An Empty Life: Darkened Path
[Entry: Hollow Desires]
A black steel halberd as large as my body surged forward in a blinding horizontal slash, cloaked with azure light.
I stepped forward, swinging down my Damascus blade to meet it. The pair of black metal weapons crashed, but my opponent's held the greater force behind the blow, and continued forward, albeit diverted towards my legs.
Barely a second had passed.
I jumped, narrowly avoiding the halberd aimed to take out my legs, and landed in a forward roll, moving past the effective range of the halberd's blade.
This floor's boss chamber was nothing more than a long hallway, with the stairs in the back. The boss, [Percival the Stalwart Knight] towered over me at a fearsome 10 meters in height. Clad entirely in black plate mail, Percival was not an opponent to be trifled with. His form flickered in and out of the dark as the knight skillfully maneuvered its halberd back to a ready position while he stared at me with an impassive visor.
There was no room to go around the knight. Its form left only a meter on either side for me to move, yet the distance and time required to cross it would leave me open to a deadly halberd slash. Thus, the only path left to take was straight ahead.
I rose to my feet, running past the knight, and swung both of my blades at his legs. Simple attacks, but enhanced by [Weapon Master], the two strikes managed to take out a small fraction from Percival's first HP bar.
Despite the damage inflicted, the knight was impassive. Instead of retaliating, Percival merely turned around to face me, who had maneuvered behind the towering knight. Again, he shifted his grip on the halberd, remaining at the ready, yet not attacking.
I took advantage of the knight's inaction to gauge the battle. The first strikes had been given and received by both parties, and neither were worse for wear. I had taken no damage, and that I inflicted on the knight was a negligible amount from its three health bars. It appeared that this fight would be a long one.
As I had that thought, observing Percival's health bars, I noticed a terrifying sight. They were regenerating.
"Battle healing... of course." The knight hadn't bothered avoiding my attacks because the damage would be zeroed by its healing factor. All it had to do was wait until the cool down from its skill reset, then it could attack me with impunity.
A flash of crimson light emerged from the halberd as the knight stepped back, its heavy plate armor clanging with the motion. It appeared that the cool down was over.
I analyzed the stance, cross-examining it with all the other skills I had encountered. From the lowered center of gravity and wide space between his legs, it appeared that the next attack would be one that sent the knight charging towards me. From the grip on the halberd, with the pole arm slanted at an angle, blade pointing towards me, the attack would be a slash, not a thrust.
A fraction after my analysis, the knight moved, its entire body surging towards me at a blinding speed, belying its bulk. Fast, far faster than any player could hope to achieve without a sword skill of their own to counter.
Contact. Despite knowing the type of attack and the direction of attack, it was impossible for me to completely avoid it. A red line appeared across my upper torso, and the cold sensation reaffirmed that the attack had done damage. In the corner of my eyes, I saw my health bar rapidly decrease by a fourth. Despite my chainmail, forged from the rarest metal available by an expert smith, the blow had still done significant damage.
The knight wasn't finished. Immediately after its attack, a giant black gauntlet flashed in front of my field of vision.
I rolled to the left, thanking the copious amount of points I put into dexterity, and lashed out with my Damascus sword to my right, only just parrying the halberd swinging down to reap my life.
Thirty seconds had passed since the start of the fight. The damage I dealt in my first strike had vanished completely, and now it was I who was harmed.
I couldn't fight back against a giant like him. To attack him, I had to be at point blank range. Yet, that required entering the halberd's range, moving past it, then attacking the plated armor body. But even then, I had to accumulate damage faster than the boss's healing factor, which was far more difficult than I had anticipated. Even the damage from a flurry of ten slashes would be healed by the time I had another opportunity to attack.
I leapt backwards, opening the distance between the knight and I. Like before, it stood in a ready stance, staring at me from beneath that impassive visor. Both hands were on its halberd, prepared to send it in a vicious barrage of slashes and thrusts should I step into range. Beyond it, I had to deal with the knight's massive body. All of them were advantages to great to be overcome as I was.
"Indeed, you are a worthy opponent. Truly, you would fell any lesser foe." I raised my Damascus blade in acknowledgement to the steel giant. "However, I am no ordinary player." I tossed the blade in the air.
