Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 850

Waves 8

The Lord of Tears, Tetraseia.

The ruler of the sixth floor—the Great Ocean.

The sixth floor was the first to be officially considered part of the middle layers, and naturally, its lord was not an opponent to be taken lightly.

Now that I had actually decided to fight it, all sorts of thoughts ran through my mind.

My heartbeat quickened.

Badump!

Lord of Chaos, Riakis.

Lord of Terror, Dreadfear.

Badump!

This would be my third raid against a Floor Lord.

I never imagined the next one would be Tetraseia.

Badump!

Strangely enough, though, the tension did not feel entirely unpleasant.

It’s not that I wasn’t afraid. I was anxious and still wondered whether we could really do this.

Badump!

But maybe this was simply how a barbarian’s body worked.

Standing on the brink of a great battle, my blood was heating up, and my body was flooding itself with excitement.

Somewhere inside me, a reckless certainty whispered that things would somehow work out.

A vision flashed through my mind.

Me, standing victorious with triumph in my grasp.

And because I caught myself thinking that—

Slap!

I struck my own cheek and snapped myself back to reality.

This kind of excitement was far better than being crushed by fear. Hundreds, thousands of times better.

But I knew this.

The reason of a modern man.

The instinct of a barbarian.

Only when those two moved together could I fight at my absolute best.

“Armin, listen carefully. I’m leaving command of the rear to you.”

I called Armin over and began explaining the battle plan.

If something unexpected happened, or if one of the moments I had specified arrived, I would be the one to shout orders to the entire group.

Even so, we still needed a basic strategy to follow.

“That’s everything. Did you understand?”

“Yes. I understand.”

Armin didn’t ask any questions, but this actually made him seem more reliable.

After all, I had seen what he was capable of.

If this stubborn yet competent guy said he understood, then he had surely understood enough.

“Haah…”

With that, every preparation I could make was complete.

Watching the main force withdraw under Armin’s command, I also took my position.

There was only one route leading into the clearing where we had stopped, and I stood directly in its way.

For a moment, I felt like Zhang Fei at Changban Bridge.

Of course, my circumstances were not quite the same as his.

Back then, Cao Cao’s army had recoiled in fear when Zhang Fei roared his challenge from the bridge.

But the monster I was about to face would never—

“…Yeah. I was wondering when you’d show up.”

Hans P had pursued us all the way here without giving up. Behind him, his group had been reduced by half, likely cut down by the fog.

“What are you staring at?” I asked.

“…Why did you stop?” he replied.

I merely shrugged.

Hans P glanced around, then asked again, “Are you… actually planning to fight that thing?”

“Why? Are you going to help me?”

At that, Hans P flinched and frowned.

For a brief moment, he seemed to think hard about it.

But given how desperate the situation was, his decision came quickly.

“Follow me! We’re going deeper!”

Yeah.

I figured you’d say that.

I simply smirked and let him pass.

Even if he had said he would stay and fight with me, I would have told him to piss off anyway.

After all, with him beside me, it would not have been strange for the Lord of the Fifth Floor to suddenly appear in the middle of the battle.

That was simply how unlucky creatures called “Hans” were.

It’s a relief he’s leaving on his own.

Watching Hans and his group descend the slope, I smirked again.

Objectively speaking, though, his choice was not exactly correct either.

He had already lost half his people. Even if he somehow made it through this safe period without trouble, the moment the next wave began, he would be in serious danger.

This isn’t the time to worry about others…!

I pushed Hans P out of my mind and looked ahead.

Our guest had arrived.

Swoosh.

The gray mist rolled forward, spreading as though it meant to swallow the entire world. From within it, two points of light fixed themselves on me, while that unsettling weeping echoed through the air.

Then, from inside the fog, a bubble emerged.

Even after using Giantization, it was still many times larger than me.

One of Tetraseia’s skills.

[Lord of Tears, Tetraseia has cast Teardrop.]

I did not bother dodging as the bubble drifted toward me.

It was a homing projectile. Even if I ran, it would simply speed up and chase me down. There was no point wasting movement.

Boom!

The instant it touched me, it burst like an overfilled balloon, splashing an unknown liquid across my entire body.

Sizzle!

Argh, damn it…

It stings.

Such was the miserable fate of a tank. Although healing spells closed my wounds almost immediately, they could not erase the memory of the pain.

…Focus.

My hair hasn’t melted yet.

Armin carried out the first order I had given him.

Swoosh!

A powerful wind blew from behind me, sweeping away the fog in front of us.

Crack!

As the mist scattered, the monster finally revealed itself.

Drip!

Since it was already in its fourth phase, it was smaller than when I had last seen it.

Of course, it was still several times larger than me.

However, compared to its island-sized form on the sixth floor, this was much more manageable.

Drip!

Its basic proportions were the same as before though:

It had a large head, a plump torso, and short arms and legs.

To put it simply, it had a body shape similar to a baby.

But there was nothing cute about it.

Drip!

For one, its face looked horribly distorted, like some pitiful creature stitched together through a mad scientist’s experiment.

Drip!

Its skin was not soft flesh, but something closer to a shell—hard, coarse, and uneven.

And that was not all.

Its entire body was riddled with holes. Head, shoulders, arms, legs, knees, feet—every part of it was covered in them, enough to make anyone with trypophobia feel sick.

And finally…

Drip!

Those blue eyes.

They were not normal eyes. Their placement and shape alone were already disturbing, but worse than that…

Is it looking down at me?

Or up at me?

I could not help wondering.

After all, its eyes were attached upside down.

Drip!

