Chapter 66 – Floor 10. Reunion

It was indeed an obvious thing to say, but this was truly the behavior pattern that could be called the headless ogre’s pattern.

It examines the direction its severed head is looking for 1-2 turns, then delivers a powerful charge or area combo attack, then turns its body again and searches for the target for 1-2 turns.

Naturally, players end up fighting by avoiding the unnecessarily powerful attacks of this creature as much as possible and forcing in attacks during the 1-2 turns when it’s designating a new target.

The simplest and most efficient strategy.

Of course, it might not be exactly the same as D.D., so there could be some differences, but the general framework should be the same.

I decided to face it using the same method.

『Headless Ogre』Level: 20★

Health(B): 444/444 ■■■■■■■■■■

Health(H): 222/222 ■■■■■■■■■■

【One who committed a sin rejected by all. Even in death, he did not earn the right to rest.】

‘How could anyone possibly fight something like that head-on.’

While its health itself couldn’t be called transcendental, the headless ogre had overwhelming effective health with its Body and Head Health separated, and its attack power was certainly not to be ignored.

According to data accumulated over 3,000 hours of challenges, roughly one attack would take half the health of a melee character wearing full plate armor.

Even though it was said to specialize in status effects, compared to Alraune, the mini-boss that appeared just before, its attack power was an absurdly unreasonable value.

“Never get hit by its attacks. You might end up as lizard stew if you do.”

“What’s stew, human?”

“Uh… anyway, it’s this thing.”

The headless ogre’s first attack was a mindless charge.

Most would avoid it without excessive dodging, but with something like a 25-ton truck coming at you, your body tends to freeze up.

Swoosh!

But I kicked off the ground and rolled sideways. As my vision rotated in a circle, I felt the massive vibration shaking the ground brush past me, and with a BOOM─! sound like a bomb exploding, sharp wooden fragments hit my armor and bounced off.

Crash─

After completely pulverizing a tree and becoming covered in its dust and fragments, the ogre raised its body again and slowly turned.

This was precisely the timing to attack.

Naturally, a magicker or ranger who could attack safely from a distance had a much greater advantage than a melee fighter who had to get close to attack.

“Severa!”

“You only call me when you need something…”

Severa, who looked even more witch-like with an elegant black silk pointed hat that matched Asribe’s Dress, pointed her staff with a red jewel embedded in it at the headless ogre.

That hat was Asribe’s Hat, obtained from the Composite Being’s silver chest.

As paired items, it had the effect of enhancing the ‘weak’ magic additionally cast by the dress’s effect into ‘normal’ magic, increasing its power.

Her defense was still 0, making her as fragile as paper, but for Severa with her Health of 1, there was no more suitable equipment.

Flare─

A pearl of flame rising from the red jewel. And a ring of red flame surrounding it.

As it gradually increased in size, reaching its peak─

BOOM─!! BOOM─!!

The fireball hit the headless ogre’s rotting body, followed by Asribe’s fireball, making a huge explosion that blasted through the creature’s body.

The rotten flesh sizzled, and the foul smell of burning hair, of which little remained, wafted through the air.

“I don’t feel good… urgh..!”

“Don’t grab me! Why are you facing me! Swallow it right now! I said swallow it!”

Fortunately, with my transcendental willpower, I was able to send the luxurious meal rising from my stomach back down, avoiding showing Severa what I had eaten for breakfast.

Crackle- Crackle-

Separate from the foul odor it was emitting, the headless ogre turned around slowly and extended its head as if having no problem moving despite being on fire.

The trembling pupils gradually calmed as they captured me and Severa within them.

“Hmm… hard to approach.”

“Then use this. Do you know how to use a bow?”

The spirit composite bow. Blue Tongue, who received it, nodded, lightly pulled the bowstring, and then slowly released it.

“A Great Warrior must know how to use any weapon that comes to hand.”

“How elite.”

In fact, considering that Albert is also like this, it might be a basic qualification for those who are considered good fighters around here.

