As the massive web pulled them up the Spider Queen began attacking, throwing her white hairs as projectiles at the trainees, most of them were stuck in place from the webbing sticking to them, everyone trying to free themselves and take cover.
One of the hairs struck Fester on his side, and another of the trainees, Everette cast a spell, it was a lightning strike, trying to hit the Spider Queen´s head, but she protected herself with one of her legs, as one of them got to hit it started oozing black blood.
Everette hadn't used his elemental power until now, lightning elementals are rare, Everette kept casting lightning spells making the Queen cover herself, Ferdinand seized this opportunity and cast fire breath on the web slowly consuming it.
"Theo as soon as the web weakens drop down!" Ferdinand exclaimed, Theo, nodded, and Everette kept his mirage of attacks as he ordered his aides to help free the rest of the squad, Ferdinand had to go one by one not to burn them.
Theo had dropped down with Ferdinand's two teammates, Amber and Orlan. Ferdinand was working on another trainee, and as he was freeing him, the Queen attacked, she wasn't just protecting herself she was also preparing an attack, she fired acid from her mouth, and it started to melt the webbing and Everette and his two aides jumped away.
As the trainee that Ferdinand was freeing tried to jump out the Queen threw herself at him, biting him down, slicing him in half with her tusks, he landed a few feet from Theo, and he could see the horrified expression on his face, the deepest of fears seared on his face as he drew his last breaths, his torso bleeding uncontrollably, using his last breaths trying to reach for Theo.
His eyes went wide and then his body stiffened as he died, Theo could just watch, he was even more scared now, thinking they would be able to defeat this monster but once again overestimating themselves, now paying the price.
As the web was melting everyone got down or was dropped down, so far one trainee had been cut in half, Fester was partially paralyzed on his left side another trainee was completely paralyzed, down to 9 but everyone except Ferdinand, Everette, and his two aides were too nervous to fight, they had not been able to cast a single spell.
The murderous intent from the Queen had been enough since the start to root them in fear, the pressure was too much for them, as they were all 3rd rankers, and being able to withstand the pressure from a B-rank monster was too much.
"Stand back all of you! look for a way out, we´ll destroy it!" Ferdinand roared as he looked over at Everette who nodded at him, Ferdinand cast a magic circle under him with 5 rings on it meaning it was a tier 5 spell, Everette then once again began charging his lightning strikes.
The Queen had dropped down and was looking at all of them menacingly, as it let out a scream it prepared to attack, Everette once again used his lightning spells trying to push her back, she kept firing her paralyzing quills at him, but his two aides were standing by protecting him, blocking every one of them.
"Theodore you must move, hurry everyone out of here or you will all die" Prim beckoned Theo, he snapped out of his fear and began moving, he tried moving Amber who was also in a daze, as Theo began pulling everyone away, they started making their way back to the entrance carrying Fester and the other trainee, all 4 of them running back and away from the Queen.
As they made their way back, the entrance was blocked by a thicker web, they tried cutting it and striking it but it wasn't working, they were trapped, Fester began sobbing, "We´re going to die here! we never should have come here!" Fester wailed, it was a demoralizing sight, Theo thought of his family, his mom, and dad, his brothers, and sister, he was not going to die here.
"Prim I need you to advise me on how can I help. do you know this monster's weak points?" Theo asked, "This Wolf Spider Queen recently advanced her stage, she is on the lower scale of the B monsters but her power has risen considerably, her 8 eyes and senses make it hard to sneak up on her, and her organs are also in her lower abdomen which is 5 times harder than a regular Wolf Spider, her head is very well covered by her frontal legs, the best chance is to have Ferdinand attack the abdomen until it cracks and it can receive the finishing blow" Prim suggested.
"You guys stay here, take care of them" Theo looked at Amber and Orlan who nodded, they knew they couldn't make a difference in this fight if they couldn't cast any spells, it was rather remarkable that Theo a 2nd Ranker could even move in this situation, his mental strength far surpassing them.
As Theo began running to where Ferdinand was, the Queen was almost on top of Everette, as his attacks began to grow weaker the Queen started making ground toward him and his aides.
"Ferdinand how long till your attack is ready," Theo asked as he ran beside him, "A. few. minutes" Ferdinand said slowly, clearly, he focused entirely used on his spell.
Theo ran to another side, as the Queen was focused on Everette, he began charging his Arc Slice, and he cast it standing behind the Queen and aimed at her abdomen, it was a successful hit but it wasn't enough to break her impenetrable dermis.
The Queen could see Theo but decided to pay him no mind, she was focused on Everette, once he was gone she could take her time with the rest of them.
Theo ran back, the moment for him to attack was not now, he just had to trust in Everette and Ferdinand.
Everette was sweating and panting, he had exhausted a lot of mana but his stamina was the biggest factor, he had been casting thunderbolts nonstop, Ariel had already been hit twice by the paralyzing quills, and he could barely stand, as the Queen once again struck with her massive leg, Ariel threw himself in front taking the full attack.
Ariel was thrown about 7 meters, reducing Everette's protection in half, Everette then cast another spell, it looked like a yellow cage, protecting him and his remaining aid, he was now going into defensive mode just prolonging as long as possible.
