The two spider sentinels spit their acid attack at Zoe and the other players, hoping to take them down. The Female knight, Brawler, and mage maneuvered around to avoid the acid splash. They jumped and stepped all over the area, narrowly dodging the super corrosive material being vomited out of the sentinels’ bodies.

  Seeing how their acid wasn’t working, one of the sentinel's changed tactics and swapped out their acid spit for web spit. A long strand of web shot out the sentinel’s mouth and barreled toward one of the players causing them trouble; the brawler.

  Kane easily saw the web attack and moved to the side. However, he was too slow and the web managed to glue itself onto his shoulder. He jerked back from the force, nearly falling over if he hadn’t corrected his position in time.

  But that wasn’t the end of the sentinel’s assault. The moment it realized that it managed to catch one of its prey, it immediately took action and pulled the brawler toward it. Kane yelped while getting dragged away by the spider sentinel, close to becoming its next meal.

  The brawler attempted to break free from the sticky binding, but he made a rookie mistake and touched the webs, inevitably getting his hands caught in the substance as well. This action further solidified his fate to be turned into the spider sentinel’s food.

  That was until the mage from before stepped in and saved him. As the brawler was being dragged by the web, getting closer to the massive eight-legged thing of nightmares, the mage took action and fired several mana bolts at the web, severing the connection.

  Being free from the web, Kane flopped on the ground before pulling himself up and hastily moving away from the monster, not wanting to take any chances. The sentinel screeched irritably before turning its glare onto the mage that took away its meal.

  She responded by waving her gnarled staff at the monster as if inciting the spider sentinel to attack her. That seemed to have done the job because the sentinel growled while charging at her. It thrust one of its legs forward, sending it straight toward the mage.

  Before it could make contact, Kane suddenly appeared and punched the leg away just in time. Seeing the opportunity, the mage also stepped in to help, casting several more mana bolts and firing them at the sentinel’s body. Their combined efforts pushed the monster back, putting some space between the two parties.

  Meanwhile, Zoe and the first Sentinel were fighting one-on-one without either of their allies assisting them. The spider sentinel swung one of its legs at the knight, attempting to swat its enemy to the side and weaker her. This failed when she ducked before swinging her sword and hurling another aura slash attack again.

  The attack made contact, gouging out a portion of the sentinel’s torso. A howl of pain came from the beast as it slammed the ground with its legs, kicking up large pieces of debris and rocks. Zoe maneuvered around the falling debris, moving closer to the monster in an attempt to take it down.

  The sentinel appeared to be one step ahead of her as it smashed one of its limbs against the ground again, not only causing a minor tremor but also kicking up more large pieces of rocks that obstructed the knight from moving in for the kill.

  Even when she used her aura slash attack to cut one of the rocks descending upon her, more of them made an appearance after, forcing her to retreat and avoid getting crushed. She blurred away in the blink of an eye. The skill looked similar to Astrid’s [Quick Step] skill.

  Moving away, the knight attempted to try another method of attacking the beast, which was striking it from a distance with her aura slash. The blue crescent aura blades zipped toward the monster like an incoming tsunami, striking its target in multiple parts of its body from its legs, torso, and its head.

  Green blood spilled from the sentinel’s various wounds. Even so, the monster didn’t relent against the knight player as it angrily glared at its enemy with disdain and a newfound hatred. Momentarily pulling its attention away from Zoe, the sentinel called out to its sibling, as if asking for assistance.

  The sentinel sibling responded, ignoring the other two players, and joined it. With both sentinels together, they then spit their webs at the knight. However, instead of the traditional web thread being launched like a cannon, the spider sentinels seemed to have adapted and made something different and more effective.

  Spinning the two threads together, the sentinels crafted a makeshift web net and threw it at Zoe. The knight braced herself, raising her sword in preparation to cut the net into ribbons. It was when she did this that the sentinels pulled out another tactic from their web bag of tricks. With their prey focused on the net, they immediately vomited acid at her. The green liquid shot out like a water hose and went straight for its target.

  Although the Knight only realized their true intention late, she still had enough time to move out of the way. However, despite avoiding the acid, she still got caught up in a piece of the web. The webnet snagged her down and trapped her on the ground. Just as her back slammed against the stone street, her sword fell out of her hand and clattered on the road out of her reach.

