I was shocked that the spider seemed to be handling all three of our best fighters, even with the rest of our group as support.. Megan and Sydney were off to one side, eyes glowing as they doubled up on their ability. Sydney was using hers on the spider obviously and combined with Megan's good luck aura on Lament, combined with the Master Candidate's technique and Skill, meant she was able to counter the limbs of the spider as it tried to skewer the others.

Sloane had her wings out and was flashing around the massive beast, lashing out with wing attacks, while Beric and Croll were defending the Wave Warren sisters. Wren and Lestri were backing up Lament, or rather, using opportunities she gave them to take cheap shots, while Mel was constantly hosing the thing down with fire and using her flames to maneuver out of the way when the spider inevitably attacked.

Abel was helping Lament counter the limbs, mostly focusing on one or two specific legs that were going for Mel. The spider was also much deeper into the Sucking Mud than expected, probably due to weight, and was having trouble pulling free for attacks. The combination was keeping it from smashing anyone into meat paste, but even with a pretty fantastic strategy, the cracks spreading along the spider's armor were slow to form and already healing.

I grimaced. High impact kept the wounds from being too severe, which meant Vitality was taking care of them. Given this thing could spawn a hundred kids, I was guessing its Vitality was high. I called Callie over closer to me. "We need to handle the regen." I murmured to her quietly. "At this rate we won't be able to wear it down. You up for another try with the overlay to get past its defenses? I only need to land hits on the cracks that are still healing."

My cane was still crackling with poison fire from the last fight. The ability, especially combined with some augmentations from some of Benny's attacks, should at least counter the healing facto. That would help our heavies wear the thing down. I was pretty sure with enough attacks stacked I could do one massive blow that would at least hurt it, but then I would be out of commission and the spider would still be around.

Spreading the poison fire through it and making sure Lament and Abel's moves stuck better was a much better use of my limited soul strength. Callie seemed interested. With the new Skill the two of essentially had two points of use for Perception. It wasn't anything crazy like doubling our senses, but we could Perceive things through each other and the Skill could process that.

It made it infinitely harder to sneak up on us, and theoretically should have exponential benefits to Stealth Skills once we had some time to train with it. Since Stealth relied on our own ability to find and eliminate traces of our presence, the Minor Paired Dueling Mastery Skill would have compounding effects. That was a matter for later though, for now, between the two of us and with the overlay resonating with the Paired Dueling Skill, we should be able to get past the spiders attacks.

As soon as she agreed, I triggered Leaf on the Wind. I felt like I could use the bond from Paired Dueling as a connection to cast skills on Callie, rather than needing touch. It still strained my soul minimally, but I could handle it easily enough for now. With that taken care of the two of us blitzed in toward where the others were fighting the spider, bypassing them and darting in to attack.

I whirled my cane up in a circle, triggering A triple stacked tranq blow with my cane as a medium. Since I wasn't combining skills or overclocking anything it didn't really strain me at all, and I knew I could use all ten of these hits without much trouble. The spider, sensing an attack, smashed down with one of its legs. Abel and Lament hadn't known I was going to attack, so they weren't able to counter it, but Leaf on the Wind and the overlay were a fantastic combination.

Throwing myself up over the blow, I felt the shadows beneath me push me up like a trampoline, right along the path of the arrow I was aiming for. The overlay allowed Callie to see what moves I might make, and Paired Dueling let her sense what I would do and when through our new strange bond. The combination meant she could support me perfectly from behind even without directly interfering.

With such a powerful monster we couldn't risk a head on attack, but augmenting my avoidance was just right. I brought my cane down hard on the cracked armor where Abel's most recent blow had damaged the thing. The triple strength mixture of poison fire and tranquilizer didn't seem to have much effect, but that wasn't a shock. This thing had a ton of Impact.

"Apollyon." I bellowed as I flipped away, Lament catching the leg as it came around and deflecting it with a spear manifestation. "Hit the green spots!" Then I darted around, Callie creating an aisle of shadows for me to slide on in a move I hadn't ever really seen her use before. I could sense it before she did it though, so I didn't slip as I flashed over the ground.

We came in for a second attack from the other side, and managed to score another hit. Another glowing green fracture stood out on the already glowing blue armor. The third time we went in I followed the overlay as best I could, but I wasn't able to avoid the retaliation of the spider.

The monster noticed me coming and tried to spear me with a viciously sharp attack. The only thing that saved me was my F-ranked armor and the type of blow. Piercing attacks were up there with energy in terms of my ability to tank them. If the thing had laid a solid smashing hit on me my bones would have been powder. Instead, the F-ranked spider only managed to do so nasty pressure damage in a very limited spot.

