16 Giant Red Spider!

The torrent of strikes almost paralyzed Axel. The speed of the attacks far surpasses that of a White Spider and could barely be seen with the naked eye. Axel's body was getting pummeled in several places and only a portion of the attacks were able to be blocked by the dagger in hand. His health points were decreasing sharply and no more time could be spent on the defense. In a swift motion, Axel contracted all the muscles in the body and stretched out his limbs and legs with his dagger protruding in the front with his right foot mounted forward.

For a while, he was not able to activate the 'Counterattack' skill due to the shock of the ambush like attack of the Red Spider. Axel had not felt so disorderly since meeting the Field Boss in the pastures. The Red Spider did not halt its attacks and the moment a leg was another to hit Axel again, the skill activated and the dagger struck back like lightning. If it was a weak mob like the White Spider, it would have already been finished in one attack, but the Red Spider was tough like iron. The 'Counterattack' had only pushed it back slightly, and it was holding his balance. In this instance, Axel did not dare waste this fruitful opportunity and quickly dashed up to execute the 'Smash' skill. It was do or die, as he would not last another beating from the Red Spider if he was forced into defense again.

"Paaaatttttt!" The smash sounded like cutting ripping thick beads of wheat in rapid successions. The Red Spider flew back, now on its belly, and no life signs could be seen from it.

"Damn, that was--cutting it close….." Axel stuttered a bit as he caught his breath once again.

Now that the combat has ended, Axel felt his thighs and biceps ripping ever so slightly. It was not a sign of fatigue, but rather inner wounds from blocking the Red Spider's attacks for so long. Using the 'Counterattack' skill on top of 'Smash' in succession only aggravated the wounds further.

Suddenly he looked down near the Red Spider's corpse and saw that a large red dungeon key had dropped from it.

"Well, it's time to challenge the boss room!" Max exclaimed as he grabbed the large red dungeon key.

Any player in the Mabinogi game knew that a large red dungeon key was one of a kind key which was meant for opening the boss gate in the dungeon. A boss key dropping from the mobs meant the dungeon was coming to an end, and players would need to prepare themselves mentally and physically before going in the boss room to fight the domineering monster inside.

Axel slowly followed Max to the next room while limping along a bit. The 5th room was empty, but there was a large gray lock on the gate, signifying that this was a crucial gate in the dungeon.

"Just sit back and enjoy the show now. You've done very well so far!" Max said cheerfully as he pushed the large boss key into the big lock.

The chains rolled the gate up and the dungeon ceilings seemed to tremble ever so slightly. Some sand leaked down from above and Max swiped the sand off his hair to get a clear picture of the boss room. Inside, it was completely dark, but one could feel an ominous presence inside. The heavy breathing of the boss could be heard, as it boomed across the large boss room. The boss room was several times larger than a normal dungeon room, and the darkness only seemed to intensify the haunted aura of the room.

As if it was practiced habit, Max lit up 4 torches and threw one to each corner of the room. Slowly, the background of the boss room was coming to light. In the distance, there were about 6 red spiders spread out in the room, and towards the left corner of where the gate had opened, a Giant Red Spider had just leaped up from its sweet slumber and was alarmed to see intruders inside.

"Watch this ultimate skill in motion since you will learn this in the near future as well." Max whispered.

Out of nowhere, he pulled another broadsword and held it in his left hand. In his right hand, he pulled out his broadsword by his back. Max had assumed a dual wield stance! This was very surprising as this was not possible in the early phases of the Mabinogi game. Dual wielding was released much later, when the continent of Iria was discovered during the release of Generation 4. Iria was a new continent where the Elves and the Giants resided. Both of these races excelled in a certain combat style that surpassed the humans by a far stretch. For elves, it was archery and magic, and for giants, it was melee combat. However, humans always had one skill that could trump the certain advantage of elves and the giants held. This was the ultimate skill, 'Final Hit', a skill Axel relied on heavily to fight the strongest monsters in the game of Mabinogi. The dual-wield, rampage like skill could destroy most monsters like they were made of cotton!

As if he had become possessed, Max grunted like a bull and activated 'Final Hit'. His entire body glowed with a chaotic black and red mist, and in a instant he was gone. He had gone to the other side of the boss room in a split second and one Red Spider mob was down. After 5 seconds, all 6 red spiders were slain as if they were a weak mob. Axel knew the lethal uses of 'Final Hit'. Each hit had the combat strength of a 'Smash' skill, but this was only after it had been revamped in the later stages of the game. He had assumed that each hit of Max's 'Final Hit" could only generate damage equivalent to 1 normal hit, but after seeing the display of its usage, he had been proved ever so wrong. Every single red spider had been defeated with only 1 hit from 'Final Hit'.

After clearing the boss room mobs, Max moved on to attack the Giant Red Spider. The giant spider that was 5 times the size of a human was rendered helpless against the onslaught of Max's ultimate skill. The twin swords seemed to dance at the giant spider's body like a ferocious spinning top. After a few slashes, the Giant Red Spider was toppled and it leaned sideways, immobile. Seeing that it had not dropped anything, Max cried,

"Damn, what a sh*tty run! Let's head to the treasure room now!"

Axel followed Master Max into the small room ahead, which had been unlocked upon the boss being defeated.