The First Boss:

*CHICHICHICHICHI* 

The spider, having woken up from the sleep, shook its giant body. It must've sensed our presence as it started to descend from its 'home' on the ceiling, crawling down on the wall, swiftly and rapidly moving its legs. 

*Drip*

 *Shaawwsh*

It had a size of about 20 feet. Eyes, dozens upon dozens. Its huge fury mandibles dripped with viscous saliva or some acid that even melted the stony ground with that 'shawwshing' sound upon contact. Its black abdomen was marked with red stripes. Eight giant legs, with innumerable sensory hairs, moved with absurd rapidity.

*shawwwshhhhh* 

*shawwashhh*

It's on the ground now. It inched closer and closer, using its long legs to push down on the ground........but curiously slow... 

*Grrrr*

Fena growled at it as she moved forward, towards it.

That Spider... I expected it to react just as those Arachnes did. Charging furiously on sight. But it's the opposite of that. It is oddly mindful of something. It is wary of something. Fena.

It remembers the previous battle between them?  

Ah, so the she made that much impact on it, huh. Even though we are present here too, to that spider we're just some fodders. 

I whisper in Rina's ears something, so as to not disturb the reunion between the 'fated enemies' with our 'conversation'. 

I also approached the Spider, to get it under my range.

*Ba-thump* * Ba-thump*

Even though all its killing intent is directed towards Fena, its pressure still penetrates my being.

'Where is the soul stone... don't tell me it's inside its body?'

'If it isn't where I can aim, then...'

'... I will have to shoot it with my skill at its most vulnerable place. Its head... but then we'll have to survive till it disintegrates. And judging from its size... it will take hours to disintegrate to the point it is no longer able to fight. No way we can survive that long.'

*Ba-thump* * Ba-thump**Ba-thump* * Ba-thump*

With each step, my heartbeat raced. I calmed my wayward breathing and moved further ahead. In my peripheral, I saw the old gate's debris move. Rina is already at it, huh. 

Fena and the spider slowly reduced the distance to a suitable metres away and then charged at each other at their top speeds. 

The Spider's mandibles opened and spat an acid ball on Fena. Fena avoided it by dodging sideways. and leapt at it. 

*Splash*

*swaaahhssshhhh* 

It wasn't even a moment and the ground above which its acid fell, melted and a noxious smell fumed from it.

The spider sidestepped and dodged Fena's claws, it shot webs at Fena in an attempt to put distance and trap her, but Fena burned the webs with her breath, she retreated back. Taking a deep long breath she exhaled her fire breath. But the flames could only burn the webs sheet that was woven by the spider a moment before she even fired. 

That fucking shit, it already knows all of Fena's skills!

Fena leapt at it again and it hoped further right to avoid it.

.....................Perfect.

"RINA!!! Now!!" 

At that instant, Rina dropped the debris on the spider. The spider was too close to avoid, got crushed.

That Spider it's way too wary of Fena. From the beginning, it was calculating each of her moves and reacting accordingly. It got so absorbed in her that it didn't even notice the giant boulder floating above the area at which it was being cornered into.

I bolted towards it, but it quickly got out from the rubble, scattering the debris in all directions.

Well, I did expect it to survive that, but there is not even a scratch on it. 

The spider's hind legs stabbed into the ground behind it and its front legs along with its upper body rose up in the air, its joints bent at an angle.

"KHHHEEECCCCHHHHH"

??!!

"Ughhhh.."

*Ba-thump* * Ba-thump**Ba-thump* * Ba-thump*

'Damn it. The pressure!!' 

That ear-deafening screech of its, is it some skill? It's inducing fear in my body! An artificial fear, or is it... a primal instinct of the weak? Whatever it was, it made me slouch down and cover my ears in terror. It is telling us who the predator is. It's telling us who we enraged, the Boss of this Area. 

'So, we just angered it, huh.'  

After screeching, it glared directly at Rina, she flinched, it charged straight towards her, to kill the one who dared annoyed it. But Fena blocked it from going further close to her. 

'It can even analyse that it was Rina? Cunning bastard!'

But.........right now...... it just showed me its weakness. 

Yes, I finally saw it, the soul stone. When it rose to screech, it was on its stomach, but it was downwards. There is no way for me to get down of its body. It would just crush me if I foolishly tried to do any stunts, not to forget those acid spits. I don't think it will just end in pain if it splashed on me.

What do I do?

Wait till it shows its stomach again? But I doubt it will do so soon, it must have a massive weight. I noticed multiple times, it tries to avoid hopping and all the air movements. Even when it was descending from the wall, it crawled with its legs instead of using its webs, quite unlike what normal spiders do. It rose just once till now, and that too to intimidate. And the same tricks don't work on it, the bastard is too cunning for that, it has already marked Rina as a threat. 

Waiting for an opportunity is not possible too. Fena, Yelo, and Bron will soon reach limits, not to forget Yelo and Bron tire out quickly....we don't have the manpower needed to stall for time. We have to create that opportunity. 

Same trick won't work........ the same trick?  

"Yelo, Bron, help Fena!" I yelled at the Cheetahs. They charged toward the spider in order to do what they are best at. Distracting and buying time. Obviously, Fena still has to take the most attacks but it will lessen the burden on her if only a bit. 

I called Rina, she used her psychokinesis to fly straight to me.

.

.

".............It could be dangerous, but... you're right. We can't stall for long. Fena might last a while longer, but Yelo and Bron's stamina won't last much." 

"It will work, that creature, it's intelligent, I'd say equal to or more than humans ..............*exhale* Relax, I need to be at least that close for my skill to work, besides, if it fails, you can always pull me away, right."

"........ Understood."

While I was filling in Rina, a constant back and forth was going between the beasts and a monster. 