Honestly, it looked better when its eyes were covered. If it ever wanted to find a girlfriend, my advice would be to keep those bandages on—

Sizzle!

By then, it had come close enough that one step forward would put it within striking range, so I stopped critiquing its appearance in my head.

Drip!

I still had no idea why it was crying.

Tsk.

You’re a grown man.

If I lost to a crying man-baby like this, I would never be able to face my ancestors with my head held high.

So—

“Bethel-RAAAAAAA!”

I would win.

***

A tense silence settled between us.

Tetraseia watched me without moving, and I met its gaze head-on.

Of course, that stillness lasted only a moment.

It was a Floor Lord, after all. Its nature had not changed.

It was a monster born from the labyrinth itself, made to despise explorers and tear them apart.

Fwip!

Its front limb swept toward me.

Was it trying to test my strength?

As though I were playing a rhythm game, I raised my shield at precisely the right moment.

Bang!

The blow slammed into my guard.

I blocked it, but the impact still shook through my entire body. Even so, judging by the damage I took and how far I was pushed back…

This is manageable.

If I judged it purely by raw physical damage, this thing was actually easier to handle than the Snictura I had fought in Arta’s Secret Base.

Of course, that did not mean Snictura was stronger overall.

Physical attacks simply were not Tetraseia’s specialty.

For example—

Splash!

A strange liquid sprayed toward me from the countless holes in its arms.

It was not even a skill.

Just as wolves had claws and goblin warriors carried swords, this was simply one of its natural traits.

Sizzle!

Every time it attacked, acid scattered everywhere.

“Ugh…”

It hurt like hell.

I had felt it last time too, but this thing was an absolute nightmare to tank. Even with healing magic closing my wounds almost instantly, I had to force my mind to stop reacting to every burst of pain.

Crack…

Of course, I could not let that show.

If my spirit broke here, the people behind me would lose their will to fight as well.

So—

[Character has cast Swing.]

I drove my hammer into its face.

As a shield barbarian, I knew better than anyone how ridiculous it was to expect a simple hammer blow to seriously damage a Floor Lord.

But this attack was never meant to kill it.

It was a signal.

One action could say more than a thousand words.

Bang!

Now, we bring this monster down.

***

“Now!”

“Fire!”

“Uraaaaah! We’re taking down a Floor Lord!”

The moment my hammer struck, the main force unleashed their attacks.

[Lord of Tears, Tetraseia has cast Spillover.]

The true raid began as the boss started using its skills, and the opening stage proceeded according to plan.

Shwooo!

Acid poured from the holes across its body and spilled down into the ravine below.

For a moment, I thought of Hans down there.

Hopefully, he does not get caught up in this.

[Character is within range of Despair.]

[Status condition: Grief has been applied.]

[Strong impulses will periodically manifest.]

Because of its passive skill, Grief, we had to keep checking how much everyone was crying at regular intervals.

The tears served as a warning sign.

[A deep sadness toward yourself begins to manifest.]

Once that message appeared, the affected person would fall under a self-harm condition, causing eighty percent of their attacks to turn back on themselves.

That was why—

“Ms. Emblut, your tears…! Stop casting!”

The moment someone’s tears began to fall, we forced them to stop attacking and focus on wiping them away.

Time continued to pass.

Drip, drop…

The rain pouring from the sky grew heavier, both in speed and intensity.

That was proof that the boss’s health was dropping. Its other passive skill, Endless Rain, grew stronger the lower its remaining health became.

Eventually, once the rain turned into a storm so violent that keeping our eyes open became difficult, it would mean the boss was close to death.

[Tetraseia’s sadness deepens once more.]

[Due to the effect of Endless Rain, the planted flowers begin attacking its enemies.]

When its health dropped below seventy percent, the flowers that had appeared around the battlefield would transform into disposable monsters.

Normally, we would have been forced to deal with them then, but we had already taken the trouble to blow them up beforehand.

The only real difference in this fight is the battlefield.

And that alone makes it much easier.

In truth, this entire raid was originally meant to take place on the open sea.

There were a few mechanics we could not use properly because we were fighting on land, but even so, one thing was obvious.

Fighting on solid ground was far easier.

[Lord of Tears, Tetraseia has cast Spillover.]

Spillover.

Under normal circumstances, every time the boss used this skill, minions would rise from the ocean.

Drip, drip.

The painful rain falling on us right now would have been much harder to endure on a ship’s deck.

After all, the moment the ship sank, it would be over.

Despair was just as dangerous.

Because of how Tetraseia’s raid worked, we had no choice but to rely on ranged attacks. But if the self-harm condition caused a spell to turn back on its caster, there was a chance it could destroy the ship instead.

And if that happened, it would be an instant wipe for everyone.

But that still was not the end of it.

This was not the kind of boss a tank could handle properly.

Unlike most raids, fighting the Lord of Tears required a sturdy, high-grade ship and ranged attackers with serious firepower.

For someone whose role was to stand at the front and soak up damage, it was an awful matchup.

[Tetraseia’s sadness deepens once more.]

That was why I usually avoided this boss when playing a tank barbarian.

“…Kiyaaaaaaa!”

Tetraseia suddenly writhed in place and let out a shriek filled with pain.

The sight and sound dragged my focus back to the monster.

Splish, splash, splash!

The falling rain had grown much heavier, each drop stretching longer as it fell.

[Lord of Tears, Tetraseia has cast Twisted Endurance.]

[Pain resistance has decreased by 1,000.]

[Natural regeneration has greatly increased.]

I braced myself harder than ever before.

This was not a game anymore.

I was standing here in reality.

[Character’s pain resistance has decreased by 300.]

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