As the Queen began pounding on Everette, the cage began to falter with every hit, Everette being pushed onto the ground and slowly being embedded into it, and then from where Ferdinand was standing this great power began to surge, from the casting circle under him a deep red began emanating.
Then a sudden burst of power came forth, it was a giant dragon, it looked like a Lung Dragon, with red scales all over its body as it coiled around Ferdinand it flew up and then ran towards the Queen.
It impacted and rammed into the Queen hard, sending her to a wall, the Queen quickly turned and jumped at the Dragon, biting into its body, the Dragon then coiled itself around the Queen, constricting its movements.
The Queen was trapped and then smoke started to form around its body, the Dragon was made of fire, slowly and painfully burning away at the Queen, the stench of burnt sulfur, the Queen was being consumed, as her outer layer where the dragon was making contact began to peal away.
Black ooze came from all around the Quen as it squealed and cried, the dragon began to draw breath and a great Fire Breath erupted consuming all of the Queen's body, it was a blinding sight, and the dragon consumed itself in that attack leaving the Queen smoldering and reeking.
The part of the garrison hiding back at the entrance was all happy as the Queen was now dead, they started getting up and running towards Ferdinand, but at that moment the Queen drew a horrifying scream and began to roll on its side, it wasn't dead.
Ferdinand fell on the ground, this was his strongest attack it cost him almost all of his mana, and he had nothing left, he was sure he could have defeated the Queen with this attack, but he had underestimated its defensive capabilities.
Everette was also on the ground already spent from keeping the Queen's attention on him, if they could have had a couple of more 4th rankers it could have been a different story, but so far only he and Ferdinand had been able to make a difference.
Theo knew he had to do something, everyone else was too scared or too depleted already, but he could still move and fight, he was determined to do something.
Then he remembered that he wanted to try out Time Step, he could attack the Queen with all his strength, he had 2.2k mana and he had just recovered from using Arc Slice, he could cast Time Step and attack the Queen.
He then cast a mana circle tier 3, as he activated the time step everything seemed to slow down, now he could control it, he quickly reached the Queen and could see she was completely scorched, he just had to find the weakest place on her abdomen, the Queen could see him and tried attacking him, it was to slow for Theo.
Everyone was just staring at him hoping he could do something, even Everette hoped he´d be capable of doing something, Theo dodged the Queen's attacks and used them in his favor, the Queen had no more quills to throw, she had to use her frontal legs to attack him as the dragon had consumed her tusks.
When the Queen attempted to crush Theo with her legs Theo would just sidestep and the Queen would hit herself in her abdomen, as the Queen stabbed herself she squealed in pain, Theo could see the wound on her lower right side, it was there that he would attack.
He had 600 mana remaining, and he started to overcharge Arc Slice as much as possible, he had 3 seconds left before Time Step wore off, and he jumped and used every last bit of mana, casting Arc Slice right at the spot where the Queen had wounded herself.
As the Arc slice went clean through, cutting through many of her internal organs, the Queen gave a deafening roar, with the last of her strength she targeted Theo, determined to destroy him.
She spits acid at him all she could muster, Theo was out of mana so he could not move, and the acid was about to fall on him, he closed his eyes, then he felt a slight pain and fell to the floor.
But then nothing happened, when he opened his eyes thinking his body would be liquified, Ferdinand was next to him, he had saved him at the last moment and was looking over at the Queen who was indeed decomposing from the acid that landed on her lower half.
Theo was about to black out from mana depletion, but as the Queen died he absorbed a huge amount of mana from her, then he felt as if a tremendous pressure emanated from his core, filling him with strength and energy.
He had broken through to 3rd rank low peak, being so close to the Queen when she died giving him and Ferdinand most of the mana, which helped Theo to break through finally.
"Good job Theodore, you are now at 3rd rank with 4.2k mana in your core" Prim congratulated Theo.
Theo was happy to have broken through and been able to kill the Queen, then he remembered the rest of the squad, as they ran back to the ones that were by the entrance, the trainee that was paralyzed entirely had died from the poison, Fester was still alive but looking very frail, not sure if he would last long.
Everette ran back, he was low on mana as well as his other aid but they were alive, carrying Ariel between the both of them, Ariel was unconscious, "We have to leave quickly and look for a healer, his body won't handle the poison" Ferdinand spoke.
Everette nodded, and they began to go, the webs covering the entrance would tear easily now, "Wait, what about them?" Theo asked, looking over at the two corpses, one looking peacefully as his body had slowly shut down, the other a dismembered mess with a pool of blood and guts under it.
"We leave them, we have another 6 bodies out there of people who are still alive, Ariel and Fester need a healer, which leaves 8 people able, just going up 3 floors will be grueling for us, we can't be carrying dead weight" Everetter spoke coldly, he was right, they need to worry about the trainees that were still alive and needed medical attention.
Theo had been taught to respect all life, but also that the dead need to be honored, at least he wanted to give them a burial, but Fester didn't have much time.
As they left the Boss´ room they went to where the 6 paralyzed trainees were and began to carry them out, moving as fast as possible.