Chapter 691 - 691: Shadow Die Twice = Die Twice More!

Facing a Samurai General who only had one life, Zack didn't brute force his way through. Instead, he chipped away at its health bit by bit.

Because Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice doesn't have an stamina bar, he could run and attack endlessly.

After dying a few times previously, he had pretty much figured out the current Samurai General's moves. The two most threatening ones were:

One was a charging sweep that hit twice, and the other was a leaping, heavy downward strike.

With the sweep, running to the side after it hit made him vulnerable to getting hit.

And with the jumping slash, moving backward made him vulnerable to getting hit.

The rest of its moves posed absolutely no threat.

The "Danger" sign that appeared above his head indicated a sweep that couldn't be blocked. If he was in the middle of attacking, it was hard to dodge, but if he was prepared beforehand, it was a free punish.

There was also a white glow that appeared on him, which could significantly reduce his posture bar. Zack didn't care about this either, because he wasn't aiming to fill the posture bar. Instead, he planned to wear down the Samurai General like a slow blade cutting meat, little by little.

If two lives were hard to wear down, then surely one life wouldn't be impossible.

He had his gourd, healing medicine pills found on the way, the power of the Dragon's Heritage for resurrection, and the prosthetic tool shuriken.

After fighting for five or six minutes, Zack had literally depleted the big general's health bar.

He also noticed a detail: the less health the BOSS had, the longer its posture bar stayed up.

At first, he'd hit twice and his posture bar would fill about a sixth, but as soon as he retreated, after two or three seconds, the posture bar would completely reset.

But as he continued to attack the general, as its health bar dropped, the posture bar would remain for a very, very long time.

"As expected, my strategy is correct, and this strategy is like the turn-based combat of Souls-like games!" Zack looked proudly at Wolf, who was using the Kusabimaru to execute the Samurai General, feeling like a genius.

Even though it was a Souls-like game, it didn't give him the same difficult experience as before.

Experience and wisdom had instantly changed the game's difficulty from hell to normal.

"But do you have to defeat BOSSes to get prayer beads and healing gourds?" Zack was a little puzzled looking at the prayer bead and gourd seed he obtained after defeating the general.

If that was the case, wouldn't he get stuck in a death loop if he couldn't beat a BOSS?

Zack pondered, but didn't dwell on it. He continued to push through the game's progress.

He'd worry about being stuck when he actually got stuck.

With full confidence, Zack embarked on his journey once more.

After defeating this general BOSS, Zack found that the difficulty of what came next had suddenly changed.

As everyone knows in Souls-like games, groups of small monsters are scarier than BOSSes.

Zack had already been swarmed and killed by monsters once before, but after defeating the general, he discovered something even more terrifying.

That is, the density of monsters in this Wolf game was even more terrifying than in Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

When he first entered Yharnam in Bloodborne, he encountered a bonfire party. In Sekiro, the density of enemies was comparable, if not worse.

And the game's map design was also quite treacherous.

Narrow terrain, and a wide variety of small monsters.

Gunmen attacking from a distance on high platforms, grunts hiding in the rear to ambush him, and a fat Taro soldier similar to the winged knights in the Lothric High Wall courtyard in Dark Souls, wielding a hammer.

Despite having his grappling hook, Zack didn't have time to find a place to land immediately and was immediately cornered and killed by a group of small monsters.

After reviving, he had no chance to resist, and hadn't even had time to drink a healing potion before losing his second life.

"What the heck! Why are there so many small monsters!"

Resurrecting in front of the Sculptor's Idol, Zack felt completely numb.

This felt harder than the BOSS before!

"Alright, you win. I'm not fighting you. I'll take a detour!"

Zack, who had revived again, returned to the previous path. He squatted on a roof beam and observed for a while, concluding a route to use his grappling hook to leap over these small monsters.

"Bet you didn't expect this! I can fly!"

Using his grappling hook, Zack zipped around the roof beams, looking down at the small monsters who could only stare with dry eyes, laughing happily.

Exploring forward, he obtained a bell from an old woman who mistook him for her son.

From the dialogue, it seemed like he could return to the Dilapidated Temple to start some kind of dungeon.

Then, enduring the output of a rifleman, Zack directly grappled behind a large gate and met a merchant, from whom he obtained some information.

The merchant had met Wolf three years ago when he was a thief and went to Hirata Estate to "stock up."

He then spent some money and got some extra information: there was an item called a Flame Vent in Hirata Estate.

"Flame Vent? This should be a prosthetic tool, right? But how do I get to Hirata Estate?" Zack had a general idea after carefully examining the information, but he still had some inexplicable questions.

He didn't bother with them for now and continued forward. After killing a black bird, he saved at a nearby Sculptor's Idol. After dealing with two grunts with their backs to him, Zack went up the stairs and saw a red-eyed giant tied to a stake.

"What's going on? Another BOSS fight? It's tied up and not moving? Can I assassinate it?"

Zack looked at the monster struggling and roaring, and immediately went behind it, but found no prompt to trigger an execution.

At that moment, with a howl, the monster broke the ropes binding it, and its name appeared above its head: "Red Lancer."

Three minutes later, Zack fell silent as he looked at the "Defeated" screen.

Without a doubt, this was another BOSS fight.

And for some reason, Zack felt that the fighting style of this "Red Lancer" was completely different from before.

Previously, facing that Samurai BOSS, except for moves with the "Danger" prompt, there were no moves that couldn't be blocked.

The other moves only required attention to the posture bar to block, and then he could kite it by constantly running.

But with the Red Lancer in front of him, Zack found its moves were completely different. Dodging its punches to the side almost always resulted in him getting hit, and pulling back would often lead to a fatal embrace if he wasn't careful.

And its grab range was exceptionally far; it could grab him even from over ten meters away with a lunge.

Upon being grabbed, it would slam his head into the ground, instantly killing him if he wasn't at full health.

Even at full health, he'd be left with a sliver of health.

Blocking was also possible, but his posture bar filled up extremely quickly; three hits would break his guard.

And the Red Lancer's "Danger" move, whether it was his imagination or not, felt much faster to wind up than the Samurai General's.

"How am I supposed to fight this! It has hyper armor the whole time, and I can't even block it!"

At that moment, Zack felt the fear of being dominated that he experienced when he first played Bloodborne.

But the problem was, Bloodborne allowed leveling up, and he had 20 blood vials!

What did this Wolf game have?

Even though he could revive, he started with half health. Wasn't that just dying again?

"Now I understand the meaning of Boss Lucas's subtitle. 'Shadow Die Twice' just means you can die twice!"

(End of Chapter)

---

Read +100 advanced chapters on my patre*n

patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya

---