Villainous Warlock Veronica

After Iver recalled the identity of the Villainous Bartender, he completely remembered the details of this instance:

The first elite enemy, the "Villainous Bartender," was a level-15 demonkin. Its main mechanic was charging up before unleashing a powerful attack that could be dodged but not blocked, knocking players back and only partially responding to aggro. This mechanic occurred roughly once every fifteen seconds. If players were knocked back, they could easily crash into tables, chairs, walls, or other players, taking secondary damage and being stunned.

Moreover, if a player was close enough to him—within one meter, to be precise—they would be hit by the attack immediately, regardless of whether he had aggro. Therefore, if the front line was knocked back, it could easily expose the back line.

The first time his health dropped below 30%, he would enter a demonic state. His attack speed, movement speed, and the frequency with which he used his first ability would double.

Aside from that, there were no other mechanics. The mechanic could be tanked with skills that prevented knockback, or simply dodged. Melee damage dealers could also approach him from behind just before he activated the mechanic, take the hit, and then have the tank pull aggro back. That would turn him into a simple stationary boss.

The second boss of this instance was a Demon Dog created by a high-level Demon Scholar, called "Demon Dog" Shell. Its strengths were its high attack frequency, as well as burn, armor break, and poison. Every time its health dropped by 10%, it also cleared its aggro. With a little attention, it was basically no challenge.

Of course, if this had happened in reality, the BOSS obviously couldn't come out one by one like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather. If the bartender and Demon Dog appeared at the same time, the fight would become much more difficult.

...But now, Demon Dog had disappeared.

The moment Iver saw the bald woman's face, he immediately realized what had happened.

The one who created this "Demon Dog" should have been the bald man he had killed that night! After all, this woman was the very "apprentice" who had met Iver that night! Countless fragments instantly reassembled in his mind, forming a new chain of events:

According to the original history, the players should have suddenly appeared, frightened the two of them away, and rescued Iver, who was already on the ritual platform, interrupting the Shadow Fiend's descent. The man would then have left and created "Demon Dog" to guard this secret base.

The "Pelican Bar" should have been connected to the "Noble Red" organization.

Or rather, it was probably an outpost of their organization in Avalon.

The reason it was called an outpost...

was that even Iver, who couldn't clearly remember the plot, knew that the mysterious organization known as "Noble Red" was actually a cover used by spies from the Stibium Kingdom among the common people! The organization's higher-ups were all secret agents of the Stibium Kingdom. By distributing books on demonology and forbidden ritual materials, they supported the Demon Scholars being suppressed within the Avalon Kingdom.

Of course, the two people who had come looking for Iver probably weren't qualified to know such secrets.

He also immediately remembered why this incident could be connected to a certain minister of Avalon.

Now, because he had killed that man back then, Demon Dog had disappeared from the bar.

—Though it didn't mean much, history had indeed been changed by a tiny amount!

And the apprentice who had escaped that night was Villainous Warlock Veronica. She was a level-19 Demon Scholar, just one step away from touching the Third Level.

Players affectionately called her Big Purple or the Bald Woman.

Because she was the lowest-level BOSS that could drop the red robe, Big Purple was farmed quite often. The red robe wasn't attractive and had no attributes, but it could unlock the "Noble Red" organization's event chain.

That event chain awarded four books and a decent staff. The four books granted a substantial amount of skill experience, so players who were Demon Scholars had to complete it sooner or later.

Compared to the first two BOSSes Iver had forgotten, Veronica's mechanics were much harder to deal with.

—Just like now, she entered the battle while directly shaping a ball in her hands.

Fifteen seconds after the battle began, she would directly target the player with the highest aggro and release a high-speed, weakly homing Curse Infant. If players couldn't dodge this skill, they died instantly.

At this level, where players had neither damage-reduction nor invincibility skills, it was impossible to tank this devastating attack. A tank would probably need to be above level thirty and break through their limits before they could survive it head-on. So it had to be dodged.

Any player killed by her during the battle would immediately be sacrificed by her to summon a lesser demon. The lesser demon itself wasn't difficult to defeat; focusing fire on it for three rounds was enough. But sacrificing the corpse meant that player couldn't be revived and returned to the fight.

This was a four-player instance. If someone failed to dodge the opening mechanic, the party immediately lost a quarter of its combat power—and there was even a high chance that the one lost would be the tank.

The rest wasn't difficult. She simply released an increasingly painful area-of-effect attack at regular intervals. The higher the stacks, the slower the players' movement and attack speeds became, and the stacks wouldn't reset until one player died.

As long as nobody died during the first round of mechanics, the party could basically focus fire and race to burn through her health. Otherwise, when the healer could no longer restore the party's health, they had to sacrifice themselves to clear the stacks for the others. If the party still couldn't win after that, there was no chance of victory.

Unlike the first two BOSSes, the first two could be defeated without consulting a guide; even blind, improvised fighting would work. If players fought Veronica without reading a guide, they would probably wipe once on their first attempt.

All one could say was that this BOSS knew how to play.

Before entering the battle, she secretly used a ritual to charge up her ultimate, aiming to reduce the party by one member right at the start. She didn't wait until she was nearly dead to unleash her ultimate like BOSSes in other games did. This damage-dealing pattern was very similar to the players': unleash a burst at the beginning.

As a healer, Iver naturally had to study the guide.

If the tank or DPS failed to handle the mechanics at the start, he had to sacrifice himself. After doing it for a long time, he had become exceptionally practiced.

—But this was, after all, a BOSS from the earliest instance. The longer players fought it, the lazier they became.

So the players had also developed a way to cheese Veronica's mechanics.

And to put it bluntly, it was extremely simple.

Iver's preparations beforehand had been precisely for this moment—

His left hand, hidden beneath his cloak, opened slightly. Shadow Power silently gathered between his fingers. The "Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade" he had created the night before appeared in the distorted void, clamped between his index and middle fingers.

To distract Veronica, Iver spoke in an utterly calm voice: "You left far too many gaps behind—no, that's not quite right. There are countless of them.

"I discovered the truth even a little later than I should have. I believe that if it had been the famous Sherlock, he would have guessed it immediately."

As he spoke, the pistol in his right hand slowly drew closer to the "Moon" Tarot Card in his left.

The instant the gun touched the Tarot Card that had been rewritten as the "Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade"...

Iver's thoughts stirred. The Enchantment Card clutched in his left hand suddenly transformed into a mass of shadow and seeped into the Lady's Grip pistol in his right hand.

Then he raised the pistol openly and aimed it at Villainous Warlock Veronica.

The red-robed woman also recognized Iver's identity.

She had originally wanted to ask Iver exactly how he had survived that night. The moment she saw the Shadow Fiend lose control and kill her mentor, she had turned and fled without hesitation. She hadn't known that Iver had subdued the Shadow Fiend and had merely assumed that her mentor's contract had failed.

But when she saw Iver's ridiculous action, the doubts and wariness in her heart were overwhelmed by contempt.

She couldn't help but sneer aloud, not even bothering to dodge: "You don't really think something like that can hurt me, do you? Elven Made, Lady's Grip, five-round magazine—am I wrong? Do you really think it'll be useful against me? I can't even be bothered to dodge. Why don't I just stand here and let you fire one shot?"