chapter 20
Headless Iron Cavalry – 4
ㅡQuaaang!
With the sound of bombs exploding and flames spreading, the armored horse jerked up its front legs. It was the last one I just threw.
While he was paralyzed and unconscious, I took a step back, caught my breath, and reduced the battle fatigue that had filled up to the top of the gauge. As the battle fatigue decreased, the limbs became lighter.
‘I feel quite bad.’
He turned his shoulders around and relaxed. This was all due to the battle fatigue debuff.
When Battle Fatigue fills up to the limit, a debuff is applied that reduces the character’s attack speed and movement speed by 20%.
It didn’t matter whether or not the debuff was applied in the game, but after I was in a position to move my body myself, I felt that the decrease was much greater than I thought.
‘It’s a bit dangerous, but once the rune slot is open, I’ll start looking for a rune that ignores debuffs from combat fatigue.’
I couldn’t help it. Stamina was a virtually meaningless stat in Dilla mode, so I’ll skip it and start, then from the middle of the game, even if I deflect enemy attacks a couple of times, the combat fatigue gauge fills up to the end.
If it is easy to get debuffed and the feeling is great, of course it was right to devise a way to solve it.
While I was thinking of how to clear the dungeon with the debuff ignoring rune, the horse that had been hit by all five bombs on its head shook its body and went mad. The sound of hissing and crying rang out for a long time.
Soon after, the armor surrounding the head and neck began to break one by one.
Pieces of steel armor, thick enough to exceed my fingertips, broke off from my body and slammed into the dirt with a thud.
Finally, all the armor came off, revealing a gray body. Purreung, the guy made a ture again. The horse’s hooves kicked the dirt floor vigorously.
Anyway, he was a guy who would soon become minced horse meat. The armor must have been smashed, now you just have to bounce the spear and hit roughly anywhere like a normal boss fight.
‘Okay, let’s start.’
I gripped the bloody sword upside down and extended the handle forward with the tip pointed at my abdomen.
After taking a deep breath, he stabbed the knife right into my stomach.
The handle of the sword trembled with the sensation of the sword digging into the stomach. The part of the sword protruding outward was dyed a deeper red color.
This was the bloody sword’s special ability. It sucks the user’s physical strength and amplifies the attack power in proportion to the sucked value.
The amplified attack power is 0.5% per 1% of the HP sucked, and it is not a fixed number, but proportional to a percentage, so the less HP you take, the better.
Needless to say, if the stamina stat was 1, like me now.
‘Enough with this.’
The feeling of being sucked out of blood stopped. It meant that his physical strength had decreased to the limit of 1%. The sword was pulled from the ship. Pooh! And drops of blood that the sword couldn’t absorb fell down.
The hole in his stomach quickly healed. The blood-stained sword had a hideous red color just by looking at it. It was the color that appeared when the attack power increase was at its maximum.
He probably only had 1% of his health left, but that was a good thing. Whether you have 100% health or 1% health, it’s the same to die just by brushing against him anyway.
ㅡKihehehehe!
The horse charged at me with a much greater speed than before. Maybe it was because the iron armor had all been removed, but I didn’t feel the sense of intimidation enough to make the ground vibrate like before.
When I saw the right shoulder of the cavalryman on top of me swinging and pulling the spear back, I prepared to deflect it. It was luckier than I thought it was an attack that gave me a deal time from the beginning.
The cavalryman extended his arms straight out and stabbed his spear. When the tip of the spear was bounced off, the cavalryman, who had lost his center of gravity, staggered with a sharp sound of metal colliding with metal.
He swung his sword three times at his side and fell back. Blood splattered from the spot where the sword had cut. The horse galloped and raised its forepaw high, then pressed it against the spot where I was.
I dodged it by rolling my front foot, then cut off my leg with my sword. Of course, it didn’t happen that the tendon was cut and collapsed, and the horse walked away with a slight scratch and a casual appearance.
You must deal as much damage as possible before the duration of the attack power buff ends. This time I ran in reverse from my side towards the cavalryman. As we ran facing each other, the distance quickly shortened.
The cavalryman held the spear upside down and raised it over his head. The pace of the horse gradually increased noticeably. A pattern that runs at full speed and raises a spear over its head.
‘This should roll, not bounce.’
