I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 134

Despite the distance, Liquister seemed to sense our presence and was charging towards us.

“Everyone, stick to the briefing! And I can’t stress this enough, don’t even think about offering more help than you can handle, thinking it’s some kind of sacrifice!”

I firmly warned my teammates.

There was a chance they might try to help or take my place, thinking they were doing the right thing.

If that happened, the battle plan I had in mind would fall apart, and it would only weaken the team’s overall strength.

To put it bluntly, none of the four of you here can replace me.

That’s how the team was structured from the start. I’m like the pillar of this team, and no one can replace me.

Just then.

Shaaa.

Liquister’s skin turned gray. He gained physical resistance.

In that state, all physical damage would be completely nullified.

Swish!

Yoonbyeol’s dagger flew towards Liquister.

It was a throwing knife technique infused with a considerable amount of mana, an attack using her spare daggers.

“Heh heh.”

Liquister let out an unpleasant laugh, not even sparing a glance at the dagger she threw.

Clang!

The dagger weakly struck his outer skin and fell to the ground with a thud.

He instinctively sensed that I was the leader, and his gaze was fixed solely on me.

‘I have to go in the opposite direction from our usual concept to win.’

The key to this battle was endurance.

Liquister’s resistance changes and swift movements all stemmed from his mana usage. Especially the resistance changes.

In other words, we needed to constantly provoke him into changing his resistances to accelerate his mana consumption.

Since my mana recovery was overwhelmingly higher, the longer we dragged it out, the more likely we were to win.

‘The question is, can we even endure against this crazy bastard?’

Honestly, it didn’t look easy. But it didn’t seem impossible either.

For now, everyone had taken enhancement potions, so their combat power was at its maximum.

That meant it was time to use our maximum firepower to carefully observe his ability usage and attack repertoire.

In other words, a reconnaissance battle.

At that moment.

Whoosh!

The flame-type spell that Jinbomi deployed took its place above Liquister’s head.

Just feeling it, it was a powerful strike that drew in a considerable amount of mana.

Wag. Wag.

Liquister leisurely wagged his index finger from side to side.

Then, red lines appeared on his gray skin, indicating that he had acquired ‘fire resistance’.

Boom!

Soon after, a fiery explosion occurred, but not a single scratch appeared on Liquister’s body.

“Damn it, what is that thing?”

Jinbomi’s voice was heard.

Probably, the thoughts of the other teammates weren’t much different from hers. Resistance monsters were rare.

The only loophole in dealing with resistances was that they couldn’t equip resistance to all attributes.

In other words, they had to choose between magic resistance and physical resistance.

And choose one among fire, ice, lightning, and poison resistance.

That’s why I dared to attempt to take down Liquister; otherwise, I wouldn’t have even gone near him.

Clang! Clang!

“Heh heh heh.”

I tentatively stabbed Liquister with the blade on my right arm, but all I got in return was an unpleasant sneer.

Thwack!

“Ugh!”

Instead, the fist he confidently threw struck my chest, pushing me back with terrifying destructive power.

“Ugh.”

Just taking a single hit, I felt a surge of nausea, a powerful attack that twisted my insides.

I was sure that if my teammates had taken that level of destructive power, it wouldn’t have ended with just nausea.

“Haa!”

I couldn’t just stand there and take it.

I immediately kicked off the ground, putting all my mana into my right arm, which I had returned to its original fist form.

Lightning Fist, True Fist.

It was a strike with lightning attribute.

The scary thing about Explosive Fist was that it dealt magical damage like Fire Fist and True Fist, along with physical damage.

So, there was enough room to exploit Liquister’s resistance gaps.

Swish.

“Damn it.”

But his reaction was faster than I thought. This time, white lines appeared on his skin, acquiring lightning resistance.

Boom!

“Heh heh heh!”

“Can’t you not laugh like that? You sound like a mosquito, but you laugh so much.”

Thwack!

“Ugh! Son of a…”

My attack was in vain, and in return for the counterattack, I was pushed back quite a bit.

Each punch was as powerful as the ‘Oppressive Fist,’ a heavy blow from Explosive Fist Chapter 2.

‘Then!’

Wham!

I suddenly threw Wilson, taken from subspace, towards Liquister.

I had upgraded it one level using a supreme-grade dimensional stone, so its appearance was really pleasing.

Wilson’s physical and magical damage were exactly half and half.

The physical damage was what Wilson directly delivered with kinetic energy, and the magical damage was what the release of mana delivered.

For me, it was the most reasonable choice.

Purple skin.

It seemed like he had decided to endure with magic resistance.

He seemed to think that the long red tail that Wilson dragged along was a kind of magical effect.

And the next moment.

Rushing towards Liquister, I shouted a single word to the team, ordering them to unify their attack attributes.

“Physical!”

The forced either-or choice for him.

It was time to somehow find a gap within that and pour in maximized firepower.

* * *

Some time later.

‘Is Shinwha hyung [older brother/male friend] really a god?’

Usually, this kind of comment was used as a joke online.

But Han Soojun’s thoughts as he watched the battle were completely different. He sincerely thought of ‘God.’

A Fighting God or a God of War.

