True Warrior 3
Judging purely by physical ability, the body of the 6★ Paladin Roland that gaming shut-in Lee Ha-neul had acquired was so far beyond ordinary that you had to wonder whether it was even made of the same human flesh and blood.
And why wouldn't you? Even before learning how to handle mana, he could crush a chunk of stone to powder with his bare grip. His fingers alone could scrape rock away like soft tofu; his legs could outrun a horse and keep going longer than one; and his dense, tough skin, bones, and muscle wouldn't so much as scratch under a blade that lacked aura.
Put bluntly, Roland's body was essentially what you'd get if an Upper-grade monster's mana density ran so high it simply hardened into something that looked human.
"Hahaha! You're so big your weak points are wide open!"
"Hanna! Aim for its eyes with an arrow — then cover the shot with Light magic!"
The innate physical gap had been closed. What remained was the difference in mastery between a fledgling warrior who had only just stepped into the Upper-grade, and a warrior who had spent a full decade in this body and stood at the far end of that same rank.
No matter how heavy and thick that trident came flying in like a siege engine — thoom — my shield was never going to break. The thing hadn't even managed to shatter Irene's barrier in a single blow. Getting hit once by an attack like that wasn't about to put me on the ground.
The giant Naga's all-or-nothing strike only succeeded in chewing through its own mana reserves.
"This is more doable than I expected."
"Don't get careless just because of that. That attack nearly cracked the Holy Ward of Protection in one hit. One mistake and you'll be badly hurt."
And so began a revolving-door beatdown that was, for a boss monster, the saddest thing in the world.
Every full-power swing was naturally stopped by shield and holy ward. The arrows flying at its face were too weak to bother dodging and too annoying to ignore — alchemical arrowheads of every kind — while Manash and Katie used my bulk as cover, darting across the clearing with agile footwork and tearing out reverse scales one after another.
Sha, shaaaaaaah!
Furious beyond reason, it ignored the tiny arrows entirely and reached out to snatch Katie — only for an arrow, flying under the cover of Han Se-ah's Light magic, to target not its cheek this time but its eyeball.
True to Upper-grade reflexes, it squeezed its eye shut and blocked the shaft — but instead of gas, sticky adhesive slime burst from the alchemical tip and glued itself to the left eye like industrial cement. As if sneering at the law of conservation of mass, the black goo gushed and gushed from the tiny arrowhead until it blanketed a wide swath of its face.
"Hanna! Spark, right there!"
"Got it!"
Kyaaak, kyaaaaaak!
The moment a spark hit the adhesive coating its left eye, flames roared up in a vicious blaze. The brown gas had been a tear-gas tip meant to blind; this one was flammable sticky oil. So that was why she bought so many different arrowheads instead of just the explosive kind — for fights exactly like this.
Because I wasn't attacking directly, only trading off with Irene to block the trident, the battle dragged on longer than expected.
"No, is its HP just that high because it's a giant? Manash and Katie have already smashed like ten reverse scales."
One eye burned, the reverse scales below its waist torn ragged and gushing thick black blood — the thing looked so wretched that the viewers all piled on with their two cents.
Then, as if shifting into a new pattern, it planted both arms on the ground and swept its tail in a massive arc meant to clear the entire open space—
"Ro-Roland? You're okay, right?"
"I'll handle something like this. Finish it off."
As if a crude, pure-strength sweep was going to work. Jumping over it felt like too much effort, so I simply stepped in and bounced the incoming tail off my shield. Even a windmill-style area sweep done with a tail instead of legs was nothing if you stopped it with a solid thunk before the rotation built up.
And when a giant boss's pattern gets broken, that usually means free damage time.
A pattern that used even the trident-holding hand as a ground brace to swing the tail that hard. With the tail stopped cold against me, the whole thing was left in an awkward, sprawled-out posture — both arms planted, chest and upper body lowered, hips shoved way back.
Weapon set down. Stance dropped. Balance broken—
In front of a warrior who could wield aura, that kind of opening invited a fatal result.
Manash slipped in in a flash, tearing the reverse scales from both arms and then half-severing a wrist for good measure — black blood erupted like a burst water main. Katie, with her uncanny swordsmanship, ripped into the reverse scales along the tail still pinned against my shield; without aura of her own the wounds were relatively smaller.
Relatively smaller, yes — but the scales still cracked and the blood still ran freely.
