The Goblin King swung horizontally this time. Since my flag was planted vertically into the ground, there was no clean way to dodge around it.
Well—technically, I could dodge the attack myself.
But the flag would still get hit, dispelling the buff zone until I could replant the flag again. And that brief window without the buff would be dangerous for the girls, especially since they'd be losing the 100% defense boost.
"No choice...!"
I had to hold my ground!
With my free hand, I summoned a small dagger from inventory, equipping it—another drop from the goblins we'd hunted along the way. Nothing remarkable, just standard trash-tier loot weapon.
But having it in hand let me do something else.
I watched the giant sword complete its wide horizontal arc.
Too broad to jump back from, too sweeping to roll through. I could jump over it, or duck under, but that wasn't what I had in mind.
With my senses sharp, I quickly identified the weapon's center of mass. I adjusted my position to intercept at exactly that point, and—
"HAAAP!"
—swung the dagger upward with my left hand.
PERFECT PARRY!
A new green notification type flashed as the action resolved.
At the same time, the boss's giant sword swung upward, almost as if it hit a solid wall. The attack completely interrupted. Furthermore, as a result of being parried, the Goblin King dropped into a short "weakened" state—wheezing, one knee on the ground.
"What?" I sneered down at it, watching its crown slide sideways on its head. "Didn't expect a little dagger to knock your big sword around~?"
The parry I just did wasn't a skill, strictly speaking.
Well—it was a skill, but not one I currently had learned through the game system. I'd just reverse-engineered the underlying logic and motion to activate it manually. Most skills in Heaven's Path, especially the powerful ones, could be triggered that way.
In fact, most of the best skills in the game didn't even have a formal "skill" equivalent at all.
"Anyway—now!"
With the boss staggered, it was the ideal window to start chipping away at its HP.
Miyabi and Ram didn't need telling twice. Both of them came in from either side of the Goblin King—still twice their height even when it was down on one knee—and hit it with their strongest attacks.
Aiming for the head, naturally. The critical bonus was worth it.
"Iai Slash! Ugh...! It's so tough!"
CRITICAL!
86!!!
"Die for my Master!"
CRITICAL!
75!!!
As expected, their damage was heavily suppressed against the boss. The Goblin King's defense had cut their output down to roughly a fifth of their normal range.
I looked up at the massive HP bar above its head and smiled thinly, watching it drop by a few small blips. About 2% of the total bar. Thinking about the natural recovery speed of the boss...
"This is going to take a while." I muttered.
As the Goblin King started hauling itself back upright, both girls quickly fell back.
Just as we'd planned.
For now, dealing damage wasn't the priority.
We needed to map out its attack patterns first.
Aside from the specials it would use at 50% and 25% HP, the rest were a complete unknown—even to me.
I'd never actually fought a Goblin King before, after all.
"Ram, hold its attention from the front! FleetingCloud, be ready to swap in when Ram's HP gets too low!" I called out.
Compared to Miyabi, whose stats were almost entirely dumped into STR, Ram was more balanced across the board—since her stats were mirrored from mine. Her defense, specifically, was roughly five times higher. Meaning, she took about a fifth of the damage Miyabi would from the same hit.
Keeping her on the frontline until we'd mapped all the patterns was the right call.
And as it turned out, Ram's high AGI meant she dodged most attacks outright rather than tanking them. Miyabi never even needed to rotate in. Thanks to that, we were able to read all of the Goblin King's patterns without much trouble.
There were numerous variants, but roughly grouped, there's three of them total.
The first was a basic swing. Vertical, horizontal, or diagonal—mostly telegraphed from its right side. Linear and easy to read once you'd seen it once.
The second was a skill-type. The giant sword's blade split into three edges as it swept a wide arc across the front. It reminded me of a skill I already knew the name of, so I just called it "Tri-Slash (Temp.)" for now.
The third was the most unpredictable.
