We crouched there in the dark just outside the passageway, hoping the giant camel spider that was tearing apart the kobolds wouldn’t notice us. The monster was having little trouble with its kobold opponents, its legs were sharp as spears and anything the jaws got ahold of was crushed and impaled. I also noticed that the fangs seemed to secrete some kind of acid, the monster partially digesting its prey as it feasted.
Half the kobold warriors were down and only a few had managed to land a blow. Despite being improvised weapons, the mining picks proved surprisingly useful when they did land a hit. The picks were able to crunch through the leathery carapace of the monster, but so far, all they’d managed to do was injure one of the front legs.
The kobold leaders continued to stay back, directing their dwindling number of troops. I had hoped that the kobolds would soften the monster up, leaving it vulnerable to our follow up attack, but they were dying too quickly. We’d need some extra help with this one.
“I’m going to summon some backup, that thing is more powerful than I thought,” I told the group as I reached in my pocket for the correct figurines. First off, I summoned the two normal legionnaires and their elite leader. The normal legionnaires had chainmail armor, a short sword, and a javelin. Their veteran leader had the same armor, but his sword gleamed with some minor enchantment. Instead of a normal javelin, the sharp tip of his weapon crackled with electrical energy.
It was the first time I’d seen a veteran minion with two magic items. I supposed it was a good way for the system to bump up the rating without just making the creature more powerful. Too bad all their gear disappeared when they were unsummoned.
Three additional minions might not be enough for this fight, so I also called out the elite troll. Just like his figurine depicted, the troll was equipped with a trident and net, and wore a leather harness that completed the gladiator look. With the extra minions combined with my normal summons, we should be good. Several of them were veterans which really bumped their power.
If things really went south, I still had Verdigrim and my final resort, the MESS key. The great thing about the MESS was that it continued to scale up with my tier and rank. Verdigrim was stuck at tier one, rank two, but he was a veteran, which should let him stand against something like the camel spider boss for a bit.
“Just the kobold leaders left, we should get started,” Marie said.
“Let’s move up, Elliot, you start us off with your fireball, then I’ll send my minions in,” I offered. Marie was in charge, but she seemed fine with me handling the fight when this many moving pieces were involved.
“You may see other creatures appear next to the boss, don’t attack them, it’s me using my illusion powers. As long as the monster thinks they’re real, the creature images will do some damage,” Marie advised. I hadn’t seen her use that ability yet and was curious how it worked.
We moved forward, Elliot telling us we were in range right about the time the last kobold fell. The leaders hadn’t done much better than their swarm of minions, but the spider was favoring one of its front legs that was leaking a nasty looking yellow goop that must have been what passed for its blood.
Melvin sent me a mental prompt that he was ready to attack the boss once it stopped moving around so much. If he dropped and missed the creature, it’d be hard for him to reach it with his rather slow movement speed. At my side, Elliot began to charge his fireball. This time, he was careful not to dump all his mana into it.
“As soon as Elliot fires, we go,” I told the summoned creatures.
The camel spider boss chomped down on the last kobold leader who had given up on fighting the thing and was trying to run away. A final shriek and the camel spider busied itself with devouring all the fresh meat that was lying around. The fireball streaking toward it caught the monster’s attention, and it moved fast enough to dodge a direct hit.
Flames exploded on the ground right next to the boss, burning the legs and body on its left side. Spotting the summoned creatures charging toward it, the spider reacted with aggression, hissing and charging forward. I aimed my magic missile pistol and squeezed off a round just as a new pair of kobold leaders appeared in front of our foe. The monster put on the brakes, sliding to a stop and lashing out with its legs. One leg smashed through the first kobold, causing it to disappear in a puff of mana vapor.
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It was Marie’s spell, and with one kobold proven to be an illusion, the monster must have passed his disbelief check on the second. The second kobold image disappeared without being hit by the spider at all.
The spider’s small delay to deal with Marie’s spell was all that Melvin needed to make his move. My little gelatinous cube friend dropped from the ceiling, but his aim was thrown a bit off as the spider resumed its charge toward my summoned minions.
