The massive spider lood above the street before , like so sort of bone and flesh abomination, and I glanced back at the ongoing fight between my friends and the flesh giants.
We had yet to kill off three of the flesh giants, and most of the skeletal warriors and archers had been downed. We were still a minute away from cleaning up the first wave of enemies, but the second wave of enemies had already arrived. We had no more ti.
Could we run away?
I looked at the massive spider that seed to zip forward, and my heart clenched.
We wouldn’t be outrunning this thing anyti soon.
I growled at the creature. Even with full essence, I probably couldn’t extinguish this thing. Its life force was too high for to manage a kill without reaching advanced grade or higher for my attunent. The only relief was that its life force was still much weaker than the tree root’s life force. It probably wouldn’t whip out new abilities one after another during the fight.
I glanced at my three friends again, and confird that they were winning the fight against the flesh giants. I gritted my teeth, and sprinted towards the bone and tendon spider.
I was going to keep this thing busy until my friends could help kill it. I doubted I could down this thing, but I could at least hold it off.
I just needed to survive while poking it in the limbs several tis.
The bone spider sprinted towards like a train made of bones and hate. Its speed was nearly too much for to track, even with my higher perception - there seed to be so sort of blur to its motions that made it harder for to see it.
At least its limbs didn’t look anywhere near as strong as those of the flesh giant.
It seed fast, but weak.
The blur around its limbs that made it hard to track suddenly beca stronger, and I withdrew backwards.
Before I could process what was happening, I saw the spider’s limb inside of my dress, its massive limbs and face only a ter away from my own.
If it had been able to cut through my dress, I would have died before I even realized what was happening.
But my dress could block it.
I felt a mad grin tug at my lips, even though the creature was hard to see and hard to track with my eyes.
I could teleport, and my dress could keep safe. I could do this..
The spider dragged its limb out of my dress and then leapt towards , trying to rip my head off with its razor sharp, bony mandibles.
Sine there was no way my muscles could keep up with the thing’s speed, I teleported a few ters to the left, and then tried to stab one of its bony limbs with my umbrella.
The spider imdiately pulled its legs out of the way, neatly dodging my attack, and then spat a glob of green acid at .
I teleported on top of the creature, again. Before I could try to stab it, the creature bucked, sending sailing into the air as I tried to orient myself.
While I was still in midair, I suddenly realized the spider was sailing towards . The damn thing could jump!
I teleported away, narrowly avoiding getting torn into ribbons, and ended up on the street behind the spider.
I cursed.
The biggest problem with fighting this thing was that my reactions just weren’t fast enough. I couldn’t land a hit. I could barely keep up with its actions, even with my teleportation. And whatever was making its limbs hard to see, it was a massive pain in the neck.
The bone spider landed on the street, pseudo-concrete and buildings collapsing under the sheer weight of the spider’s body. I grimaced, and teleported closer again.
If I kept teleporting around, I would run out of absorption essence sooner or later. I was already down to about half of my absorption pool. I needed to at least slow this thing down. If I could just destroy a leg or two, I would have no problem holding it off until the others finished up their fight.
My physical abilities clearly weren’t enough. So I pointed my umbrella at one of the spider’s limbs, and unleashed a lightning bolt at one of its legs, chewing through half of my remaining absorption essence. At the sa ti, I prepared to alter the trajectory of the lightning in midair using the umbrella - I didn’t doubt for a second that this thing could dodge a magic lightning bolt.
For a mont, the spider looked like it was about to slide past my attack, and I saw its limbs start to blur and blend into their surroundings. I prepared to move the lightning bolt, and prayed that I would hit my target - and then, I felt the tarot deck I had equipped start to burn, almost as if I had a heater connected to my item slot, instead of a deck of cards. Instinctively, I knew what had just happened.
The Chariot card had co into effect.
