Raid on Eight Fingers

The Raid on Eight Fingers was a raid on the criminal organization Eight Fingers carried out by Nazarick as part of Operation Gehenna. This also led to them coming to blows with the Re-Estize Kingdom, who were conducting their own raid as part of the Eight Fingers Suppression Campaign.

Background
Blue Roses were able to successfully pinpoint where the other crime syndicate's installations are at. They learned that all these locations are happen to be founded within the domains of different nobles. Princess Renner requested the adventurer group to split up their members and take action, with each of them taking a single location. Considering that there are around eight places to raid and Blue Roses only have five people in their adventurer team, they will be short on manpower. Hence, those who have already finished their attacks will proceed to the remaining three locations that have yet to be taken care of. Renner had even enlisted Gazef Stronoff to their operation and attack the sixth location.

To commence the operation, Lakyus first gathers all the leaders of the various teams involved in raiding Eight Fingers to discuss what their plans are. Lakyus explained the details of the operation, which was to attack and capture eight installations run by Eight Fingers. Before heading off their separate ways, Lakyus warns them that since they are going up against Eight Fingers, they need to be wary of encountering traps and very powerful individuals like the Six Arms along the way. Among one of these Eight Fingers' installations, a Blue Roses adventurer discover a mansion manage by Hilma Cygnaeus who was taken away secretly by Mare to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. However, much to her surprise upon visiting it, Gagaran came across an unknown monster dress in maid-like clothing that appears to be eating human fleshes from a random member of Eight Fingers.

Battle
Upon seeing what the man-eating monster was doing, Gagaran realizes that the monster is not something she cannot easily let go of without killing it due to the danger it may pose to humans. Hence, the adventurer Gagaran charges at Entoma to close the distance between the two of them. Once the monster was within her range of attack, Gagaran raised her spiked warhammer high and smashed down at her. Nonetheless, Entoma gracefully evaded that blow without problem. However, Gagaran refused to let up on her weapon's attack and suddenly changed the direction of its swing, bringing the warhammer at Entoma in a murderous blow. That was not a graceful movement utilizing centrifugal force, but using brute muscle power to forcefully change the direction of the strike. Entoma evaded once more, and then activated a skill.

Annoyed by how Entoma is running away from her attacks, Gagaran swung her warhammer once again at Entoma. The gale in the wake of its blow whipped past Entoma's head, stirring the strands of the latter's hair. Entoma mock Gagaran's swing to be mad wild while using her skill the second time. At the same time, Entoma easily avoided the plunging smash of Gagaran's spiked warhammer. Having missed its target, the hammer crashed into the ground with all the force which had been meant for her. Entoma sneered at her opponent’s simple, repetitive attacks. However, Entoma then realized in the next moment that Gagaran was waiting for the hubris the latter had set up for her. Too little too late for Entoma to react on time, Gagaran smash the ground into smithereens to the point where the stone floor shattered when the spiked warhammer struck it.

This, in turn, created a localized earthquake by Gagaran which forces Entoma to lose her footing while the former remains steady due to a magic item she had equipped. Realizing that she underestimated Gagaran, Entoma decided to stop playing around with her opponent and now holds the intent to kill her. Entoma turned to face the falling spiked warhammer and raised her left arm. In the very next moment, what rang out was not the sound of steel pulping flesh, but two hard objects colliding. At this moment, a shield clung to Entoma’s left arm, an insect with over eight legs gripped her arm tightly and refused to let go. As Gagaran is confuse by her choice of weaponry, Entoma introduce herself as an Insect Master who summons forth insects to fight on her behalf and command.

After revealing her job class, she then proceeded to wave her right hand and out of the night flew a long insect shaped like a broadsword, which attached itself to the back of her right hand. She plans to kill Gagaran off with both her Blade Bug and Hard Armor Bug. Entoma quickly advanced on Gagaran and slashed at her in no time without giving the latter a chance to evade or dodge the blow. She ripped through Gagaran's breastplate and fresh blood spewed out. However, it was not a fatal strike to Gagaran by any means. Although Gagaran had not been able to avoid a serious attack from Entoma, she had only been lightly wounded by it. She swung again, and blood spurted once more, splashing her face. Thanks to the injury she had taken just now, this wound was deeper than the last, and it could no longer be considered light.

