Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Dogora sliced Basque's body with a roar.

Pieces of Basque's body fell onto the ground.

Meanwhile Allen kept looking at his Grimoire.

"Dogora, watch out, Basque is still alive."

Basque had not died yet.

There was no entry in the Grimoire showing his death.

He had already run away from them once.

They had to make sure he was completely dead now.

"Ah, ahh…"

But Dogora fell on his knees.

Allen and Kiel had been buffing and healing him during his fight with Basque.

Both his health and mana were completely full, but he was so mentally exhausted he could not stand up anymore.

As his grip on the Divine Artifact Kagutsuchi loosened, the flames surrounding it vanished.

The axehead and handle that had been red hot earlier looked like rough iron now.

It was like all its power had been drained from it.

"I'll do it."

(There's no one else but me who can do it, let's go!)

Saying that, Allen ran out from the security of the Stone A summons, running forward.

He was heading towards Basque who lay in pieces next to Dogora.

He continued looking at his Grimoire while running, Basque was clearly still alive.

Allen only looked at Basque.

Surely enough, Basque's severed body began to move.

He had simply pretended to be dead.

'C'mon now, how about a little timeout? I can't believe the new S Rank Adventurer is so savage. Heehehee! Time to go! See you!!'

(I knew it, that's why Gushara didn't attack there too.)

Gushara had not even tried aiming at Dogora, since Basque was still next to him.

He had probably been trying to not hurt Basque even more with his magic.

Basque had been pretending to be dead, but he noticed Allen was getting closer.

He mocked Allen for beating a dead body and began cackling.

Basque touched his severed half.

The anklet that remained on that part of his body began to glow.

A moment later, both parts of his body had vanished.

He had escaped just when they were about to kill him again.

(That's bullshit, we beat him fair and square, and then he just dips like that. Wait! Was the red one Luvanka's Sacred Bead?)

Those defeated had to relinquish all items in their possession to the victor.

That was Allen's unwritten rule, and part of this world's laws.

Allen was mad seeing Basque repeatedly break that rule, but something red and shiny caught his eye.

It was Basque's wrist and the bracelet fastened to it.

He had lost that hand when he tried to defend himself from Kagutsuchi after his orichalcum greatsword broke, and he had been unable to take it with him when he escaped.

There was a bracelet on that wrist, with a red Sacred Bead on it.

Allen took the bracelet off the large wrist, and equipped it himself.

"Woah there."

Since Basque was no longer there, Gushara began unleashing his magic on that spot again.

Allen teleported to a [Nest] behind the Stone A summon with Kingship, taking Dogora with him.

Now that they were relatively safe, Allen took out a coat from his Inventory and put it over Dogora, who was almost completely naked.

This really was not the best he had ever looked.

At least he was still alive, his eyes were closed, but he was breathing faintly.

He was not dead yet, but was hardly responsive.

"Welcome back. I guess he escaped again."

"Thanks. Also, I guess this is for you Kurena."

(It doesn't increase Attack or Agility, but halving Skill Cooldowns and a 20% increase in power is a lot. I feel like we've been fighting a lot of enemies with a lot of Attack too, so a boost in Endurance is nice.)

Luvanka's Sacred Bead (Bracelet) effects:

According to Merus, the effects granted by the Sacred Beads were random.

On top of being so rare, it was possible for one to be essentially useless.

Considering getting them was so tricky, it was a bit disappointed to know their effects were a gamble.

"Yayy, I have a shiny Sacred Bead too!!"

"Wh-what are you doing! Now isn't the time for that!"

Kurena danced around happily.

She hurried to equip the Sacred Bead Allen gave her as fast as she could.

Kurena was rejoicing, but Cecile looked somewhat annoyed.

'Hohohoh, how long are you planning on hiding there? Come on out already.'

(At least one of us got a gear upgrade.)

Allen and Shea's parties were currently behind the large Stone A summon under Kingship.

They were too weak to resist Gushara, either because his Intelligence was very high, or his Magic was too powerful.

Kingship on a Stone A summon had created a resilient fortress between Gushara and Allen's party.

With the help of the Spirit King's Blessing, the Stone A summon could resist a hit or two of Gushara's magic, but its health would be depleted before it gathered enough damage to activate Convergent Bombardment.

There were other Stona A summons under Command and Militarization in front of the Kingship one, using their Special Skill [Absorption] to take off the brunt of Gushara's spells before they reached the bigger summon.

