Satan’s eyes widened at the realization that he had reached the level of a Mana Master.
Perhaps he couldn’t accept it. After all, mana masters were among the rarest beings on the continent, weren’t they?
Moreover, even for those who were mana masters, achieving such a status usually came only after many years of rigorous training.
Compared to them, Ian, still in his twenties, had already reached the level of a Master. No matter how powerful the Demon Lord was, it was hard to accept such a reality easily.
‘Me, a Master…’
Ian was just as surprised.
In fact, he could say he was even more astonished than Satan himself.
Despite having an enemy right in front of him, his gaze kept drifting toward the crystallized mana enveloping Rebrion.
‘To think a human could reach the highest rank possible…’
Of course, legends spoke of Grandmasters who could scatter their mana and dominate entire regions, but could such legends be merely tales?
In the Heroic Academy, the highest level Ariel could attain was that of a master, with no mention of any higher levels.
‘Perhaps Ariel’s limit was being a Master, but then there should at least be records of those who have achieved greater heights on this continent.’
Even the ancestors praised by the entire empire had only been Masters.
Thus, Ian was able to draw a certain conclusion.
‘The highest level a human can reach is that of a Master.’
He had reached the realm where he could perfectly crystallize mana, indicating that he had hit the growth limit as a human.
‘And I, too, have become a Master.’
He had arrived at the moment where he could fully utilize the power one gains only at such a remarkable level.
Once he had gained that power, there was no time but to use it.
***
The boss battle against the enraged Demon King Satan consisted of three phases.
‘This is the second phase now.’
Phases were determined by the amount of health lost.
Thinking about this might lead one to wonder why Satan was in the second phase.
Even though he had lost an arm, it was not a significant wound when considered as a whole.
After all, wasn’t it true that he could regenerate that lost arm if he utilized the rage he had accumulated?
So, despite losing an arm, one could question why he was in the second phase; it seemed like a trivial loss to him.
However, there was a special reason for this.
‘Unlike other bosses whose phases are determined by health, Satan’s phases are uniquely determined by the amount of rage he possesses.’
Satan’s health was not of primary concern.
As a special boss, Satan’s phases were determined by the amount of rage he could wield.
‘Satan’s rage can be utilized in various ways: he can enhance his attacks with magic, or he can even regenerate his body.’
Even his basic control ability, the magic ray, could consume rage to shoot eight beams.
If a part of his body had been severed, he could quickly heal himself by consuming a substantial amount of rage.
‘That insane versatility was quite troublesome.’
If he consumed rage, he could do anything. There were many times he found that fact tiresome.
The notion of “Let’s work hard because there are limits” did not apply when he was constantly absorbing rage from those around him.
‘Erasing the emotion of rage and figuring out how to defeat the enemy while swinging the sword isn’t as easy as it sounds, is it?’
Just focusing on countering the opponent’s attacks was exhausting enough, let alone managing emotional control on top of that.
‘That’s why my primary method was solo play.’
There was even a time he had felt so frustrated that he gathered his companions in a corner and took on the first phase alone.
It was clear that even if they pooled their strengths, they couldn’t guarantee victory against such a formidable foe. However, it wasn’t a bad strategy to manage the exponentially increasing amount of rage.
‘Sure, it took longer to beat him, but if we rushed in trying to clear it quickly and ended up getting consumed by rage, I would have wanted to shut off the game.’
The problem was that surpassing what he had thought of as an insurmountable wall, the first phase, was challenging. But once that was done, fighting from the second phase onward was much more manageable.
He could also solve the greatest dilemma of “rage management.”
‘The situation is far better than before. Unlike Ariel, who was merely an expert, I have become a master, and Celia is right beside me.’
Moreover, the first phase had been skipped thanks to Kyan risking his life.
With all problems seemingly resolved, there was no need to fear anything.
“I-Ian….”
“Celia.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll handle the approach and fight him, so can you attack from a distance and look for openings?”
“Got it! I’ve learned spear throwing, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
To see the true potential of Wignoron’s spear technique, it would be best to approach quickly and induce chaos.
However, one couldn’t merely create the best-case scenario.
Of course, their spear techniques contained various devices to untangle difficult situations, including ranged attacks like spear throwing.
“With spear throwing, you overlay your mana onto the spear and then launch it, right?”
“Exactly. While it may lack the power of a direct stab, it’s not significantly weaker.”
“You don’t have to worry about the power aspect. The most important thing is your safety. Even if confirming the enemy’s openings is tough… I’m counting on you.”
“Okay… I’ll do my best.”
What if he was weak? It was just a matter of hitting him several times. While time wasn’t exactly abundant, there was still no need to rush into attacking him.
Safety—Celia only needed to focus on that and attack.
‘With long-range control ready… I just need to do well.’
The preparations were complete. There was no more need to devise a plan.
There was only one thing left to do.
‘While remembering Satan’s attack patterns… I will kill him.’
That was enough.
***
In action-oriented games, one of the indispensable systems is what most users would call “parrying.”
Typically known as a counterattack move, it actually involves timing your parry to knock the opponent’s weapon away while simultaneously landing a counterattack.
Simply put, it can be thought of as deflecting an attack to exploit the opening created.
The system of parrying existed in Heroic Academy as well.
‘I used it quite well. I was able to easily deal with those who had strangely designed defenses by parrying.’
Not only did parrying allow one to block the opponent’s attack and attempt a counter, but it could also trigger a “guard break” judgment, inflicting even greater damage.
That was the parrying system in Heroic Academy, and it particularly shone during boss battles.
‘This game isn’t as difficult as a Souls-like game, so there was no need to grind through regular monsters like that.’
The players of the Yuri academy game weren’t there to enjoy something hard and torturous, were they?
