novelraw Chapter 168 : Blood Tower - (4)
Chapter 168 : Blood Tower - (4)
Chapter 168: Blood Tower - (4)
A battle of wits.
A fight where both sides merely observed while hiding their most important cards lasted longer than expected.
Even for Sanghyun, who had grasped all of the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara’s traits, its variety of attack options was a burden.
Likewise, the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara couldn't help but feel tense, since its mental attacks had no effect on Sanghyun.
A fierce yet paradoxically hollow exchange of blows!
It was the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara who broke that vague balance first.
“Hrm! It seems I’ve figured out all your patterns by now! Time for you to die!”
“What’s my pattern then?”
At that moment.
Fsst!
Sanghyun heard a very short but distinct sound.
It was a sign that players or monsters with space-distorting abilities were activating that power.
If one concentrated, they could hear a sort of pre-sound just before space warped.
Fwoosh!
Sanghyun instinctively took a backstep and immediately moved away from the spot. Without the slightest hesitation.
Crackkk!
‘As expected.’
By a hair’s breadth.
The space where Sanghyun had just been standing was crushed and then returned to normal.
As if someone had crumpled a can and then rewound the scene in reverse, the space was twisted at will.
‘It really is the most troublesome ability for me. No, for any player, it’s definitely a nightmare to deal with.’
His gaze grew deeper.
The biggest feature of space-warping abilities was that they couldn't be blocked.
Projectile-based skill attacks could at least be countered with skills like Counter Barrier.
But space-warping abilities couldn’t be countered at all.
The only response was to break the opponent’s concentration.
However, anyone with such a skill would also have some way of maintaining that concentration.
‘The farther I get, the more hesitant I am, the more I lose. I have to stay close and aggressive. That makes it more dangerous, but also more threatening to them.’
He reorganized his thoughts once again.
Space-warping abilities activated almost instantly, so giving the enemy any more time was a disadvantage.
It was true that the power was destructive and raised many concerns.
But if he became too passive in battle, it would only make the ending worse.
There’s a difference between holding out because you don’t want to die, and charging in because you want to kill no matter what.
Sanghyun had no intention of being the former. He hadn’t come to this dungeon hoping for a draw.
Fwapap!
Sanghyun dashed forward, kicking off the ground.
He immediately activated both Acceleration and Over Psychedelic to maximize his body’s reaction speed.
“Divine punishment shall descend upon you!”
The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara’s crimson gaze locked onto Sanghyun as its many hands moved in a chaotic blur.
Right then.
‘Whoa.’
Sanghyun could see it.
Space distortion had started from the tips of the two fingers in front of the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara and was chasing after him.
It wasn’t a fixed-type spatial distortion but a tracking-type one.
In other words, the warp followed the direction Sanghyun moved in!
And it zigzagged like lightning, branching out erratically, so its movement wasn’t even straightforward.
Even Another World, the skill Sanghyun often used like a trump card, wouldn’t work now.
Spatial distortion skills warped even isolated subspaces, so using it now meant instant death.
『Valiant Charge』
Sanghyun’s choice was simple.
To close the distance further with the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.
That would make the tracking warp more threatening, but there was a reason behind Sanghyun’s charge.
‘They wouldn’t want to die together.’
He calculated that if the warped flow following him got close enough to the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara, it would cancel the ability.
No matter how much someone wanted to kill their opponent, very few would risk their own life for it.
Unless it was a low or lowest-ranked monster, stripped of reason and only following orders.
“Ugh, ugh! How bothersome!”
Just as expected.
As the tracking warp technique it had cast came dangerously close to itself due to Sanghyun’s movement, the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara canceled the ability.
If Sanghyun were in its shoes, he would’ve used the ability to the end.
After all, some level of sacrifice was expected when killing an enemy.
But the arrogant and haughty Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara seemed to consider that a serious loss.
So it withdrew the skill.
‘Got you!’
Thanks to that, an opportunity arose.
The many swords the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara held were not yet aimed at Sanghyun’s position.
So a gap had formed.
Sanghyun immediately slashed with the Sword of Ruin. It wasn’t the right time to use Sage’s Whisper, so he held back for now.
His target was the abdomen—relatively weaker compared to the thick muscular arms.
Since the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara was shirtless, its stomach was emaciated with no sign of muscle.
“You fool.”
Whoosh!
“……!”
The attack missed.
No, to be precise, it did stab the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara, but the stab didn’t land.
The creature had created a distortion field in front of its abdomen and linked it to another space.
It was a strategy to evade troublesome attacks by creating a passage between the space in front of its abdomen and somewhere else.
‘I underestimated this ability.’
Clenching both fists, Sanghyun focused once again.
It was indeed a tricky opponent.
Watching it reminded him naturally of a player from China.
Heo Yoongang.
A player with space-warping powers, several steps above the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.
Whether they’d be enemies or allies in the future was unknown, but regardless, there were far more powerful ability users out there.
