First Mini Boss, The Spider Queen

The Wandering mercenaries got into their practiced formations, each members getting in teams of four with a team leader. They formed into half circle formations, behind their team leaders, which in turn were formed into a triangle, with Kary standing in the middle of the triangle. Anthony's team was at the front with two guardians and two berserkers. They were to be the main tanking team. Carol was on the right of Kary with one guardian, one swashbuckler, and two swordmasters. They were the first DPS team. Marc on the left also had one swashbuckler, but with two berserkers instead of swordmasters, acting as the second DSP team. The class split up in the game was not as balanced as the game creators wished. Too many people took berserker, with the wish to express their brutality, which they couldn't in the real world.

As they moved forward in the tunnel, they came upon groups of vampire bats, hordes of spiders, and hordes of rats. Since they had trained to fight as one body, they were not so troubled by many enemies, and no major injuries happened. As for the smaller injuries, it was nothing a small rest couldn't cure. It took half an hour of walking forward before they met a tougher enemy.

After walking for a half-hour, they entered a large alcove with, in the center of it, a hole. As they got further inside the alcove, no enemies could be seen, but there was spider web everywhere. They had already crossed two smaller rooms like this one, except for the huge hole. They kept walking forward, only slowing their pace, but the closer they got to the hole in the ground, the more Kary and her lieutenants felt something was wrong.

Their suspicions soon came true, when a huge spikey leg came out of the hole, followed by 3 others. Then came a huge spider's face, with ten eyes, and two big mandibles. When it finally pulled the rest of its ugly body out, a notification sounded out.

" Welcome adventurers, to the mini-boss event. This dungeon had randomly generated enemies and mini-bosses, for added difficulty. This first event is 'The Spider Queen's Nest'. If you complete this event, there will be added benefits at the end of the dungeon. Good luck players "

As the notification ended, Kary yelled to her teammates.

" Back out! We need to get ready before taking her on! "

But the Spider Queen had none of it. When she saw the humans in her nest, trying to back out, she spat out web in direction of the door behind them, blocking it completely. She then screeched loudly, which called out a myriad of spiderlings from the hole behind her, swarming into the room, wave after wave. Kary took command from that point on.

" Form up! Spread out the formation! " Kary shouted. " Team one! Bait the Spider Queen. I'll cover your backs with Jimmy's ax. I want your three shields facing that boss! "

" Yes, Ma'am! " Anthony and his team shouted in unison.

" Carol! Marc! Take your two teams and start killing all the small ones. Make sure you don't let too much slip through you "

" On it, boss " said Marc, heading left.

" Count on us! " Carol threw out, going right.

" Nala, you act as a support. If you see anyone in danger, help them. Don't let anyone die! "

" Yes, master! " Nala answered.

This settling the battle plan, they all fought all out, their lives being on the line. A simple slip in focus could mean their death. Of course, Nala would not let people die on her watch, but that did not mean they were going to relax. The fight went on for a long time, and no progress was being made. Spiderlings kept creeping out from the hole in the ground and the three guardians were barely holding on to the aggro. The Spider Queen kept wanting to charge at Kary. It had long understood she was the head of this group of humans. Kary could be seen often jumping off a spider's back to see the overall situation in the room. With this tactic, she kept all her troops in order, not letting the three teams get separated too much. She knew the distance between them was the key for now. Too close, and they would risk hitting each other, cutting their maneuverability. Too far, and they would get separated and ganged on, risking the lives of all of them.

Right now, victory was still achievable. It all depended on balance. The three teams had their own job, and if one of them fell, the balance would be broken and they were destined to fail. Thus, Kary kept knowledge of everything happening in the room. Keeping everything under a tight grip was her main task. All they had to do, was hold on until they had killed all the spiderlings. From then onwards, they could gang up on the Spider Queen, making it an easy kill.

On each of their sides, the three lieutenants were doing a wonderful job. They were micromanaging their little teams and fighting at the same time. It was evident in their fight right now, that all three were militaries in the real world. Otherwise, their instincts for team combat wouldn't be as sharp. On Nala's side, things were going well too. She was simply dashing in and out of small skirmishes with the spiderlings, taking a burden off the guild members who got in troubling situations.

