Former Hero, Solo Play Oriented-Chapter 204
Why do I look up at the sky?
Born anew, thrust into an unfamiliar world, watching people perish as if life itself were a cruel joke.
And yet, I find myself gazing at this world’s beautiful night sky.
Unfamiliar constellations.
A sun not so different from the one in my memories.
And celestial bodies of peculiar shapes.
This world has two moons.
One blue, one red.
They must have names, but I can’t recall them clearly.
“...Rain?”
I tore my gaze from the night sky and turned to the woman approaching me. Narrowing my eyes, I offered her a smile.
“Melissa unni.”
“Yes.”
Master Melissa, the Blue Swordsman, crouched down beside me.
“You seem to enjoy looking at the night sky, Rain.”
“Hmm... It’s fascinating.”
“You once said you lived in another world in your past life. How was the night sky there? Was it much different from Astria’s?”
“I’m not sure.”
I shook my head.
It was the truth.
The memories of my past life now felt like a gray haze.
When I first came to this world, there were times I missed that place.
But as the years passed, those memories grew faint.
Now, after over a decade of living in this world, only fragments remain.
I can only gaze at the sky and recall them faintly, like a distant dream.
I blushed slightly.
Looking back, it’s clear my past life influenced who I am today.
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The way I treated the fallen princes like an older sibling.
The way I behaved meekly like a shy girl in front of the female members of the hero’s party.
Perhaps, deep down, I’ve always been yearning for affection.
Could that be why my heart flutters whenever I see someone as beautiful as Melissa?
Srrng.
Without a word, Melissa stood and drew her sword.
I looked up at her, puzzled.
“Melissa unni?”
“‘Sword dance’ is what we call a dance performed with a blade.”
I’d seen Melissa’s sword dance many times before.
But this time felt different.
She moved her blade slowly, as if she wanted me to take in every detail.
Under the twin moons, her blue sword began to dance.
Her radiant blue ponytail swayed along with her movements.
Elegant arcs painted the night sky.
Like stars.
It was as if the entire dance had been captured in a single breathtaking painting.
My eyes remained glued to the glimmering trail her blade left behind.
By the time I came to my senses, I was already standing on my feet.
Melissa gently held the hand gripping my holy sword.
“Like this, lift your blade above your left shoulder.”
Her hand guided my sword’s path.
“Now, slowly, with controlled strength, bring it down to your right.”
A golden arc shimmered at the tip of my sword.
Her warm hand wrapped around my small one, steadying it.
And as my trembling heart calmed under her touch,
I realized that, somewhere in the depths of my memory, the nights of Astria always deepened like this.
*
What happened after facing the storm of dark-blue sword energy?
Before I knew it, I had retreated from the battlefield, making my way halfway up the tower's staircase.
“...Rain! Rain!”
“...”
Squish.
“Chris unni, please stop.”
“Huff, you’re finally back to yourself. Hic, I thought you’d lost it.”
The first thing I saw as my senses returned was Chris’s tear-streaked face, pinching and stretching my soft cheeks.
I smacked her hands away with a pout and shook my head vigorously.
“Haa.”
It felt like I had briefly drowned in the swamp of the past.
“That thing” was just a Named boss that needed to be defeated.
I wasn’t supposed to think about anything else.
“...That area-wide attack, how did we escape it?”
“Hmm, I used every cooldown reset and invincibility skill I had? Oh, and you hugged my, uh, waist and set up a barrier before pulling us out.”
So I’d used a barrier technique against their barrier.
Chris cupped her flushed cheeks with both hands, wearing a wistful expression. Her endearing reaction made me smile briefly, but my face soon hardened.
“That move, the barrier followed by the storm of sword energy—that’s a standard pattern.”
“...I was afraid of that. Haa. So many hits, and it’s sustained. How many invincibility skills do we need to survive that?”
“It might be a timed pattern, repeating every cycle.”
“If that’s the case, we’ll need to prepare. Wasn’t it about two minutes into the fight? But almost every other attack is an area-wide move, and now there’s an almost-wipe-level AoE every two minutes?”
“Unni, by the way, did you attack the Death King’s barrier after it was deployed?”
“Yes. I remember using three Sealing Talismans and four Ghost Orbs.”
“I didn’t attack it at all. So, seven total hits. How long did the storm of sword energy last?”
“...Seven seconds.”
The realization sent a chill down my spine.
“...Could it be?”
After the barrier pattern is triggered, the number of times we strike it...
determines the duration of the storm of sword energy?
“This is insane.”
Chris let out a series of heavy sighs.
The second attempt began.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amid the relentless onslaught of dark-blue sword energy, I slowly began to piece together the cycle.
