Chapter 47: Unkillable Nightmare Warden
Darien didn’t understand the Warden’s words, nor did he care to. His purpose alone was to slay the monster, not to exchange fatuous talk that reeked of arrogance and deceit.
Spinning his blade once, he resisted the oppressive aura imposed on him by the BOSS monster, feeling the dense air grind against his lungs.
"You think you’ve been slaying shadows, when in truth, every step and every strike has been feeding me. You are already mine."
As those words echoed, the Warden’s figure rose from the massive throne, the ancient stone beneath creaking as if it too feared what was about to awaken.
His robes unraveled like smoke, shadows swelling like a stream, and the enormous sword at his feet began throbbing with life.
The subdungeon BOSS stood at least two meters tall, a constant haze of darkness clinging to him, making it impossible to tell where cloth ended and shadow began.
His robes of gloom never ceased shifting, nor did the wave of dark aura crashing upon Darien, heavy and suffocating, pressing against his chest like the weight of a thousand unseen hands.
"Your presence here pleases me. I am honored to flatten you before your story even begins," the Warden declared. "Brace yourself, cursed one."
Darien narrowed his eyes, using the effects of the Nightseer Potion to perceive the faint traces of steel armor beneath all that darkness.
He wondered why the BOSS was so overly confident, muttering sentences that sounded almost prophetic, as though he knew more about Darien than Darien himself did!
’Doesn’t matter.’
Darien muttered to himself before releasing <Solar Purge> to annihilate the subdungeon BOSS in one decisive killing blow.
The blinding flare exploded across the lair, swallowing the walls, the throne, and the suffocating fog in holy fire.
Yet when the light condensed, the Nightmare Warden still stood exactly where he had been—unmoved, his tall figure untouched.
Darien was taken aback, staring at the monster who remained unscathed, and at the rigid megasword drinking in the light.
"Your strength is nothing here," the Warden intoned, his eyes igniting with the same violet substance as his subjects.
Darien narrowed his eyes once more, judging that the BOSS might possess a magical shield, and an immensely powerful one at that.
In that case, he needed to cast a spell that would bypass it entirely.
Rising with <Gravion Control>, Darien manifested a space rift above the Warden.
<Abyssal Fracture> warped the air as the rift tore open behind the monster’s throne, pulling with violent force at everything in the lair.
The stone walls cracked, pillars strained, and the fog was devoured, yet the Nightmare Warden remained motionless, planted like an unmovable monolith.
When the rift closed with a violent slam and the explosion thundered across the chamber, shaking the lair to its very foundations, the BOSS still did not flinch, shadows curling undisturbed around him, mocking Darien’s efforts.
’What...?’
This time, Darien knew that no shield could possibly resist both suction and explosion damage without the user even flinching.
Something was deeply wrong here!
(BOSS)
(Nightmare Warden)
(HP: ???)
(Affinity: Shadow, Arcane)
(Rank 1 Stray!)
—-----------
(STR: ??)
(AGI: ??)
(PER: ??)
(Skills: ???)
’Inspection block...?’
"What are you?" Darien demanded, gripping his Rare weapon tightly, its flames roaring to life.
The Warden tilted its head, the glow in its eyes sharpening as it lifted its greatsword as though admiring it. "The one who decides your fate here."
"Save your riddles," Darien snapped back, his stance firming, his gaze narrowing into focus. "You will fall..."
The BOSS grumbled at the aspirant’s audacity before suddenly dashing forward, far too quick and far too abrupt for his immense size.
~fwwwisshhh!
A storm of motion followed in his wake, nearly a hundred shadowy afterimages trailing behind him as he closed the gap with the warrior in barely a second.
Darien’s eyes widened in shock at such impossible speed, but he reacted instantly, whipping his blade lengthwise to meet the monster’s.
~CLANGSH!
Fiery steel met shadow-forged steel, the impact ringing like thunder as a torrent of sparks burst outward and vanished into the smoky air.
Darien gritted his teeth as the Warden’s crushing strength bore down upon him, his arms trembling under the immense pressure that felt almost otherworldly.
’He’s just as strong as he’s fast?’
Meeting face-to-face, the Warden’s eyes flared brighter as he released, then struck again—more brutal than the first attack.
