chapter 21

-Kwaaang!

With the sound of a bomb exploding and the flames spreading, the armored horse lifted its forelegs. The one he had just thrown was the last.

While the guy was paralyzed and unable to come to his senses, I stepped back and took a deep breath, reducing the battle fatigue that had built up to the end of the gauge. As the battle fatigue subsided, my limbs felt lighter.

'It feels quite intense.'

I stretched my body by rolling my shoulders here and there. It was all because of the battle fatigue debuff.

When battle fatigue reaches the end of the gauge, a debuff is applied that reduces the character's attack speed and movement speed by 20% each.

In the game, it didn't matter whether the debuff was applied or not, but when I actually moved my body myself, the reduction felt much greater than I expected.

'It might be a little risky, but once the rune slot opens up, I'll go find the rune that ignores battle fatigue debuffs.'

There was no choice. Stamina was a virtually meaningless stat in the Bella mode, so I was going to start by ignoring it, but then, from the middle of the game, the battle fatigue gauge would fill up completely even if I just bounced off an enemy attack a couple of times.

If it's easy to get debuffed and the effect is so great, it's only natural to think of a way to resolve it.

While I was thinking about how to clear a dungeon with a debuff-ignoring rune, the horse that had been hit by five bombs on its head started shaking and screaming. Its whining sound echoed for a long time.

Soon, the armor surrounding the head and neck began to break apart, one by one.

The steel armor, which was easily thicker than a joint of my finger, was torn off my body in pieces and embedded in the dirt with a crunching sound.

Finally, all the armor came off, revealing a gray body. Rrrrrrr, the thing snarled again. The horse's hooves kicked the dirt hard.

Even so, he was a guy who would soon be reduced to minced horse meat. His armor was probably shattered, so now he could just bounce off the spears and hit him anywhere like a normal boss fight.

'Okay, let's get started.'

I held the bloody sword upside down and extended the handle forward so that the tip was pointed at my abdomen.

After taking a deep breath, he stabbed me in the stomach.

The sword hilt trembled with the sensation of the sword digging into my stomach. The part of the sword blade that was sticking out turned an even deeper red.

This was the special ability of the blood-stained sword. It sucked in the user's health and increased the attack power in proportion to the amount sucked in.

The attack power increases by 0.5% per 1% of HP absorbed, and it is not a fixed value but a percentage proportional value, so it is advantageous to have less HP.

In the case of someone like me whose physical strength stat is 1, there was no need to say anything.

'This is enough.'

The sensation of blood being sucked out stopped. It meant that my stamina had decreased to 1%, the limit. I pulled out my sword from my stomach. Pfft! The drops of blood that the sword had not been able to absorb fell out.

The hole in his abdomen healed in an instant. The blood-stained sword was a sinister red that was visible just by looking at it. It was the color that appeared when the attack power increase was at its maximum.

I might only have 1% of my health left, but that was a good thing. Whether I had 100% or 1% health, I would still die if I got even a passing touch from that guy.

-Kihihihihi!

The horse rushed at me at a much faster speed than before. Perhaps because all of its armor had been removed, it didn't feel as intimidating as before, enough to make the ground shake.

I saw the cavalryman on top swing his right shoulder and draw his spear back, so I prepared to deflect it. It was an attack that gave me time to deal damage from the start, so I was luckier than I thought.

The cavalryman thrust his spear forward with his arm outstretched. As the spear tip was deflected, there was a sharp sound of metal clashing with metal, and the cavalryman lost his center of gravity and lurched violently.

I swung my sword three times at his side and stepped back. Blood spurted out where the sword had cut. The horse trotted and lifted its front legs high, then crushed me where I had been.

I rolled my front paw to dodge, then cut off the leg with my sword. Of course, that didn't cause the tendon to snap or anything, and the horse walked away with a slight scratch as if nothing had happened.

I need to deal as much damage as possible before the attack power buff runs out. This time, I ran towards the cavalry from the inside. As we ran facing each other, the distance between us quickly decreased.

The cavalryman held his spear upside down and raised it above his head. The horse's speed increased noticeably. A pattern of running at full speed and raising the spear above his head.

'This should roll, not bounce.'

