Webbed

As they continue through the dungeon, their feet kick the occasional bone that's fallen out of the alcoves, making clattering noises which end with Sen jumping a bit. Lynna is constantly giggling at his antics along with Jennifer, while Julie seems to feel that it's a creepy area as well, but more for the bones everywhere than the fact that they'll be fighting giant spiders.

Xue is the odd one out, seemingly feeling bad for Julie and Sen. As they walk, Xue has remained a bit further away from Sen than normal, which Sen has to comment on, as he doesn't want the distance to create any problems in combat.

"Xue, stop hiding over there, you can't cover me from that far away."

Lynna starts giggling again as Xue jumps a bit. She does sidle a bit closer though, and Sen puts her odd actions throughout the day out of his mind. It isn't long until they find their first mob, and Sen regrets ever coming to this dungeon. It looks like a gigantic, three meter tall tarantula, if each of the tarantula's legs ended in wriggling tentacles tipped with a spike.

There are yet more tentacles coming out where its mouth should be, and it has two pincers perfect for tearing apart flesh on two extra legs that a tarantula shouldn't have. At this point, Sen whimpers a bit as they charge it. His first blow is using Cutting Squall to try and de-limb the beast as fast as he can. Sen is for once grateful for the censoring as the leg detaches, as from the girl's expressions, he'd just been coated in gore that must have spurted from the removed portion.

Sen continues on without using any more skills once he comes back to a slightly more rational mind, as he doesn't want to use up all of his energy, even though this monstrosity makes him want to go into a berserk rage. Without skills, his cuts only crack the furred carapace, and he notices everyone else has started to target the joints.

He joins them, and the fight ends pretty quickly, the spider snapping at the fake images of Julie while the rest of them hack away at its limbs.

"Well that was easy for a C rank," Jennifer comments.

"I still prefer the twisting tigers." Sen says.

"It's standard for the normal mobs in a C rank dungeon to be very low C rank, with the boss being at a mid to high C rank," Julie explains.

"And what rank would the twisting tiger bosses have been considered?" Sen asks with a sinking feeling in his chest.

"Lower mid C rank from my estimates," Julie replies.

"So like, we basically have to hope that the boss won't be totally overpowered and wipe us?" Jennifer asks.

Julie simply nods, and the group turns a bit solemn. The atmosphere fades however, and they all continue on. The slaughter a good deal more spiders, having to log out and take a break a couple times because of how ridiculously large and convoluted this dungeon is. If it wasn't for the automated mapping function in game, Sen is pretty sure Lynna will have murdered someone simply to get rid of some of her frustration.

By the time they finally find the boss, everyone is sticky from having occasionally walked into a web here or there, and absolutely sick of the giant bugs. Looking at the boss, it looks similar to the other monstrosities, while being yet a size larger. The group doesn't bother making a plan, as they don't know if this boss will have any odd abilities, and move in carefully.

The first noticeable thing is that even at the joints, this monster has some sort of jelly coating on them that seems to bounce any blows, and they're forced to use their active skills in order to cut through it. Their energy starts to dwindle as they slowly wound it, the pincers snapping here and there at different people of the group, but not catching anyone.

Once Lynna uses her icicle thrust skill, stabbing entirely through one of its joints, the monster lets out a warbling screech, and somehow speeds up, even though it's been wounded. The increase in speed catches them by surprise, and Xue is slammed into the wall, a cracking sound heard by everyone.

The boss, sensing weakness, starts charging her, and Sen uses Gale Steps along with Earth Step in order to get between the two. Not bothering to conserve any energy at this point, he meets a blow from the monster's pincer with Cutting squall, cutting a good three inches into the pincer, though he can see that his blade has chipped a little from the impact.

The monster lets out a scream, but continues its barrage, and Sen isn't able to move from where he stands, keeping himself in between the spider monstrosity and Xue. He isn't able to block all the blows, his sword chipping more and more from the direct impacts with the monster's pincers, but he stays rooted where he is, making a wall of air behind him to support him so he isn't knocked back.

It is a short few seconds before Jennifer arrives, but it feels like ages. Once she gets there, Sen feels the pressure let up a bit, until the monster's back curls down, and a stream of the webbing is launched at Jennifer. The sticky webbing catches her by surprise and pins her to the wall, the monster then aims at Sen, and he's forced to jump above it, enhancing his jump with the wind.

The next blow knocks him back, but he catches himself on the wall Xue is stuck on with his feet, and launches back off of it, slamming his sword down on the tarantula thing's face with Weight of the Mountain, cutting off a multitude of tentacles, and crushing the carapace surrounding its brain a bit due to all the momentum behind the strike.

At this point, he's beginning to feel faint from the lack of energy, and has to block the next blow without the support of a skill or the air around him. He's expecting to entirely lose an arm, but the slowing array from Julie kicks in. Even so, his parry isn't able to knock the blow fully off course, the monster stronger than him, and the monster cuts his arm down to the bone, Sen's arm falling entirely limp.

Lynna and Julie manage to arrive at this point though, and Lynna takes advantage of the monster's focus on Sen to use her Icicle Thrust to pierce straight from under the monster's head, turning its brains to mush as Julie helps Sen defend.

The monster continues to flail even after its death, and Sen stays in front of Xue with Julie, blocking the wild swings of its arms with his only arm, taking yet more cuts until Lynna takes over for him.

Once the monster stops flailing, everyone collapses where they stand, and it takes a good five minutes before anyone bothers to cut Jennifer free of the webbing.