chapter 4

The stone walls crumbled like Styrofoam, and a hideous, gigantic monster burst out from within. With each step it took, the entire hallway shook.

Just like before, seeing it in real life like this gave off a tremendous sense of intimidation from its hideous appearance. It was even worse because it was much taller than me and was carrying a club that was incredibly thick.

The monster came crashing through the wall, then roared again when it saw me standing in front of it.

-Koooooooooooo!!!!!!

The roar rang out loud. My ears suddenly started to feel numb. It was worse than when I played music without realizing that the headphone volume was turned up to the max.

If you want to run away from here, just turn around and run. It's because the appearance was so impactful and shocking, but if you know how to press the Shift key properly, running away isn't that difficult.

But I absolutely had to beat that guy.

No matter how much I thought about it, it seemed like the early progression would have been completely blocked without the bloody sword, and the event that followed when I defeated the human slaughterer in the first encounter was also very important to me from my current perspective.

He held the steel sword used by the mid-boss in his right hand and faced the human slaughterer head-on.

In the game, if you kill a mid-boss, the weapon doesn't drop, it just disappears, so it's impossible for me to pick up the sword it was holding and use it.

But that wasn't the case here.

Assuming this is indeed the same steel sword as the one in the game, you should be able to kill the guy in about 20 minutes, even taking into account the increased health from the Bulwark mode.

'There's no need to dodge, parrying isn't available yet, it's just parrying and rolling.'

I thought of a number of possible strategies that I could use.

When I was holding a blunt weapon, I couldn't parry, so I had to just roll to avoid attacks, but now that I was holding a one-handed sword, I could also parry. That was enough.

'The first attack is always a charge.'

I took a stance. The human slaughterer came running towards me with a roar and a loud thumping sound. It seemed more like he was walking than running, because of his fat body.

The stone wall that my shoulder hit crumbled and collapsed. I also slowly stepped back to match it. I needed to secure some space to avoid the attack by rolling sideways.

I waited for it to get close, then just before it collided with my torso, I leapt to the right. My body rolled around the floor in perfect alignment, my large feet trampling the empty air.

After neatly dodging the rushing attack, I immediately got up and started running in the opposite direction.

As I disappeared from sight, the human slaughterer, who had been looking around in confusion, turned around as if he had heard footsteps. Then, as soon as he saw me running away, he let out a roar of rage.

Ignoring the roar, I found a hole in the wall that had collapsed and went inside. A bright light poured in from nearby.

I ran towards the light without hesitation. The bastard was busy chasing me, and he was closing the distance, almost destroying the prison walls.

But I was faster. As I escaped outside through the hole where the light was coming out, a huge empty space appeared right below. I jumped down into the empty space.

'I could just run away like this, but… … .'

I glanced at the large front gate of the prison, which was located directly opposite me. That was the only entrance to the prison. The only entrance was because the other three sides were all cliffs.

Even if I had escaped the human butcher instead of coming here from the hallway, I could have fought him here at any time before I left.

I just skipped all the middle steps.

This wasn't some trick that users discovered, but was actually intended by the developers of Blizzard 4. You could escape right away by avoiding the human butcher and going back to where it came from.

With a "Kwaang!" sound, the human slaughterer that had quickly caught up with me landed on the empty lot. The ground that met my feet couldn't support my weight and caved in. The surrounding ground also cracked.

It was snorting and snorting, perhaps annoyed at its prey running away. Its misaligned teeth clanked together, making a noise.

Now it begins. I raised my steel sword.

I rolled over to the side of his left leg and swung my sword at his torso. The tip of the sword dug into his stomach, adding another shallow wound. Black blood dripped from the long, drawn wound.

-Kuaaaaah!

I quickly retreated backwards to avoid the tail that was swung in all directions. As soon as I did, the thing waved its right arm and swung at the place where I had just been.

Even an attack that seemed to be a flurry would kill you instantly the moment it brushed past you.

