Chapter 20
#20. Fatal Judgment
The Tower of Trials has a sort of theme or concept for each floor.
If the theme of the first floor was goblins, the main theme of the second floor was wolves.
True to that setup, the master of the second-floor boss room was a werewolf—a wolf walking on two legs.
Honestly, if it had just been a wolf walking on two legs, it would’ve looked kind of ridiculous.
But the werewolf’s long, stretched-out limbs and the dense muscle packed into them were anything but funny.
Muscles that bulged with obvious presence even through the brown fur covering its entire body.
It looked over two meters tall, and the claws extending from both hands were razor-sharp even from a distance.
It was a completely different beast from the screenshot I’d seen on the Open Community strategy tab.
For fuck’s sake, how is that thing a wolf that walks on two legs?
That’s less like a werewolf and more like someone fused a grizzly bear and Dwayne Johnson fifty-fifty, then slapped on a wolf’s head.
I’d heard that the werewolf serving as the second-floor boss would later appear as a common mob on higher floors.
Just thinking about a place where that insane monster shows up as a normal mob makes my head spin.
“Phew.”
I took a short breath and readjusted my grip on my shield and sword. Its vicious appearance made me tense up a little, but there was no need to get intimidated.
In terms of sheer size, the Goblin Lord from the first floor was actually bigger, and that werewolf didn’t even wield a weapon.
Considering the length of my sword, the overall reach should be about the same. Perfect for closing in, fighting, and then opening the distance again.
Unlike the Goblin Lord, it was said to have relatively few mob-summoning patterns, so let’s fight without worrying too much.
-Tap!
I sprinted at full speed toward the center of the boss room, where the werewolf stood.
Thanks to my higher Agility stat, my running speed had long since surpassed human limits.
The distance closed in no time, and the werewolf, noticing me, drew back its arm wide for an attack.
It had pulled its arm back a beat early, predicting I’d enter its range.
Apparently, the werewolf preferred attacking from maximum range, relying on that lightning-fast reaction speed.
Of course, I’d already thought up a strategy to exploit that unique attack pattern.
-Whoosh!
Just before I entered the werewolf’s attack range, I stopped and threw the shield that had been strapped to my arm.
The shield, hurled with force, struck the werewolf squarely in the face just as it was preparing to attack.
-Smack!
The werewolf, hit by the flying shield, stopped its attack and clutched its face.
In that opening, I stepped in even closer and used the attack skill “Brandish” to slash at the werewolf’s leg.
With a slash, foul-smelling blood sprayed out and the werewolf staggered. The cut went deeper than I’d expected.
I pulled my blade back and cast Sword Charge toward the werewolf’s shoulder.
-Thunk!
The charge drove the blade deep. It felt good, but the critical didn’t trigger.
The werewolf’s defense is weaker than expected. Either that, or my attack power is just too strong.
Either way, it’s a welcome miscalculation. To land two huge hits right at the start.
-Grrrr!
The werewolf glared at me, its eyes widening with rage.
“What’re you staring at, you son of a bitch?”
I shot back, then tried to pull out the sword lodged in its shoulder and attack once more.
“Huh.”
The sword wouldn’t come out. The werewolf’s shoulder muscles twitched and held it fast.
Holy shit, the blade was wedged between its muscles and wouldn’t budge. Unbelievable.
-Whoosh!
As if the sword in its shoulder didn’t bother it at all, the werewolf swung its claws at me while I was still flustered.
I was startled and my timing went off. I can’t dodge this.
I raised my shield first to block its claws... ah, shit, I threw the shield earlier.
-Crash!
A skull-rattling impact sent my body flying through the air for a moment.
**
This was only the second time it had happened since the Robo and Blanca fight.
I forgot I’d thrown my shield and got hit when I tried to block.
-Crash!
Hit by the werewolf’s forceful claw strike, I tumbled once in midair and fell to the ground.
The moment I realized I didn’t have my shield, I shifted the position of my arms, which kept the claws from ripping my body apart.
Still, getting hit properly left my vision spinning. And my arm—surely it isn’t broken, right?
“Ugh, my arm, shit, my arm.”
The swear words that popped out of my mouth sounded like a bad ad-lib. At least my tongue is fine.
And my arm still moved more or less fine. It was probably thanks to the defense boost from the Earth Spirit’s Blessing.
-Grrrrr!
The werewolf started charging at me at terrifying speed, as if it meant to deny me even a moment to drink a potion.
It had been walking on two legs just fine a moment ago, but when it ran, it used all fours. Some sort of instinct from its dog-brain?
Of course, that sprint pattern was exactly as described in the strategy guide. I pulled a new sword from my inventory and charged toward it.
-Thump!
Just as the werewolf thrust out its claws and was about to skewer me, I jumped high in place.
Then, gripping the sword in a tight two-handed reverse grip, I drove it hard into the werewolf’s back.
