of poison. Holding his breath instead, he used his sword to cut free of the webs and stepped back out of the cloud. Even still, he coughed and gagged on the poison.

Rocko looked at James with worry until he noticed that James was pretending. The Spider Queen didn't have the luxury of seeing James because of the poison cloud and cast another spell that James had not seen before. A lightning bolt slammed into the metal walkway and electrified the entire area. Rocko jumped back in surprise, and James caught most of the brunt of that Spell. Although it didn't hurt him that much, it did cause him to spasm and shake. His sword fell from his grip and splashed into the water.

James was stunned for a second after losing his sword. Either due to the shock of losing his weapon or the Lightning Bolt, either was not good. Reaching into his Backpack of Holding, he pulled out a sword he had purchased that day to give to Glezda. It didn't do much other than have some extra damage, but he would need a weapon if he were going to continue this fight. When the poison Cloud disappeared, James noticed that the Spider Queen was right on the other side of the cloud. James leaped towards her and used the long sword to deliver a heavy overhand slash. The Spider Queen Dodged the first attack but failed to Dodge the follow-up attack. This one cut clean through her front leg, sending it falling into the sewer water below.

James felt the bite before he realized that the Spider Queen had bit into his sword arm and was trying to return the favour. Before he lost the arm, James Shadow Stepped to the metal walkway that led into the control room. Once James disappeared again, the Spider Queen looked around frantically, trying to locate him. James dropped the sword on the grate and whipped out his Wand of Flame Bolts. The Wand landed a solid hit on her thorax. Turning around quickly, she stumbled a little, only having seven legs. The second Flame Bolt slammed into her face, causing the hairs to burn off and several of her eyes to pop from the sudden heat.