The ingrained algorithms of the knight's AI caused it to swing its halberd, intercepting the blade before it could strike. A clang of steel echoed throughout the narrow halls as the black steel weapons crashed. My sword was knocked carelessly to the side, landing useless on the obsidian floor.
It served its purpose.
The knight moved forward, recognizing my thrown blade as an attack, and swung its halberd down to counter.
I swung Unmarked blade to meet it, the unadorned long sword gleaming silver in the midst of the darkened hall. Unlike the first exchange, my attack sent the halberd backwards. While the large pole arm remained in the knight's iron clad grip, the force from my blow threw off the knight's balance, causing him to step backwards.
I allowed a smile to cross my face. 'Sealed Sword', the ability I had used once before in the battle against The Sandworm and again now. A sub-skill from 'Cursed Seal' that negated all system enhancements and sealed the ability to use skills. In short, it leveled the playing field to that of pure skill, turning this unfair battle into one that reflected reality. While I had to sacrifice a blade to use the skill, and was unable to equip another while it was active, the advantages far surpassed its drawbacks.
The knight widened its stance, returning to the initial pose for a sword skill. Again, the weapon shone a crimson light.
I charged forward, ignoring the impending sword skill, closing the distance between us.
The knight stepped forward and swung its blade. Yet, unlike the blinding speed he had shown prior, this attack was weak, and unsupported.
Sword skills were magnificent techniques, granting great power to those who used them. Yet, they had a simple draw back: they were system assisted. While the simple ones, like [Horizontal], [Slant], and [Vertical], were effective techniques in reality, ones like [Rage Spike] and the skill the knight had just attempted that catapulted their users to execute an attack were not.
While the theory held true, the range, form, and strength were dependent on the system's assistance... which I had negated.
I took advantage of the knight's momentary confusion, its AI strained to comprehend the impossible outcome that had occurred, and viciously attacked its halberd.
In that moment, while the knight's AI strained to establish a new algorithm of attack to account for its recalculated statistics and restricted abilities, its hold on the halberd was loose.
My attack sent the halberd flying, and the pole arm embedded itself in the stone wall.
The knight let out a roar, then reached for something on his right side.
My eyes widened as I saw a blade that hadn't been there before. It was a massive sword, as wide as I was, and nearly twice my height. Compared to the knight's total size, it was naught but a short sword. Yet, the moment that blade was drawn would mark my end, as it would be impossible for me to close in to attack.
The moment that the knight's hand touched the sword's hilt, I acted. My right hand blurred in a series of movements that I had trained specifically for a situation like this. Windows opened and closed at lightning speed until it reached the skill screen, then the sub-screen that was 'Cursed Seal'. Without a moment to lose, I jabbed at the position of the newest skill I had unlocked.
The knight pulled at its blade... only for it to remain undrawn. In an almost comical scene, the knight continued trying to draw the unyielding sword a few more times.
'Weapon Lock'. A seemingly useless skill that prevented both parties from changing their current equipment. I hadn't considered its usage much since it was unlocked after I ended the lives of those five worthless players, but at the moment I couldn't have been happier for its presence.
My smile widened to a savage grin as I stared at the now harmless knight. "Checkmate."
The knight paused, as if it had heard me, or perhaps realized the futility of its actions. Lowering its hand, it turned back towards me and then lumbered forward in a sloppy charge.
Most would panic when faced with such a sight. 10 meters of solid plate armor, 7 meters across, clattering down a cramped hall with almost no room to maneuver was enough to send even a hardened warrior into a mild panic.
I was no warrior. I was a slayer.
Coolly examining the situation at hand, extrapolating the knight's movements from the position of its limbs and from similar charges I had encountered in the past, I waited for my opportunity.
Three seconds before contact.
I raised my sword and lowered my stance.
Two seconds before contact.
I tensed my back leg and prepared to move at a moment's notice.
One second before contact.
I moved.
The knight lumbered past, the steel titan occupying the entire hall as it moved in its blind charge.
A tiny gap, only wide enough for a single person, appeared between its legs. Without hesitation, I rushed past, slashing at where the tendons would be on a human as I moved.
