by Nikita Thorn
Across the room, and racing toward him, was one skeleton at full health. It was complete chaos as Yamura tossed out traps at the giant skeleton, which only trapped one of its legs at a time. The boss was swinging its weapon around at Kentaro and the ryoushi.
Seiki struck the skeleton again, without energy, as he was saving it up for later. Mairin was again out of Dash, and the white fox turned to bite the smaller skeleton pursuing her, collapsing it.
Seiki’s energy had recharged just enough now. He threw himself forward into a Slide, sending his sword outward in Sweeping Blade as he aimed at all three skeletons in his trajectory. It hit them all, reducing two to zero health, and leaving the last one in a pile on the ground.
“I’ll take care of these two,” said Ippei as he waited to cut their strings.
The giant skeleton lurched backward, its large rusty cutlass cutting down at Ippei. Seiki ran in and Parried, and let out a gasp as his energy reduced to zero and the impact vibrated down both his arms. This would have been a fatal attack.
One of the other skeletons closed in, and Seiki winced as he chose not to Parry. Without energy, it was most likely his Hikari would fly out of his hand, and although elites dealt double damage, it would perhaps be better to take this one than to lose his sword.
Hurling himself out of the way as fast as he could without losing his balance, he managed to avoid a direct blow. Still, his whole left side went numb as the skeleton’s bony arm glanced off his shoulder in its attack. Ippei had also been forced to retreat, and the two piles of bones from the previously dead skeletons were now lifting off the ground, the skulls dangling in midair as the strings slowly pulled them up.
Seiki did not have energy to cut them. Thankfully, with Dash recharged, the white fox shot through, dropping both skulls back into their piles.
Animated Corpse slain. 40 XP gained.
Animated Corpse slain. 40 XP gained.
The giant skeleton had struck down again, and the kitsune yelped as she was tossed backward. Heal sparks surrounded her before she hit the floor, saving her from death in time.
Now they had one giant skeleton and two smaller minions to deal with, one of which was already close to death. Seiki saw Yamura looking at it and decided to leave it to the ryoushi. Ippei was trying to tank the giant skeleton, but it seemed to be randomly targeting people, and everyone was frantically running around to avoid its rusty blade.
Seiki went after the full health Animated Corpse and hit it repeatedly with normal moves. From behind, someone had managed to kill the other one.
Animated Corpse slain. 40 XP gained.
Seiki had been keeping track of what his friends were up to, and he knew this meant Yamura was now free. Ippei had managed to get the giant skeleton’s attention, and was at half health from its focused attacks. “Yamura, take this one?” said Seiki.
“Sure!” the ryoushi said.
Seiki ran to help the samurai with his giant enemy.
Vengeful Animated Corpse [Level 10 Elite]. HP 451/510.
Ippei was bleeding from his temple and left arm. “He’s difficult to get close to,” he said. “I’ll tank this. You run in.”
As the huge skeleton targeted Ippei once more, Seiki rushed in with his biggest burst damage move: a sliding Focused Strike. His blade met bone in a loud crack. The skeleton did not flinch as it tried to strike Ippei again, who Parried it.
Vengeful Animated Corpse [Level 10 Elite]. HP 284/510.
Seiki raised his blade to slash at it again, when it lifted its leg, and Seiki was forced to Parry instead.
Behind him, Yamura and Mairin had finished off the other corpse.
Animated Corpse slain. 40 XP gained.
The ryoushi turned and started shooting at the boss. The first arrow had barely connected that it dropped into a low crouch.
Ippei’s eyes widened. “Everyone down!” he said, and Seiki plunged to the ground, just as the cutlass swung in a circle, pretty much like a giant Sweeping Blade, and swished by above his head.
The kitsune in fox form was already too small to be hit, but the tip of its rusty blade caught Yamura and brought his health below a fifth as he was thrown into a wall.
“Can’t believe they gave him a mass dismount,” said Ippei, getting to his feet again and running in with one normal move on the skeleton.
Vengeful Animated Corpse [Level 10 Elite]. HP 183/510.
The giant corpse turned its blade on Seiki. Ippei stepped in and Parried, and it drained all his energy too. Seiki realized then that these moves were all lethal, and he wondered how Ippei had managed to survive so long without energy.
