I gathered all the Irregulars I could spare and powered them up as much as I was able to, spreading out the levels evenly. After that, I created a tower on the northern side of the lake, as close to the shore as possible, and grew it tall enough that our giant spider friend could use it as a brace. Hopefully the extra leverage would make a difference.
On the side of the tower facing the lake, I installed a couple of pulleys for even more leverage. There would be a total of four thick strands of silk to pull on, one at each corner of the net. We could have made it more complex, but we decided against it. The bottom two strands were securely anchored to the tower, so they wouldn’t come free easily. Meanwhile, the top two were already on the other side of the lake. It had taken nearly a day to create a net this large, and almost as long to take the strands to the other end. Our net had to be moved slowly, dragged along the bottom of the lake, or the plan wouldn’t work. Now the net covered nearly the entire lake bottom.
I’d mentioned this already, but remember, this lake was close to the size of the Grand Canyon in the world I came from, so a net that could cover nearly the entire lake floor was impressive. The gaps were big enough that anything smaller than the Lord of the Lake would slip right through. Unless there was something more than half the Lord’s size in there, nothing else would get caught in the net. After all, more creatures thrashing around in the net would just make our job more difficult.
It was my job to take the pair of longer strands back to the tower. They’d been painstakingly dragged to the other side of the lake, so they were quite the distance away. This was the other reason they were so long. I needed to be able to pick up one, then go to the other side of the lake, grab the other strand, then fly back to the tower holding both. Even empty, the net weighed a lot, but I had the strength stat to handle it. In fact, I was really the only person for the job. At the time, I didn’t even consider anyone else.
That stage of the plan was the most problematic, but I pulled it off just fine. With my wings deployed, I was faster than most people could follow, so it went fairly quickly. Once I returned to the lakeside tower with strands in hand, we were ready to start pulling. We secured the strands I brought back to the pulleys, for extra leverage. With any luck, the Lake Lord would be on the northern side of the lake, and it’d get pulled right into our trap. The assembled Irregulars pulled at the strands with all their might; with the pulleys I installed, the work went quickly. There were spider monsters stationed all around the lake. If the Lord jumped out of the lake at one of the other shores and made a break for it, they’d let the big one know about it.
We didn’t need to pull for very long. When the net suddenly got a lot heavier, there was only one explanation. Since the Lake Lord was the only creature big enough to get caught in the net, and there weren’t any huge rocks for it to get snagged on, the trap had been successful. The problem now was pulling it out.
Our spider friend was braced behind the tower, tugging with all of its might, and the Irregulars gave it everything they had too. Unfortunately, the net was hardly moving.
There was only one thing to do. I grabbed a hold of the top edge of the net and yanked it straight up. As I pulled, I saw the Lake Lord emerge from the depths, tangled in the net. Since I had my wings deployed, I quickly wrapped more of the net around it and hauled it to the shore. It was gigantic.
Now that I could see the whole thing, I realized it was basically a giant frog with a long tail like that of a crocodile. The rough surface on the top of its head resembled a crocodile’s skin too. The way it thrashed around in the net once we got it on land was also a very crocodile move; it rolled around until it got stuck, then tried rolling the other way. I wasn’t really worried until I saw one of the strands anchored to the tower break. Then, I panicked.“Get clear,” I shouted to my allies. “I’m going to use magic!”
From the air, I couldn’t actually use most of my spells, but I could still throw items that mimicked spell effects. So that’s what I did. I aimed for its remaining eye, but the Lake Lord was still spinning, so my aim was a bit off. When the magical item bounced off of its tough hide, electricity streaked across the Lake Lord’s body. An inhuman roar filled the air, but the master of the lake was still with us, and it rolled its body even more furiously in an effort to free itself. This was quite the formidable foe.
At least that was confirmation that even if I’d used a spell shard instead of a rock earlier, it wouldn’t have killed the Lake Lord in one shot.
With the way it was thrashing, the others couldn’t really attack it, or even hold on to the strands very well. The pulleys creaked under the strain every time it moved. This monster had to be at a superhigh level. It’d probably eaten whatever monsters or humans it wanted its whole life. There was no reason to hold back, so I changed strategies. I landed on the ground, to let my feet absorb the natural energy I needed for my attack spells.
I decided to start with Green Nature Bullet. When I first arrived in this world, I’d reflexively performed a silent cast version of this low-level spell with reduced power, and it had completely obliterated an armed bear. This time, I planned to use the entire chant to hit it at full power.
“Engre Aretuna Tollebu!”
The bullet fired, speeding toward the massive target. I waited to see what sort of damage would be inflicted, but was quickly disappointed. Just as the spell was about to make contact, the Lake Lord spun its massive body in the same direction the bullet was traveling, and the next thing I knew, the bullet had been deflected harmlessly into the air. The farther away from the ground it got, the less integrity it had, until finally it burst into twinkling motes of light like a lame firework.
In Questonicia, Green Nature Bullet was my primary offense. There were other spells in my arsenal, but they took much longer to cast, so I usually saved them for later in the battle, after my brothers had disabled the opponent to keep it from moving so much. After all, there was no point in using a big move with a long cast time if you couldn’t hit anything. In this case though, the net was holding it down, and the target was massive...but that in itself was also a problem.
If I cast a bigger attack spell and the Lord of the Lake didn’t go down, the net’s structural integrity would likely be compromised. In other words, there was a chance I could set it free by accident if I used a big spell. So I went with a spell only slightly stronger than the first one.
“Dantover Yera!”
This was the intermediate spell “Verdant Ray,” which basically fired a big green laser beam at the enemy. This time, my spell collided with the enemy and gouged out a chunk of flesh, but since it was spinning, I also damaged part of the net. The Lake Lord let out another pained roar, as if to tell me it was still alive. It was encouraging to see one of my spells work, but I needed something more decisive.
Advanced spells took longer to cast, but their destructive power was in a different league. Feeling the pressure, I resolved to end the battle quickly. Even if this next spell didn’t end the fight, it would still stop the Lake Lord from moving. That was my plan.
The cast time was painful; sitting there waiting for the energy to gather was really irritating, but a quick cast version wouldn’t have been as effective. Finally, the spell was ready.
“Paleim Ornth!”
I cast the advanced spell “Impale Thorn,” which was supposed to summon a massive thorny vine that would impale the enemy. I say supposed to, because at the last moment another piece of the net broke, and the Lake Lord narrowly avoided a direct hit as it spun. Frustration was clear on my face. That move had been intended to hold it still so the others could finish it off. It wasn’t my first time missing an enemy with it, but it was certainly the most frustrating. And with that last bit of damage to the net, it gained quite a bit more room to roll around. We were about to lose our catch, so I had no choice but to use Verdant Ray again.
Even if I couldn’t finish it off with Verdant Ray, I could still actually hit it, which was more than I could say for the other attack spells in my arsenal. For the record, most of my spells were for healing and removing status effects. My spell list also had magic for increasing stats by a little bit. I really didn’t have many attack spells, because Lilac was meant to be a healer.
“Dantover Yera!”
I launched another Verdant Ray, with similar results to the first one. I don’t think it penetrated very deep, because the Lake Lord still kept spinning. Even worse, the net was looking even more tattered. Even though I was worried about what would happen if I kept up that type of attack, I had no other options.