"Does anyone have a plan?" Whispering in a corner, Charlotte tapped on Rudy's shoulders. The hero quickly turned to face the rest while the spider still crawled somewhere overhead. "You're the leader, go tell us what to do."

Bitterly overwhelmed by the stress placed on him by the spider's abilities, Rudy swallowed anxiously and tried to think of something. His eyes raced left to right, but amidst his musing, the only thing he could come up with was a temporary escape to reevaluate the situation.

"I think we should head back and think about what to do first." More than ready to follow his advice, the girls gave him a nod, but that's when Custer decided to speak up.

Moving closer to the middle, he held his hand up for them to stop. And once all eyes were on him, he decided to relay his plan–one that he'd come up with after thinking about the group's ability for just a few seconds.

"I have an idea," although everyone was confused as to how he could help, nobody stopped him as he continued to lay it all out. "Charlotte should lead the charge with her aura of elemental defense shield. Fire element to be exact, that way the spiders will burn the moment they touch her, and after killing them, I'm sure their mother will try to attack you."

"That sounds risky…" The demi-leopard heaved, not exactly looking forward to being bait for a giant spider monster.

"I know," looking into her eyes, Custer placed a hand on her shoulder. "That's when Audrey's beastform and Rudy's guard ability come in. The two will move in as you strike the ceiling with fire-element attacks. The fibers on the spider's back should visibly burn, and even if it drops down, we can hear it drop and land an attack in that direction."

"Wait," with a thoroughly upset look in his eyes, Rudy pulled back with his shoulder. "What if it lands right on top of her?"

Squinting with a hint of frustration, Custer replied with a sharpened tongue.

"You will be blocking that, and with Audrey in beastform she won't seem as much of a threat, but her high sense can help us pinpoint the spider's landing." Shrugging his shoulder away from his grip, Custer finally turned to Roxanne. "Lastly, Roxanne will use Shatter status to cut the spider's stats in half for a few seconds. Then Rudy moves in with his shield break to further expose the monster's weakness, and at last it's on Audrey and Charlotte to barrage the monster with fire daggers and elemental strikes until it's dead."

Shaking his head as he turned to Audrey, Custer stared into her eyes and laid down the final piece of the plan.

"If all else fails, you will need to use a smokescreen, and everyone escapes. Otherwise, the ring should teleport you away safely before anyone gets injured anyway. I don't see a point in retreating if we can extract data by experimenting with an actual fight. That way, the next time, even in failure, we might be able to learn something and eventually defeat it."

As much as the new coupe despised how much sense he was making, even they couldn't say anything to convince the rest from not trying at least. The stage was already set in their heads, and it was damn near perfect. Now the only thing left to do was send Charlotte to the front and prepare themselves for the fight to come. And that's exactly what they did.

Drawing her blades, the demi-leopard used her elemental defense ability to clad herself in an aura of flames. Burning bright like a lantern in the cave, she started walking towards the dead goblin, and in an instant, the spiders were attracted to her scent. More blood thirsty than rational, the bugs plunged themselves into the flames, and although Charlotte clenched her buttocks at the thought of even a single one of them managing to crawl up her legs, the spiders simply died off in a matter of a few seconds.

Smoke drifted in the confined spaces, tasting sweet with a trick of poison. Far too little to hurt her, it didn't affect Charlotte but did draw a loud shriek from the spider's queen. Moving in beside her quickly, Rudy faced his shield headward, and Leopard ducked to keep her head underneath. Wandering around in the corners, Audrey was ready to catch any noise that crawled their way, and to no one's surprise, the thud of the spider hitting the floor was heard loud and clear.

"FRONT!" Shifting back into her humanoid form, the fox watched as Rudy lunged forward with his sword drawn. Screaming out loud to disorient the spider, he swung his blade at its head, and a deep wound was sliced clean between its eyes, thanks to the skill Shield Break.

Overwhelmed by both the fact that they could sense its presence and also hurt it, the spider froze for a second, and just as it was about to leap with its jaws open at Rudy, the hero moved, and its legs gave way. Looking around rampantly, the beast noticed the healer making it weak enough so that it couldn't even stand straight.

"EUGHHEKKK!!" Shrieking out loud, the spider tried shooting silk at the healer, but before it could, Audrey's burning dagger cut its pincers clean off.

"IT'S HAIRS ARE BURNING! HIT IT BEFORE WE LOSE SIGHT OF IT!" Roxanne screamed, pouring every ounce of her mana into the shatter status ability to not only weaken the spider but also contain it in place.

"HA!!!" Wasting not even a second, Charlotte swung her blades with flames dancing along their edge. Striking the injured stop again and again, she set the whole beast on fire, and as it shirked more and more, all three of the vanguards struck it one last time in its shattered head. "TAKE THIS, YOU CREEPY THING!"

"EEKKKUGHHH!!" One last shriek, and the party felt the weight under their blades drop to the ground. Having both sliced and bludgeoned its head, they'd managed to kill yet another boss, and that too with surprising ease.

So much so that once it was over, they turned their eyes to Custer and wondered how a merchant knew how to deal with a monster like this so easily. However, before they could ask anything, the voice of the dungeon crept in.

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