Having defeated the second wave of spiders, the big boss had finally decided to reveal itself.

A grotesque, gigantic creature slowly stepped into the room, every step feeling like two tectonic plates were colliding. The thing could barely fit through the already immense doors of the room.

The trio could barely recognize that it was a spider, its features could barely be seen since it was shrouded in so much Darkness.

It had two guards to its side, two spiders that seemed tiny in comparison, although they were even larger than any spider from the previous waves. The trio knew not to underestimate them. If they were guarding the ... "queen", although calling such a disgusting thing a queen just didn't feel right, they were bound to be formidable opponents.

At the sight of this enormous monster, Helios had the urge of deactivating the level dampening. But it would have taken too long. He now regretted not deactivating the dampening from the very moment the teleportation scrolls failed to work, but that would've made this whole trip pointless, they couldn't just bail at the first sight of danger. Although the danger seems to keep escalating.

They knew this would not be a long fight. One side would wipe out the other very quickly.

So they had to fight as they were.

Even though James was absolutely exhausted by now, his skills worked in his favor. Even though he felt so physically drained, he didn’t have to move much. SARM could do most of the dodging for him, and his offensive spells only really required him to move his arms.

The downside of the way he trained was that he only leveled up his magic-related attributes. Physically he was barely more than a potato which would get exhausted easily.

But that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. His mana was regenerating at fairly impressive pace. Which was the least you could ask of a ridiculously glass cannon build like his.

With Lunaris still feeding him mana, he was good to go. Even though his knees were weak and arms were heavy, his mana was replenished already.

But yet again, he really needed Helios’s help. Even though the whole point of his friends being here was to help him, James didn't like the sense of helplessness and uselessness he felt. Time and time again his strategies were useless without his friends doing the heavy lifting.

Even though he noticed the problem and kept telling himself he'd do better, reality one-upped him every time. Even with his power increasing at a breakneck pace, the challenges he faced were much more difficult to deal with as well. Which made sense ... that was the only way to level up quickly, pushing yourself.

But even though James could accept the logic, the fact it made sense didn't make it any easier to accept. It was frustrating, constantly getting more powerful but still struggling with each encounter.

Luckily for him, his friends cared for him just as much as he did for them.

He didn't even have to ask for help. Valiantly jumping forward, Helios rushed at the queen’s two guards.

They didn’t exchange any words, their trust ran deep. Everybody knew their roles by now.

As Helios was running interference, James prepared a batch of saws.

But this time he didn’t use them offensively, and not even for control.

The queen was a large, slow behemoth. While it could probably wipe out anything it touched, nobody would be stupid or slow enough to let it catch them. Not even James, with his athleticism of a misshapen potato.

The queen was still the biggest threat though, even with its slow movements. James knew he had to prioritize defense. Not even for himself, but for his friends. Especially for Helios, who was risking life and limb fighting at relatively close range, which was the exact range where the spiders were at their most dangerous.

James had observed how well the saws maneuvered in battle. SARM was amazing at controlling them offensively. But offense was the last thing on his mind right now.

When he heard the queen's giant, thudding steps, as his scalp froze, he knew his current defenses weren't enough. There’s nothing that makes you more creative than the rush of adrenaline and fear when facing a strong opponent that could evaporate you and your friends in an instant.

Before the queen could even attack, James had already prepared his batch of saws. But he chose not to make lava saws this time, that was a design meant for defense. He went back to the basics, the good old-fashioned reinforced earth for extra durability, as well as infusing some essence of air into them for extra speed.

Helios was fighting the two guards in a reckless display of courage.

He wasn’t even holding a sword, he wielded a shield in each hand, trying to stall the enemies as much as possible so James could do his thing. He wasn’t doing any damage to the guards, but they weren’t doing much damage to him either.

As their attacks would cut through the shields quite easily, the spiders being absolutely deadly at close range, he was dodging and running around more than actually fighting.

But that was still more than anybody else could do. Against the previous waves this would have been impossible, but against only two spiders, even if they were elite, Helios's speed was enough to stall them.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

But no fight is that easy. The queen didn’t stand idly by for long as her guards were attacking Helios. With each passing second, her throat seemed to be expanding, to the point it looked like she swallowed a giant ball.

The next moment, she started spitting acid towards Helios, which surely would have melted even his bones if it hit. There was no doubt about the potency of the acid. It was as black as coal, as rich in Darkness as the queen itself.

Even with the two guards attacking him, Helios was able to elegantly dodge the acid. But the queen was obviously a shrewd combatant, because the moment Helios moved, it launched a wave of acid right towards the place Helios would’ve landed.

But Helios wasn't fighting by himself. James wouldn’t just let his friend tank without any support.

While James was watching Helios dodge, he cherished and seized every second his friend bought for him. He was constantly working on his saws. The defensive batch of saws had been ready for a while. It didn’t make much sense to launch them while Helios was dodging and blocking without much trouble. So he bided his time, building up more saws, observing the enemies, learning more about their movement patterns while waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Luckily, the acid attack was somewhat telegraphed. He didn't know what the queen was building up in her throat, but he figured it probably wasn't a rainbow.

