Chapter Fourteen: Phase Shift
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“Activate ability: x-p transmogrifier.” Bly muttered. He darted ahead with speed, the alteration magic already propelling him towards the other side of the lair in rapid time, as he added, “Execute mana replenishment—”
Ushering himself forward at doubled speed, one of the giant wolf spiders turned and lashed out at him. He fell, tucking just beneath its massive leg, which came crashing down behind him. Quicker still, he propped himself back up into a full sprint towards the edge of the lair.
Xander was out of sight, already falling into the darkness below. There was no time to think, only to act. In that instance, only a kernel of idea came to mind, a single spell combination that might just save his life. There was no guarantee it would work, but it was all he had. He just hoped the others would be able to provide cover, despite how quick everything had happened.
But as if acutely aware of the time-restrained situation, a cascade of fire scorched a path in front of Bly as he ran, blistering across the other spider’s face in front of him, which was followed up by a burst of purple energy.
“Trelen, go!” Was all Bly could hear of Bredic’s voice amidst the chaos, but that was enough.
Thanks. Bly thought with the barest acknowledgement, before closing in on his target.
Thrusting his hand outward, he muttered, “By the roots of the ancients, I call forth the binds of the earth. Grasp and let halt, confine and take hold. Ensnare.” A billowing sprawl of brown-green energy sprung from his hands and splayed across the stonework in front him. It was the only piece of terrain altering magic he had at his disposal, meant to slow and halt oncoming enemies. Though it had fallen by the wayside in recent months, replaced with purely damaging spells, right now? He was going to squeeze it for all its worth.
As the spell set and sustained, Byl leapt forward cross the ground, slowed immediately by the clutching energies of the newly affected terrain. However, the spell stopped his momentum completely, and as he fell towards the edge of the lair, his upper body slipped over. But just as he'd hoped, the ensnare anchored the lower portion of his body in place, which allowed him to maintain full use of his hands. Exactly what he needed.
Blychert squinted.
Xander was right there, slipping into shadow, he needed to act now. There was no point worrying about experience loses at a time like this, all that mattered was sustaining enough mana to ensure survival. And so, reaching out, Bly gladly said, “Input spell override, execute freezing chain.”
The tendril of ice shot straight from his hand and blistered through the darkness, bypassing any and all verbal requirements entirely.
Come on. come on! Please let this work. Was the only thought racing in Blychert's mind. Forget the spiders behind him for a moment, he’d only ever used this spell to grapple other monsters before, and he knew that by attempting to do so with Xander, it would undoubtedly cause him harm. But what other choice was there?
The chain hurdled down through the shadows, reaching its target in an instant, it began wrapping hastily around Xander’s freefalling body. But as it did, Blychert remembered what he trying to do. He quickly released his own hold over the spell and commanded the other end downward directly into the ensnared terrain beneath him so that it was anchored on one side. Tension pulled the chain taut, snapping it tight, but it was holding. And more importantly, Xander was no longer falling.
Suddenly, the chittering of spiders filled the air, but as Trelen glanced up and over his shoulder, making ready to defend himself, he saw the yellow aura of Vienta's own defensive magic shielding him. Bredic’s flames followed suite, which created a wall of fire in front of the barrier. As the spiders reeled, bursts of purple swirled around them, causing them to reroute towards the other side of the chamber. It was a moment. But it was that gave Bly the exact chance he needed to focus on getting Xander back into the fight.
But unsurprisingly, by the time Bly looked back down to the end of his chain, Xander was already halfway back up himself. And before long, he was reaching his hands up onto the edge of the stonework.
Panting heavily, his face flush, Xander looked at Bly with an expression bordering on fear and frustration, “…Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet.” Bly grunted, helping Xander back up and over the edge, and both of them glanced back to where the rest of their party was fighting for its life trying to keep the spiders off of them.
Bly quickly turned and channeled the mana from his active ensnare spell, dropping it all at once so that they could move again. As he did, Xander skittered across to where his sword was lying. He scooped it up into his hand and began his assault at once.
“System command: disengage all abilities.” Bly murmured under his breath, before chasing after the party leader himself.