Suddenly, the overwhelmingly fast spider slowed down, as if soone had hit the ‘slow motion’ button on the entire fight. The spider looked like it was wading through molasses now. Its blurry limbs suddenly beca easily visible again.
I felt my tarot deck burn again, and instinctively knew the Strength card had just activated.
Right before my lightning bolt struck.
My lightning bolt ripped into the creature’s bones, turning one of the legs into a splintered ss of bones and sinew. My lightning bolt cut all the way through the first leg and ripped into a second leg, although it didn’t completely annihilate the limb.
I finally had ti to observe what the strength card had done. The creature seed weaker. Its bones were softer than before - Strength seed to have reduced the spider’s defenses and made its body weaker.
I blinked.
I had originally thought that the Tarot deck had a ridiculously long cooldown… but right now, it was also proving just how potent its curses were. The creature that probably outclassed by at least three grades in Agility now looked like a drunken snail.
The Tarot deck might have a five year cooldown between uses, but it was clearly strong enough to be useful despite that drawback.
I teleported onto the top of the spider again, and this ti, it didn’t have the speed or strength it needed to throw off of it. I quickly took my umbrella, and stabbed into the now soft bones of its injured leg, and managed to shear it off after a few stabs. I felt the urge to cackle.
I hadn’t given my tarot deck anywhere near enough credit.
A few monts later, I felt another feeling of heat radiate out from the tarot deck that was attached to my soul.
The Chariot would be ending soon.
I quickly took the opportunity to stab one of its legs one last ti, chipping the softened bones a bit, and then teleported away.
The spider reeled in surprise as it found two of its legs had been destroyed nearly instantly, at least from its perspective.
It shrieked in rage, and then started to slide to the left. I had taken off the two front legs on its left side, and the creature seed to be struggling to keep its balance now.
Just as I was feeling satisfied with myself, a fireball ripped through the air and disappeared into my dress, drawing my attention to the left.
The last two spellcasters and flesh giants in the area had reinforced the enemy while I was distracted. There were only a few skeletal minions with them - their squad seed to be smaller than the last three, thankfully.
I glanced back at my friends. They had felled two of the flesh giants, and were a couple seconds away from killing the last one. Their fight had basically ended.
I gritted my teeth, and turned back towards the now six-legged bone spider.
We could do this.
“Enemy reinforcents here! Help !” I yelled as I started dropping the few skeletal archers and warriors.
I felt that we could handle this, but there was no freaking way I could handle the spider, two spellcasters, and two flesh giants at the sa ti. My essence reserves wouldn’t last that long, and my reflexes weren’t good enough to keep alive against the spider and two spellcasters, either.
From the corner of my eye, I saw the last flesh giant from the last wave drop dead as Sallia decapitated it with a bone wave. The mont it collapsed, Sallia started charging to my side.
“What’s going on with the spider? It slowed down a lot partway through your fight,” asked Sallia, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Sallia had noticed the Spider’s crippling slowness. Even though my three friends had been caught up in their own fight, Sallia had been watching to make sure she could step in if I got into a situation I couldn’t handle.
“It’s fast, but weak for its size. The Tarot deck’s curses hit it really hard. Chariot is spent, strength makes it weaker and squishier. Justice hasn't been activated yet,” I said.
“Got it. Leave the spider to . You get the casters, but stay safe. You spent a lot of essence already!” said Sallia.
A mont later, Sallia sprinted towards the spider. The creature had finally adjusted to its missing legs, and let out another ear-breaking screech. Sallia imdiately sent a wood and bone wave at its legs, which the creature nimbly dodged, and then Sallia was in its face a second later. The massive legs and overwhelming speed that I could barely deal with were far more manageable for her, and while the fight was nearly fast enough that I couldn’t track it, I could certainly see Sallia blocking the spider’s bladelike limbs with her sword as the two tangled in a blur of limbs, blades, and shards of wood and bone.
