* * *
The giant spider moved its pedipalps up and down and from side to side a few times, then shook the Imperial Knight who had been impaled and crushed on its leg loose as though taking off a sock.
SPLAT.
The knight’s corpse, no longer recognizable as human, tumbled across the floor.
“Uh…… U-Uhhhhhh…….”
The remaining Imperial Knight, who had witnessed his companion’s final moments, trembled as his lips opened and closed several times.
[The target hero is under extreme stress.]
[Status Effect – Fear!]
[All of the target hero’s stats decrease significantly!]
He had already developed the Fear status effect at the very beginning of the boss battle.
His combat ability being pathetic because he was N Grade was one thing, but even his mental fortitude was this terrible.
It was enough to make my head throb.
Click, click, click.
The giant spider began turning in place, raising and lowering its thick legs.
It looked as though it were searching for its next prey.
SWISH.
I immediately drew my spear and assumed a combat stance.
‘So the only people still capable of fighting properly are my party members…… and one newly released SSR hero?’
I would serve as the main damage dealer.
Rian would remain on standby as my trump card, ready to unleash one decisive large-scale spell at the crucial moment.
Aileen could stay in the rear as a secondary damage dealer while protecting the Mage and any wounded party members.
Since she could deal both physical and magic damage, she should also be able to respond to all sorts of emergencies.
‘Then what about the new character from the Rom Federation?’
I was wondering how best to use the new character when—
“H-Hiiik.”
Hecate suddenly turned deathly pale and began breathing rapidly.
Then she grabbed the limp Achilles and dragged him along while scuttling toward a corner on three limbs like a dog.
……THUD!
She ended up slamming her head into the wall and collapsing unconscious onto the floor, perhaps having knocked herself out.
It all happened in an instant.
‘She did absolutely nothing, smashed her own head into a wall, knocked herself unconscious, and retired from the fight?’
What in the world had just happened in the blink of an eye……?
I could hardly believe what I had just witnessed.
Was this seriously the state of a Hidden Route-exclusive SSR hero?!
Click, click, click!
Meanwhile, the blue spider continued circling in place.
It did not even spare a glance toward the unconscious pair of mercenaries from the Rom Federation.
‘……Still, she really is a hero optimized for survival.’
The giant spider boss had a tendency to prioritize lively, moving prey.
If she lay in a corner looking like a corpse, at the very least she would not be the first one killed.
So even if she was completely useless in battle, was her entire concept centered around miraculously avoiding the boundary of death?
It was so absurd that I was almost impressed…….
“Aah…… Aaaaaaaagh!!”
Meanwhile, the deranged James started screaming again.
“J-J-James! Shut your mouth! Please, be quiet……!”
“Aaaaaagh! AAAAAAAAAH—!”
……
……Click.
At last, the giant spider stopped moving.
It turned toward James, the source of the ear-splitting screams, and the Imperial Knight beside him.
“J-James……! Please get up!”
“……U-Ugh.”
The spider’s eight legs, which had been moving in bizarre patterns, settled onto the floor one after another.
Its pedipalps spread wide to either side.
“Damn it! I do not care anymore! Survive on your own!”
And just as a white mass was about to shoot from its writhing mouth—
“……?!”
GRAB!
James suddenly seized the back of the other knight’s collar just as the man tried to flee.
“U-Uh……?! J-James, what are you doing……?!”
FSSHT!
A strand of web shot from the spider’s mouth and struck the chest of the knight James was holding.
“J-Jame……!”
FSSHT! FSSHT!
In an instant, the knight’s body was wrapped in a mass of white spider silk.
As though raising a shield to block an attack, James held his companion out in front of him and used him to intercept the web.
“Mmph……! Mmmmmph!”
Now even the man’s mouth had been sealed with webbing.
Wrapped completely into a human cocoon, he looked exactly like a larva.
“Mmph…… Mmph! Mmmmmmmmmph—!”
“Haaah……!”
James dropped his cocooned companion onto the floor and hurriedly fled toward a corner.
Click, click, click.
The blue spider approached the twitching white cocoon one step at a time.
Like a predator moving toward prey it had already captured.
‘Did he just use the companion who was trying to help him as a shield and then abandon him……?’
I had seen things like that occasionally in the game, but witnessing it in reality felt entirely different.
While playing the original game, heroes with rotten personalities would sometimes perform unexpected actions and sacrifice their own companions like that.
‘I still remember how ridiculous it was when an N Grade hero I had added as an Expendable Pawn suddenly triggered a trap…… and made an SR die in his place.’
That was why I never recruited Expendable Pawn heroes with unnecessarily high Intelligence.
Those types were more likely to pull something like James had just done.
“KIEEEEEK—!”
The giant spider finally stopped in front of the cocoon and opened its mouth wide.
Dozens of razor-sharp teeth were visible inside.
Apparently, it intended to chew the cocooned knight to death whole.
‘At this rate, he is going to die soon.’
He had at least been decent enough to look after his companion.
What a shame.
Not that I particularly cared whether an Imperial bastard lived or died.
Hmm…….
……Still, he seemed like a decent man.
Maybe I should help him?
I spun my spear once and tightened my grip on the shaft.
WHOOSH!
“……!”
Golden flames, brilliant as molten gold, suddenly flashed before my eyes and engulfed the giant spider.
