The Art of Combat: A Hands-On Lesson

“Do you have anything you’d like to ask?”

“W-we have to do that?”

“Of course, you do. That’s why I’m demonstrating it.”

I wondered why he was stating the obvious. I smiled brightly, a hint of mischief in my gaze. Jack, meanwhile, was trembling, his hands clamped over his mouth.

A faint scraping sound echoed across the floor. Instinctively, I sprang forward, rolling out of the way. The Twisted Pilgod stomped its foot where I had been, lunging forward with its body, only to flail wildly in the empty air.

Thud, thud, thud—!! It stumbled a few steps, losing its balance, and toppled face-first.

I pointed at the back of the fallen Pilgod’s head.

“Sometimes, these sudden patterns emerge. In such cases, you must listen carefully. If a certain number of attacks fail to connect and the distance is too close, it will attempt a body slam. When that happens, you’ll hear the sound of its toes scraping the floor.”

“How am I supposed to hear a toe scraping sound?! It’s slamming down so hard, the ground is shaking!”

“That’s why you need to concentrate. Don’t just focus on the club right in front of your eyes. You have to fight while observing this entire nest. Though this is a beginner’s area with nothing much around, sometimes statues or additional decorations can corner or trap you.”

With my back to the staggering Pilgod, which was now slowly getting to its feet, I stretched both arms out into the air.

“I’m not fighting just that demon; I’m fighting this entire location, the demon included. I’m confronting everything within this single space.”

Most people, when faced with a fight, tend to focus solely on their opponent. However, true combat involves contending with the very space and time in which it occurs. It requires considering the terrain, objects, environment, and even the creatures moving within it.

Spotting a shadow falling at my feet, I quickly bent at the waist. The club swept harmlessly over my head. Then, with a series of wide rolls—left, right, then left again—I deftly evaded the ensuing attacks.

“Honestly, I was hoping for ‘Crying Child Meme’ to appear. That one is slow, perfect for practicing techniques. But now that I see it, the Pilgod seems quite decent too. After all, you need a certain amount of speed for parrying practice to be fun, don’t you? Too slow is just boring.”

“Champion of the Void! Specter who leaves no name! Why do you mock us so cruelly?!”

The Pilgod isn’t supposed to speak. It should only roar in agony. Yet, here it was, speaking and acting completely erratically. I turned to the demon, which was screaming in rage, and chuckled.

“I have no regrets. I’ve simply come to enjoy hunting demons.”

The clunky Pilgod stomped its foot down with great force. I rolled to evade it, continuing my speech.

“If I don’t enjoy it, how can I possibly keep fighting?”

To pioneer what others wouldn’t, to accomplish what was forbidden, to achieve what was deemed useless—was that not the essence of a player?

“Still, I’ve only killed you a little over a hundred times. Though that’s probably because you’re no fun and drop nothing anyway.”

“I-I! I am a loyal servant to the ‘King of Lament Porta’! Do not reduce me to your mere amusement!”

“Is it fine for you to toy with humans, but forbidden for me, a human, to enjoy myself with you?”

I let out a peal of laughter, and the Pilgod made a strange face. I’d thought, given its lore as a creature draped in corpse skin, that it couldn’t express itself. But it seemed it could make such a despairing face after all. How curious.

“Aaaargh—!! I! I, to merely! To a human who won’t even leave behind a name—!!!”

“Whoa there, what’s the point of leaving a name anyway? It’s all futile, you know. Hup!”

Thud, thud, claaang! I parried all of Pilgod’s frantic club attacks with my shield, the cacophony deafening. Dismissing the summoned sword in my hand, I focused solely on parrying, deflecting every blow. The final strike I evaded with a swift roll backward.

“This is a move that usually appears when half its HP is gone in Phase 1, isn’t it strange? I haven’t even properly attacked it.”

“Human! Your, your name is what?!”

“Why do you want to know that?”

At my words, the Pilgod let out a cry that sounded almost like a sob.