The knight stumbled, and then a tremendous crash echoed throughout the hallway. It appeared that the knight's AI hadn't outlined a course of action beyond 'charge at the player', and subsequently failed to account for its close proximity to the doors of the boss chamber.
My swords would not be enough to kill the knight. They were meant to attack a foe with light armor, or monsters without armor. These blades were meant to strike unprotected areas, and while I could attack the knight's armor, it would do nothing more than lessen the durability of my blades while inflicting minimal damage.
I heard the knight try to regain its footing, but the massive plate armor it wielded meant that it would be at least a minute before it righted itself.
I needed another weapon. One able to bypass the heavy plate mail that the knight wore, protecting it from my attacks. And what better weapon than the very pole arm the knight had been wielding?
I disabled 'Weapon Lock' as I ran past and unequipped my Unmarked Blade. The moment I reached the halberd, I wrenched it out of the wall and tested its weight. As expected, it was heavy. It was evident that the weapon wasn't meant to be wielded by any person other than one that had invested all his points into 'Strength'. Yet, with my high level, and with [Weapon Master] cutting equipment requirements in half, I could use the massive pole arm with abandon.
I spun around and saw that the knight had managed to rise to a kneel. Ironically, from my position, that meant that its neck was bare, as one would for their execution.
Tightening my hold on the halberd, I mimicked the stance that the knight had taken earlier, accounting for the difference in our stature. While the pole arm was massive, and quite frankly ridiculous for someone like me to use, the system worked for me in this scenario and made the weight nothing more than an ordinary halberd.
I charged, the blade of the halberd trailing behind me like an executioner's axe.
The knight turned its head, reacting to my charge. Yet, in its unbalanced state, it could do nothing more than watch as I approached.
As I stepped into range, I jumped into the air, my over-sized halberd following my movement. Then, I performed a feat that I could likely do only here, in this world where physics were malleable.
I used the speed from my dash and spun, viciously swinging the halberd and using the torque to execute an attack, aimed right at the knight's neck.
A sickening thump echoed through the narrow halls as the attack connected, crimson polygons trailing like blood from where the halberd had slashed. A glance at the knight's health showed that a sizeable chunk had been shaved away, yet not enough to kill it.
The knight, that had been trying to stand back up, was sent back to the ground in a heap from my attack, helpless.
I landed on my feet from my attack, but used my momentum to attack again, another slash to the knight's neck. Again, a chunk of the knight's health vanished, the first bar carved in half by my two attacks.
The knight redoubled its efforts, scrambling to regain its footing.
I came to a halt after my attack and stared at the knight. It was... pathetic almost. To see such a strong foe rendered to the sight before me was a pity. "You have my condolences, Sir Knight." I tightened my grip on the halberd. "Cease your worries, for your shame will not be prolonged any further."
Thirty seconds after those words were said, the knight vanished in a spray of numerous blue polygons. I had said it wouldn't be prolonged, and meant my words. Yet, the knight's troublesome healing factor and armor meant that I had to work to end his life.
I stood alone in that dark hall way and let out a sigh. I had finally done it. I had ended one of those impossible opponents by myself, defeating it in a single fell swoop. "So why is it that I feel no different?"
My words echoed along the long hall way with no answer.
In the center of my vision, the window congratulating me for obtaining the last attack stood. It should have elicited emotions of joy, of satisfaction. Yet, the most I felt when I saw those words was a sense of acknowledgment.
"...I don't understand." I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall. "This was what I wanted. From the very start, this was my goal. Defeat a boss, become known among the players as a powerful player, and then continue onwards, satisfied for accomplishing my goal."
I stood there for a while, contemplating on this strange outcome. Yet, as the minutes turned to hours, I let out a sigh and set out for the next floor, closing the results window without a glance at my rewards.
As my footsteps echoed across the empty halls, I could only wonder.
Had I been wrong about what I desired?
A/N: And the Ninth Floor Boss is killed, disabled by Cursed Seal's crippling abilities. I meant to include the encounter with the front line here, but it seemed a good place to end. Next time, the public's reaction to a floor boss being soloed and an encounter with the Knights of Blood.
Thanks for reading, and if you've anything to say, please leave a review. Until the next.