Kentaro was keeping steady heals on Ippei as each one became available. Mairin’s heal brought Yamura back to half health, and Seiki closed in with one more normal slash. However, the skeleton was fast, and Seiki was forced to Parry again as it struck out its left arm.
“He blocks all your normals,” said Ippei, his eyes on the skeleton. “Wait till he swings his blade again. That’s your chance.”
Ippei did not have enough energy even for a Parry, but Seiki had no time to reflect on the situation. Ippei seemed to know what he was doing, and Seiki could only trust him. The skeleton was already raising its giant blade and lunging at Ippei. Seiki ran in close, slid at the last second into a Focused Strike.
Vengeful Animated Corpse [Level 10 Elite]. HP 31/510.
It was still not enough to kill it. He could hear Ippei grunt as the samurai lost his grip on his sword, and the blade clanked loudly against the back wall. “Keep Seiki alive,” Ippei yelled.
At least, Ippei was not dead. The skeleton lifted its foot for a kick, and Seiki directed his attack at it again. He reckoned he could afford to take a hit, so he gritted his teeth as he blocked the skeletal leg with his left arm, while pulling his Hikari close into a slice. As the sword met bone, a frozen numbness shot up his whole arm and paralyzed his left side from the waist up, and his vision blurred. He forced Strength of Will into effect, a heal landed on him, then more heals.
Suddenly, the giant skeleton was collapsing on him, and Seiki gathered that his normal move had connected. Unlike the other monsters, this one had one string attached to each of its limbs.
An arrow flew and cut the string attached to its left arm, and the bones dropped off. The head was still rising up. Mairin ran forward and smoke burst around her, severing the strings attached to both legs. Its right arm swung at her and swept her away.
Seiki aimed. The skeleton’s right hand still held the cutlass, and it took a swipe at him. Seiki knew if he Parried he would have no energy left to actually cut the strings, so he rolled under it. The blade fell right beside him onto the ground, and Seiki grabbed at the giant wrist. He flinched as it drained his life, like some magical cloth he had fought before. Luckily, another sparkly Heal immediately landed on him. The right arm was still rising off the floor, and Seiki let go of his sword to hold on with both hands as he pushed himself up. With a grunt, he drew his dagger, and he lunged with the last of his energy with Focused Strike at the silky string.
Then it all came crashing down. Seiki braced himself as he fell to the floor with pieces of bone all around him. Yamura’s arrow had managed to cut the string attached to the skull.
Vengeful Animated Corpse slain. 85 XP gained.
Ippei and Mairin were on the ground at very low health, Yamura at half health, and Kentaro completely out of energy. Seiki took a deep breath as he took stock of the situation.
One wall started trembling and collapsed, revealing a way forward deeper into the cave.
“They totally upped it,” said Yamura.
Ippei, still recovering, let out a slight laugh. “They did. That was a dismount move from the war games, where you’re charging at some guy and he spins around with his sword, and everyone gets thrown off their horses in a second. Breaks all your horse armor, too.”
“War player?” asked Yamura.
“Yeah,” said the samur
ai. “This was the only dungeon I ever did since it’s the only compulsory one. Hate tanking. Still do. But I’ve gotta admit they made it more interesting.”
He creased up as he looked at Seiki. “Never seen anyone climb up a boss like that in my life.”
“Like I said, Seiki does this in real life,” Mairin added.
Up until this point, Seiki had tuned everything out. And now he felt as if he had just finished a match, that was: tired, strangely satisfied, and surrounded by people who cared. However, where he usually looked forward to a warm meal and a good night’s sleep after that, somehow, this time, that feeling plunged him into a sea of deep resentment.
“Used to,” he spat back at Mairin. He had thought he was exhausted but, all of a sudden, he was not anymore as bitter, restless energy filled him. He leapt to his feet. “Let’s go,” he said.
Yamura frowned and asked the others, “What’s up with him?”
Seiki was already through the opening that had just appeared, and he heard Mairin whisper, “He’s mad at something in the ronin quest line.”
