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"Well, Delia, I think you've had enough bow practice for today. Now you'd better take Blue Wind back out and give the bow to me for this fight," I say, extending my hand towards Delia to give me back my bow.
After a few hours of exploration, we are finally in front of the boss room on this floor, preparing for what we will find on the other side of the door.
Following the logic of the labyrinth, we know that the boss of this floor should be a black widow, so we can prepare certain strategies beforehand.
"Okay, but, is it okay if I wait until I enter the boss room to get Blue Wind out of the ring?..." asks Delia as she hands me back my bow.
"... I think she should still be grounded for a while longer."
'Grounded? That's.... interesting. But now is not the time'
As soon as I have the bow in my hands again, I look at it with some curiosity, almost expecting to find something special about it after having passed through the hands of my little saint.
Delia showed off her clumsiness during the first few minutes using my bow.
But, surprisingly, every time we found ourselves in a situation of some risk, the levels of her ability with the borrowed weapon would shoot up to the skies for a few moments, making her move with incredible precision and speed.
It was almost as if the heavens were guiding her movements.
This state of divine inspiration allowed her to get used to her new weapon at an impressive speed, while I and Alessia watched in amazement at the absurd speed at which she was improving her handling of the weapon.
I asked her about those events several times, but it seems that this new ability is something she herself is not fully aware of.
And it's not displayed by my user interface either.
"Yes, no problem. Alessia, we're going to rely primarily on you to cover us, Ok? Delia doesn't have enough experience in this kind of situation," I say to my favorite blonde while I look sideways at Delia, who watches the door in front of us with some nervousness.
After resting a bit, Alessia rejoined the fight during our labyrinth exploration, but only with her sword in hand.
This time, fortunately, with a much less reckless attitude and with more willingness to listen to my indications when facing the enemies.
This allowed us to really start to coordinate as we fought the enemies, and to act a bit more like a real team and less like members of a group of inexperienced rookies, who are simply in a group for personal gain.
"No problem, Master. I'll protect you with my life if I have to," Alessia says quickly, as she looks smugly at the fox girl next to her.
'Haa... there we go again with those self-sacrificing ideas. And it's not lost on me that she's not including Delia in her words either.... How difficult this is proving to be. Haaa.... one step at a time'
It's true that Alessia's competitive attitude when we fought monsters was in the past.
But it seems that, for some reason, she feels the stupid need to, at the slightest opportunity, prove to me that she's capable of doing more than Delia.
"No. I don't need you to go that far... Just... just stay alert..." I say, bringing my left hand to my forehead and rubbing between my eyebrows, as I feel silent irritation at Alessia's attitude.
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"...Well, let's see what's waiting for us behind this door."
After uttering those words, I push the double doors leading to the boss's room, and they give way with the utmost ease, as always happens when the boss is waiting for new challengers.
After crossing the threshold, the boss's room lights up slightly, revealing an interior in which....
"Is there nothing here?" asks Delia, looking surprised and hopeful at the large amount of spider webs covering the dusty stone walls of the room.
These spider webs give the place an abandoned look.
"No... there is something, but it's above us," I say, pointing to the darkness of the ceiling and guiding myself with the map of my interface.
At my words, Alessia tenses up and quickly positions herself in front of me.
I can't see the boss due to the distance and the large amount of spider webs on the high ceiling.
But, orienting myself with my interface map, I fire an incineration arrow in the direction of the mass of spider webs on the ceiling.
A few moments later, a large amount of spider webs burns in the place of impact, revealing the colossal body of a dark-colored spider, which writhes slightly before the attack.
The fire incinerates most of the webs and makes the huge arachnid fall to the ground, some distance in front of us.
As soon as Delia sees the boss's body, the saint materializes her talking spear in her hands.
'- Well, well, you finally freed me from that nasty ring. By the holy powers of order! Look at the size of that thing. Its legs are huge! But don't worry, Delia. We still have the advantage in range. You just need to stay behind Alessia and the kid, and I'll take care of everything. I just need you to point me in the direction of that overgrown spider.'
'- That's not what Alessia, Emir, and I agreed on a few moments ago, while you were grounded. Emir is using his bow right now. I'm the one who has to cover him and not the other way around.'
'- Are you forgetting that I can sense your emotions? Don't attempt to appear brave in my presence because I know how terrified you are of facing that thing. But… agh, fine, just stay a safe distance away from that thing. I don't know how well I could protect you if it gets too close.'
The huge spider begins to stretch its legs to stand up, and a design very similar to that of an hourglass, but glowing red, appears on its abdomen.
As it does so, I fire two more incineration arrows in its direction, since, as with any insect, I suppose fire is the best option for eliminating it.
The arrows hit its body and set it ablaze, but the size of the insect is too large for the size of the flames produced.
The boss's body is 2 meters tall and almost 4 meters long, but, except for its special size, it has the same shape as the characteristic monsters of this floor.
This gives us the clue that its fighting style probably relies mainly on its extremely long and sharp legs.
As for its poison, I suppose we can use the same tactic as with the normal version of this monster.
As long as we manage to stay away from the spider boss, it will be impossible for the monster to poison us.
We didn't investigate what kind of magic it could use, to follow the last stage of the adventurers' tempering path, but I guess it will be some kind of poison-related magic.
"Alessia, try to attract its attention from a safe distance while Delia and I attack it from afar..." I say, while I recover with my inventory the three arrows I shot.
At the same time, I see how the boss' multiple eyes point in our direction, and its huge body starts moving at an alarming speed towards us.
Hearing my words, Alessia starts running in the direction of the giant arachnid, moving slightly to the right to force the boss to turn its back to us, if it wants to pursue its nearest target.
"...Wake up, Delia! We're in a situation where we can't just stand by and do nothing. Simply point at the boss's body with your weapon from afar. Concentrate and don't lose sight of any of its movements," I tell her quickly, seeing how the fox girl stands paralyzed, looking fearfully at the spider's body.
"I... yes, I am on it," she says, Delia, and points the edge of her spear in the direction of the spider's abdomen.
Blue Wind quickly extends and retracts several times at blinding speed, leaving several holes in the boss's body and increasing the total amount of damage we have inflicted on it.
I don't lag behind and keep firing arrow after arrow in the direction of the boss's gigantic body, freezing and burning it at regular intervals.
While we attack the monstrous spider, Alessia runs around it, playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse, taunting the boss from a safe distance, away from the reach of its venom and the edge of its many legs.
After a few minutes of continuing this kind of tactic, the boss's large body looks like some kind of giant sieve, while we, with the exception of Alessia, are not tired in the least.
But then the spider's body, sensing that death is approaching, begins to expel a greenish cloud of poison from its mouth, which quickly begins to spread around it like a protective curtain.
The cloud forces Alessia to widen the distance the girl is keeping between her and the giant spider, while Delia and I stop attacking to analyze the situation.
Curious, I fire a normal arrow in the direction of the boss's body, which is now completely hidden inside the green cloud surrounding it.
As soon as the arrow touches the cloud, it begins to emit an acrid smoke and disintegrates in an instant.
"So… what do we do now?" asks Alessia, looking helplessly at the place where the boss is, so close to death yet so far away from it.
"Wait and dodge..." I say, while observing that, although the cloud is protecting the boss's body, it also prevents it from moving if it wants to stay safe, since any sudden movement causes holes to emerge in its gaseous armor.
"... That poisonous smoke can't last forever. If the boss has some kind of regeneration ability, we would be making a serious mistake in waiting, but we can't do much more."
"BLUE WIND, NO!" shouts Delia beside me as the spear in her hands extends at blinding speed towards the monster's body before she has time to react.