The megablade carved downward with monstrous weight, and Darien barely managed to twist Heatbringer up in time, the blow rattling through his bones and threatening to shatter his stance as his feet sank slightly into the ground.
"You are strong, aspirant!" the Warden proclaimed, raising his sword once again to deliver another devastating strike, his voice echoing like a war drum.
But Darien’s Flow surged, and he vanished from the spot of impact with <Perfect Stealth>.
He wasn’t as fast as the BOSS, but he was faster than the BOSS’s weapon, his instincts honed sharp through countless near-death battles.
With a breath of space between them, Darien hovered quickly as the BOSS lunged again with his sword.
Before the monster could swing, the warrior had already manifested <Frostfang Javelin>, hurling the spear of ice straight toward its eye.
Frost hissed through the lair, only to shatter into a thousand pieces the instant it touched the Warden’s shadowy form.
It didn’t pierce him, nor did it explode into a field of ice crystals.
"You throw spears of frost at the night?" the BOSS uttered, brushing away the faint ice fragments that clung to him.
He appeared utterly unfazed, tilting his head slightly, those glowing eyes gleaming like twin lanterns.
Then, with a sharp twist of his wrist, the Warden raised his blade high and slashed sideways through the air—not at Darien, but at the lair itself.
The cut split the very mist apart, sending a razor-thin slice of shadow crashing outward, threatening to swallow everything in its path.
Darien burst away from the wave with <Gravion Control>, the shadow crashing and sealing behind him like a closing wall.
Lunging forward, he counterattacked, slashing his sword diagonally.
CLANGSH!
The Warden welcomed the clash, his greatsword meeting Darien’s smaller blade head-on.
Steel smashed against steel again and again, fire licking shadow, sparks bursting with every collision as the chamber roared with the force of their duel.
’I understand it now,’ Darien thought with aching arms, still refusing to yield even a step to the BOSS monster.
The Warden’s colossal blade crashed down once more, and Darien barely managed to block it in time.
One clash bled into another, a relentless storm of steel that left no space for hesitation.
’So when they say subdungeons are designed for breakthroughs, they don’t just mean in rank,’ Darien thought between blows, his sharp eyes locked on the Warden’s deliberate, disciplined movements.
’I’ve been getting it wrong all along. No matter how strong you are...’
Clang! Clang!
The duel carried on, their weapons colliding in a brutal rhythm—fire and shadow carving across the air with every sweeping arc.
’...you can’t slay a subdungeon boss without fighting the right way!’
Darien drifted backward, keeping his distance, content that he now had a slight height advantage.
He had yet to inflict a single meaningful blow on the Nightmare Warden, while the BOSS had struck him several times, each hit absorbed by his weakening shield.
’Look at his sword, his technique, his rhythm, and his movements,’ Darien realized before engaging once more, their blades clashing again in a dazzling burst of elemental fury and mystique.
Clang!
With their weapons locked, sparks crackled fiercely between them, both gazing into each other with unreal, burning eyes.
’The right way... is by weapon precision!’ Darien confirmed to himself.
Subdungeons were always far more difficult than normal dungeons, and that was because they weren’t meant to be cleared by raw strength alone.
Each was designed to force a warrior into a breakthrough of some kind; perhaps a technique, a skill, or a deeper comprehension.
And unless one fought in the exact way the trial demanded, the BOSS could never truly be slain.
Darien understood now why every spell he’d hurled at the monster had fizzled to nothing.
If he wanted to bring this foe down, he had to defeat it in the very thing it excelled at.
CLANG!
The impact rattled the warrior’s arms as the force sent him sliding backward, his boots screeching harshly across the stone until he finally came to a stop.
Breathing heavily, Darien could feel his shield weakening by the second. One more strike, and it might shatter completely—only then could he summon another.
The Warden stomped forward, a two-meter-tall beast of darkness, dragging its shadow-forged steel across the floor, violet eyes burning and leaking energy like smoke.
’I understand now.’
Darien exhaled slowly, tightening his grip on Heatbringer. He let the weight of the battle sink in, a silent reminder that he was leaving this lair either dead or victorious.
This duel demanded weapon precision, and the warrior was ready to give it everything he had.