The titanic spider monster was still there, inside its giant chamber, excavating. The lumbering giant was using its limbs to first crack open the rocky surfaces, then scoop the broken-up stone away afterward. It still had that web of fire rotating around it—a cage with no openings.
It moved like a living rockslide, one with a beating heart of molten lava. Little veins ran around the body, converging on a glowing spot at its forehead, where the seventh eye of fire burned.
Fayette backed away behind the corner, sharing a look with her party. “So, what do you think? Can we take it on?”
Marie was rubbing her chin, still staring at the monster. “This mana signature… it’s definitely coming from it—but it's somehow distinct. There’s the monster… then something else.” She turned, looking at the [Maid]. “You said this thing was birthing all the other monsters?”
Fayette nodded. “I think so—it’s the only source I’ve found so far.”
The [Lady] backed away from the doorway. “So… if we do take it out, that would take care of any issues the miners are facing… and I think this is what the [Lord] is after too.”
Mireille crossed her arms, face doubtful. “Really? A monster? Why would he want that?”
Marie bit her lip. “It’s… a thing of [Mages]. If my suspicion is right—that thing might be very valuable.” She looked back, this time at the huge chamber the monster was in. “The real question is how it came to be. What was in this chamber originally, and how did this monster arise out of that? That’s the key.”
Fayette peeked in again. This place… why had it been deep underground in the first place? Was it to keep things in, or out? If she really narrowed her eyes, did that little bit of molten brick resemble a pedestal just a bit?
She snapped her fingers. “Aha! Is this one of those a-normal-beast-ate-a-magic-artifact-then-turned-into-a-monster scenarios?”
The [Lady] smiled thinly. “Do you really have a scenario for everything? But yes, those things do really happen. Stories have roots in truth.”
Mireille was nodding. “So, you’re saying—” she looked up, eyes sharp. “—that thing is worth a lot of money? Let’s do it. Can we do it? Olivia?”
The [Doctor] was digging in her bag and looked up at being addressed. She pulled out a syringe. “That thing is huge, but there have to be some weak points in the armor. If we can get close, I can hit it with poison and sedatives, but that wouldn’t be enough to kill it.”
“Would it slow down at least? For just a moment?” Marie asked. She was measuring the room’s ceiling.
“Well, it should manage for a bit at least,” Olivia said. “Though we would first have to get close to it.”
Through that web of fire with no weak points. Fayette was conjuring up a plan. They could do this.
She clapped her hands and turned to Mireille. “I think I have a plan. Mireille, how did you deal with those smaller ones again?”
—
Four hunters stepped into the chamber, facing a monster.
And the monster noticed them. As soon as their steps echoed into the cavern, lost amongst the rumble of stone excavation, the monster stopped.
Slowly, it stepped away from the corner, and each step rumbled. Laborious, but also fast, six craggy limbs of stone skittered around in a half-circle. It turned, facing them, and six eyes that shone red measured the intruders. One of pure heat glowed in their center and the cage of fire pulsed—shrinking and expanding in a calm rhythm, as like an athlete calming their breathing, readying for something.
It pulsed, pulsed, then really pulsed. It expanded twice as far out as before, shrank back, and left detached tendrils of fire behind. Six long tentacles of fire roared up into position, still attached to that cage. Six limbs of stone below, six of fire above.
Fayette gulped. Well, it’s now or nothing. Then she ran in.
Her task was simple—distract.
Her steps seemed a bit erratic, but there was a rhythm to them, which guided her steps. A dance—or waltz. Marie was stepping to the same rhythm at the back of the room, focusing on her magic, but still watchful.
A rock dropped from the ceiling, and the monster blocked it with a limb, and the rock shattered into pieces. The limb was unharmed. Then it took a step forward, then another, then another, and then it was on her.
Fayette let herself get as close as she could to the fiery tendrils and cage, and stepped back at the last moment, throwing a flask at the monster. The flask held liquid inside—and a fork. [Cutlery Control] guided its path.
It exploded against the cage.
Damn, would have been nice to get that one through. Fayette dodged back, still stepping in that rhythm, then bent back, letting one tendril swing past right above her face.
She had not seen that one coming, but Marie had—and someone with [Waltz Partner] would not let their pair’s dance be disturbed. It didn’t matter whether the disturbances were other dancers or monstrous limbs of fire—a dance should not be disturbed.
The monster crept closer, slamming limbs at her and stepping forward at the same time. The limbs above circled like fiery vipers, waiting for the right moment to strike. There were no screeches or roars from it, just the steady glow of fiery eyes.
But Fayette kept up the rhythm and dodged, feeling more guidance coming from Marie, like a gentle hand at her back. She stepped to the side, past a limb of rock this time, then jumped well back, getting outside of range. All six tendrils of fire slammed at the position she had been in. She had no boon right now, that was on Olivia.
Fayette watched the appendages of fire rise back up, and the heat in the room grew more intense. She threw some more explosive bottles—useless for damage, but loud and flashy, then she stepped back closer, dodged a limb of rock, and hopped back out again. Weaving in and out, using her own balance and Marie’s guidance, she was managing to stay just that one step ahead.