Mad? No, his feelings went beyond mere annoyance. He was enraged, infuriated, and he was just getting started. That last bit had felt good, where he could sweat and bleed and plunge his rage into something.
Kentaro was shooting heals at everybody, topping them up before the next encounter, saying something about how they did not need Cleanse.
The next room revealed to be much larger, with a source of light high up in the ceiling, dimly illuminating the space from the middle. Sounds of dripping water echoed all around, giving it a gloomy, foreboding atmosphere. From the walls of the cave, tiny streams of water trickled down, and the ground was a mixture of stone and mud.
In the ray of light was a tall woman all in white, standing with a newborn baby in her arms.
They stopped at the edge of the room.
“Uh,” said Kentaro. “I have a really bad feeling about this one.”
Chapter 22
Her long hair was almost knee-length and fell in a long stream of jet black across the front of her dress. Her face was pale, beautiful, and sad at the same time. The baby in her arms remained silent. “Help me,” she asked, softly. “Please help my baby.” Even her voice was beautiful.
Mairin glanced at the group nervously. “She’s going to try to kill you if you get close, right?”
“Please,” the woman pleaded again. “Please hold my baby.”
It was a hauntingly beautiful sight, with the woman directly in the light beam, and her spotless white kimono almost shining in contrast with her black hair and the shadows in the rest of the cave.
“I’m sure you don’t want to do that,” said Kentaro.
“I’ll do it,” said Seiki. He was too angry to care and all he wanted to do was to slash at something.
Ippei sounded amused. “You sure?”
Seiki was already off in large strides toward the woman. She seemed perfectly innocent as she blushed and said, “Could you—”
“Yeah, fine. Give me your baby,” Seiki cut her off. Behind him, Ippei burst out laughing.
The woman handed the bundle to him. Seiki was certain the baby was going to try to rip him apart, but at least that would get things started. A vicious smile appeared on the woman’s face, just as he had expected. Seiki did not even jolt as the bundle in his arms exploded into a swarm of tiny spiders.
He had been waiting for this, and his Sweeping Blade struck her and her baby spiders away from him. The woman screamed and grew taller to twice her height, and wider as well, as she revealed, under her skirt, eight black arachnid legs.
Jorogumo [Level Unknown]. HP 1980/1980.
“You should have turned back at the corpses,” she hissed. “Didn’t you see what happens to those who dare enter my lair?”
That was what Ippei had meant about a theme. She had been the one puppeteering the corpses. Unimpressed, Seiki struck out at her again with Focused Strike, but she parried it with her front legs, knocking the sword off its mark.
“So you’re tanking this one?” Ippei shouted through his laughter.
Seiki followed up with another attack, which she blocked again, her limbs working busily. The tips of the legs drummed rapidly against the stone floor.
“All right,” said Ippei, taking Seiki’s silence as a yes. “But if I say run, run back here, okay?”
Yamura was launching arrows at the spider woman and Seiki noticed that, as she blocked the projectiles, it left a small opening for him to strike.
“Normals don’t hurt her at all,” Ippei was shouting to Yamura. “But you can get the small ones with it. Better kill as many as you can while they’re small.”
The samurai and kitsune ran in melee range, killing little spiders along the way. Smoke exploded around him as Mairin hit the half-spider with her magic. One black arachnid leg shot out at the kitsune, who dodged backward, and Seiki plunged his Focused Strike into the opening there. His blade met her hard shell, and only managed a small crack in it.
Jorogumo [Level Unknown]. HP 1863/1980.
“Look her in the eye,” said Ippei.
Puzzled, Seiki did. And he found that she had grown several more. If he had not held on to his fury, he would have been entirely repulsed.
The Jorogumo has her attention on you!
“Keep doing that if she strays,” said Ippei, slashing at her with Sweeping Blade. Her slim shiny legs rose up to block his strike.
The Jorogumo charged forward, her two front legs out-stretched, and Seiki just saw that the tips were needle-sharp. He Parried one, and had the displeasure of discovering that he needed to Parry again to ward off the second leg.
“And keep some energy ready for Sweeping Blade, or Slide. I’m not sure how ronin works,” cried Ippei as he Parried her hind legs.
