Chapter 11: The Ghost Spider

As the swift arrows shot toward them, Toutina, who had been standing beside Li Bin, reacted with lightning speed. With several rapid swings of her curved blade, she deflected every arrow with ease.

By this time, Li Bin had already made his decision. He pointed into the depths of the passage and commanded, "Prepare to set fire!"

Before his subordinates could carry out his order, several sword spiders covered in interwoven yellow-green bristles burst out from the depths of the corridor. Behind them followed half of a beautiful woman wielding a long wooden bow.

She was only half, for this striking, blue-haired beauty had a perfect upper body, but below the waist her form was wholly that of a spider—eight furry, jointed legs bearing the weight of her body.

Positioned advantageously, this half-woman called out in a commanding voice, "Go back, undead. This is not a place for you."

Li Bin snorted coldly. "If I obeyed every time someone told me to retreat, I'd have no dignity left."

"Better to lose face than lose your life. Leave now, undead," the spider-woman warned again. "This is your final warning. Otherwise, we will attack."

"Is that so? Then I'll have to see for myself what your so-called attack looks like." With a wave of his hand, Li Bin signaled his skeletal soldiers, who immediately advanced.

"Then die," the spider-woman snapped, wasting no more words. While directing the sword spiders to fend off the skeletons, she drew her bow and fired at Li Bin.

Knowing his own limitations, Li Bin cast several curses upon the spider-woman and then left the fight to Toutina, while he led his skeletal mages to set fire to the webs lining the corridor.

Seeing Li Bin’s intent, the spider-woman grew anxious. She wanted to stop him but was unable to break free from Toutina's relentless assault.

Just as Li Bin and his followers were about to press deeper into the passage, the spider-woman abruptly abandoned Toutina. Spinning around, she endured three slashes from Toutina’s blade and dashed toward the far end, shouting as she ran.

Moments later, a chilling screech echoed from the depths, and a monstrous spider slowly crawled out from the darkness.

It was five meters tall, its eight pairs of eyes gleaming with an eerie violet light as they swept over the corridor. Its jet-black body was covered in hair that made one’s skin crawl, and eight powerful, jointed legs supported its enormous bulk.

Behind it surged a horde of spiders in every size imaginable, numbering in the thousands.

Confronted with such a sight, even Li Bin involuntarily took a step back. The system, which rarely warned of enemy strength, immediately notified him: "You have trespassed into the territory of the Level 5 Boss, the Ghost Spider. Prepare to face its wrath."

"Level 5? Boss?" Li Bin cried out in anguish. Level 5 itself was not insurmountable for him and his army—a difference of one or two levels could often be overcome by sheer numbers. But a Boss was another matter entirely; even the weakest possessed power two levels higher than their stated rank, and special Bosses sometimes had unique abilities. Faced with the Ghost Spider, whose true strength was at least Level 7, for the first time, Li Bin doubted his own and his troops’ abilities.

As Li Bin was about to order a retreat, the Ghost Spider sprang into action, charging straight at Toutina—Li Bin’s strongest fighter—clearly seeking to eliminate the core of his force.

At the same moment, the smaller spiders behind it moved as one, sealing off the escape route with dense layers of web.

Realizing that battle was now unavoidable, Li Bin took up his weapon and dashed toward the Ghost Spider, directing his forces as he went.

But the difference in strength was far too great. His corpse soldiers were cleaved in two by the Boss’s claws the moment they closed in, and the skeletal warriors didn’t even get that far.

With no better option, Li Bin sent his undead gargoyles to harass the Ghost Spider from above, while the bone naga and sword-wielding mummy formed a shield wall to block its advance. The death elf archers and skeleton archers became the main attackers, launching volley after volley at the monster.

Yet, even with a skeletal priest tirelessly healing them from behind, the last sword-wielding mummy could do little more than cast a strength curse on the Ghost Spider before collapsing. This curse, which should have lasted at least half an hour, persisted for barely ten minutes on the Ghost Spider, and even then, its attacks hardly diminished.

Seeing his numbers dwindle, Li Bin understood that, at this rate, his entire army might be wiped out. Desperate to survive, he resolved to go all in.

"All priests, cast Bloodlust on the melee fighters. Hold nothing back—everyone, attack!" Li Bin shouted, pointing at the Ghost Spider. "Even if we can’t kill it, take it down with you!"

His skeletons and corpse soldiers responded immediately, charging the Ghost Spider without hesitation. But after so many battles, their numbers were too few to do more than delay the monster. Even self-destruction by the skeletons barely scratched it.

Yet this relentless assault finally enraged the Ghost Spider. With a thunderous roar, it fired its body hairs like steel needles in every direction.

Several corpse soldiers and a skeletal priest at the front were struck before they could dodge, pinned to the ground and killed instantly.

This panicked Deirdre, who had been in the rear; discarding all regard for her clerical role, she hurled herself at the Ghost Spider. Her priests, seeing this, rushed after her, all throwing themselves onto the creature.

Suddenly, a green light radiated from Deirdre, and under its glow, all the priests feverishly healed their comrades.

Li Bin was stunned for a moment, then shouted, "Everyone get down! Now!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a deafening explosion erupted—the skeletal priests who had leapt onto the Ghost Spider all detonated at once, the force of the blast hurling Li Bin and the others into the corridor walls.

When the shockwave faded, Li Bin received a message from the system: mission accomplished. Slowly, he climbed to his feet and surveyed the aftermath.

The cost was staggering. Of all his forces, only three heroes remained: Li Bin himself, Toutina, and Deirdre. The only surviving troops were a single bone naga, a skeletal priest, a skeletal mage, and three death elf archers.

The sole consolation was that all three heroes had gained a level from the battle, and the surviving soldiers had earned enough experience to advance as well.

After tending briefly to his battered troops, Li Bin summoned the will-o’-wisp slaves who had been waiting outside the passage, ordering them to clean up the devastated battlefield.