Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Third Named: Archangel Dominion and Fallen Angel Valiel
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Rumble.
With a vibration from the cube of the second named boss's room, Chris's Attack Squad entered the third area.
"Whoa, it's creepy."
Beimerung wrapped her arms around herself and looked around.
The light emanating from the magic crystals forming the walls of the third area was a vivid red. The illumination cast a bizarre atmosphere over the entire dungeon.
"There were exactly four golems, so we could each take one. It wasn't that difficult."
"At first, we wasted some time because we didn't know how to take down the barrier. Who knew it was a mechanic where you had to use a counter skill on the close-range magic blade pattern to charge up? While we were charging magic into the minion golems, Death of Death did a great job tanking the named golem, Akan."
At Chris's words, Death of Death shook his head.
"It wasn't difficult at all. The boss's patterns themselves are very simple. We only had to use a party protection skill for the full-area attack that comes after the barrier is down, so there were no other major external patterns to worry about."
A mechanic where the barrier's color changes on a timer.
After charging magic from a minion golem of a different color than the boss and then hitting the boss at close range, a 10-second burst damage window opens. The damage window before the barrier regenerated was extremely short, but since the boss's HP was low, it wasn't a major problem.
Vwoom.
When the party arrived at the first cube room of the third area, red platforms rose from the floor. It was a puzzle mechanic they had encountered in the first and second areas as well.
"Alright, is it my turn again?"
"Even a slowpoke has its uses, I see. You're actually pretty good at puzzles."
Cherni rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward. Beimerung giggled as she watched him solve the platform puzzle.
"...The first named boss's shell game mechanic... Rain might have been able to see through it with her eyes. But the berserk pattern, which is inevitable with insufficient absolute damage... And the second named boss... is this even possible to solo?"
Death of Death glanced at Chris, who was lost in thought and muttering to herself.
"Chris, you seem to have a lot on your mind today."
"Huh? Oh. Death of Death, what do you think?"
"About what?"
"The second named boss, the magic golem Akan. Do you think you could solo it?"
"What!"
Death of Death looked surprised. Then he crossed his arms and grunted in thought.
"Hmm, since it's you asking, I'll give it some thought... But fighting a boss with difficult patterns one-on-one is a completely different problem from fighting a boss with simple patterns in a two-on-one or more situation."
"What kind of problems?"
"First, if you're targeted by multiple enemies, it's hard to standardize the combat patterns. There are too many possibilities. This is especially true for named bosses that use ranged patterns. Projectile speed, the timing for using counters like parries and blocks, the right moment to use invincibility skills... If you misjudge the distance even slightly, the projectile speed changes, creating thousands of variables. It's not something you can learn just by trying over and over."
"With low-HP minions or regular monsters, you can just kill them before they hit you, tanking the minor attacks. But with the second named boss, the minion golems and the named golem have the same amount of HP. If you try to take out the minion golems first, you'll trigger the timed berserk pattern."
The second named boss's berserk pattern was a continuous full-area attack that lasted until the party was wiped out.
Before Chris's Attack Squad discovered the charging mechanic after luring out the close-range pattern, they couldn't break the barrier and were forced to face the berserk pattern.
Death of Death closed his eyes and began running a combat simulation in his head.
"Soloing the second named boss, Akan... If I were to try, the biggest problem would undoubtedly be the one minion golem I'd inevitably have to keep behind me. I could use an invincibility skill at the right moment, but this is a virtual reality game with a limited forward field of view. Could I really use an invincibility skill timed perfectly with an attack coming from behind, without even looking back?"
"If you were to solo it, you'd have to fight the named golem plus three minion golems at the same time. The magic attacks from behind would be the biggest problem."
"If I turn around to block, I won't be able to see the patterns of the other three. If I take the named golem's magic blade and the minion golems' magic all in the back, I'd be taken out in one hit."
Death of Death's conclusion was 'impossible.'
While sticking to a minion to charge magic, one only needs to use counter skills facing forward. But after charging up and breaking the boss's barrier, you have to enter the center of the triangle formation to attack.
You have to dodge area attacks, maintain constant damage before the barrier regenerates, and then seamlessly transition back to the charging position. On top of all that, you have to deal with the minions' patterns flying in between.
Is this really a fight that can be soloed?
Even Chris had to shake her head.
"No matter how I think about it, it seems impossible."
After passing through the final corridor, Chris's Attack Squad entered a spacious boss room.
Instead of the cube-shaped rooms they had passed through so far, it was a vast, circular combat area.
The magic crystals embedded in the boss room's walls flickered, alternating between the colors of the areas they had passed through: blue, green, and red.
"So this is the final named boss room."
"Do you think we can beat Rain's party this time?"
"That depends on us."
Chris gave her party members a grin and stared at the center of the boss room.
The first and second named bosses had waited for the party in their respective boss rooms. But in the third named boss's room, the boss was nowhere to be seen.
And, just as Chris's entire party had stepped fully into the boss room...
KRAANG! KRAANG!
A massive sword of light and a sword of darkness plunged into the floor. Then, from those spots, a brilliant light and a deep, dark energy erupted simultaneously.
Fwaaah!
The energies of light and darkness dissipated at the same time, revealing two beings within.
Humanoid beings, seemingly twice the size of an adult man, with two pairs of wings.
With wings of pure white and jet black, their appearance even felt sacred at first glance.
Their faces, made of magic crystals, stared blankly at the humans.
These were ancient golems too, merely crafted in the image of angels.
The auras of pure white and jet black faintly emanating from their bodies were also based on the magic of the crystals.
However.
"My god."