Seeing that Entoma is finally serious in attempting to kill her, Gagaran fights back in retaliation to the two blows she had sustain damage from her. The spiked warhammer fell on Entoma with a furious cry, and the monster deflected it with her Hard Armor Bug. Gagaran felt a tremendous impact race through her, but she stood firm, determined not to budge so much as a step. Gagaran rode on the flow of battle, continuing her fluid combination of attacks simultaneously nonstop against Entoma. She uses a fast and furious assault that was augmented by her Martial Arts skills to maintain offense over the monster. This was her trump card made as a super combo. However, Entoma skilfully used her Shield Bug and her Sword Bug to block the series of fifteen continuous attacks without so much as a scratch. Entoma’s innate muscle power had blocked every single strike.

Losing strength in prolonging her super combo for any longer, the combination attack by Gagaran had stopped. Entoma cocked her right hand, the one with the Blade Bug back like she was drawing a bow, and then stabbed forward like loosing an arrow. She was aiming for the chest of Gagaran. In response, Gagaran raised its warhammer to fight back and defend herself, but it was too slow to stop Entoma. As Entoma’s strike was faster than the human, she tries to piece the adventurer's chest but only to have it be miss by Tia who arrived at the scene of the battle between the two to pull Gagaran away from the attack. Gagaran thank Tia for saving her in the nick of time and two started bantering with each other much to the annoyance and frustration of Entoma. Entoma immediately grew cautious of Tia after presuming she is a ninja to be level 60 to have such a class.

Refusing to hold back any longer, Entoma sprung into action and threw four summoning talismans from her right hand to the ground. After the talismans landed on the ground, it instantly transformed into huge spiders. She was hoping to use them in buying herself some time to prepare her next course of action against them. Meanwhile, Tia activated her ninjutsu, calling forth her [Shadow Clone]. On the other hand, Entoma called out her trump cards; her Bullet Bugs and another kind of insect. At the same time, she pasted talismans on herself to further strengthen her abilities. A swarm of Bullet Bugs gathered out of nowhere and covered her left arm. The shadow clone was running ragged just trying to evade the attacks of one spider, while the original was dealing with two of them. The fact that she had only killed one after so long suggested that her foes were most definitely not high-leveled.

The weight on her left arm pleased Entoma, and she extended the finger of her left hand at Tia. The bugs had encrusted Entoma’s arm until they had practically doubled its diameter. As one, they crawled to the front of her arm and then took wing from her extended finger, one after the other. The incessant buzzing of wings called to mind the image of a Gatling gun. The path of the Bullet Bugs meant that they pierced through her own Shikigumo, but in total, 150 of them flew downstream at Tia. In the face of the fatal projectiles shot at her, Tia used another ninjutsu technique, [Immovable Adamantine Shield]. As a scintillating rainbow-colored shield sprang into existence in front of Tia, the bugs slammed into the gigantic wall of light that was shaped like a six-pointed star. Within a few seconds, the shield shattered with the crisp sound of breaking glass. However, the fusillade of insects had stopped as the shield broke, revealing an unhurt Tia behind it.

Later, Tia threw a kunai at Entoma's direction in order to hit her while Gagaran attempts to use that chance in launching a mid-air strike on her. Unfortunately for the two of them, Entoma deflected the kunai flying from the front with the Blade Bug before then blocking Gagaran’s plunging mid-air strike with her Hard Armor Bug. The Hard Armor Bug had to take a lot of pressure, and it squeaked like it was wailing in pain despite tanking the blow from Gagaran who jump down on her at quite a high place. If the dazzling lights of the [Immovable Adamantine Shield] had affected Entoma’s vision, she would not have been able to block Gagaran’s leaping attack from the darkness. However, Entoma's vision was not affected by that trickery as her field of vision was much larger than that of a human, even when she wore "that".

