Chapter 9:
Warpainter: From Office Workers to World Warriors
While slaying the spiders one by one, Arte lost more and more blood; her white shirt was almost pink from the amount of blood staining it. Her swings were savage and were steadily increasing in strength. She went from taking them down in two swings to just one. She looked around for anything she could use to escape. Hidden between two websacs seemed to be a sort of entrance. Between the constant attacks she had to keep up against the spiders and the blocked entrance, she didn’t have time to think and ran through the spiders, crushing some underfoot, and cutting through others that leapt toward her. She sliced through the websac and entered the room to the side and followed the path, with no other option.
“I didn’t want to take this, but it feels like I have no choice. It feels like I have no control over anything. Hell, I don’t remember the hero ever seeing this path at all. Which means it could lead anywhere.” She thought.
By this time, her saliva had mixed with the mashed petal in her mouth, which meant swallowing her own bitter saliva to abate the remaining venom in her system. Her stomach churned from the bitterness, but she had to keep moving. The corridor was narrow, which meant swinging a sword was impossible, but fortunately, the spiders never followed. But it made her worried about what awaited her at the end of the line. The path was long and winding, leading her to another open room. The room was full of webs that hung from the ceiling like large curtains. The floor was covered in blood as though it were a carpet. Arte thought the room looked like the inside of a destroyed carnival tent. Around the circular room at regular intervals were large glimmerstones, the size of boulders. This allowed her to see. The timing was perfect, as his dagger’s light began to wane. She tied the dagger back around her neck.
“There’s no doubt about it. This… This is a boss room. But I’ve never seen it before.” She thought. “I’d much rather deal with the smaller spiders than a boss at this point.”
When she turned to leave, the doorway was covered in a thick layer of webs. Trying to cut them yielded no results. Exploring the outer edges of the room, hearing the sound of rushing water from the western wall. She touched the glimmerstone nearest to her, and it got brighter. Soon, the others began to glow brighter as well, revealing a shadowy figure high against the ceiling. Its body was jet black and glossy, with multiple appendages, and had a pattern on its thorax. It was in the shape of a crown, in bright yellow. The pattern caused her mouth to hang open.
“This spider… I know this one. Or rather, I know her sister. The two of them are twin spiders that exist in their own dungeons. Her sister, Unlawful Hecate, should be in a dungeon in the northern kingdoms. Why… Why is Queenkiller Norn here? I never managed to find her in the game. Not only is she a boss, she’s a unique monster. I… I’m going to die. No amount of planning is gonna get me through this.” She thought.
Arte dropped to her knees as she watched the monster descend before her. More than twice her size, each of its legs was like sharpened scythes specialized in dismembering their target. As her hope waned, she recalled Leo’s face. His confidence to push forward against the unknown despite the odds shook her.
“So this is how Leo felt, maybe there wasn’t as much dread, but… I have to at least try. If our roles were reversed, Leo wouldn’t hesitate to fight this thing.” She thought.
Despite her quivering legs, she stood up and drew her blade, taking it in both hands.
“They’re twin spiders, so their movesets shouldn’t be that different… Or so I’d like to think, but they’re unique for a reason. I just need to find the key difference in the moveset.” She thought.
She squared off against Norn and waited for her to strike first. Norn rushed toward Arte and swung its leg like a blade. Ducking under the slash, it stood on two legs, using the others like a cage to trap her. Arte jumped out using the space between the spider’s head and legs; the spider cartwheeled to the side, jabbing both its front legs like rapiers. She dodged to the side, taking an opportunity to swing her blade down on the creature’s legs.
Tink.
Her blade bounced off the spider’s hard exterior.
“The hero could crush that in one hit. It really goes to show the difference in our strength!” She thought.
