The Tutorial Boss
I have to win...! VS Click. Revi's physical condition began to appear through a health bar. At the same time, that familiar grip was settling into my hands. "Chanwoo? Since when have you been carrying such a peculiar object?" "This is...!" My thumbs rested perfectly on the two rotating controllers. On the left, four clickable directional buttons; on the right, four round buttons to press. And the grip—it felt truly incredible. After being dropped into this hardcore, post-apocalyptic world, I had forgotten all about it, but it felt like I had reclaimed the 'essence' of my life.
"Kagagagagak-!" "?! Chanwoo! Please, take cover behind me! The creature is preparing another attack!" "Yeah. I know." "Chanwoo...?" Once again, I saw tentacles erupting from the seven-story villa, raining down toward Revi. Ah, of course, I didn't witness it with my own eyes, but through the third-person perspective screen floating before me, along with the gamepad in my hands. "The attack is so honest..." Clang! "Huh?" "Kagagak?!" A one-sided thrust without even a hint of a delayed rhythm. It was a truly simple attack. It would have been a waste to even dodge something like that. Timing it perfectly, I pressed the R1 button and successfully parried it with ease.
"My body... it moved on its own?" "It's not you, Revi." "Chanwoo?" "I told you. Believe in me who believes in you. From now on, I will 'control' you, so please, entrust your body to me." "!!" The look Revi gave me as she turned back was filled with nothing but bewilderment. But there was no time for explanations. Even if I wanted to explain, I didn't even know how I had acquired this 'ability' myself. She must have been confused by so many things, but as if to say we could think about it later, I asked her for control of her body. "Yes! I am Chanwoo's android, after all!" Based on the bond we had forged over the past three days, Revi easily surrendered her body to me.
"Thank you, Revi." "Kagagagagagak-!" Now, if this were a game, the 'tutorial' was over. In the third-person screen floating before me, I could see not only Revi but also the damn tentacle creature threatening us. The health bar of the Queen-class monster—Behimogigas—was also visible. For reference, its current HP was down by about one-tenth. Even after all that struggle Revi had gone through, it was barely a scratch.
Target: Queen-class Monster - Behimogigas
Status: Groggy (Posture Gauge Depleted)
'A Queen-class boss right from the start... This is exactly that, isn't it? In Soul-like games, they place an unbeatable boss at the end of the tutorial path, and the story only progresses after you lose.' That's a classic Soul-like trope. They beat the player up with an absurdly overpowered boss early on, let them taste the bitterness, and then proceed with the story. As proof, Revi didn't even have any recovery items that automatically recharged upon reaching a base. But that didn't mean I could afford to lose. As I said before, this was no longer a game where I could die out of curiosity.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whooosh. Clang. Clang. Claaang. "Kegegegegek?!" "Amazing...!" Above all, even if you wanted to die... you're just terrible at this. 'It really is an early-game boss... The damage is high, but the attacks are so honest.' Since it only threw tentacles without any delayed rhythm, there was no better enemy for parrying. As a Soul-like player who prefers the parry system, this was, in a way, my favorite type of boss. I preferred this over enemies that broke the flow by inserting delayed attacks between honest ones.
Claaang. "Kieeeeeek...!" "Th-the groggy state! Chanwoo, the opponent has entered a groggy state!" "Yeah, I know." But the fun moments always come to an end. Especially with an enemy that has no unparryable attacks or delayed rhythms. As the saying goes, "the cursed live long," and my time with Behimogigas, which hadn't caused me even a shred of stress, seemed to be coming to an end.
"The posture gauge is completely gone. Now, die." "Hraaaah!" The 'posture' system accumulates gradually every time an attack is deflected. Every monster in Star's Doll, whether beast or monster, possessed such posture, and when it was fully depleted, they would fall into a groggy state, allowing for a critical hit just like now. I pressed the triangle button toward the glowing third-floor window, as if it were begging to be stabbed. Revi leaped high into the sky and plunged her plasma blade toward the 'heart' of the creature hiding inside the villa. "It's over!"
Cr-cr-crack. Perhaps because its weakness was so blatantly exploited. "Kagagagagagak-?!" A deafening shriek erupted from the seven-story villa that had previously only been swinging a few tentacles around. It was a truly desperate scream. At the same time, it sounded like the humiliating cry of a hunter who had been hunted by the prey it thought it could easily devour. Even so, being a Queen-class monster, while it's a rule of thumb that normal monsters die after a single critical hit from a posture break— "Kagagak... Kagagagagak-!" "Ugh?! This guy...?"