Rage seemed to pour from Xander’s blade now, each strike laying into their target with ferocity and force. Each cut that he made flashed in brilliant blue-green, and he was even successful in severing one of the spider’s forelegs.
As it scrambled, Bly joined the others in assaulting it full-on with everything they could. Xander seemed to expend everything he had too, just to keep them at bay, taking attack after attack on the chin but locking them into his pull. Drops of blood splattered to the floor as Xander danced around them, but always in his seven-strike pattern. And yet it was through his sustained effort that allowed Bly and the others to focus on damage fully.
“It’s down!” Xander shouted, the tides of the battle turning in their favor like that, as one of the spiders shriveled and curled into a dying mass across the stone, “Everything we’ve got now! Don't hold back!”
The last of the two wolf spiders pounced, gashing Xander across the face. But in turn, his sword flared and streaked through the air in equal effort. It cut the creature deeply, but the wolf spider lashed out with its maw in retaliation.
“Swift shield—” Bly cast, rushing up and immediately negating the spider’s gnashing teeth. However, as the defensive spell dissipated, the spider lifted its other foreleg and hit him straight on, sending Bly flying across the floor.
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Tumbling across the stone, Bly recognized the tremors beneath him. In a spit-second, the terrain at the spider’s feet was shifting, causing the ground to buckle. The stone where the spider stood dropped to a lower elevation, as the ground bottomed out below it, and without needing any extra motivation, Xander used the change in height to leap up onto the spider’s thorax.
His blade twisted through its hairy midsection, carving downwards as his seventh strike cleaved it cleanly. The spider screeched, dark ichor spraying everywhere, as it desperately tried to get away, but to no avail. Turning, Xander shouted, “Now!”
A volley of fire and arrows hit their mark. Then, a burst of terrain magic lifted over the wolf spider as it attempted to regain its own footing, slamming it back down into the ground and holding it in place. From the ground, Blychert cast as many icicles as he was capable of. His hasten spell had long since fallen away, but he focused on speed in his spellcasting as much as he could. With one final flourish of his sword, a dazzling light flashed across the chamber, and Xander pushed his sword in for the kill. It puncutred the top of the wolf spider's head, pressing straight through its face until Xander’s entire elbow was inside of it. The creature writhed, twitching and flailing, throwing Xander from its body, before curling up like the other had before it, falling still.
Bly's heart was pounding in his chest, his ears ringing from the sheer sound of their effort. But it was over.
The spiders were dead?
They were really dead.
A deafening silence filled the air thereafter, the echo of their battle slowly fading away. But despite it all, the sounds of laughter suddenly betrayed that silence entirely. In his weary state of mind, Bly looked across to where Vineta and Bredic were standing, their forms jumping up and down with glee, despite their usual banter. Lisel shot a smile in Bly’s direction, and he could only nod back in kind before he simply laid down flat on the ground.
What a day. He thought, wondering if Alyse, let alone mister Ralf would even believe him when he told her what had happened.
But a relieved grin washed over him nonetheless, and he too couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. Somehow, they’d managed it. They were all still alive, and they’d defeated the boss on the second-floor of the dungeon. Glancing over to the center of the chamber, Bly watched everyone hugging and exchanging words of encouragement, letting the raw emotions flow. It was smiles all around, and they were well-deserved. Xander was covered in blood and spider guts, but then Bly supposed that Bold Arrow's vainglorious party leader had gotten what he wanted in the end.
Had this been his plan the whole time? Did he somehow know that they would be able to handle this? If so, he was a far better party leader than Bly had been giving him credit for the last few days. Maybe he owed Xander an apology.
“So, did it drop anything or what?” Bredic asked all of a sudden, “I swear, it better have something good…”
Blychert perked his head up and looked across to where Xander was standing. He didn’t know what the protocols were for killing a boss, but he did understand that there was supposed to be a treasure drop of some kind. It was one of the incentives of killing a boss, after all.
“Keep your eyes open.” Xander said plainly, looking around the chamber. Bly could've sworn for a second that he looked almost worried about something. Whatever it was, he turned, and added, “I don't think we should get too comfortable just yet. V, can you divine the area again?”
