Chapter 52
Chapter 52
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Signs
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Second Named Boss]
[Level 40 Lion Valgar]
[HP 14,049,600/20,000,000]
Kuaaargh!
Valgar's HP reached the threshold for the next saw blade to appear.
Chris's eyes scanned the battlefield sharply. She had to quickly locate the saw blade and secure its aggro so Rain wouldn't have a hard time.
One saw blade cutting through the center of the battlefield would be enough to maintain Valgar's bleed stacks. The ranged dealers could kite the rest.
Of course, hitting Valgar with two or three more blades would reduce its HP much faster, but with the firepower of their three-person party after farming the citadel, one blade was enough to avoid seeing the berserk pattern.
Two blades would be very tough on the tank. With three, wounds would start accumulating on the tank. At that point, it would be impossible to hold out. Even the skilled Fighter, Death of Death, was at his limit fighting while dodging two saw blades.
Kiiiiing!
Chris secured the aggro of one of the newly spawned saw blades and turned her gaze to the center of the battlefield.
And her eyes soon grew hazy.
"Oh my."
While playing in a party with Rain, Chris found it incredibly difficult to focus on the mechanics.
The sight of Rain in combat. It was like a painting come to life.
Rain dodged a saw blade that came right up to her with a slight twist of her body. At that distance, it should have grazed her and left a wound, yet Rain's body maintained a perfect distance from the blade, taking no damage at all.
Hwoosh, hwoosh, hwoosh!
As Valgar's triple spin pattern came at her, Rain lightly raised her sword to block the rotation. Soon, Rain's body flickered, leaving an afterimage. She reappeared behind Valgar and began to slash its body to pieces.
Beautiful starlight twinkled around Rain. The Gothic Lolita-style dress Rain wore fluttered gracefully.
While a real dress would seem cumbersome in battle, cosmetic outfits in the game don't hinder a user's movements by design. The outfit only served to accentuate Rain's beauty.
Chris's gaze, chasing the white hair that was like the tail of a silver fox named Rain, wandered dazedly through the air.
Right now, Chris was more interested in the spectacle than the fight itself.
She was busy taking screenshot after screenshot of Rain's fighting form, which seemed almost noble at a glance.
"*Hahh, hahh.*"
As Chris panted, taking screenshots of Rain, Beimerung's urgent cry rang out.
"Chris! Another saw blade, your way!"
"Oh!"
The moment Chris snapped back to her senses and looked at the saw blade, something flew past her talisman.
Clang!
It was 'Flying Sword Technique,' a secondary skill Swordsmen use to pull aggro from a distance.
Kiiiiing!
The saw blade immediately targeted Rain and flew toward the center of the second boss's combat area.
"S-Sorry! Rain, are you okay?"
Rain turned her head slightly toward Chris and gave her a small, reassuring smile.
"Gasp! Okay! I'll trust in our Rain!"
Chris could see a hint of pride in Rain's eyes.
It was like watching a child puffing out their chest, as if to say, 'I can do this too!'
Being trusted by Chris, Rain seemed to be in a good mood.
Clang!
"Ah!"
Beimerung, who was approaching the next saw blade, also let out a startled cry. Rain's Flying Sword Technique had flown out before Beimerung's and taken the saw blade's aggro.
Clang, clang, clang!
The third, the fourth, the fifth.
Rain took the aggro of every saw blade that appeared.
As Valgar's HP dropped rapidly, new saw blades began to appear faster than the old ones ran out of durability.
It got to the point where Beimerung and Chris could only stand in place and blankly attack Valgar.
Now, all the saw blades were heading for Rain. But they couldn't even scratch her; they only tore into Valgar's body. Rain's body moved gracefully, dodging all the saw blades.
The moment the paths of two saw blades overlapped with Rain's, *tatat!* her body blurred for an instant, then reappeared in the same spot.
Chris's mind raced, trying to analyze Rain's movements.
It was a move she had never seen before. A Swordsman using a skill with invincibility frames while staying in place? She'd never even heard of such a thing. Did a skill like that even exist?
Did she use a backward evasion followed by a gap-closer with almost no delay? A skill combination that grants invincibility frames in place without changing position?
Fwaat!
When three or four saw blades converged at an impossible-to-dodge angle, Rain would use the 'Flash' skill to move through the minuscule gaps between them.
Chris and Beimerung's jaws dropped as they watched Rain's unbelievable movements.
"My goodness."
"If we showed this to Death of Death, he might just quit the game."
Kuaaaargh-!
Torn to shreds by countless saw blades, Valgar finally let out a final roar and collapsed on the tower floor.
It was much faster than when Chris's full party had fought it.
"I can't believe we could beat the second boss this quickly."
"Do you think anyone else could do that? It's only possible because it's Rain. Even Death of Death couldn't do something like that, right?"
Rain sheathed her sword, taking a deep breath. Chris felt a sense of awe toward her. It felt as if the entire flow of the battle revolved around Rain.
*Pitter-patter.*
Soon, Chris saw Rain approaching her with her short legs and couldn't help but chuckle.