Read at NovelNext.com
My head finished the calculation in an instant. The horse jumped forward as if jumping over an obstacle, narrowing the distance. In addition to the weight of the horse, the cavalryman slammed the spear down, carrying his own weight.
I quickly rolled forward before the attack could reach. A terrifying roar was heard from behind.
If you unknowingly swing a knife and bounce it away, there is no way to respond to a series of grabbing attacks while your body is pushed back by the recoil. after that? Needless to say, it was an instant death.
It is a common saying that if you don’t know, you should die.
‘If I just roll and avoid it, it’s free deal time.’
I rolled onto his side and swung my sword freely. Both the horse and the cavalry were busy trying to get their bearings. The bloody sword that activated its special ability could hear the unique, cheerful sound of hitting in succession.
It wasn’t until after I hit close to seven that the cavalryman corrected his posture and rode his horse again and ran away.
After that, things went smoothly.
The normal attacks were deflected, the weighted attacks were evaded by rolling, and the red color surrounding the bloody sword gradually faded as he repeatedly struck at every gap that occurred in the middle.
This meant that the duration was less than 30 seconds. When I checked it out, my heart sank.
‘If I hadn’t taken holy power, the buff would have ended long ago. Has it already been over three minutes?’
Among the stats that players can choose, ‘Divine Power’ has a function that increases the duration of all buffs as well as increasing divine attack power.
In particular, it was characteristic that the initial rise was insanely high compared to other stats, perhaps because all past births except priests started with 1.
Compared to 1 Holy Power, 10 Holy Power could make all kinds of buffs last almost 50% longer. To that extent, each initial investment was different.
The basic duration of the bloody sword special ability is 3 minutes, so just by investing 3 stats in the beginning, the buff that increases attack power by 49.5% lasts for about 30 seconds longer.
If you hit stat 10, the duration of the buff only gets closer to 5 minutes.
‘I have to get caught now, but… … !’
He evaded the attack by rolling and cut off the horse’s hind leg. I bounced off the back kick pattern that came in the middle, and when I swung the sword once more, the horse ran forward.
However, the speed was significantly slower than before.
The duration of the buff was close, but it’s fortunate. I was relieved internally. It was as if I had caught it all.
Parrying, a special attack that can be attempted when the combat fatigue gauge is full, was virtually only possible against humanoid enemies.
This was because the combat fatigue gauge decreased in real time no matter what monster or beast type enemies did, so it was impossible to fill only the battle fatigue gauge first without leaving physical strength.
Except for this headless ironclad cavalry.
That was the reason why I dealt with this by deflecting it. Attacks that can be deflected can be deflected to compensate for battle fatigue, and parrying can shorten the clearing time considerably.
For reference, while the armor is intact, combat fatigue does not accumulate at all.
‘The next attack… … great. Parrying is possible.’
He held a small shield in his left hand. It was something I had never used before, but the idea of how to use it came naturally to my mind.
I waited for him to come closer, and at the timing to pierce the spear, I swung my shield-clad arm wide as if fanning it forward.
ㅡTeoong!
A cheerful sound resounded, and the horse collapsed, losing its balance. The rider on top of it tumbled unsightly.
parrying.
A type of advanced deflection that can only be used on enemies with a full battle fatigue gauge. It was also the technique that Rize prepared as a counter at the end of the entrance exam.
If you attack an unbalanced enemy by parrying, you deal tremendous damage to the target along with the unique action given to each weapon type.
The figure, which includes 50% of the target’s maximum health plus the damage of the weapon they are holding, ignores all resistance and resistance of the enemy, so if you consider the physical strength that has been shed in advance in battle fatigue gauges, it is a skill that is virtually instant death. was
He approached the horse, who was sitting on the ground and breathing heavily. This is a fact that many people mistakenly believe, but this guy’s main body is not the rider on top.
The special ability of the bloody sword was on the verge of being turned off. Before the duration ran out, I aimed for the head and thrust the sword as hard as I could. He shook his head without even screaming.
As the horse collapsed, the figure of the rider struggling to get up from the ground disappeared as if it had evaporated. The spear in his hand rolled across the floor.
The massive gray body fell to the side. There was a thud, and dust rose. It didn’t get up or move again.
“Caught.”
It was the headless ironclad cavalry clear.