Chapter 208 – Lucifer who Leads Evil – 3
The spear was traditionally the most recommended weapon for beginners in the Brightest Darkness series.
It was the only weapon that allowed for attacks while keeping a guard up with a shield, and it had a ridiculously long reach, making it perfect for “I can hit you but you can’t hit me” attacks.
Choosing the past class as a knight and using a shield to just poke enemies while wearing heavy armor and not improving skills at all has become such a derogatory term for newbies that there were even nicknames for it.
Of course, I never heard it called overpowered.
I know that up to Brightest Darkness 1, it was certainly considered overpowered, but the developers gave it constant small nerfs every time they released a sequel. Like toughness and attack speed when guarding.
However, the fact that you could attack from behind a shield and the weapon’s incredible reach remained unchanged, which is why it was still listed among recommended weapons for beginners in Brightest Darkness 4.
So what happens if a boss charges at you wielding a ridiculously long spear, even from a player’s perspective?
ㅡKuwong!
The answer is, “The range is so freaking wide that you can’t even approach properly.”
Lucifer, now twice my height due to the tree roots entwined around him, swung the spear around in every direction.
What he was holding was more of a conical object with a handle than a spear. Plus, it was disgustingly long, making the entire area his attack range.
When Lucifer was about my height, he still looked at least 3 meters tall, but now that he was taller, the length of the spear seemed to increase in proportion, and I felt it had to be over 6 meters no matter how small he held it.
After confirming that he thrust the spear forward, I dove inside. Even after rolling twice, the wingless nightmare was still far from reaching him. The reach difference was just too severe.
While I estimated the remaining distance in my mind, he swung the spear sideways. It was more like a swipe than a swing, but it was threatening enough.
I leaped off the ground to avoid being swept away. The moment I did, Lucifer crushed the spear in his hands and created a new one, as if he had never launched a lower attack.
When I deflected that in mid-air, the recoil sent my body flying back, and I landed some distance away.
I had expected this. His spear was not a fixed weapon but something he could dismantle and create anew at will. There were many patterns like that in the game.
‘Here we go again.’
But there was something I didn’t expect.
Annoyed, I got back up. Lucifer stood some distance away with his spear aimed at me, ready to attack at any moment.
But what he did next was a bit odd. It was as if he was waiting for me to fall over by myself.
At first, he had clearly charged first. The problem was that after getting counter-attacked and beaten a few times, he had been doing nothing but this since then. It seemed like he had no intention of closing the distance.
In the game, as the final boss of the DLC, he was well-known for his outrageous difficulty and overwhelming combo patterns that wouldn’t even give players time to drink potions, but now he had turned into some weird hybrid just poking at a distance.
Every time I tried to close in, he would jab at me with a thrust, and I had to either roll to dodge or deflect it. While I did that, he’d retreat and widen the distance.
This was a first for me. Unlike the other enemies I had faced who charged at me with the intent to kill no matter the cost, it felt like this guy prioritized his own survival above all else.
‘…Actually, isn’t that a more normal mindset?’
It made more sense to fight with some degree of self-preservation than to throw yourself at me as if to risk your life trying to kill me.
Though, from my perspective, it was still an annoying way to play the game.
‘Alright. Let’s see if you still won’t come at me like this.’
I changed the wingless nightmare to a magic attribute. If he wasn’t coming at me, I wouldn’t go to him. And the wingless nightmare had a special ability for ranged control.
No matter how little mana consumption there was, I couldn’t shoot it infinitely, but that didn’t matter.
He didn’t know that, did he?
Aiming the tip of my sword at him, I concentrated mana at the blade. In this first and second phase with all those tree roots covering the area, damage could definitely be inflicted by attacks other than holy-type attacks.
Of course, the relationship of elements still dictated that holy attacks dealt the most damage, but the key was that I could inflict damage regardless.
The blade turned blue as the swirling blue mana began to spiral. The whirlpool soon transformed into a visible vortex and rushed towards him.
Realizing something big was coming his way, Lucifer charged forward immediately, but the distance he had maintained worked against him. My special attack came out a beat faster.
With the wingless nightmare held horizontally, I pulled back my right shoulder and thrust forward. The blue mana vortex shot out towards him.
That whirlpool had already shredded about 1/3 of that damn blue little train before.
As it absorbed all the heat and air around it, the blue mana storm rushed directly at Lucifer.
It seemed he judged that the time it would take for my thrust to reach him was slower than the time it would take for the vortex to hit him, as he stopped in place and braced the spear to block the incoming attack.
ㅡKawaguang!
When the wood roots collided with the vortex, a fierce explosion erupted.
Of course, the practical effect was negligible, and the vortex only slightly blunted the tip of the spear before it dissipated into the air. The blunted tip quickly returned to its original state, so it was indeed ineffective.
“Not attacking, huh? Shall I try that again?”
I said that and fired the vortex again. This time, he chose to evade rather than block it head-on. The rush of mana tore through the air uselessly.