In stark contrast to her beautiful and cool combat style, which was like watching a perfect warrior, such a cute gesture could only be described as adorable.
"Rain, great work! I'm sorry for missing the aggro on that saw blade. It must have been tough, right?"
*Shake, shake.*
Rain shook her head slightly. It meant she was fine. Chris beamed.
"From the middle of the fight, she was openly taking the aggro first. She must have been confident. It was certainly a play worthy of that confidence."
Beimerung also came over and praised Rain. Rain seemed to bounce on the spot. It was obvious Rain was in a good mood.
Chris grinned and straightened the Gothic Lolita dress Rain was wearing.
"So, do you like the dress?"
"Yes. It's pretty."
She had looked a little uncomfortable when she first put it on, but now she seemed completely used to it. Rain would occasionally twirl, looking down at her dress with a smile.
Rain these days was like a feral cat gradually opening its heart to human touch.
As Chris and Beimerung were fussing over Rain, a slightly disgruntled voice came from the railing of the stairs leading to the upper floor.
"Excuse me, bus drivers? Looks like it's over. Can I come up now?"
"Ah, customer! Our apologies!"
Beimerung hurriedly ran to their client.
Chris and Rain watched her and giggled.
[Third Named Boss]
[Level 40 Demon General Aspero]
[HP 874,360/6,000,000]
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
Amidst the consecutive explosions of demonic orbs, Chris and Beimerung moved quickly, recalling the orbs' spawn patterns.
Even so, Aspero's vicious assault was focused on Rain. Beimerung remained on edge, ready to activate Ice Prison at any moment.
In the third boss fight, the role of ranged dealers was to prepare party-wide defensive skills and deal maximum damage. Basically, as long as they remembered the spawn locations of the demonic orbs, they didn't need to make any hasty evasive maneuvers.
However, one pattern where Aspero's chimeric arm extended to bring even the ranged dealers into its attack range was quite threatening. But in a raid with Rain, they didn't have to worry about that pattern.
Kwaang!
Aspero's chimeric arm stretched out and struck the wall behind Rain. Having ducked to avoid the arm, Rain's sword moved in a blur.
Fw-fw-fw-fwk! Aspero's arm was shredded by the sword's trajectory and burst apart. The arm regenerated quickly, but Aspero was forced back to using normal melee attacks.
"So that pattern could be countered by destroying the part."
"That was the most dangerous one. We had to worry about the orbs and the range of the chimeric arm at the same time."
"She's been luring the initial arm-stretching pattern away from the dealers from the start, right? I can't believe the Aspero fight could be this easy."
Thanks to this, the now-relaxed Chris and Beimerung continued the fight while making light conversation.
The smoothly progressing battle soon reached Aspero's desperation phase.
"Kuaaat!"
Thud.
Woooooong.
Along with Aspero's pre-attack motion, violet orbs began to fill the combat area.
The 0% HP desperation pattern, the start of six consecutive area-of-effect explosions.
The three bus drivers rotated their invincibility skills in a pre-arranged order.
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
On the third explosion, they used Beimerung's party-wide defensive skill, Ice Prison, to buy time for their invincibility skills to cool down.
The fourth and fifth explosions followed. All three used their now off-cooldown invincibility skills to get through unscathed.
Woooooong.
And then, the tell for the sixth explosion. At the same time, Chris shouted.
"Brace for impact! Since there are only three of us, we only have one party-wide defensive skill. We'll have to tank this one!"
Chris and Beimerung positioned themselves between the newly spawned orbs. As long as they didn't take a direct hit, they could endure it once.
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
On the final explosion, Chris and Beimerung's bodies were caught in the aftermath.
"Keuk!"
Having barely survived the explosion, Chris immediately drank a potion. Then she looked toward the center of the combat area, where the aftereffects of the explosion had not yet cleared. Her eyes desperately searched for Rain.
"Rain, are you okay!? Are you alive?"
*Step, step.*
Rain, the one she had been so anxiously looking for, walked out of the dust without a single scratch. Seeing this, Chris's expression brightened.
"Rain!"
"No way, did you use the invincibility frames from your new skill to get through that?"
Rain nodded at Beimerung's question.
The extremely short invincibility frames that Death of Death had only succeeded in using once during the first clear.
Rain was using it as easily as breathing.
Chris couldn't help but be astonished.
"Well, I'll be."
Chris's party smoothly finished their bus runs for the day. Even though bus runs were quite expensive in the early days of the game, customers were lining up thanks to the reputation of Chris's Attack Squad.
"Good work today."
Chris saw Rain off with a broad smile as she bowed her head.
"See you tomorrow! You worked hard too, Rain!"
Rain gave a small smile and waved. Her figure soon disappeared from Chris's sight.
Rain's emotional expressions were increasing day by day. Their relationship was also heading in a good direction.
But today, Chris could read something different in Rain's face.
A sense of unease.
It was a faint sense of unease that Chris could only notice because she had been watching Rain so intently.
She didn't know exactly what was different, but it was definitely different from usual.
Chris muttered quietly.
"Something's bothering me."