.｡.:✧ Chapter 20 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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ㅡKwang!

Along with the sound of the bomb exploding and flames spreading, the armored horse reared up on its front legs. That was the last one I had thrown.

While it was stunned and unable to regain its senses, I retreated far back and caught my breath, reducing the combat fatigue that had filled up the gauge. As the combat fatigue decreased, my arms and legs felt much lighter.

‘The difference is quite significant.’

I stretched my body, rotating my shoulders. This was all due to the combat fatigue debuff.

When the combat fatigue gauge was completely full, a debuff that reduced the character’s attack speed and movement speed by 20% was applied.

In the game, it didn’t matter whether the debuff was active or not, but now that I had to move my own body directly, the reduction felt much greater than I had thought.

‘It’s a bit risky, but as soon as the rune slots are unlocked, I need to find the rune that ignores combat fatigue debuff first.’

There was no other choice. Since health was essentially a meaningless stat in the Darkest Light Mod, I would skip it and start, but then, from the mid-game onwards, deflecting just a couple of enemy attacks would fill up the combat fatigue gauge completely.

If the debuff was easy to get and the effect was tremendous, it was only natural to think of a way to solve it.

While I was recalling the strategy for the dungeon where the debuff-ignoring rune was located, the horse that had received all five bombs to its head shook its body and went berserk. The neighing sound echoed for a long time.

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

The steel armor, which was easily thicker than one of my finger joints, fell off the body piece by piece, making thudding sounds as it embedded into the dirt ground.

Finally, when all the armor was removed, the gray body was revealed. The horse snorted again. Its hooves forcefully kicked the dirt ground.

It was just a creature that would soon become minced horse meat. With the armor shattered, now I could just deflect the spear and beat it up anywhere like a normal boss fight.

‘Alright, let’s begin.’

I gripped the Blood-Stained Sword in reverse, extending the handle forward so that the tip of the blade was facing my abdomen.

After taking a deep breath, I stabbed the sword into my belly.

With the sensation of the sword piercing my stomach, the handle of the sword trembled. The exposed part of the blade protruding outward was dyed an even deeper red.

This was the special ability of the Blood-Stained Sword. It absorbed the user’s health and amplified the attack power in proportion to the absorbed amount.

The amplified attack power was 0.5% for every 1% of health absorbed, so it was a fixed percentage rather than a fixed value, making it more advantageous to invest less in health.

In my current case, where my health stat was only 1, it went without saying.

‘This should do it.’

The sensation of blood being drained stopped. It meant that my health had decreased to the limit of 1%. I pulled the sword out of my abdomen. With a splatter, the droplets of blood that the sword couldn’t absorb fell to the ground.

The hole pierced in my abdomen healed instantly. The Blood-Stained Sword had a menacing red color just by looking at it. It was the color that appeared when the attack power increase was at its maximum.

My health might have only been 1%, but that didn’t matter. Whether I had 100% or 1% health, I would die just the same if I even grazed that thing.

ㅡNeigh!

The horse charged at me at a much faster speed than before. Perhaps because all the armor had been removed, the overwhelming presence that made the ground vibrate like before was no longer felt.

Seeing the rider’s right shoulder move and pull the spear back, I prepared to deflect it. It was fortunate that it was an attack that provided a deal time right from the start.

The rider thrust the spear forward, extending his arm straight. As I deflected the tip of the spear, a sharp sound of metal clashing against metal rang out, and the rider, having lost his balance, swayed greatly.

I swung my sword three times at his side and retreated. Blood splattered from where the sword had sliced. The horse snorted and reared up its front legs, then stomped on the spot where I had been.

I dodged the front legs by rolling and slashed at the legs with my sword. Of course, that didn’t cause it to collapse with severed tendons, and the horse moved away with a faint scratch, as if nothing had happened.

I had to deal as much damage as possible before the duration of the attack power buff ended. This time, I ran towards the cavalier in the opposite direction. As we ran facing each other, the distance quickly shortened.

The rider gripped the spear in reverse and raised it above his head. The horse’s speed noticeably increased. It was a pattern of charging at full speed while raising the spear above the head.

‘This isn’t for deflecting, but for rolling.’

My mind finished the calculation in an instant. The horse leaped forward as if jumping over an obstacle, closing the distance. The rider thrust the spear downward, adding his own weight to the horse’s.