Chris couldn't close her mouth as she stared at the named status windows that appeared before her eyes.
She had never seen anything like this before.
A boss structure that users were encountering for the first time.
It was two separate named bosses.
[3rd Named]
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Archangel Dominion]
[HP 10,000,000/10,000,000]
[3rd Named]
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Fallen Angel Valiel]
[HP 10,000,000/10,000,000]
Flash, thwack!
While not on par with a Swordsman or Fighter, a Yin-Yang Master's close-range counter skill was still excellent.
Chris unfolded a large talisman in front of her to block Archangel Dominion's blade of light, using the recoil to create distance.
The Archangel raised its hand to the sky. Chris began to run quickly to her left.
Bam, bam, bam!
In the spots Chris had just passed, small swords of light generated in the air came crashing down. It was a ranged pattern similar to the third named boss of the forward base, Zarkan. As long as she didn't stop moving, she could avoid a direct hit from the pattern of small light swords raining from the sky.
One of the Archangel's close-range patterns involved laying down a light-based area-of-effect on the ground and then stopping its movement. The strategy was to deal as much damage as possible from a distance then, re-engage to see its close-range blade swing, and then lure out the ranged pattern again to reset.
'Archangel Dominion' had patterns that were favorable for ranged classes to deal damage.
As a skilled party, Chris's Attack Squad quickly established a counter-strategy for the normal patterns.
Chris tanked Archangel Dominion, while Death of Death tanked Fallen Angel Valiel.
Chris glanced at each named boss's HP.
[3rd Named]
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Archangel Dominion]
[HP 8,800,547/10,000,000]
[3rd Named]
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Fallen Angel Valiel]
[HP 9,650,419/10,000,000]
"The Archangel's HP is dropping much faster! Beimerung, focus more of your damage on the Fallen Angel!"
"Got it!"
Beimerung, who had been damaging the Archangel, turned her head toward the Fallen Angel.
Whoosh, whoosh! Swhack!
Fallen Angel Valiel had no ranged attack patterns. If the distance between it and the tank grew, it would raise its dark sword and charge in with a swift attack.
"Ugh, the Fallen Angel's patterns are fast and strong! The rest of you should stay a safe distance away!"
Death of Death was fighting alone, struggling to block the Fallen Angel's attacks. Compared to the relatively easy-to-damage Archangel, the Fallen Angel had patterns that were tricky for damage dealers to attack.
Its dark blade pattern, which swung left and right, had a considerable range and even an aftershock. A ranged dealer who got too close would be torn to shreds in an instant.
Now that she had grown somewhat accustomed to the Archangel's normal patterns, Chris could finally think.
If they took down one of the angel golems first, the other one would be relatively easy to defeat.
But was that really the right strategy?
There was no telling what a named boss would do when left alone.
On the other hand, trying to kill them simultaneously by managing their ten million HP pools didn't seem easy either.
"For now, let's keep going like this until the special pattern! W-what, already!?"
Vwoom.
An aura of light began to gather around the Archangel's body. The prelude to a full-area attack.
Its HP wasn't low enough to trigger a special pattern. That meant it was a timed special pattern.
"Beimerung, Ice Prison!"
Flash!
The party members' bodies immediately froze over, and a powerful flash of light swept across the entire boss room.
The moment the area attack passed, the Archangel did something strange.
Swoosh.
The Archangel looked in Death of Death's direction and raised its hand.
Chris shouted urgently.
"Death of Death! The Archangel is looking your way!"
Flash!
Before Chris could finish her sentence, a massive blade of light plunged down on Death of Death's head.
KRA-BOOOOM!
Death of Death, who had been watching the Archangel with sharp eyes, instantly used a backward evasion. His body moved out of the attack's range just as the sword of light struck.
As if nothing had happened, Death of Death countered the charging Fallen Angel's dark sword and said.
"Did you say something?"
"Oh, nothing. Good job! Heh heh."
Chris chuckled and refocused on countering the Archangel's patterns.
But she failed to notice that the massive sword of light, which had targeted Death of Death and was now stuck in the floor, hadn't disappeared and was faintly glowing.
The second timed special pattern.
This time, right after the Fallen Angel's area attack, a massive sword of darkness plunged down on Chris, who was fighting the Archangel.
KRA-BOOM!
Having seen the pattern once before, Chris was prepared. She expertly dodged the Fallen Angel's sword.
But after the second sword struck, Chris sensed something was wrong.
"Death of Death, did the sword of light over there disappear?"
"An area-of-effect has formed around the sword of light! It has a pretty big range!"
Death of Death's combat area had shrunk. He was having a harder time dealing with the Fallen Angel's patterns than before.
"Oh, no."
The dark sword stuck in the ground near Chris was also slowly creating a dark area-of-effect.
As the patterns progressed, the combat area was shrinking. The bosses still had a lot of HP left.
KRA-BOOM, KRA-BOOM!
The third timed special pattern. This time, two swords of light fell consecutively on Death of Death's position.
Death of Death used his backward evasion to move into the existing light area-of-effect, trying to stack the new one on top of it.
But his backward evasion was still on cooldown for the second blade, so he couldn't stack it. In the end, a new area-of-effect formed around the Fallen Angel.
"Ugh, ugh! The combat area has gotten too small! Aah!"
"Ugh!"
Beimerung, who was hesitantly sidestepping between the light and dark areas, was cut down by the Fallen Angel's dark blade. Cherni was taken out after touching a light area while dodging the same attack.
Only Death of Death and Chris were left to struggle, but it wasn't enough.
Eventually, after the areas from the fourth special phase appeared, the boss room was completely covered in light and dark zones, making it impossible to continue the fight.