Behemoth – 2

-Wham!

The whip tore through the spot where my body had been just moments ago. A sharp tearing sound echoed throughout the room.

I straightened my posture and observed Behemoth, who hadn’t moved an inch from its spot yet.

‘Its personality is the same.’

Behemoth was a boss who tried to maintain as much distance as possible from the player even in the game. It was said that it was being cautious not to die recklessly, as it had come out into the human world after such a long time.

That’s why it was practically a free kill for clerics who mainly used long-range divine spells. If you just kept your distance and spammed divine spells, it would die on its own.

Conversely, the other classes, forced into close combat, struggled a bit.

The concept of attacking while being thoroughly cautious was faithfully maintained even in Darkra Mode, so there were no patterns like suddenly rushing at the player or sticking close to them.

In other words, if you just kept your distance, you would have plenty of time to observe its patterns.

“Are you going to keep running away like a rat? Do you want to get hit harder?”

Perhaps because I had only maintained distance to observe its patterns so far, a sense of ease was gradually returning to its voice and expression. A playful glint reappeared in its hot pink pupils as it looked at me.

A reddish aura was subtly swirling around the whip in its hand. That was a weapon that caused ‘Bleed,’ one of the status effects in B-Dark 4.

Bleed was a status effect that could be inflicted using a dedicated enchantment, a weapon imbued with bleed properties, or certain magic.

Once inflicted with Bleed, the player would take damage every time they performed various actions such as running, swinging a weapon, or rolling for its 15-second duration.

In other words, if you stood still, there was no damage. Theoretically, if you stood still for 15 seconds, you could end the status effect without taking any damage.

Of course, that was only in theory.

Unless the bleed gauge burst as the last remaining enemy died, enemies would rush at the player, desperate to kill them, so how could one stand still? They’d get beaten to death.

In particular, drinking a potion was also judged as an action and inflicted damage, so if you drank a health potion while bleeding, it would literally show you what it felt like for your blood to gush out.

‘It doesn’t matter to me anyway.’

It’s similar to other status effects. If I get hit by an attack that causes bleed, I’ll just die before the gauge even bursts, so why bother worrying about it?

“Are you scared because I’m holding a whip? Don’t worry, darling! Look at this! It doesn’t look painful, does it?”

Behemoth shortened the whip to the length of its forearm and began to whip its own body. Its chest, buttocks, and thighs were wrapped by the whip, making slapping sounds.

Along with that, there were incredibly lewd moans, “Aahng, ahng.” It was the kind of moaning you’d only hear in adult videos.

The flesh where the whip struck burst open, blood flowed out, but then it healed in the blink of an eye, and new flesh regenerated. It seemed that its own attacks also applied healing.

“What are you doing? You’re not just planning to watch a woman like this, are you?”

As I remained rooted to the spot, Behemoth twisted its body, emphasizing its chest and buttocks.

Surprisingly, facing that violent physique head-on, I felt no lust whatsoever. It was probably because the physique was too exaggerated. They say too much of a good thing is bad, and that old saying wasn’t wrong at all.

If you only considered proportions, it was far more extreme than Nyx, whose torso seemed to hang from her chest, so that said it all.

“I hate men who tease a woman when she’s already heated up!”

Behemoth took action first. Its right hand swung. The black S whip, returned to its original length, flew like an arrow.

I swung the Wingless Nightmare and deflected the whip. As soon as I deflected it, the next attack came immediately. The black whip and the Wingless Nightmare collided, making a sticky sound.

I focused on my arms and shoulders. Since it was a boss that only threw whips from a distance, there were hardly any patterns to speak of if I kept my distance.

That demon also didn’t bother approaching the player, only swinging its whip from afar. So, I just needed to focus on deflecting the whip. It was an easy task.

‘On-beat, off-beat, one beat late, on-beat, on-beat, off-beat, off-beat, off-beat, on-beat, and the last one is also on-beat.’

Of course, this was on the premise that I had memorized all those trashy patterns, which came out as a random mix of on-beats and off-beats, including off-beats that were not half a beat late but a full beat late.

For patterns like that, there was no choice but to get hit and die repeatedly while memorizing the timing. If you didn’t know? You’d get caught by an off-beat fake-out or try to deflect an on-beat like an off-beat, only to be launched into a statue.

“Are you going to keep this up until the end, darling? Huh?”

As I parried all its attacks without even blinking, a fierce light overflowed from Behemoth’s eyes. The whip split into two strands and flew towards me at a slightly slower speed than before.

I raised my guard to reduce combat fatigue, then rolled sideways at the right moment to escape. The whip twisted and coiled in the air.

That was a grab pattern just now. If I had foolishly tried to deflect it, thinking it would be easy because it was a slow attack, I would have been dragged away, my weapon and one arm caught, and my head would have been buried between those breasts.

And my spine would break.

In the game, if you still had HP, you’d get right back up after such an attack, but not here. It was either death or something worse than death.

Taking advantage of the whip’s return, I kicked off the ground and charged forward. As is always the case with such multi-hit patterns, if you deflect or dodge all of them, a very clear damage window opens up.

Behemoth, startled by me suddenly trying to close the distance, raised its whip, but my approach was faster. The Wingless Nightmare, emitting a faint moonlight, sliced through Behemoth’s side.

“Kyaaaaaaaak!”