I quickly rolled forward before the attack could connect. A terrifying sound of rupture was heard from behind.

If I had swung my sword to deflect it without knowing better, the recoil would have pushed my body back, leaving me unable to respond to the subsequent grapple attacks. After that? Needless to say, it was instant death.

It was a pattern commonly known as “if you don’t know, you die.”

‘But if you just dodge it by rolling, it’s a free deal time.’

I rolled to the side of the creature and swung my sword to my heart’s content. Both the horse and the rider were too preoccupied with regaining their posture. The unique light sound of the Blood-Stained Sword with its special ability activated was heard in succession.

Only after I had struck nearly seven times did the rider, having regained his posture, ride the horse away.

Things continued to go smoothly after that.

I deflected the ordinary attacks, dodged the weight-bearing attacks by rolling, and repeated the process of striking whenever there was an opening. The red color surrounding the Blood-Stained Sword gradually faded.

It meant that the duration was less than 30 seconds. Realizing that, I became anxious.

‘If I hadn’t invested in Divine Power, the buff would have ended long ago. Has it been over 3 minutes already?’

Among the stats that the player could choose, “Divine Power” not only increased divine attack power but also had the function of increasing the duration of all buffs.

Especially since it was a stat that started at 1 for all class’s except the cleric, the early increase was incredibly high compared to other stats.

Compared to Divine Power 1, Divine Power 10 could make all types of buffs last nearly 50% longer. That’s how different the value of each early investment was.

The default duration of the Blood-Stained Sword’s special ability was 3 minutes, so with just 3 points invested in the stat, the 49.5% attack power increase buff lasted nearly 30 seconds longer.

If 10 points were invested, the buff duration alone would be close to 5 minutes.

‘It should be caught soon, but…!’

I dodged an attack by rolling and slashed at the horse’s hind legs. I deflected the incoming kick pattern and swung my sword once more, causing the horse to run far ahead.

However, its speed had noticeably slowed down compared to before.

Fortunately, the buff duration was just enough. I inwardly sighed in relief. It was as good as caught now.

Parrying, a special attack that could be attempted when the combat fatigue gauge was full, was essentially only possible against humanoid enemies.

Monstrous or beast-type enemies had their combat fatigue gauge constantly decreasing in real-time regardless of their actions, making it impossible to fill the combat fatigue gauge first while leaving their health untouched.

Except for this Headless Armored Cavalier, that is.

That was the reason I had deliberately faced it with deflection. Deflecting attacks that could be deflected to fill the combat fatigue and use parrying significantly reduced the clear time.

By the way, when the armor was still intact, combat fatigue didn’t accumulate at all.

‘The next attack is… Alright. Parrying should be possible.’

I held a small shield in my left hand. It was an item I had never used before, but the method of using it naturally came to mind.

I waited for the creature to get close, and when it thrust the spear, I swung my shield-equipped arm in a large arc, as if fanning.

ㅡClang!

A light sound rang out, and the horse lost its balance, collapsing to the ground. The rider on top fell off in a miserable manner.

Parrying.

It was a kind of advanced deflection that could only be used against enemies with a full combat fatigue gauge. It was also the technique Lizé had prepared as a counter at the end of the entrance exam.

Attacking an enemy whose balance was broken by parrying would deal tremendous damage to the target, along with a unique motion given to each weapon type.

The damage included 50% of the target’s maximum health plus the damage of the equipped weapon, ignoring all of the enemy’s resistances and defenses. Considering the health already chipped away by the exchange to fill the combat fatigue gauge, it was essentially no different from instant death.

I approached the horse that was sitting on the ground, breathing heavily. Many people misunderstood this, but the main body of this thing was the horse, not the rider on top.

The special ability of the Blood-Stained Sword was about to expire. Before its duration ended, I aimed at the head and thrust the sword with all my might. The creature couldn’t even scream as its head twisted.

As the horse collapsed, the rider, who was struggling to get up from the ground, also slowly disappeared as if evaporating. The spear he was holding rolled on the ground.

The enormously heavy gray body fell to the side. A thud was heard, and dust rose. The creature didn’t get up or move again.

“Done.”

The Headless Armored Cavalier had been cleared.

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