The first nest to go up in flames was the one furthest from the cathedral. Webs were an excellent combustible and it only took a small flame spell to start a disaster. I had purposefully started multiple fires in key locations to prevent the spiders from simply severing the affected part of the web.
Panic started about thirty seconds after the first flame made itself visible. Workers started to frantically scramble around to save their nest and nearby warriors were drafted to help. A few strategically applied berserk spells started chaos and soon, it was a bloodbath. Or maybe an hemolymph bath in their case.
Alan discreetly vanished from his hiding spot and went to the next building. The process was repeated in the next nest, and in the third. A few brave workers went to fetch help from the central nest and soon after an army of them streamed out. The queen had been smart enough to keep a contingent in reserve in case it was an attack.
I was waiting in the hidden passage with the rest of the party. Everyone had prepared themselves for a tough fight. Darrel was right beside me with his big shield. Gwynn was waiting right behind, barely able to contain her nervous excitement.
When Alan reached the cathedral and entered through the belfry, I started to open the passage. There were no spiders guarding the place, the entire formation was expecting an attack from the front. My familiar flew down from his perch near the ceiling arches and dove down. The advantage of having a spirit familiar was the ability to do stupid maneuvers without the risk of killing him. He struck one of the alpha defenders and unleashed an Arcane Strike spell modified with a chain rune, magical napalm flew and spread like a deadly plague among the defenders.
"The party has started," I opened the door and everyone filed out.
My familiar had miraculously survived his dive, I took the opportunity to cast as many confusion spells around until one of the alpha jumped him. His shadow body was pierced by fangs but I canceled the skill and he vanished in a puff of black smoke. A moment later, he was back on my shoulder.
With chaos unfolding in the cathedral, the nest webs were on fire and several fights had started, we burst into the open right behind the queen.
Darrel triggered his taunt skill and the Taratect Queen immediately focused on him. She attacked but he blocked her fangs with his comically undersized shield. Gwynn was right behind him and punished the attack with a strike of her hammer wreathed in lightning. I fired two beams of sunfire into the reeling monster.
The screech of the queen signaled the real start of the fight.
I rushed forward with Vel while she cast her overgrowth spells. An entire forest sprung out from beneath our feet, guided by the practiced hands of my girlfriend. She directed the spell into rows of fortifications and traps, creating a wall between the queen and the rest of the colony. I cast Earthen Orchestra next to her. It was a mana sink but worth it. The ground shook and rocky formations burst through the stone tiles of the cathedral.
The two of us had just created a fortification between our group and the queen and the rest of the taratects. From my vantage point on the fortification, I cast Major Arcana and pulled a Lava Orb spell from my gauntlet's deck. It appeared in my hand in the form of a semi-translucent playing card with a spell circle on each side.
I pushed mana into the card and the spell circle appeared in front of me. I drew several runic augmentations on it to generate multiple empowered projectiles instead of only one and rained destruction on the spiders like an artillery battery.
The adventuring party was a well oiled team and they worked together to destabilize the queen. Katherine used her shadow movement abilities to appear in blind spots and deliver precise strikes to weak points while Elyssa covered her with well aimed spears of ice. Hamak used his summons to tilt the balance in their favor. His massive bear made for a potent second tank while smaller predators darted in and out to strike at unguarded legs.
My two mind constructs were again on tactical and healing duty while I focused on defending the barricade. I used my thread skills to slowly build a literal web of deadly traps. Cutting wires were strung across gaps and more than one taratect lost a leg to them. Capture thread kept the smaller ones in place long enough for me to skewer them with spikes of earth and ice.
The main problems were the alphas. Five of them. The heavy defenses and barrage of spells slowed them down considerably but they were still big threats. It would be a test of endurance.
Part of the preparations had been making an inventory of potions. I had pulled out all the cases we had salvaged from the village and I had concentrated them into higher grade versions while in the underground chamber. Elyssa had also contributed a few potions to my stash.
One of the alphas charged forward and I answered with empowered blades made from a concentrated Solar Symphony spell infused with Void. The two arcs of purple fire surged forward in a cross formation, turning several smaller spiders that were in the way into ash instantly. The alpha braced itself and took the spell head on. I had to admit, it was ballsy. His front legs were severed by the spell wrapping itself around him. The explosion that followed wiped out several more spiders that had been advancing under him.
From my vantage point on the last wall of thorns, I defiantly looked at him and flipped him the bird. He retreated to lick his wounds and I continued my unending artillery barrage while Vel constantly shifted the indoor forest into a deadly maze.
Stolen story; please report.
Behind us the fight with the queen had progressed quite well. She was down two legs with three more wounded and her right side looked to be in bad shape.
