Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: The Rock Centipede Boss
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“……I figured it would be impressive, but seeing it in person makes it even more insane.”
Lize muttered as she laid eyes on the rock centipede. Erika and Iris, standing beside her, wore matching expressions of awe. When fully stretched out, the thing towered higher than most castles—no wonder.
And that was just with a chunk of its rear body lopped off. In its prime, it would’ve had another two or three stories’ worth of length tacked on. Purely by size, it outclassed even the final boss.
The rock centipede lay coiled up like a snake, utterly still as if dead. Right next to it sat a rune stele that looked pathetically tiny by comparison.
The stele wasn’t small by any means—about the size of a player character—but parked beside the centipede, it might as well have been a pebble.
A faint green glow emanated from the stele.
“Anything unusual beyond what you mentioned, newbie?”
“Nope. That’s everything I told you.”
After finishing my excuses, I laid out all of the rock centipede’s patterns for the three of them. They’d gotten used to it by now—no questions about how I knew this stuff.
Truth be told, its patterns were pretty straightforward. Once you hit phase 4, the fight was a cakewalk.
Unlike phases 1 through 3, where physical, magical, and holy attacks bounced off harmlessly, forcing you into gimmicks, this one was different.
Even in hardcore mode, you wouldn’t see much variance.
No one knew why. After slaving away at gimmicks for over an hour, only to get one-shot in phase 4? Maybe it was the last shred of mercy from whoever designed hardcore mode.
‘If they had that much mercy, they could’ve cut down the gimmick count.’
Not that phases 1-3 didn’t already prove they had none.
“Aim for the head as much as possible, right? Makes it easier to take down.”
“Yeah. A few solid hits from you three, and it won’t know what hit it.”
The rock centipede’s phase 4 was what gamers called a “DPS check snooze.” Land a heavy blow on its head for a stun, wail on it during stagger for another stun, repeat indefinitely until it dropped.
Getting that first stun was the tricky part.
Its massive bulk meant weapons couldn’t reach the head without baiting specific patterns, and too much downtime between hits reset the stagger gauge, so timing mattered.
Of course, that barely scratched the danger surface. The real risk was zoning out on patterns while fixating on the head and eating a hit. But I wasn’t worried.
‘With their skills, it couldn’t touch them if it tried.’
Even its full-speed charge was slower than a player’s sprint.
No matter the attack, the knight captains—fully briefed on every pattern—weren’t getting clipped.
“Got it. Lize, Erika—get ready. Easy target or not, stay sharp. Complacency kills.”
The three in silvery armor strode forward. I hopped onto a nearby rock to spectate. There was one thing I needed to check while they fought.
Elemental auras flared around their weapons: wind on the longsword, ice on the paired daggers, flames on the nodachi.
The coiled, motionless rock centipede stirred, sensing the threat. Chunks of stone rained from its bisected head.
My perch was outside the boss room by game standards, so I watched carefree. Its opening move would shape our future strategy.
Lize and Erika split to Iris’s flanks—Lize left, Erika right.
Lize moved first, circling wide left to the tail end for a quick approach. The centipede twisted its head to track.
It reared for a slam—then jerked as flames slammed its skull. Erika’s blade blazed.
Instead of slamming down, it reared higher and yanked a stalactite from the ceiling.
‘Aggro’s already shifting.’
That sealed it: I’d solo future boss fights.
The pattern had changed. This boss didn’t fake or stutter-step. If Lize were alone, it would’ve smashed down.
But the flames pulled aggro to Erika, canceling the slam for the stalactite toss.
Its sluggish, hulking frame made the swap obvious. Shrink it to human-plus size, and you’d miss it.
What if I were calling patterns and aggro flipped to unleash something else? If it was an AoE I didn’t anticipate, I’d be paste.
‘Can’t risk that.’
While I mulled it over, the captains pressed the assault.
Erika bisected the hurled rock midair; it split, melted, and tumbled limply. Heat haze warped the air from her blade.
Lize pounced next. Her daggers grazed the left flank, severing a dozen legs in a flash. They froze solid, then shattered.
As the head swung her way, flames nailed it from the opposite side. Years of synergy shone through—their coordination was flawless.
Ice raked legs from the left; flaming slashes scorched from the right. The centipede flailed in disarray.
Amid it all, Iris—still rooted calmly—raised her sheathed longsword.
Left foot forward, weight shifted; scabbard to right hip in left hand. Right arm twisted wrist-out to grip the hilt.
Ooooh—a gale whipped up. Visible pressure sucked into the sheath, spiraling the air around it.
Distortion intensified; the vortex warped—then Iris unsheathed.
Right foot spun her half-clockwise, slamming down ahead. The longsword whipped free.
It slashed vertically.
The coiled wind exploded forward—a razor-straight wall, slamming the centipede in a heartbeat. BOOM—a thunderous rupture echoed.
The body sheared clean in half, the cut sanded-smooth.
Vortex trailed, sucking up debris before detonating beside it, spraying shrapnel everywhere.
‘Holy crap, live version.’
That was one of Iris’s boss fight patterns. Fatal even on vanilla; hardcore? Instant death.
The centipede—now a third its length—reeled. Erika, who’d kept her distance with fire slashes, closed in.
Shrunken but still lengthy, the remainder was her target.
Her nodachi was flame incarnate; fire bloomed where she stepped.
She closed to point-blank, two-handed grip, tip leftward. Leapt, twisting.
Full-body spin birthed a flame vortex.
The circling inferno melted the base exoskeleton; another segment sloughed off the dwindled frame.
She didn’t stop—rose higher, another clockwise whirl. More body liquefied.
Flames jetted from her toes. Airborne again, she spun once more for the finisher.
The blade grazed horizontally across the head. Contact point vaporized; a deep gash marred its face.
‘That one’s a blocker’s nightmare too.’
Another Erika boss pattern. The fire damage overwhelmed weapons; blocking sans high-fire-res shield meant rolling or dying.
As the shrunken wreck collapsed, blue ice surged from the ceiling. Lize.
Daggers converged; a massive ice longsword formed in her grasp, frosting the air.
It targeted the head—now rivaling her height.
CRUNCH!
Silver ice-armor pierced skull to floor. The headless husk toppled.
Rock centipede boss defeated.