The Third-Tier Mother Spider and the Storm of Steel

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The five repeating crossbows fired one after another. Row upon row of heavy bolts tore into the air, then fell like rain.

The black venom web the Spider Queen had spat could have smothered the entire high ground in one sweep.

But when it met that rain of bolts, it did not hold for even a moment.

The first few heavy bolts ripped open the web, and those behind them punched straight through.

Layer after layer of thick, tough strands snapped and burst, until the web became black tatters flying everywhere.

Before the strands dripping with corrosive venom could fall, the bolts behind them scattered them in every direction. They splashed across the rock, which erupted in a dense chorus of hisses.

The venom web had barely broken when the second volley bore down.

This time, the target was not the air but the Spider Queen herself, fresh from landing.

She had clearly sensed the danger. Her eight jointed legs drew in sharply, and her massive body lunged sideways.

But the five crossbows were already firing, volley pressing upon volley. Heavy bolts hammered down like a thicket of nails, leaving her no room to dodge.

When the first bolt struck her shell, it made only a dull crack. The dusky purple sheen of resistance covering her body flickered violently.

Then the second, third, and fourth bolts struck in quick succession. The sheen flashed and dimmed, held out for a few more blows, then was torn apart.

Her black shell began to shatter.

Heavy bolts struck one after another. The thick shell that could have withstood a Third-Tier Battle Aura slash crumbled bit by bit under their sheer, brutal force.

Cracks burst from her chest and abdomen across her backplate. Black fragments flew everywhere with foul-smelling fluid.

The Spider Queen reared up and let out a shriek so agonized it broke into a different pitch.

Her eight long legs clawed wildly, scraping shrill lines into the rock and sending gravel flying to either side.

But it was too late for her to save herself.

The bolts that followed drove deeper through the holes the first ones had made.

One punched through, two sank in, and three pierced her torso clean through.

The force of the bolts drove her huge body backward. Her mouthparts opened and closed, each screech more agonized than the last, as though the barrage would tear her apart on the spot.

When the final rain of bolts fell, the Spider Queen was pinned dead against the scorched rock wall behind her.

The Third-Tier Spider Queen that had charged out so fiercely moments before was now a slab of ruined flesh nailed to the wall, never to move again.

Thick green fluid ran down the bolt shafts, slowly staining the frozen earth beneath her a filthy black.

For a while, no one on the high ground spoke.

Fabien still held his sword half-drawn. He stared at the Spider Queen's corpse pinned to the rock wall for several breaths before finally lowering his hand.

Ordinarily, even in daylight, bringing down a Third-Tier Spider Queen like this would have taken more than a dozen full-fledged knights fighting together.

Those in front would have to hold her with shields while the flanks looked for chances to hack at her legs. The others would wear her down bit by bit, risking contact with Venom Threads and poison. One mistake could leave several bodies behind.

But under the repeating crossbows' assault, no one had needed to get close. She had barely emerged from the cave before five Steam Repeating Crossbows blasted her to pieces.

He turned toward the lord who had planned it all. Wind surged up from the canyon mouth, whipping the hem of Shien's coat.

Shien glanced at the corpse, then opened the notebook in his hands and jotted down a few lines.

After a moment, he closed it and looked down at the smoking slope below.

"Collect the bodies. Don't let the spider silk burn."

The knights pulled on thick gloves, picked up hooked knives and wooden crates, and hurried down the gentle slope to turn over the charred spider carcasses one by one.

Once a Night Spider was thoroughly dead, the Venom Threads in its abdomen and glands were actually easier to remove.

A few cuts were enough to draw out bright, slender strands. They gleamed cold and damp, hanging from the hand like fine silver threads, yet tougher than Refined Steel wire.

What the Steam Repeating Crossbows lacked now was bowstring material that could withstand sustained fire under high pressure.

The thick tendons of Magic Beasts were strong enough, but not stable enough; pulled to their limit, they snapped. The Shadow Venom Silk spun by Night Spiders was different.

It was naturally resistant to stretching and wear, and magical disturbances rarely affected it. Once detoxified through alchemy and repeatedly cured, it would be ideal for Composite Bowstring.

As soon as the workshop processed this batch of silk, the next generation of repeating crossbows could gain a substantial boost in firing speed, pressure tolerance, and service life.

And that was far from its only value.

The silk was fine enough to be concealed, almost impossible to spot when stretched between trees or across the mouths of trenches.

As pressure-triggered garrotes, warning threads, or hunting traps, it was lighter than iron wire and harder to detect in advance.

Mixed with a little alchemical poison, it would be enough to deal with most Demonic Beasts even if it only nicked their skin.

The arm crossbows of the Heavy Cavalry Knights, the windlass-launched grapnels on the walls, and even certain underhanded traps could all use it.

For a frontier territory like Blackpine Fief, where everything was in short supply, it was an enormous windfall.

On the slope, the knights stripped silk and packed intact glands into separate crates, working with great care.

Fabien went to the Spider Queen's corpse himself. He planted a foot on her cracked shell, gripped his sword with both hands, drove it down, then wrenched it hard, forcing her chest cavity wide open.

Green-black fluid immediately spilled across the ground.

Once the sharp, rank stench had faded a little, he bent down and reached inside. After feeling around among the ruined flesh and glands, he pulled out a fist-sized Third-Tier Primordial Blood Crystal and carefully presented it to Shien.

It was still warm. Dark red light flowed beneath its surface like blood and fire churning inside a crystal shell. Held in the hand, the restless energy within seemed to pulse and swell.

Shien studied it for two breaths before taking it.

In this age corroded by the Blood Moon, High-Tier Primordial Blood was one of the most dangerous and expensive strategic resources there was.

It could serve as high-pressure fuel for heavy alchemical machinery or as the core catalyst of a large Rune Array.

Whether the Sacred Flame needed to run beyond its limits for a short time, certain Constructs had to be forced past the limits of their materials, or armor-piercing weapons and explosive compounds had to be made specifically for High-Tier Demonic Beasts, all of it depended on this substance.

Put more plainly, many things that seemed impossible on the frontier were ultimately forced into existence with High-Tier Primordial Blood.

In the interior, a Third-Tier Primordial Blood Crystal of this quality really could be traded for a decent little castle, or keep a regular knightly company supplied for an entire year.

But in Blackpine Fief, its significance went well beyond money.

Shien lightly rubbed the still-warm Magic Crystal with his fingertips, already running through several of the workshop's blueprints in his mind.

Victor had buried himself in those blueprints lately.

Should the main boiler of the Heavy Steam Repeating Crossbow use Third-Tier Primordial Blood as its core power source? Should the outer wall's killing array be upgraded as a whole...

Until now, those plans had remained no more than possibilities.

But with a fourth Third-Tier Primordial Blood Crystal in hand, many of them could finally become reality.

The question was no longer whether they could build them, but how to wring the greatest possible value from these four Third-Tier Primordial Blood Crystals.

And before anyone had recovered from the magnitude of that haul, a startled cry, its pitch gone strange, rang out from deep within the cave.