BANG!

With the explosion of the bomb and flames spreading out, the armored horse lifted its front legs in shock. That was the last thing I threw.

While the beast was stunned and dazed, I backed off, took a deep breath, and reduced the combat fatigue that had filled up my gauge. As the combat fatigue diminished, my limbs felt incredibly light.

‘The sensation is quite intense.’

I rolled my shoulders to loosen up. All thanks to that combat fatigue debuff.

When the combat fatigue gauge fills up, a debuff is applied that reduces the character’s attack speed and movement speed by 20%.

In the game, I didn’t care if I got debuffed or not, but now that I was moving my own body, the reduction felt much more significant than I had expected.

‘It might be a bit risky, but once the rune slots open, I need to go find the combat fatigue immunity rune right away.’

It was unavoidable. Health was practically meaningless in Darkest Light mode, so I was going to skip it for now, but that meant by mid-game, parrying an enemy attack just two times would fill up the combat fatigue gauge.

If the debuff is easy to apply and the sensation is tremendous, then it’s only natural to come up with ways to solve it.

While I was recalling the strategy for the dungeon with the immunity rune, the horse, having taken a bomb hit to the head five times, was shaking and rampaging. Its neigh echoed for a while.

Soon, the armor surrounding its head and neck began to shatter one by one.

Heavy steel armor, thicker than my finger, broke off its body and fell with a thud into the dirt.

Finally, once all the armor was stripped away, its gray body was revealed. Thud, it charged again. The hooves kicked the dirt vigorously.

It was only a matter of time before it became minced horse meat. Now that the armor was ruined, I could just parry like any typical boss battle and hit it anywhere.

‘Alright, let’s start.’

I gripped the blood-stained sword upside down, pointing the tip towards my abdomen and extending the hilt forward.

After taking a deep breath, I plunged the sword into my belly.

Thud, as the blade penetrated my insides, the hilt vibrated gently. Some of the blade protruding out was dyed in a deeper shade of red.

That was the special ability of the blood-stained sword. It absorbed the user’s health and amplified attack power proportionally to the amount absorbed.

The amplification of attack power was 0.5% for every 1% of health drained; since it wasn’t a fixed number but rather proportional, it was better to invest less health.

For someone like me, whose health stat was practically at 1, it went without saying.

‘This’ll do.’

The sensation of blood being drained ceased. It meant my health was down to the limit of 1%. I pulled the sword out from my abdomen. Splash! The drops of blood that hadn’t been absorbed fell to the ground.

The hole in my abdomen healed almost instantly. The blood-stained sword was a sinister shade of red just by looking at it. This was the color that appeared when the attack power increase was at its maximum.

Even though I had only 1% health left, that was fine. Whether I had 100% or 1% health, it would be the same if I just grazed that thing.

HEE-HAW!

The horse charged at me, much faster than before. Perhaps because its armor was completely gone, I didn’t feel the oppressive force shaking the ground like before.

I prepared to parry as I saw the cavalier above lifting his spear back, readying his attack. It was lucky that he was starting with a deal time attack.

The cavalier thrust his spear forward, and as I parried, a sharp clang of metal rang out and the cavalier lost balance, staggering.

I slashed at his side three times, then stepped back. Blood splattered where I had cut, and the horse bucked its front legs to kick at where I had just been.

Rolling away from the front hoof, I slashed at its leg. Of course, it didn’t collapse from a mere scratch, and the horse trotted away unbothered.

I had to deal as much damage as I could before the duration of the attack power buff ran out. This time, I charged at the cavalier instead. As we ran towards each other, the distance quickly closed.

The cavalier lifted his spear over his head, and the horse visibly quickened its pace. Charging full speed while raising the spear overhead was his pattern.

‘This isn’t a parry; I need to roll.’

My mind calculated the situation in an instant. The horse leaped forward like it was jumping over an obstacle, closing the distance. The cavalier brought down the spear with all his weight.

Before the attack could hit, I rolled forward. A terrifying BOOM echoed behind me.

If I had mindlessly swung my sword to parry, the recoil would have pushed me back, leaving me unable to respond to the following grapple attack. After that? It would have been instant death.

It was the so-called “If you don’t know, you die” pattern.

‘Instead, if I roll to avoid, I get a free deal time.’

I rolled to the side and swung my sword freely. Both the horse and the cavalier were preoccupied with regaining balance. The cheerful sound of the blood-stained sword’s special ability rang out continuously.

After hitting them nearly seven times, the cavalier regained his stance and charged the horse farther away.

Things continued to go smoothly after that.

I parried the basic attacks, rolled away from the weighted attacks, and repeated the hits during the gaps that appeared, causing the red aura surrounding the blood-stained sword to gradually fade.

This meant the duration was less than 30 seconds. As I realized this, my heart raced.

‘If I hadn’t invested in divine power, the buff would’ve ended already. Has it already been over three minutes?’

Among the stats a player could choose from, ‘Divine Power’ not only increased holy attack strength, but also extended the duration of all buffs.

Particularly, since all past-born characters except for clerics started at 1, the early game growth was incredibly high compared to other stats.

Compared to divine power 1, divine power 10 could extend the duration of all types of buffs by almost 50%. The initial investments in stats were notably different in impact.

The basic duration of the blood-stained sword’s special ability was three minutes. With my initial investment of only 3 points, the attack power increase of 49.5% lasted almost 30 seconds longer.

Investing 10 points would bring that duration close to 5 minutes.

‘Now, it needs to go down soon…!’

I slashed at the horse’s hind legs while avoiding its kick pattern. As I slashed again, the horse galloped further away.

But its speed had noticeably slowed compared to before.

The buff duration was critical, which made me sigh with relief. It was practically in the bag now.

Once the combat fatigue gauge was completely filled, I could attempt the special attack called parrying, which was only really possible against humanoid enemies.

For monster-type or beast-type enemies, the combat fatigue gauge decreases in real-time regardless of their actions, making it impossible to prioritize filling combat fatigue while leaving health intact.

Except for this headless armored cavalier.

That was why I was determined to handle this through parrying. Parrying attacks allowed me to fill the combat fatigue and shorten clear times significantly.

By the way, as long as the armor was intact, the combat fatigue didn’t build up at all.

‘The next attack should… alright, I can parry this.’

I held a small shield in my left hand. It was something I had never used before, but the method immediately came to mind.

Waiting until he got close, I swung the shielded arm wide like a fan as he thrust his spear.

BAM!

A crisp clank echoed, and the horse lost its balance, falling hard. The cavalier on top crashed down disgracefully.

Parrying.

A high-level parry that could only be used against an enemy with a full combat fatigue gauge. It was the technique Lize had prepared as a counter during the entrance exam.

If you attack an enemy whose balance is disrupted by a parry, it deals an extraordinary amount of damage with a unique move depending on the weapon class.

The damage dealt consists of 50% of the target’s maximum health plus the damage of the weapon they are holding, ignoring all resistances and defenses. Considering the health that had already been chipped away to fill the combat fatigue, it was essentially a guaranteed kill.

I approached the horse, panting heavily on the ground. Many people misunderstand this, but the actual body of this creature was the horse, not the cavalier above.

The special ability of the blood-stained sword was just about to extinguish. Before the duration ran out, I aimed for its head and thrust the sword with all my might. The beast couldn’t even scream as it dropped its head.

As the horse collapsed, the cavalier struggling to rise from the ground slowly disappeared into thin air. The spear in its hand fell to the ground.

The heavy gray body toppled over. Thud, a noise sounded, and dust flew up. It didn’t rise or move again.

“I got it.”

The headless armored cavalier was cleared.