Only I’m the solo player

Chapter 20 – Fatal Judgment

—–CROW—– 

Each floor of the Tower of Trials had a kind of theme or concept.

If the theme of the 1st floor was goblins, the main theme of the 2nd floor was wolves.

Befitting that setting, the owner of the 2nd floor boss room was a werewolf, a wolf that walked on two legs.

Honestly, if it had just been a wolf walking on two legs, it would have looked a bit ridiculous.

But the werewolf’s long, outstretched limbs and the dense muscles packed into its limbs were not funny at all.

Even though its entire body was covered in brown fur, the bulging muscles were clearly visible.

It seemed to be over 2 meters tall, and the claws extending from its hands were as sharp as razor blades, even from afar.

It was completely different from what I had seen in the screenshots uploaded on the open community’s strategy tab.

Damn it, how is that a wolf that walks on two legs?

That was closer to a mix of a grizzly bear and Dwayne Johnson, with a wolf’s head attached, than a werewolf.

I heard that this werewolf, which served as the 2nd floor boss, appeared as a mob on higher floors.

The thought of such a crazy monster appearing as a mob made my head spin.

“Haa.”

I took a small deep breath and readjusted my grip on my shield and sword. It looked ferocious, so I was a little nervous, but there was no need to be intimidated.

In terms of size, the 1st floor Goblin Lord was actually bigger, and this werewolf didn’t even have a weapon.

Considering the length of my sword, the overall reach would be similar. It was just the right distance to engage and then disengage.

Unlike the Goblin Lord, it had relatively fewer mob summoning patterns, so I could fight without worry.

-Tap!

I ran at full speed towards the center of the boss room where the werewolf stood.

Thanks to my increased agility stat, my running speed far surpassed human levels.

The distance quickly closed, and the werewolf, recognizing me, pulled its arm back to attack.

It had predicted that I would enter its range and pulled its arm back a beat early.

The werewolf preferred to attack from maximum range based on this quick reaction speed.

I had, of course, already thought of a strategy to counter that particular attack pattern.

-Whoosh!

Just before entering the werewolf’s attack range, I stopped and threw the shield strapped to my arm.

The forcefully thrown shield accurately hit the werewolf’s face, which was preparing to attack.

-Thwack!

Hit by the flying shield, the werewolf stopped its attack and clutched its face.

In that gap, I took another step inward and cast the attack skill ‘Brandish’, slashing the werewolf’s leg.

-Slash! A spray of foul-smelling blood scattered, and the werewolf staggered. The slash went deeper than I thought.

I pulled back my sword and cast Sword Charge towards the werewolf’s shoulder.

-Stab!

The blade, with its charge property, pierced deeply. The feeling was good, but it didn’t trigger a critical hit.

The werewolf’s defense was weaker than expected. Or was my attack power too strong?

Either way, it was a happy miscalculation. To land two big hits like this from the start.

-Grrr!

The werewolf glared at me with a fierce glint in its eyes, as if enraged.

“What are you looking at, you mutt?”

I retorted, and tried to pull out the sword embedded in its shoulder to attack again.

But.

“Huh.”

The sword wouldn’t come out. The werewolf’s shoulder muscles twitched and held the sword.

What the hell, the sword was stuck between the muscles. This was ridiculous.

-Whoosh!

As if the sword in its shoulder didn’t hurt, the werewolf swung its claws at me in my moment of surprise.

I was caught off guard, so my timing was off. I couldn’t dodge this.

I raised my shield to block its claws… Ah, damn it, I threw the shield earlier.

-Thud!

With a head-shaking impact, my body briefly flew through the air.

****

This was the second time since Lobo and Blanca.

Forgetting that I had thrown my shield and trying to block, only to get hit.

-Thump!

Hit by the werewolf’s powerful claw attack, I rolled once in the air and fell to the ground.

Thanks to changing the position of my arm as soon as I realized I didn’t have my shield, I was able to avoid getting my body torn by the claws.

Still, I was dizzy from the hit. And my arm, I hoped it wasn’t broken.

“Ugh, my arm, damn it, my arm.”

The curse that came out of my mouth sounded like a bad joke. At least my tongue was fine.

And my arm seemed to be moving okay. It was probably thanks to the defense increase from the Blessing of the Earth Spirit and other factors.

-Grrr!

As if not giving me a chance to drink a potion, the werewolf rushed towards me with tremendous speed.

It had been walking on two legs until just now, but it ran on all fours when it sprinted. Was it some kind of instinct from its dog head?

Of course, I had seen this dash pattern in the strategy guides as well. I took out a new sword from my inventory and rushed to meet it.

-Thud!

Just before the werewolf, with its claws extended, could stab me, I jumped high into the air.

And I forcefully plunged the sword, held in a reverse grip with both hands, into the werewolf’s back.