Crack─

The headless ogre placed its head on its burning neck stump. As if doing so would make it reattach.

At this unfamiliar behavior, I warily raised my greatsword like a shield to cover my body.

“What is it doing…”

“SSSUU─────”

The sound of inhaling. The sound of air filling shrunken lungs.

At that breath, meaningless for one who is dead, I deeply furrowed my brow and gradually backed away to increase the distance.

Blue Tongue seemed to feel the same way, stringing an arrow to the bow, lowering her body, and preparing to jump.

The headless ogre’s chest swelled. Like a fish’s air bladder that I had dissected in science class long ago, the ogre’s chest inflated like a balloon.

Feeling an inexplicable anxiety at its chest, which had grown almost twice as large, about to burst─

“GR-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA────!!!!”

A storm. Not a flow of air, but a storm of concussive sound created solely by the vibration of sound, resonating throughout the 10th and 9th floors simultaneously, rampaging to destroy everything.

“AAAAH!!!”

Covering my ears with my palms, a scream involuntarily escaped my mouth, as if doing so could negate the battle cry, which was like a scream, that the creature was emitting.

And at that moment, I could understand why the ogre had done this.

The flames clinging to its body were being scattered by the storm of sound. Barely flickering low on the ground, they gradually diminished in size and eventually extinguished completely, leaving only a handful of smoke.

I couldn’t help but grimace at this bizarre act of extinguishing a big fire just by shouting.

EEEEEEEEEE────

A prolonged ringing in my ears.

Fortunately, since it was a physical attack, Severa was grimacing as well but avoided taking damage. However, Blue Tongue was lying face down on the ground, unable to regain her senses, seemingly in pain.

I clicked my tongue while tapping my muffled ears, feeling an illusion of blood trickling from them.

“Tsk.”

While fire is indeed effective against undead-type enemies like it, for a creature of its caliber, a burn wouldn’t be a significant damage, yet it performed such a bizarre act to extinguish it.

I couldn’t contain my anger at this mediocrity.

A ‘strong one’ should know that it’s despicable to train even more. The headless ogre was a despicable creature like a lion that keeps training!

The headless ogre’s massive knife plunged down toward me.

***

CLANG─!!!

Sparks fly as metal and metal roughly collide.

The duel between these metals was a draw as neither broke, but there was a winner and loser in the contest of strength between their owners.

“Argh!”

With an overwhelming difference in strength, the White-Winged Bird Greatsword fell to the ground, and the arm holding it trembled like an aspen leaf.

The headless ogre’s strength, which was at least over 25, was like doing deadlifts with a hydraulic press to increase my strength three times over—an impossible feat for a mere human like me.

Quickly twisting my waist, I rotated the greatsword, escaping the trajectory and freeing myself from the power struggle.

BOOM!!

“This fuck..! It feels like my waist and joints are all ruined…”

After just one block, I felt like chunks of my physical lifespan had been shaved off, looking up at the ogre with jaded eyes.

The ogre pulled its Chinese cleaver, which had been thrust into the ground after the deflected attack, with force.

『Half-Moon Slash』-『Full Moon Slash』

『Fireball』-『Asribe’s Fireball』

An elegant sword trajectory and overwhelming firepower bombardment.

In that instant of blocking a single attack, past heroes poured all their might to chip away at the monster.

Tilt─ RUMBLE!

That seemed to be clearly effective, as one of the ogre’s knees hit the ground.

“Ha… here I go..!”

Wind magic filled the blade of the White-Winged Bird Greatsword, and a storm raged.

I gripped the handle firmly, pulling it with my body and spinning to increase the distance of rotation, maximizing the centrifugal force.

Twisting my waist and stretching my shoulder muscles to their limit, I took a stance for a single technique.

『Slash』

I stepped forward with my back foot and rotated.

