As soon as Hazel spotted the swarm coming her way, she frantically spun around to face Chegyaeyi.

  “Alright, let’s go, now!” Hazel urgently declared.

  “Right!”

  The Lizardfolk warrior then rushed toward Hazel before picking her up and carrying her princess carry style. Once she was in her arms, Chegyaeyi sprinted toward the Interstate, desperate to get there before it was too late.

  Behind them, Hazel watched the black sea that was the spider swarm getting closer and closer. Maybe a bit too close for Hazel’s liking with their current positions. Despite her anxiety rising, Hazel stayed focused and waited until she and Chegyaeyi were on the interstate.

  Getting closer to their destination, the Lizardfolk warrior immediately jumped, lunging at the bridge. Just to be sure they made it, Hazel flexed her hands and cast Telekinesis on the Spear Dancer, giving her a bit of a boost to ensure that they made it.

  Thanks to that, the lizardfolk warrior leaped in a single bound, easily landing on the interstate bridge. Once Chegyaeyi landed, she immediately placed Hazel down as the pair along with the rest of the players with them got into position for the battle.

  Hazel stared over at the incoming swarm, anxiously watching them getting closer and closer to the Interstate bridge. However, upon looking closely at the wave of spider monsters, she noticed that the numbers were a lot less than she expected. While it was still a sea of black rushing toward them...it wasn’t like a tsunami like the previous two swarms Hazel dealt with.

  Which meant that their plan to split the swarm was working. However, she could only know for sure when she contacted Astrid to see how she and the other checkpoints were fairing.

  For now, though, her focus was on her swarm. Keeping her eyes peeled on the spider wave coming their way, Hazel patiently waited until they got to her cursed minefield. Meanwhile, the other players anxiously watched and waited until it was time to strike.

  The reason why they weren’t doing anything at the moment was because they were waiting for Hazel’s curse bombs to go off first. If they attacked prematurely, they would’ve triggered the bombs before the spiders could get close enough to them, practically making all of her efforts in planting them pointless.

  It didn’t take long before the swarm was within range of the cursed bombs, but Hazel hadn’t set them off yet. They were close, but those eight-legged bastards weren’t all over the bombs. A few seconds passed before a good majority of her bombs were blanketed by the wave of spiders crawling over them. A few more and the spiders were now a few meters from the bridge.

  And that was when Hazel finally took action. She then raised her hand and pressed her middle finger and thumb against one another. A moment later, she then snapped her fingers and triggered the bombs.

  What happened next could only be described as a chorus of explosions along with the various screeching noises of the numerous dying spiders getting caught up in the blast. This was also followed by a stream of kill notifications filling Hazel’s vision, practically blocking her view of the majestic yet destructive scene taking place before her.

  Hazel mentally dismissed the notification, not wanting to get distracted by them and miss something crucial. Upon doing so, she then heard Chegyaeyi shout at the other players.

  “Fire!” She roared with determination.

  The other players proceeded to cast and fire numerous spells and arrows at the swarm, determined to take down as many spiders as possible. Hazel watched various explosions and the like transpire before her very eyes as the swarm was being destroyed in the assault.

  However, it wasn’t enough. Amid the chaos, Hazel spotted several of the spiders miraculously move past the spell and arrow barrage and moved closer to the bridge, determined to climb up and kill the players on it.

  Seeing this, Hazel knew their next move and looked over at the players near her.

  “Any mages that can cast a firewall, do it now!”

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  Hearing her order, several mages sprinted toward the edge of the bridge. They then raised their staves or wands and cast the Firewall spell, placing it on the street in front of the bridge, mere inches away from the spiders that were crawling closer to it.

  The wall of flame blazed to life, igniting in a swift yet powerful explosion. Despite seeing the fire barrier being erected before them, the spiders didn’t relent and simply moved forward, determined to get to the players. This resulted in the eight-legged monsters going through the wall, only to come out completely burnt to a crisp as smoke emanated from their charred corpses.

  Hazel could hear the pained screeches from the spiders as their bodies sizzled and burned from the intense heat of the firewall. It reminded her of when she witnessed the first wave of spiders getting burned alive when they fearlessly walked through the wall of fire, inevitably dying at the hands of the flame they crossed through.

