Chapter 211
Chapter 211
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 208
Chapter Title: Lucifer Who Leads Evil - 3
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Spears had traditionally been the top recommended weapon for beginners in the Brutal series.
It was the only weapon class that allowed attacks while raising a shield for guard, and its incredibly long reach made it perfect for landing hits on enemies who couldn't touch you back.
There had even been a derogatory term for newbies who picked the Knight class in past playthroughs, equipped a physical cut 100 shield, donned heavy armor, and spent the entire game just poking from behind it without building any real skill.
Of course, it never quite got called outright broken.
As far as I knew, spears were plenty busted up through Brutal 1, but the devs hit them with minor nerfs in every sequel—stuff like tenacity or attack speed while guarding.
Still, the ability to attack from behind a shield and the weapon's insane reach never changed, so spears consistently made the beginner recommendation lists even in Brutal 4.
So, what happens when a boss charges at you wielding a spear with that same ridiculous reach?
—Boom!
The correct answer: "The attack range is so filthy wide you can't even close in properly."
Lucifer's roots had twisted and merged until they towered over me by double my height, and he was swinging the spear in his hand wildly in all directions.
It was less a spear and more a cone on a stick. And stupidly long, too—its entire surroundings were its attack range.
Even when Lucifer was about my height, it had looked at least 3 meters. Now that he'd grown, the spear had lengthened proportionally, so I figured it was easily over 6 meters now.
I spotted him thrusting the spear forward and dove inside. Even after rolling twice, I was still way too far for Wingless Nightmare to reach. The reach gap was just too much.
As I mentally gauged the remaining distance, he swept the spear sideways. Less a swing and more a casual flick, but plenty threatening regardless.
I leaped up from the ground to dodge the sweep. The instant I did, Lucifer shattered the spear, conjured a new one in his hand, and switched straight to thrusts like he'd never done a low attack.
I deflected it midair, and the recoil sent my body flying back to land far away.
I'd expected that much. His spear wasn't a fixed weapon—it was something he could dismantle and remake at will. The game had plenty of patterns like that.
'Doing it again, huh.'
But I hadn't expected the other thing.
Grumbling inwardly, I got back to my feet. Lucifer stood at a distance, spear aimed at me, poised to strike at any moment.
And yet, what he actually did was turtling. Like he was waiting for me to tire myself out.
At first, he'd charged in aggressively. The problem was, after I counterattacked and beat on him a few times, he'd been pulling this ever since. He showed zero interest in closing the gap.
In the game, as the DLC's final boss, he was infamous for his bullshit difficulty, absurd aerial combos on players, and relentless aggression that didn't even give you time to chug a potion. But now? Some weird hybrid was poking from afar like a coward.
The moment I tried to close in, he'd poke to check me, forcing me to roll or parry. And while I did, he'd backpedal to widen the gap again.
I'd never fought anything like this. Unlike every other enemy I'd faced—who charged full-tilt to kill me no matter the cost—this one prioritized its own survival above all.
'...Honestly, maybe that's the normal way to think.'
Compared to mindlessly throwing your life away to take me down, fighting while reasonably preserving your own life seemed way more rational.
Even if, from my perspective as the one fighting it, this was making the game feel like absolute bullshit.
'Alright. Let's see if you keep turtling and refuse to come at me.'
I switched Wingless Nightmare to a magic attribute. If he wouldn't come to me, I wouldn't go to him. And Wingless Nightmare's special ability included ranged checks.
No matter how low the mana cost, I couldn't spam it forever—but that didn't matter.
He didn't know that.
I pointed the blade at him and gathered mana along it. In phase 1 and 2, with all those roots covering him, non-holy attacks could still deal proper damage—aside from holy ones, that is.
Of course, matchup still mattered, so holy damage hit hardest. But the key was that damage went through at all.
The blade turned blue as blue mana began swirling around it. The swirl quickly grew into a visible vortex, whipping fiercely.
Lucifer charged the moment he sensed a big attack coming, but keeping that distance had backfired. My special attack cast a beat faster.
Holding Wingless Nightmare horizontal, I pulled my right shoulder back sharply, then thrust forward. The blue mana vortex shot toward him.
It was the same vortex that had shredded about a third of that damn blue choo-choo train.
Sucking in all the surrounding heat and air, the blue mana storm surged straight at Lucifer.
He must've judged that the vortex would hit before he could stab me, because he planted himself and thrust his spear to block.
—Kwaaang!
The roots clashed with the vortex, exploding violently.