“At least! If you are a true warrior! If you understand honor, then at least leave your name!”

“I don’t care about such things. All my radiance belongs to our Goddess Debora. What do I care for worldly glory? My deity is watching. And NPCs, as long as they’re happy, naturally wouldn’t care about my name anyway.”

“It’s for my end, not yours! Do you have no mercy to reveal against whom I fought?!”

“‘I Want to Bang Faust’.”

At my words, the Pilgod froze, its face utterly dumbfounded. Why was it like that?

“You asked me to tell you.”

“How much further do you intend to mock me—!!!”

“If you don’t like it, call me Haut. Haut of the Void.”

Thud, thud, thud, whoosh—!! Honestly, I don’t understand why it’s reacting like this after asking for my name and getting one.

I evaded its attacks, still bewildered. From the other side, Jack’s scream erupted.

“Even now, you want to say something like that?! You’ll die if you keep this up!”

“And what’s with you? Judging by its reaction, it seems demons can’t understand my name either.”

“What do you intend to do to our Captain?!”

“Just raise him well and have him hunt demons.”

I wasn’t sure why Faust was brought up here, but I mostly ignored it. The Pilgod was making such a noisy racket that I couldn’t hear well anyway. I parried all of its attacks or rolled across the floor to evade them.

Then, a thought suddenly struck me.

“Ah, are you all bored just watching? Shall I give you a little taste?”

“W-what are you trying to do…?”

I approached the protective barrier I’d erected, grabbed Jack’s hand, and yanked him out. Why Jack? Simply because he was closest. There was no particular reason. Jack flailed as he was pulled toward me, but I held him in a firm embrace.

“W-what are you going to do?”

“To let you experience the sensation of parrying firsthand. I won’t make you do it immediately.”

Then, I placed a shield in Jack’s hand. I hugged Jack from behind, overlapping my arms with his to grasp the shield together.

“Just watching certainly isn’t much fun.”

“N-no! This isn’t a matter of fun—!!”

Whoosh—! Whoosh—! The Pilgod charged like a runner, swinging its club. With Jack still clutched in one arm, I rolled twice backward before springing to my feet.

Jack, held tight against me, thrashed like a fish out of water. Despite his struggles, I deliberately held him tighter, resting my chin on his shoulder.

“Don’t panic. Miss the timing, and you’ll be a bloody mess. If you get completely pulverized, you’ll simply die.”

“Th-this…!! You shouldn’t just do this out of nowhere—!!”

“Focus. Here it comes.”

I gripped the shield Jack held, our hands overlapping, and swung it. Just as the club was about to crush his head, I angled the shield—to the side, up, down.

For the barrage that followed, I rolled forward, striking the Pilgod’s leg.

Thud, thud, clash! The staggering Pilgod slammed its club onto the ground, stopping behind us to catch its breath.

“Fun, isn’t it? You have to get that feeling of deflecting the club just before it hits your head. Too fast, and you’ll swing at air; too slow, and your head will explode.”

“What’s s-so fun about this kind of thing…?”

“Scared? You’re a priest of Hamman, but fundamentally, you’re a warrior. Why are you such a coward?”

“I-I’ll die!”

“You won’t die. I told you I wouldn’t let you die.”

Jack’s extreme fear worried me. I couldn’t understand why he was trembling so violently over a mere swinging club. Anyone watching would think an earthquake had struck.

The Pilgod, seemingly furious, continued to swing its club relentlessly. Still holding Jack, I blocked and rolled to evade every one of its attacks.

But at some point, the kid went silent.

“Jack, are you watching properly?”

He was just panting, struggling for breath. His legs seemed to have given out, merely flailing as I dragged him along.

“Are you exhausted just from being held? How weak are you, exactly?”

“Who would be sane facing something like this?!”

“You still have the energy to scream, though. Oh, want to try using a sword? Slicing the Pilgod is quite satisfying.”