Still, the force sent me skidding back across the floor, cracking at least one of my ribs. I hit the stone surface of the cavern floor and bounced a few times, skipping like a stone. I felt my teeth rattle multiple times as I hit, and in the end, I was left on my back, staring up at the glittering ceiling gasping for air. My entire chest was on fire and I could barely move. I heard Callie scream my name, and within seconds she was crouched over me.

"Shane!" She shook me, making sure I was focused since I was staring into space. I groaned as her shaking jarred my injured rib. That spider blow had caught me in the side. It hadn't penetrated my armor thankfully, or I'd have been impaled and probably killed, but it had seriously fucked me up. I forced myself to focus, and triggered a scan heal and then a healing surge, forcing the two abilities to cooperate to maximize the recovery speed.

I expected to be flooded with energy and immediately knitted back together like usual, but the damage only began to slowly recover. The attack had been F-ranked, and the Impact difference was mitigating the effectiveness of the heal. At this rate it would take fifteen or twenty minutes for me to recover. I groaned up at my worried girlfriend. "Ow. Careful." I tried to get up, but found myself unable to right my body. "Here, help me sit up without messing up my ribs?"

"Right!" Her voice was frantic, and I could feel her distress through the Paired Dueling Skill. An echo of her intent allowing me to pick up the strong emotion. It was...kind of sweet. Knowing for sure someone cared like that. Most people never get to feel for sure what someone else thinks of them. I knew Callie loved me enough to be afraid for me, which was more than a lot of people got. She helped me sit up and waved a hand in front of my face. "Are you ok? Do you have a concussion?"

I laughed, grimacing at the pain of the motion, and slowly reached up to stop her waving hand. "That isn't how you check a concussion, Cal. But no, I'm fine. The scan heal says a few broken bones and torn muscles, and they're mending. It's just slow because of the Impact difference. Did the hits we got in help out at all? I was planning to stack a few of those to make sure it countering the regen properly."

She looked over her shoulder, then back with worry. "Maybe? The thing looks a bit slower. We might have overestimated ourselves here. Abel taking out a shitty F-ranked random is NOT the same as trying to kill a spider the size of a small house covered in plated armor. We kind of forgot that materials vary in strength even within a specific rank. Armored spider beats human in terms of durability."

Fuck. She was right. We'd been cocky after seeing a bit of success with our training. Fighting up a rank against a single person who was freshly Ascended wasn't the same as a battle of this level. I'd blame Abel, but my mentor wasn't the type of person who considered limitations. Hell, he might be able to finish this fight alone over a long enough timeline. But we didn't have that. Luckily, I had an idea of how to finish this. It was just going to suck a lot. I looked up at Callie's worried frown. "Get Abel over here. I have a plan, but I need him for it. If this works like I expect I might be able to help him put this thing down for good."

Sensing my seriousness, Callie didn't bother to argue, running over to get our teacher and bringing him back. Mel came with him, since he wasn't there to provide fire support. "Hey there kid. Nasty smack you took there. This isn't a last words thing is it? Because those are always a bummer." I glared at him, managing to muster the strength to flip him off. Then I explained my plan.

After going over the details, he blinked at me. "That...that could work. You sure you can manage something like that in your condition?" I nodded grimly and he shrugged. "Well, why the hell not. Let's give it a go. I should be able to aim it well enough to avoid the damage. I assume this will knock you the fuck out?"

"Yeah." I said with a wince. "This is going to suck. A lot. Kneel down and put your hand on the ground. The G-ranked cave material should help with power, but it's going to take even more effort from me." He followed my instruction, and I put a hand on his arm, preparing myself to not only use a series of powerful combo moves but to twist them to fit someone else. This was going to be the biggest soul weight I'd ever held up under.

Stone Limb. Consecration of Flame. Touch of Tears. Mercy Kill. Flurry of Blows. A fire blast from Cark, a triple stacked density shifted attack. I layered in every skill and move I could stand, my vision swimming and my head in so much pain I thought I would black out from it as I created a poisonous blazing magma limb of such destructive power I was sure I'd never done anything close to as strong. Abel stared in awe at the limb, which was blazing with such bright green fire that it was hard to look at.

He grinned manically at me. "Thanks kid. I'll take it from here." I had Callie help me stand up so I could watch. Without any hesitation, my teacher turned and threw out a punch. Space warped, and a massive green and black magma fist appeared over the distracted spider, smashing down into it with more force than I could ever remember seeing. The thing was flattened into the Sucking Mud, which I dispersed, trapping it in rock as Abel hammered it over and over with the enchanted limb. As the armor cracked under the repeated blows, I felt my sight dissolve into darkness. Yeah, I'd been afraid that would happen. Worth it.