Chapter 460: The First Lesson of the Beginning! The Ashen Judge - Gundyr! |
Chapter 460: Meng Xin’s First Lesson! Ashen Adjudicator — Gudda!
“There’s that familiar feeling again! Breathe in—breathe out—!”
At the same time, Chairman Old Chrysanthemum, who had just driven his blade through the Bugatti Crystalline Lizard, said with relish,
“Old Thief really nailed this kind of game!”
“This kind of…wow! You know what I mean?”
Old Chrysanthemum smacked his lips, clearly not over it, his voice full of the nostalgic joy and excitement of “my youth has returned”!
“All right! I declare it! Your chairman has fully figured out this game!”
“Now, let’s actually challenge the BOSS!”
Saying that, Old Chrysanthemum lifted his foot and continued forward.
The mobs along the way were still laughably weak, two clubs and they were done.
If you backstabbed them, you could even take them out one after another.
Must admit, in this installment the sensation of executions combined with the sound effects gives players an absolutely fantastic experience.
Although Sekiro’s death blow is flashier, more brutal, and bleeds heavily,
hit feedback is a mystical thing — it isn’t built only from surface effects.
Especially in the motion-sensing pod, this feedback becomes even more subtle and profound.
What’s encouraging is!
Golden Wind has been improving in this area!
Soon, Old Chrysanthemum arrived before the ancient bronze door.
Getting closer, he gushed in amazement.
“Oh ho ho—this Phoenix really wasn’t wasted, the lighting quality on this door, and the texture on top, wow…”
Hearing that, the viewers nodded in agreement in the chat barrage.
“Indeed, the detail is meticulous, they even rendered wear on the carvings.”
“This engine tech collab is sublime.
Golden Wind has the grand spectacle, Phoenix brings the fine detail, together they’re unbeatable.”
“Just merge the two companies already, total domination of engine market.”
“Gu Jinfeng engine (kek).”
“Ugh, how tacky, better not merge.”
“Hahahahahaha….”
……
As the chat debated, Old Chrysanthemum stepped through the bronze gate.
Descending the mottled old stone steps, he entered a vast circular arena.
“Whoa—!”
Looking up, the circular ground resembled a massive coliseum, with unevenly burning hundreds of candles around it.
To the right was a sheer abyss, to the left jagged strange rocks.
Perched on the phosphor-worn wall was a withered giant tree, its thick branches stabbing toward the sky.
The entire arena was grand, awe-inspiring.
At last, Old Chrysanthemum’s gaze fell on a figure in the arena’s center.
Calling it a person was a stretch — it was more like…a statue?
A bulky, gray-white body, clad in heavy plate armor, half-kneeling and at least twice Old Chrysanthemum’s height even in that pose.
The statue held a long-handled great axe in its right hand.
A spiral greatsword was lodged in its left chest!
“A spiral sword!?”
Old Chrysanthemum was stunned by the grandeur of this massive gray statue and stepped forward.
A prompt appeared in front of him:
[Pull out Spiral Sword]
However!
Just as Old Chrysanthemum prepared to pull the sword, he happened to notice a mottled bloodstain on the stone floor.
“Huh? Wait, what’s this?”
Putting the spiral sword aside for the moment, Old Chrysanthemum curiously approached the bloodstain and touched it as the prompt instructed.
The next second, a red phantom manifested out of thin air before him.
It rolled, then as if pierced by an invisible thing, struggled and fell, disappearing.
What was that...?
After a moment’s thought, a flash of inspiration hit Old Chrysanthemum’s mind!
“Oh! Holy— I get it!”
He clapped his hands:
“This is another player’s shadow! Like a replay tape, it records their actions before death!”
Old Chrysanthemum was an experienced gamer, after all!
Indeed!
According to the design,
each bloodstain on the ground represented a recent player death.
If you interacted while standing on a bloodstain, you could see a player’s phantom — a short replay of that player’s final moments.
As he exclaimed, an even more chilling scene unfolded for all viewers!
Scanning the dust-covered pale floor revealed at least thirty to forty bloodstains in a sweep!
No one had paid them any mind before, but after the chairman’s analysis, everyone noticed the severity!
If each bloodstain represented one player’s suffering,
then in an arena where no enemies were visible, why were there so many unlit ashes lying about?!
“This is mean, really poking at your fear!”
Standing up,
Old Chrysanthemum turned to the huge ‘statue’ with the spiral sword in its chest.
“This big axe guy…is probably the BOSS…”
At that, viewers in the chat sucked in breath after breath.
“No way—so many!?”
“The replay only shows the player, you can’t see who the boss is or how it attacked!”
“Feels like Old Thief’s just trying to spike players’ blood pressure.”
“Indeed, who wouldn’t panic seeing this?”
“So brutal, right? Does pulling out the spiral sword resurrect this big guy?”
“Maybe? But that axe dude’s size is absurd! Kneeling is over three meters, standing he’s like two floors tall?”
“Damn, like Onryoki, really scary…”
“If this is the first boss, then Sekiro’s Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa looks like a baby.”
“Old Thief isn’t afraid of refunds, huh? New players dropping like flies?”
“Having this many bloodstains on display, people with poor nerves will just quit.”
The chat erupted with commentary, all shocked by Old Thief’s anxiety-inducing design.
This mechanic was clearly to spike players’ blood pressure!
The phantoms only showed how players died; how they were killed remained unknown.
This unknown horror didn’t calm players; it made them tighter and tighter.
The big axe guy seemed to have ten thousand ways to crush players like ants!
