Peering into the last boss room he took it all in. A huge circular room that rose up to a massive glowing crystal many hundreds of meters up. Stone columns circled around the room leaving a space of maybe five meters between them and the actual wall. Webs crisscrossed between pillars, to the floor, and ceiling. But mostly a few feet off the ground within that pillar circle was a web that spanned the entire room. It was a highly complex design that actually made Dren think of runes. It also meant that to get to the spider, currently in the middle slowly adding threads to the web. He would need to cross over that web and he highly doubted that any level of stealth. Let alone his low-level one, would let him get to it unnoticed. After a bit of debate, he glanced at one of the countless ever-burning torches that were part of the dungeon. He had pulled one from a sconce once just to see if he could. Which he could. Now eying the web, he wondered. Did it burn?

The Fate Weaver Aranea was busy with her endless task of perfecting her grand web. Slowly and carefully she added one thread so thin it was almost invisible. Placing it perfectly with the millions of others weaving her web. Her pouty lips curled up into a smile, letting the tip of the mandibles retracted into that mouth just poke out. With a sigh of pure pleasure, she finished adding the thread and admired her work.

Then a strange rhythmic wooshing sound interrupted her. Her head snapped around, turning almost a full one eighty to look towards the entrance to her nest. A torch sailed through the air, flipping end over end. The ever-burning flames made a wooshing sound as it rotated. All sixteen eyes widened in horror. Even as her eight limbs scuttled across the web, their tiny sharp points somehow managing to balance on hair thin threads. She knew it was too late. Landing on her web there was a whoomp sound as her entire masterpiece. Her life's work and sole reason for existing went up in a massive flash of flames. She clattered to the ground, her stiletto leg tips chipping stone as her bulk hit. For a moment she just stared dumbfounded as the light spots blinding her faded. Barely even any ash remained of her masterpiece.

The sound that came from her throat was one of pure unadulterated rage. Her shriek reverberated thru the room with a physical presence as she turned both faces to the sky. When her gaze lowered again. All sixteen eyes focused on who she knew in her heart of hearts had destroyed her masterpiece. A barrage of tiny stone knives were flung at her. With a shriek, she swatted at them with her humanoid arms as she charged forward. Only to stagger back as all of the projectiles exploded. Individually they weren’t much, but so many at once had been enough to stagger her humanoid torso back. Unfortunately for the invader in her lair, her spider head was still tracking him.

Out lashed one of the two larger legs in the front intent on spearing him. But the pesky invader twisted out of the way. The leg only caught and tearing a rip in the trailing cloak. Mouth snapping the spider head lunged for them. But again the invader twisted away at the last second. One of the spider's eight eyes exploded in pain as a dagger found it. Stamping all eight legs in an attempt to impale the pesky thing the Aranea shrieked again.

Ducking under the bulk of the giant spider’s body Dren was intent on stabbing a few of the critical spots glowing on the monster's underbelly. He barely got his dagger to the first one before the entire thing simply slammed their exoskeleton-protected body down on top of him. He was smashed into the ground with a blow that dealt well over a hundred damage. Had they continued smashing him as such, he might not have been able to get free. But his dagger was buried in their stomach. Ichor dripped from around the blade as the Aranea scuttled away from him. Dren rolled over angry that his dagger was currently running away from him.

Short sword in one hand and an explosive dagger in the other he rushed after them cursing them for being a thief. Annoyingly the creature moved to one of the pillars and simply started walking backwards up it. Overhead the humanoid torso danged distractingly. It might have caused him to hesitate as gravity was having interesting effects on the nude torso. But any hormonal desires were ruined by the massive set of black mandibles sticking out of the once pretty woman's face. Viscous liquid was dripping from them and drooping down their face. It had splattered on their chest and was currently dripping down to sizzle on the stone.

“Fuck you ugly hag. Give me back my dagger!” Dren chucked the explosive dagger in his hand. It struck the back of the spider portion as the humanoid figure swayed to the side as if it had no bones. Despite it detonating it seemed to do little to that armored back. Righting itself the torso raised both hands and then slashed them down. With his battle focus active he could see the thin almost invisible threads stretching from each finger. They seemed to slowly and gently whip thru the air. Far too light to move quickly. Yet, Dren got a bad feeling and dived to the size. Where he had just been standing ten thin slashes appeared cut surprisingly deep into the stone.

“I said come down here and fight me like a man!” Dren roared but in response, he only got another of those odd slashes. Sprinting away he moved to the other side of the room. Intending to hide behind the pillars to make them come down. Only the spider was faster than even him. Scuttling around the inside of the pillars they circled the room to get ahead of him. Hand waving as a barrage of those thin strands of web whipped at him. Dren raised his arm to block and yelped as the webs cut deep slashes into his arms. Blood dripped from them as he skidded to a stop and quickly glanced around.

Above him, the woman swayed and actually laughed a lispy laugh. Dren gave her the finger with his free hand. “I’m Glad I burned your stupid web.” He spat the insult at her then had to dive to the side as the spider leaping from the pillar high above attempted to crush him with her bulk. She missed, but the impact did bounce her stomach off the ground. His dagger must have done more damage as she staggered around howling. Flicking her hands down he saw the webs from her finger lash down under her. A moment later his dagger was wrenched free and sent flying. For a moment Dren was excited. That had worked out in his favor.

