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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“……I expected it, but seeing it in person is even more incredible.”
Lizé muttered upon seeing the Rock Centipede.
Erica and Iris, who were standing next to her, had similar reactions.
When it fully stretched out its body, its height would easily surpass that of a decent-sized castle.
Moreover, this was the size after a portion of its rear body had been cut off.
Originally, it should have been 2-3 stories taller.
In terms of sheer size alone, it could be called on par with the final boss without any shame.
The Rock Centipede was coiled up like a loop and remained still as if dead.
Right next to it, there was an insignificant-looking rune stele.
Even that stele was almost the same size as the player, so it wasn’t a small one by any means, but it just so happened to be next to the Rock Centipede, giving it a relatively shabby appearance.
A faint green light was emanating from the stele.
“Are there any notable points other than what you mentioned, newbie?”
“No, there aren’t. What I told you is everything.”
After finishing my excuses, I explained all the patterns of the Rock Centipede to the three of them.
None of them asked how I knew such things, as if they had gotten used to it by now.
In fact, there weren’t many patterns to begin with, so as long as it entered the 4th phase, the strategy itself was relatively easy.
It was completely different from the 1st to 3rd phases, where physical attacks, magic attacks, or divine attacks didn’t work at all, forcing you to use gimmicks.
It was to the extent that there were no noticeable changes even in the Darkest Light Mod.
The reason was unknown.
It might have been the last shred of conscience of the one who created the Darkest Light Mod, telling you not to die stupidly in the 4th phase after performing the gimmicks for over an hour.
‘With that much conscience, they should have reduced the number of gimmick repetitions.’
Anyway, the atrocities committed in the 1st to 3rd phases alone were enough to confirm their lack of conscience long ago.
“Aim for the head as much as possible, right? You said it would be easier to defeat that way.”
“That’s right. It probably won’t be able to come to its senses after taking a few hits from you guys.”
The 4th phase of the Rock Centipede was a boss that allowed for what was called a “DPS race”.
If it took a few strong attacks to the head, it would be stunned, and if you pummeled it in that state, it would get stunned again, and if you pummeled it again, it would get stunned again, repeating endlessly until it woke up.
The only difficult part was getting it stunned for the first time.
Since its body was so huge, weapons couldn’t reach its head easily, so you had to lure it into using specific patterns to hit the head, and if the gap between attacks was too large, the stun value would reset, so you had to be mindful of the timing as well.
Of course, that didn’t even count as a danger.
The only thing worth noting was dying from getting hit while focusing solely on hitting the head and forgetting about the patterns, but I didn’t have the slightest worry about that.
‘With their skills, they won’t get hit even if they want to.’
This was a guy whose full-speed charge was far slower than the player character’s running speed.
No matter what attacks it used, there was virtually no chance of the knight commanders, who had listened to my explanation and were familiar with the patterns, getting hit by the Rock Centipede’s attacks.
“Understood. Lizé, Erica. Prepare yourselves. Although he says it’s an easy one, don’t let your guard down. Carelessness is forbidden.”
The three knights in silver armor strode forward.
I sat down on a rock behind them.
There was one thing I needed to confirm while the knight commanders were fighting.
Elements rose from their respective weapons.
Wind from the longsword, ice from the twin daggers, and flames from the katana.
The Rock Centipede, which had been coiled up and still as if dead, seemed to sense something unusual and shakily raised its body.
Rocks crumbled and fell from its split head.
The place where I was sitting was outside the boss room in terms of the game, so I focused on the creature’s behavior with peace of mind.
How it acted now would determine the strategy for the future.
Lizé and Erica split up on either side of Iris. Lizé on the left and Erica on the right.
Lizé was the first to move. She made a large half-circle to the left and quickly approached the creature’s tail end.
The Rock Centipede also twisted its head to match her.
It seemed to be preparing to use a slamming pattern, but suddenly, as flames directly struck its head, it jerked its head.
It was Erica.
Flames were blazing from Erica’s blade.
The Rock Centipede, instead of slamming down as it intended, raised its head as high as it could and plucked a stalactite from the ceiling.
‘As I thought, the aggro jumped.’
Confirming that, I made a resolve to definitely handle boss subjugations alone.
It was because the pattern it was trying to use had changed.
The Rock Centipede wasn’t a boss with off-beat or fake motions. If Lizé had been alone, it would have undoubtedly continued with the slamming pattern.
However, after getting hit by the flames, the aggro jumped to Erica’s side, and the creature canceled the slamming and plucked a stalactite from the ceiling.
Since the Rock Centipede was such a slow and gigantic boss, the change in patterns was easily noticeable, but if the boss size was just slightly larger than a human, it would become difficult to notice.
