Unfortunately, Faust wasn't able to firebomb his foes in peace.
Being a freelance terroist is a hard profession! Faust joked internally, scanning the forest.
Rock Spiders patrolled the area, looking for whatever was assaulting their queen. But with Observe and Stealth, they never had a chance of finding him.
But he made a slight mistake.
After his seventh attack, he was completely surrounded by Rock Spiders. He had relocated in a circle around the monster battle, so the spiders were everywhere now.
A group of them passed under the tree he was hiding in. But one was climbing in the tree right beside, leaving him completely open.
Stealth highlighted everywhere brightly, meaning those were places he would be spotted. Red arrows swarmed every corner of his vision as enemies approached from every side.
Shit. I might be done for.
The spider on the tree across glanced at him as it passed. His body grew taut, like steel ready to snap.
But its eyes passed right over him and it continued moving.
Faust's eyes widened, but then he remembered Mirage's description.
[Mirage Lv3 (Iron): Provides you with innate intuition of how to hide your presence. Warns you of approaching eyes. Your presence blends into your environment causing people to overlook you.]
I guess it's not just people.
Soon all the Spiders were gone, but he faced another issue as he was ambushed by a Midnight Lynx. The worst part of the matter was that he didn't even get to kill it. The dumb beast sensed the spiders coming and ran away.
At this point Faust had given up on long range attacks. He closed in on the escalating battle and found that the number of Rock Spiders had been greatly reduced. The Mage Hunter was winning in a way, forcing the Velvet Spider to run.
But Faust didn't let it escape. He released a hastily made fireball at her position and the explosion sent the queen scuttling backing with an enraged shriek.
It's weak to fire. Pretty obvious for an insect type.
The Mage Hunter closed in and released another burst of concussive energy, but the queen countered by using the last of her swarm as a shield.
Faust conjured a fireball behind her to take advantage. However the giant spider wasn't so easily beaten.
The Velvet Arachne turned and met his eyes suddenly. All eight crimson eyes flashed with malicious energy. Faust realised that one of her broken Rock Spider was still twitching next to him.
Shit!
Ding!
[You have been hexed!]
[Double sight Hex has been used!]
He released his fireball in the queen's general direction and retreated, cursing under his breath. He could no longer guarantee that any of his attacks would hit the queen. He wouldn't even trust Observe technically.
A Mind Hex should be more insidious than a casual illusion. That's why I got the Shadow of the Mind Skill. Because you need special defense to overcome mental attacks.
But that didn't mean he was done. If all the Rock Spiders were destroyed, the Velvet Arachne would have no choice but to retreat.
So he started shooting smaller fireballs into the forest with a vicious grin. The environmental damage was unfortunate, but as long as he made this place a field of fire the Queen couldn't escape.
Faust could bet his Constitution was higher than her. So he would get a bit singed, but he could endure. The monster couldn't.
Once he created a circle of fire around his two opponents his next action had to be killing the Mage Hunter. He was not letting that fraud steal his kill.
He swung onto a tree behind the flashing Mage Hunter and watched it. Its magical resistive skill couldn't be all powerful. It had to have cooldowns and mana costs.
All Faust had to do was test its limits.
Fireball!
Fire condensed in his hands and shot towards the Hunter in a flash. He couldn't aim at the queen, but he could hit the hunter easily.
BOOM!
The extreme blast ripped up the soil and rattled the tree. Heat washed over Faust's skin, but instead of being searing it was actually comfortable.
And to the Mage Hunter, It was like a gust of pesky wind. The monster shrugged—No that wasn't the right word. The Hunter didn't even notice the explosion, striding through it as a shimmering sheath of energy protected it.
"That's a really good skill."
But then the beetle turned and used the Repulsion Cannon against Faust.
"Hey!" Faust yelled, jumping to another tree. In his haste to escape he used Dash and the Slime tether at once. The speed at which he swung to the other tree doubled instantly, allowing him to easily dodge the attack.
Can Dash increase his speed even when he wasn't even technically running?
"New exploit detected," Faust said with a wide grin.
He took his time, firing five more fireballs and escaping each time from the Hunter's return blows. At the same time, he also made sure to close the circle of fire around the Velvet Arachne and Mage Hunter.
The Hunter didn't even care, but the queen was being boxed in. She only had a little over a hundred spiders now and she had to sacrifice them to the Hunter's beam attack since there was so little space in the circle of flames.
When it was only a couple of spiders left the queen let out a horrible screech that disoriented both the Hunter and Faust.
His vision blurred and he stumbled off balance. Something was drilling into his skull. Was this the Velvet Arachne's Trump card?
The leftover spiders rushed at the Mage Hunter and started tearing into the vibrating shield around it.
The Mage Hunter's shield repelled both magic and, to a lesser extent, physical attacks. But with almost fifty spiders rushing it the shield soon fizzled out.
"RIIII!" The beetle finally made a sound as the spider bit into his hard shell and began tearing through it.
It tried using its retreat skill to escape, but its body flickered into a thick patch of flame that made it cry out even louder.
"KREEI!" The Velvet spider answered with that disorienting sound again, but Faust saw it stumble through the haze of his vision.
His mind was banging at the edges of his skull, but he still understood that the shouting skill was weakening the queen too.