Next. The three-headed vortex flew at him immediately. In the course of dodging, perhaps he had gotten used to it, as he managed to evade this one with far less movement than before. The whirlpool devoured the poor ground beneath.
Still, there was no effect. At least not for now.
“If you’re just going to dodge all day, that’s fine by me. I can keep using this all day, and you’ll die eventually.”
As the blue vortex continued to swirl around the wingless nightmare, he seemed to think he could no longer just dodge, as he kicked off the ground and charged at me.
Even if he maintained distance, if I had a ranged attack that could go further than his spear, that action would seem useless to him.
He had completely misjudged my intentions.
At the moment he charged, I adapted the wingless nightmare’s attribute while rushing toward him in the same manner. A brilliant light of gold and silver spilled forth from my blade.
Finally, after a long time, our distance was finally within reach of the wingless nightmare. Lucifer seemed to be trying to close the distance to about the length of his spear, but I wouldn’t allow that.
Familiar moves came into play. The length of the spear shrank to roughly his height, transitioning from a wide-range sweeping attack to a narrow-range but rapid succession of strikes.
It was the combo pattern I had seen in the game.
‘Jab.’
The first was a classic thrust. Deflecting that, he casually raised the spear as if to repeat the previous jab.
Of course, it was off-beat.
I counted the rhythm in my head, and after deflecting, I swung the wingless nightmare. The tip of the spear collided with the holy light-emitting blade, sending it flying to the side.
As Lucifer’s spear went off to the side, he suddenly retaliated with a shoulder charge. Thud! it sounded as I deflected it and immediately stabbed with my sword. A few wood roots were cut and dropped to the ground.
He didn’t seem to care about that at all, as his leg lifted halfway. It was a foot stomp pattern. Surprisingly, that too was a pattern that could be deflected.
A massive, irregular foot stomped down on the ground. As shockwaves and dust whipped up on all sides, I swung the wingless nightmare at the cloud of dust.
The shockwave and dust brushed past my body as I sidestepped.
It wasn’t over yet. The moment he slammed his left foot down, Lucifer stepped forward with his right foot and swung the spear upwards from below. The spear had flipped upside down, and the spear’s roots sped toward the opposite end at tremendous speed.
With a spear now held upside-down, Lucifer slammed it down hard.
I stepped to the side to dodge. A giant pillar crashed down right next to my shoulder. As the tip of the spear dug into the ground, it rumbled Kuruung.
Instead of pulling the spear out of the ground, he chose to swing his left arm. New roots sprouted madly, causing his left arm to swell several times over.
That swollen left arm swept the nearby ground as if spreading a net. Trying to figure out how to dodge that, I leapt into the air in a classic manner.
While I was in mid-air, the wood roots swept through below, and I landed, slashing at his chest. This time too, the wood roots were chopped off in chunks.
Since there was an animation of wood roots falling when hitting Lucifer in both 1st and 2nd phase in the game, it wasn’t surprising.
Immediately after landing, I raised the wingless nightmare. Light gathered on the blade, and as I swung down vertically, a pillar of light struck down, striking his head.
So it worked here too. The pillar looked like it came down from the sky, but thinking about how that was possible was a waste of time.
It wouldn’t matter anyway. Now wasn’t the time to ponder the why; I just had to accept that it worked.
‘It didn’t amplify again this time.’
As I stabbed the blade into Lucifer’s thigh, who was staggering from being struck in the head, I thought that.
Since Lucifer was indeed a demon, I had some hope, but it seemed the pillar of light wouldn’t amplify like it had when facing Behemoth. It was unclear whether he didn’t help me or just couldn’t help me from hell.
While I was having these thoughts, his abdomen split open and grotesque wood roots wriggled out from within.
His abdomen stretched as if it were a mouth, waiting to bite, and the roots, which had opened up into the air, coiled back to their place.
ㅡI will ask again. Do you wish to follow the true deity?
Then, standing still, it seemed he was about to perform another Niga-wa as I cautiously tensed up when suddenly, his voice echoed.
“Again with that? I told you I had no intention of it.”
ㅡWhy do you refuse salvation? Truly ignorant.
With those words, a gigantic pair of wings made of wood roots spread out from behind him as if to prove that those roots were alive, they kept wriggling incessantly.
Originally, those wings were supposed to emerge in the second phase, but by now, I wasn’t surprised at all.
‘It’s too late to be surprised by that.’
Having seen the demon king from hell worship the creature that devours the world as a god, a phase skip like this wasn’t surprising at all.
Lucifer readied another attack. He held the spear upside down, aimed at me, slightly pulling his shoulder back while raising his wrist near his head, preparing to throw whatever he held.
This pattern was clearly one where he would throw the spear, and it was also the opening pattern for the second phase. The first phase had been completely skipped.
As I was about to cast “Measure as Measure” magic right on time, suddenly,
‘Wait a second. What was that just now?’
A blood-red sky was stained crimson, and a much brighter red pair of eyes flashed by.
