The Real Test
Inasmuch as Xander had more than proven he was capable of handling things in Tatonia, saying that he had become completely accustomed to certain things there would be a stretch.
For instance, the creatures. Mary was an Elemental Spirit, and while that was certainly... odd, she looked human enough, and her behavior was acceptable, so he had no issues with her.
A house-sized spider on the other hand...
'... It is very uh... pregnant.' Xander felt a bit queasy as he watched the damn thing pop out little spiders from the giant rump in the back, and he felt his skin crawl all over.
Frankly, if he let himself focus only on that, he'd have trouble moving properly. However, between acting as an anchor for his squad, his swordplay, and making damn sure none of the little spiders actually touched him, he functioned just fine.
Anyway, with all that said, the squad was finally about to reach the spider. And true to Aubrey's prediction, the thing's attention was now firmly on them, its massive appendages twitching with horrific power.
"5... 4... 3..."
"Making the barrier!"
"2... 1...!"
Two things happened at once.
Before Aubrey's countdown hit zero, Curtis repurposed the ice walls that had been covering their flanks and back, turning it into a firm wall that sat in front of Xander.
At the same time, the giant spider moved.
And it was fast.
A forelimb smashed into the wall with terrifying force, and it didn't take long before the whole thing exploded.
But Xander had already moved from that spot, and now he was positioned besides the outstretched limb.
Water Screen
He swung his sword, and a thin screen of water appeared between him and the leg that was starting to retract, but he wasn't done.
Another thing Xander implemented in his magic that was born from his swordsmanship was synergy. Individual sword techniques were nice, but when used in tandem with complementary techniques, they became even more terrifying.
And Xander had no qualms applying that principle to his magic.
'Frost Flower Thrust.' He thrust his blade, and cold wind revolved around the blade and condensed at the tip, the hape resembling that of a petal.
It hit the water screen, but instead of simply going through or freezing it on contact, the screen seemed to tent along the point of the blade, rapidly freezing as the two advanced until the touched the side of the spider's leg, and...
'Ice Breaker.'
SHATTER
The Water Screen froze before shattering violently, but the shatter was concentrated where Xander's sword was touching the spider's leg. The combination of frost and the violent reaction of the skills interacting and shattering caused a chain effect, as a result...
SKREEEEE!
The spider's limb was blown off entirely.
The creature let out a loud shriek of pain as blood spared from the open wound where the leg had been, and Xander exhaled.
Taking a book from that senior he had encountered back at the school gates, since he couldn't raise his mana output for powerful skills...
'I'll just use a collection of smaller techniques to achieve the same result.' Xander huffed, brandishing his sword as he jumped back from an assault by two more limbs from the creature.
Despite this, though, the sheer force from the strikes caused him to slide back, and many of the smaller spiders were thrown away from it as well.
"Xander, most of its attention is on you. It's also stopped spawning the smaller spiders so be prepared for abilities we haven't seen before." Aubrey said quickly, and Xander nodded.
As he immediately changed his stance.
Three massive impacts sounded out in that moment, and the aftermath was one long scar that appeared in the earth behind the group, and two more that curved away from them.
Phew.
Xander returned to his stance as he kept his gaze fixed on the spider, inwardly relieved that what he just did worked.
Yesterday taught him that while his strength was great relative to his peers, many beasts still outclassed him in raw power, and blocking hits directly really wasn't a great idea.
As such, he drew upon what he did yesterday, which was adapting Flowing Tide to allow him to deflect the attacks of stronger opponents away and made a new skill.
Flowing Stream Displacement
"It's coming again. Curtis, on you!"
"... Ice Magic: Cold Mirror Deflection." Another series of impacts, and another collection of deep gasses in the earth, none of which actually appeared within the group.
This time, several floating disks of reflective ice floated around the group, each at an angle. They were the results of Curtis's spell, and each one expertly deflected a blow from the spider.
"Each one can at most block three more attacks." Curtis informed.
"In that case, Xander, you have 15 seconds to prod the spider. I've detected 2 possible weak points. Underneath it, dead center between its legs, and the predicel." Aubrey informed.
That entire sequence where Xander and Curtis only defended took place for one reason. They were buying time for Aubrey to look for weaknesses in the spider.
Xander endured the first wave of attacks, and Curtis the second.
'15 seconds, huh?' He took a step. 'I can work with that.'
Feather Steps.
Flowing Tide.
Xander's figure blurred as water trailed after him, his body moving like the water from a flowing stream, and his steps light and almost soundless.
In a moment, he moved up and around the spiders rapidly, his blade striking all over its body in a frenzy.
While he wasn't as fast as lightning, he was undoubtedly incredibly fast.
5 seconds
That's how long it took him to completely map out the body of the spider with his blade, and from that, he made his deductions.