As the greatsword drew a large trajectory and the sound of feathers scattering was heard, the wrapped wind was released to fly freely, creating a long wound from the ogre’s waist to its shoulder blade, causing decayed fat and gas to burst out.

Enduring the nauseating stench, I pulled my arm again to change the direction of the centrifugal force, raising the sword high to strike down once more.

If I brought it down now─

Thud-

“Huh.”

A sensation as if time had stopped. An intense pain felt in my chest.

As my gaze naturally lowered, I saw the flat side of the crude knife in the ogre’s hand.

“Shin Yuhyun!”

Despite Severa’s urgent cry, the strength left my hand holding the greatsword, and I felt my body rising. As my vision gradually elevated, the dropped greatsword slowly falling to the ground grew distant.

CRASH─────

[You have taken 98 damage.]

***

‘How much time has passed?’

“Kuluck! Kelock! Ke, kehack!”

As I opened my mouth to speak, I choked and continuously coughed with a thick fishy taste bubbling up.

And with each cough, my ribs felt like they were being crushed, and my face inevitably contorted in pain.

I placed my hand on my chest, continuously spitting blood from my mouth, and raised my body to assess the situation.

“…”

I was left speechless at the sight.

Straight lines of broken trees formed a path, and the trees that were still somewhat intact were generously covered with blood, as if I had splattered paint, seemingly from me.

Moreover, the breastplate I had been wearing was completely torn and unusable.

How many meters had I flown? It looked like at least 50 meters.

‘How am I still alive?’

Of course, my condition was serious, but surviving this was nothing short of a miracle.

GROOOWL─!

The sound of a lion’s roar heard from far away. It was the sound of a skill attached to the Lion Knight Armor.

In orthodox play, it’s a skill with more demerits than benefits, as it draws the attention of all enemies within a certain range to oneself.

Of course, it wasn’t just a skill full of penalties; it applied corrections to damage received for a certain time, so builds that were solid and heavy occasionally used it.

But now, it seemed Kali had used it to draw the ogre’s attention.

‘Ah… can I move?’

Clenching and unclenching my hand repeatedly showed that there was no hindrance to movement itself. If only it weren’t for the pain of flesh tearing and internal organs being stabbed with every intense movement.

“KUHAAK, AAAAH..! S-SHIT!!!”

It was pain that automatically drew out curses.

After taking one step, sweat poured like rain, and after just ten steps, I felt like I was about to collapse as if climbing Mount Everest.

“Kuk..!”

As obvious as it sounds, 99% evasion is not 100%. It means that while the probability is low, it’s not absolute.

That low probability often creates despair.

The ogre’s knife struck Severa, and the ghostly witch scattered immediately.

“..!”

Even if damage is reduced, if you take that much more in attacks, the accumulated damage and burden become much greater than before.

Though she tried her best with an enduring power struggle, the overwhelming difference in specs was unavoidable.

The ogre’s massive body crushed Kali, and the blindfolded swordswoman fell.

By the time I staggered back to the battlefield, both Severa and Kali had been recalled, and only Blue Tongue, whose bow and spear were both smashed, was facing the ogre, breathing roughly.

“You’re alive, human… but this seems rather difficult.”

“…Ha.”

The headless ogre raised its knife to slaughter.

A leisurely movement, as if there was no rush now. That made my blood boil even more.

Regardless of my feelings, as it swung down─

BOOM!!!!

A flash of light falling from the sky pierced the ogre’s hand into the ground.

“It’s been a while. Happy to see me? I think I’m happy to see you.”

A white longsword, piercing through the ogre’s wrist and fixing it to the ground like a stake, was gleaming. And the owner of the hand casually shaking it, widening the wound, was a seasoned white-haired knight.

Albert, who looked remarkably fine for someone rumored to have lost an arm, was stroking his beard and smiling at me with a relaxed posture.

“I clearly told you, didn’t I? Not to use human swordsmanship against monsters.”

“If you were watching, you should have come out sooner, you bearded old fart…”

“That’s harsh…”