  Seeing the knight finally pinned and defenseless, the two spider sentinels eagerly screeched with joy while the first one crawled closer to its helpless prey. Before getting too close, Kane appeared once again and burst toward the beast with frightening speed, closing the distance in seconds. And much like before, he reeled his fist back before driving it into the sentinel’s head, sending it tumbling to the ground.

  He glared at the other one as if daring it to try something. “Come on then, you overgrown insect!” He then presented the spider sentinel with the middle finger and made a face. “Come and get me!”

  The sentinel screeched loudly, sending vibrations all over Hazel’s and everyone else's bodies. Enraged by the player’s daring taunt, it ignored the knight and charged at him instead. Seeing this, Kane smiled and rushed in the other direction, keeping the sentinel away from Zoe.

  With neither monster attempting to kill her at the moment, the mage rushed over and assisted Zoe in getting out of the web net. She cast a simple fire spell from her staff, shooting it on one of the threads of the net. The web instantly lit up and burned away, allowing the knight to break free.

  No longer restrained by the spider sentinels’ joint webbing, the mage helped her up and both of them then retreated to catch their breaths if only for a moment. Meanwhile, Kane kept the other sentinel busy while the first one was already recovering from its concussion by the brawler’s previous attack.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “This battle is taking too long,” Hazel muttered, watching the entire battle unfold with her Astral Eye. “If this keeps going, they might call a third sentinel to finish the job.”

  Zoe and the other two players were already struggling with two spider sentinels. If a third one appeared, then it might be game over for them. They needed to end this fight and fast.

  “Help me get up, please,” Hazel told Astrid.

  “What do you plan to do?” She asked nervously.

  “The faster we end this fight, the better. And I have a spell that could prove useful to them if they’ll allow me to help.”

  It only took the dark elf a second to realize what she meant by this before voicing her objection. “You’re seriously planning to use one of those entropy spells to solve this problem? Have you lost it?!”

  “If we don’t do something, then things are only going to get more dangerous for us.”

  Having this battle prolonged any longer would only end in their defeat. Just when Zoe and the other players were about to finish off the first one, the sentinel called a second one to assist it. And Hazel knew for a fact that if they didn’t do something now, then they were dead.

  Astrid stared at Hazel for a moment, likely trying to come up with something to convince her to not go through with her plan. However, she instead simply sighed and helped her up while getting her over to Zoe and the mage.

  Making their way there, both players turned to face them, looking both concerned and confused.

  “I don’t know why you two are here, but you need to stand back,” Zoe declared, motioning them to fall back.

  While Hazel understood why the knight told them this, she couldn’t back down now.

  “If we waste any more time on this, a third sentinel is going to show up. We can help, alright?”

  The mage eyed Hazel, noticing her bleeding eyes and how Astrid was supporting her. Her brows then creased into a brow. “As much as we appreciate your concern, we don’t-”

  Before she could finish, the first spider sentinel finally stood back up and towered over them. Just as the four players noticed, they all scrambled out of the way when one of its legs was raised and descended upon them.

  While being carried in Astrid’s arms, Hazel soon conjured five cursed spears and with the help of Telekinesis, she willed them over to the spider sentinel. Waving her hand up, the spears responded and ascended over the monster. For some reason, though, her hand controlling the spears trembled. It was like she was low on sugar and it was affecting her body. Could the rebound be affecting the rest of her body other than her eyes? The sentinel didn’t seem to have noticed her spell or just didn’t care at the moment as it angrily glared at Zoe, still seeing her as the only threat.

  And that was its first mistake. With the spears high enough in the air, Hazel then slammed her hand down, forcing them to barrel down toward their giant target. Descending like falling stars, spears soon pierced through the sentinel, striking the ground below the monster with an audible thunk.

  Overwhelmed by the pain, the giant eight-legged monster once again fell to the ground, causing a minor quake in the process and kicking up some dust from the crash. A low and pained screech was expelled from the sentinel as it struggled to get up.

  Hazel spun her head to face the Knight, who looked back with a shocked expression.

  “What are you waiting for?!” She snapped. “Kill it!”

  The knight nodded while brandishing her blade. The same blue energy from before pulsed around the sword. Seeing it charged, Zoe charged at the sentinel and jumped in the air, ready to deliver the final blow.