‘What?’
A wave of scorching air washed over me before the surroundings quickly turned cold again.
I turned toward the source of the heat.
Aileen stood there holding her Ironwood Sword.
The person who had helped the Imperial Knight was someone I had never expected.
Crackle, crackle…….
But then the smell of burning flesh assaulted my nose.
Confused, I looked again.
“Mmph……! Mmmmmph! Mmmmmmmmmph!”
The knight who had been bound by the web was writhing madly on the ground, screaming through his gag.
Only now did I notice that roughly one-third of his white cocoon had been burned black and vanished.
The parts where his two legs and feet should have been……were gone.
‘……Did that attack just blow off the Imperial Knight’s entire lower body?’
Wait.
Was she really trying to help him?
“Mmph! Mmmmmph……!”
“My, my. It seems my hand slipped. I apologize for showing you such an unpleasant sight.”
“…….”
“Setanta, I am truly sorry.”
Aileen was even apologizing to me.
Not to the Imperial Knight who had just lost his lower body.
‘Now that I look at her, her expression is strange too.’
Her brow was furrowed as though she were troubled, and her eyes seemed sad.
And yet the corners of her mouth were twisted in a peculiar way, almost as though she were sneering…….
She wore an expression so subtle that I could not tell what it meant at all.
“…….”
Surely she did not do that intentionally.
Right?
“Kiik? Kiiiiii…….”
The giant spider stopped trying to kill the cocooned knight and began looking around.
Apparently, it was searching for the source of the golden sword flames that had burned it.
“Setanta, rest for a moment. I shall deal with that creature this time.”
Aileen took a deep breath and once again poured mana into her weapon.
WHOOSH!
She swung the Ironwood Sword through the air, and radiant golden mana surged toward the spider.
But when the flames struck its body, they merely flared for a moment before disappearing.
Even after being engulfed in fire several times, the spider would begin to redden slightly before immediately returning to blue.
As though such flames could never possibly raise its body temperature.
‘It is not working at all?’
It might not have been conventional fire magic, but its sheer firepower should have been more than enough.
Apparently, because the boss was shrouded in frost, its body temperature was far more difficult to raise than I had expected.
Far more difficult.
“Aileen! Can you increase the output any further? To the maximum!”
“……Understood.”
WHOOOOSH!
An even larger blaze than before erupted along the path of her sword strike.
Yet the spider still looked completely unharmed.
Instead, along with the smell of burning flesh—
“UWAAAAAAAAAAGH—!”
A human death scream filled the Boss Room.
‘Huh?’
A dreadful feeling struck me, and I immediately looked toward the place where the white cocoon had been.
Crackle, crackle…….
The flames finally subsided.
What remained was the Imperial Knight, with only his head and upper chest intact.
The knight’s upper body had been positioned just slightly within Aileen’s attack trajectory and had been caught in the maximum-output sword aura, burning away almost entirely.
“Ghk…….”
The Imperial Knight twitched a few times before his entire body shuddered violently and he died.
[……returns to the Goddess’s embrace.]
“It seems I failed to control my mana output properly.”
Aileen turned toward me with a sorrowful expression.
Her clear, pale violet eyes even looked wistful.
“I apologize for showing you another unpleasant sight, Setanta. As you can see, I do not know how to use proper magic.”
“…….”
“Because I simply pour as much mana as possible into my attacks, I occasionally make mistakes like this.”
So what she was trying to tell me was……that sequentially burning away the Imperial Knight’s lower and upper body had merely been an accident caused by poor mana control……?
‘There is no way.’
An instinctive certainty struck me.
No matter how I looked at it, she had done that on purpose……!
“KIEEEEEEEEE—!”
While I was distracted by my thoughts, the giant spider roared furiously and began pounding the floor with all eight legs.
‘……This is not the time to think about that.’
I needed to kill this thing first.
I adjusted my stance once more.
“…….”
But the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
Why was that spider still perfectly fine?
By the standards of the original Hell Mode, it should already have turned bright red like a boiled lobster and entered a groggy state.
Its regeneration should have stopped, its movements should have ceased, and it should have collapsed on the ground ready to be carved apart.
‘But it appeared covered in frost, and even taking direct flames does not raise its body temperature.’
Spiders were ectothermic creatures and could not regulate their own body temperature.
That was why the standard strategy involved forcing one to move violently or raising its temperature with fire until it entered a groggy state.
But if its body temperature refused to rise this much, then what the hell was I supposed to—
“Setanta! That spider seems to turn slightly red every time the flames touch it……!”
Rian shouted at me with an anxious expression.
“Spiders are ectothermic creatures……! Perhaps that monster shares the same characteristic! In that case, what if we raise the surrounding temperature even further?”
“…….”
For someone called a genius Mage, his brain really did work quickly.
He had figured out the standard strategy immediately.
Unfortunately, that strategy did not seem to work in this run.
The fact that the creature was ectothermic remained the same, but……
……Hm?
Wait a moment.
‘Ectothermic…… An ectothermic creature?’
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
Perhaps……
Perhaps following the old strategy was not the correct answer this time.
“Setanta! I can still cast about one more spell! So I will use fire magic right now……!”
“No. Please use frost magic instead.”
I answered firmly.
……Frost magic.
That would be the key to clearing this fight.