Was That a Monster?
One single miss-parry. That was the mistake of the Wheel Slayer.
But…
…If she hadn’t used that technique, she would have lost.
Even in that brief clash, Cloudy Sky felt a trace of fear.
Insane reaction speed. A parry timed so perfectly it felt like it was daring any hit to even touch her. Psychological warfare that sat right on the edge of her mind.
Because of it, she had used the basic attack cancel fake mental combat technique she usually saved for emergencies, plus the two skills she had been keeping in reserve.
But what truly surprised her was the terrifying situational awareness and learning ability.
A moment ago—
Just after the game had started, barely a minute in—
Cloudy Sky, pushed back by Ruru’s consecutive parries, immediately tried to flip the situation with a basic attack cancel fake.
Swish—stop.
The blade descended, then halted mid-motion and rose again.
Whirr—
Ruru spun her spear, slicing only air.
The Wheel Slayer, failing the parry, instantly read the situation and used her basic evasion skill toward the rear.
—Whirr.
Ruru leaped far away with the long blade acting like a pole.
One full beat faster than Cloudy Sky had anticipated.
But Cloudy Sky was a top-tier player. She didn’t panic and immediately dropped a landmine in the escape route.
Ruru stepped on the mine, took damage, and her speed dropped sharply.
She didn’t stop. She kept moving, stepping on the mine again and fleeing.
Cloudy Sky followed without letting go, driving her blade deep into the back of the fleeing figure.
Shasha—shak—shak—shak—
Ruru’s health dropped to a mere one-third in an instant.
Cloudy Sky took that advantage, turned around, and quickly dispatched the enemy soldiers for experience.
In the meantime, Ruru maintained a safe distance, waiting out the cooldown on her parry skill.
Cloudy Sky had first reached level two. She immediately invested in the movement skill and charged toward Ruru.
Ruru didn’t panic. She used her basic evasion skill to flee backward again.
But she couldn’t avoid the Two-Step boss that used movement skills to thrust twice in quick succession.
One non-target movement by the Blade of Devotion—
Whoosh—
And with her short wakizashi drawn, she used the targeting movement with longer range.
Chwaak—
Cloudy Sky closed in right in front of Ruru’s face, dealing damage.
Ruru’s parry skill would return in three seconds at the earliest.
Without the parry, Ruru was nothing but an attack-range soldier walking helplessly.
She swapped weapons in a flash.
“It’s over.”
Cloudy Sky raised her blade high while speaking.
…But.
Cloudy Sky’s blade struck empty ground.
What the—?
Ruru calmly swung a basic attack straight toward the left.
The forward reach of the basic attack pushed her just enough that the boss’s blade barely missed.
This time, Cloudy Sky swung a fast horizontal slash.
Ruru, in response, launched a basic attack in the opposite direction.
She laid her spear low and spun around like a top, backing away.
The tip of the blade grazed just past empty air.
Cloudy Sky calmly raised her blade again and filled it with wind.
And unleashed the falling wind slash.
But…this time Ruru dodged it with nothing but the forward reach of the basic attack.
And her timing was knife-sharp, as if she had already known about the wind slash.
The fierce wind only whipped her clothes wildly.
“…What?”
She was dumbfounded.
This was the classic Ruru playstyle. The so-called “slash and run” basic attack.
Using the high forward reach of Ruru’s basic attack to dodge skills and stack basic attack stages.
A technique used by a few elite Ruru masters at their distance-control peak.
But it was now an outdated skill.
The reason? Too high a difficulty. And the pitiful return on investment compared to the success rate.
One mistake and a fragile hero like Ruru would lose enormous health, or fall into stun if hit by a skill, and die to the next combo.
Why risk danger to dodge a skill when staying still or using a parry would be safer and better?
Usually one or two opportunities at most. And those only appeared when the timing or situation perfectly aligned.
Three consecutive successes would make her a hitbox porn concept post in the Kelin Gallery in an instant.
That sight had now happened three times in a row right in front of Cloudy Sky’s eyes.
Perfectly.
Having completely read her moves.
A bit of composure was lost.
And a little fear crept in.
‘…What kind of monster is this?’
The boss’s basic attack continued.
And—
The sound Cloudy Sky least wanted to hear echoed. Clear— Refreshing—
Ting!
The sound of Ruru’s parry.
Ruru immediately set her stance.
Cloudy Sky hurriedly assumed a basic defense posture.
The fast thrust came flying straight.