The strike, carrying the acceleration of the fall and the weight of my entire body, pierced very deeply.

-Arghhhhhh!

The werewolf screamed and struggled. But just like before, the deeply embedded sword wouldn’t come out.

Now I understood a bit. This werewolf’s muscles weren’t just densely packed, the muscle quality itself was hard.

It was better to think of the sword as being tightly held by something like a press machine, rather than being stuck between muscles.

The open community’s strategy guides also said to use slashing and striking attacks rather than stabbing because its body was tough.

If I hadn’t ignored it, thinking it wouldn’t matter with my specs, I wouldn’t have gotten hit for no reason.

“Hup.”

Instead of forcing the sword out, I fell away from the werewolf and created distance.

I had left two weapons stuck in the werewolf, but I had plenty of spares.

Somehow, it seemed to be flowing similarly to the 1st floor boss fight, but it didn’t matter.

If it flowed similarly to then, I would win in the end.

****

The werewolf’s claw attacks couldn’t easily penetrate my defense, but my sword easily penetrated the werewolf’s defense.

Moreover, I knew most of the werewolf’s attack patterns.

At this rate, it was clear that I would win easily. There was only one variable.

-Awoooooooo!!

With two swords stuck in its body, the werewolf let out a loud howl.

Then, from a dark corner of the boss room, two Kobolds riding wolves appeared.

The Kobold Riders, elite monsters summoned by the werewolf, were the main mobs in this boss fight.

But why were they called Kobold Riders? If they were riding wolves, shouldn’t they be Wolf Riders?

With that kind of naming, a human riding a dragon would be a Human Rider.

No, that wasn’t what was important right now.

Unlike goblins, whose weapon types were completely random, the Kobold Riders’ weapons were unified as halberds.

It was a weapon that was like a mix of a spear and an axe, allowing both stabbing and slashing attacks, and it had a long reach.

Accelerated by the fast movement speed of the wolves, it would be quite powerful, but I wasn’t sure if it would work on me.

-Tap tap tap!

The summoned Kobold Riders began to charge at high speed. I immediately raised my shield.

-Whoosh!

I dodged one halberd swung at my head, and blocked the following halberd thrust with my shield.

-Thud.

The impact was much lighter than I expected. At this rate, I could just ignore them.

Passing the two Kobold Riders, I rushed towards the werewolf, which was growling with its claws extended.

The Kobold Riders were fast and had a powerful charge, but they had a long delay after an attack if it was dodged, as I had read.

Then I could just use my speed to outrun them and focus on the boss, the werewolf.

As I rushed in, the werewolf swung its claws widely as if to shake me off.

-Clang!

When I met it head-on with proper preparation, it was easy to block, although it left a scratch on my shield.

This time, I used Sword Charge to stab. I was able to embed the sword in the werewolf’s thigh.

I left the hard-to-pull sword as it was anyway, and switched equipment. At the same time, I stepped on the embedded sword and jumped into the air.

Using the sword stuck in its shoulder as a handle, I rotated and once again grabbed the werewolf’s back.

Then I took out the [Hawk’s Dagger], which had been useful in the 1st floor boss fight, and stabbed it repeatedly into the werewolf’s back.

-Stab stab stab stab stab stab!

Since the dagger was short, it was easy to pull out even if it was stabbed in, as it didn’t get caught in the muscles easily.

Thanks to that, once I got the angle, I could easily land consecutive hits.

Attacking the back with a dagger seemed to have become my main tactic. Maybe I should get dagger mastery later.

-Arghhhhh!

The werewolf let out an un-wolflike scream. As if it had heard it, a Kobold Rider approached from afar.

“Ah, it’s a bit fast.”

Kicking off the werewolf’s back, I landed on the ground and ran towards the Kobold Rider that was charging with its halberd extended.

Adjusting my height with a jump, I dodged the halberd stab and aimed a counter knee strike at the Kobold’s face.

-Crack!

A red effect burst out with the sound of a watermelon cracking. The Kobold’s face was crushed by the critical hit.

But looking at the result, this counter knee strike was a mistake.

Because I had jumped for the knee strike, I couldn’t properly dodge the attack of the other Kobold Rider that followed.

-Slash!

I was slightly slashed in the thigh. It wasn’t a big wound thanks to my high defense, but it was an unnecessary loss.

“Ugh, da…”

Because I was slashed in mid-air, my landing was very awkward. At that moment, the werewolf, whose back had been riddled with holes, charged at me again.

The timing was a bit bad, but I knew all the patterns anyway. I raised my shield, predicting the following claw attack.

But, in that instant, I saw that the werewolf’s state was strange.

A menacing red glint in its eyes, its muscles even more swollen.

“Oh, sh-“

And what was coming wasn’t claws, but the wide-open maw of the wolf.

-Crunch!

The berserk werewolf bit deeply into my shoulder and chest.

—–CROW—–