“There, I think . . . I think we did it,” Lucas gasped, letting out a sigh of relief as he looked over at Bonnie’s webbed and bound body lying on the ground next to them.

You have killed Lady Saba'a, Mother of Spiders. You have been awarded 127 EXP. The item Web of Deceit, 12 silver, and 9 copper have dropped upon death.

“Yup, we definitely did it,” Lucas said again out loud. It was more for himself than anyone else, as if he were trying to reassure himself of the fact that the creature was actually dead, and he felt a wave of satisfaction wash over him as he took in the aftermath of his first real boss fight. He took a step toward Bonnie, and yet another stone spear shot up from the ground, striking the giant arachnid through the abdomen one last time.

“What are you doing?” he asked warily.

“I’m making sure it’s dead,” Nick explained. “I don’t want it to start standing up and attacking me the second I turn around.”

“That’s what the death message is for,” Lucas chuckled. “Come on, man. You did get one, right?”

“Yeah, but what if that was just the reward for killing the first stage? What if the thing spawns giant flaming spider fangs and legs and lunges toward us? It could happen. Sometimes boss monsters play dead and give rewards and then wipe the whole party when they turn their backs to leave.”

“Well”—Lucas looked over at the spider’s butchered corpse—“if you say so, I guess. Keep up the good work?”

“Plan to,” Nick responded.

While his buddy was busy committing cautionary overkill, Lucas went over to the fox girl and drew his dagger across the web. It didn’t cut that deeply at first, barely slicing an inch or two into the thick, heavy, gooey binding that wrapped Bonnie up, but after several more passes and a lot of pulling and tugging, he finally freed her hands.

“Noo! You shoulda just killed me,” she whined, clearly distressed and shaking in her small cocoon. “This is so gross! I’m going to be having nightmares for days. So creepy. So gross. So awful! Eww! Eww! Eww! Eww!”

“Well, you know, it’s just a game,” Lucas said, trying to reassure her as he cut away the remaining webbing off of her and sat her up. “It’s not that bad.”

“You know what? Next time we fight a giant spider, you can jump in front of the crazy doom web and tell me if it feels like just a game or not. How ‘bout that, boss? Sound like fun? Huh? Yeah? ‘Cause it sure as hell feels real,” Bonnie grumbled.

“You could have just turned off the pain sensors . . .” Lucas tried to reason with her and then stopped himself. “Never mind. Next time, I’ll do my best to save you quicker.”

“You better! I’m not going through that again,” she said, her voice still shaking.