Bly suddenly noticed Lisel walking towards him, and so he shifted his bodyweight to look at her fully, tuning out the others for a moment. Let them deal with the treasure. As far as he cared, they'd earned it, and he was too tired to think about energy crystals.
“Are you okay?” Lisel asked, reaching a hand down to help him up.
But before he could answer, Blychert’s sage terminal blipped several times quickly, and a series of familiar readings displayed. Sure enough, and right on schedule, the experience gains and the adjustments in his exploit appeared.
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[SAGE ---> Raven System Notification]
[Experience gained: +100 xp]
[Experience total: 9,352 xp]
[Cumulative total: 16,430 xp]
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“One-hundred…?” Bly thought confusedly, furrowing his brow at what he was seeing.
They’d only gotten one-hundred points worth of experience for that fight? It was the same amount they’d gotten for the rock thrasher. That couldn’t be right? Bosses were supposed to be serious experience gains. And while that might not be the case in a D-rated dungeon, it had to be more than the usual run of spawns.
There had to be a mistake. Didn’t there? Was that even possible?
Unless… Bly thought, his face washing of color, and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand tall all of a sudden. He looked up from his sage terminal quickly, and saw the same confused look on the faces of his companions as they too studied their own sage terminals. His eyes darted across to Xander, who didn’t seem nearly as concerned about the experience discrepancy. But then, he wasn’t even looking at his sage terminal. He was looking at the ceiling.
In fact, his expression was completely vacant of any emotion at all, and his hand was now grasped tightly around his longsword.
Bly didn't understand, but at that moment his sage terminal blipped once more.
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[SAGE ---> System Alert]
--- Lair phase has ended. Lair phase shift in progress. Standby. ---
> Lair phase [1] removed.
> Lair phase [2] added.
> Commencing [Lair Boss] protocols.
> Execute.
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The moment the sage terminal finished its messaging, a blood-curdling chitter resounded throughout the chamber; deep, resonant, terrifying.
Bly’s gaze immediately darted up to where Xander was looking now, towards the far blackened ceiling above. That was where something much, much larger than the two creatures they’d just slain was beginning to crawl out of the black smog. It reached through the shadows like some twisted nightmare. A long, pale leg unfurled across the walls, and then the other ones, as a dozen dark orbs lining a monstrous face slowly began to reflect the blue flames of the lair beneath it.
It was another spider. No—not just another spider. It was the biggest monster Bly had ever laid eyes on! And it was coming—however slowly—straight towards them.
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> New spawn type [Phantom Spider] detected.
> New threat level [Floor Boss] detected.
> [Glemberfang, the Light Devourer] set to active; hostile.
> Ranking Multiplier set to [B].
> Spawn Zone Multiplier set to [D].
> Abandon parameters [disabled].
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As the sage terminal concluded its alert, there on the far side of the chamber, the door—their only means of escape—began to close. The blue flames flickered from the draft, casting a shadow across the floor, before coming still once more.
“Oh fuck—” Bredic gasped sheepishly, and he began sprinting towards the door. He slammed into it just as it closed, and tried to pull it back open, before resorting to simply hitting it with his fists. But it wouldn't budge, “Fuck. Fuck—fuck!”
“Wha… what?” Vineta was visibly trembling, her eyes widening with abject horror. She tried to follow Bredic, but didn’t seem able to move a muscle.
“Don’t—I should have…” Xander tried to say, but his voice fell to nothing.
“Trelen?” Lisel murmured, but he couldn’t speak either.
They weren’t it. Those spiders weren’t the boss! But how?! Bly’s mind raced. This was nothing like he’d read about, nothing like he'd ever seen before. This massive, pale-white spider was coming towards them, and he doubted the others had any experience like this either. They couldn’t fight this thing! He couldn’t even bring himself to stand up. But what else could they do now?
This was the boss on this floor. The real boss. And now, as it descended to kill them, they were trapped inside its lair like helpless flies in a perfectly laid web.
Trapped.
And all but surely dead.