Afterlife Dream

My spirit crumbled like an iceberg that was struck by Titanic. Disappointment and anger bubbled in my heart. I turned around to beat these Dominion assholes to pulp. But then my squadmates around me started to disappear. Including DragonTalon. I was stunned. Could it be? I quickly clicked on the NPC, and my surroundings turned dark.

Within one second, I was transported inside the Queen Spider lair with my squadmates standing all over the map. Not a player from Dominion was around.

"What happened?" I asked out loud.

"Laz clicked us in," Hime said with a huge grin. "This time all 30 of us made it inside. Very good job, Lazarus. Thanks for the reminder, Antares."

Hime clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, guys, time to rock. Remember the lessons you got from previous raids. We should work on getting all end-game equipment as soon as possible so we can slowly level up and move to higher-level raids. Don't waste this chance, guildmates."

I wanted to pat Lazarus on the back as a token of appreciation, but I had no time to do that because he already used Winged Steps to get as far as possible from anyone.

The Queen Spider spawned in no time. Having learned from the raid on the previous day, the players stopped grouping together and consciously maintained a healthy distance from each other. They also stopped asking for heal altogether and relied more on the potions to keep themselves alive. The High Priests, including me, teleported ourselves across the map to heal our team members that were scattered everywhere. While I initially planned to have my party mates close to me to be able to use Purification effectively, I discovered that the spell could help my party mates in a different way.

The Purification's golden dome moved with me wherever I went. By letting a party mate stay a few seconds inside the dome, I was able to purify said party mate. And so I never missed a chance to summon the dome as soon as the cooldown time was over, buzzing around the map like a hardworking bee to purify and heal whoever I could reach.

That might just be the right tactic to employ in the Queen Spider lair. Pumped by adrenaline in my bloodstream, I barely registered the sticky web under my feet anymore, and neither did my fellow fighters. Once you had your eyes on the goal, nothing else mattered. The huge obstacles were reduced to nothing but small nuisances that we could easily trample under our feet.

By the time the Queen Spider's HP hit 50%, I stopped moving toward my party mates altogether and started attacking. My attacks were weak because I was a support class, but my defense was high thanks to Mana Guard and Divine Guard. Despite rigorous potting, players next to me died one by one. A few players had been turned into the Queen Spider's puppets, their green HP bars were replaced by red ones. The only good thing about Puppeteer String was that the victim was only able to attack party mates and not squadmates. As long as the party members stayed away from each other, they would be able to avoid the puppets' attack in time.
"High Priests!!!" Hime shouted from somewhere inside the map. "I will start redistributing you to new parties. Please use Resurrection AND Heal as soon as you reach your dead comrades!"

"Alright!" I shouted as a reply. Some other High Priests shouted the same thing to indicate that they heard Hime loud and clear.

It took Hime a few moments to fully redistribute the High Priests. She made sure that the dead players in a party were lying close to each other on the map to maximize Resurrection.

I was assigned to a party full of five dead players, one of them ZhaoYun.

Without wasting any more time, I quickly teleported my way toward the dead bodies while keeping the Queen Spider's movement within my peripheral vision. I positioned myself exactly in the middle of the five bodies and cast Resurrection. Just like what ambrosia said the previous day, players were resurrected with only 1 HP and 1 MP, leaving them vulnerable to attacks.

I healed once, cast Divine Guard on them, and then quickly distanced myself just in case one of them caught Puppeteer String.

"Thanks, Antares!" ZhaoYun screamed at my back.

"No problem!!!" I screamed back.

It was not convenient for Hime to keep redistributing parties after the dead players were resurrected, so the newly formed parties started to spread to get as far away from each other as possible.

After half an hour, the Queen Spider's HP hit 20%. It was time for the second special skill. The map shook as if an earthquake was taking place, then the Queen Spider stood on its two hind legs and revealed a belly that was punctured by hundreds of holes right in front of me. It looked a lot like those images that were spread on the internet to trigger awareness of trypophobia. They were usually doctored images of the back of hands or arms that were punctured by a lot of holes, making them look like an incurable, infectious disease. It was extremely disgusting, but at the same time so fascinating that people could not help but wanting to look away and keep staring at the same time.

I was too mesmerized by the sight that I did not even stop to think about the danger lurking beyond the mysterious holes.

"Antares, WATCH OUT!" ZhaoYun screamed. He tackled me to the ground unceremoniously from behind and caused me to hit the sticky web underneath face-first. His heavy armor prevented me from moving even an inch. I tilted my head upward with a lot of effort to see what was going on.

The Queen Spider was shooting thousands of darts from within its belly in all directions. Just like me and ZhaoYun, most players were lying flat on the ground because they already anticipated the attacks. The unlucky ones were caught by the darts. The melees had enough HP to sustain a few stabs and drop to the ground to avoid death. The darts were poisonous. Those who were hit had to keep drinking potions to replenish their HP. The unluckier ones with lesser HP fell dead to the ground in no time.

"Thanks," I said to ZhaoYun, still shaken by the sudden attack.

Now there was a problem. The Queen Spider kept shooting the darts as if it had endless storage of darts in its body. So how were we supposed to attack?

From their position on the ground, our ranged attackers kept throwing stars and shooting arrows at the Queen Spider. The beauty was that the Queen Spider did not change the trajectory of its darts, so once the players were in a safe position on the ground, they remained unharmed for the remaining raid.

I saw a lot of golden arrows flying toward the Queen Spider, so I also contributed with my Holy Arrow.

18%... 15%... 12%...

I kept glancing at the digital clock that hovered over our heads, praying for the raid to quickly conclude.

5%... 3%... 1%...

A soft sigh escaped my throat at the same time the Queen Spider fell dead to the ground. Three Queen Spider Boots lay on the ground among the many scrolls and potions. My throat became dry. I wanted to have them so much. But I was not Ninja. I was not going to be selfish and steal the boots.

Hime checked the list of survivors and compared it with the Loot Order. She called out the three people who were allowed to loot the boots. I heard HellWitch's and Lazarus' names being called and then I just switched my brain off and wandered to a wonderful future raid when I was finally allowed to loot my own boots. I was so immersed in my daydreams that I did not even hear my name being called as the third player to loot. It was not after ZhaoYun elbowed me hard into the side that I cried from pain and snapped back to reality.

"Antares, do you not want to loot your Queen Spider Boots?" Hime asked with a broad grin on her face.

"I do! Of course, I do!" I exclaimed.

I quickly got up and grabbed the only remaining Queen Spider Boots on the ground. I did not even want to ask how come I was allowed to loot. First loot, ask later.

After looting, I still felt that it was all just a beautiful dream waiting to come true. It was not happening for real. I could hardly believe it. I got the second end-game equipment. The wonderful Queen Spider Boots. As soon as I wore them, the stickiness under my feet disappeared. I was able to walk normally across the spider web. The feeling was just amazing. I would not want to trade it against anything in the world.