Sensing that it would be dangerous to do a follow-up attack, Gagaran moved away from Entoma and kept her distance. Gagaran was able to move so nimbly despite her massive frame proved that her wounds were completely healed with assistance from Tia who was buying her time during the ninja's exchange of attacks with Entoma. She took her place beside Tia and crushed the Bullet Bugs' corpses underfoot, making a clear pachipachi noise. Tia and Gagaran can't help but feel baffled by how well-time Entoma's attacks and movements are, deducing that the maid monster is carefully studying all the moves they have made until now.

With no intention of looking down on these two humans before her, she decided to have no more use for her Blade Bug and Shield Bug. The insect clinging to Entoma’s right arm fell to the ground and vanished into the night with a scrabbling noise. Another insect called Thousand Lash Bug crawled onto the now-vacant arm which resembled a ten meters long centipede with sharp fangs. Entoma began channeling her strength into her legs. Through fighting them, Entoma had learned the attack speed, destructive power, defensive strength, evasive ability, and movement abilities of the two humans. Feeling hungry, she began to have second thought of not just disposing Gagaran and Tia, but making a meal out of them as well. The two of them shuddered, exposed as they were before Entoma’s hungry gaze. They were not afraid of the killing intent she emitted, but this was a trembling born of the revulsion any living being had when a carnivore set its sights on them.

This was the first time Entoma had gone on the offensive in the battle, and her attack was accompanied by a shrill cry that sounded like two pieces of foam rubbing against each other. Predators pounced their prey in a straight line, and at very high speeds. Tia threw more multiple kunais at Entoma to stop the monster in its track as it approach the former and Gagaran. By the time Entoma had deflected the six consecutive kunais coming at her, she had covered the distance between both parties. Seeing Gagaran the frontliner raise her weapon, Entoma decided on the first person she would incapacitate, and she swung the whip in her right hand. The whip which should have followed the motion of Entoma’s arm in a lazy arc moved in a completely impossible fashion. It launched out like an extension of Entoma’s arm at Gagaran, its razor-sharp horns and teeth leading the way at lightning speed. This movement was only possible from a creature that was a fusion of weapon and lifeform.

Gagaran evaded the attack by the narrowest of margins, where the insect whip flew past her face. Tia shout to her fellow adventurer to alarm her about the next blow after avoiding that attack from Entoma. Following Tia's cry, Gagaran's body was blown away when Tia uses her ninjutsu [Bursting Flame Column]. The suicidal explosion enveloped the two of them, the Thousand Lash Bug passed through the place where Gagaran’s head had been, having turned a full 180 degrees to attack from behind. If not for that suicidal explosion, the Thousand Lash Bug would have pierced her skull. It had been well-dodged. However, Entoma’s attack did not stop there. The Thousand Lash Bug suddenly turned as though it was on strings, heading at Gagaran’s blackened body.

At the same time, Entoma cast a [Lightning Bird Talisman] at Tia. The talisman transformed into several birds of bluish-white electricity in mid-air, and winged towards Tia. The lightning strike exploded, and actinic blue-white light burst out to cover the surroundings, illuminating Tia who was trying to withstand the pain and Gagaran who was trying to fend off the Thousand Lash Bug. Gagaran weighed down the head of the Thousand Lash Bug with her spiked warhammer and gripped it under her left armpit, trying to keep it from moving. However, the insect used its ten meter-long body to coil loop after loop of itself around her body. Tia stepped forward and threw a dagger, which struck Entoma’s Shield Bug with a metallic sound.

Soon after, Entoma proceed to casting [Lightning Bird Swarm Talisman] via throwing out many talismans with her left hand. They transformed into birds that were slightly smaller than before and converged on Tia. However, Tia vanished via using [Dark Crossing], and bereft of a target, the thunderbirds flew on. Tia emerged from the darkness behind Entoma, where she should have been outside of her field of vision. This was a short-ranged teleport through the medium of shadows. However, Entoma had long since spotted her. Much like certain insects had antennae, Entoma could sense movements in the air currents through a similar organ, which was another facet of Entoma’s sensory abilities. The few remaining Bullet Bugs shot out at Tia as she stepped out of the shadows. Unable to dodge the attack on time, Tia sustain damage as she let out a cry of pain and blood.