It had no real effect, of course—the vortex just dulled the spear tip slightly before scattering into the air. And the dulled tip reverted instantly, so yeah, zero effect.
"Not coming at me? Wanna go again?"
With those words, I fired off another vortex. This time, he dodged instead of blocking head-on. The mana torrent sliced empty air.
Next. The third vortex flew right after. He'd gotten the hang of dodging, evading with far less movement than before. The swirl ground up the empty floor.
Still no effect. At least not right now.
"If you're just gonna dodge all day, be my guest. I can spam this all day too. Keep taking shots and you'll die eventually."
As blue vortexes kept wrapping around Wingless Nightmare, he seemed to decide he couldn't just dodge forever. He kicked off the ground and charged.
Even if he kept the distance, if I had a ranged option longer than his spear, turtling was pointless. That must've been his thinking.
He'd completely misread it.
The instant he charged as I'd baited, I switched Wingless Nightmare's attribute and met him head-on. A brilliant mix of gold and silver light leaked from the blade.
Finally—after so long—the gap closed to Wingless Nightmare's reach. Lucifer had only meant to narrow it to spear length, but I wasn't letting that happen.
It shifted to a familiar form. The spear shortened to about his height, trading wide sweeps for narrower, shorter ones—but more of them.
The rapid combo pattern from the game.
'Thrust.'
First came the textbook thrust. I parried it, and he casually raised the spear like he was repeating the thrust.
Of course, it was off-beat.
I counted the rhythm inwardly, then swung Wingless Nightmare only after the counterbeat passed. The spear tip, glowing with holy light, clashed with my blade and flicked sideways.
As his body half-turned from the deflection, Lucifer followed with a shoulder bash. Clang! I parried that too and stabbed right away. A few roots sliced off and hit the ground.
He didn't care in the slightest—his leg reared up halfway. Foot stomp pattern. And surprisingly, that was parriable too.
The massive, gnarled sole slammed down. As shockwaves and dust billowed out, I swung Wingless Nightmare into the dust cloud at the perfect timing.
The shockwave and dust whipped past me harmlessly.
Not over yet. The instant his left foot hit hard, Lucifer stepped forward with his right and swept the spear low-to-high. The spearhead flipped upside down mid-swing.
The roots making up the spear shot toward the opposite end at insane speed. Now gripping it reverse—like a downward smash—Lucifer brought it down.
I sidestepped. A massive pillar slammed past my shoulder. The spear tip gouged the ground, rumbling deeply.
Instead of pulling it free, he swung his left arm. New roots sprouted wildly, bloating the arm several times over.
The hypertrophied arm swept the nearby ground like a net unfurling. After a moment's thought on how to dodge, I went classic and jumped up.
While I hung in the air, the roots swept below. I landed and slashed his chest. More roots chunked off.
The game had the same animation when hitting phase 1 or 2 Lucifer, so nothing surprising there.
Right after landing, I raised Wingless Nightmare high. Light gathered on the blade, and as I slammed my arm down vertically, a pillar of light crashed onto his head.
The special ability worked here too. The pillar looked like it came from the heavens, but pondering how was a waste of time.
No answers anyway. Better to just accept that it worked and move on.
'Amplification isn't kicking in this time either.'
I thought that as I buried the blade in his staggering thigh after the pillar bashed his head.
Lucifer was a demon king of hell, after all, so I'd hoped... but no boost like against Behemoth. Whether it wouldn't help or couldn't in hell, who knew.
As I mulled that, his abdomen split open top to bottom, writhing roots slithering out disgustingly.
Right before the "mouth" could chomp forward, I backed off. The roots snapped at empty air, then slithered back into place.
—I'll ask again. Will you not follow the true god?
He just stood there afterward, so I tensed up thinking he was turtling again—then his voice boomed out.
"Same old line? I already said no."
—Why refuse salvation? How ignorant.
With that, massive root wings burst open from his back with a whoosh. They writhed endlessly, proving the roots were alive in their own right.
They were supposed to appear in phase 2, but by now, nothing surprised me.
'Way too late to be shocked by that.'
After seeing hell's demon king worship the World-Eater as a god, phase skips weren't even blips on the radar.
Lucifer readied his next attack. He reversed his grip so the tip pointed at me, pulled his shoulder back slightly, raised his wrist near his head—and prepared to throw.
Exactly as it looked: the spear throw pattern, and phase 2's opener. They'd skipped the entire phase 1.
As I timed a "Steel to Steel" spell—
'Wait. Just now... what was that?'
A blood-red sky, and eyes far redder streaking across it.