From the tip of the tail all the way to the waist, every reverse scale was shattered and torn free, blood streaming down; the thick wrists that should have been gripping a weapon were half-cut through, pumping black blood like rubber hoses at a faucet.
All a giant boss that could no longer properly move its tail or either arm could do was quietly lay itself down on the cold ground of the clearing and offer up the reverse scale on its neck.
For the first time in Han Se-ah's playthrough, a fight that ran a solid ten-plus minutes ended with the giant Naga crashing down — thoom — onto the clearing. Big as it was, it had that much blood to match, and the corpse sprawled in a thick, black pool of it.
Once the shattered scales, the massive body, and the reeking blood-pool all vanished, what remained in their place was a luminous Mana Stone.
…Which meant the thing had just been an ordinary monster.
"So it wasn't a boss monster after all."
"N-no byproducts either — so not even a named monster?"
Unlike Manash, whose mouth was twitching with the joy of dropping a strong enemy without taking a scratch, the rest of the party's faces clouded with worry. If you sorted things into normal monsters, named monsters, and boss monsters, a giant Naga like that had felt like named-tier at the absolute minimum.
Not the source of the corruption, so not a boss — but maybe a powerful named-class guardian standing watch over one? Like those giant worms that had wandered around the 30th floor while everyone was dodging the massive snake boss.
That was the quiet assumption the party had been working under, so the reality of a single Mana Stone sitting there alone was hard to swallow. Because if it was a normal monster, that meant it could be mass-produced. Giant Nagas swarming like zombies… game balance would never allow something that absurd, of course.
"We need to find the source of the corruption as soon as possible."
"If there are more of these things, they'll be a real pain. The regular scales — not the reverse ones — were tough enough to bounce a sword."
Naturally, the party didn't know the truth. So they were fretting that giant monsters like this could be copied the same way as Doppelgangers or ordinary Naga-kin.
Still, not a bad showing.
Whether the stars attached to them proved their talent, or the talent existed because the stars were attached, everyone had handled themselves cleanly without a single slip. Watching them take on an Upper-grade giant monster for the first time left me thoroughly satisfied.
Grace, running psychological-warfare hell with gas tips, sticky tips, and explosive tips. Katie, dodging the thrashing snake tail while ripping out every reverse scale she could reach. Irene, sealing off the attacks that were awkward for me to catch on a shield with her Holy Ward of Protection.
…As for Han Se-ah, she was going to need to learn at least a couple of offensive spells. One for normal monsters, and a hard-hitting nuke for bosses.
"Hey! That was when I first started that game — later on I got kills and called briefs, okay? You people keep treating me like a pack mule. If it were any of you, you'd have fumbled around and gotten a full reset right here."
With no offensive skills to her name, Han Se-ah really had nothing resembling a highlight this time, and she screeched under the viewers' assault. The thing was so massive that Earth Control couldn't even interfere with it, and Spark couldn't so much as scratch a cornea.
All she'd done was blur the trajectory of Grace's arrows with Light magic as they flew, and set the sticky oil alight with a Spark.
"Alright, everyone gather up for a second."
"Hm?"
Out in the emptied clearing, we took a short feedback session. Nobody had made a mistake this time, so it was closer to encouragement than critique.
Alchemical arrowheads were limited in number, so mixing in regular arrows for rapid fire would make the psychological warfare even nastier. If you could keep your balance, instead of jumping the tail you could climb onto it, drive a blade in, and hang on while working the wound — that sort of thing.
"And Hanna — once you reach the Upper-grade, pick up a few offensive spells. If Upper-grade monsters start showing up as the norm, our party's firepower is going to be way too thin."
"…Yeah."
And to Han Se-ah, the unavoidable truth.
The instant I finished speaking, the chat exploded, convinced they'd been handed fresh material to roast her with. A moment ago it had been free-for-all Han Se-ah bullying hour; now it was officially Teacher Roland-certified teasing time, and the noise was deafening.
Of course, jokes aside, if any Intermediate-grade mage were sitting in that chat, they'd almost certainly be worse than Han Se-ah… but then again, when have internet viewers ever needed actual skill to roast a streamer? Even pro gamers get backseat-gamed in this world.
"Aaand meee? How wasss I?"
"…I don't know the first thing about spear technique."
So stop hissing at me like you're disappointed, you big black bastard.