Sensing that Tia was still able to fight on, Entoma followed up on her next attack. She cast [Explosive Talisman] on Tia, bringing forth an explosion more intense than what the latter had previously made with [Bursting Flame Column]. As a result, Tia was blown away, rolling along the ground, and more talismans continued flying after her. The talismans heading for Tia's direction were both called [Sharp Cutting Talisman] and [Piercing Wind Talisman]. Tia could not find a chance to get to her feet, and she left a trail of bloodstains in her wake as she rolled further and further away, all the while being slashed and blasted. Tia could not find a chance to get to her feet, and she left a trail of bloodstains in her wake as she rolled further and further away, all the while being slashed and blasted.

While continuously attacking Tia, Entoma had her insect whip already wrapped up around Gagaran, who was cursing from inside the spherical mass. Feeling that victory is drawing near, Entoma summoned more insects to her aid, the kind which did not possess any fearsome fighting ability. Nevertheless, they happen to resemble syringes, which injected a paralytic venom. Entoma grabbed the bugs and stepped lightly towards Tia. However, before she could move any further towards the ninja, Entoma’s exceptional senses warned her of a long, cold object plunging down on her from above, and she leapt away. At that moment, a cavalry lance made of fragile crystal stabbed into the stone floor ground where Entoma had just been standing. She was then met and greeted by the arrival of Evileye who was responsible for the [Crystal Lance] attack. Evileye descended slowly upon the butt of the cavalry lance.

Entoma warns Evileye to wait her turn until she finish the other two adventurers off and devour them. Despite Entoma's words, Evileye express mockery to the man-eater for dressing itself up as a maid and that nobody would want to be served by such a monster. Evileye went on to state that payback time is in order for Entoma who wounded her companions. Angered by the masked magic caster's words, Entoma who was radiating murderous intent of her own from every pore of her body broke into a sprint at her. Entoma swung the Thousand Lash Bug at Evileye, wherein which there was only about a meter or so left for her to grip it while the rest had already formed into a huge sphere surrounding Gagaran. Entoma smashed the remaining Thousand Lash Bug down on Evileye, like she was wielding a flail.

Evileye in turn, use [Reverse Gravity] to counter Entoma's attack. Although Entoma resisted the spell, her insect weapon Thousand Lash Bug turned weightless and floated up leisurely. The Thousand Lash Bug sensed what Entoma was thinking and released Gagaran. It unrolled like a tape measure and instantly became a ten meter-long insect whip. As Gagaran collapsed to the ground, Evileye barked orders at her, telling the warrior to go heal up Tia while she holds Entoma off in the meantime. Refusing to let this slide, Entoma finally decides to use her ace in the hole [Fly Breath], exhaling and expelling a cloud of carnivorous flies their way. However, to Entoma's shock, Evileye cast [Vermin Bane] as a counterattack which neutralize the power of her trump card entirely from harming the adventurers.

As the swarm of insects touched the vapors, the flies fell to the ground one by one. When said vapors reached and enveloped Entoma’s body, she was wracked by incredible pain. Entoma's face emitted a cloud of steam and deformed, as though someone had poured acid on it. Evileye’s objective had been to negate her opponent’s breath attack, but she had not expected it to reveal her enemy’s true face. After healing Tia, Gagaran resumes her battle stance and had her spiked warhammer raised while looking for a chance to approach her opponent. However, Gagaran could not approach the enemy because the ten meter-long insect was thrashing about wildly, preventing her from getting close.

After sustaining damage over time by the insect-killing spell, the skin of Entoma's Mask Bug face slid stickily down and thudded to the ground. In addition to that, the maid’s abnormally hard-looking throat was exposed with a slit and a Lip Bug fell out of it much to their disgust. The members of Blue Rose could not help but back off as they saw the true monstrous face of Entoma. While they had guessed at it once the Mask Bug fell off and the [Vermin Bane] had been visibly effective, the horrific sight before them still engendered fear in their hearts. Evileye warns Gagaran and Tia that they must try even harder to work together in killing Entoma than before monster took off her mask. Entoma's back swelled up, and four long legs like those of a spider sprouted from under her clothes.

