Arriving at the deeper, more sinister levels of the dungeon, Haruki and his crew were getting a bit tired from the experimentation on their skills. And so as they moved further in, Haruki kept using the dark light spell to eat up the monster alive with a flesh-devouring miasma.
"How much further do we have to go? We've not seen Kane or the escapee slaves," growing a bit impatient, Riley began complaining.
"Yeah, I'm tired of wandering too," opening up a summoning portal, Haruki decided to make use of his familiars to map out the dungeon instead. "Greater demonic spies!"
Springing out of the portal were countless bat-winged eyes with gouging red eyes. Sticking their slithery tongue out, they began happily revolving around Haruki. Brushing up their heads as pats, he ordered the greater demonic spies to search for Kane as well as the slaves.
"T-they seem much bigger," muttered Margarette, still haunted by the torture she'd been subjected to under those creatures.
"Some of my skills went through an upgrade too it seems, so yeah…they're much bigger, just have to see if they're more useful this way or not," turning around to set up a camp in the open area they were in, a sudden abnormality took Haruki by surprise.
'What…?' Looking over his shoulder, he peered into the darkness that the spies had headed into. Coming from that very direction were deafening screeches blasting off everyone's ears. Thus forced to cover up their ears, all of them quickly went into a defensive stance.
"Someone killed the spies, I can't see through them!" Warning the others, he switched to his demonic form to use his powers more efficiently. "Lose the mask!"
Ordering them to do the same, he clutched onto the sapphire brooch and created a giant wall of ice blocking the monster's path. Whatever the screeching creature was had them on their toes, even if they hadn't caught a single glimpse of it yet.
"Could it be the minotaur?!" Asuka asked, shuddering in her demonic body.
Looking around at the other two he noticed that they'd changed into demons too. Distracted by his own companions, Haruki didn't notice the Arachne crawling out from the slightly open top of the ice wall. However, as the other three noticed the queen of spiders and their eyes widened in shock, Haruki turned around to get a look at the creature.
"You!" The queen screeched at Haruki's party, but as she noticed the collection of lust demons instead of the humans that were killing all her children, she felt a bit perplexed.
'It can speak?' Meeting another monster that could speak after a long time, he felt a strange thrill burst up inside him. 'That damned reaper…'
Reminded of that monster, Haruki let go of the magic shield and created a full suit of armor with the ability Emperor of void.
"Who are you?! And where are those pesky humans?!" Screeching yet again, the queen glared down at Haruki as he conjured up the armor.
"Doesn't matter," gesturing the others to stand back, Haruki leaped upward and sprouted ice blades from his knuckles. "You'd be dead soon anyway!"
Flinging his fist at the queen, he tried to get her right in the face, however, being an Arachne with eight legs, she moved out of the way with incredible haste. The blade stuck into the part of the ceiling the queen had been, Haruki released it off the tip of his knuckles and sprouted up another pair.
"Holy chain binds!" Using the skill, he binded all of her limbs in place, and yet with just a tug on them the queen managed to break free of those luminous chains.
"Who the hell are you?!" Her mouth parting in four, revealed countless sharp teeth sticking out of the inside of her mouth. "I'll feed you to my babies if you don't answer me now!"
The sight of her open mouth almost made Haruki gag, however, as a flaming arrow to her head forced the queen to shut her mouth, he already felt a lot better.
"And keep that vile thing shut!" Margarette warned as she pulled on yet another arrow.
Squeamish from the flame burning her humanoid face, the spider queen violently shook her and flung herself down towards Margarette as the flame whittled away.
"Familiar summon: Lulu!" bringing forth the tentacle monster, Asuka bound the queen once again by the many arms of the slithery creature.
Taking this opportunity to rush the queen, Riley took out her blades and jumped high to give her blades some moment as they thrust into her skin.
"Swiftwind Viper: Poison!" tearing into the queen, Riley made her screech out loud in agony. "We're not done yet!"
Clutching the blades tightly, Riley kicked the queen's back to get some distance from her. And as she forced herself back, she turned to look at the spider queen's face. Noticing a frown paired with the twitching of her eye, Riley knew that the poison had been at least somewhat effective.
"Leave some fun for me," diving down at the queen, Haruki pierced right through her critter-like back. "Body disfiguration!"
Pouring his mana into her, he broke all of the joints in her legs, making her fall helplessly to the ground. And yet despite the continuous assault on her body, the queen, foaming at her mouth in rage, kept glaring at the ones attacking her so far.
"Don't mock me imps!" Screeching yet again, she forced everyone to get away from her. The ear-piercing sounds from her mouth were too much for demons with enhanced senses, and knowing that full well, the queen kept screeching until she could recover her body with the natural affinity of her body to heal itself. "I'm gonna kill you all and then those humans!"
Charging at Haruki, the queen threw her forelegs clawing over him. Unmatched in speed, she managed to slice into Haruki's face, leaving behind a scar that ran across his whole face.
"Tsk!" Jerking himself back, he covered the wound with his hands before healing it with rejuvenation.
Glaring up at her, he hadn't expected her to free herself from the tentacles as well as recover from her wounds so easily.
"How dare you?!" Fuming with rage, Asuka leaped forward and sprang forth countless thorny vines from the miasmic flytrap. "Poison her till her body burns from the inside out!"
Digging into the queen's skin, the vines started pumping her full of acidic poison, and yet despite being gushed in with the toxin, the queen stood tall and simply tore off the vines one after the other.
Watching it all from a small distance, a smile crept up on Haruki's face. So far the monsters they'd fought were weak enough to die from a single spell, but now, as they faced a real threat, he couldn't help but be thrilled about the fight.
"Asuka, Riley, Margarette…" Slowly walking towards the queen, he drew her attention to him and him alone. "Let's warm up our bodies before the real deal."
Creating a pair of gloves with spiked knuckles, Haruki smacked them together. Looking over his shoulder at the rest of his crew, he gave them a smile.
"We're gonna need it before we can face the minotaur king, after all," he said, not realizing that the queen had her claws raised over his body.
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