Climbing up to the top was easier than I thought.

It felt like we were leaping about 20 meters with each jump, and after repeating that around two hundred times, we quickly reached the same altitude.

[A mere human...!]

Then, by simple calculation, were we roughly 4,000 meters in the air?

Considering the summit of Mount Everest was around 8,800 meters, it wasn't a height that would kill a human just by being there.

"We've finally, finally arrived...! I will expand the foothold!"

[Daring to ascend to the sky with petty tricks!]

Of course, along the way, strong winds, altitude sickness triggered by the thin oxygen, and bone-chilling cold assaulted us.

However, the Inquisitor somehow covered for it with divine power, and I grit my teeth and endured.

In the case of altitude sickness, it was ultimately an issue of air pressure, so wouldn't wrapping my body in magical energy act as a shield? Trying that out with such logic seemed to have had some effect as well.

As for maintaining my body temperature, taking the medicine the Archmage gave me somehow prevented it from hitting rock bottom.

"Ahaha! We finally get to see that expensive face of yours!"

The Berserker... the Berserker, I don't even know. Was she the very epitome of 'It's fine! I bounced it off!'? No, was she even human in the first place?

Air pressure aside, to endure a temperature where even your breath freezes with just a single layer of clothing.

She took the medicine with me, but it still seemed a bit crazy. I wanted to shake my head at someone who ignored the laws of the universe, but I held it in.

Instead, I stepped on the surface of divine power that had expanded from roughly a mere three square meters to tens of square meters.

The land thousands of meters below could be seen beneath the faint golden barrier, but it was so unrealistic that it felt exactly like CG.

Not to mention, right in front of us was a whale draped in clouds like silk.

Its white belly belonged to a normal whale, but its upper hide was made of waves. Particles of light were densely embedded within the waves, making it look like looking at the night sky or peering into the deep sea.

If I hadn't known the opponent was a Great Demon, it was an appearance that wouldn't have been strange to worship as a mythological being.

[I shall drop you back down!]

BOOOOOOO!

At that moment, Moby Dick cried out. Unlike its elegant exterior, its gaping mouth was as pitch-black as if it had bitten into ink. It was the final proof that it was an evil being.

"It's coming!"

Meanwhile, the bastard didn't run away. Looking at how it acted in the first place, its main body itself was sluggish—whether because of its size or something else—so it seemed it couldn't even keep fleeing as an option anyway.

"Hah! Now that we're stepping on the same ground, there's nothing to hesitate about!"

"Just in case, I will create a few more footholds every meter!"

However, there was no need to force ourselves to block it anymore.

The Berserker simply jumped to dodge the water-attribute beam that poured out as if it would sweep away the entire horizontal plane.

On the other hand, I grabbed the back of the neck of the Inquisitor, who was raising her shield, with my left hand.

Because of the thickness of the water pillar, the topmost foothold—the one we were stepping on right now—was bound to break anyway. But there was a new foothold 1 meter below, and more footholds 2 meters and 3 meters below.

CRASH!

I felt my body falling downward the moment the foothold I was standing on shattered.

And when my feet touched the second barrier, I stomped and broke it myself.

"Why..."

My body descended one level further. With this, I could dodge the stream of water just by lowering my body a little.

BOOM!

"To think there was such a method...!"

Feeling the water pillar passing narrowly over our heads, I took off the hand that had been pressing down on the Inquisitor's head.

It was out of a belief that Kimchi Dumpling wasn't the Berserker and wouldn't raise her head in this situation.

Naturally, the Inquisitor rewarded that belief, and we easily dodged the attack. It was a trick we could use because space wasn't strictly restricted like in a normal game.

RUMBLE!

Anyway, the beam that had been sweeping the front in a fan shape had now passed me by. Then, it was time to deal damage.

As soon as I got onto the barrier, I dashed forward as if charging. The Berserker must have dodged the water pillar well too, as I could see her rushing at the whale from the other side.

"Die."

I swung my sword, taking care not to hit the barrier I was stepping on by any chance.

If it had been a normal game, even if I couldn't use the trick of dodging backward, I wouldn't have had to worry about the foothold shattering. A bit of sorrow was a bonus.

SLASH!

Still, damage was damage. I felt rather satisfied seeing the sword trail, which originally should have been engraved as one, multiply into three.

It was the effect of the 'Three groups' skill, which I hadn't used because there were many things I could solve without it, but activated considering it was a raid—since a raid boss tended to have a massive health pool.

BOOOOOOO!

If there were three attacks, the damage was also three times! Add to that the Berserker's damage as well.

Moby Dick twisted its body and cried out. Water droplets gathered in the air, froze in an instant, and shot toward us. Some of them, instead of freezing, took on the shape of snakes and homed in on me.

CLANG, CLAAAAANG!

