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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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My mind raced frantically.
As a series of completely unexpected coincidences had piled up, leading to the worst possible outcome, the situation had become gravely dire.
Lizé was gradually being pushed back as she struggled to protect me while fighting, unable to properly use her wide-area attacks.
Claudia, whose weapon was a greatsword from the beginning, had clear limitations.
Erica, who was on the verge of having her blood sucked dry while captured alive by Arachnae, went without saying.
‘Is there a way? There has to be one.’
I swiftly sliced through a spider leaping towards my face and focused on coming up with a solution to overcome this situation.
The top priority was to save Erica, and the next was to prevent Lizé and Claudia from being overwhelmed by the swarm of baby spiders.
I had to achieve those two things almost simultaneously.
I desperately wracked my brain, squeezing out my thoughts.
Solutions for each individual situation came to mind, but I couldn’t come up with a way to handle them together.
A way to deal with both at the same time, such a way…
‘There is one.’
Suddenly, a ray of hope flashed through my mind.
If done well, it was a solution that could handle both issues at once and break through this situation.
‘…Will it be possible?’
However, even I wasn’t confident it would succeed.
If things didn’t unfold according to my intentions, or if Arachnae’s behavior differed from my predictions, I would undoubtedly die.
This time, it was a gamble that relied on probability.
‘No. Either way, I’ll die if I stay like this anyway.’
I strengthened my resolve.
Yes. I would die the same way if I stayed like this anyway.
Erica would die first, and then Arachnae, having recovered her health, would rush at us.
We would either have our blood sucked dry like Erica or be chewed to death while still alive.
It would be one of the two.
If I was going to die either way, it was right to bet on the option with a higher probability.
“Claudia!”
I shouted for Claudia.
The situation was so urgent that there was no time for honorifics.
Her helmeted head turned towards me.
“Lightning Storm! At full power!”
Upon hearing my words, Claudia and Lizé flinched simultaneously.
Although I had omitted crucial details, it was obvious what that sentence meant.
“Are you in your right mind, Delta?! You’ll die too!”
“It doesn’t matter, so hurry! If you don’t use it, we’ll all die!”
I shouted as if scolding them, omitting all honorifics and manners.
Claudia hesitated for a moment but seemed to have chosen to trust me as she changed her stance for holding the greatsword.
As if to buy time for her to use it at full power, Claudia relentlessly struck lightning around her, and seeing that, I turned my body towards Lizé while exploding two baby spiders at once.
“Lizé! Can you survive on your own?”
“I can, but what are you planning to do, Delta?! Two people is too much!”
“Throw me over there!”
“What?!”
Lizé exclaimed in shock.
The place I pointed to with my finger was where Erica and Arachnae were entangled.
Erica was struggling desperately to push Arachnae away, but her limits were clear.
If left alone, she would have 30 seconds at most.
“Are you seriously in your right mind?!”
“There’s no time, so quickly do as I say! That’s the only way to save Erica too!”
Lizé stomped her feet in frustration, alternating her gaze between her sister who was about to be killed by Arachnae, the swarm of baby spiders rushing in from all directions, and Claudia preparing to use Lightning Storm as I had instructed.
Then, as if making a decision, she froze the surroundings by raising a frost storm.
“Are you certain?!”
“Have I ever been uncertain?!”
“Ah, seriously! Just you wait until this is over!”
An ice wall formed under my feet, and my body shot upward.
With a booming sound, my body soared into the air and flew straight towards Arachnae.
Glancing to the side, I saw Claudia preparing Lightning Storm.
Lightning began to gather around her body with a crackling sound.
She spread her knees shoulder-width apart and raised the tip of her greatsword towards the sky.
“Die obediently, you little thing!”
Erica was glaring at Arachnae, who was thrusting her fangs to suck Erica’s blood while biting her lips.
The armor she was wearing was in a state no different from rags.
Then, upon confirming that I was flying over, her eyes widened.
I checked the blood-stained sword.
There was still enough time left on the buff.
With all the conditions met, I just needed to act as my body led me.
I plummeted downward.
Gripping the sword firmly in one hand, I grabbed the back of Arachnae’s neck with the other.
A huge recoil struck my left arm that was gripping her neck.
I clenched my teeth and supported my weight.
