157 – Unexpected Identity – 2
‘No, what the hell is that… … .’
As if the doll’s eyes had been forcibly removed and then ignorantly enlarged and glued together, inorganic yet round eyes turned to me. I felt my hair stand on end.
He hesitated and took a step back. I had never even thought for fun that I would encounter such nonsense, so the shock I received was even greater.
I wouldn’t have been so surprised if there had been a predictable clue, if there had been at least some room for noticing that this absurd mod had been applied.
But it wasn’t, and it was entirely up to me to deal with the shock.
ㅡCheei Iik… … .
Its blue-steel body began to move slowly, making the characteristic steaming sound of a steam engine.
Even the fact that the long chimney above the head gushes out thick gray smoke as the train moves has been proven. When I was standing still, there was no smoke coming out.
A steam locomotive with round, inorganic eyes, the exact opposite of such a mouth and a mouth smiling brightly that did not suit the terrifying appearance at all, rushed at me.
The rolling wheels collided with the ground and shattered with a squeaking sound. Even though there were obviously no railroad tracks, its wheels were just rolling on the bare ground.
It wasn’t the head that was shocked, but the body reacted first. As I’ve been doing in the game, I rolled diagonally to the left and got out of the line. Immediately, I felt a cool breeze near my body.
ㅡQuaaang!
The head of the train collided with the wall. It felt like the whole boss room was shaking. It’s not true now, but even a cargo hold full of coal was hanging from his back.
Even though my body twisted around because of hitting the wall with electric power, I couldn’t even see the slightest movement of the coal in the cargo compartment. If that was really coal, it would have had to be poured out a long time ago.
“… … Ha, really. It’s ridiculous.”
I wanted to spit out swearing coolly, but I held it back. I thought I would get more excited if I cursed for no reason, and it was from the thought that if I got more excited, I might not be able to avoid anything.
Whoa, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. While I tried to calm myself down, the blue train that had crashed into the wall slowly turned around.
The face was intact, with no blemishes.
‘Will the pattern come out perfectly?’
It was the first thought that came to my mind as I aimed horizontally at the wingless nightmare.
The charge pattern I just used is so big, and the start deal is on the long side, so my body reflexively dodges it, but what about the rest?
In particular, he didn’t have anything to call a lower jaw, so he might have to predict it one beat faster by watching his body flinch when a biting pattern came out using it.
You’ll only be able to figure out what kind of attack it is right before you get hit, so if you react after seeing the motion, you’ll always be late.
While I was hesitant as my thoughts were compounded, the blue locomotive with its grinning, horrified face completely turned towards me approached again with a chirping noise.
I watched the guy’s actions nervously. If I’m not good enough to recognize patterns, I’m a sucker for experience and I might have to bring in Nix and have him beat me.
It’s like asking for help after saying you can catch it by yourself, so you don’t live up to the form and the subjugation experience is a waste, but whatever it is, it’s less wasteful than your life.
ㅡ Tung! Tung!
Suddenly, I heard the sound of the lights going out.
I was looking around nervously because I wanted something, but the headlight near the corner of his mouth turned on.
In other words, the light was shining from the bottom of his face upward. Thanks to this, the face that was already full of displeasure changed into a more reluctant and creepy look.
‘If only… … .’
I know. That character is famous for his face that causes unpleasant valleys when he grows up, and the fact that mods that change certain enemies into that look are also actively produced in many games.
However, seeing it over the monitor and seeing it in person was on a different level.
No matter how much the rock centipede is a deteriorated version of the rock centipede, the size of a high-rise apartment is only reduced to the size of a train. And trains are too big to even compare to humans.
In other words, a blue steam locomotive with a face several times the size of a human being was running towards itself with all its might, with headlights shining from bottom to top.
It was a visual that seemed like it would work well enough for a horror game if you just changed the BGM.
‘… … Let’s stay calm.’
Yeah, maybe it’s fortunate that the rock centipede turned into that guy.
The rock centipede and the blue steam locomotive both look wide and long. They look pretty similar, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to infer the pattern.