It was working. Good, it’s focusing on me… and that means that—
A needle and thread flew in from the other side and attached to the cage. It began twisting—an opening forming. Just large enough for a slippery [Doctor]. Olivia was ready, and peeled out of a shadow, rushing for the gap in a mad dash.
And then things went wrong.
“No—wait!” Mireille shouted from her cover, fingers twitching madly. “There’s too much of it! Too much—”
Then the gap in the cage closed up and the fire pulsed, thickening. Olivia managed to stop her dive at the last moment, rolling to a stop on the ground just before the fiery web. Then limbs of rock slammed at her and sent her flying. The boon flickered.
Fayette saw the woman fly a long arc in the air, and the boon faded her from mid-flight. Too long of a time? Then she crunched down to the ground, near Marie.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Shit.
Fayette ran back in closer, throwing all the bottles she had left—a desperate distraction. It worked, and the monster turned back to her. But the [Doctor] was down. Marie and Mireille were running to the woman, who was laying in a heap on the ground, groaning in pain. But mostly fine. Hopefully.
New plan—need a new plan. She thought, but she couldn’t think—every single bit of effort had to be focused on dodging. Because the monster was angry now.
She wove around a labyrinth of fire and rock, desperately reaching for the path out. [Maid Martial Arts], [Dangersense] and Marie’s guidance were keeping her ahead just enough, and she managed it.
Then she stumbled.
What? She desperately jumped back, creating more distance, and a rock slammed into her stomach. It was like a boulder, and her [Maid Armour] blocked the worst of it—but it still hurt. And the [Lady’s] guiding hand was gone from her back. She lost the rhythm.
Two more desperate lunges back, just barely away from the fire tendrils, and then she finally managed to look. Marie was down on her knees, clutching at her side, and Olivia was up by her side, giving the [Lady] a stark black pill.
Then Fayette had to focus back on dodging—she was cursing. It was no elaborate dance anymore, she was using her broom too—parrying what she could not dodge. The broom twisted and shuddered under the strain. She heard the [Doctor] approach from behind.
“You two swapped?” Fayette shouted, hitting herself back from a limb with her broom, moments from snapping.
“Her idea,” Olivia answered, staying behind her. She no longer had the boon on. “We need to run, or think of a new plan. Decide.”
Fayette gritted her teeth—she had one gamble. “Keep this thing occupied for just a minute,” she said, then stepped back, leaving Olivia to handle things. One last glance at the lumbering giant. Then she ran back.
To Mireille.
The [Seamstress] was supporting Marie up, as the [Lady] almost heaved out the pill she had just bit into. What is in those?
The [Maid] skidded to a stop before them. “Mirrie, how long can you hold that thing’s web? Can you bundle it up into a clump, just for a second or two?”
Mireille looked up, some panic on her face, but she answered after only a second. “I—yes. I can do that. For maybe like... five seconds. That thing is strong.”
Fayette turned to Marie, who was looking up, gritting her teeth and clutching at her side. “Can you still do the final bit?”
The [Lady] let her magic glow and smiled, showing teeth. “I’m feeling very motivated for it right now.”
The [Maid] nodded, turning back to the [Seamstress] again. “Good, this can work then. Last thing: Mireille, do you still have those mittens you finished?”
—
Fayette ran back in, broom in hand, just in time to relieve a harried [Doctor]. She bobbed, weaved, and blocked for a few seconds, giving her party just enough time to get into position. She was also wearing thick beavermonkey-pelt mittens now.
Every plan needed a key bit.
She felt Mireille give the signal with her [Dustsense], then ran in closer, throwing her broom down and stepping past the roaring attacks of fire and stone. She got right to the cage and saw a needle fly in right before her.
It bit in, and that segment of the web began to constrict, all collecting into one point. A second needle was flying around it, applying [Quick Stitches], making the bundle of fire web bigger and bigger. The cage suddenly had a pillar of thick webbing in its center, from which hundreds of bits of web parted out at each end.
And Fayette had beavermonkey-pelt mittens. Tough, resistant. Fireproof.
She stepped forward and grabbed the thick webbing into her hands. It felt sticky and burning hot even through the mittens, and she was pretty sure they were melting, but for just a moment, she had a grip on hundreds of strands of fiery web at once. Hundreds of threads, or a…
—Fabric.
Fayette activated [Dry Laundry] and began to squeeze the fire out of it.
She wrung it as hard as she could, as fast as she could. Her arms burned as molten leather stuck to skin, but she persisted, squeezing as harder and harder. Her muscles twisted the threads into a tight wound cord, and streams of liquid fire poured out of it onto the floor, leaving the threads dry. Not on fire.
Then they burned. The threads were still attached to the other burning bits after all. And then there was a hole in the cage.
Fayette jumped back as furious limbs of rock slammed at where she had stood, and she ran to the side, throwing her gloves off, making herself as big of a target as possible. Her hands hurt. A [Doctor] jumped through the hole, rushing under the monster. She jabbed syringes into the roots of each limb, pinpointing weak spots where they could pierce with surgical accuracy.
