Chapter 43

Level Up Heresy Judge – Chapter 43 (43/227)

Chapter 43: Manners Make the Man (6)

Dun dun dun!

With the recoil effect finally over, Batora slowly rose to his feet.

Though they’d blown a perfect opportunity for nothing, it wasn’t something the party members who’d just successfully stolen the boss fight were too worried about.

“Alright, focus everyone. Drink your preps.”

At Beken’s words, the party members pulled out potions from their inventories.

Six different kinds of doping potions – all designed to temporarily boost stats for smooth boss battles. They were kinda pricey, but if they could take down Batora, this expense would be like a mosquito bite.

“Kirlrrk!”

Batora, having regained his energy, began moving again.

His long arm swung violently toward them.

BOOM!

The one holding up the shield blocked the attack – the tank taking the hit head-on. While he bought time, the archer quickly stepped back and nocked an arrow.

Against such a huge target, there was no need to waste time aiming.

Arrows began embedding themselves into Batora’s body, while the tank kept him busy. Then Beken, who had flanked around, revealed himself.

KA-CHUNK!

His sword buried itself in Batora’s side, dark blood spurting out.

A successful strike, though not enough to make a significant dent in his HP. After all, this was Batora – famous for his tough defense and stamina.

Without moving from his spot, Batora suddenly shifted his gaze from the tank to Beken.

Not expecting the aggro to switch so fast, Beken froze momentarily before managing to roll out of the way.

KWAAANG!

The impression of Batora’s descending arm remained sharply etched into the ground.

Had he been any slower, that could’ve sent him straight to near-death or worse.

“Hmm?”

Beken furrowed his brow.

While not drastic, he could sense the boss’s movements were strangely slower than before.

“This… looks like whoever weakened him earlier didn’t just cut his HP. Hahaha!”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah, maybe we should throw them some junk loot next time we meet.”

Beken chuckled, his mood lifted, and smiles spread across the other party members’ faces.

While they didn’t know how long the slow effect would last, it was obvious it’d help them learn the boss’s patterns.

“Nothing beats free lunch, right?”

* * *

“Ahhh! Not again!”

The man clutched his head in frustration.

Rushing with his party upon hearing the loud battle sounds, they arrived only to find others already deep into fighting Batora.

Another missed respawn.

Beside him, a teammate sighed deeply.

“This is the third time… let’s just move on.”

“But let’s try a little longer. If we can just get Batora once here, we’ll be set for gear for a while!”

“Hey! What are you doing here?”

At that moment, Beken, sensing their presence, turned around.

The rest of Beken’s party chimed in too.

“Don’t interfere! Go somewhere else!”

“Let’s not cause trouble.”

“What…”

Taken aback, the newcomers were baffled by the sudden scolding.

“Yeah, yeah. We’re leaving anyway. Why are they being so oversensitive when we didn’t even say anything? Geez.”

Muttering under his breath, the man turned away first.

But Beken, still suspicious, glared sharply at them until they were completely gone.

After all, he himself was essentially a boss-stealer, making him naturally suspect others of the same.

“Tch, annoying. You’ve interrupted our flow.”

“Yo yo, healing pattern! Hurry up and stop it!”

While they were distracted, Batora had begun recovering his health.

As a creature made of condensed thoughts, he absorbed the surrounding thoughts to heal himself.

To prevent his hard-won damage reduction from reversing, they either needed to deal significant damage or apply a powerful status effect – neither of which they had skills for at their current level.

“Damn, at this rate we might even end up in the red.”

Beken muttered while chugging a mana potion after unleashing a round of skills.

Though the repeating pattern was simple,

the boss’s difficulty far exceeded their expectations. With only three of them, inexperienced at this, they struggled.

And the number of potions they’d consumed during the prolonged fight had become quite substantial.

Without a healer in the party, it was unavoidable, but they hadn’t expected the battle to drag on so long.

“Now die already!”

PUFF!

Just as Bechen’s exhausted strike landed on Batora, the recovery ended.

The health bar visible through the status window showed barely 4% remaining.

Successfully breaking his recovery with so little health left was definitely good news.

At that moment, Batora raised both arms and slammed them down, creating a massive shockwave.

KOOOOM!

“AAAHHH!”

The shockwave sent the nearby party members flying.

The tank, closest to Batora, was thrown the farthest, while the archer, shooting from a distance, ironically landed nearest to the boss.

Their carefully maintained positions had been completely reversed.

“Goddamn it, I hate getting tossed around!”

After rolling on the ground, Beken cursed and got up.

Then he rushed to rescue the archer Batora was targeting.

With relatively faster movements as a swordsman, Beken pulled the archer to safety and stalled for time, allowing the knight-class tank to arrive.

Having safely weathered the crisis, they reestablished their proper positions.

The sturdy tank held the front line, drawing the boss’s attention. The agile swordsman focused on disrupting and dealing damage. And the archer in the back continuously shot arrows to whittle down the health.

“3%!”

The boss monster Batora’s health, displayed on the status window, had entered the 3% range.

Even cutting a single percent was a continuous ordeal.

And then, amidst their growing fatigue, a piece of good news came.

“KIIIIIIEEEK!”

“It’s a charge!”

As Batora approached the end, his next move was clearly a charge.

Judging from his characteristic motion, it was certain.

And charges inevitably led to recoil.

With only 3% health remaining, they could definitely finish him off during the stun from the recoil. Now they just had to avoid this last attack.

Carefully watching the writhing mass of condensed thought, Beken waited.

If he didn’t miss the signs, he could predict the direction of the charge.

“Now, dodge!”

When the charge direction was determined, Beken shouted loudly.

If they predicted the path correctly, dodging would be easy, and his comrades moved according to his call.

But right then…

PAK!

A rock flew out of nowhere and hit the archer in the back of the head.

Though the damage was minimal, the archer lost balance mid-leap and face-planted.

She briefly locked eyes with her fellow party members who had successfully dodged.

In that short moment, many emotions passed between them.

“Ahhh…”

KWADDDAK!

Crushed under Batora’s charge, the archer was instantly killed without a chance to react.

The other party members took a moment to process the situation before realizing what had happened when they saw the archer crumpled in a corner.

“What… what?”

“Who the hell is messing with us?! Show yourself immediately!”

Enraged by the unexpected interference costing a party member’s life, Beken shouted.

Had it not been for that random rock, they could’ve finished the boss cleanly without casualties. Naturally, anger boiled within them.

“Come out! XXXX!”

After waiting a moment, Beken yelled again.

Then a man jumped down from a large tree right next to them.

They hadn’t noticed him perched up there at all and stared at him in surprise.

“You… you little…!”

Recognizing Ail, Beken’s face turned red with fury.

Clearly he had returned harboring resentment over losing Batora.

“Such an X, feeling insulted now? Do you think you can handle the consequences? How dare you stab us in the back like this? I’ll report you to the guild and have you blacklisted – you’ll never set foot in this game again…!”

“You. Heretic.”

“What…?”

Confused by Ail pointing at him with an extended finger, Beken reacted dumbly.

Seeing he hadn’t understood, Ail burst out laughing and drew his longsword.

Then kindly spelled it out for them word by word.

“You guys… are heretics.”

PACHING!

A severe heretic mark appeared above the party members’ heads.