My body naturally transitioned to the next movement, just like when performing a falling attack on a mid-boss in a rune dungeon.
Stepping on the spider’s carapace with my left foot, I turned my body halfway around to face Arachnae and forcefully thrust the blood-stained sword into her collarbone.
-Splurt!
“Aaaaaaargh!”
The Spider Queen thrashed in pain, unable to endure it.
As a result, she let go of Erica, who tumbled to the ground and desperately moved her body to retrieve her weapon that had been scattered nearby.
With the sword still stabbed into her collarbone, I shouted.
“Erica! Flame Barrier! Hurry!”
“Huh? Y-Yes, yes! Understood, Mr. Delta!”
Flames erupted from the Japanese sword in Erica’s hand.
With this, Erica would also survive Lightning Storm.
Lizé had already finished her defensive preparations.
Now only I remained.
Pulling out the sword from her collarbone, I stepped on her leg and jumped upward.
I aimed to be in midair in front of Arachnae.
‘Please, please, please!’
I looked at Arachnae, who was writhing in pain, and prayed inwardly.
Please move exactly as I predicted, just like in the game.
“You insolent brat!”
And as if responding to my prayer, Arachnae, with a greatly distorted expression, grabbed me.
‘It worked!’
What I had just done was a kind of pattern induction.
Each boss had techniques they would definitely use if the player met certain conditions, and of course, there were ways to induce them.
In the case of Arachnae, if the player jumped within reach of her upper body’s arms, she would unconditionally use a grabbing attack.
Once grabbed, there was no way to break free with one’s own strength in a normal situation, so the developers probably thought they could restrict the player’s actions by programming the algorithm that way.
However, users utilized this to definitely hit magic spells with an extremely long casting delay by using them, deliberately jumping at the right timing to induce the grabbing pattern.
The magic would hit, and due to the hit stun, Arachnae would let go of the player, allowing them to avoid the damage from the grab as well.
It was definitely a useful technique once mastered, although the timing was insanely difficult to match.
My strategy was similar to that.
Leaping high from the ice field created by Lizé, performing a falling attack to make Erica break free, pulling out the sword while descending, and jumping once more to induce the grabbing pattern.
‘I’m so glad it actually succeeded.’
Honestly, even I couldn’t be confident about this plan.
There was no guarantee that Arachnae would let go of Erica with the falling attack.
She could have ignored me and killed Erica while enduring the pain.
Moreover, there was no assurance that Arachnae would use the grabbing pattern on me while I was in midair.
I hadn’t jumped from the ground but had imperfectly leaped by stepping on her spider legs.
If either of the two deviated, we would have to pay the price with our lives, but it was the only method I could think of in that situation, so there was no choice.
‘It’s truly a stroke of luck.’
Inwardly sighing in relief, I faced Arachnae, who had grabbed me.
“We meet again. Right?”
“You came to die willingly! If your wish is to die, I shall grant it!”
Her initially elegant manner of speech and alluring voice had completely vanished, replaced by a cracked voice and crude way of speaking.
“I’ll chew you to pieces without leaving a single bone!”
With a creak, the mouth located below her lower abdomen opened wide.
It didn’t mean she would devour me with a human female’s genitals.
It would be more accurate to call it a spider’s mouth.
Of course, that was up to one’s interpretation.
Naturally, due to its location, there were quite a few people who regarded it as human genitalia.
‘This should be safe, right?’
There were two types of grabbing patterns: one where she sucks the player’s blood dry with her human mouth, killing them, and another where she chews the player with her spider mouth.
However, if grabbed while jumping, the pattern of being chewed through the lower mouth appeared with a 100% probability.
It was the second pattern that would protect me from the lightning.
“How many times do I have to say it?”
-Rumble rumble rumble!
As a loud thundering sound came from behind, Arachnae abruptly stopped her movement as if sensing something ominous.
It was the sound of thunder signifying that the preparation for Lightning Storm was complete.
I looked over Arachnae’s shoulder at Claudia’s figure.
Her dark gray steel greatsword was covered in lightning to the point of being unrecognizable, and so was Claudia.
Enormous sparks scattered around her.
The baby spiders couldn’t even approach and died while trembling and curling their legs.
“Try it if you can.”
-Crackle!!!!
Soon, lightning crackled.
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Thx for chapter