Because of that, the plan to jump on top of the whale was foiled.

I smashed the chunks of ice that poured down at such a bad timing and dismantled the snakes made of water.

Even at this moment, the foothold we were stepping on was becoming a very solid surface, overlapping dozens of layers due to the Inquisitor's power.

Still, there was nothing good about the floor taking hits.

After shattering all the incoming attacks, I poured out another flurry of sword strikes. Since the closer I got, the less magical energy it cost and the stronger the power became, I stayed as close as possible.

THUMP, THUMP!

However, just as it was the unwritten rule to use melee attacks when the DPS and tank got too close, Moby Dick thrashed about and tried to crush us as we approached too near. It acted as if it were going to flatten us with its massive flab.

The foothold that was hit in the heat of the moment—perhaps it was a deliberate move, since if the foothold broke, we would all fall to our deaths—creaked and threatened to shatter, but the Inquisitor held on.

The same went for the Berserker and me. We avoided that thrashing, slashed at its white flesh, and cut the fins attached to both of its sides.

Unfortunately, it showed no signs of falling. It seemed the principle of how it floated lay in something else.

[A mere human!]

But why was it that non-human bosses could only ever say things like 'A mere human', 'For a human', or 'How dare a human'?

Ah, was that not something I should be saying with my concept of treating demons like bugs and being confident of victory every time?

'You petty piece of trash.'

I cleared away the idle thoughts and stepped back, then swung my sword again at the timing when the bastard stopped.

From bottom to top. The whale, having been slashed cleanly from the edge of its mouth up to its eye, flinched and pulled its body back. Black demonic energy lingered like a scent before disappearing in an instant.

[That's enough of letting you land hits!]

However, prideful to the death as a Great Demon—even though it didn't really need to be—it brought out a new pattern instead of continuing to get beaten up.

It sent out the scales of water that made up its body along with the clouds.

CRAAAASH!

A 3-meter wave began to sweep over the barrier of light.

It didn't even leave us space to dodge by jumping or running. If this were a normal game, it would be a gimmick you had to get through by using an invincibility skill or hiding behind the tank.

"Uwaah!"

The Berserker, who was happily beating up the whale at the front lines while ignoring all the patterns, was the first to get swept up.

"Foolish."

On the other hand, my gamer intuition somehow saved me from getting swept up in the waves. It was thanks to reading its movements and pulling back in time.

However, if I just kept retreating like this, I would eventually hit a dead end. Running backward, my brow furrowed at the lack of a visible breakthrough.

"Gather here!"

Fortunately, the solution came from the Inquisitor in the rear. Having witnessed the raging waves, Kimchi Dumpling formed a shelter with a hemispherical shield.

I didn't know if she had leeway because she had secured several layers of barriers on the floor, or if she pushed herself to create a space for us to escape to.

That was unknown, but if there was a place to dodge right now, then I was glad for it.

With the tide trailing behind me like a tail, I slid right into the Inquisitor's shield.

Seeing my HP rapidly drain, I was confused whether I had entered a shelter or just gotten hit by an attack, but this would still hurt less, probably.

SPLOOSH!

Meanwhile, as the wave touched the shield, it raised something akin to water vapor. Looking closely, one could see the surface of the shield endlessly cracking and restoring itself.

The praying Inquisitor's expression became even more resolute.

RUMBLE.

"Do not act like an idiot."

And in the midst of it all, the Berserker managed to survive after all.

Sending my admiration to the one who stubbornly changed direction toward us even while being swept away by the current, I reached out my hand outside the shield.

Then, I grabbed the Berserker right by the collar and dragged her inside the shelter.

"Pah! I lived!"

It wasn't just a normal wave; simply reaching my hand outside for a moment tore my sleeve and left small cuts. The Berserker was similar. Her skin was covered in fine white and red wounds.

Blood mixed with water and fell onto the golden barrier.

"Ahaha! I almost fell down there!"

Still, as long as we were alive, that was enough. Kneeling down and offering a prayer alongside a brilliant light, the Inquisitor gave a soft smile.

Perhaps because she was bearing all the conditions necessary to establish this battlefield, from the barriers forming the floor to the shield. Beads of sweat formed on her brow, only to dry up in a flash.

[Go!]

However, even after the raging wave passed us by, we couldn't enjoy any leisure.

It was because of what Moby Dick did while the Inquisitor was fixing the floor that was scratched by demonic energy and on the verge of breaking, and at the moment we were adjusting our stances to close in on the whale again.

BUBBLE, BUBBLE.

Its upper hide, which looked like it held the deep sea, boiled and spewed out something.

It was stars and it was also shadows. It was evil.

GRRRRR.

Pale pupils that we had mistaken for light began to stare at us fiercely.

"Hah, mere grunts!"

"I will never break...!"

"Bugs."

Ah, crazy. An add pattern is bullshit.