Sallia looked like she was doing fine. I grinned, and teleported towards the spellcasters. The flesh giants imdiately whirled around, breaking off their charge to try to protect the spellcasters - which gave Anise and Felix enough ti to start spraying the spellcasters with magic missiles and tal fragnts. One of the spellcasters got clipped in the head by a magic missile and nearly collapsed, while I stabbed the other with my umbrella.
I felt sothing from the side.
I whirled around, opening my umbrella to et the spell of the other spellcaster…
At least, I tried to open my umbrella.
Unfortunately, my left arm was still paste.
A fireball crashed into my torso. Most of it was caught by my dress, but the rim of it spilled over my dress and crashed into my neck, causing to gasp in pain as scorching heat and force ripped into my neck and collarbone. I felt burning heat in my throat… before my lungs and throat stopped working entirely.
I tried to suck in a deep breath, failed to, and started panicking, dropping my umbrella as I clawed at my burnt throat with my one good arm.
I saw Sallia’s eyes widen in the distance, and she imdiately threw her sword like a javelin, tearing into the one remaining spellcaster’s head and killing it. Sallia took a bad hit from the spider, and her wandering swordsman’s robe fell apart like soggy paper, allowing the spider to drive its limb through her stomach and impale her, planting her into the ground.
I felt a wave of panic surge through , driving away my thoughts of my own ruined neck as I prepared to throw everything at the spider.
I felt my tarot deck heat up again, and suddenly, a massive injury appeared in the middle of the spider’s stomach, as well. It didn’t heal Sallia or protect her, but it reflected the exact sa damage the spider had done to her.
It was the Justice card. Apparently, it created so sort of reflected damage effect. The spider reeled in pain, its spearlike limb loosing as it thrashed and writhed in pain.
For just a mont, the spider was distracted, giving Sallia ti to dematerialize her sword, rematerialize it in her hand, and chop off the leg pinning her to the ground. The spider shrieked again, before it backed up, stumbled, and spewed a splash of green liquid at Sallia - which she reflected with her sword’s ability, sending the splash of acid right back at the spider. It landed on the creature’s face. Anise and Felix slamd a few magic missiles and tal shards into the creature’s head, finally dropping it as Sallia coughed and retched blood onto the street and I tried to breathe through my ruined through.
I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t-
“Miria! It’s the Market! You’re fine!” yelled Felix.
I paused, looked at the dead skeletal mages near , and tried to curse. The only sound that ca out of my ruined throat was a warbling coughing sound, but I was ashad to realize Felix was right.
I was panicking over nothing. Breathing didn’t matter here.
I eyed the two flesh giants, who seed confused by the sudden turn of events. Both spellcasters that they were supposed to protect were dead, and the giant spider was also dead. Before they could react, I teleported away from the two flesh giants, returned my umbrella to my hand, and sent a lightning bolt into the face of one of the two remaining flesh giants, chewing through almost every last drop of absorption essence.
Sallia lifted herself up, pointed her sword at the flesh giant I had hit, and cut it down with a wave of wood and bone, before Felix finished off the last flesh giant using the horribly beaten up executioner’s axe he had started out the battle with.
I looked at my friends, and then myself, trying to assess what had happened.
Sallia’s injury was bad, and might have been worrying - if we weren’t in the Market. I was pretty sure she had lost a few parts of her intestine, but in the Market, most of our organs didn’t actually seem that necessary apart from our brain. My injuries were also bad, but since I didn’t need to breathe they weren’t that big of a deal. I would get a new throat when we reincarnated anyway.
Anise and Felix were uninjured. The only remaining enemy was the final bone spider, which was still guarding the pool of reincarnation in the distance.
I felt a grin start to form on my burnt lips.
It was too late for it to reinforce its friends, and there were no other threats nearby. We could just wait for my alteration essence to recover and then I could extinguish the final spider with no threat to us.
We still had to finish off the final bone spider, but it shouldn’t be a threat to us. We had won.
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