Chapter 4
Chapter 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Battle with the Human Butcher
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The stone wall crumbled away like Styrofoam, and from inside burst a grotesquely formed colossal monster. With every step it took, the entire corridor shook.
It had been intimidating before, but seeing it up close like this amplified the oppressive aura radiating from its hideous appearance. It towered far above my height and wielded an enormously thick club, which only heightened the effect.
The monster smashed through the wall, lumbering out with heavy thuds, until it spotted me standing ahead. Then it let out another roar.
—Kuaaaaaah!!!!
The roar echoed thunderously. My ears rang in an instant. It was worse than blasting music at max headphone volume without realizing it.
If I wanted to run from here, I could just turn around and bolt. Its entrance was dramatic and shocking, but as long as I knew how to hold down the Shift key properly, escaping wouldn't be that hard.
But I had to take this thing down no matter what.
No matter how I thought about it, without the bloodstained sword, early-game progress would grind to a halt. Plus, defeating the Human Butcher right at our first encounter triggered a linked event that was critically important in my current situation.
I gripped the steel sword the mid-boss had used in my right hand and faced the Human Butcher head-on.
In the game, killing the mid-boss didn't drop its weapon—it just vanished—so picking up and using its sword was impossible.
But not here.
Assuming this really was the exact same steel sword from the game, I could probably kill it in about twenty minutes. Even accounting for the increased health from Darkla mode.
‘No need for evasion, parrying’s still out of reach, so just deflects and rolls, huh.’
I ran through the possible strategies in my head.
With a blunt weapon, deflects were impossible, so you had to dodge with rolls only. But now I was holding a one-handed sword, so I could use deflects too. That was enough.
‘First attack has to be the charge.’
I took my stance. The Human Butcher roared and charged toward me with thudding steps. Its body was so fat that it looked less like running and more like waddling.
The stone wall its shoulder hit shattered entirely and collapsed. I backed away slowly in response. To roll aside and dodge, I needed some space secured.
I waited for it to get close, then hurled my body to the right just before its torso slammed into me. My body rolled perfectly across the floor once, and its massive foot stomped empty air.
After cleanly evading the charge attack, I sprang up immediately and sprinted in the opposite direction.
The Human Butcher, bewildered and looking around after I vanished from its sight, turned at the sound of my footsteps. Spotting me fleeing far off, it unleashed an enraged roar.
Ignoring the roar, I found the hole where the wall had crumbled and slipped inside. Brilliant light poured in from nearby.
Without hesitation, I dashed toward the light. The monster was busy chasing me, smashing through the prison walls as it closed the distance.
But I was faster. I escaped through the hole into the open air, landing in a massive clearing below. I leaped down into it.
‘I could just keep running from here…’
I glanced at the enormous prison gate on the opposite side from me. That was the only exit from the prison. Why only one? Because the other three sides were sheer cliffs.
Even if I hadn’t come straight from the corridor but fled from the Human Butcher instead, I could fight it here anytime before exiting.
I’d just skipped all the intermediate steps.
This wasn’t some player-discovered exploit—it was intentional by the Blood Dark 4 developers. Fleeing back to where it came from let you escape right away.
Boom! The Human Butcher, having caught up, landed in the clearing. The ground where its feet hit couldn’t withstand the weight and caved in deeply. Cracks spiderwebbed out across the surrounding earth.
Irritated by its prey darting every which way, it snorted roughly through its nose. Its misaligned teeth ground together with a clack.
Now it begins. I raised the steel sword high.
Rolling in beside its left leg, I slashed at its torso. The blade tip dug into its belly, adding another shallow cut. Black blood trickled from the long gash.
—Kuaaaaaak!
I swiftly retreated to dodge the tail whipping in all directions. Right after, it swung its right arm, sweeping through the spot where I’d just been.
Even that sweeping attack was instant death if it grazed you.
The Human Butcher hoisted the massive club in its right hand overhead. A pattern where it smashed down ahead while advancing. The moment I saw it, I readjusted my grip on the sword.
A pattern I could deflect. As if I knew how to perform a body deflect instead of a head one, I naturally assumed the stance.
I twisted the sword slightly and supported my right wrist with my left hand. I’d never learned swordsmanship in my life, yet my body reacted first.
Clang! A sword barely as thick as a human wrist blocked the wooden club thicker than a person.
More precisely, it deflected the attack. The huge club’s trajectory veered sideways, slicing through empty air.
‘Manageable.’
My palms buzzed from the impact, but it wasn’t unbearable. Considering all my stats were 1 right now, I’d deflect even easier later on.
‘Feels like the game. No need to overthink—just swing at the right timing, and the body handles the deflect automatically.’
In the game, the player character could deflect all sorts of attacks with a single sword. It could even flawlessly parry a golem’s overhead smash, one far larger than a castle.
Seeing as I’d fairly easily deflected a wooden club far bigger than me, I seemed no different now.
The attacks kept coming after that. I couldn’t close the raw power gap between us, so my legs kept sliding back, but my stance never broke.
I deflected its downward club smash with my sword, then again, and again, repeating the process countless times.
After exactly ten exchanges, the Human Butcher’s body staggered briefly. Confirming the pattern’s end, I lunged in and slashed again, carving another wound into its abdomen.
Having been toyed with for over ten minutes by a human several times smaller than itself—not to mention taking wounds—its rage boiled over. It tilted its body right and lifted its left foot.
The stomp pattern. I used the opening to retreat far back and catch my breath.
Thud! The Human Butcher stomped the ground. Shockwaves kicked up dust clouds billowing everywhere. In the game, grazing those dust clouds was instant death. No idea if it was the same now.
‘Of course, I have zero desire to test it.’
It yanked its deeply embedded foot from the ground and approached again. Its club-wielding right hand rose to the side. The three-hit combo pattern.
I rolled to dodge the horizontal sweep and dove back inside. Whether I did or not, the Human Butcher swung through to the end, just like in the game.
Its belly was already a mess of long gashes and dripping black blood.
‘No scars like this in the game.’
Entertaining that idle thought, I added a couple more cuts and widened the distance again.
Without the stomp, I could’ve circled and toyed with it until it died, but the stomp was added precisely to counter that, forcing me to keep my distance.
From there, the fight flowed one-sidedly in my favor. Continuous overheads, triple horizontal slashes, stomp, body press, charge. I didn’t even graze any of them while pummeling the Human Butcher.
It roared in fury and frustration, swinging its club wildly, but every blow cleaved only air.
Wounds multiplied across its body, and the nearby ground grew ever blacker.
‘About time for the final pattern.’
I gauged how much time had passed inwardly. Its health should be whittled down by now, transitioning to its desperation phase. No health bar made it inconvenient in every way.
I’d beaten all bosses no-damage in Darkest Rite mode and recorded it, so I remembered the clear times roughly. The Human Butcher took about twenty minutes.
Bare-handed, it took over two hours, but with the starter crude wooden club, clear time dropped under thirty minutes.
With a steel sword now, even with all stats at 1, it shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes max. Hadn’t that much time passed already?
As I sorted through my jumbled thoughts, the Human Butcher suddenly froze mid-motion and began trembling.
‘Got it.’
I cheered inwardly. That was the signal I’d essentially cleared the Human Butcher.