I Am a Villain, So What?-Chapter 112: The Boss Fight [1]

[INTRUDER DETECTED.]

The voice didn’t come from a mouth. It vibrated through the floorboards, a grinding tectonic sound that rattled my teeth.

As soon as the Golem awakened, the pressure in the room multiplied. The sheer weight of its mana presence was suffocating.

Beside me, Alicia stopped breathing. Her eyes were fixed on the twenty-foot titan rising from its kneeling position, her face drained of all color. She was paralyzed.

"Hey. Snap out of it."

I tapped Alicia’s cheek—hard.

She blinked, but she was still in a dazed state, unable to process the reality in front of her.

"N-no..." she stammered, her voice pitching up. "That’s a Golem! A High-Grade Combat Golem! How on earth are we supposed to catch that with just two of us? We’re going to be paste!"

"If we just remove the force field, it’s just a pile of rocks," I said calmly.

"Just remove it?!" Alicia shrieked. "That’s a [Mana Force Field]! It can withstand siege magic! To strip it, you’d need a squad of Arch-Mages or a weapon made of pure Adamantite! We have neither!"

"We have something better."

I clenched my left hand.

"System. Activate Skill."

[Skill: Dark Arts - Mana Corrosion]

Hummmm.

A dark, oily mist began to seep from my pores, coating my hand in a shroud of black light. It wasn’t the clean, elemental mana of a mage. It was murky, oppressive, and silent.

I had bought this from the System Shop specifically for this floor. I couldn’t always depend on guns and explosions. Sometimes, a Villain needed to play dirty.

[Mana Corrosion (Lv. 1)]

Type: Active / Touch-BasedEffect: Upon physical contact, rapidly destabilizes and devours the target’s active mana structures. Highly effective against constructs and barriers.

Alicia stared at my hand, her mouth hanging open. The sight of such ominous mana made her instinctively recoil.

"Golems move with mana. You know that, right?" I asked, waving my blackened hand in front of her.

"Y-Yes..."

"They are protected by a force field made of mana, and their joints operate on mana hydraulics. They are basically big batteries."

I clenched my fist, the black mist swirling hungrily.

"So, if I can just get close and touch it... that thing becomes a paperweight."

I pointed at the glowing blue core in the center of the Golem’s chest.

"I’ll handle the force field removal and neutralization. When the barrier drops and the core is exposed, you hit it with everything you have. [Fire Lance]. [Explosion]. I don’t care. Just smash it."

"...What?"

Alicia looked at me with horror.

"A-Are you sane, Boss? You’re going to face that alone? You have to touch it? It will swat you like a fly before you get within five meters!"

"Hey, you know I’ve cleared a few dungeons before. Why are you so surprised?"

"Those were F-Rank dungeons!" she yelled, grabbing my collar. "The Boss Monsters there were overgrown goblins! This is a B-Rank! Something that only an elite Kill Team from a major Guild dares to fight! How can you tank that?!"

"Starting now."

I answered, cutting off Alicia’s frantic shout.

Before she could argue further, I stepped into the Boss Room.

"B-Boss? Wait! This crazy person really—!"

I kept walking.

Behind me, I heard a frustrated groan, followed by the sound of rapid footsteps. Alicia followed me in, tears literally hanging from the corners of her eyes.

"..."

She makes such a fuss, screaming about death and logic, but she follows me into hell anyway.

She’s a strange kid.

"Did you bring me here to die with you, Boss?" she whimpered, drawing her rapier with trembling hands. "If you wanted me dead, you could have just poisoned my tea! I wanted a peaceful death! Not to be crushed into mince meat by a angry building!"

"Calm down. And get ready to cast."

I looked ahead, focusing on the enemy.

The Golem had fully risen. Blue mana, supplied from its core, flowed through its obsidian veins like neon blood.

THUD.

It took one step forward. The entire room shook. Dust fell from the ceiling.

The massive red rubies that served as its eyes swiveled down, locking onto me.

[TARGET ACQUIRED: LV. 16 HUMAN.] [THREAT LEVEL: NEGLIGIBLE.] [COMMENCING EXTERMINATION.]

It clearly wasn’t an atmosphere to invite us for tea time.

Alicia stood by my side, her rapier glowing with orange flames as she channeled her magic.

"...I’m asking for the very last time," she whispered, her voice trembling but her stance solid. "Are you sure? We can catch that, right?"

Hmm.

She was asking if I’ve caught a Golem before.