"Holding the line?" Shouted Elyssa.
"Nothing will get past," I answered. "Need help?"
"We have it handled. She is going down!"
I nodded.
The front line continued to be an uneasy stalemate for a few more minutes. I had downed a few mana potions already and my reserves were holding steady at sixty percent. Vel was starting to flag a bit due to her comparatively smaller mana reserves. Then the alpha started to grow a brain.
Two of them advanced at once, from different directions.
"Annoying," I grumbled.
I send Alan, in his spider form, into the mess of branches. Unlike the taratects, he was small enough to fit between the branches. I used him to lay down a large amount of runic mines. They would slow down the tides of smaller spiders while I took care of the two big problems.
The left alpha charged forward and I met him head on with an empowered Song of Thunder, focused as a single bolt, forked in two by runic metamagic. The clap of thunder shook the cathedral walls and illuminated the entire interior. The left side of the charging alpha had been completely scorched and severely injured his legs. He tumbled forward to the ground.
The other alpha received a staggered barrage of sunfire and moonfire beams from my two celestial spells. Two of each. The last pierced all the way through his body. The corpse fell to the ground and the remaining three alpha started to hesitate.
I felt it when the queen died. A small pulse of mana, likely gone unnoticed by everyone else, was released from her corpse and all the other taratects froze in place. Behind me, her battered and lifeless corpse fell to the ground.
A few beats of quiet happened before the chaos resumed. Most of the workers had already fled but the few that had remained chose that time to make themselves scarce. With the queen dead, the colony was likely to scatter. A few smaller nests might form but nothing like what had been in the cathedral.
However, the fight was not over. Despite the death of their queen, the warriors would fight until the bitter end. The tide surged once more and I resumed bombardment. With less concerns over conserving mana, I raised the frequency. Elyssa joined me on the small platform and added her own spells to the deluge.
It took almost twice as long as the fight itself to take care of all the stragglers and the three remaining alphas. By the end, my mana reserves were below twenty percent and everyone looked exhausted but not a single spider remained in the cathedral.
I helped with the harvest of the Queen's corpse alongside Vel. Then, our group then retreated back to the tunnels and the underground chamber to rest and recuperate before we left the temple for good.
----------------------------------------
> Your group has defeated [Mature Taratect Queen (Level 218, Rank 6)]
> Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain increased by 100% for defeating a monster above your rank
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting an elite monster
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a dangerous encounter
> Essence Absorption collected 18 ES
>
> Your group has defeated [Alpha Taratect Warrior (Level 180-190, Rank 6)] x 5
> Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain increased by 100% for defeating a monster above your rank
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting an alpha
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a dangerous encounter
> Essence Absorption collected 90 ES
>
> Your group has defeated [Mature Taratect Warrior (Level 120-145, Rank 5)] x 12
> Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a horde
> Essence Absorption collected 180 ES
> Essence cap of 1000 reached, 136 ES overflow
>
> Your group has defeated [Mature Taratect Warrior (Level 80-95, Rank 4)] x 41
> Experience gain reduced by 70% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain reduced by 20% for defeating lower ranked monsters
> Experience gain increased by 100% for fighting a horde
> Essence Absorption collected 451 ES (-1ES/kill penalty)
> Essence cap of 1000 reached, 451 ES overflow
>
> Reached Level 140 (Rank 5, +10 levels)
> Gained: 132 ES (Essence cap of 1000 reached, 132 ES overflow)
The group was lounging about in the cushions of the rest area.
"That was intense," I said.
"First raid?" Elyssa asked.
"First adventure," I admitted, "after passing by Asril, we were thinking of going to the guild to register."
"Well, you have some good sense about you," she said, "we can put in a good word for you when we get there. Well, you will have to meet with the guild master first. They are usually the ones in charge of recording all … accidents."
"Does this happen often?" I asked.
"No, most adventurers end up dead when they find a cursed artifact or ancient ritual," she said with a somber tone, "but it happens often enough that the guild knows how to handle it by now."
"How do you know all that?"
"I used to be a clerk at one of the guild offices in Windmire, the city that's above this part of the dungeon. I wanted a bit more adventure so I saved up and switched my classes. Took a while to find a good party but I wouldn't trade these guys for anyone else."
"That's good to know, thanks."
"Heh, us adventurers have to stick together," Gwynn said, "we're all an odd bunch, bit strange. In your case, it's just a bit more visible."
"Thank you for agreeing to come with us to Asril," Vel said.
"We aren't in a hurry," Darrel said.
He seemed to have become a lot more comfortable with us, and me in particular, after we fought the queen.
"Alright. Let's pack up people," he continued, "we have a village to visit and a quest to finish."
The rest of the group cheered and I found myself smiling.