Right as Helios was about to be splashed by the acid, James’s defensive saws intercepted the attack.

James knew that his shoddy saws wouldn't be able to block a single attack from that giant. Much less an acid attack.

But there was more ways to defend than blocking.

With the extra speed from the infusion of air essence into them, as well as the mana James infused when he launched the saws, the saws were able to reach their destination immediately. But the extra speed was useful for more than that.

More so than any of his previous saws, he designed these for speed. They spun so fast that whirlwinds where forming around them.

The winds the saws produced were so powerful that they completely pushed the acid away.

Not only that, but in that split second, James had an idea. He didn’t even manage to fully form the thought, and the subconscious impulses were already sent towards the saws. Through SARM, the saws obeyed his will before he himself was able to articulate it in his own mind.

Before the acid could hit the ground, the saws moved into a formation, using the wind to guide the acid towards guards.

Helios’s shield bashes did zero damage to the guards, that's how powerful their defenses were. Seeing that, James was worried about how much firepower it would take to defeat them. Would his explosions even do anything?

But the problem fixed itself.

The saws moved around and redirected the jet of acid with such speed that the acid splashed straight onto the guards.

And the guards were no more.

The queen’s great strength became the downfall of its guards. James had no idea what he would have had to do in order to beat them, perhaps his entire spell arsenal was useless against them. Hell, even a nifty new spell designed specifically for the situation with the added help of the arcane simulation could've been useless against them.

But the guards didn’t even manage to make a sound, they melted down to a goo in an instant. It was like putting butter in a hot furnace, every square inch that the acid touched completely evaporated. Even the floor beneath them was melted.

Seeing that, James abandoned the idea of creating more offensive saws. He immediately started pumping out as many defensive saws as possible.

If that acid could do such a thing to the spiders with incredible defenses, a single tiny drop landing on either of them would be beyond devastating.

Investing in more defenses was definitely the right choice. Seeing her guards dead, the queen was enraged. But instead of splashing the trio with acid, it started building up even more.

James knew that the next few moments would be the ones that decided which side would live or die. So he launched the saws that weren't geared for speed and defense, hoping to stall the queen while he pumped out more defensive saws.

The offensive saws flew at the queen, attacking her mouth, throat, belly, eyes. Any spot that could've been even slightly more vulnerable. But the attacks did nothing at all, so James immediately detonated the saws without wasting another second.

That seemed to do the trick. While the explosions did almost no damage since the queen being a behemoth with incredibly defenses, they were enough to slow down her buildup of acid.

It was now a race against time. Would James be able to pump out enough saws to repel the queen’s attack, or would it melt them to the point not even a molecule was left?

James shouted at Helios as loudly as he could. "Come here, quickly!". No matter what the queen had in store for them, they could be safe if they were all behind a wall of saws protecting them.

The queen didn’t wait for Helios to be safe though. Noticing the opportunity, she launched her attack.

The queen opened her mouth as wide as possible, and that still wasn’t enough. So much acid shot out, such an intense volume that the edges of her mouth were cracking from the sheer pressure.

It was a tsunami of acid.

His subconscious immediately sent a part of his saws to defend Helios, while the rest stood behind to protect him and Lunaris.

There were hundreds of saws, each spinning much faster than a helicopter. It was a wall of wind, ready to repel everything that came towards them. Or at least, that’s what he hoped.

James didn’t wait to test his theory though. If he was wrong, then death would be the lucky outcome. He didn’t even want to think about what it would feel like to be hit by even a tiny drop of that acid.

As an extra boost of defense, he dumped as much mana as possible into increasing the rotational speed of the saws, as well as the amount of air magic they contained. He put so much mana into it that even Lunaris became a bit woozy, having been drained of so much mana.

As the tsunami of acid hit, the saws spun so hard that they were literally generating heat. There was no fire magic imbued into them whatsoever, the mere speed from their rotations was heating up their surroundings.

But as uncomfortable as the heat was, it definitely beat being melted by that acid.

The saws spun so fast, James was worried they’d wobble and fly into their heads or something. But luckily, the defensive line held.

The tsunami of acid was pushing against the wind walls with tremendous force, almost hitting the saws.

One saws failing would have been the death of them.

But James had been cautious. He spawned many saws, perhaps more than necessary, in order to make sure they were well protected. And the speed of his saws was just as excessive.

Not even a single atom of acid passed through, the hundreds of saws spinning at mind-boggling speeds had formed an impenetrable wall. No liquid or even gas could ever pass through.

While it probably would've taken many thousands of James’s explosions to down the queen, its own acid was much more potent.

The queen was very resistant to acid, especially its insides and throat that were designed for holding and shooting acid.

But even it wasn’t entirely immune to acid. 99.9% wasn't 100%. When it came to such huge quantities, that 0.1% was a big difference.

With the saws repelling every single drop that the queen had been shooting out ceaselessly, the acid had nowhere to go but back towards the queen.

It had basically drowned itself in acid, not an inch of it safe. It tried to keep its eyes closed, but when entirely submerged in acid, even a microscopic gap was enough for the acid to pass through and melt its weak spots.

Thus, the spider queen was no more. Slowly melted by its own formidable weapon.