  Thanks to the blazing firewall, they were able to keep the spider swarm at bay. The majority of the spiders were enduring a hail of projectiles from giant fireballs to blades of wind, to even mana bolts along with various enchanted arrows and the like raining down on them. As for the ones that managed to survive that malicious onslaught and move past it, they would then have to deal with the wall of fire blocking their path.

  So far, the strategy was working. Not only were the players holding their own against the spider swarm, but they were actually reducing their numbers quite a bit. That was because Hazel knew that there weren’t as many of the queen’s children as before. If there were, their attacks would barely put a dent in the swarm’s numbers.

  It would’ve been like taking water out of the sea with a bucket. It would hardly make a difference due to how massive the sea was. In their current situation, they were taking water out of a tub with a slightly small bucket, in a sense. While the process was long, Hazel and the other players were still doing something.

  As the fight raged on, Hazel assisted in the battle by firing multiple mana bolts into the swarm. While she wanted to use her Cursed spear spell, she could only summon around five at the moment before hitting a cooldown.

  Of course, there were also her curse bombs, but those consumed a considerable amount of her mana if she kept making them the size of a watermelon before throwing them into the crowd. The only spell at her disposal that she could use without worrying about her mana depleting so fast was Mana Bolt.

  Since her Intelligence and Wisdom stat was pretty high, Hazel could effortlessly hurl dozens of mana bolts into the swarm without breaking a sweat. The consumption rate of her mana when using the spell paled in comparison to her mana regeneration rate. Even if she fired over a hundred bolts in a minute, she would’ve barely lost a quarter of her mana from it.

  And in a situation like this, Hazel couldn’t afford to run out of steam in the middle of the fight. If she did along with the rest of the mages, then the situation would instantly turn in the swarm’s favor, and none of them could afford to let that happen.

  While hurling mana bolts at the swarm, Hazel glanced down at the firewall to see how it was going. That was when her face paled when she noticed several of the spiders that passed through the wall looked less burnt than their predecessors. And they were beginning to move closer to the bridge.

  “Dammit,” Hazel clicked her tongue before facing Chegyaeyi. “Hey, some of the spiders managed to get through the wall and are coming over here. Could you and a couple of players deal with them?”

  The lizardfolk nodded. “Understood.” She then turned around and sprinted to the other side of the bridge while gathering some players to follow her.

  Using one of her Astral Eyes, Hazel kept an eye on Chegyaeyi to make sure that everything was fine on her end. Since they weren’t part of a party, they couldn’t communicate with the Chat Room feature.

  With her Astral Eye trained on them, Hazel watched Chegyaeyi and the other players jump down the bridge and land on the street of Forest Avenue. Once they were on ground level, the group of players then faced off against the surviving spiders that miraculously managed to survive both the barrage of spells and arrows along with a blazing wall of fire that would easily burn them to a crisp if they stepped through it.

  One of the spiders that survived lunged at Chegyaeyi, attempting to tackle her to the ground. The lizardfolk warrior moved to the side, dodging its lung before driving her spear into the eight-legged monster’s body. With a single strike, she killed it in an instant.

  Two more spiders soon attacked Chegyaeyi, clearly trying to finish what the first one started. However, the lizardfolk easily dispatched them by slashing her spear at them, decapitating both monsters with ease. Hazel couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.

  That was until she heard the spiders from the swarm, instantly pulling her attention away from Chegyaeyi’s fight against the survivors. Switching visions, Hazel set her sights back on the black swarm that engulfed a good portion of Forest Avenue in front of her before casting more mana bolts in their direction.

  The battle against the swarm continued for a while, giving Hazel and the rest of the players no time to rest. However, little by little, the swarm’s numbers were lessening by the second, and that was enough for Hazel’s group to keep going. As long as they didn’t give up, they would be able to survive against the Queen’s army of spiders.

  Time went by in a flash, and sure enough, they managed to survive through the first wave before being greeted with a familiar message panel.

  [First Wave of the Swarm has been annihilated! Second Wave will commence in Ten minutes. Please leave the range of the Spider Queen if you wish to avoid the second wave.]