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The boss’s attack patterns were exactly as Crim had described. Even the seemingly dangerous one-shot barrages were now easily dodged, thanks to their newfound understanding. This gave everyone enough time to deal with the smaller drones, quickly thinning their numbers.

Once most of the smaller drones were taken care of, the boss’ main body suddenly erupted into flames.

“Did it self-destruct?!” Crim exclaimed in shock.

The golem exploded, sending shrapnel flying in every direction. With no cover, everyone could only try to block the onslaught, grimacing at the relentless barrage of fragments.

“Ack…ghuh?!” Crim groaned as two fragments struck her—one in the right shoulder, the other in her side—piercing her like arrows. She winced but tried to counterattack, lunging forward.

“Wha… Hyah?!”

Her legs refused to respond, and instead, she stumbled backward.

“Kyah?!” “Ugh…” “Eugh..?!”
“Ack..!” “Ow?!” “Geh..!” “Owie?!”

Crim heard the pained cries of her companions as they, too, collapsed, struggling to stand. Realizing they had been hit with some kind of status effect, Crim looked down in growing panic.

“What… what in the world is this…?!”

As the smoke from the explosion began to clear, a wave of comments flooded the stream.

Confused, Crim glanced at her body—and froze. A red, sinewy tendril connected the golem to the two spots where she had been hit, spreading streaks across her exposed soft, white skin. The streaks pulsed like veins, glowing softly, as though they were draining something from her.

Crim frantically tried to pull the tentacles off, but they wouldn’t budge, seemingly burrowing into her skin. It was a disturbing sight, but oddly, there was no pain—it felt more like the tendrils were latched onto her.

However, the tentacles were doing more than just clinging.

“Ugh…” Crim groaned as her strength ebbed away, forcing her to lean on her scythe for support. She noticed her HP and MP bars blinking, their lengths gradually shrinking.

On top of that, a stat debuff icon hovered over the bars, indicating a decrease in both Physical Strength and Magic Power, proportional to the number of tentacles attached to her.

“Damned thing… It’s draining my stats?!”

Gritting her teeth, Crim swung her scythe, trying to sever the tendrils, but to no avail.

Not far from her, Hinagiku was also struggling, using Blue Fire to try to burn off the tentacles gripping her arm and leg.

“M-Master?! I can’t get them off!” Hinagiku cried in frustration.
“Is this part of the boss’ gimmick? Whoever designed this must be out of their mind!”

The tentacles were surprisingly resilient, resistant even to fire. No matter how hard they tried to cut them, the tendrils snapped back as if made of rubber.

While making a mental note to complain to her parents later, Crim rapidly assessed their situation.

“Everyone! We need to destroy that thing before it drains all our health. Freya, keep healing us as long as your mana holds!”
“O-Okay, got it!” Freya responded quickly.
“R-Right away!!”
“Roger that!”

The team swiftly regrouped and unleashed an all-out attack. Fortunately, there were no additional laser beam assaults, suggesting this phase was purely a DPS check.

“Ah…ghah..!”

Crim’s body trembled again. She had been relentlessly attacking from the frontlines when the enemy exploded once more, giving her no time to dodge. Another tentacle latched onto her left thigh, causing her health to drop even faster. Her stats plummeted further, and she felt so drained that she had to put effort to not fall on her knees.

“How messed up… can this dungeon get?!!”

With sheer willpower, Crim forced herself to stand straight, her shout echoing through the underground caverns.

◇◇◇

There was a loud thud as the golem reverted to its original form, collapsing into a pedestal on the floor.

“Gheh…hahh… Seriously, what’s wrong with this place…”
“Nuuu, I can’t get married anymore…” Freya whimpered beside her, sulking miserably.

While Crim tried to catch her breath, she patted Freya’s shoulder in an attempt to console her. The rest of the team lay sprawled across the cavern, utterly exhausted after the tentacles had drained away their strength.

Still, the ticking countdown toward their inevitable weakness had pushed them to focus all their energy on the fight—and their concentrated attacks had paid off. Now the boss lay smoking and lifeless, showing no signs of stirring again.

Just moments before the final strike, even more tentacles had latched onto Crim—wrapping around her neck, back, and limbs—totaling up to six in all. But now, they all slid off effortlessly, slumping to the ground in a grotesque heap.

“…There’s NO WAY this will get our account banned, is there?”

Thankfully, the tentacles had avoided any inappropriate areas, clinging only to limbs. This detail was particularly crucial for Lycoris and Hinagiku, both of whom were not even fifteen years old. At least the developers had the decency to maintain that much restraint.

The general sentiment among the viewers was one of uneasy relief. Though they usually responded in the most degenerate ways, this time, their reactions carried an unusual hint of empathy.

Afterword:

Everyone meant their streaming account. Also, the fight played out the same way regardless of gender, so parties with only males would suffer the same fate.