Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 24

Chapter 24: The Battle Against Minorius (Part 1)

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Dark red runes slithered across the stone door’s surface, and the thunderous sound of bronze chains breaking made eardrums tremble.

Nolan’s boots ground over the gravel, and the moment his footsteps entered the dungeon, a series of pale blue flames were lit around the entire room, and the phosphorescent fire hanging from the dome suddenly flared up, illuminating the entire hall in a ghastly white!

With a rumbling sound, the stone door closed heavily.

And at the same time, the BOSS sitting in the dark depths finally revealed its true form under the illumination of the pale blue phosphorescent fire.

In the deepest part of the room, on a black obsidian throne sat a huge dark-colored horned monster with a ram’s horns. Black mist coiled around its body like tentacles. Its body was swollen with warrior-like muscles, and its ram’s horns curved like knives, gleaming with a metallic luster.

The moment Nolan pushed open the door, it opened its blood-red eyes and immediately spewed out a sulfurous breath from its mouth.

“ROOOOOAAAAAR——!!”

Accompanied by the ram-horned monster’s hellish roar, a passionate, high-pitched symphony was immediately ignited. In an instant, the tone escalated from the lowest to the highest pitch, and the instrumental music resounded throughout the entire BOSS room!

【Floor Guardian BOSS – Minorius (Lv.20)】

【HP: 85000/85000】

“Ugh!” Nolan faced the intimidating roar head-on, wide-eyed as he stared at the familiar BOSS figure. His feet only retreated half a step in the raging wind stirred up by the roar, while his right arm immediately tensed up, gripping the Swift Wind Sword in his hand again, not allowing himself to be intimidated by the strong pressure and give in to fear.

「Minorius」 as a symbiotic entity of 「Minotaur」 differs from the bull-headed human-bodied monster by presenting the image of a ram-horned human-bodied figure.

The BOSS’s appearance was completely consistent with the impression from the closed beta test. At the same time, the unique environmental BGM for the BOSS room still existed, and the overwhelming pressure was not diminished in the slightest. It also simultaneously added a time-limited 2-minute 【Exhilaration】 BUFF to all players, increasing attack by 20%.

The ram-horned giant slowly stood up from the throne, and its massive shadow was cast on the ground under the light.

With a thunderous sound, it pulled out the long axe stuck in the ground. Its blood-red pupils had already locked onto Nolan, who had entered this dangerous place alone, revealing its four rows of HP bars befitting a BOSS.

Can’t fail, must not fail…

During the closed beta test, he had faced this fellow for at least a hundred rounds and knew all the mechanics like the back of his hand. The difference now was that the margin for error was lower than in the beta. With this much health and defense, he could only take one fully landed hit at most.

He absolutely could not be hit twice consecutively before using a healing potion to fully recover, this was the only margin for error.

“ROAR——!!” The ram-horned monster opened its huge mouth and let out an ear-splitting roar for the third and final time at the beginning. And with that, the black mist on its body instantly condensed into hundreds of arrows, pouring down like a torrential rain!

“Haaaaaaa——!” Nolan twisted his wrist, tilted the blade, and shot forward like an arrow hugging the ground.

Nolan crouched low as he dashed, the blade of his sword scraping the ground and sending sparks flying. The scabbard of the Swift Wind Sword glowed with a cyan light, and the speed from his 150 points of agility turned him into a blur in the rain of arrows as he quickly flanked the BOSS.

The weakness of this fellow is at the base of its horns!

Memories from the closed beta test flooded his mind, almost forming muscle memory. Nolan’s sword tip precisely thrust toward the blood-red joint of the ram’s horn, but just as it was about to make contact, he was forced back by a sudden horizontal sweeping axe strike.

“Kuh!” Nolan raised his blade to block, and amid the crisp sound of metal collision, the blade and metal axe surface scraped out dazzling sparks.

What? So that’s it… This is the change brought about by the BOSS’s agility value, completely consistent with the intelligence provided by the Iris Knights. At the start, it was no longer possible to quickly get close to attack the weak point and cause staggering.

Nolan quickly used the impact force of the long axe to flip backward in the air, creating distance.

Seeing his HP value decrease by about 8%, he immediately used a Basic Healing Potion. He had to ensure his health was maintained above 90% at all times. Taking a direct hit could instantly reduce his HP by more than 80%.

What had just happened was that Nolan had successfully blocked the attack. With the triggering of block and defense, the BOSS’s damage would be reduced significantly.