“No way, I can’t watch this—”
The more Old Chrysanthemum watched, the less confident he felt, and he waved his hands.
“This thing just gets scarier the more I look at it.”
“I don’t even know how they died!”
“This thing only serves to max out my blood pressure ahead of time!”
“I’ll just do it myself…”
Old Chrysanthemum hunched, inhaled, and hugged the spiral sword stuck in the giant axe guy’s chest.
“Come on, big axe guy!”
He grunted and strained with his waist!
Pull—!
Black blood gushed from the statue’s chest!
The spiral sword slid out further and further.
The great spiral blade that pierced through the statue’s thorax was slowly pulled free!
Clang!
The spiral sword clattered to the ground, and Old Chrysanthemum rolled away alertly, distancing himself from the axe guy.
The next second,
just as he expected,
rumble!
The big axe guy moved!
The gray-white behemoth rose stiffly and slowly from the ground.
While kneeling it hadn’t looked that imposing.
Once it stood, it was terrifying!
A two-story-high mass blotting out the sun,
its casting shadow swallowed Old Chrysanthemum, who still held a chicken leg!
The long-handled axe in its right hand glittered with danger; a single careless sweep could cleave someone in half!
As the giant axe statue rose, majestic, vast music accompanied low chanting and began to swell!
Behind,
the familiar mist gate rose and sealed!
Before him,
a health bar the width of the screen suddenly appeared on Old Chrysanthemum’s UI!
Mentor Meng Xin!
[Ashen Adjudicator — Gudda]
The sense of an epic battle made Old Chrysanthemum’s skin crawl with goosebumps!
Remember!
Compared to last time when Battlefield’s theme was performed by a national orchestra,
this time Golden Wind went all out!
The entire game soundtrack was recorded by the national symphony orchestra!
The grandiose BOSS music instantly filled the scene with historic, weighty epicness!
As Ashen Gudda stood, he drove his great axe into the ground!
Boom!!!
Dust billowed!
The sturdy bluestone floor cracked in terror as his motion spread a web of fractures!
Opposite him, Old Chrysanthemum swallowed, nervously raised his chicken leg, and braced for battle!
Goosebumps covered him!
Scalp tingling!
The scene’s creation was heart-pounding!
Precise visuals!
Real-time physical destruction!
Grand symphonic atmosphere!
It was hard to imagine such a breathtaking battle was only this game’s first boss encounter!
Just as Old Chrysanthemum felt overwhelmed,
Ashen Gudda launched a ferocious attack!
Whom—!!!
A terrifying sound of air being cleaved!
The great axe felt feather-light in Gudda’s hands as it barreled toward Old Chrysanthemum!
The sharp axe tip was deadly!
The heavy haft streaked through the air like a rainbow!
Old Chrysanthemum instinctively lept and rolled away!
The pressure was suffocating!
He didn’t even dare to glance at the great axe!
Unstoppable!
Seeing Gudda for the first time and watching his first move, these were the two words that rose in Old Chrysanthemum’s mind!
Perfectly apt to describe Gudda!
Boom!
Old Chrysanthemum rolled frantically, not daring to approach Gudda at all!
Gudda’s wide, sweeping moves exuded absolute dominance and brutality in every motion!
If his giant axe scraped the ground, sand and stones would fly!
When it slammed down, it left a huge pit!
The arena collapsed, Old Chrysanthemum’s blood pressure surged!
“Holy—holy—!”
Old Chrysanthemum was genuinely frightened!
“No no no! Holy—!”
Three rolls later, Old Chrysanthemum narrowly avoided Gudda’s lethal triple slash,
but the next second, before he could catch his breath,
Gudda leapt!
The hulking, heavily armored mass shot into the air, then like a giant cannonball came crashing down toward him!
The shadow of the behemoth suddenly swelled in Old Chrysanthemum’s vision!
“Oh—!!!”
“Shit—!!!”
Air—!!!
Tumbling!
At this point, Old Chrysanthemum didn’t care about conserving stamina; using the tiny bit that had just recovered, he rolled and crawled like mad toward the arena edge to escape!
However, though his reactions were quick, Gudda’s shockwave from the descent still threw him flying!
Old Chrysanthemum was dazed.
Just as he stood back up, Gudda was upon him!!
Gudda used an iron-mountain-style shoulder bash like a certain Little Dark player, slamming the newly risen Old Chrysanthemum against the ground!
In an instant, his Health Bar dropped by a large chunk!
Panicked, Old Chrysanthemum tried to pull out a healing vial.
But in the blink of an eye, Gudda’s next move arrived!
He stamped forward, cracking the ground, sending dust flying.
Then his great axe lunged toward Old Chrysanthemum’s neck!
Roll!
Old Chrysanthemum instinctively leapt out.
After landing, he didn’t stop.
As an old Sekiro player, he could judge this move just by the animation —
this boss combo definitely wasn’t finished. The axe would spin back for another strike!
So Old Chrysanthemum kept moving, another roll, a smug grin on his face:
“Hah! Didn’t expect that, huh? Old player intuition! I preempted you!”
But the next second,
Old Chrysanthemum’s grin froze.
He had completed his roll.
Gudda’s axe had not yet returned.
So!
Given that Gudda’s combo was known to be still ongoing,
the crafty frog that keeps poking your belly —
the next second.
Whum—!!!
From behind Old Chrysanthemum came a ferocious turning strike as Gudda rotated, bringing the sharp great axe down belatedly but inevitably.
Boom!
Old Chrysanthemum’s body vanished into a spray of sand and stones.
Extend — delay — slash — finish —
[YOU DIED]