The [Maid] felt the limbs chasing her slow, and the monster began to grow sluggish. First, she was half a second ahead of the smashing rock, then two seconds ahead of the roaring fire. Then she was free of the chase, and the whole room shook.
The monster’s titanic limbs gave, too weakened to hold the body. Olivia jumped out right as heavy stone smashed to the ground and tendrils of fire fell down like soggy pasta. And Fayette followed the [Doctor], making as much distance as possible between her and the spider. She looked forward, and locked eyes with Marie.
The [Lady] was laying on the ground, shining green with magic, and had her hand pointed right above the giant spider. Fayette turned and saw the giant spike of stone being slowly shaped from the ceiling’s stone, sharpening, lengthening, hardening...
Then the ceiling cracked and the spike fell. Right on top of the monstrous spider’s head. And Fayette watched.
Cool [Maids] did not look away from explosions.
The spike first lodged through rocky carapace, not slowing one bit, then continued down and down, splitting the head. For just a brief moment, Fayette saw a bloated brain splitting into pieces, and some sort of fiery connection winking out between the forehead and the body, and all the fires winked out. Then the spike pierced through the exoskeleton again, underneath, and its thicker base finally separated the head from the body in four pieces.
The monster instantly dissolved into a tide of murky blood, and for the last time in the caverns for some time, that distinctive noise echoed out, one hundred times louder than before.
Splat.
[About time for some proper autumn cleaning! The ruins have been cleansed from centuries of infestation!]
[Level up: You have reached Maid level 20! Congratulations!]
[2 Skill points gained!]
[You have gained a new capstone skill: So Fresh, So Clean!]
[Progress towards next level: 0%]
—
The party was gathered around the monster’s messy remains, feeling the satisfaction of a job well done. Fayette had collected the big shiny monster core, the [Doctor] was poking at the murky blood with a stick, and Mireille was collecting the remnants of thread from around the room—they were no longer on fire, but they seemed to have something special about them.
And Marie was examining… what exactly?
Fayette eyed the gemstone that was much shinier and prettier than her monster core with some measure of avarice. “Is that a… second monster core?” She asked, really confused. She had been sure she had secured the jackpot with her quick nab of the core, but then the [Lady] had dug that up.
Marie looked at her. “Not a monster core—no. Something much purer.” She tapped the glowing gem with her finger, letting some red energy leak out of it. “This is no dead monster—it’s a bound one—probably a greater fire elemental or something of the sort.”
Fayette blinked, then hefted up her broom, metal end out. “There’s a live monster inside there?”
The [Lady] blinked at her, then chuckled. “No—, well, yes. But it’s quite secure enough in there. This is what [Mages] like to do, it’s a power source you see.”
The [Maid] was staring at the glimmering gemstone, not blinking. It was… shiny. And hot. Just how much stew could I… She didn’t think before saying the words. “Can I have it? I’ll trade you the monster core.”
Marie froze, then stared at Fayette. Fayette still did not blink. The [Lady] moved the gem, and the [Maid’s] head followed. She sighed. “Well, you can look at it some, I suppose. I’ll need it back for some testing eventually, though. Don’t get too attached.”
Fayette accepted the gem, a beaming smile on her face. It felt so warm against her skin. I bet I could heat up baths and cook food so easily with this. She pocketed it, humming cheerfully, then grabbed hold of Marie’s shoulder, helping her up.
The [Lady] was still injured. Olivia’s pill, whatever it was, had helped, but she still had trouble standing up on her own. “Well then, I think we’re quite done with this place now.”
She helped Marie forward, and the pair approached the others. Mireille was still spooling up the thread for herself.
“Hey, are we good to leave? How are you two?” Fayette asked.
Mireille looked up, grimacing. “I really didn’t get as much as I should’ve from that. Guess the leveling penalty really hurts.”
Fayette nodded at her, still feeling slight guilt. The [Seamstress] had reached level 15, but she seemed to have some specific class advancement she was looking for.
“Don’t worry too much—” Marie said, smiling at her. “—I only advanced my class at level 18. You have time.”
Mireille nodded, then went back to gathering the threads. Fayette turned to Olivia.
The [Doctor] poked the goopy spider blood mess one last time, then turned, motioning the two forward. “Ready for another pill, Marie? Need more salve, Fayette?”
Both shuddered. Fayette had finally eaten one of those pills—to help heal her burnt hands, but she still had salve and bandages on them. They would take a bit more to heal. Marie was turning green in the face.
“I think I’ll wait some more time… I think I’ll be able to walk on my own soon, it’s really not that bad. And, well… I do appreciate that your pills work so well, but can’t you do anything about the taste?”
Olivia smiled ominously at that. “Trust me, it’s better this way. You don’t want to eat the better-tasting ones.”
Fayette was burning with curiosity to know what skill exactly was making those pills, but the [Doctor] was refusing to say. The [Maid] shook her head. “Fine—keep your secrets. Are you done?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s get out of this blasted place.”
And they did.