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Or so he thought. Until he watched his dagger go clattering down. Outside the boss room. The spider’s humanoid head turned to him and snickered.

“You bitch. You did that on purpose.” Dren snarled. Now it was his turn to make an irrational action. Charging right in even as he drew and flung a throwing dagger. With impossibly fast steps the monster sidestepped the projectile. The dagger going right past her to detonate against a pillar. As he charged in she swayed her arms and those fine webs left thin cuts across his body. Several crossed his face leaving thin bleeding cuts in a diagonal. Yet, Dren shrugged it off. The threads were sharp but didn’t cut deeply. They were more painful than damaging. At least for him with his current sixty-six in toughness. Other than his mask, his clothes didn’t fare very well though. Cut slicing right thru the thick cloth armor.

The Aranea noticed too late that her attacks weren’t deterring her enemy. Already backpedaling towards another pillar but Dren kicked off with enough power to close the gap at the last instant. Ducking the stab of another of their primary forelegs he made it unscathed. Though his cloak took another rip in the process. Grabbing onto that leg even as they started climbing he slashed wildly at the spider's head. It moved its foreleg away trying to keep him out of range while its other legs struggled to carry both their combined weight up the pillar. Dren swung and swayed so he could bring his body close enough to kick the spider. The toes of his soft soled boots connected with a mandible. It hit on the inside and the force of the kick knocked it outwards so much so it seemed to snap. The thing jutted awkwardly from its mouth. While the one on the other side of its mouth opened and closed wildly. The broken one only twitched as ichor leaked from it.

Above him, the humanoid head shrieked in agony and the entire bulk of the spider dropped from the pillar. It crashed down. Luckily for the spider, Dren was there to break its fall. All the air was blasted out from his chest as he took another chunk of blunt force trauma. The thing could have pinned him down and crushed him again. But it seemed in too much agony to think. Or maybe it wasn’t as smart as he gave it credit for. It scrambled to its feet and impaled Dren several times as its feet scurried to carry it away. The whole thing spun around while wailing. Rolling over Dren spat out a mouth of blood and bile only to remember he was wearing a mask. Yet somehow the spit still hit the ground. A question for another time.

Pushing himself to his hands and knees he kicked off towards the spider. Jumping on one of its back legs he wrapped both legs around it and clung to it as he started slashing wildly with his short sword at one of the joints. Lifting that leg the spider slammed the leg point first into the stone below trying to knock him free. Dren continued to hold on for dear life. When his short sword wasn’t enough he bit down on the leg as tightly as he could before letting go with his empty hand. Another explosive dagger in hand he slammed it into the weakened joint. The explosion blasted the leg off and Dren was flung away. He rolled around hoping to regain his footing before the monster recovered from the pain.

But it hadn’t hesitated this time. It bowled him over and jammed more of its stiletto legs into him as it trampled him. Dren flexed the stiff fingers in his left hand. It hurt, but at this point, a single explosive dagger wasn’t enough to ruin his hand. Now if he had a fist full, well that would still probably do it. Pointing his short sword at the spider he started to mock it then blanched. The sword was slightly bent again, the metal showing heavy fatigue. With a growl, he threw it at the charging spider. It flipped end over end and even bent as it was he managed to impale her in her generous chest. With a shriek she batted it down, ripping the weapon free with her humanoid hand. Dren just accepted it as one more bleeding wound before diving away from the charge at the last second. Something wrapped around his leg and he slammed face first into the ground as his feet were pulled out from him. Spitting out blood as he was dragged back with increasing speed. He glanced over his shoulder. The thing was using both its spider forelegs and its humanoid hand to reel in a mass of webbing wrapped around his left leg. Blood dripped from where the webbing cut into his flesh having turned that part of his pants to shreds.

With one final yank, they jerked him towards them with a hungry look in all their remaining eyes. Dren flipped over on his back mid air and grinned. Tensing up his core muscles he snapped his upper body forward as he brought both arms up over his head. Sailing towards the monster he saw the confusion in its face right before he stabbed the leg he had managed to chop off right into their chest. The leg pushed by his full might combined with his momentum pierced right thru her chest and more importantly, the glowing spot marking her heart. Dren was left hanging as the torso slumped. Letting out a breath of victory he started to cheer before he was sent flying away. The huge spider's body flailed away even as the humanoid torso flopped around limply on top.

Smashing into a pillar he slid down only a bit before being yanked forward to smash into the ground. The spider dragged him as it started fleeing across the room to one of the pillars. With a leap, it started up the pillar. Still leashed by the webbing around one leg he was bashed into the pillar before being dragged upside down, higher into the room. Ichor rained down on him but the thing just kept climbing. Its speed slowed and Dren reached up attempting to peel the webbing from around his ankle. But only succeeded in shredding his fingers. Once at the very ceiling of the room, the spider spun around. The humanoid torso dangling in a way that would almost have been comical if Dren wasn’t still struggling to get free.

Dren looked up into the spider's mangled face. Its eyes looked at him and despite its monstrous face, he swore there was pure hatred in it. Only then did Dren look down to see just how high up he was. A gush of ichor splattered on him as the mouth of the spider moved. Its mangled broken mandible making things odd. But he swore it was… laughing. Then a moment later the light seemed to go out of its eyes. Dren heard the chime of his system going off but that wasn’t his concern right now. What he was concerned with, was the bulky body of the spider falling after him as they both dropped.