Changed a wingless nightmare into a magical property. A soft blue light emanated from the blade. Befitting its reputation as a degraded version of the rock centipede, it has a very strong resistance to physical damage.
It is usually recommended to apply an elemental enchantment and defeat it, or use magic or divine spells to catch it, but it was not necessary as long as there was a nightmare that lost wings.
It’s because you can inflict 100% pure magic damage very simply by changing the weapon’s properties.
The blue train rushes again. It was a rush pattern. In the first pattern, I panicked and couldn’t react properly, but this time is different. It quickly rolled diagonally out of the way.
‘Because the distance is a bit short, I won’t be able to approach it.’
As I expected, it came to a narrow stop right in front of the wall without hitting its head. If you induce the rock centipede to crash into the wall, there is a fairly long delay time, but it was a waste to miss both times.
‘It can’t be helped.’
As standard as possible, I was going to use a method of inducing and catching only the rushing pattern. If you roll or bounce the other patterns properly, the deal time will come out enough, but it’s too dangerous right now.
Since the appearance has changed, it is impossible to predict how it will come out with only preliminary movements, and it is unclear how far the range of the deflection or collision judgment will be.
It was a no-brainer to take an adventure.
As if it bothered him that he had twice missed a human much smaller than himself, his pupils twitched.
each in the opposite direction.
The right eye turned clockwise and the left eye turned counterclockwise, and the headlights turned on near the corner of the mouth became more intense. It was a truly bizarre sight.
The blue locomotive runs again. However, this time it wasn’t as fast as before. If it felt like they were running just a moment ago, this time it was more like just approaching them.
I roughly guessed what was going to happen. I grabbed the wingless nightmare and lowered my body slightly, preparing to deflect it. A blue locomotive approached right in front of me and poked its head.
At that moment, the headlights that were shining on my head came out and flew in a parabola from both sides. After being dazed for a moment, I saw the trajectory and came up with a similar pattern.
As the headlights were about to cross in the middle, I swung a nightmare that had lost its wings. His head froze for a moment, accompanied by the characteristic light sound of deflecting.
Taking advantage of the moment he hesitated, he swung a knife at his head. A blade that glowed blue grappled near his mouth. A clash between iron and iron! I heard the sound several times.
As if the fact that I had hit him made me feel even more irritated, he sped up and charged me. The smoke billowing from the chimney overhead grew thicker.
Let’s dodge it by rolling it sideways, bang! With a sound, his face slammed hard into the boss room wall.
The guy took advantage of the gap in the stiffness and ran to the back. I hesitated for a moment to see if it was okay to hit it at the visual of the coal-loaded cargo compartment, then I said, “I don’t know,” and swung the knife.
The blue sword blade struck down from the top right to the bottom left left a slight scratch on the equally blue locomotive.
After adding 5 more scratches, I widened the distance. Even after hitting the wall 3 times, the shiny face finally turned to me. It was even more bizarre because of the corner of his mouth that was still smiling.
‘Maybe it’s worth doing more than I thought. I just need to keep my distance.’
Maybe it was because he was so big, but even though his appearance changed to that of a low-key figure, the pattern of each movement was clearly visible. If it goes on like this, it would be okay not to call Nix—
ㅡPaaang!
In an instant, a horn rang in the boss room. It was so loud that I reflexively covered my ears. I hurriedly tried to straighten my posture, but after seeing his behavior, I froze in place.
His eyebrows lifted diagonally as if he was angry, and the corners of his mouth slowly lowered into an expressionless face. The eyelids sunk more inward.
ㅡKudduk! Kwadeuk!
And, the wheels started to grow legs.
It was a centipede’s leg.
The ends of his legs, shaped like sharp blades, slammed down on the floor to support his body. The joint in the middle of the leg was bent at a right angle, and the wheel was lifted into the air.
His appearance, which had been shaped like a steam locomotive, changed to that of a centipede’s upper, and the corners of his mouth, which had always been smiling, went down horizontally. After that, dozens of pairs of legs lined up.
The blue steam locomotive, twisting from train-shaped centipede to centipede-shaped train, was looking down at me expressionlessly, with lights under its face turned on.
“… … I will be thrilled, really.”