Seiki felt something on his leg. A spider, about the size of a dog, was about to sink its fangs into his thigh. These were the tiny spiders that had been in the baby bundle, which had rapidly grown. He kicked it off, when three more closed in. The Jorogumo jumped at him again. As he was forced to pay attention to the Parry, two smaller spiders bit him almost simultaneously, numbing his feet.
Kentaro’s Heal topped him up right away, and Seiki stabbed his blade down at the spiders. It took three normal moves to kill each, and he was having problems keeping them off him and avoiding the Jorogumo’s attacks at the same time.
The Jorogumo glances at Yamura.
Seiki followed her gaze. Yamura was picking off the spiders around with normal arrows and, as his energy recharged, he launched a Focused Shot at the monster.
“Hey, over here,” said Seiki, catching the spider woman’s eyes again, and she turned her attention back at him. Another smaller spider bit him. Seiki kicked it away.
“Come, my children!” cried the spider woman. “It’s feeding time!”
All around, dozens of boar-sized spiders with fat bellies and bright markings descended, some slowly—lowering themselves head-first down a silky thread—, some dropping down with a loud clack, their eight legs tapping rapidly on the ground.
“Can this instance get any more disgusting?” Mairin turned back into human just to say that.
“Red ones explode, green ones poison,” said Ippei, as he slashed at one nearby coming down its web. The red spider exploded on him, as if to prove his point, taking a fifth of his health. “You can’t avoid this damage.”
Mairin’s smoke blew up a few spiders around her, and as a green one burst she let out a grunt. Seiki glanced at her.
Mairin [Level 9]. HP 241/289. Energy 24/197. Poisoned.
“Weird,” she said after a second, sounding strangely delighted. The fox then dashed off again.
Before Seiki could figure out what she meant, he was again losing the Jorogumo’s attention. So, he caught her eyes, followed up with an attack, and right then two more spiders bit him on the legs. He stabbed down his blade at one of them, and it exploded,
sending chills up his leg. Thank Kentaro, the Heal laid on him immediately stopped the spread of the cold.
Jorogumo [Level Unknown]. HP 1341/1980.
They were whittling away at the woman’s health, and a Focused Shot arrow caught her in the belly as she lifted her leg to block Ippei’s slash. The Jorogumo paused for a brief moment.
That was apparently the sign.
“Run!” cried Ippei as he dashed toward the end of the room.
Without knowing what was happening, Seiki turned and ran too.
The Jorogumo shoots out her web!
The sticky net landed on top of Seiki as he got about half way to the back end of the room. It wrapped tightly around his body, bringing him to the ground. Then, it started to drag him toward her.
“Be my prey!” screeched the spider woman.
Yamura let out a grunt. With a quick glance, Seiki saw that his friends were all caught in the web.
“You reach her and you’re dead,” said Ippei, struggling in his web to get in position to use his Sweeping Blade to cut the net.
Mairin had Dashed out of hers. That gave Seiki an idea. Following her example, he twisted his body so that both his knees were on the ground. Then, he pushed down with his energy, and the Slide broke him through the web.
“Houshi actually need Cleanse for this,” said Ippei.
Seiki understood what the samurai meant. The spiders were immediately on him again, but he ignored them and ran forward and slashed Kentaro’s net with Sweeping Blade. At the same time, Yamura had managed to break out of his with his dagger move, Finish.
“Feed, my children!” screamed the Jorogumo, and more spiders, red and green, dropped down around them. Kentaro quickly got to his feet, topped up Seiki’s health and ran back to the edge of the room. Several small spiders went after him, but Mairin dashed ahead and kited them away.
“Feed, my children!” said the Jorogumo again gleefully, her arms raised up to the ceiling as more spiders joined in.
“You’ve got to be in range, or she rains endless spiders,” said Ippei. He was already running back to the woman.
Seiki followed him and re-engaged the spider, who was more than happy to give him her full attention. She hissed viciously, both front legs stretched out like double blades. To keep her on him, he had to ignore the smaller spiders on the ground, which he was trying to shake off him the best he could. But the little buggers were persistent and his legs were getting numb from their icy bites. The sensation quickly faded with each Heal, and Seiki guessed he had to trust the houshi to keep him up.
