Fight!

Coming back from around the pillar, now equipped with his new shield, John was ready to kick some spider ass. Aranea looked at him amused with a raised eyebrow, "And you think that piece of junk will save you? Very well, try as you might, you will fall before my feet soon enough." The spiders already went into pursuit for him, even if they were slower than him, it wouldn't matter if he could outrun them if he couldn't hit them. So after having enough distance from these spiders, John tried to use another point of Edge to fill his mana pool up, so he could maybe Bond one of the spiders.

Limit for Edge reached: You can only use two points of Edge per fight

Damn, but at least he knew now that he could only use two points per fight... would that also mean that he couldn't use the 'save once for permanent point' thing? That would be bad... But John was still optimistic that he could win this fight if he used his skills smart enough and kited the spiders long enough. So his first points of attack were the legs of the spider closest to him, which judging by the oil dripping behind was the injured one. Swinging his spear in an upwards arc while keeping the shield in front of his chest. The power behind his swing was thankfully powerful enough to cut through the two front legs trying to come for him, cutting both of them off at the mechanical joint. Could this machine feel pain, John was sure it would be in agony right now.

**** Area! 1.5x Damage!
Charge applied! 2x Damage!
21 DMG + 15 DMG
Enemy crippled! Future damage automatically 1.5x

This was going really good so far, and thanks to the main body of the spider he was for now protected from the shots of the other spider. Just keeping the motion and momentum of his strike going he swung his spear from below upwards and cut the spider into the side of its body.

Crippled! 1.5x Damage!
Charge applied! 2x Damage!
12 DMG

Quickly looking over his sheet, John saw that the second time Charge applied didn't consume any mana, so he suspected that if he could keep up the momentum of his original strike, he could use that skill until he lost too much momentum against these things. So he tried to keep that momentum for as long as possible and adding to it whenever he could. Thanks to that strategy, and thanks to the fact that magical weapons could cut through normal metal with ease, he could get 3 more strikes in before the spider had enough and tackled him with its body

18 DMG
9 DMG
24 DMG

-23 HP

Oof, that hit almost took the wind out of him, and now he was in the precarious position of lying beneath the giant spider, face to face with its mandibles that tried to pierce the shield he thankfully raised in the last moment. Taking a moment to aim and get his angle right, John thrusts his spear to the side of his shield and directly into the mouth of the mechanical spider, hopefully killing it off...

Vital Area struck! 4x Damage!
Crippled! 1.5x Damage
18 DMG + 54 DMG when removed

Damn, that didn't finish it off! Thanks to it's permanent attack onto his shield though a small spark traveled from the shield to the spider, shaking it to its core. John took that time to pull out the spear and strike again, grunting from the effort.

48 DMG + 30 DMG when removed

With some heavy bucking did the spider finally die, only to lifelessly fall onto John, who tried to dodge the falling hunk of metal but was not fast enough to pull back his feet.

-30 HP
New status: Crippled
Recieve 1.5x Damage and lose 50% of your movement speed until effect is gone

This made things quite a bit harder... he was now at 32 HP, and he still had to fight against one completely healthy spider... He was out of options here, this could once again be his end but that would not stop him from fighting and praying for some kind of miracle.

That miracle did indeed rear its head as a blinding light suddenly manifested on the ceiling of the room. A second later a scream pierced the otherwise quiet as a man fell through the air, directly onto the spider. Contrary to how that man looked, he seemed to have some serious weight behind him, as the spider actually buckled from the impact. Without wasting that opportunity that was just given to John, he ran as far as he could to the occupied spider and stabbed it in its face with his spear, hoping he was fast enough to apply the Charge

Vital Area! 4x Damage!
Charge applied! 2x Damage!
56 DMG + 56 DMG when removing

112 Damage in one hit, that was something he would be proud of if he wasn't just fighting for his life. Since the spider was still trying to get back to its feet and seemingly tried to slash at John from behind, he pulled out the spear and rammed it in again, hoping he would finish this thing off now!

Critical Hit! 2x Damage!
Vital Area! 4x Damage!
72 DMG + 36 DMG when removed

Before the thing could hit him, it became lifeless and lost all control of its functions. Looking at the man, John could see him looking around confused and mumbling to himself; something about 'not the school' when his eyes landed on John and he looked even more confused, "John? What are you doing here? Weren't you just getting punched in the face by some asian girls at school?"

"Asian chicks? At my school? What are you talking about? And who are you for that matter?" John asked

"Ah shit not again, I don't know how often this happened to me now... Okay, listen, eat your veggies, don't give that gummy bear to Sylph and watch out for the pickle, it's dangerous!" and without another word or possibility to ask him anything he rose up from the spider's body, ran towards the webbed door and just... phased through it. What the hell!?! Are there only weird people in the Abyss?

Aranea looked just as confused as John felt, but quickly got her demeanor back to her and looked at John with a sneer, "Well seems like even the gods have forsaken you to me. Yes, you killed my spiders, but look at you, you can barely stand anymore. And now I just have to finish you off."

At this point, John was kind of annoyed and pissed off at everything happening around him "Oh yeah? Are you actually going to do something now? Look at your 'army', lying dead to my feet, what are you supposed to do now?" he asked her with growing and growing rage.

"This," she just said, flicked a switch in her hand, and the body beneath John exploded with grey goo.