The human slaughterer raised the huge bludgeon in his right hand over his head. He was moving forward while striking the front with the bludgeon. As soon as he saw that, he adjusted his grip on his sword.

It's a pattern that can be countered with a deflection. It seems like the body, not the head, knows how to use the deflection, and naturally takes a stance.

I twisted the sword slightly and supported my right wrist with my left hand. Even though I was a person who had never learned swordsmanship in my entire life, my body reacted and moved first.

Boom! A wooden club thicker than a person was blocked by a sword that was no more than the width of a person's wrist.

To be precise, the attack was deflected. The trajectory of the giant wooden club twisted to the side and cut through the air.

'Tolerable.'

My palms were shaking from the impact, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't handle it. Considering that all my current stats are 1, I should be able to bounce it off much more easily later.

'It's similar to a game. You don't have to think too deeply, just swing it with the right timing and your body will automatically deflect the attack.'

In the game, the player character was able to deflect all sorts of attacks with just one sword. He was even able to take the slam attack of a golem, which was much larger than an average castle, without taking damage.

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Seeing him easily counter a wooden club that was much bigger than me, it seemed like I wasn't much different from the others now.

The attacks continued after that. The gap in strength between me and that guy was not something that could be reduced, so my legs kept getting pushed back, but my posture did not collapse.

I deflected the blunt blows he brought down with my sword, then deflected it again, and then deflected it again, over and over again.

When exactly ten such attacks had passed, the human slaughterer's body hesitated for a moment. As soon as he confirmed that the pattern was over, he dug in and swung his sword again. An additional wound was carved into his abdomen.

Having been toyed with and even injured by a human several times smaller than himself for over ten minutes, the creature must have been extremely angry as it tilted its body to the right and raised its left foot.

It's a stomping pattern. I took advantage of the gap and stepped back a bit to catch my breath.

Boom! The human slaughterer stomped on the ground with a sound. The shockwave sent clouds of dust billowing in all directions. In the game, even just brushing against that cloud of dust would kill you instantly, but I don't know how it is now.

'Of course, I have no desire to try it.'

He pulled out his foot, which was deeply embedded in the floor, and approached again. His right hand, holding a blunt weapon, was raised to the side. It was a three-hit pattern.

I rolled to avoid the weapon swinging sideways and dodged in again. Whether I dug in or not, the human slaughterer swung his weapon all the way, just like in the game.

The stomach area was already covered in long wounds and flowing black blood.

'I've never had scars like this in games.'

With such pointless thoughts, I added a couple more details and distanced myself again.

If it weren't for the stomp, I could have just played around with it by spinning it sideways until it died, but the stomp pattern was added just to counter that, so I had no choice but to keep my distance.

From then on, the situation continued one-sidedly. Consecutive downward strikes, three consecutive horizontal slashes, stomping, body press, rushing. I pounded the human slaughterer without even touching any of them.

The bastard roared with frustration and anger and swung his club around like crazy, but all of his blows were just flying through the air.

As the wounds increased all over his body, the ground nearby also became increasingly black.

'It's almost time for the final pattern to come out.'

I tried to guess how much time had passed. It was probably time for my stamina to slowly decrease and for me to start going into a pattern of struggling. Since I couldn't see my stamina bar, it was extremely uncomfortable in many ways.

I successfully completed the No Damage Run on All Bosses with Darkest Light mode enabled and even recorded it on video, so I had a rough idea of the clear time. Human Slaughter took about 20 minutes, I think.

It would have taken over two hours to beat it with my bare hands, but even with just the basic weapon, a crude wooden club, the clear time was reduced to around 30 minutes.

But now that I'm holding a steel sword, even considering that all my stats are 1, I think it'll only take 20 minutes at most. Didn't that amount of time pass a long time ago?

As I was organizing my complicated thoughts, the guy suddenly stopped moving and started shaking.

'Okay.'

I cheered inwardly. That was a sign that I had practically cleared the human slaughterer.