A piercing scream erupted. Behemoth staggered, disappeared from my sight, and then reappeared by the opposite wall. It was teleportation.

It would have been a headache-inducing skill if used offensively, but fortunately, there were no patterns that used it for attack. Even now, it didn’t seem to intend to use it offensively.

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”

Behemoth, clutching the spot where it had been cut, thrashed about. It then shed a few tears, mumbled something, brought its left hand under its chin, and spat out a mouthful of saliva with a “Bleh-“.

And then it vigorously rubbed its saliva-soaked palm on its side.

“You…!”

“You’re making such a fuss over just a cut? You’re quite the drama queen.”

It wasn’t mockery, but genuine. Compared to that thing’s total HP, a single normal attack’s damage would be nothing, yet it was whimpering as if an arm had fallen off.

Behemoth glared at me with tear-filled eyes.

“Drama queen?”

“The discernment is complete, Inquisitor-nim.”

Stella, having confirmed that her battle nuns had finished ‘heresy discernment’ for every last person under her command, slammed her mace onto the ground with a thud. Red blood, brain matter, and flesh splattered onto the nearby ground.

In front of her, intact living people and corpses with burst heads were lined up in roughly a 2-to-1 ratio.

More precisely, they should be called people whose souls had not yet been seized by demons, rather than simply intact living people. If they earnestly prayed for salvation to the Sun and Moon, at least they wouldn’t be dragged to hell after death.

But for those with burst heads, it was already too late, and thus, clean measures had been taken.

Stella released her hand from the mace, which was smeared with all sorts of liquids and chunks, and turned to look at Selene. Selene was diligently wiggling her arms in front of a tree a little distance away.

“Begin the prayers.”

“Yes, Inquisitor-nim.”

The battle nuns, bowing their heads towards Stella, set down their maces and shields. Thud, thud sounds were heard in succession. From their waists, divine catalysts were simultaneously drawn out.

The battle nuns knelt on the ground, clasped their divine catalysts in their hands, and began to pray. Brilliant golden sunlight emanated, enveloping the dazed, slumped people.

Stella, having confirmed this, approached Selene.

“Were there any results?”

“I obtained the desired information.”

Selene, who had been listening to the murmuring sounds by putting her ear close to its mouth, stood up. In front of her, a large lump of flesh was writhing.

Its skin was completely flayed from head to toe, both eyes gouged out, nose and ears severed, all teeth pulled, gums mashed, mouth torn to its ears, and a significant portion of its entire body’s muscle tissue cut away.

It was a demon worshiper whose body size had been reduced by half compared to when it was first captured.

What was even more surprising was the fact that, despite being in such a state, its consciousness would be perfectly intact. It simply couldn’t express itself properly because all means of expression had been torn away.

“It’s a relief there were results. What did it say?”

“It says Behemoth has been resurrected.”

“…Tsk, perhaps we should have moved a little faster. A demon has been resurrected, should we declare this area a purification zone?”

Stella frowned and looked at the city’s interior.

It was an enormous city. Even with all the battle nuns under the Inquisitor and the Inquisitor-General brought along, it would still be far from enough to blockade the entire place.

She wanted to request support from the Holy Nation, but well. It was uncertain how much help ordinary battle nuns, as opposed to the elite battle nuns under Stella and Selene, would be in a fight against a demon.

Now that that filthy monster was gone, if His Holiness the Pope, who was now free, were to come and provide direct support, that would be another story.

Selene slowly shook her head.

“There won’t be a need for that, Inquisitor. According to what that thing said, it’s highly likely to be an incomplete resurrection.”

“Indeed, that makes sense. If the demon had truly been completely resurrected, there’d be no one left here whose soul hadn’t been seized. In that case, perhaps we’ll be enough?”

Her green eyes turned towards the people lying collapsed within the golden radiance. The fact that so many people remained whose souls hadn’t been seized was tantamount to meaning the demon’s power was incomplete.

“So, would you please go in first and ‘discern’ the people inside, Inquisitor?”

“Of course. And you, Inquisitor-General?”

Selene’s purple eyes pointed to the ‘interrogation tools’ held in the hands of the battle nuns under her command. Stella immediately understood the meaning. It meant she still had business with the demon worshiper.

Now, that thing would be thoroughly tormented down to its last breath, then thrown into hell with only the dregs of its soul remaining.

Stella could boast that she knew very well how to torture humans, but compared to Selene’s techniques, Stella’s were like those of a newborn baby who had just learned to walk.

Indeed, Selene’s heresy interrogation was so cruel and relentless that even the battle nuns under her command were intimidated by it.

“Leave one person here to cast a divine barrier over these people, and the rest of you follow me. We’ll be entering inside.”

Stella, shouldering her mace again, strode into the city through the main gate. All the remaining battle nuns, except for a few, followed her in unison.

“You can group up in threes and discern the people throughout the city. Two will remain, so follow me.”

As the order was given, the battle nuns held their rapiers vertically in front of their faces or thumped their shields with their maces, letting out battle cries. Then, they immediately grouped into threes and headed to various parts of the city.

Only the two who had been following right behind remained, and Stella turned around.

“Now, hurry. We have somewhere else to go.”

“Where will you be going?”

One battle nun asked. Stella replied in a tone that implied it was obvious.

“To the Lord’s mansion here, of course.”