Cloudy Sky predicted and blocked it. But the hit effect could not be prevented, so two blood points were lodged in her body.
Right after, the boss’s counter. Her wakizashi, drawn in an instant like lightning, sliced toward Ruru.
—Ting!
But the attack never reached her.
…Blocking this…?
As she spun the spear, Ruru’s innocent expression turned toward her was nothing short of terrifying.
Cloudy Sky did not stop. She poured on the attack. Momentum was everything. If she lost momentum, the game was over. She poured everything into the assault.
But Ruru, the Wheel Slayer, began to dismantle her attacks as if she could read everything.
Despite the three-times-larger health gap, Ruru looked completely unfazed.
Was she consciously avoiding the downward-cancel fake?
Whenever the boss raised her blade, Ruru used the basic attack forward reach to dodge without even parrying.
All other incoming attacks were perfectly timed and parried, nullifying them.
Therefore, Cloudy Sky had no choice but to keep raising her blade high. She predicted the movement distance and began descending.
But even that was completely dodged by Ruru. She bent her body to a level that defied belief, avoiding the blade’s path.
And kept executing the impossible-level basic attack motions.
—No, how flexible is this body?! This lunatic.
Blood points on the boss’s body had reached seven. The situation was becoming dangerous. Even though Ruru was still level one, she would soon be level two. The moment she learned Annihilation Spear, the match would be over.
Then what should she do.
There was only one choice.
To pull out the final hidden card.
She raised her blade and brought it down. Ruru dodged it with a clever hitbox.
While aiming for that opening, she used the non-target movement skill that had come off cooldown—
Performed the weapon-swap action simultaneously.
And used the movement skill exactly at the end of the animation.
—Ting! —Bam.
Ruru had succeeded in parrying at the perfect timing. But she had also taken damage at the same time.
The panicked expression on the Wheel Slayer’s face was visible right up to the screen.
A bug-like play that hid the movement skill damage from the Blade of Devotion’s animation.
Raising a guard twice in quick succession was the only way to block it.
But it was a skill that would force a block if seen for the first time.
Ruru’s body curled in on itself from the hit.
Because she was stunned, Ruru’s basic attack combo reset.
And the boss, not missing the opening from the stun, drove her sharp blade in.
Shak—shak—
Ruru’s health dropped to almost zero in an instant.
And the endless psychological warfare hell from the boss followed.
But Ruru received it all as if she were meant to.
—Ting! —Ting!
—Ting!
—Ting! —Ting!
—Ting!
Almost immediately—
Annihilation Spear
“How am I going to stop this…”
Cloudy Sky shouted inside her heart with desperation.
***
Wind-cancel squat left foot.
The absurdly broken skill Cloudy Sky had discovered in custom games.
While inputting the weapon swap emotion expression right after starting the wind slash with the Blade of Devotion, the movement skill would allow a weapon swap in an impossibly short time.
By not missing that fleeting moment and swapping weapons, then instantly dropping into a squat, the animation would cancel—
And the motion would appear as the Blade of Devotion’s slash rather than the wakizashi’s.
Since the Blade of Devotion motion was slower than the wakizashi’s, the hitbox would activate before the blade even touched.
In the first motion, most of the time it would produce nothing but a fake guard.
Even if the opponent didn’t get fooled, they would still have to block a completely different hit location and guard timing that looked like the wakizashi’s attack.
The moment she discovered this technique, Cloudy Sky had known. It was a difficult attack to block.
That was why she had kept it locked away as a secret.
Maybe it was because the boss on the test server had been so ridiculously overpowered that everyone only focused on the surface performance and ignored these tiny details.
Originally, the number of users who used the test server was tiny. Only YouTubers or people with insane passion for the game would volunteer as testers.
And the boss’s ridiculous performance had helped. It was so broken that even rough play could outclass all other characters.
Everyone just admired the broken performance and didn’t bother practicing these subtle techniques on the test server.
At the same time, there were even easier and more broken bug-level techniques than this one.
Those had acted as a smokescreen.
Thanks to that, this technique had safely arrived on the official server.
New character special.
Information imbalance that only new characters could enjoy since they hadn’t been fully exploited yet.
Normally, this skill was supposed to be revealed when the boss came out about a month later, when YouTube material started to run out.
…I never thought I would use a technique like this here.
—Clang.
AliceTheSlayer (spear user - Ruru)
And—
Daughter1Smoothie (sword user - The Boss)