Boom! Boom! Booooom!
Explosions rocked the ground as everyone capable of wielding magic on Leon’s side let out what they could. In an instant, a myriad of colors lit up the insides of the cavern, shaking the ground, walls and ceiling so hard that they looked ready to collapsed and crumble.
Hundreds of spiders surged forward, with even more climbing out of the holes and replacing those that had died only moments ago. The wave seemed unending. There were even a few higher tiered spiders mixed in between, but under the heavy bombardment put up by Leon and his summons, they were all killed the same way as their weaker brethren.
Ten minutes passed before the last spider was killed. All this time, the spider queen remained up where she was, watching her children be killed mercilessly. Any spells that had gone her way had met a solid wall spun out of web, and had been deflected no matter what, leaving her unscathed.
“Ohoho! That was an exciting fight!” She clapped her hands excitedly, spinning around on a thin web while laughing. “Can you face the next wave too?” She asked just as the rumble began.
Almost immediately, a multitude of spiders burst out from the holes, swarming all over the place and charging forward. They were met with yet another rain of spells that devastated their ranks.
Leon watched his mana go down to eighty percent with a blank face, but inside, his mind was spinning quickly.
‘She wants us to tire out before she brings out the big guns.’ He deduced from the way the spider queen was calmly watching them. ‘I can’t let her have her way.’ He decided and turned his gaze to her. She also noticed the thick killing intent that was directed to her and turned to face Leon directly. She smiled and wiggled her fingers in a wave.
Zip!
All of a sudden, Leon felt his body go stiff and taut. He then noticed that very tiny threads had snaked their way around his body, slipping past his sharp senses and tying him up. He then looked up and stared closely at the spider queen’s fingers. Sure enough, he could see threads of web tied around her fingertips, leading all the way back to him and Nedra, who was in a similar predicament to himself.
“Hahaha! Did you think I would sit up here all day? I’m hungry!” She laughed and spun around, tugging on the webs to hurl Leon and Nedra up into the air.
Screeeech!
Purple acid formed a curtain, spraying through the air that separated Leon from the spider queen. A few threads cut, but not all. This gave Leon enough leeway to maneuver his body, however, and he quickly used fire magic to burn away the remaining threads.
Nedra, who was in her human form, immediately transformed into her true form, snapping the restrictive threads and freeing herself.
Without speaking, Leon spun around, casting a dome of expanding flames to burn up any hidden webs that may have been lingering.
“Enough of this farce!” He turned up to look at the spider queen, and an expanding wave of purple light shone out of his eye sockets.
“Argh!” The spider queen grunted as she felt a sudden sense of weakness etch itself deep into her body. Her veins were tainted by the debilitating glow, and she felt her strength drop by a considerable margin.
“What did you do? I’ll kill you!” When she finally managed to stabilize herself, only just catching herself from falling form the top of the cavern, she faced Leon with a vicious look. Her beautiful face had morphed into a horrid, eight-eyed monstrosity that dripped with animosity. Eight black eyes glared at Leon as he stared back up with his own irritation.
He did not want to play according to her games, and he wanted to end this as quickly as he could. It seemed she was trying to tire them out before dealing the final blow, but he would not allow that.
The five orbs of fire that had been rotating behind him floated to the front, transforming into five burning spears that radiated death.
“Eat fire, insect!” Leon’s eyes flashed purple as the fire spears turned a shade of purple, before shooting forward.
Boom! Boom!! BOOOM!!!
Stalactites fell from the ceiling of the cavern like spears from the heavens, crashing down and killing even more spiders, but the spider queen was able to escape harm, with not even a lick of flame touching her dark exoskeleton.
She hissed viciously at Leon, and the ground shook. This time, it was much worse than the shaking of before. Cracks spread out under Leon’s feet, and he only had a moment to jump away before eight long, sharp and thin legs protruded from the ground, stabbing upwards where he stood only moments ago.
The circular holes that the spiders had steadily been climbing through suddenly exploded, and widened as giant spiders the size of houses climbed out from them. Five giant spiders of that size made themselves known while thousands of other variants climbed out under them.
Compared to the mere hundreds, the thousands of spiders that poured out of the holes in the ground was much more threatening.
Leon’s mind was firm and his determination did not waver. Of course, he had expected this to happen. After all, was this not how dungeon bosses in all those games had been? Mana boiled within his body, tainted by unholy elements and the various elemental magic that he could harness.
Red, blue, brown, gray, purple, and black lights swirled around him as he brought the full might of his mana to bear. For the first time since he had come to the Island of Fate. The ground shook beneath him and smaller pebbles and rocks began to float a few inches above the ground, with the lighter ones floating higher.
As he unleashed everything, some emotions that he had been suppressing also came up to the front, exposed through his aura.