The Goblin King would stab its sword into the ground and fling rock fragments forward in a wide conical spread—basically a shotgun blast. Completely random dispersion, which made it harder to dodge or block cleanly compared to the other two.
Once we had all three patterns mapped, and I'd walked both of them through the ranges and gaps in each attack, the real fight could begin.
"FleetingCloud!" I signaled.
I only called for Miyabi, but Ram was already moving at the same time.
She slid directly under the Goblin King, drawing the monster's attention downward. It reacted by stepping back and stabbing its sword straight down—like trying to crush something underfoot. Ram didn't dodge. She angled her small shield and let the blade slide off to one side.
Not quite a parry in the strict sense, but close enough.
With the sword embedded in the ground, the boss paused to wrench it back out before it could attack again.
That small gap was Miyabi's cue.
She ran up Ram's back, launched off her shoulder, and adjusted her posture mid-air—grip tight, aim locked.
"Iai Slash!"
This time the target wasn't the monster's head. It was the soft, exposed, yellowed eye!
CRITICAL!
482!!!
Exactly as we'd expected—the damage difference was dramatic. It basically had no damage reduction at all!
"GRAAAH!"
The Goblin King staggered backward, swinging its sword wildly in all directions. Obviously agitated and in a panicked state.
Even so—this was a game, not reality.
The hit hadn't destroyed the eye. It had only carved out about 5% of the boss's HP. The dramatic spray of red and the violent reaction made it look devastating, but the next moment the Goblin King just blinked and reset, as if nothing had happened.
It really wasn't anything close to reality.
"Over here!"
Miyabi's burst had pulled the boss's aggro squarely onto her. But Ram stepped in immediately, swapping positions and laying into the Goblin King's ankles and shins with rapid, shallow slashes. The damage per hit was minimal, but it generated hate fast.
Fast enough that the Goblin King quickly lost interest in Miyabi and swung its attention back to Ram.
And so the cycle continued—Ram up front soaking attention and dodging, Miyabi sitting back and watching for her window. When Ram forced another parry and the boss staggered, Miyabi rushed in with a burst, then fell back immediately after.
That rhythm carried on for around ten minutes before the HP bar finally told us something.
"Goblin King is hitting 50%!" I shouted. "Watch for something—could be a phase transition!"
"Roger!"
Miyabi answered sharp.
Our planning hadn't extended this far, of course.
Technically, this was the first clear of the Goblin King on record. If I started calling out exactly what was about to happen, it would look suspicious. So I kept it vague—a warning that made sense whether it came true or not.
Ram's steady chipping finally nudged the HP bar across the threshold.
The Goblin King went still. Its chin tilted up slowly, as if drawing in a long, deep breath.
"Get behind me, both of you!"
Just the motion alone made it obvious something was coming. What, exactly, we didn't "know" yet—so rallying together to cover each other was the natural, logical response.
I knew exactly what was coming, of course.
The Goblin King's Roar.
A special that inflicted Fear and Staggered status on every player caught in front of it.
The counter was simple—move behind the boss within the five-second wind-up window. But doing that preemptively, before the attack even fired, would look far too convenient given what we'd just seen.
We couldn't dodge in advance. But there was another way.
"Huuuffff...!"
I drew in a deep breath, timing it to match the Goblin King.
"ROOOOOARRR!"
"HAAAAAAAAH!"
At the exact moment the boss let it loose, I roared back.
It must've looked absurd from the outside—but—
"W-What was that, a roar-type attack?!" Miyabi caught on almost immediately. "And you countered it by yelling back?!" She'd even figured out the mechanic on her own.
She was exactly right.
The Roar was just compressed soundwaves. Matching it with a shout of equal force was enough to cancel it out. My throat felt raw from the effort, but it had worked.
"Its combos should be faster now that it's in phase two." I said, voice carrying a slight rasp. "We can still handle it though. Ram, take the front again!"
And just like that, we pressed on—chipping at the boss steadily, grinding it down bit by bit.