The Legion Commander, Azure Death King.
Its patterns were undoubtedly numerous and terrifying, but it was still bound by the “system.”
Swoosh.
Boom!
As the colossal blade came crashing toward my head, I sidestepped the impact and maneuvered to the Death King’s rear.
Slash!
The massive sword swung horizontally toward me, but I ducked under it, tracking its trajectory. The two subsequent crescent-shaped energy waves swept through the battlefield’s front, where I had been moments ago—far from Chris.
This could work. It’s difficult, but the pattern is definable.
The rear-line dealers can be protected.
The key was recognizing that there is a sequence, a cycle.
The challenge, however, was the “barrier followed by the storm of sword energy” pattern.
We couldn’t attack the barrier. We’d have to “cut the damage.”
Swoosh.
The warning motion was abrupt.
Vroooom!
The Death King raised its sword, and in an instant, a dark-blue barrier began forming around it.
I quickly withdrew my attack.
“Ah, ah!”
Chris didn’t stop in time.
One of her talismans struck the barrier.
Immediately—
Fwoosh!
A storm of sword energy erupted from the Death King, sweeping through the battlefield with terrifying speed.
Boom!
“Damn it.”
I clicked my tongue and cast my own barrier. Chris hastily deployed her protection charm as well.
My barrier lasted three seconds.
If this storm lasted the same seven seconds as before, we’d have to use a cooldown reset midway.
But—
Whoosh!
The storm dissipated after just one second.
This confirmed it.
“It’s true! The duration of the storm depends on the number of hits on the barrier!”
Chris’s exclamation reached me as I smiled faintly. I stepped forward, slashing the now unprotected Death King with smooth precision.
Melissa unni.
Indeed, when it’s time to strike, you strike. When it’s time to retreat, you retreat.
[Named Boss: Azure Death King]
[Level 58 Legion Commander]
[HP: 190,027,441 / 2,000,000,000 (95%)]
The Death King’s HP, which had seemed impossible to dent, was now at 95%.
Its normal patterns far surpassed the difficulty of most Named bosses’ special patterns. It forced us to hold back our damage while demanding an extraordinary output to keep up.
For a 12-person raid party, this would be exponentially harder. If all 12 struck the barrier even once, the storm of sword energy would last 12 seconds, devastating the entire battlefield.
No amount of party-wide defensive skills could handle that.
It would mean annihilation.
Could a 12-person raid team coordinate perfectly to stop all damage during the barrier phase? Perhaps, if they were adventurers from the stars like us—our players. But even with weeks or months of practice, it would be a monumental challenge.
For Chris and me, a duo, managing the damage cut was simpler.
Moreover, I’d already mapped out the entirety of the Death King’s two-minute pattern cycle in my mind.
Finally, we reached the special phase that had seemed so far out of reach.
What would the Death King do now?
Swoosh.
The Death Knight raised its colossal blade again.
And began swinging it furiously.
Vroooom!
“A barrier?”
I froze in disbelief.
That barrier pattern was part of its standard cycle.
Was this not yet the special phase?
If not, how much more HP did we need to cut away?
“Ra-Rain!”
At Chris’s startled cry, I turned my head sharply.
Vroooom!
Floating at the edge of the battlefield, behind Chris, was a dark-blue orb.
And then—
“Huh? There’s one here too!”
I whipped around and spotted another dark-blue orb forming behind me.
What did these orbs mean? Explosions? AoEs? A wipe mechanic? And yet, the Death King itself was still channeling its barrier.
I couldn’t understand.
“Unni, we need to deal with those orbs—”
Something about them felt wrong.
Even a moment’s hesitation in understanding the mechanic had sealed our fate.
Vroooom!
The orbs swelled ominously, ready to burst.
Fwoosh!
They erupted, unleashing blades of malevolent energy.
I spun away, barely avoiding the orb nearest me.
But the orbs hadn’t targeted me. # Nоvеlight # Nor had they gone after Chris.
Their target was—
The Death King’s barrier itself.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
The barrier was struck dozens of times, each impact reverberating through the battlefield. Twenty hits? Thirty?
The more the barrier was struck, the longer and stronger the ensuing storm of sword energy would become.
What did this mean?
What storm would follow dozens of hits on the barrier?
Thud, thud!
Making my decision, I rushed toward Chris, pulling her close around the waist.
“Ahhh!”
Ignoring her shocked cry, I deployed my barrier, shielding us both.
If we stayed here, we’d die.
As the protective shield surrounded us, I retreated from the battlefield as quickly as I could.
And then—
From the Death King’s entire form—
Emerged an unprecedented, absolute storm of sword energy.
BOOOOM!