Because of that, in Heroic Academy, regular monsters could be easily swept aside, and generally, normal players wouldn’t need to use parrying.
However, when it came to facing a boss, the story changed a bit.
‘Though I can’t say for sure what their intent was, they might have thought that boss battles should be a bit challenging.’
Unlike before, where one could mindlessly click buttons and sweep through everything, analyzing the boss’s patterns and making the right moves became essential.
In such cases, it would be natural to place training dummies in the general field for practicing useful skills for boss battles.
But this game was a bit different.
‘But how could they raise the difficulty? Normally, it’s an academy hack-and-slash game, and then suddenly it turns into a Souls-like experience only for boss battles?’
They didn’t even provide a chance to practice and suddenly forced players to use techniques like parrying or rolling that they normally wouldn’t use.
Of course, the boss battle’s difficulty wasn’t so overwhelming as to make one pull their hair out, but for someone playing this type of game for the first time, it could be quite a struggle.
While they did have a mechanism to skip the boss battle if one died too many times…
Regardless, the forced unfamiliar playstyle was the only flaw of the boss battles in Heroic Academy.
‘Among them, this guy is the worst.’
Satan could undoubtedly be considered the most challenging enemy in that regard.
Swish!
KABOOM!
“Uaaaaah!”
“Now!”
As the enraged giant Satan charged madly, Ian quickly created distance.
CRACK!
After leaping and smashing down to the ground, Satan’s fist struck the earth, causing cracks to form and magic to erupt from below.
BOOM!
“Phew…”
His attacks were destructive enough to obliterate the surrounding area as if it were a volcanic eruption.
But his rage didn’t end there.
“Don’t even think about escaping!”
THUD!
After lifting his foot and striking the ground, sharp stones shot up as a shockwave and earthquake rolled through the area.
With the thought that getting caught would mean instant death, both Celia and Ian jumped to evade the attack.
As Ian expended mana to create as much distance as possible, he recalled the previous situation and exhaled a held breath.
‘I need to think of it as if the parrying and guarding I’ve relied on until now no longer exist.’
The reason Satan was the worst enemy lay here.
While previously he had been forced to use parrying without exception, now it would lead to instant death the moment it was attempted.
‘In this second phase, Satan attacks relentlessly, pouring out his rage. Each of his enhanced attacks carries special additional effects.’
He merely stomped down, yet magic erupted from the ground. He merely struck the ground with his foot, yet earthquakes and shockwaves occurred.
Trying to parry those attacks would surely lead to being caught in them and meeting an untimely end.
‘Even if I tried to block, I couldn’t. Even with perfect defense against the additional effects of his rage usage, I’d still end up being staggered.’
Defense wasn’t omnipotent. In the game, the moment one blocked an attack, their stamina would be completely depleted, rendering the character unable to move.
Reality was no different.
If Ian tried to block Satan’s charge with his sword, he would have been rolling on the ground due to the earthquake by now.
One might wonder how to deal with this.
Getting close could mean getting caught up in his unblockable attacks, yet it wouldn’t suffice to merely stay back and poke from a distance.
However… Satan was a boss monster. Wasn’t he created to be defeated?
What kind of lunatic would create an unbeatable enemy?
Naturally, a solution existed.
Tap, tap!
Taking a firm stance, Ian began to charge toward Satan.
“Coming at me on your own, are you?”
Satan smirked for a moment at the foolishness of his opponent, then readied his attack.
Whoosh! Crackle!
Instead of using his regenerating right arm, he poured out magic with his still-functional left arm.
Boom!
With perfect timing, he swung it toward Ian. At the same time, Ian raised his sword, assuming a stance to deflect the attack!
‘Foolish!’
He surely intended to block, but what he didn’t realize was that he would be swept away instead.
It wouldn’t be long before he took care of this thorn in his side.
As Satan thought this and smirked, suddenly—
Clang! Zzzt!
“Did you think I’d attack?”
“What?!”
After lowering the sword he had prepared to parry, Ian slid backward, avoiding the blow.
Whoosh!
“Missed.”
“Huff!”
Satan’s decisive strike completely missed its target.
Of course, an additional attack triggered by his rage followed.
“I’m right behind you, what do you think you’re doing?”
Boom!
“!”
Ian had already moved behind Satan, well outside the range of the additional attack.
Feigning an attempt to parry, he had slid to evade the attack.
Satan couldn’t respond quickly to Ian’s cunning move, which he was experiencing for the first time.
Because of that—
Whoosh! Clang!
“Gah!”
“You thought you could hit me?”
Ian couldn’t help but take advantage of his master-level swordsmanship.
‘W-What!’
He was struck in the back, undoubtedly his weakest point. Realizing this shouldn’t be happening, Satan tried to stomp the ground again to create another earthquake.
Shatter!
Crack!
“Argh! My eye… my eye!”
“Ian, I’ll help you!”
In that moment, Celia’s spear pierced straight into Satan’s eye.
The spear, imbued with blue mana, began to radiate brilliance the instant it struck.
Boom!
“Gah… these vermin!”
Moments later, a blinding light erupted, exploding from the point of impact.
Already missing his right arm and now suffering a critical injury to his eye, he was in a dire situation.
Fortunately, the other eye that hadn’t been struck remained intact. However, the issue was the blinding light.
‘Damn it… I can’t see properly…’
The brilliantly exploding spear temporarily obscured his vision in the unaffected eye.
Not being able to see clearly meant one simple thing.
GROOOAR!
“Ah… no…”
It gave Ian the time to prepare a powerful attack.
Realizing this, Satan used his rage to try and recover his sight.
Whoosh! “Ah…” “Are you finally opening your eyes? But what are you going to do now?”
Ian had already drawn out his mana, fully prepared to attack.
As he gazed at the radiant Rebrion, Satan gritted his teeth.