'All Heal.'

When [Convergent Bombardment] was able to be cast, the Skeleton Pope would heal any damage on him or Gushara.

But at the same time, every time Gushara used a spell, the black flames surrounding him and the Skeleton Pope would become fainter.

Then the black flames like endless resentment burning on the altar would spread out to cover the two again.

(The enemy seems to have an endless supply of mana, and their magic is so powerful a single hit could kill us. If we try attacking we deal little to no damage, and they heal even the faintest scratches. The altar seems to be the source of their power. Interesting. I just need to try a few more things.)

Allen felt like there was still more to learn about his current fight.

"Hey, Gushara."

Allen shouted from behind the Stone A summon under Kingship.

'Hm? What do you need?'

"Basque and the Arbiter God are gone. You two are the only ones left, you should run while you can."

'Hohohoh, you really believe you can win? I can tell Freya's Divine Artifact has lost its power. What can you hope to accomplish now?'

He mentioned the Goddess of FireFreya's Divine Artifact, which seemed to be the only item that had managed to turn the fight somewhat.

"I see. If you don't want to run away you'll taste the most painful and cruel death though."

Allen tries to threaten Gushara even more.

"Pfft hahah. I can't believe you'd make such threats considering your situation. I don't know what strategy you just thought of, but you'll never get close enough to me."

The Demon Great General Gushara spoke in a monotone voice, assured of his victory.

(Hmm, we have to get out of this somehow. But still…considering how confident he sounds, I guess it's safe to assume the power from the altar is nearly infinite. But it's also true they don't have a way to end the fight already.)

Allen saw how the flames from the altar would periodically jump out and shroud Gushara and the Skeleton Pope.

Thanks to that, they did not seem to get exhausted even when using multiple powerful spells one after another.

The cooldowns of their spells seemed to be shorter than usual as well.

The frequency at which Gushara could use his skills was also immensely faster than Cecile's Extra Skill [Small Meteor] and Merus' Awakened Skill [Judgement Thunder].

"Dogora."

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry and sleep. They're nothing compared to Basque. I'll wake you up when we win."

"Alright."

Allen said that and Dogora finally let his mind fall unconscious after holding on all this time.

Even though the fight with Gushara was not over yet, he fell deep asleep.

"""..."""

Allen's friends wanted to say something, but in the end they chose to swallow their words.

So far Allen had never lost after announcing he would win.

They could not run away, powerful magic constantly shook the temple around them, but Allen looked at his party, gesturing that everything would be okay.

(Hmm, I need more Intelligence. I'll have to gather more Okiyos.)

Everyone looked at him as Allen settled on a plan.

He quickly turned 60 Wraith A summons into cards.

Then he switched his rings into two that increased his Intelligence by 5000 each.

"Sorry Cecile, could you lend me the Sacred Bead?"

"Huh? Sure, just give it back later."

He also equipped Makris' Sacred Bead from Cecile.

Weapons did not raise Intelligence, so he did not ask for Cecile's staff.

With the Spirit King's Blessing on top of it all, he reached 41'000 Intelligence.

(Ohh, so this is what having more than 40k Intelligence feels like. I can see it, I can see everything Gushara!)

It was a strange sight how Allen could see even the most minuscule of Gushara and the Skeleton Pope's movements with his newly gained Intelligence.

Allen began examining Gushara and his constant onrush of powerful spells.

Half an hour passed like that, with the party not moving out from behind the Stone A summon.

"Sophie, is the Spirit King's Blessing still active?"

(There's a lot of randomness to it.)

"Yes, it should last for a while longer."

Sophie wore two rings that increased her mana by 5000 each, and she had cast the Spirit King's Blessing with their effect active.

The buff was going to last for a decent while longer.

Sophie's spells became more powerful depending on her mana spent, so mana capacity was more important than Intelligence for her.

"What should we do? It's not like we have infinite Magic Stones."

Gushara's attacks were so relentless that the Stone A summons needed to be re-summoned time and time again, making Allen spend more than ten thousand Magic Stones already.

"I'll explain in a bit. You can have this back, and get ready to use magic."

"Huh? What are you doing though?"

"Err, so theoretically his mana runs out after 64 casts of Curse Fire, 16 of Death Flare, or 6 of Enemy Fall, also…"

Allen explained how many times Gushara could use certain spells before running out of mana.

He had been examining every movement, every spell used, and in which order, every time the black flame from the altar would replenish Gushara's power.