Entoma used the legs she had sprouted to leap forward into the air. Now that she had a height advantage from overhead, the monster spewed its [Fly Breath], seeking to engulf everyone in it. Evileye cast [Vermin Bane] once more to neutralize Entoma's trump card, causing the flesh-eating flies to be wiped out while the insect maid fell to the ground as a result of it. Gagaran smashed in from the side with her spiked warhammer. Entoma tries to evade Gagaran’s hit, but froze briefly in place due to Tia's use of ninjutsu, [Immobility Binding Paralysis] stopping her from moving. Although this did not stop Entoma from moving completely, it was enough to create a brief opening for Gagaran to land her blow.

In response to the Smash-enhanced strike from Gagaran, Entoma spat a mouthful of [Spiderweb]. There was so much of it that painted the upper half of Gagaran’s body white. The sticky and resilient silk was difficult to break even for Gagaran's arm strength. As Gagaran stopped her attack and stumbled backwards, Entoma stepped forward after it. Evileye cast and shot out [Crystal Lance] at Entoma. Though it hit Entoma and penetrated deep into her body, the lance failed to hurt or faze her. Worse, she seemed strong enough to summon more insects from the night, causing her left arm to swell up. In response to Evileye's attack, Entoma summon more insects, causing her left arm to swell up. Seeing this, Evileye immediately use [Vermin Bane] once again as a countermeasure against it. The white vapors produced from that spell cast by Evileye caused the insects swarming on Entoma's left arm to fall off, leaving the latter to moan in pain.

The portion of her body that corresponded to a human’s jaw turned to face Evileye, and it spewed a stream of silk [Slashing Spiderweb] at her. Evileye cast [Crystal Wall] to shield herself from the web, sensing the light from its strands was colder and harder than what she had hit Gagaran with. The [Crystal Wall] Evileye produced before her eyes was cut to pieces. While so, the net of woven black thread which Tia cast out expanded in mid-air. However, that net could not find a possible way to restrict the movement of Entoma's body whatsoever. The net passed through the monster's body like an illusion and fell to the ground. Meanwhile, Gagaran received a kick at the maid, who was seeking to close into melee combat and create some space between them. Gagaran backed off, and the other two members of Blue Rose kept their distance from the maid, forming up while staying wary of area attacks.

In order to stop it from powering up with her talismans, the three attack Entoma head on and hit her with everything they have to deplete her health such as using their strongest attacks. One of such happens to be Evileye's high-tier spell [Vermin Bane] that served as a weakness for Entoma. Together, Evileye used [Acid Splash] as the trio's main attack method, while Gagaran activated her martial arts in between a series of repeated combination attacks. That leaves only Tia whose offensive power was comparatively weaker supported the two from behind with items. Before long, the flow of the battle is now in Blue Roses' advantage as Entoma was slowly being forced to retreat further and further back.

While dealing with Entoma, the adventurer group keep persistently using up their recovery items along with other resources to the point that they manage to outlast the maid for as long as need be until it was at a disadvantage. Despite Gagaran and Tia being far weaker than Evileye, having numbers on Blue Roses' side were a significant advantage against Entoma who was fighting them alone in this fight. For the Blue Roses, being able to attack and heal at the same time had a big effect on the flow of the battle. In particular, the side that could have others heal them when they could not heal themselves is a decisive factor for the Blue Roses.

In the end, Entoma finally succumb to her wounds and collapsed to the ground thereafter. Evileye’s mana was heavily depleted, and her expendable items were almost gone. Gagaran, covered in wounds as she was, announced their victory while panting. Although Gagaran was completely out of healing items, she had not lost as much health as her external injuries would indicate. Tia proceed to walk forward and put an end to Entoma's life until Jaldabaoth intervenes to stop her from getting any closer.