The fight went on in this manner for 2 hours, before starting to slow down. The spiderlings were getting fewer and fewer, a lot less of them coming out of the nest. Kary kept her eyes peeled for the moment none came out anymore. This moment quickly came to pass. When no spiderlings came out for 30 secondes, Kary smiled viciously. Now was the time. Kary barked out orders again.

" Team two, switch targets, start focusing your attacks on the Spider Queen! "

" Yes, Ma'am! " They answered, finishing their respective targets and spinning around to charge at the Spider Queen.

" Team one, keep killing the spiderlings. Once you're done, get on the boss too! "

" On it, boss! " team one hollered, doubling their killing speed. They refused to let all the fun to their teammates.

" Nala, go on full assault! Kill your way into the nest, but don't get in danger. If anything seems like it's about to turn sour, come back! "

" With pleasure, master! " Nala answered, brutality flashing in her eyes.

Nala took off like a rocket, heading straight into the nest entrance. the Spider Queen seeing her go down, panicked and tried going after her. Unfortunately for her, she was blocked by the guardian squad, all four of them getting in her way, forming a shield wall. Since she had turned around, her back was totally exposed to the assaults of Marc's team, who quickly made her regret that move. Marc and his team had already started hacking and slashing at its hind legs and abdomen.

The men in Marc's team could only slightly damage the legs on each hit, so they went for quantity over quality in their attacks, hitting the same place over and over again as fast as they could. As for Marc, his new ax and cultivation gave him much more strength and potential damage than his team. He could easily cause lacerations on the Spider Queen's abdomen, making her bleed green all over the floor. The Queen refused to take that abuse and spun around again. Only at that moment, Kary took her own bite into the boss, igniting her sword and running through her legs, chopping at the cut marks visible on each leg she crossed. On her way through, she managed to cut two legs cleanly off, and badly hurt two others, forcing the Spider Queen to curl them up, to avoid further damage.

With this, the queen dropped on her abdomen, as she had now lost two legs on each side. This greatly reduced her mobility. Her fate was sealed. Of course, being unable to move, the Spider Queen changed tactics and used her front four legs as weapons instead of two. This made for a funny yet dangerous spectacle, as there were now four large appendages flying around over the guild members' heads. The shield bearers ran back to the front of their teammates, taking the hits for them with their shields.

All this time, team one had been killing spiderlings. They were now done and wanted a part in the killing of the boss. So Kary pulled out team two from this fight and sent them down after Nala. They would help her clear the nest out from any possible threat. The fight entered its final stretch, with Carol and her team haking at the Queen and then backing up behind the shields to cover from her mad barrage of attacks. After another long half-hour of struggle, the Spider Queen finally screeched for the last time, and then her legs curled up under her body. She was officially dead. The party all heard a little tune of victory, followed by a notification.

" Dungeon Notification! Congratulations on completing the first mini-boss event. The event reward will be in the form of a 50% increase in rewards from the final boss, as well as a special reward on final boss kill. Good luck players! "

The boss was dead, but no loot dropped from it or even the spiderlings. So Karry decided to keep moving and brought the party into the nest. There were no other doors except for the one from which they came, and Nala had still not found the end of the nest. What she had found was a door that seemed to lead to the next part of the dungeon and a locked room. Therefore, Kary led the men to the locked room, hoping to find some goodies. She let Nala and Marc's team keep sweeping the nest.

They walked down into the nest, the passages all ending in alcoves with web everywhere. They finally got to the locked door, and Kary's key reacted in her inventory, starting to shine. She even got a notification.

" Dungeon Notification. A room has been randomly generated from your luck state. This room is called 'Time prison'. Do you wish to unlock it? "

Kary was stunned at first. Her luck stat had brought her another lucky break. Then she answered.

" Yes! "

As she answered, the key flashed white, and went back to normal. The door then made a loud clunking sound and creaked open. What was inside would once again help Kary take a leap in front of the other players.