Such modifiers suited Shinwha so well that he fought with all his might against an SSS-rank monster.

From the start, despite the serious power imbalance of ‘SSS- vs. B-,’ the fact that they could fight so evenly was amazing.

Of course, it wasn’t a result that Shinwha had created alone.

Jinbomi, having grasped Liquister’s resistance response repertoire, began to alternate between fire, illusion, water, and lightning spells.

Yoonbyeol waited until Liquister responded with magic resistance before deploying her throwing knife technique.

Especially when Shinwha launched a large-scale counterattack against Liquister in the middle of the battle, exposing a gap.

She actively approached and used two daggers enhanced with Stellard ore to inflict wounds on Liquister’s side.

It was a clean and sharp attack that Shinwha had even given a thumbs up to.

And Choi Jihyuk and Han Soojun himself were under the ‘belief’ that Liquister would never come to them.

They perfectly focused only on their roles of debuffing and healing.

Defense? They never cared about that even once. They didn’t even feel anxious.

Shinwha always had plans and schemes, and their trust in him had never been misplaced.

‘It’s also new to see Shinwha hyung, who was so aggressive, focusing so extremely on defense.’

Han Soojun was constantly enduring and supporting Shinwha, who was alternately suffering from bleeding and wounds, with all his might.

It was an extreme defense concept that was 180 degrees different from Shinwha’s combat style he had seen so far.

‘Where in the world would there be someone as unbalanced as Shinwha hyung? No matter how I think about it, a B-rank fighting an SSS-rank… it’s really amazing.’

Han Soojun’s concentration, which had been completely absorbed in Shinwha’s outstanding abilities, was cut off for a very brief, fleeting moment.

“Han Soojun, focus!”

“…Yes!”

Then, Shinwha’s sharp feedback came in.

As expected, it was Shinwha.

Even while focusing on the battle with Liquister, he immediately caught the problem in the rear.

‘Let’s just trust Shinwha hyung and go. What’s the virtue of a healer? Shut up and heal.’

Han Soojun concisely organized his thoughts.

Shinwha was an ability user who made that fully possible.

Han Soojun’s faith in Shinwha was solid, and the same was true for the other teammates fighting alongside him.

* * *

Ten minutes later.

‘It feels good to be doing defense training. It was overwhelming at first, but now I’m getting the hang of it.’

I was silently enduring Liquister’s attacks, which were gradually becoming more predictable.

Of course, it wasn’t easy to block them.

Just as I had learned Liquister’s repertoire, he had also read my patterns.

Thanks to that, the 2 billion won enhanced suit was approaching its danger durability, on the verge of becoming tattered.

And several bloodstains had formed around my mouth from the explosive strikes I had allowed in the middle.

‘I now know that my lower body defense is weak. Well, I’ve been smashing them before they could even attack my lower body…’

The battle with Liquister was so intense that I couldn’t let my guard down for a moment, but it was just as fulfilling.

I had no choice but to focus solely on defense for the long-term battle, and that’s why I had to study the ‘defense repertoire’ more intensively.

The most basic ‘endurance’ using physical enhancement and martial arts linkage.

Toughness to respond to surprise attacks that strengthen bones and target joints and connections.

Everything was perfect, from the ‘tough skin’ ability gained from consuming Madillo to the use of the ‘Ring of Frenzy’ obtained from Riyeon.

It felt like I was learning while fighting, as it was a concept that combined defense training that had been extremely lacking.

Was that why?

At some point, the balance between me and Liquister, which had been equal, began to crumble.

With the help of the stable support from my teammates, a foundation for a counterattack was laid.

In addition, there was also the unique point that the mana of the guy who had been enjoying seeing the fun with resistance changes had been exhausted.

“Haa.”

“Heh heh, you’re having a hard time too, right?”

I let out a sinister laugh towards Liquister, who was finally breathing roughly, just like he had done.

The time for learning and long endurance was over.

Liquister was someone I would never have been able to take down if I had come alone.

Thanks to my teammates who each played their roles reliably, I was able to steadily bring him to my pace.

Then, all that was left was to reliably meet their expectations!

“Liquister, I’ll show you what happens when your lower body is weak.”

The counterattack had finally begun.

His weak lower body, which was severely unbalanced compared to his burly upper body.

It seemed like it was time to relentlessly target his ‘lower body’.

After that, the battle continued.

Mushin [a mental state where thoughts and emotions are absent].

That word suited perfectly as I pushed Liquister to the extreme.

The enhancement potion that I drank for the last time, catching the renewal timing, was enough motivation.

It was like setting up a do-or-die situation with a ’30-minute limit’.

I relentlessly targeted Liquister’s lower body, constantly breaking his center of gravity.

And for the resistance responses that had finished pattern learning, I only responded with perfect counter punches.

A method of inflicting terrible damage with transcendent acceleration using a weapon that modified the right arm for magic resistance.

A method of using Wilson, which was capable of magical damage linkage, and Explosive Fist for physical resistance.

And even a pattern of coolly screwing him over by switching between True Fist, Fire Fist, and Explosive Fist for one attribute resistance.

By returning all responses in the opposite way, I began to remove Liquister’s safety net.

The next moment.

Swish. Swish.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh!

I could see it.