Headless Armored Cavalryman – 3

‘This is the right place, isn’t it?’

I felt relieved inside at the fact that the familiar scenery I’d seen countless times in the game had finally appeared. I had wondered if I might have taken a wrong turn along the way, but it was a huge relief that I had found the right place.

I, quite literally, only barely managed to arrive in front of the Headless Armored Cavalryman’s boss field after running for two full nights. In the game, it would have taken only about 10 minutes on horseback.

After running for two straight days, I tied the horse, which somehow looked even livelier than I did after riding it, to a nearby tree, and took out the items needed for the boss battle strategy from the saddle.

‘One, two, three, four, five… Good. They’re all here.’

I confirmed the number and put them into the bag at my waist. These were the core items for the Headless Armored Cavalryman strategy. To ensure they wouldn’t miss, I even practiced throwing with stones of similar weight and size.

The moment one of these missed and I failed to break the gimmick, clearing the Headless Armored Cavalryman could practically be considered impossible.

Of course, it wasn’t physically impossible, and under the precondition that there were absolutely no mistakes, it was somewhat possible to clear if one concentrated for a little over 20 hours.

It was literally just *possible*. That kind of thing wasn’t something a human should do.

ㅡKueeeek!

I confirmed that a monstrous shriek, like a pig being slaughtered, was heard nearby, and drew my blood-stained sword. It was the sound made by the trash mobs loitering around the boss field.

As I continued forward along the path, in the distance, I saw monsters that looked like shriveled, twisted wild boars shrunk down to the size of medium-sized dogs wandering around.

There were a total of 8 trash mobs that needed to be dealt with on the way to the Armored Cavalryman boss battle. They were all of the same type, and true to their name as trash mobs, their patterns were limited to just two: charging in for a body slam and biting.

If one kept their wits about them, it was harder to get hit by their attacks.

I slowly approached, adjusting my distance. And at the point where I had taken six more steps, I stopped. The one closest to me flinched and reacted upon seeing me.

The other ones lined up behind it were busy doing their own thing. Seeing them act like that, even though I was clearly within their visual range, it seemed the game’s recognition system had been applied as is.

‘That’s a good thing for me.’

The exact distance I needed to approach to lure them out one by one was all in my head.

In the combat system of BraDk 4, fighting multiple street trash mobs was much harder than a 1-on-1 against most bosses. Not to mention, in Dark Light Mode, both were fucking hard.

Therefore, aiming for 1-on-1 combat as much as possible was key. One at a time. This was an immutable truth that applied to all BraDk series.

The boar monster that recognized me charged in recklessly. Then, a few steps away from me, it leaped and bared its teeth with its mouth wide open. It was the biting pattern.

I swung my blood-stained sword towards its teeth. With a *thung!* sound, its body was slightly repelled backward. Seizing the opportunity, I quickly thrust my sword into its lower jaw.

Along with the sensation of the blade digging into its shriveled flesh, the tip of the sword, which had pierced through its lower jaw, emerged from the top of its head. Its struggles ceased instantly.

I pulled out the sword, but no liquid flowed out. If it were a game, it would have displayed how much experience I gained on the HUD. Without that, I wondered if I had truly done it right.

Well, seeing as its head was pierced and it wasn’t moving at all, it must be dead. In the game, it died in one normal attack after being repelled.

“Next.”

I took a few more steps forward. Another shriveled boar, which had been some distance away, reacted to my appearance again and came charging with heavy thuds.

If one were to point out the core combat element of the BraDk series, the concept of ‘Combat Fatigue,’ which is practically a second health bar, would be the first thing to mention.

Combat Fatigue is a concept that accumulates in certain amounts when defending attacks, repelling them, taking hits, and rolling, and in a way, managing this Combat Fatigue was far more important than managing health.

If one is hit by an enemy while the Combat Fatigue gauge is full, or fails to properly repel an attack, the gauge resets, and the character falls into a helpless state for 2 seconds.

In the helpless state, the character cannot perform any actions until they recover, and takes 1.5 times all damage. Even in vanilla, if the gauge burst during a boss battle, one had to be prepared for death the moment it happened.

In Darkest Light Mode, not only that, the duration of the helpless state increases to 4 seconds, and the damage amplification received becomes 2 times, not 1.5 times. It was practically telling you to just die.

That was also why repelling was considered important. If one properly repelled an enemy’s attack, the Combat Fatigue gauge would never burst, even if it filled completely, and would remain in its full state.

