The guns have fired and after a flash turned into a smoke I checked the surroundings.

As the smoke was settling and the distant echo of cordite explosion started dying, I felt something hitting my head. A number of small stones and rubble were falling from the ceiling.

AFP_Writer

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that Lilith and Xera did not have their eardrums ruptured, did not suffocate because of lack of oxygen and breathing in the gases or did not simply end up squashed because of gas pressure.

Soon I confirmed that the spiders were turned into a new paint for the cave’s walls and ceiling. For now there were no steps which I could hear, a good sign?

‘Let’s go, we should go deeper into the cave!’ I called the girls to hurry up.

‘Miss Delight, is it fine to use such magic on the rock spiders? Would you have enough mana to continue fighting?’ (L)

‘Thank you for your concern~. I am stronger than I look like~.’ It was pleasing to have somebody concerned for you.

‘Why the hell are you looking at me?’ Unlike some ungrateful…

‘Miss Delight! You should conserve some mana! We are yet to encounter the Queen!’ (L)

‘From this moment on, please give me some details.’

‘The Queen spider is a tier 4 monster! Only the strongest magic can hurt it!’ (L)

[I have only half of my guns operational and only now she f* tells me that there is something super hard to kill waiting for us?!]

All four barrels immediately dropped down and only two of them returned to the firing position.

‘We. Are. Dead.’

Now not only I was pale, they too understood that we are screwed.

The spiders returned and now I felt like if I fire the 12 inch then we will have 0 chances of winning. I opened fire with all the guns, except for the heaviest.

47 mm shells landed right in a large group of spiders and dealt a large amount of damage, they even killed a few of them.

‘Pom-pom-pom-pom’

I don’t know if the one who made high caliber maxim is a genius, crazy, or both but the spiders which only were stunned by smaller caliber fire were torn apart by 37 mm shells from pom-pom guns. While they fire slowly and barely hit anything, they were also making the spiders’ life much shorter.

Most of the shots were hitting walls and ceiling but some stray shots occasionally were killing and wounding spiders. Their cuticles are sturdy and only direct hits from cannons could kill them, the machine guns were only able to wound them. Soon I faced another problem. The machine guns ran out of ammo in their belts and now they needed to reload, which takes them 10 minutes… I already was only firing salvos of shells to maximize the musket-like accuracy but now that I ran out of ammo the situation turned from problematic to catastrophic.

“Well, now we are completely surrounded. What are we going to do, you must have any ideas, right?!” Xera glared at me.

“Oh my, they are on our sides, in front of us and behind… They can’t get away this time~!”

‘What nonsense does she spout every time?’  (X)

“Follow the sage! To battle!” (L)

I pretended I didn’t hear anything but considering how well we are situated our only way of fighting is melee.

‘So uncivilized…’ I pierced a spider with the stiletto and kicked another which attacked from behind. The poor thing turned into a cannonball and hurt a few more of them.

It did not take me long to understand that my choice was not the best. I soon had to hug Lilith to protect her from spiders which were hitting my back and sides with their claws and spikes.

Boom

I fired one 12 inch shell and the shockwave turned the surrounding spiders into mashed meat.

Now I had some space to fight and began piercing them with the stiletto. The hits to their body were not doing anything but when I pierced a spider’s lower half, where its legs are connected to the body, it immediately started convulsing and died.

I used this newly obtained knowledge and soon I managed to make the spiders retreat. They returned with some ‘cavalry’, a huge spider with an ovipositor.

The thing rushed at me and I was ready to fire an AP shell into it.

Boom

It was a miss but the shockwave made it lose balance. The enraged monster began flouncing and I had no way to get close to it.

Lilith was mumbling something and when she stretched out her arms, the queen was hit by a huge icicle. The monster was stunned for a moment which I did not waste. It took me almost a minute to finally kill the queen which had no way to get me away from its belly.

As it started falling I lost my grip and was on my way to hit the floor when something caught me.

I did not believe my eyes when I saw that Xera caught me midair and firmly gripped my waist. I was about to thank her for the rescue.

‘PING, PING, CLANG, PING’

My back was hit again and again by something.

“Stop wiggling, damn you! If you can’t stand and fight then be a good shield!” You… you bastard…

‘PING, PING, PEW, PING’