Even while needing to constantly summon Stone A summons back, he had been observing Gushara and the Skeleton Pope.

"Huh? Wait, is that…"

Cecile seemed to understand something already.

"The Skeleton Pope runs out of mana after 20 casts of All Heal by the way. Though there's still a lot of randomness in their pattern, so finding a good opening is still tricky."

Allen had been watching very carefully how long it took for the black flame to make a movement.

He compared that number against the spells used until then.

Only a handful of enemies in games he played in his past life would repeat the same actions over and over.

Sometimes they would attack a really narrow area, or others they would move around constantly.

Randomness was a common factor in their movements.

Allen was in a precarious situation where a small mistake could mean losing the Stone A summon protecting them, and Gushara's evil magic consuming the entire party, but he still calculated the different timings.

Every time he was in the most pressing situations, Allen would always turn back into Kenichi from his past life.

Every time that happened, he would sometimes use certain gamer lingo.

His mind would return to its roots, and plan a way out.

'So we have to match our timing to theirs.'

Merus understood what Allen was getting at.

"Yes, listen everyone, this will be our strategy."

Allen wanted to relay what he planned on doing to his friends, but halfway through his explanation he turned around with an uncomfortable look.

'Hohohoh. My power is limitless. This altar Lord Kyubel so kindly left me contains an infinite amount of power. Do you really want to remain in this situation forever?'

Gushara taunted them one more time.

"Shut up! I'll snap your neck myself in a bit!!"

Allen finally responded.

He would show Gushara what getting on his nerves really meant.

Gushara grinned gleefully hearing that response, knowing there was no turning back for Allen anymore.

(Oh? That stance, he's about to use Enemy Fall. What an idiot, using such an expensive spell in this situation. Theoretically it's the best case scenario though.)

The way Gushara pointed his palm forward and spread his legs slightly was definitely the start of [Enemy Fall].

Allen raised his right hand as a signal.

Cecile reacted by casting an attack spell.

Five seconds later, Allen raised his left hand.

Sophie poured all her mana into the water spirit Nymph.

At the same time, Allen ordered Merus to use [Judgement Thunder] through Sharing with Merus.

Allen had calculated the time it took his friends to cast a spell and aligned it with Gushara's.

'Enemy Fall!!'

A powerful gravity magic spell assaulted the Stone A summons.

Allen had anticipated that already, so there were plenty of summons to take the hit.

(You should be paying more attention.)

"Convergent Bombardment."

'''...'''

Three Stone A summons under Command used their Awakened Skill [Convergent Bombardment] on Gushara.

The Skeleton Pope had just cast his twentieth All Heal that cycle as well.

There would be no heals from him until his power was replenished by the black flame from the altar.

"Cecile, Sophie, now!"

"Blizzard!!"

Cecile activated her Ice Magic Level 6 spell.

That spell took longer than Sophie's so she had started preparing it first.

"Nymph, please help."

The water spirit materialized and sent a huge ball of water towards Gushara.

Just like during the fight with Lycaoron, Cecile and Sophie combined their Skills to make an even more powerful attack.

(He should only have enough mana left for one Curse Fire, then he'll need to replenish it with the black flame again. I bet this is his first time facing such an attack though.)

Gushara had ascended through the enemy ranks to become a Demon Great General, so he had probably fought with his life on the line many times.

But Allen felt like this was different from any of Gushara's past battles.

'Heheh, silly child. Curse Fire!!'

That was the weakest spell in Gushara's repertoire, but it was still powerful enough to clash with Cecile and Sophie's attack, consuming it and rendering it useless.

While Curse Fire slowly moved towards them, Allen ordered the final attack.

"Do it Merus!"

'Sure, Judgement Thunder!!'

Merus' Awakened Skill [Judgement Thunder] pierced through the temple's ceiling and descended upon the altar.

Gushara was still focused on controlling Curse Fire, so he could not defend himself or try to contrarest Merus' attack with another spell.

It was also the precise moment when the power of the black flame faded from them, so Gushara could not power up his spell any more.

The Stone A summon under Kingship used its Special Skill [Absorption] to fully negate the effects of Gushara's [Curse Fire].

There was nothing Gushara could do to stop Judgement Thunder from hitting the altar.

CRRAAAAAAACKKKK!!

'T-This can't be. My altar…'

Gushara and the Skeleton Pope were sent flying, and quickly got up to look at what had happened.

The altar was completely shattered.