The stone wall crumbled down like styrofoam, and a grotesque giant monster emerged from within. With each step it took, the entire corridor trembled with thud-thud.

As I stood there witnessing it firsthand, the overwhelming intimidation emanating from its hideous appearance was immense. It was much larger than me and wielded a massive club, adding to its daunting presence.

The monster smashed through the wall, thud-thud, and upon spotting me, let out another roar.

— GROOOAAAR!!

The roar echoed loudly, making my ears ring. It was even more intense than when I unknowingly cranked the volume to max while blasting music through headphones.

If I wanted to escape, I could just turn around and sprint without a second thought. The impact and shock of its appearance were staggering, but if I just knew how to press the Shift key properly, running away wouldn’t be too difficult.

However, I had to take that thing down.

No matter how I thought about it, I felt like I’d hit a wall in the early game without a Blood-Stained Sword. Plus, defeating the Human Butcher in our first encounter was crucial for the upcoming events, given my current situation.

I held the steel sword the mid-boss had been using in my right hand and faced the Human Butcher head-on.

In the game, the mid-boss wouldn’t drop its weapon upon death and would just vanish, so picking up and using the sword it carried wasn’t an option.

But not here.

Assuming this was indeed the exact same steel sword from the game, I could probably slay it in about 20 minutes. Even considering the health boost in Darkest Light Mod.

Evasion isn’t necessary, I can’t use parrying yet, so it’s just parrying and rolling.

I thought through the strategies I could employ.

When wielding heavy weapons, parrying was impossible, and I had to rely solely on rolling to evade attacks, but now that I had a one-handed sword, I could use both parrying and rolling. That was more than enough.

First move has to be a charge.

I got into position. The Human Butcher charged at me with loud thud-thud and a furious roar. Given its bulky frame, it looked less like running and more like waddling towards me.

The boulder wall it collided with shattered to pieces. I slowly retreated to keep my distance. I needed enough space to roll aside to evade its attack.

I waited for it to get close, then launched myself to the right just before I would collide with its body. My body rolled perfectly on the ground, while the giant foot stomped down on the empty air.

Having cleanly evaded its charge, I quickly got up and started sprinting in the opposite direction.

As I disappeared from its sight, the Human Butcher, who seemed confused, turned towards me upon hearing my footfalls. The moment it spotted me fleeing, it let out a furious roar.

Ignoring the roar, I dashed through the hole created by the crumbling wall. A bright light flooded in from somewhere nearby.

Without hesitation, I ran towards the light. The monster was busy chasing me, smashing through the prison walls as it closed in.

But I was faster. As I escaped through the hole, a vast empty space unfolded beneath me. I leaped into that space.

I could just run away like this, but…

I glanced at the huge main gate of the prison located on the exact opposite side from me. That was the only exit from the prison. The reason it was the only exit was that the other three sides were all cliffs.

Even if I tried to escape by running away from the Human Butcher instead of heading out through the corridor, as long as I hadn’t exited yet, I could fight that thing anytime.

I simply skipped all that intermediate process.

This wasn’t some user-discovered trick, but rather a situation intended by the developers of Brightest Darkness 4. It was designed so that you could return to where you first encountered the Human Butcher and escape.

Boom! With a sound like an explosion, the human butcher landed in the empty space right after me. The ground it landed on couldn’t take the weight and caved in. The surrounding earth cracked apart.

It let out a rough snarl, clearly frustrated that its prey was dodging around. Its crooked teeth clashed loudly together.

Now, it begins. I raised my steel sword.

Rolling to the left, I swung the sword at its midsection. The tip pierced through its belly, adding one more faint cut. Black blood dripped from the long wound.

— GRAAAAH!

I quickly dodged back to avoid the thrashing tail swinging wildly. In that instant, it swung its right arm, swiping at the very spot I had just occupied.

Even an attack that looked as clumsy as that would mean instant death if it grazed me.

The Human Butcher raised the massive club in its right hand above its head. It advanced forward, slamming down the club in a patterned attack. Seeing that, I gripped my sword tighter.

That’s a pattern I could parry. It was as if my body instinctively knew how to maneuver a parry instead of just using my head.

I angled the sword slightly, supporting my right wrist with my left hand. Even though I had never trained in swordsmanship, my body reacted and moved on its own.

THUD! The blade managed to block the massive club, which was thicker than a person’s arm.

To be precise, it parried the attack. The trajectory of the enormous wooden club bent sideways, slicing through the air.

I can manage this.

My palm stung from the impact, but it was bearable. Considering my stats were all 1, I’d be able to parry with much more ease later on.

It feels like the game. I don’t need to think deeply; if I just swing at the right timing, my body naturally parries the attack.

In the game, player characters could parry virtually any attack with just a single sword. They could even parry powerful downward strikes from golems far larger than a castle.

Seeing me parry the wooden club much larger than my own size, it seemed I wasn’t any different now.

The attacks continued from there. Though the gap in power between us couldn’t be closed, I didn’t lose my posture despite my legs being forced backward.

I parried the club with my sword, then once more, then again, repeating that several times.

When the exchange reached exactly ten rounds, the Human Butcher momentarily staggered. Seeing that its pattern had finished, I dove in and swung my sword once more, adding another wound to its abdomen.

Having been toyed with by a human several times smaller than it for over ten minutes, it tilted its body to the right, lifting its left leg.

That meant a foot stomp pattern. I took the chance to back off a bit and catch my breath.

Thud! The Human Butcher slammed its foot onto the ground, sending a shockwave that kicked up clouds of dust. In the game, you’d die instantly from merely grazing that dust cloud, but now, who knew?

I have no intention of testing that.

Pulling its foot deeply embedded in the ground, it raised its weapon again. A three-hit combo pattern was coming.

Rolling to dodge the horizontally swinging weapon, I moved inward again. Regardless of whether I darted in or not, the Human Butcher continued to swing its weapon like in the game.

Its abdomen was already smeared with long cuts and flowing black blood.

This kind of scar never appeared in the game.

I entertained such frivolous thoughts while adding a couple more small wounds before creating distance again.

Had it not been for the foot stomp, I could have easily danced around it until it died, but that very pattern was added to counteract that, so I had to keep my distance.

After that, the situation continued to unfold in one-sided favor. Repeated downward strikes, three consecutive horizontal swings, foot stomps, body presses, charges. I pounded the Human Butcher without even getting grazed.

It furiously swung its club, filled with annoyance and rage, but it only sliced through the air.

As it accumulated more and more wounds, the ground around it also began to stain darker with its blood.

It should be about time for the final pattern to appear.

I internally estimated how much time had passed. It was about time for its health to run out and for it to transition into its desperate patterns. Without a health bar visible, things felt quite inconvenient.

Having successfully completed a no-damage run against all bosses even while applying Darkest Light mode and filmed it, I roughly memorized the clear time. The Human Butcher should be around 20 minutes.

It had taken over 2 hours to beat it with bare hands, but with just a shabby wooden club, the clear time had dropped to around 30 minutes.

But now, with the steel sword in hand, I thought I wouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes, even considering my stats were all 1. Hadn’t enough time already flowed by?

While I was busy sorting through my complicated thoughts, it suddenly stopped all movements and trembled.

Got it.

I cheered internally. That was a signal that I had essentially cleared the Human Butcher.