The broodlings surged forward, but Azrael didn't hesitate.
Gravity bent to his will, pressing down on them as he swung his spear in wide arcs, shattering their brittle exoskeletons.
Blood sprayed the snow, hissing where the poisoned sludge met the frost.
Every strike sent a surge of pain up his ruined arm threatening to rip it off, yet he smiled through it, reveling in the chaos.
Olivia moved like a shadow over ice, blade flashing with deadly precision. Each step was measured yet fierce as fire.
She danced between snapping jaws and swarming broodlings, carving black streaks into the snow.
With each slash, the spider hissed and reared, its eight fiery eyes darting between them, trying to anticipate the next strike.
Azrael lunged, spear aimed at a trembling leg, piercing through the joint with a sickening crunch.
The spider shrieked, rattling the chamber as frost cracked under its weight. Its movements became sluggish, its poisoned body reacting too slowly to the twin onslaught.
"Keep it moving, Az!" Olivia's voice rang out, cutting through the din. He barely registered the command, too focused on tearing through the mass of venomous limbs that threatened to crush him.
The boss lunged again, fangs dripping with thick, corrosive venom.
Olivia rolled beneath it, driving her blade into the soft underbelly. Steam hissed and rose as poison met blood, filling the air with the stench of decay and frost.
Azrael seized the opening, plunging his spear into one of its eyes. The orb shattered, spraying dark fluid over his chest, yet the beast convulsed violently, refusing to die.
The cavern shook as the spider slammed into the ground, sending jagged ice shards scattering like missiles.
Both fighters were thrown off their feet, snow and blood coating every surface. Dozens of broodlings surged from the shadows, answering their mother's call, their mandibles clicking in frenzied unison.
Together, they advanced, a storm of blood, steel, and fire against the monstrous spider.
The snow beneath their feet froze into jagged shards, ice splintering with every strike. And still, the spider fought back, each movement a mix of raw power and desperate survival.
But Azrael and Olivia were no longer simply fighting—they were predators now, synchronized and unrelenting.
Every strike they delivered pushed the beast closer to its inevitable end, even as its hisses and screamed.
The broodlings surged again, a black tide of snapping mandibles and skittering legs. Azrael bent gravity around them, forcing the smaller spiders to the ground, smashing them beneath their own momentum.
Each swing of his spear tore through the horde, shards of ice and snow flying with the carnage. Pain lanced up his shattered shoulder, venom searing his veins, but he grinned.
He loved this battle.
Olivia was a phantom of blood and frost, darting between snapping jaws with the grace of a hunted spirit now turned predator.
Her blade was a streak of black against the snow, carving precise, fatal arcs through spider after spider.
Each cut sprayed black blood that hissed against the frozen floor, forming steaming rivulets in the snow.
Even as her mana waned, her strikes remained unrelenting, each one laced with poison she had carefully injected into the spider's veins.
The boss spider shrieked, a metallic scream that reverberated through the cavern, cracking the icy walls.
One of its massive legs lashed out, and Azrael barely rolled beneath it, his spear sliding across the surface of the jagged stones.
Pain exploded in his arm, but he pushed through, pulling himself upright and lunging once more.
He drove his spear into the spider's joint with a sickening crunch. The creature shrieked, staggering, venom dripping from its fangs, sizzling as it hit the snow.
Olivia leapt under the boss's body, blade piercing its soft underbelly. Steam hissed as the poison in her blade mingled with the spider's own venom.
The beast convulsed violently, lashing out, snapping its fangs just inches from her face. Azrael used the opening, thrusting his spear into one of its eyes. The orb shattered, spraying black blood across his chest. Still, the spider didn't die.
It slammed into the cavern floor, throwing both fighters across the snow in a spray of snow, shards of frozen blood and venom scattering with the impact.
Dozens more broodlings surged from the shadows, their mother's dying roar commanding them to attack.
Mandibles clicked and legs pounded against the frozen floor, a rhythm of pure, primal fury.
Azrael coughed blood, clutching his shredded shoulder, but he rose with a manic grin.
Together, they became a single storm of death. Azrael's spear arced in wide swings, cleaving through legs, crushing broodlings under the weight of manipulated gravity.
Olivia danced across the beast, every strike calculated, every thrust deadly.
She slashed into the creature's underbelly, poison burning through the tough, chitinous hide, each cut leaving it weaker, slower, more desperate.
The spider roared, fangs dripping with corrosive venom, but its movements were sluggish now.
Azrael leapt onto its back, spear plunged into the remaining uninjured eye, and the beast thrashed wildly, trying to throw him off again.
Olivia circled beneath, delivering fatal strikes to its legs, her blade carving deep through joints and tendons.
The spider screeched, shivering, black blood spilling across the snow, steam rising from the poisoned wounds.
Finally, in one synchronized, brutal strike, Azrael drove his spear through the monster's head while Olivia's blade sliced upward from beneath its chest, piercing the soft tissue and driving through the heart of the creature.
It let out a final, ear-splitting shriek, limbs flailing in convulsions before collapsing into the snow. The ice cracked under its weight as the cavern fell silent.
Only the hissing of venom and the distant drip of poisoned blood remained.
Azrael dropped to his knees, blood running freely down his arm and chest, chest heaving but a wild grin on his face.
Olivia staggered toward him, her pink eyes glinting, blade still slick with black blood and the spider's venom.
They stared at the lifeless monstrosity, breathing hard, yet alive.