＜ 5. The Strongest Challenger (4) ＞
A helmet made entirely of steel and a breastplate engraved with three lightning patterns. A bright blue light emanated from the eye sockets narrowly pierced in the helmet.
Just watching from a distance made me feel the pressure. A large body of nearly 3 meters made me wonder if the perspective was wrong.
Fortunately, the Guardians hadn’t come yet. Andrea examined the drawn card.
‘Strike, mana amplification, defense.’
Mana boost is preserved and can be used at any time, so it was a very good thing to draw on the first turn. Andrea wrote defense first.
The Guardians finally started to act. He lowered his lower body slightly and leaped into the air at once.
thud!
People who see Guardians for the first time misunderstand that their movements are slow and sluggish when they see their large, heavy-looking body. The average survival time of such people did not exceed one turn.
bang!
The guardian landed right in front of Andrea with a single leap. A lot of cracks went to the stone floor from the enormous impact. Without even time to catch his breath, the guardian swung the giant sword straight away.
Boo-huh!
A heavy sword cutting through the air. Andrea ducked and barely avoided it. A gust of wind blew through my back, sending me a shudder.
‘If this is right, it’ll just be cut in half.’
Andrea hurriedly stepped back. The Guardians did not give them a break. Stretching his upper body forward, he swung his sword once more.
Whoo – Whoops!
Contrary to his large size, his sword-swinging posture was too swift. Andrea could barely read the trajectory of the sword cutting. Intuitive avoidance was the only way to survive.
The blade slammed straight into Andrea in a longitudinal direction.
Kwa-ang!
Rather than a sword, it was more destructive than a mace. The floor was completely crushed to the extent that the soil beneath the tiles could be seen. Andrea, who had avoided it by a single point, felt a cold sweat running down her face.
‘I can’t go far if I avoid it like this.’
It was difficult to even evade, let alone counterattack. It was impossible to fight against.
A red energy enveloped the Guardian. It was a buff that reflected all physical attacks.
‘Odd-numbered turns reflect physical attacks, even-numbered turns reflect magic attacks. But since it’s so thick, it’s questionable whether it can deal damage even on non-reflective turns.’
Andrea first ran toward the throne. The Guardian’s eyes rolled back.
“No one can touch Your Majesty!!!”
The guardian’s roar reverberated throughout the banquet hall. The chandelier hanging from the ceiling was shaking dangerously. If I had been close, I might have passed out.
The Guardian hit the floor again and took off.
Andrea raised one corner of her mouth. He turned back as soon as the Guardian rose into the air.
bang!
The Guardian, who reached in front of the throne at once, turned his head around to find Andrea. However, no matter where she looked, Andrea was nowhere to be seen. When I looked up, I saw Andrea standing in front of the door at a distance.
“Are you cheating on this?”
There were various patterns of guardians, but they all had one prerequisite. Priority is given to the skeleton sitting on the throne no matter what.
Andrea cheated the guardian by piercing it. Now that ignorant leap would be unusable for a while because of the cooldown.
In the meantime, it’s been 2 turns. Andrea draws from the deck in the short amount of time she earned.
The cards drawn are jump, defense, and strike.
‘…but is there a chance of winning this fight?’
Looking at the shabby cards, I suddenly felt an intrinsic sense of skepticism. Andrea thought that in order to clear the 20th floor, she must meet a boss monster that summons a lot of junk.
‘[Unique] Indomitable Will (3 cost): Extinction, increases all stats by 10 for each enemy facing you during this battle.’
In order to overcome the frustrating stat gap, it was necessary to multiply the stats several times with ‘indomitable will’.
However, there was no pattern at all for the guardians to summon miscreants.
‘Then, even if I use indomitable will, the increase in stats is only 10, right?’
The level of the guardian was 35. There was an ordeal and boss monster correction attached to it, so the main stats had to be 50 to fight against. There was no option to increase Andrea’s abilities by about 10.
‘If you break the pattern, you’ll have time to make a short deal. . . . However, there is no doubt about this ability level.’
Taking advantage of Andrea’s troubles, the guardian rushed towards him. The distance between the two narrowed moment by moment.
‘Well, I’ll have to call Marco and do something about it… For now, let’s focus on avoiding attacks until turn 3.’
Andrea turned her back on the Guardians and fled over the wreckage of the broken table. The Guardian swung his sword at the wreckage as if laughing.
Kwajijik!
All the wreckage was smashed and dust flew. In an instant, the road to advance was opened. The guardian approached Andrea, catching the small wreckage with his gauntlet.
Andrea reached a point in the wreckage and stood still. The closer the guardian got, the more pressure came, but he still didn’t move.
‘In turn 3, the location of the item will be revealed in this area. Until then, I have to endure somehow.’
The Guardian broke through all the rubble and came right in front of Andrea’s nose. Blue eyes looking down at Andrea as if looking at a rat. The gauntlet raised the heavy sword high into the sky.
At that moment, it was turn 3.
A beam of light broke through the ceiling. It was right behind where the Guardian was standing. Andrea instinctively got up. The Guardian’s sword struck the floor once again.
Kwa-ang!
“jump!”
After running to the side to avoid the sword, I used the leap. Then, spinning around in the air, he landed behind the guardian.
