You know, just saying, but if you had to walk through a pitch-black catacomb, killing multiple wizards, rats, and a ninja who was literally driving you crazy with every hit, sneaking past unkillable ghosts that would drive you completely crazy A Quiet Place If you make a single sound, if you raid a mansion full of indomitable greatsword warriors, if you hear a man tearing his lungs out with the unholy bone sword he has for a spine, and terrible evil begging to be released from his skin, you might get the idea that you're not wanted here. But, hey, the sunk cost fallacy is a son of a bitch, and you're not going to go all the way to the Abyss Forest and Negative Talk to the guy at the end—Midra—and find out what his deal is.
Spoiler alert: His deal is murder. Murder and fire.
Midra's Abilities
When you first enter Midra's room, you will see a poor old man collapsed in the middle of the room, and before you can say “do you need anything, old man?” he will start calling you an idiot and weakly run towards you with a stick. If he catches you, some but it's bad, I mean, just look at it.
Once you defeat him, however, a cutscene will begin, where Midra will surrender her ghost and unleash literal hell. After what is basically one of the most profoundly fucked-up things you'll ever see in Profoundly Fucked Up Things: The Video Game, you'll have your true target: the Mad Flame Lord. You know, the one you can be if you choose to be one A lot Is the naughty Tarnished in the base game?
Anyway, when you regain control, the first thing Johnny Storm will do is throw a bunch of flaming vines at you in two waves. After that, he'll start hitting you with his big sword-spine combo. These are all big hits, but one in particular is a fiery, sliding lunge, like the Stinger, followed by two quick hits. Devil May Cry. He also has a variation where he'll throw a flaming vine attack right in the middle of a normal combo. Sometimes he'll try spinning because it's a good trick and if it works it'll connect for three hits. He also carries a bone dagger that can occasionally surprise you.
After he gets a third of his health back, he'll rise into the air and drop like a bomb. After that, his sword combos will start leaving pools of flame on the ground, which is especially annoying since he'll occasionally start doing a long six-hit sweep combo. He'll gain a new dive attack, and whether or not he catches you with his sword, he'll explode with flaming spikes after a delay. He'll also occasionally create a fiery sphere that will follow you around the room for a few seconds. And on top of all that, he'll sometimes summon a Cyclops and shoot a fire beam from his eyes. Oh, and did I mention the part where all fire attacks cause Madness? Because it does.
Defeat Midra
So, despite the monstrous build and dramatic fire, Midra is still a bit of a weak old man, it seems. While magic users can get by by staying out of his combo range, avoiding his slide attacks and hitting him with anything that casts Frostbite or Bleeding, heavy melee users can bully the poor bastard with their guard counters and break his stance a few times during the fight when you know when his combos are ending. If you have a weapon that casts Frostbite or Bleeding, it's a really short fight.
This is a license to be aggressive, not stupid. The big problem is that while armor and a half-decent shield can block most things thrown at you, the Madness build-up can quickly build up with each hit. If you can mitigate that, half the battle is already won. In terms of enchanting, if you got the Clarifying Horn Charm+2 from Lamenter's Gaol, bring it. For armor, the Solitude set you get from defeating the Blackgaol Knight is a top-tier choice. But if you don't want to hunt them down, the Ailment Talisman, which grants you resistance to recent illnesses, can help, but you'll need to be completely afflicted by Madness once to do so. It's a hopeless choice.
The first part of this fight is pretty straightforward when Madness is less of a concern. The first flame attacks can be dodged by rolling forward with a slight delay to avoid the second. This will put you in the Eye of Sauron's grate. Even if you (hopefully) have good Madness protection, you'll still want to get through as many Midra attacks as possible to avoid the buildup, and magic users will want to get out of range and create some space as quickly as possible. If you choose to bring a Spirit Ash to make this even faster, dodge the fire attack, then roll out of range first.
Second Stage
Midra's big dive bombing attack pays off as phase two begins Very similar to Messmer'sBut there's a catch: the epicenter of Midra's explosion can't actually be escaped. If you're within the glowing red range of that explosion, you're finished. So the move there is actually moving out of range, rather than rolling.
After that, the fight is tough, but most of the same principles apply. It's mostly a race against time, as the Madness-inducing flames Midra leaves behind are hard to avoid, even if you're doing everything right. If you've got the Madness resistance charged up, you should be fine, but still, the faster you can knock him down, the better. However, he'll give you a little extra help here: his six-hit combo doesn't spin very well and is long, so if you manage to get behind him early and can withstand the Madness, you can get in some serious elder abuse. His dive attack is more a matter of timing than anything else; remember the delay after he lands before he explodes. The orb he summons is more of a nuisance than anything else, and it's slow enough that you can avoid it entirely as long as you stay out of range. The laser on his face does a fair amount of damage, but it only hits you when you're far away, and if you dodge it, it locks onto him for a few seconds.
After you put the old man to bed, you will receive a hospice fee of 410,000 Rune and the Memory of the Lord of the Wild Flame. If you turn it in at the Round Table Hold, you will receive either Midra's terrifying Greatsword of Curse or Midra's Flame of Madness, a spell that summons tendrils of flame. By the way, did you get Nanaya's Torch in the Manse earlier? This torch is a gift from Midra real spine.
…To answer your next question, yes, you can definitely go to hell from there.