He didn’t want to struggle against something like the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.
‘Rather than dragging things at my pace, I’ll let the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara take the lead and set the stage. It’s the type that loves fighting on its own terms, so that would be better.’
He reestablished his strategy.
Internally, he had spotted an opening and was about to go all in, but this was still a mid-boss monster after all.
Not to mention, the gatekeeper of the infamous Blood Tower Quest. There was no way this would end easily.
“Hahaha, how about that?”
“Not bad.”
“You look flustered.”
He always thought he wasn’t much of an actor, but Sanghyun’s enemies always fell for it completely.
It was thanks to accumulated experience.
Not by overacting in surprise.
But by feigning the effort to hide his emotions, he would unconsciously reveal an expression of fear.
To do that, he had to know what kind of expression someone in true fear made without realizing it.
Sanghyun acted that out.
The horrific memories of countless people dying on the battlefield had burned those expressions into his eyes.
Blending that experience naturally, there was no way even the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara could see through it.
“Take this as well!”
The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara launched an attack.
It wasn’t just a simple swing of a sword—there was a trick added.
Earlier, it had warped space to form a link route to defend against Sanghyun’s attacks.
But this time it was the opposite.
The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara created a spatial distortion to support its own attack.
In other words, the strike that should’ve come straight from the front didn’t come from there.
With space warped, the attack came flying in from behind. A surprise assault that completely erased visual information.
“Whoa!”
Sanghyun thought it better to duck rather than use a skill, so he immediately flattened himself.
Two sword blades narrowly sliced through the air just above Sanghyun’s hair.
If he had hesitated even 0.1—no, 0.05 seconds—it wouldn’t have been just his hair, but the top of his head cut off.
In that position—
Swish!
Sanghyun quickly turned his body in the opposite direction and kicked off the ground while lying down.
『Back Step』
He chained the skill at the same time.
Normally, using force from a lying position with Back Step would result in no movement.
But Sanghyun attempted a variation.
He shifted the propulsion point of Back Step from his back to the heels of his feet.
As a result, his body slid upward like someone lying on a skateboard.
At that very moment—
『Updraft』
Just as Sanghyun passed between the legs of the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara, he triggered Updraft.
The wind sphere, packed with considerable initial kinetic energy, struck the creature’s vital area.
Humanoid monsters had weak points matching the term ‘humanoid.’ Not just imitation—true design.
Thus, since the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara was both humanoid and male-shaped, the impact hit that lower region.
Thwack!
“Guh!”
The wind sphere had struck an incredibly sensitive area. A spot where damage could cause serious problems.
Splat!
“Did you think you were the only one with tricks?”
Sanghyun, who had stopped moving, targeted the lower body of the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara once more, which was now bent over like a bow.
Momentarily losing its combat capabilities, the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara became nothing more than a target with many arms.
Though brief, it was undeniably incapacitated.
『Sage’s Whisper』
『Sword of Ruin』
A simplified execution combo followed immediately. It was rare to get such a clean, defenseless chance like this.
In the next moment—
Puhwaaaah!
“Aaaagh!”
With a sound like something truly bursting, the cursed sword dug over a span into the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara’s wound.
‘That should be enough.’
He had stayed in the same spot too long.
Sanghyun knew the creature wasn’t stupid, so he immediately followed up with an escape-ready skill.
『Illusory Mediation』
Pang!
An illusion burst from Sanghyun’s body and dashed boldly behind the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.
At the same time—
Clink! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara, having regained focus, targeted the spot where Sanghyun had been lying.
But by then, Sanghyun had naturally used Illusory Mediation to slip away from his original location.
“Haaah. Haaah.”
The flow of the air changed.
The face of the previously arrogant Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara now looked melted like ice cream.
A face full of deepening worry.
It was a mix of unspeakable pain and the rage of having been thoroughly humiliated.
‘It’ll probably never be able to stabilize its lower body again.’
Recalling the weak point he himself had inflicted, Sanghyun found his next attack point.
Unless it had a skill that could dramatically heal the injury—
The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara’s lower body would remain its Achilles’ heel. It wouldn’t be able to maintain stable balance.
‘Then I just need to cut off its four main arms. Once those are gone, it’ll be disarmed—essentially dead.’
He once again clearly fixed his eyes on the four visible arms.
Like how a dragonfly can never fly again once its wings are torn off—
The same applied to the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.
Once those key arms were gone, only a squirming squid-like figure would remain.
『Double-Edged Sword』
Now that Sanghyun had his plan, he immediately activated Double-Edged Sword.
Anyway, if he were to take even one solid hit from the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara, it would result in serious injury either way.
Giving up some defense didn’t seem like a problem.
What mattered was how definitively he could finish things when he landed a blow.
Selection and focus.
Sanghyun went all-in on offense.
And in his mind was the one Artifact he absolutely wanted to get from the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara!
The Epic-grade bracelet.