Andrea put her hands on the floor and barely managed to balance. And hastily dug up the wreckage of the spot where the light was shining.
The figure of a skeleton with two amulets in hand is revealed.
Andrea opened the skeleton’s hand and took the amulet. In the meantime, the guardian twists his upper body and wields a sword. Andrea slid down.
Andrea, who escaped through the gap in the guardian’s leg, immediately attached an amulet to the waist of the armor. And without looking back, he ran over the wreckage.
The Guardian tried to chase it again using Leap. However, the guardian could never reach Andrea.
Kwakwawang!
A series of explosions occurred from Andrea’s amulet.
‘Two talismans of explosion that reveal their location on the 3rd turn. If you attach these to the guardian, they will fall into a stun and get a deal time.’
Darkly scorched iron armor. The Guardian was on one knee and incapacitated. However, Andrea ran toward the throne, not the guardian.
‘However, there is no way to damage the Guardians right now. The reason I used the explosion amulet now is not the guardian…’
As Andrea approached, the skeleton sitting on the throne began to move. The Skeleton King nodded and tapped the armrest of the throne with his finger.
Andrea took out the Polar Dawn and swung it at the skeleton sitting on the throne.
shhh!
‘To block this woman’s pattern.’
The Skeleton King ran away with a single knife.
Players who first meet the Guardians regard the skull on the throne as a mere background object. However, the Skeleton King wakes up on turn 3 and undoubtedly betrays that illusion. Then, it gives various buffs to the guardians and various debuffs to the players.
After being hit with buffs and debuffs at the same time, the tough opponent, the guardian, becomes several times more terrible. Even now, Andrea, who was no match for the guardian, had to defeat the Skeleton King.
However, defeating the Skeleton King did not make it as easy as dealing with the Guardians.
“your majesty!!!”
An enraged roar shook the banquet hall. It was the voice of a guard who had come to his senses.
bang!
The Guardian returned to the throne again with a single leap.
Turn 4 already. Andrea took a step back and drew a card. Finally, Marco’s summon was drawn. However, it was not suitable for immediate use.
The Guardian trudged toward the Skeleton King’s skull on the floor. Blue energy shimmered along his footsteps.
The Guardian held the Skeleton King’s skull with both hands and lifted it as if handling a precious treasure. Then, he placed the skull carefully on the lap of the skeleton sitting on the throne.
“Forgive me for disloyalty, Your Majesty. From now on, I will protect you so that no one can harm Your Majesty.”
After that, the gaze of the guardian sternly looked down at Andrea.
“Dirty traitor, I will stop at nothing to deal with you.”
The guardian threw the giant sword away. It was the signal for the start of phase 2. Andrea prepared to run away.
‘You have to avoid the attack that goes on to phase 2. That’s an instant death if you get hit up close.’
The Guardian firmly clenched both hands.
“God of Thunder, give me the power to slaughter the enemy at once.”
With those words as a signal, pure condensed mana began to gather in both fists. The small sparks from the gauntlet gradually grew into larger spheres. Because of the blue light, the entire banquet hall became as bright as daylight.
Thinking the orb had grown big enough, the Guardian raised a fist.
And he slammed it straight down to the floor.
blah- uh!
Andrea thought that heaven and earth had been reversed. What should be under your feet was on the ceiling, and what should be above your head was on the floor. It took a little longer to realize that the floor had completely turned over and floated upside down.
Rocks that had been the floor just before were flying everywhere. The land from the throne to the gate was split in half. The spot where the Guardian stood sank downward like a meteorite had fallen.
The moment she fell to the floor, Andrea was shocked and couldn’t breathe for a moment. In the meantime, a boulder fell over my head and I had to roll to avoid it.
When her breathing returned and she came to her senses, Andrea hid for a while under a towering rock. He summoned Marco once.
Marco rises above the summoning circle fully armed.
“Yeah, so a monster came out… oh my God.”
Marco was at a loss for words at the scene where the city seemed to be destroyed. Andrea quickly explained the situation.
“The boss monster is the guardian I mentioned earlier. Right now, I touched the trigger and moved on to Phase 2. You haven’t forgotten the original pattern and what happens to the pattern from the second phase, right?”
“what is it. You can’t attack if you have red energy, and you can attack if you have blue energy. After doing this… the guardian moves to the place where the lightning strikes? Am I right?”
“Yes. So we…”
At that moment, a bolt of lightning struck right behind Andrea.
An ominous shadow. Action took precedence over thought.
Marco grabbed Andrea by the hem and threw it aside. Then, he extended the spear in his hand and extended it toward the enemy’s neck.
The Guardian gripped the spear with only his thumb and forefinger on the gauntlet. Then, as if breaking a toothpick, he lightly broke the window sill.
A bright light leaked through the cracks in the helmet. A look with murderous intent that would kill anyone in front of them regardless of who they were.
The Guardian raised a fist. Marco was so overcome with fear that he couldn’t even think of running away. Andrea cried out in horror.
“Mr. Marco!!”
bang!
The Guardian slammed his fist.
When the Guardian raised his fist again, all beneath it was an unrecognizable mush.
＜ 5. The Strongest Challenger (4) ＞ End