I summoned a one-handed sword into Jack’s grip. It was a beautiful, translucent magic blade, formed from mana.

“I was planning to do a bit more and then show you some offensive skills, but since your damage will be low anyway, just hit it as much as you like.”

“I don’t care about any of that. I’m just scared…”

“Hit it to your heart’s content. It’s fine. The Pilgod is slow as molasses.”

Regardless of whether the Pilgod heard me and got angry, I urged Jack to try attacking. Jack swung the sword with trembling hands, but it was utterly ineffective.

“Don’t just swing wildly like that; put more power into it. Hitting this guy is quite satisfying, I tell you. You won’t hit it if you do it like that.”

Jack was merely breathing, silent. He said nothing. Even the sword he’d been clutching slipped from his grasp, de-summoning and vanishing.

“Hmm, the kid is too frail.”

Seeing the fresh green sprout on his head did calm my mind somewhat. Right, he’s just a sprout, not even level 20. It’s understandable he’d tire quickly.

I released Jack, pushing him back inside the protective barrier. Nocturne, who had been restlessly tapping his foot for some reason, caught Jack.

“This time, you try. It’s really fun.”

“Ah, no! Sir Haut, I don’t have to—!!”

“It’s an inspection, an observation. Just try watching. It’s boring to watch from inside, isn’t it?”

After all, watching a movie in 4D is always more exciting. I tightly hugged Faust from behind, who was flailing his arms, trying to escape, and placed a shield in his hands.

Clang! Clang! Crash—!! For some reason, the Pilgod looked even more exhausted than before. How strange. I’d only been parrying, so why was it so withered?

“Pilgod, get it together. Can you even swat a fly like that?”

“How long do you intend to keep, doing, this—!!”

“It’s nothing much. Just until the kids get a little interested, perhaps? So, perk up a bit. You’re supposed to be enhanced, aren’t you? I hope you’ll bring out plenty of new patterns. If you’re tired, should I cast a heal on you?”

There was no way its HP had decreased after only a few attacks. Even knowing that, just in case, I cast a heal and a speed-boosting spell on it. Immediately, the Pilgod became livelier than before, beginning to rampage even more wildly.

Thud-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang—!!! As soon as the recovery and speed-boosting magic took effect, it began a furious barrage. I gripped Faust’s hands tightly, overlapping mine, parrying every blow as I asked.

“How is it? The power is different when you’re up close, isn’t it? This is much more fun, right?”

“Uh, uhh… y-yeah, I guess so…”

Though his response was far from enthusiastic, he seemed better than Jack. Jack had been screaming and making a huge fuss. That one definitely couldn’t ride roller coasters or similar attractions. He was simply far too timid.

This time, the Pilgod leaped high into the air. Oh, no. Still holding Faust, I immediately used [Blink] to escape.

“It sometimes thrashes around like that, but it’s easy to tell because it jumps so high. When it jumps like that, it’ll charge straight ahead without fail. Understood?”

As expected, Faust didn’t seem to be listening to me either. The Pilgod, apparently enraged, screamed and charged. But after a few parries and a shield bash from me, it slid all the way to the opposite side and rolled away.

“After it rampages, it’s a charge attack, just like the very first one. Don’t relax just because you evaded it; raise your shield immediately. You could use a sword, but you’re not quite at that level yet.”

“C-can we really do this?”

“Of course, you can.” I smiled brightly, nudging Faust back inside the protective barrier.

“I’ll make you do it. What’s there that can’t be done?”

If a person tries, anything can be achieved, you know?

After all, demons’ default targeting is centered around the player. They only attack allied NPCs if the player is too far away for an attack, or if the allied NPC deals overwhelmingly high damage.

Crash—!! I raised my shield above my head, looking up at the Pilgod, who was behind me.

“My kids seem tired. Nocturne can go next… For now, I’ll just show them some offensive skills. Seeing something flashy might get them interested, right?”

The Pilgod’s shoulder seemed to twitch. Must be my imagination, right?