  She swung down and hurled one more Aura Slash at the sentinel, aimed directly at its head. The attack made contact and obliterated it, sending green blood everywhere in the process. As the sentinel’s emerald life essence sprayed in the air, Zoe stood on top of the monster with a cold yet triumphant expression.

  But the battle wasn’t over yet. There was still more spider sentinel to deal with before it was too late.

  As if on cue, Kane started running over to the others with the last sentinel right on his tail. The eight-legged monstrosity screeched at the brawler, prompting him to run faster as if his life depended on it. And in all honesty, it did.

  “Someone kill this thing, already!” He pleaded at the top of his lungs. “None of my punches are doing any lethal damage to it!”

  Taking a closer look at the sentinel as it pursued the brawler, Hazel could confirm that he did land a few more blows on it before coming this way. There were several crater-shaped wounds riddled on its body. But, as Kane said, none of them were quite that lethal to put the monster down.

  Watching the sentinel make its way over to the rest of the, via Kane leading it, Zoe and the mage braced for battle. Meanwhile, Hazel sighed before turning to Astrid.

  “Can you try and blind it?” She asked. “I would normally bind it with telekinesis, but that rebound weakened me a bit. Just moving those spears with the first sentinel took a bit out of me.”

  When Hazel conjured and maneuvered those spears at the spider sentinel, she struggled to focus from the rebound. She could barely keep her hand steady when guiding the spears toward the sentinel, and nearly lost focus in the latter half of her attack, almost ruining their chance to further weaken the monster.

  Because of her current state, she didn’t want to risk trying to restrain the spider sentinel and fail. And she needed a moment to cast the Entropy Sickle spell and clearly wouldn’t have enough time to conjure then hurl it at the enemy.

  Knowing their circumstances, Astrid listened and placed Hazel down before drawing her bow. Then, activating her [Quick Draw] skill, she fired multiple arrows at the spider sentinel, aiming for all eight eyes. The projectiles zipped through the air before hitting their target. Well, most of them anyway.

  Out of the eight arrows she fired, only six of them hit their marks, striking and plunging into the Spider Sentinel’s eyes. The sentinel reeled back and expelled and pained screech with blood dripping from its destroyed crimson eyeballs.

  That moment of pain was what Hazel needed as she managed to conjure the Entropy Sickle as it hovered in front of her. Then, with the help of Telekinesis, she hurled it at the Sentinel. Thanks to Telekinesis, she was able to accelerate the sickle of death fast enough to where it tore through its target with ease.

  The sentinel didn’t even know what happened before its body suddenly collapsed on the ground, shaking the ground for a moment from the collision. Then, its body started turning to dust in seconds.

  Hazel and the others watched as the sentinel slowly faded away into dust and ash, scattering into the wind. With its two remaining eyes that Astrid, unfortunately, failed to hit, it gave the witch one last glare before the rest of its body disintegrated.

  As the last remnants of the spider sentinel vanished into thin air, something rather unexpected happened. The ground once again shook violently, causing everyone to struggle to maintain their balance.

  “I-is another sentinel coming...?!” Kane panicked.

  The last thing they needed was another sentinel to come and attack them after they struggled to kill two of them. A couple of seconds passed before the tremor finally stopped, allowing the players to take a moment of peace. But that peace didn’t last long when Hazel received some rather...disturbing panel messages.

  [The Spider Queen is enraged by the death of her children! The Spider Queen has now recognized you as the culprit of their deaths!]

  [You have been cursed with [The Mark of the Spider Queen]! If you are within range of the Spider Queen, she will be able to sense your presence and send a swarm of her spider children to attack and kill you. The curse has five stages that will plague you. With each stage, the Spider Queen’s range of detecting you will be increased along with the types of children it will send out until you are dead. Upon reaching the final stage of the curse, The Spider Queen herself will take matters into her own hands to chase and kill you!]

  [The first stage of [The Mark of the Spider Queen] will now commence! The spider queen is currently able to sense you within a Five-Hundred-Meter radius! Within that range, she will send Infant Spiders and Spider Sentinels to attack and kill you! The curse can only be broken when either the players marked by the Spider Queen or the Queen herself dies!]

  [Time Remaining until Next Stage: One Day]