His mind quickly finished calculating. The horse leaped forward as if jumping over some kind of obstacle, closing the distance. The cavalryman lowered his spear, adding his own weight to the horse's.

I quickly rolled forward before the attack could reach me. A terrifying loud cracking sound was heard behind me.

If you swing your sword without knowing it and deflect it, you will have no way to respond to the subsequent grab attacks while your body is pushed back by the recoil. After that? Needless to say, it was instant death.

It's a common pattern that says, "If you don't know, you die."

'Instead, if you just roll and dodge, it's pre-deal time.'

I rolled over to the bastard's side and swung my sword with all my might. Both the horse and the cavalryman were busy trying to find their positions. The blood-stained sword's special ability activated and its characteristic crisp strike sound was heard repeatedly.

After I had struck him nearly seven times, the cavalryman straightened his posture and rode away again.

After that, things went smoothly.

As he bounced off normal attacks, rolled over to dodge heavy attacks, and repeatedly struck whenever there was an opening in between, the red surrounding his bloody sword gradually faded.

It meant that there were less than 30 seconds left. When I checked that, I became anxious.

Advertisements

'If I hadn't taken the divine power, the buff would have ended a long time ago. Has it been over 3 minutes already?'

Among the stats that players can choose from, 'Divine Power' not only increases divine attack power, but also has the function of increasing the duration of all buffs.

In particular, since all past births except for priests start with stats of 1, the initial increase value is incredibly high compared to other stats.

Compared to Divine Power 1, Divine Power 10 could make all kinds of buffs last almost 50% longer. That's how much of a difference each early investment made.

The base duration of the Bloodstained Sword special ability is 3 minutes, so with just 3 stats invested in the beginning, the 49.5% attack power increase buff lasts for almost 30 seconds longer.

If you reach stat 10, the buff duration will be close to 5 minutes.

'It's time to catch up now, okay... ... !'

I rolled over to dodge the attack and cut the horse's hind legs. I parried the incoming rear kick pattern and swung my sword once more, and the horse charged forward.

But the speed was noticeably slower than before.

The buff duration was just around the corner, but fortunately, I felt relieved. It was as good as having it all now.

Parrying, a special attack that can be attempted when the battle fatigue gauge is full, can be considered to be practically only possible against humanoid enemies.

This was because the battle fatigue gauge of monster-type or beast-type enemies would decrease in real time regardless of what they did, so it was impossible to fill the battle fatigue gauge first while leaving health alone.

Except for this headless iron cavalryman.

That's why I decided to deal with this by deflecting it. Deflecting attacks that can be deflected, replenishing battle fatigue, and using parrying shortens the clearing time by a lot.

For reference, battle fatigue does not accumulate at all while the armor is intact.

'The next attack is... ... Okay. I guess I can parry it.'

He held a small shield in his left hand. It was something he had never used before, but the idea of how to use it came naturally to him.

I waited until he got close, then swung my shielded arm forward in a large motion as if fanning him, just in time for him to stab me with his spear.

-Turtle!

There was a loud thud, and the horse lost its balance and fell to the ground. The rider on top of it rolled down in an ugly manner.

Paring.

A type of advanced deflection that can only be used on enemies whose battle fatigue gauge is full. It was also the technique that Lize prepared as a counter at the end of the entrance exam.

When you attack an enemy whose balance is broken by parrying, you inflict massive damage to the target along with a unique action given to each weapon type.

In addition to 50% of the target's maximum health, the damage from the weapon being held is also included, ignoring all of the enemy's endurance and resistance, so if you take into account the health lost in advance through offense and defense to fill the battle fatigue gauge, it is effectively an instant death technique.

I approached the horse, which was sitting on the ground, panting heavily. Many people mistakenly believe that the main body of this thing is not the rider on top, but the horse.

The special ability of the blood-stained sword was about to turn off. Before its duration ran out, I aimed for the head and stabbed it with all my might. The bastard couldn't even scream and snapped his head back.

As the horse fell, the figure of the rider struggling to get up from the ground slowly disappeared as if evaporating. The spear in his hand rolled along the ground.

The massive, gray body fell to the side. There was a thud and a cloud of dust. It didn't get up or move again.

"Got it."

The headless armored cavalry was cleared.