This mechanism would also be the core of soloing the BOSS. Almost all attacks could be blocked and defended against, which also meant that in the face of such a disparity in values, Nolan had to successfully block all of the ram-horned giant’s attacks with perfect timing.

Minorius’s giant claws tore through the ground with a thunderous sound. Nolan instantly rolled to dodge, avoiding the impact area in the middle.

Then, with a whoosh, a black shadow quickly darted out from behind a pillar. The blade in his hand had already completed charging during the evasion process, and an azure glow enveloped the Swift Wind Sword. Taking advantage of the gap after the BOSS used its skill, Nolan mercilessly unleashed a Multi-Strike Combo.

【HP-742】!

【HP-678】!

【HP-724】!

【Critical Hit! HP-1246】!

A series of damage numbers popped up on the BOSS’s body. Nolan’s current attack value was equivalent to the DPS of 3~4 people, but even so, the effect on the BOSS was only a small reduction in the first row of HP.

The ram-horned demon gripped its long axe and made another howling 360-degree ground sweep attack on the spot.

Nolan accordingly jumped up and retreated a step. A flying knife shot out from his sleeve, performing a “stagger extension” on the BOSS.

Under continuous attacks on the BOSS, the BOSS’s stagger bar would be depleted, at which point a stagger could be triggered. If the attack interval was too long, the previous stagger damage would be reset, so using ranged flying knives for extension was already a consensus technique among top players in the closed beta.

After the axe-swinging follow-through ended, the ram-horned giant turned towards Nolan again, only to find the target suddenly gone.

“Roar…” The ram-horned giant fell into a no-target state and began to stride around the pale blue hall. Then, with a twang, a sword flash lit up from a pillar, and Nolan charged down like a hawk, landing a hit on the ram’s horn!

【Linear Thrust】!

【HP-642】!

“Hit! Effective!” The blade of the Swift Wind Sword still had dark red fragments on it, and the joint of the ram’s horn clearly showed a crack. Nolan gritted his teeth and stomped on the ground to rush forward again. He deliberately slowed down for half a beat, and suddenly dropped into a slide tackle as the long axe swung toward him!

One more hit! Nolan quickly unleashed a Multi-Strike Combo on its leg again, emptying the BOSS’s stagger bar in one go.

“Crack!” The ram-horned monster’s left leg broke with a sound, and in the moment it lost balance and knelt, Nolan flipped onto its shoulder. The 【Wind Walker】 BUFF on his Swift Wind Sword had stacked to 2 layers, greatly increasing his agility value, and a certain sword skill in his skill bar immediately lit up.

“Fall down!” Nolan gripped the long sword in his hand, slowly pulling his elbow back, making a thrusting motion. At this moment, the Swift Wind Sword blazed with a cyan light, and the blade traced seven afterimages in the air!

— 【Starlight Seven Consecutive Thrusts】!

After causing a total of nearly 4,000 points of damage, the opening time-limited 2-minute 【Exhilaration】 BUFF also happened to end, successfully lowering the BOSS’s health by about 15% during the attack power bonus period.

About 5% faster than expected, there’s room for error!

“ROAR!!!” The ram-horned giant stood up again after the stagger and knockdown ended.

And what came next was the main show. As the purple skill bar loaded, it began to swing its long axe, and the swinging speed gradually began to accelerate. Nolan’s gaze was fixed on its swinging motion, and in the moment when the storm of attacks came, he made a series of blocks with clanging sounds.

Nearly ten seconds of continuous axe swinging, even missing one block would mean death.

Even in the main tank position, one would need to use damage reduction skills to tank this burst of attacks. After blocking all of them, Nolan’s HP value had instantly dropped to below 50%, turning into a yellow health bar.

Without hesitation, he used one of his few Intermediate Healing Potions and continued to engage in deadly exchanges with the BOSS.

Block — counter — attack.

This cycle was repeated time and time again in extremely short intervals. Nolan’s gaze was fixed on every hand movement of the BOSS, predicting its attack patterns that matched with his memory, making perfectly timed blocks and counters.

Damn, the sword skills are much more sluggish than imagined. Is the agility attribute still too low?

Nolan struggled to resist attacks that were more fierce than expected. The vibration of the sword hilt in his hand grew stronger with each hit, making it almost impossible to grip. The sharp axe blade whistled past him several times, missing his face by mere centimeters.

And after the BOSS’s first HP bar was completely emptied.

The ram-horned giant jumped back with a big leap, returning to the front of the throne, while Nolan was almost exhausted, constantly gasping for breath. If he hadn’t quickly cleared the phase, his potions would likely not have been able to sustain him much longer.

“Health down to 75%, phase two now…”