'Just like Aubrey said, the underside and predicel are two weak points. The issue is that its body is too thick for my sword to cut through with my current output. I could use Ice Breaker again, but that will take too long to pull off. The best I can do is create an opening–"
SPLASH
Suddenly, a thick green liquid shot at Xabder from an angle. Thankfully, one of the ice disks that had followed him blocked most of it and he avoided the rest, but his eyes narrowed as he saw the disk start to sizzle and melt.
'Acid, figures.' He clicked his tongue as he began his retreat.
Several more globs of acid spewed from the spider's mouth, and it used mana to control them to fly towards Xander. Luckily, they were easy enough to blow away using some wind.
Xander soon returned to the group and relayed his findings.
At this point, people from other squads were starting to reach the spider, and ranged attacks began to smash into it from different sides, making it screech in anger.
Seeing this, Aubrey frowned.
"It's doing something again, but I'm not sure what. Be careful." Seeing this, the squad immediately went on guard, and sure enough.
The spider lifted its rump, but instead of releasing more children, a massive web of silk erupted and spread out like a massive net.
Naturally, it wouldn't be able to move that way, normally, so it was clear that magic was once more at play here.
'Spider webs are sticky, so slicing through them with my blade alone won't be wise.' With that thought, he used a skill.
Solar-Edge
Not thrust, just solar edge.
The edge of his blade immediately turned turned red hot, and at the same time, Aubrey was instructing Curtis on what type of spell he should cast while Falael was watching warily.
Soon, the webs fell over the field like a net, and some students were able to cast defensive spells and protect themselves. Those who weren't, though, were covered in the webs, and Xander watched in slight horror as he sensed their mana getting drained forcefully.
Then he watched the leg he'd blown off, as well as the several shallow cuts he'd inflicted with his onslaught previously, start to heal at an absurd speed.
That said, none of the webs actually landed on their squad. Curtis managed to block some and Xander cut away the rest, leaving them unscathed, but Curtis winced.
"I can't keep up this many constructs." He admitted. To avoid going over the output threshold, he compensated defensively by casting many smaller defensive spells. However, they still caused a strain on his mental energy to keep active at once.
'Tch, fair enough.' Xander was about to tell Curtis to cancel some of the spells when Aubrey suddenly exclaimed.
"Look out!"
The spider that had now healed most of its wounds suddenly moved.
Its legs raised, and then like a toddler throwing a tantrum, they utterly shredded the ground beneath and around it. And as Xander's squad was the closest to the spider, they unsurprisingly bore the brunt of such an attack.
Dust flew everywhere, and the few remaining students watched as dust was thrown everywhere from the violent attack.
"Damn, they were right next to that."
"Are they okay?"
"Does it matter? Let's take advantage of the situation while they are stunned!"
As some voiced out their sentiments, the dust cleared, and Alya, who had been watching silently, smiled faintly.
'Oh? Perhaps he wasn't lying about being a defensive mage.'
Where the squad had been, a dome of ice had formed. However, it wasn't a single construct and was instead made up of smaller ice constructs.
Its surface was cracked all over, but it had withstood the attack.
Slowly, the parts peeled away and revealed the group.
"Ugh!" Curtis fell to a knee, his teeth gritted as a powerful electric current ran through his body painfully.
He managed to block the attack, but he'd had to increase his mana output to maintain the integrity of the barrier, leading to him crossing the threshold and activating the mechanism.
"Beautiful job, Curtis." Xander exhaled as he glanced at the spider coldly.
The creature glared at them in turn, its limbs clicking as it reared for another attack.
"Three slams from the left followed by a perpendicular strike from the right, an overhead stab downwards..." Aubrey, who seemed slightly dazed, just started mumbling subconsciously, but every word was clear, and Xander took note of each one.
He stepped forward, sword raised.
The spider attacked again, but this time, the result was wildly different.
Using Aubrey's words, he managed to perfectly evade every attack the spider threw out, not even relying on his movement skills, and in a moment, he had positioned himself right beneath it.
He aimed his sword upwards and thrusted.
Solar-Edge Thrust.
A thin beam of raw heat slammed into its underside dead center, and the spider screeched as the attack burrowed into its abdomen.
Its eyes filled with rage, and it seemed ready to go berserk. However...
While it had been distracted by Xander, another person had calmly walked underneath it and aimed their wand at the spot Xander had breached.
"... Starlight Magic:..." Falael closed one eye as they precisely aimed their wand at the opening.
'Just saying. I think it's cool.' The memory of Xander's compliment entered their mind, and their lip curled.
"... Star Burst."
A tiny with sphere condensed at the tip of their wand and shot upward like a bullet. It borrowed into the opening, and for a moment, nothing happened.
Then...
SHINE
Light burst through every opening of the spider's body, and its midsection swelled obscenely before exploding violently, spilling chunks and green blood everywhere.
Xander quickly coated his body in mana to avoid getting 'showered', and he glanced at Falael who also looked at him.
No words were exchanged. Then, Falael fell face first to the dirt, and Xander exhaled before mumbling.
"Subjugation complete."