A Cyclops with one blind eye and a completely ruined sense of smell had become a perfect target.
The monster could only jump and roar in place, flailing its hands and feet as it pounded the solid ground into one pit after another, each one only making it more restricted.
But then, pain that seemed capable of injuring the soul began appearing in succession throughout its body.
This was the damage inflicted by the Goblin Cleaver projectiles imbued with holy damage.
One-Ear and Blood Scab had a very clear understanding of their roles: they were Cheng Tian's mobile extra inventory slots.
Cheng Tian had been completely open with them about the conditions for using Knight Throwing while they rested by the campfire earlier. Thus, after noticing that Cheng Tian had rammed his straight sword into the monster's nose and seeing that the monster had lost its tracking ability, the two of them decisively found opportunities to throw the baseball bat, two-handed hammer, Goblin Cleaver, and Hand Axe from their inventories to places near Cheng Tian. They then retreated without the slightest hesitation into the grass at a relatively safe distance.
Clearly, the two college students who had been noisy at the beginning had thoroughly learned to read the situation and protect themselves.
Even a blind Cyclops was not someone they could afford to provoke. At this point, whether they had weapons for self-defense or not was completely irrelevant. If Cheng Tian still died under these circumstances, they probably would not survive much longer either.
Cheng Tian's Knight Throwing required the weapon he currently held as its template.
The Gentleman's Cane dealt too little damage, while the Vampire Slayer did not meet the standard for generating a projectile. Thus, the timely assistance of his two human-shaped inventories was extremely helpful.
Although only the Vampire Slayer could maximize holy damage, Cheng Tian, who had already been hit by a grappling throw, no longer wanted to fight the monster in close combat. ...Even more unbearable than being beaten into paralysis was the monster's terrifying stench.
Thus, with sufficient MP and Innocent Souls supporting him, Cheng Tian began circling the Cyclops like the moon orbiting the earth. The new projectiles enchanted with holy damage also began raining down on the monster.
Against the thick-skinned monster, both the blunt impact of the two-handed hammer and the blade attacks of the Goblin Cleaver suffered severe damage reduction. Only the additional single-digit holy damage landed in full, making the fight feel like he was merely scraping its skin.
The Cyclops's only true weak point was its eyeball, but it had covered it tightly with one hand. After taking several two-handed hammer projectiles, it even covered the back of its head, its secondary weak point.
The monster no longer thrashed around in place. Instead, it curled up where it stood with both hands clasped over its head, looking as though it intended to defend itself to the very end.
As he ran in circles, Cheng Tian found it difficult to imagine how he could defeat this Cyclops through conventional attacks if he had not loaded the Vampire Hunter template with its inherent Holy Whip—or if he had not been here at all.
What Cheng did not know was that if he himself had not been present, the Red Arremer and Cyclops in this instance would not have had such an absurd level of difficulty...
This was an introduction to Capcom's most famous later mechanic: dynamic difficulty adjustment.
If Cheng Tian had not been there and the dozen or so people at the beginning had all survived, the Red Arremer in this beginner trial would have been no more than a boss template, while the Cyclops would have been no more than an elite template. The minions might also have dropped more throwing weapons with limited quantities—knives, lances, fireballs, and the like—that could be used without Arthur's abilities and deal more effective damage to enemies.
In theory, as long as enough beginners survived and they were willing to fight boldly, it was impossible to guarantee that everyone would live, but clearing the first stage with no more than half the group sacrificed should have been no problem.
Of course, the corresponding trade-off was that obtaining the Hundred Demons' Night Parade skill would have been nearly impossible, and the achievement module would probably have taken another one or two instances to unlock.
Fortunately, Cheng Tian had accumulated over a hundred Innocent Souls during the journey so far, and his MP had remained above one hundred the entire time. Otherwise, even if he had wanted to slowly scrape away at the Champion Cyclops today, he might not have been able to.
Still, in order to maximize his damage per hit, Cheng Tian ultimately chose the two-handed hammer as his primary projectile, since it also cost 1 MP. Its throwing rate was indeed slow, but he was attacking a stationary target that could not move, so speed was no longer important.
And so, the Cyclops's health slowly but steadily fell under Cheng Tian's attacks, dropping from over nine hundred to just over one hundred. Its total health had fallen below 10%... even that was enough to put it on par with Cheng Tian when he had first entered the instance.
Although he could not see its health bar, Cheng Tian faintly sensed the Cyclops's pain and weakness. It was probably on the verge of sudden death.
Yet Cheng did not relax. Instead, he became even more vigilant.
The Cyclops had still not displayed one basic ability that should have existed in the original work.
Could it not use it? Or was it waiting for an opportunity?
Suddenly, the Cyclops moved.
It stopped shielding its head with both hands, opening its front completely. At the same time, its entire head took on an abnormal flush of red.
The moment he saw this, Cheng Tian retreated without hesitation, putting as much distance between them as possible.
In the next second, Cheng Tian saw the Cyclops open its blind eye, which could no longer see properly. It raised its neck, opened its mouth toward the sky, and fired a blazing, enormous fireball upward.
The fireball shot straight into the heavens before exploding in the night sky like a magnificent fireworks display meant to bring the show to a close.
Yes, Cheng Tian had always been wary of the Cyclops's fire ability. Although he did not know that the monster possessed the trait Flame Titan Descendant, he remembered that whether in Demon Village or Great Demon Village, no matter how the model looked, the Cyclops could breathe fire.
The Chosen Evolution Space had clearly adjusted the Cyclops reasonably according to its race, granting it a single fire breath capable of instantly killing any ordinary invader.
Unfortunately, with both its vision and sense of smell crippled, it could not find Cheng Tian as he moved randomly in circles.
A Cyclops chosen to serve as a Demon General naturally had something unique about it.
After realizing that it could do nothing to the invader, the Cyclops made the final choice of its demonic life: sending its last ripple to the other monsters inside the Demon King's Castle—
A new human hero! Has appeared!
Just after spitting out this final fireball to warn its demonic comrades, the Cyclops's health, which had still been nearly one hundred, instantly dropped to zero. Its body then crashed helplessly to the ground.
That enormous fireball had exceeded the limit its body could withstand. The pitiful five MP it possessed was nowhere near enough. Instead, it had simultaneously squeezed the extremely thin Flame Titan bloodline within its body.
The backlash from forcing out its bloodline power manifested as a drastic drop in vitality.
The Cyclops guarding the entrance to the Demon King's Castle was dead.
At the same time, dazzling multicolored light appeared on the chest of the fallen Cyclops. A large metal key, exactly like the sort one would expect from medieval Europe, burned through its breastplate and floated in midair before flying directly toward Cheng Tian as if guided by something.
The moment Cheng Tian grasped the multicolored key, three things happened simultaneously.
First, a completely new set of Knight Armor appeared on Cheng Tian, covering his naked body, which wore nothing but strawberry-print underwear.
Then, the tightly shut outer entrance to the Demon King's Castle in the distance slowly opened.
Finally, the main quest timer stopped completely at 3 hours, 45 minutes, and 39 seconds remaining.
Main quest completed. Entering the settlement phase.
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