Melvin landed on the back left leg of the boss, latching on, and beginning to devour the limb as he scrunched his way up the leg, moving ever closer to the juicy abdomen of the creature. Stumbling in pain, the boss turned to see Melvin firmly attached. I don’t know if it was instinct, or maybe the creature was more intelligent than I gave it credit for, but it dealt with Melvin quickly.
The monster turned and bit the leg Melvin was feasting on. With a sickening snap, the limb was severed, and Melvin collapsed with it to the ground. Grasping its severed limb in its jaws, the spider tossed Melvin and the leg into one of the forges. The monster’s delay in dealing with Melvin allowed my team to close in, and the first Grulnok began to hammer at one of the spider’s legs with his axe and mace.
Reacting quickly, the monster lashed out with the injured leg, hurling Grulnok back, but not doing enough damage to kill him. The Grulnok duplicate, along with Lillia and Rupert, reached it next, swinging and stabbing at the creature for all they were worth. My three legionnaires moved to the right, seeking to divide the monster’s attention while the troll veteran headed to the left.
My troops were of a much higher caliber than the kobolds, but the camel spider boss was proving that it might be too much for them. Rupert went down as a leg slashed through him, but Lillia was able to get a thrust of her spear into the deadly limb, her weapon barely sinking in before the spider pulled back. It bit the duplicate Grulnok and with the additional damage my duplicates took, one bite was enough to end it.
On the monsters’ left side, the legionnaires were having better luck. Their elite leader’s sword sliced through one leg like it was made of butter, the enchantment on the weapon was really paying dividends in this fight. In response the monster backed away, allowing the troll to trip up one of its legs with his weighted net while leaping in to stab its abdomen with his trident. Lillia tried to get another hit in, but the monster bit her before the blow could land.
Hissing in pain and frustration at prey that disappeared before it could feast, the monster began to shake. It was like it had suddenly been hit with a huge shot of adrenaline, and its speed increased to almost blinding levels. One after another, the two regular legionnaires fell prey to the monster’s bite. A swipe of the front legs a second later forced back the other minions, opening up a path for the monster to attack us directly.
Immediately, I summoned Verdigrim, positioning him just outside the reach of the monster’s legs. Noticeably smaller than the dungeon boss version, my Verdigrim topped out at around ten feet tall. Despite its not quite as impressive size, the summoned version had the same repertoire of attacks that the dungeon creature had.
Verdigrim thrust his root-like arms into the ground in front of him, and almost instantly, the limbs appeared underneath the camel spider boss. The sharp roots impaled the boss and pushed it up and off balance. Bloodied, battered, and in pain, the monster charged at Verdigrim, who was too slow to retract his arms from the ground. Biting the corrupted treant right in the chest, the boss’ attack proved to be a poor choice as the Corrupted Sap ability activated.
High pressure sap sprayed into the monster spider’s face and began to immediately dissolve the boss’ face. The sap attack only lasted for a couple of seconds, as the dungeon boss retaliated with a pair of leg swipes, cutting deep into my minion, and causing another spray of sap. The boss dodged the spray this time, and poor Verdigrim was done for. A second swipe of the legs left my corrupted treant a whisp of mana vapor.
The spider was carving through my minions, but my team wasn’t quite done with it yet. We’d been helping out the whole time as well, and I fired off my last magic missile at the things head. As I’d hoped, Verdigrim’s sap had weakened the monster’s head and my magic missile punched deep into it. Elliot hadn’t been idle either, and he’d hurled at least three small bursts of flame that seemed to stick to the monster’s body for a second or two, burning deep before dissipating.
While the monster finished off the troll veteran, my injured Grulnok returned to the fight, charging forward and slamming both his axe and mace into the monster’s face as it bit down on the troll. My veteran legionnaire also sliced through another leg, causing the monster to collapse. The legionnaire and Grulnok went to town on the downed monster, and it finally succumbed to all the damage it had taken.
Colors and lights flashed before my eyes and when they stopped, I was no longer in the cavern with a dead camel spider boss. I was back at the bottom of the Calico Mine Ride, and the rest of the party was with me. Calvin and the security team looked at us from the barricade, his eyes going wide as he shouted to his men.
“Open fire you fools, before it’s too late!”