Of course, enemies also had a Combat Fatigue gauge. Filling it completely was a prerequisite for performing a special attack called ‘parrying’.

And this Headless Armored Cavalryman was the only boss, despite being a monster-type enemy, that one could attempt to parry.

ㅡPrrrrt!

A heavily armored horse, its entire body wrapped in iron plating, snorted at me. The rider mounted on it, who had nothing above their shoulders and was similarly heavily armored in iron plating, spun a spear menacingly.

It was a sight that perfectly explained why this boss was named ‘Headless Armored Cavalryman’.

As if its shoulder height, which looked at least twice that of a normal horse, wasn’t enough, it was also covered head-to-toe in ridiculously thick iron armor, making its presence overwhelmingly intimidating.

Truly, without any exaggeration, it merely ran around, yet the ground vibrated tremendously.

ㅡHeeheeheeheeheeheehing!!!!!!

The horse neighed loudly, rearing its front hooves. This was the start. I gripped my blood-stained sword tightly with both hands. As the distance closed, I heard a *drrr-drrr-drrr* sound, not a cute *dudududu* sound.

‘From left to right, and from right to left, once each. And a downward strike.’

It was a pattern I had already rambled on about in front of the Knight Commanders. I repelled each horizontal swing of the spear, and dodged the downward strike with a roll.

The rider pulled the spear stuck in the ground with their right hand, spun it a few times above their head to shake off the dirt. Then, they swung it widely forward, and rode the horse away into the distance again.

The cavalryman, who had galloped back towards me in a large circle, thrust their spear. As I repelled the attack, a heavy *chaaeng!* sound echoed, and a recoil surged through my entire body.

The very next attack followed. The horse reared its front legs, and the rider prepared to strike the spear down from above their head. Seeing that, I reached for my waist.

‘It’s damage phase.’

The term “damage phase” also meant that the armor-breaking gimmick could be performed. The moment the horse slammed its front hooves onto the ground, the cavalryman brought the spear down with all their might using both hands.

But I had already left that spot with a roll. The spearhead plunged harmlessly into the ground, kicking up dust. Seizing the moment while the rider retrieved the spear, I took out the core item for this boss strategy.

A small bomb that caused an explosion at the point of impact. It was the only item that could break that iron armor.

‘Now!’

Immediately after the cavalryman pulled out the spear, I aimed for the horse’s head and activated the bomb’s fuse before throwing it.

The bomb flew accurately towards the horse’s head, and the moment it touched the armor, it caused a magnificent explosion with colorful flames.

ㅡHeeheeheeheeheeheehing!!!!!!

Startled by the flames and explosion, the horse neighed and leaped. The cavalryman mounted on it swayed. I considered throwing another one, but decided not to be greedy and to play it safe.

In vanilla, if just one landed properly, one could systematically throw the rest, one by one, while it was stunned, and immediately break its armor. However, in Dark Light Mode, the stun duration was too short, requiring extremely precise timing.

‘Let’s not be unnecessarily greedy. Let’s go safe. Safe.’

If the bomb hit the horse’s head five times, just like now, the iron armor wrapped around the horse’s body would break, revealing its bare flesh. From then on, damage would register no matter where one hit it.

In vanilla, there was even a merchant in this nearby field, and one could buy bombs from them infinitely at a cheap price. Lore-wise, that merchant was the inventor of the bombs.

If one talked to that merchant and chose the “Talk” option instead of the “Buy Items” option, they would openly give a hint about this boss battle, saying that these bombs were their invention and that ‘if you hit the weak point multiple times, you can break even the thickest iron armor.’

Of course, breaking iron armor was a gimmick limited to the Headless Armored Cavalryman boss battle. One couldn’t break the armor of other armored enemies no matter how many times they tried.

However, unlike vanilla, where a merchant selling bombs infinitely existed, allowing one to challenge again and again even if they missed a throw, Dark Light Mode had incomparably more malicious conditions.

The merchant didn’t even exist, and the player had to go around the entire nearby field to find bombs one by one. Moreover, there were only five of them in total.

To remove the armor, one had to hit it five times, and the total number of bombs obtainable in this nearby field was also five.

That meant if even one of the five missed, it was game over.

ㅡPrrr-prrr-prrr!

The horse snorted and glared at me with eyes full of anger. Its entire eyes were covered in a red glow, taking on a menacing color.

I scoffed at it, and beckoned with my finger as if to say, “Come at me if you dare.” I didn’t know if that brute would understand this gesture, though.

The Armored Cavalryman charged at me, shaking the ground.