The spider attacked relentlessly with the piercing tips of its leg, and the Cheetahs avoided those attacks by hair's breadth. The spider's attacks, even though they are too fast for the cheetahs to handle, were holding up, partly due to their own agility and partly because Rina was redirecting some of its attacks.

Left. Right. Right. Front. Left. Left. Right. Back. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. Left. Back. Left. Right. Right. Front. Left. Left. Right. Back. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. Left. Back.

It attacked in all directions with its long piercing legs and acids. Yelo dodged, simultaneously, Bron and Fena slash with their claws. But it pivoted around and swiftly crawled away, it distanced itself. It's analyzing Yelo and Bron, the new enemies, which it didn't expect, to be on par with its incredible speed. 

 

Yelo, Bron and Fena retreat back to me, to take a breath, they huffed, the spider glared, didn't charge, an unspoken peace, a moment of silence dawned in this bleak arena. 

I ordered the Cheetahs to charge only at my command in a way I told them to. And gave Fena, an 'additional' command.

*Exhale*

 We all charged toward the spider.

The spider shuffled its legs and readied itself to face its enemies. 

"Go!"

"RWAAAWRRRRR"

"RAWWRRRRRRRRRRR"

The Cheetahs, overtake all of us, including Fena, and this time, they charge at it with an intent to strike. Fena split from us and sprinted to the right.

The spider spat acids on the Cheetahs to stop their charge, but they zig-zagged it. Perk of speed. 

Upon reaching closer to the giant spider, they too split in both directions.

It shifted its giant body towards Bron on the left and charged at her. Maybe thinking of taking out one enemy at a time. 

Bron has a fierce personality so are her attacks, she deals a lot more damage than Yelo. The fucking spider even analyzed that right and chose Bron to eliminate first.

'It does think quite well for a spider. With its tough exoskeleton, which even Fena's fangs can barely scratch, it will actually have no problem even if Bron and Yelo simultaneously try to slash it with their claw, but it's still wary of them, even though they actually are not even close to its level, its still wary of them.'

It is as if someone taught this spider to not underestimate the beasts. I can very well guess who it was. Bruce Williams...

"FENAAA!!"

"GRRRRR"

Bron halted her charge, abruptly. Right then, Fena flickered and  instantly appeared beside the spider, closing all the distance between them in an instant with a green trail of bioelectricity behind her. With all that momentum, she slammed her whole body sideways at the giant spider. Of course, once again, the Cheetahs were decoys. The spider's knees bend on the opposite due to impact, it stumbled to regain balance.

This was Fena's trump card, [Boost mode], with this she can temporarily increase her speed and strength by tens of folds. To surprise the spider, I told her to use it at this moment. She used it to instantly close the distance. And with that enormous speed, coupled with her weight, increased the impact even more. 

'It must've hurt her too, maybe a lot, but  I hope she does what I told to do next.'  

The Spider, due to its massive inertia, stumbled only a little. Fena readied her Fire breath, which in boost mode should significantly harm that spider. It quickly got the balance and tried to retreat back. As expected from an overly wary enemy, it again chose to retreat rather than counter.

But from its behind, another giant boulder was floating in the air, ready to crush it once again. It noticed it this time and tried to creep in other directions.

But, on its right, Fena is ready to blow it up with her fire breath. On its left, Bron is leaping to claw its eyes out and Rina, with another boulder above her, is ready to crush it with it. On its behind, is Yelo. And, I, am darting from the front. 

Seeing itself surrounded from all directions, it leapt over me, in a backflip.  

'It hopped in a backflip so it could see its enemies' movements, huh.' 

'Fucking cunning bastard.'

My lips curl up....... in a crescent smile.

'But This moment...'

This was the moment I was waiting for......... 

I knew it would be like this...

It's clever, it knows when to retreat and when to strike. It knows to avoid Fena at all costs in her [Boost Mode], it remembers all her skills potential damage increases by tens of folds too. It knows that her fire breath will surely cause significant damage this time, which even its web shield wouldn't block.

It leapt above me, surely because it judged me the weakest. The spider certainly is right. My stats are too low to consider me the strongest. After all, all I did this whole time was run around, and it was already aware of Fena's strength, got crushed by Rina's psychokinesis, and witnessed cheetahs' speed. Surely, finding the odd one wasn't that hard. It certainly made the right choice to leap over me, get the distance and then attack.

But right now, it's up in the air, providing it with no support against Rina's psychokinesis. 

Thus, making it... her 'puppet'. 

But even so, she can do it for a few seconds.

It is giant, or in other words, it's heavy. It can't be lifted directly from the ground with just Rina's psychokinesis, reason, the same that was with those Arachnes, the tip of its legs is sharp and piercing. It is so  pointed that when it walks, it punctures a bit of the ground, or the walls, enabling it to walk on both.  These spider type monster are nearly impossible to uplift from the ground as they are basically rooted on the ground. And uprooting this giant bastard from the ground was hopeless at her current level.

That's why we had to make it so it would leave the ground on its own. Our all out charge, even if only a bit, gave it a surprise. Adding Fena's full powered slam and then getting surrounded, all that added surprise turned into panic and it could only think of one effective option, leap away and  gain distance.

Since it so willingly leapt above me, Rina suspended it in mid-air and turned it over so that its stomach..... or in other words, the part where its soul stone was located, was downward, in my direction, in my sight, in front of my finger that aimed at it... The spider could do nothing but wiggle its creepy long legs, and spew acids aimlessly and frantically. 

I am just below it... an area most prone to its acid attacks, but Rina is there, even with one eye bandaged she did both tasks. Holding the Spider and redirecting its acid spits.

This is it........

..........................................this is the moment I was waiting for...

 

" < D I S I N T E G R A T E > ".