Chapter 215: Hard Mode

In the Underground Chambers.

Within a circle of soft green light, ten well-equipped players were sprinting headlong for the crossroads up ahead. From the confident pace of their advance, one could tell that this group—the first one to make it down into the underground chambers—were far from a bunch of green novices.

Suddenly!

A Bowmaster, in charge of watching their rear, gave a soft call for everyone to halt. Silently, he signaled, ‘ Listen!’

‘What is it?’

Several players in the group looked about in confusion.

“Shh… seems like there might be something behind us.”

The Bowmaster kept his voice very low, and as he leaned over slightly, the league emblem on his leather chestpiece was revealed—a ghoul’s claw in flames upon a clear background.

Besides the Bowmaster, the other nine players in the party were also members of Netherspirit’s Claw League. Seeing the Bowmaster’s solemn expression, everyone held in their breath and began listening hard.

Yet the sound was just too faint, and no one could quite make it out: it sounded a bit like a horde of Violetwing Venomspiders, but it could also be the rumbling movement of Chameleon Spiders.

“It is somewhat odd… could they be pursuing us?” a Steel Berserker asked from the head of the group.

Off to the side, a Summoner shook his head. “Doesn’t sound like it… but then, today has been one surprise after another. Why don’t we head back for a look?”

No sooner had the words issued from his mouth when someone snapped in reply, “No way!”

The one who’d spoken was a young man—an Elementalist, clad in more Gold Equipment than anyone else in the party, and apparently their leader.

Coldly, he shot down the Summoner’s suggestion.

“We can’t turn back anymore, it’ll mess up the order of the coming battles. It took us great effort to figure out the first and second wave of attacks we’d face here. To falter now over a bit of wild speculation… if we lose our step and fall to the very first wave, then all that hard work will be wasted!”

Hearing this, the other nine nodded in silence. The Bowmaster could only dismiss his curiosity over the strange noises coming from behind, and fall into step with the rest of the party as they continued towards their destination.

A few minutes later, the Bowmaster quickly shone the Illuminating Crystal back and forth, and then hurried back the way he’d come.

*Thud!*

*Buzz!*

Like an enraged wasp nest, Chameleon Spiders and Violetwing Venomspiders poured out from every direction. Merging into an endless stream of monstrous spiders, they swarmed over every surface as they flooded down the corridor.

The members of Netherspirit’s Claw could act in perfect unison. Without a word, they split into two five-man groups, each group facing opposite directions along the corridor. In one group, both Elementalists had prepared their spell defenses in advance, and the instant the monstrous spiders rushed in, they would unleash a combined magical onslaught that would transform the entire corridor into a death-trap!

Meteor Shower!

Howling Gale!

That was not all. The Pyromancer also filled the corridor with multiple Pyroramparts, lined up in neat rows, further damaging the monstrous spiders.

Beyond the storm of spells, a Summoner, a Priest, and a Steel Berserker, accompanied by the Tier 4 beast conjured by the Summoner, watched warily as a few Chameleon Spiders made to break through the magical bombardment. With a subtle shift in position followed by a coordinated advance, they boxed in the spiders and forced them back into the maelstrom.

Ten seconds later!

The other group of five went from nervous, to bewildered, to completely befuddled. Standing together, they waited for about half a minute before the panic well and truly set in.

Why was it so different from before?

The other group was raising hell in furious combat, but they too began to notice that the other group was basically sitting on their hands. There was a complete lack of activity in the corridor behind them, and it was unnerving.

However, none of the five would relax their guard for even an instant. No one could really say for sure that in the next moment there would not suddenly be a massive swarm of Violetwing Venomspiders flying out from the darkness, or perhaps a clattering mob of Chameleon Spiders. Worse, there was the lurking possibility that this situation meant the presence of a Deathvenom Spider or a Gorefiend Spider Demon.

As such, not only did the two Elementalists not dare to withdraw from the intense battle raging nearby, they had to constantly keep tabs on their surroundings, ready to unleash another barrage of spells at any moment.

The other three comprised a Bowmaster, a Priest, and a Titanwraith Berserker, and all three of them were just like the Elementalists—their nervous gazes locked upon the shadowy depths of the corridor ahead, not daring to let down their guard for even an instant.

But there was no way they could have imagined that, not five minutes after they had arrived in here, Qin Ruo and company had entered as well, upon which they had proceeded to intercept all the spiders in that direction.

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***

Although Qin Ruo’s party of ten had been barely managing to keep it together since the moment they had arrived down here, through their combined efforts they’d managed to stand resolute against the incoming onslaught. When Burning Rose cast her Meteor Shower, and Dinosaurcerer followed with a Souldrain Mist, the tides of battle turned in their favor!