Norn spun its body around and attempted to slam with its abdomen. She ducked under it, then kicked off its body to gain some space. The spider jumped into the air and moved above her. Slamming down with all eight legs like spears. Arte rolled out the way in the nick of time, but was breathing heavily. The spider shot two webs from its spinnerets that missed Arte and connected to the wall. Arte started running toward the spider, and Norn shot toward her like an arrow. She jumped over her, doing a spinning slash along the top of Norn’s body. The cut was only able to scratch it. Norn cracked the wall with the power from the impact. Arte turned around and saw Norn bounce off the wall, just as quickly as she touched it, and zoomed past Arte, grazing her side. She groaned and gripped her side as the blood seeped from the wound.
Norn didn’t stop there, and cartwheeled back to Arte, giving her no time to rest, and jabbed with both legs again. Arte brought her blade up to deflect the blow, but the sheer force and power behind the blow nearly knocked the sword out of her hands, sending her reeling to the side. When she recovered, Norn was gone. Her eyes drifted upward, noticing the shadowy figure in the air. She dodged to the side, but the force of the slam not only cracked the ground but also sent her flying into one of the boulders. Arte quickly stood up with a bloody nose while tightly gripping her sword.
Norn spun its body toward her with its legs outstretched, attempting to trap her again. Norn saw her jumping to avoid it and closed it faster than before, grazing her thigh.
“Argh!” She groaned.
Blood was now trickling from her thigh. Norn performed another horizontal slash with its leg. Arte countered with a downward slash of her own, slamming her blade into the leg, like a club. Sparks erupted as her sword shook while holding back Norn’s leg. While clashing, Norn’s middle leg stabbed Arte in her side. Norn removed the leg before dancing back like a circus animal. Arte nearly fell over from the pain, but remained standing, using her sword for support. Beads of sweat dripped onto the ground. Norn noticed the damage to its leg; the spot where Arte struck was cracked.
“There’s no way I can beat this thing in a head-on fight. I already knew that, yet… There has to be something I can use.” She thought.
Remembering what she saw, her tired expression turned into a grin.
She pulled the sword from the ground and raised her blade once more. Norn came out with another slam with a spinning slash of its legs. Arte caught the slash with her blade and was sent flying backward into the wall. Her body slammed into the wall. Before she could recover, Norn shot its webs at her once more, using them to slingshot toward her. Arte’s back was turned to Norn as it shot back toward her. Arte ducked underneath, revealing her sword that was fixed within the crack Norn left behind. Its unguarded spinneret was pierced by her blade, all the way to the hilt as the blade cracked within its body. The already cracked wall broke down. Causing Norn and Arte to fall from a rocky wall behind the middle of the waterfall. While falling with the rocks and Norn toward the basin, Arte sighed, giving Norn the middle finger.
“Get lost.” She said.
The water splashes loudly as the rocks, Arte, and Norn fall into the basin. Being hammered down by the waterfall, swimming up for air was impossible; the force kept sending them to the bottom of the basin. Trapping them together. However, unlike Norn, rather than fight the power of the waterfall, she used the vines to pull herself under the current and climb out of the basin. She watched as Norn couldn’t move its body and was continually flipped by the current. Arte's injuries were throbbing, her head was pounding, and blood escaped her with each second.
She finished eating the petal in her mouth and held her mouth shut, swallowing the bile that quickly shot up her throat. She dropped to her knees near Leo, who was showing signs of the late stages of the venom. Rapid breathing, loss of consciousness, yellow eyes, and bloody discharge from the mouth. Pulling the petal out of her pocket, she used a nearby rock to grind it into paste, then took one of the potions provided by Sky and mixed it into it. When the flower made contact, the red liquid turned blue. She had Leo drink it and took one of the other potions, finishing it and tossing the bottle onto the ground. Her vision faded as her head leaned against Leo’s shoulder.
Meanwhile, Sky was still outside the den and watched as a red hawk jetted toward her, landing on her shoulder. It dropped a parchment in her hand before flying off. She quickly opened it up and read it.
“Hahaha! This should be fun for them.” She laughed.
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