“Boss!?”
“Isam-san!?”
Seventh Armor and Moth-san instinctively screamed. It was a natural reaction, considering I had just plunged a scythe into my own eye socket. But this was the right thing to do. I wasn’t crazy, nor had I given in to despair.
[Are you insane? Doing that will only cause you damage!]
“That’s right. And I’m fine with that… hmm, it seems not enough.”
I pushed the scythe further in. The disapproving stares of those around me were painful, but I didn’t care. Paying attention to them meant defeat.
When I pulled the scythe out of my eye socket, bits of bone trickled out. The sensation of solid matter falling out of my eye was strange. Such an experience, I thought, could only be had by someone of the same race as me.
“Now, my health is below ten percent…. I owe you my thanks, goddess Earle. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to use this skill.”
[What are you talking about…?]
As I removed the blade from my eye socket, an exceptionally strong light shone from it. I was excited to see just what I could do now!
“Here I go… [Dragon Force] activate.”
◆◇◆◇◆◇
While Isam and his companions were locked in a fierce battle with the White Dynamis, the fight at the city gates was reaching its climax. Surprisingly, it was the humans who held the upper hand.
“G-Gnuuuuuh…! I, I cannot be defeated!”
“To think you can still utter such lines in this situation! Take this. Wild thrusts!”
“Gohaaaaaaa! This…!”
The troll king screamed in agony as he was repeatedly pierced by a spear tipped with the fire element. Normally, his powerful armor, along with his skilled martial arts, would have absorbed most of the damage.
However, his armor was almost completely destroyed, and he had depleted his magic power by using various martial techniques. With no other choice, he had to withstand the attacks with his body, yet in a fit of rage, he swung his great axe at the one who had wounded him.
“Fuh…Hah! Are you already exhausted?”
But his attack was blocked by Kikuno, one of the members of “Holy Fire and Sword” party. She was inferior to the troll king in both basic stats and skills, but the difference in numbers that was on her side was starkly evident here.
This was because the human side was reducing the burden on each individual by alternating between defense and offense. Those who retreated could focus on recovery, while those who advanced could fight on, knowing they could recover later. It was an impromptu team of players and NPCs, but their coordination was excellent; this could also be attributed to the fact that they were each top-class players and NPCs.
“How irritatiiiiing!”
“Oh my, please don’t ignore me. It would be so lonely.”
“Gobuh…! You’re so annoyingly persistent!”
As soon as someone else drew the troll king’s attention—or in other words, earned his aggro—Usuba swiftly slashed at his throat. Since it was a dagger strike, the wound itself wasn’t very deep. However, he precisely targeted vital spots and had coated his weapon with deadly poison, which inflicted great ongoing damage. In fact, in terms of total damage, Usuba might have been the top contributor.
“Here!”.
“Yes!”
“Flame Bind!”
Whenever Usuba drew the troll king’s aggro, the senior knights and Luke’s party’s martial and magical skills would bombard the enemy. Shining swords, sharp spears, and magic spells targeting weak spots steadily whittled down the troll king’s health. Realizing that he was inevitably being worn down and would be defeated, the troll king decided to use his last trump card.
“GOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHH!”
“Whoa!?”
“What?!”
The troll king let out a roar so loud that it felt like it could burst eardrums. Even though the players’ bodies were just avatars, it felt as if the roar resonated from the depths of their stomachs.
However, what was important to those in battle was not the roar itself. The roar came with a physical shockwave, blowing away everyone nearby. While there was no damage from the shockwave itself, the act of forcibly repelling all enemies around it certainly held some meaning. This was a typical move for a boss enemy.
“Huh? I-I can’t move!”
“Not being able to move is bad.”
At the same time, those caught in the shockwave found themselves unable to move. There were no status ailment icons, yet they were immobilized.
“OOOO… OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!”
Even though he now had the perfect opportunity to attack, the troll king did nothing but stand there, looking up at the sky and screaming. However, there was a noticeable change occurring. The troll king’s body was audibly bulging with muscles and swelling with every passing second.
The players and NPCs were unable to move, and they just watched as the boss enemy, the troll king, clearly grew stronger. Those familiar with gaming quickly surmised what was happening.
“Hmm, could this be…”
“A cutscene, maybe?”
In most games, when a boss enemy is cornered or in a specific situation, it’s common for their abilities to be enhanced. Often, this enhancement is accompanied by a cutscene, which was also a frequent feature even in VR games, due to its dramatic impact and clear indication of the enemy’s newfound strength.
And now, the troll king was indeed undergoing such an enhancement. This was the effect of a skill known as [King’s Fury]. The activation condition was when a creature that reached the “King” status used up over ninety percent of both its health and magic power. The effect was a significant increase in all stats until death and nearly a full recovery of magic power.
This dramatic power surge when cornered is exactly why races bearing the “King” title were feared. In the direst of moments, they could unleash a ferocious, life-draining onslaught, potentially turning the tide of battle for a comeback victory. Even in defeat, they aimed to take down as many enemies with them as possible. This was the real reason why the knight commander had said that sacrifices were inevitable.
“Haaa… I shall not lose…! There’s no way I can lose!”
“So that’s his trump card… But using it just proves he’s cornered! Everyone, stay sharp! It’s time for the final push!”