Among the three AoE spells being sustained, Qin Ruo’s had the greatest magical effect and damage. Combined with Burning Rose’s Meteor Shower, Dinosaurcerer’s Souldrain Mist, and the corrosive magic produced by the Death Toad that Dinosaurcerer had summoned, the grand majority of Violetwing Venomspiders and Chameleon Spiders lost nearly half their HP before they had even gotten within reach.

Slayer’s Heart, Little Apple, and Wang Da together formed a wall and casually kept the spiders from escaping the spells’ areas of effect. It was as though they were pushing the monsters into an enormous meat grinder, which was continuously chewing up all the spiders being drawn in by the action.

After a few minutes of this, the entire corridor had been cleared of spiders entirely!

The loot wasn’t much, but for those first-time visitors such as Wang Da, it was more than enough!

Although it was all unremarkable vendor trash of no great value, altogether it totaled up to a hefty sum indeed.

Having dealt with this bunch of spiders, the party did not hang around, but instead headed deeper down the corridor straight away. Knowing there was another player party which had gone in ahead of them, they obviously could not linger in place for too long—if the party ahead of them could very rapidly clear their way through the first wave of monsters, it was quite likely that the second, more difficult wave would be coming soon enough!

Although Slayer’s Heart and Qin Ruo had no shortage of faith in their abilities, Wang Da and the others meanwhile had basically never experienced this level of combat. If anyone made a mistake, no good could come of it—it would be best to proceed surely and steadily.

What they did not realize was that even as they made their way down the corridor, the path behind them—which they had only just cleared of monsters—was quickly filling up again with Chameleon Spiders and Violetwing Venomspiders.

At the junction of passageways, Netherspirit’s Claw party was about to face their greatest challenge—the Deathvenom Spider! Reeking with the foul smell of rotting corpses, it had everybody positively spooked!

It was just somewhat odd that the Deathvenom Spider would arrive from the direction where all the devastatingly powerful spells were being laid down; meanwhile, the situation remained quiet in the other direction…

Under these circumstances, the Elementalist leading the party finally gave a signal: from the second group, the Bowmaster ventured back up the corridor for about a hundred meters or so to watch their backs, while the remaining four turned to join the battle against the Deathvenom Spider.

With the addition of those four, the tension relaxed a little on that side. One of the Elementalists used one Earthrampart after another to keep the Deathvenom Spider at twenty meters’ distance, forcing it to eat the full force of the Meteor Shower and most of the Holy Flame.

The Deathvenom Spider’s lot in life seemed to have become rather depressing!

What none of them expected was…

Just as they had taken the Deathvenom Spider down to half HP or so, from amongst the swarm of spiders ahead there suddenly emerged the form of a large and sensuous demon (as long as you did not look up at its skull).

“Gorefiend Spider Demon!”

“Oh, hell!”

“Why are there two Tier 4 Elite Minibosses at once?”

“I’ll say!”

This was a nasty shock for the ten members of the Netherspirit’s Claw league. The Terramancer frantically threw up an Earthrampart in front of the Gorefiend Spider Demon as well.

Who would have thought!

The Gorefiend Spider Demon was not cut from the same cloth as the Deathvenom Spider—although the Deathvenom Spider’s attacks were more fearsome, the Spider Demon was ultimately a humanoid-type boss. As soon as the Earthrampart was raised, the Demon emitted six rays of sickly green light from atop its enormous, hideous skull, accompanied by a series of thunderclaps as they shot out.

The Earthrampart was immediately smashed to pieces!

And then, several green trails of laser light, fast as lightning, lanced across the body of the nearest Steel Berserker.

At the same time, a dense Darkmist issued forth from the Gorefiend Spider Demon’s body, rapidly spreading out in all directions.

“Damn it all!”

“Quick! Dispel it!”

The Terramancer lost sight of the Deathvenom Spider, and had no way to continue obstructing its advance with Earthramparts. In panicked desperation, he repeatedly shouted, “Hurry! Hurry!”

Within the party, two Radiant Priests had just finished casting their healing magic upon the Berserker who’d been hit, and now they rushed to dispel the Demon’s magic—but these brief two seconds of delay cost the party their ability to control the battlefield.

A volley of poison needles whistled through the air, and scored direct hits against the first of the Radiant Priests to finish casting Dispel. And then, as the Darkmist was cleared away, the horrifying visage of the Deathvenom Spider was revealed. The stench of rotting flesh drew hordes of spiders in its wake, already descending upon the party’s frontline.

And who knows when the Gorefiend Spider Demon had made it past all the powerful spells that had been in its path…

As the situation collapsed into chaos, both of the Tier 4 Elite Minibosses, along with massed hordes of Tier 4 Intermediate monstrous spiders, consumed the entire ten-man party in the space of a moment.

The battle was over. The Gorefiend Spider Demon and the Deathvenom Spider raised their heads, putrid green eyes glowing eerily in the darkness, as they turned their attention towards what lay further up the corridor.