In Asteria Online, this guy was the gatekeeper for the mid-game content. I had farmed him hundreds of times for crafting materials. I knew every attack frame, every cooldown, every glitch.

"Well."

I answered with a smirk, racking the bolt of my shotgun one last time.

"What kind of question are you asking a veteran?"

****

Fear comes from the unknown.

The emotion Alicia currently held for her employer could be summarized by that single sentence.

If you were to ask why she felt that way, you would have to go back to the exchange they had just moments ago, right before he stepped into the lion’s den.

"So, I’ll hit it once to test the waters, figure out what type it is, and then based on the data, we’ll conquer it. Done."

"..."

Was he even saying this as if it made sense?

In theory, it was a logical story. Automaton-type monsters operated on strict algorithms. If you knew the code, you could predict the movement.

However, the requirements to execute that theory were insane.

You needed the Agility to dodge a fist the size of a carriage that would turn you into paste if it grazed you. You needed the Insight to immediately identify which of the thousands of Golem variants it was just by a glance. And you needed the Composure to apply this immediately in real combat while the ground was shaking beneath your feet.

If even one of these went wrong, it was suicide.

"So how are you going to ’deal’ with the force field?!" Alicia had screamed.

"Well, there’s this."

Lucien had waved his hand, showing the dark, corrupting mana of [Mana Corrosion].

"It destroys mana structures on contact. But... I have to touch the Core directly. Skin to stone."

That was the key. And the madness.

To win, he had to get within zero range of a walking siege engine.

"Who knows," Lucien had answered her terror with a shrug. "So if I don’t want to die, I just have to succeed. Simple."

And then, the man moved.

[Present Time]

"What...!"

Alicia’s scream died in her throat.

ROAAAAAR!

The Combat Golem raised its massive stone arm, roaring with a deafening, mechanical cry that shook dust from the ceiling.

From its stance—feet planted wide, torso twisting—it was clear what kind of attack it was about to make. A Vertical Smash.

But the area it would sweep through was vast. It wasn’t just a punch; it was an environmental hazard.

WHOOSH.

With the momentum of a landslide, the Golem slammed its arm downward.

A strike as if the sky was falling.

KA-BOOM!

The impact was cataclysmic. The stone floor exploded upward, sending shrapnel and dust flying in a shockwave that knocked Alicia back a few steps.

"W-Wait, Boss...!"

Her heart stopped. There was no way a human could survive a direct hit like that. He had been standing right there.

But then, a calm, bored voice pierced through the thick cloud of dust.

"Balance Type... not bad."

The dust cleared.

Lucien was standing on top of the Golem’s wrist.

He wasn’t crushed. He wasn’t bleeding. He was casually balancing on the massive stone arm that was currently embedded in the floor, dusting off his shoulder.

"If it were an Armor Type, it would have taken ten minutes to corrode the shell," Lucien muttered, looking at the Golem’s joints. "But a Balance Type relies on speed. Its shielding is thinner."

"..."

Alicia’s jaw dropped.

No mana manipulation.

That was what shocked her the most. There was no shield spell, no blink spell, no wind assist.

He had dodged that attack with pure, raw physical specs.

’Movement Arts + Adrenaline Surge.’

To Alicia, it looked like a miracle. To Lucien, it was math. He knew the hit-box. He knew the frame data.

GRRRR!

The Golem, realizing its attack had missed, roared in frustration. It lifted its arm, trying to shake the flea off.

Lucien leaped backward, performing a backflip and landing gracefully ten meters away.

"Alicia! Get ready!" he shouted. "Phase One is over. I know the pattern!"

The Golem swiveled its torso. Its ruby eyes flashed rapidly.

[Threat Re-evaluation: Target High Mobility.] [Engaging Suppression Mode.]

It didn’t smash this time. It swept its arm horizontally, like a scythe harvesting wheat.

SWISH.

The arm covered the entire width of the room. There was nowhere to dodge left or right.

"Jump!" Alicia screamed.

Lucien didn’t jump. He slid.

He dropped to his knees, leaning back like he was doing a limbo dance under a truck.

WHOOSH.

The massive stone arm passed centimeters above his nose. The wind pressure ruffled his hair, but the stone didn’t touch him.

"Too slow," Lucien grinned.

He rolled forward, coming up into a sprint. He was closing the distance.

The Golem raised its foot to stomp.

Lucien zig-zagged. Left. Right.

Stomp!

He was already gone.

He ran up the Golem’s leg.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Alicia shrieked, clutching her staff.