The blow, carrying my full weight and the acceleration of my fall, sank in quite deeply.
-GRAAAAH!
The werewolf screamed and thrashed. But the sword buried in it wouldn’t come out, just like before.
I think I understand now. This werewolf’s muscles weren’t just densely packed; the very quality of the muscle itself was hard.
It was better to think of the blade as being clamped in a press machine than stuck between muscles.
The Open Community strategy guide said its body was tough, so instead of stabbing it, you should deal with slashes and blunt strikes.
If I hadn’t brushed that off thinking my stats were high enough, I probably wouldn’t have gotten hit for nothing.
“Hup.”
Rather than forcing the sword out, I pulled away from the werewolf and created distance.
I’d left two weapons stuck in the werewolf, but I had more than enough spares.
For some reason, this felt like it was unfolding similarly to the first-floor boss battle, but it didn’t matter.
If it went like it did back then, I’d end up winning anyway.
**
The werewolf’s claw attacks couldn’t easily break through my defense, but my sword could easily pierce its defense.
On top of that, I already knew most of the werewolf’s attack patterns.
At this rate, my victory seemed assured. There was only one variable.
-Awooooooo!!
With two swords stuck in its body, the werewolf let out a deafening howl.
Then two kobolds riding wolves emerged from the dark corners of the boss room.
The elite monsters summoned by the werewolf—the Kobold Riders—were the main trash mobs in this boss fight.
But why are they called Kobold Riders? If they’re riding wolves, shouldn’t they be Wolf Riders?
No, if that naming convention held, a human riding a dragon would be a Human Rider.
No, that’s not important right now.
Unlike goblins, whose weapons were completely random, the Kobold Riders were all armed with halberds.
It was a weapon basically like a spear fused with an axe, able to attack with both thrusts and slashes, and with long reach to boot.
If they built up speed with the wolf’s quick movement and swung it, it would pack a serious punch, but against me? Not so much.
-Tap-tap-tap!
The summoned Kobold Riders charged in at high speed. I immediately raised my shield.
-Whoosh!
I dodged the halberd swung at my head, then blocked the follow-up thrust with my shield.
-Clang.
The weight of the strike was much lighter than expected. At this level, I could probably just ignore it.
After slipping past the two Kobold Riders, I charged toward the werewolf, which was baring its claws and growling.
The Kobold Riders were fast and had strong charge attacks, but if you let one attack slip by, the delay before the next one was long.
Then all I had to do was trust my speed, shake them off, and focus on the boss werewolf.
As I charged in, the werewolf swung its claws wide, as if trying to drive me off.
-Krrrk!
Since I’d prepared properly and met it head-on, my shield got scratched, but blocking itself was easy.
I used Sword Charge again for a thrust attack, and this time I managed to drive the blade into the werewolf’s thigh.
I left the hard-to-remove sword there and switched equipment instead. At the same time, I stepped on the sword I’d driven in and jumped into the air.
I spun using the sword lodged in its shoulder as a pivot, and latched onto the werewolf’s back once more.
Then I pulled out the [Hawk Dagger], which had been useful in the first-floor boss fight, and stabbed away at its back.
-Stab stab stab stab stab stab stab!
Because a dagger is short, even if you stab it in, it doesn’t get trapped in the muscles easily, so it’s easy to pull out.
Thanks to that, once you get an opening, you can land repeated hits with ease.
Grabbing its back and attacking with daggers seemed to have become my main tactic; maybe I should get Dagger Mastery later.
-Kyaaaagh!
Hearing the werewolf’s un-wolf-like scream, one of the Kobold Riders came charging in from afar.
“Ah, a little fast.”
I kicked off the werewolf’s back and landed on the ground, then sprinted again toward the Kobold Rider charging at me with its halberd thrust out.
I adjusted my height with the jump to dodge the halberd thrust, then countered by driving my knee into the kobold’s face.
-Crunch!
With a watermelon-splitting sound and a burst of red effect, the critical hit smashed the kobold’s face to pieces.
But looking at the result, that counter knee strike was a mistake.
Because I’d jumped for the knee strike, I couldn’t properly evade the attack of the other Kobold Rider rushing in behind it.
-Slash!
My thigh was lightly cut. Thanks to my high defense, it wasn’t a serious wound, but it was still a needless loss.
“Ugh, shit—...”
Being slashed in midair made my landing pretty awkward. At that moment, the werewolf, with my attacks ripping up its back, charged at me again.
The timing was a little bad, but I already had the pattern memorized. I predicted the follow-up claw attack and raised my shield.
But something about the werewolf’s condition, seen for just a moment, looked wrong.
Its eyes glowed with a fierce red light, and its muscles swelled even larger.
“Shit—”
And what was coming at me wasn’t claws, but a wolf’s maw gaping wide.
-Crunch!
The berserk werewolf bit down hard on my shoulder and chest.