"Attack from above… that's new."
Beatrice barely finished the thought when the ceiling split open.
Metal shrieked.
Pipes burst.
Acid poured like break damn through its leak.
She dove backward, rolling behind a half-melted operation table as streams of sizzling green fluid carved deep holes into the floor.
The air filled with a hiss so loud it drowned out thought. Her armor shone bright for a moment, flickering with violet light as it repelled what droplets it could, the rest burned shallow lines across her arm. Then she saw it, descending through the hole like something ripped from a nightmare.
The Breeder Spider, as she terms it herself. At first glance, it wore a clear woman's shape, slender, long-limbed, almost graceful, but its flesh moved wrong, stretched by something beneath.
Her abdomen, distended and quivering, was the size of a coffin, veins pulsing beneath translucent skin.
The lower body was all arachnid, chitinous legs clicking against the wall as it crawled downward in eerie silence. Dozens of smaller forms clung to her, half-formed spiders the size of a hand, their black eyes glimmering as they fed on her.
And in her human hands… weapons.
A kitchen cleaver in one. A long rebar stake in the other. Both corroded but slick with acid and blood.
"Another meal ha!?" Her voice came from everywhere, through the vents, through the flesh, through the many small mouths hidden beneath her torso.
"Well willing pray is welcome and delectable." Beatrice stood slowly, blood dripping from her arm.
"This bitch is going to be a pain." Beatrice said with an annoyed face. The Broodmother's face twitched. The human half smiled, the lips of a corpse stretched too far. "Little mammal things...come, come, mother we are we will feed, young hunger's greatly for flesh."
The air tightened. Then the Broodmother lunged. Beatrice ducked under the cleaver as it split the metal table beside her clean in half. The follow-up strike came immediately, the rebar lancing forward, she sidestepped, countered, and strike back her claws flashing. Sparks flew as the strike grazed the spider's jaw, black ichor mix with natrual blood began splattering her visor.
The Broodmother screeched and slammed her leg down. The impact sent Beatrice tumbling sideways, crashing through a web of hanging skeletons. Bones shattered, falling like rain. She barely caught her footing before acid spewed from the creature's abdomen, a pressurized torrent cutting through walls like fire through paper.
Beatrice ran, feet slipping on melted tiles, armor sizzling where drops made contact.
"Not easy ha!?" Dante's voice echoed sharply. "I really would want you to come here and try fighting this thing you bastard."
"I am the gamer here, my job is just to enjoy the show."
"I noticed!" Beatrice barked, vaulting over an overturned bed. She dropped low, grabbed a metal pole, and threw it like a spear. It struck the Broodmother's chest, embedding deep, the creature shrieked, but instead of falling, it laughed. The pole began dissolving instantly in her blood.
Then, suddenly, she vanished.
Beatrice froze. "What... She said suprise after all this thing never did this in the last playthrough. Minor stealth use but disappearing like that, and so fast, that was new.
But she had no time to think... From the left. A blur caught her sight, but it was too late. The Broodmother reappeared mid-air, slamming Beatrice into a wall. The claws dug into her shoulders, armor groaning, cracking slightly. The spider's human face hovered inches from hers, the dead woman's eyes twitching with mirth. "Delicious blood...bleed better if in pain."
"Get away from me you bitch." Beatrice punch hard fire made gauntlet like sparked with light the blinking lights.
And then she punched again. "Bite this!" She thrust her palm forward, unleashing a pulse of violet energy point-blank. The explosion blew the creature backward, sending fragments of armor and web flying across the ward. Beatrice fell to one knee, gasping. Her MP was dropping rapidly.
[Trait Active: Body Armor]
[Duration Remaining: 03:29]
She had less than four minutes of enhanced endurance and defense left with Body Armor. However The Broodmother was already moving again. Regenerating her flesh, as it began to knit her tear skin together, and the sound of her bones popping into place. She grabbed the melted rebar and hurled it like a spear. Beatrice twisted aside, but it grazed her thigh. Pain flared hot and electric.
She bit down, forcing herself to breathe.
Her claws glowed, channeling Mundus energy, and she leapt. Her strike connected with the Broodmother's midsection, tearing through layers of chitin. A flood of black fluid poured forth, splattering both of them. The Brood scream, not in pain, but in rage, and slammed her claw through Beatrice's shoulder, pinning her to the wall.
"We feed on you now." Her words where not whole, but clear intelligence was present. "Not today!" She seized the creature's arm and twisted, muscles burning as she dragged it closer.
Then, with a roar, she headbutted the human skull, once, twice....until cracks spidered across it.
The Broodmother convulsed, staggered backward, shrieking wildly. Her regeneration faltered, twitching like a glitching image.
Beatrice's HUD flickered under red light of the place a warning came.
[Warning: MP Critical]
She ignored it.
Every breath came with blood and spit, but her instincts screamed. The head! It's the weak point, most Mundus she attack there die, so it had to be true for her too.
Beatrice charged again, blade raised high.
The Broodmother met her halfway, claws and weapons slashing in a flurry of deadly precision. Sparks filled the air as flesh and metal collided. Acid sprayed in arcs. The sound was chaos... screams, steel, flesh tearing all alike.
Then Beatrice saw her chance, a small gap as the creature reeled from its own momentum.
She jumped, spun midair, and drove her a random blade she found moments ago and ram it straight into the Broodmother's forehead.
A burst of light, came from it as she channel Mundus energy within and made burst outwards. A scream so loud came from the Broods mouth, it shattered every bulb in the room.
Her armor's glow intensified, feeding on the residual Mundus energy, holding her body together.
Beatrice pushed deeper...driving the blade through the face of thing, and into the skull beneath, until the shrieking stopped.
The Broodmother spasmed, her body seizing violently. The spider limbs twitched, flailed… then went limp. The acid stopped flowing. The webs sagged, and silence returned once more.
Beatrice collapsed onto one knee, panting hard. Her armor was half-dissolved, flickering weakly. She looked up at the corpse, the once-human face now cracked open like porcelain, hollow inside. From within, something pulsed faintly, a glowing orb.
She reached out and took it.
[Item Acquired: Brood Core (Greater Blight)]
[EXP +25]