I tightened my grip on my sword as I watched the monsters soaring from the back of the sky whale.

As expected of things born from a marine creature, they were all creatures based on sea life.

Which meant they were grotesquely mutated versions of creatures like octopuses, snakes, mermen, crocodiles, crabs, and seals.

However, their appearance wasn't the only problem.

Watching the monsters continuously pop out, I pondered whether this would end after a few spawned, or if they would keep coming until the end of the battle.

If it were the former, I just had to sweep them away at once, and if it were the latter, I would have to fight while carefully distributing my magical energy and stamina.

[Kill them!]

"Small fry are no fun! Get lost before I wipe you all out!"

However, I would have to wait and see a bit more to reach a conclusion on that.

"...! They are trying to break the floor!"

Conversely, the fact that we had to kill them right now was crystal clear.

"Can you hold on."

"... Yes!"

Although those guys were trying to break the floor, since the Inquisitor said she could hold on, I should save a bit more of my magical energy. Because I didn't know how the situation would change.

So rather than immediately pouring out sword strikes to cleave them in two, I chose to properly grip the two-handed sword.

After that, my blade slashed the head of the snake that approached first, and, covered in its blood, I stepped on its severed neck and leaped over it.

I dodged the merman that appeared next by spinning my body in midair.

Using the momentum from kicking off the neck to point my legs up and head down, the changed surface area made it perfectly easy for the merman's spear to miss me.

SLASH.

Having dodged the spear like that, my body landed behind the merman.

Stepping on the merman's fish tail, I stabbed the back of the merman, who hadn't managed to turn its body completely yet. The long blade of the two-handed sword precisely pierced through from its back to its chest.

Next, I imbued a little magical energy into the two-handed sword to increase its cutting power.

Then, instead of pulling the blade straight out, I sliced through the merman's flesh to draw it out in a circular motion. Emerging with a grinding sound and splattering flesh and blood, the blade slashed another monster that was just about to pounce on me.

CRACK!

The exoskeleton of the crab-like creature was smashed, and the flesh and internal organs inside splattered wildly.

I wiped off the blood with the back of my hand and readied my sword. Then, I dashed forward once again.

Blocking my path this time was an octopus-type monster wildly swinging its eight legs in all directions.

Predicting and dodging all eight legs was somewhat annoying. I activated the 'Survival Instinct' skill for the first time in a while to confirm the most efficient path.

Stinger. The blade, pointed forward like a lance, combined with Survival Instinct to evade the eight legs and drive straight into the center of the octopus's brow.

For the crocodile that charged at me sequentially, I tossed my two-handed sword to the ground, stepped on its lower jaw with my foot, and grabbed its upper jaw with my arms to hold it back. Then, I quickly drew my longsword and sliced the upper jaw horizontally, severing part of its snout.

The crocodile, not even realizing it had lost part of its mouth, snapped its jaws shut with a dull thud and immediately widened its eyes.

SQUELCH.

It was too late. My longsword pierced its brain, sending it off in one shot.

CLANG!

Right after, I kicked up the two-handed sword and snatched it. Then, I threw my longsword upwards to free my hand, and firmly gripped the two-handed sword with that newly freed hand to swing it horizontally.

Two mermen rushing at me from the front were sliced in half at the waist and died.

Next, I completely entrusted the two-handed sword, which was now pointed to the right, to my right hand, and caught the falling longsword with my empty left hand.

SLASH.

With a slightly offset horizontal slash of the longsword, the snake's head lost its neck and rolled across the floor. Clack. The longsword, which I had flicked the blood off while spinning it, went into its scabbard somewhat cleanly.

"Kyahahaha, die, die!!"

Good. This direction had been cleared up at least.

I felt even more relieved watching the Berserker rack up a higher kill count than me.

As long as she was going wild, no monsters would ever reach the Inquisitor. Her speed was fast too, so it would be less likely for the monsters to live long enough to deal damage to the Inquisitor.

In that case, I would step up to tackle the boss again.

Readjusting my grip on the two-handed sword, I stepped on the head of a merman thrusting a spear at me and leaped even higher.

Thousands of meters in the air, the hem of my thin-iced coat fluttered in the white wind.

And when even my breath froze white, I stood before the whale that was gathering a stream of water in its mouth and raised my two-handed sword high.

My hair, which had frozen to the point that tiny ice crystals had formed in it, lightly poked my eyes.

'Kill it.'

Perhaps sensing something unusual, Moby Dick shot water-made snakes at me, but it didn't matter.

Three groups dismantled the snakes, and the straight-extended blade spewed out a pillar of black magical energy like a roar.

'Tear that fucking bastard to death.'

KABOOOOM!

Before the water-form demonic energy Moby Dick was harboring could pour out of its mouth, it collided with my magical energy and caused an explosion.