What if I had been trying to check the boss patterns and respond accordingly, but the aggro jumped to somewhere else and a completely different motion came out?
If the new pattern was an area-of-effect attack, my death would have been guaranteed.
‘I can’t take that risk.’
While I was having these thoughts, the knight commanders continued their battle.
Erica lightly sliced the rock thrown by the Rock Centipede in half. The sliced and melted rock rolled weakly on the ground.
Heat haze rose from the blade, distorting the nearby scenery.
Immediately, Lizé pounced.
The twin daggers grazed the Rock Centipede’s left side and swiftly cut off more than a dozen legs in an instant.
The severed legs froze for a moment before shattering into pieces.
And as soon as the creature turned its head, flames struck from the opposite side.
Perhaps because they were knight commanders who had been in sync for a long time, their coordination was flawless.
On the left side of its body, Lizé continuously spewed ice and cut off its legs, while on the right side, Erica unleashed flame-infused slashes, leaving the Rock Centipede flailing without being able to regain its senses.
In the midst of it all, Iris, who had been quietly standing in place, raised her longsword along with its sheath.
She stepped forward with her left foot, shifting her weight onto it, and brought the sheath in her left hand to her right side.
She twisted her right arm so that her wrist faced outward and grasped the sword’s handle.
Whoosh, the wind began to swirl around her. A noticeable amount of pressure was sucked into Iris’s sheath.
A whirlwind wrapped around the sheath, drawing in the surrounding air.
As the distortion of the wind intensified and the whirlwind began to twist and distort, Iris drew her sword.
She raised her right foot, turning her body clockwise by half a circle, and then stomped her right foot in front of her left foot, taking a step forward.
At the same time, the longsword was drawn from its sheath.
The blade was swung vertically.
At that moment, the whirlwind that had been wrapped around the sword shot out like an arrow.
The wind, released forward as if creating a thin wall of wind, perfectly drawing a straight line, engulfed the Rock Centipede in the blink of an eye.
A heavy bursting sound echoed.
The Rock Centipede’s body, where it made contact with the wind, was instantly cut in half.
The cross-section was as clean as if it had been sanded down with sandpaper.
The whirlwind followed the path where the wind had passed.
It sucked in the surrounding rocks as if inhaling them, then exploded right next to the Rock Centipede, scattering fragments in all directions.
‘Wow, I’m actually seeing that.’
The technique Iris had just used was one of the patterns from the Iris boss fight.
Getting hit by it meant almost certain death even in vanilla, let alone in the Darkest Light Mod.
The Rock Centipede, with its body reduced to 1/3, swayed greatly.
Then, Erica, who had been staying far away and only launching flame slashes, rapidly closed the distance.
Although greatly reduced in size, the length of the remaining portion was still not to be underestimated.
Erica seemed to be targeting that remaining part.
The katana in her hand was engulfed in flames to the point where the blade itself had practically transformed into flames.
Flames burst from the spot where she stepped.
Erica had already approached right next to the Rock Centipede.
She held the handle with both hands, with the tip of the blade pointing to the left. In that state, she leaped up and twisted her body.
Her entire body rotated clockwise, and flames formed a whirlwind around her.
The flaming blade, swirling in a circular motion, instantly melted the lowermost exoskeleton of the Rock Centipede.
Another chunk of segments was cut off from the body that had only 1/3 remaining.
The rotation didn’t stop there. Her body soared higher, making another full clockwise rotation.
Once again, the Rock Centipede’s body melted away.
Suddenly, flames erupted from the tips of Erica’s feet.
In that state, Erica, who had incredibly leaped up once more in midair, delivered the final slash while rotating her body one last time.
The blade grazed horizontally across the Rock Centipede’s head.
The spot where it made contact with the blade nearly evaporated.
A deep wound was left on the creature’s face.
‘That was also difficult to block.’
That was also one of the patterns from the Erica boss fight.
The flame damage was so strong that it couldn’t be properly deflected with weapons, so unless you had a shield with high flame resistance, you had to roll to avoid it.
Just before the Rock Centipede’s body, which had completely shriveled up, fell to the ground, blue ice erupted from the ceiling.
It was Lizé.
As she grasped the two daggers in the center, a long greatsword made of ice and frost formed in her hands.
The surrounding air froze and exuded a chill.
The weapon precisely aimed at the Rock Centipede’s head.
Lizé’s weapon had already grown to a length matching her own height.
Splat!
The silver armor covered in ice pierced straight through the Rock Centipede’s head and landed on the ground.
The headless body collapsed to the side, devoid of strength.
The Rock Centipede boss fight was over.
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