As expected of a tutorial boss monster designed to be unbeatable in the early game according to the system. It shed the form of the crumbling villa and shook its body violently from side to side, throwing Revi, who had been positioned in front of its vital point, backward. The Queen-class monster, Behimogigas, which had been hiding its true form within the brick villa all this time, finally revealed itself before us. It meant Phase 2 had begun.
"Kegegegegegegegek-!" "Is this... the creature's true form?" "Don't be shaken, Revi!" "Chanwoo!" "The creature belongs to the Queen-class in the first place. There's no way it would die from just that, right?" "...! You're right! In that case, I will just do my best to defeat it!"
The naked Behimogigas was, as expected, a grotesque collection of tentacles. It had a creepy appearance, as if dozens of tentacles covered in bumps were stuck all over it. The lower body that had been hiding on the first floor had a hole that looked like a mouth, and conversely, at the height of the third floor where Revi had stabbed it earlier—I thought it was the heart, but— "Gegegegegegek...!" What existed there was not a heart, but a single eye. A bloodshot, fleshy eyeball embedded in the mass of tentacles, reddened from being stabbed by the blade. "Wow... look at the slime on this guy? Seeing it drip like that, it must have really taken a liking to Revi, huh?" "Gegegekgegegegegegegek!!" "Personally, that is not my type." I like tentacle stuff, though...
Swish, swish. "...! E-eight tentacle attacks?" While I was thinking that, Phase 2—the Behimogigas, having returned to its true form, looked like it was going to tear us to shreds with all its might. As an example, it extended the thickest tentacles from its body in all directions to threaten Revi. Just looking at it, it was a development that seemed impossible to win. If I were to be beaten like that, I would surely become nothing more than a pile of meat. Above all, Revi would be swallowed into a pit of tentacles right before death, living the rest of her life as a broodmare for unwanted, alien children until she was permanently deactivated. ...Or so it would seem.
Shoosh-shoosh-shoosh-shoosh-shoosh. Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang. "Gegegegegegegegek?!" "Uh, uh-huh?" It must have dreamed of such a future. But you know... you're still terrible at this. A classic trait of early-game Soul-like bosses: the number of attacks suddenly increases, but the veteran player doesn't know that this is actually a cause for joy. Multiple tentacles attacked Revi in an instant. But interpreted differently, this meant there were more opportunities to parry. Moreover, it was just an increase in the number of attacks; the pattern was still honest. It was just a repetition of a rhythmic, solid strike of thud, thud, thud, thud, thud at a speed that was fully visible.
"Gegegegek! Gegekgegegegegegegegek!" I must win! I'll win, kill the man, and turn the woman into a broodmare for rape-breeding sex!! VS ...Click ...Click. Behimogigas-gay-gay... Honestly, I'm sorry for thinking this, but I think you were harder in Phase 1. Back then, there was that tension of worrying if I might make a mistake because the number of attacks was low. Now that even that tension is gone, you've become a 'Be-bung'—no, a Behimogigas—that just builds up its posture gauge even if I just click away... Just about when the posture gauge was almost full again—
"Gegegek... Gegegegegegek!" Flash! "Th-this... I can't block this!" Only at the very last moment did the Be-bung—no, the Behimogigas—exceed its limits. The creature, possessing the potential of a Queen-class, succeeded in creating a so-called 'unavoidable strike' by gathering all its tentacles in one place the moment it sensed its defeat. It was fired at an absurd speed toward Revi, who had been parrying well. The power was enough to make even Revi, who I thought was a tiger, see her life flash before her eyes.
"Kegegegegegegegek!" The true target of Behimogigas was not Revi, but the man behind her. The human who was cunningly 'clicking' away on a gamepad, thought to have gone extinct long ago. But even so... "You... are terrible at this." "Kkegegek?!" Suddenly, an unparryable attack? In a battle that was becoming sluggish with similar patterns, this was merely a final gift to delight a 'hollowed' player. Click. "Deflect." "My... my body moved on its own?"
In the first place, unparryable attacks come with a signal to deal with them properly, glowing with a red light. Following that delightful timing, just before being pierced by the tentacles gathered in one place, Revi, who had rolled backward on her own through the gamepad, utilized the Star's Doll system to perform a 'Deflect'—a technique that treats even unparryable attacks as posture damage.
"Gegegegegek...!" Toward the Queen-class monster that had fallen into a groggy state once again— "This time... it's over!" She plunged her plasma blade above her head and dropped straight down until it hit the ground.