Indeed, the troll king had become stronger, but humanity was not to be outdone. The knight commander, who was leading the elite NPC troops, raised the tip of his sword to the sky in response.
“Goddess, grant us victory! Ultimate technique, Blessing of Grenelle (goddess of war and victory)!”
The knight commander, not to be outdone, finally played his own trump card. It was his most powerful ultimate technique, “Blessing of Grenelle”. The effect was to enhance the stats of both himself and his surrounding allies.
Since the increase in stats was admittedly inferior to that of [King’s Fury], and it didn’t include the restoration of magic power, it seemed at first glance to be a mere inferior version of the monster’s skill. However, the true essence of this ultimate technique lay elsewhere.
“Whoa!? Did our stats just suddenly increase!?”
“The power of our spells has increased!”
Such exclamations could be heard from all parts of the battlefield. The true value of “Blessing of Grenelle” lay in its wide range of application. It affected not only those who were directly fighting the troll king but also others who were not in direct combat with him.
Moreover, the effect would persist even if the knight commander who activated it died until the duration of the effect expired. Therefore, even if they were defeated, the enhanced players and NPC soldiers would likely fight the troll king after they had dealt with most of the other monsters. In other words, this ultimate technique was meant more to lead all allies to victory rather than just the person who used it.
Yet since it was a powerful ultimate technique, it had very strict conditions for use and significant drawbacks after activation. First, the condition was that no other ultimate techniques were in their cooldown period. The drawback after activation was that no other ultimate techniques could be used until the cooldown was over. Simply put, once “Blessing of Grenelle” was activated, the user could not use any other ultimate technique in that battle.
The knight commander had not used any ultimate technique until this point. That’s why he was able to use “Blessing of Grenelle”. However, if he and his troops had been fighting alone, he wouldn’t have been able to conserve it. If it had been just them, the knight commander would have likely opted for a ultimate technique with more direct offensive power to decide the battle. The reason this did not happen was thanks to the efforts of Luke’s party and Usuba
“Let’s go! We are the last shield to protect the people! Fight until the very last moment!”
“Follow the Commander!”
“””Uooooooooh!!!”””
Once the knight commander confirmed that the effect of “Blessing of Grenelle” had spread throughout the human ranks, he led the charge. Several senior knights followed him. Approaching with blinding speed, they soon surrounded the troll king. With their coordination and the effect of “Blessing of Grenelle” they should have been able to cut it down in an instant, like they’d do a ragged cloth.
“Hunnuuaaaaaa!!!”
“Gah!?”
“Commander!? Gwaaaaaa!?”
However, this expectation was based on the troll king, as he had been before. Now that the monster was greatly strengthened by its [King’s Fury] skill, the troll king effortlessly knocked the knight commander and his men away just by swinging its great axe and shield wildly. It was as if the troll was swatting away flies.
“You are all, in the end, merely weaker beings than I! No matter your strength or numbers, you cannot defeat a king like me!”
“Nuuu…!”
Even though they were enhanced by “Blessing of Grenelle” the enemy had undergone a transformation beyond their imagination. The monster was now strong enough to handle the coordinated attacks of the knight commander and his men with sheer brute force.
The blown-away knights grimaced but quickly got back to their feet. They were also strengthened, so they wouldn’t be defeated so easily.
“We have to keep attacking; he recovers too quickly!”
“Understood!”
“Roger that!”
Luke’s party was next to engage. They had discerned during the battle that the troll king’s recovery ability far surpassed that of other Trolls. Their focus was on adhering to the fundamental troll-combat strategy: denying the creature any opportunity to heal.
“It’s useless!”
“I-it’s heavy…! Ugh!”
Kikuno stepped out in front of the troll king’s great axe, but its power was beyond her imagination, and she couldn’t completely deflect it. She was pushed back while maintaining her braced stance. The monster’s power could be easily imagined from the depth of the two trails her feet carved into the cobblestones.
“There you are!”
“Oh, you noticed me.”
Usuba, who had been sneaking up from the right rear of the troll king in sync with Luke’s party, was noticed just before he could attack. The troll king swung its great axe at Usuba, who narrowly avoided it at the last moment.
The troll king’s awareness was not so much a sign of growth in handling surprise attacks but rather the effect of its [King’s Fury] skill. Its ability to have an expanded field of vision despite being enraged indicated that it was a very powerful skill.
“But this moment is all I needed.”
“Guuh!?”
The instant the troll king tried to follow up with a strike from its shield, Usuba threw an item he had hidden at his waist. It was a small spherical object, but right after it was thrown at the face of the troll king, it exploded with a tremendous noise.
This was Usuba’s trump card, a bomb he had rolled up from the explosives he had stolen. The explosives he delivered to Isam and his team were also borrowed from the same place. Usuba, whose main methods of attack were continuous attacks and sustained damage from poison, tended to lack single-strike firepower. Thus, he had prepared this to compensate for that weakness.
“Nuuh, my shield…!”
The troll king, who had reflexively raised its shield, managed to minimize the damage. However, the cost was high. The shield, which had served both as a defense and as a weapon for striking enemies, had finally broken.
“Not yet! I’m not defeated yet…!?”
In a fit of anger, the troll king started shouting what sounded like sore loser remarks, but it couldn’t finish its sentence. The reason was that it had been struck by a black flash of light that had emanated from inside “Illeves”.
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