Chapter 475: Katyusha in the Ruins
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Three miles in the air, the sky was sapphire blue. A huge hawk with a wingspan of more than 100 feet flew in the air.
The hawk looked really strange. From afar, it looked like a hawk. But closer, Link discovered that it was covered in metallic dark red scales. They glowed faintly, and he could see many divine runes on them. They emitted a repressive aura. As for the wings, they were made of feathers, but at a glance, they looked like rows of knives. The edges glinted like blades.
Seeing this, Link realized what it was. It should be a pet, transformed from a Dragonhawk. It must be really powerful!
Regular Dragonhawks were similar, but their wingspans were at most 60 feet. The Agatha Nagas had displayed divine domestication spells before so Link wasn"t surprised.
A sound floated through the air. It was an Agatha Naga speaking from the back of the Dragonhawk. Instead of attacking immediately, Link hung around two miles away from the Dragonhawk and listened closely.
"It"s weird. The information said that Link"s s.h.i.+p left, but there"s been no trace. Did he crash halfway through?" The speaker was a Naga Warrior. Link also saw a small black-haired Naga sitting in front of her. For some reason, Link found her familiar, but most of her body was covered so he couldn"t see clearly.
"Alright, stop complaining. There"s nothing absolute in this world. If Link was so easy to deal with, he wouldn"t be so famous. He must have taken a detour," another voice said. It was too far away so Link couldn"t pinpoint who exactly was speaking. He did feel that the voice was familiar though. It was as soft as a floating feather; it was lovely too.
The voice sounds like Misamier but smoother. I must have heard it somewhere before.
If Link heard it from the front, he would definitely be able to remember. However, they were three miles up and sped along at a couple hundred feet per second. The wind flew past them, distorting the voice Link heard, so he couldn"t think of the person at the moment.
After a while, another voice said, "Commander, are we going to the Orida Fortress like this?"
"Yes. We"ll change our outfits and go in. Humans look similar to us. If we say we"re going to join the army, they have no reason to stop us from entering."
It was that lovely voice again. Now Link knew that she was the Naga commander.
After that, another conversation started on the back of the Dragonhawk. Complaints were thrown in too. Link listened patiently and soon could piece together their plan.
He hadn"t cleared all the Naga spies from the territory. These Nagas were able to find out the time and path he would take to go north. They"d been waiting for him on the way, but then he changed direction, so they didn"t get anything. Since they missed him, they decided to turn north and join the Orida Fortress to become the general"s soldiers.
To be honest, there was nothing wrong with their plan. From the outside, Nagas had no big difference from humans. Their energy was the dark red power of destruction. It was very different from Dark power and was rarely seen in the mainland. It was easy to fool others.
Once these Nagas successfully went to Duke Abel"s side, it would be extremely troublesome for Link.
At this moment, Link"s vision flashed. It was a mission.
Activate Mission: Intercept
Mission Content: While ensuring your own safety, stop the Agatha Nagas from entering the Orida Fortress.
Mission Reward: 10 Jogu
Seeing this, Link got an idea. There were only 13 Nagas on the Dragonhawk, all around Level-8 or nine. Only three were truly threatening to Link.
The first was the Naga at the very front, clad in a black and red dress. She was probably a Naga priestess. The other was the black-haired Naga. Link could feel that she was at the peak of Level-10. The last one was the Dragonhawk pet. The G.o.d of Destruction protected it, and it was extremely combative. However, its size meant that it wasn"t that agile. It was probably the least threatening of the three.
Even if it was these three, he should probably be okay if he was careful… Did they have some powerful battle techniques or crazy weapons? No matter what, the game warned him, so he had to be prepared.
He accepted the mission and quietly snuck towards the Dragonhawk"s body from below.
Link"s Void Walk was very powerful. At full force, it was as fast as his dragon form. The Dragonhawk wasn"t that fast. It was even slower than a Yabba airs.h.i.+p"s cruising speed. It was only around 400 feet per minute, and Link could catch up easily.
The distance between them closed. Two miles… one mile… half a mile… Link saw the black-haired Naga start looking side to side. She felt something.
Link immediately stopped approaching and started putting everything into restricting the sound of wind around him. After following quietly for more than ten seconds, the black-haired Naga still didn"t let down her guard.
"That"s strange. Something feels wrong," she started to say.
Now, Link was much closer to her and could hear her voice more clearly. He felt even more that her voice was familiar now. He must have heard her in the game, and she must be some Naga boss that caused him a lot of trouble.
Who is she? Who is she?
Link started thinking back. In the game, he"d killed 16 Naga bosses from the Silversand Islands in total. Each one had their own characteristics. There were a few black-haired ones too… Wait, Link suddenly remembered her name.
Her full name was: Victory"s Vow, Agatha"s Glory, Katyusha in the Ruins. She"d appeared in the second half of the game and was one of the few horrible bosses that could only be killed with the Suicide Battle Technique.
What was a Suicide Battle Technique?
This meant that the boss would use a powerful move every two seconds. This move would hit the player with the highest hatred level. It couldn"t be avoided, blocked, or freed from. Even the divine s.h.i.+eld known by Holy Knights as "undefeatable" would be defeated in one hit.
Only a sea of Warriors could defeat Katyusha. They had to charge one by one to block her moves and tire her out with rounds of Warriors.
Link remembered that in the game, two guilds had teamed up to form a group of 1000 players. By the end, 857 had died, each from one hit. When Katyusha"s bloodline was below ten percent, her attack speed would increase by 200% and make a move every 0.6 seconds… It had been a total bloodbath.
Meeting Katyusha again in real life, Link discovered she wasn"t as powerful. In order to take care of the players, the game set the rule that Katyusha had to make a move every two seconds and hit the player with the highest hatred level. There was no such rule in the real world.
In real life, she might have other restrictions, but she would definitely be agile to the max. If she came at Link and he wasn"t ready, he would be dead meat.
Link thought for a few seconds and came up with a plan.
First, he waited for more than ten seconds. During that time, Katyusha looked side to side on the Dragonhawk. She didn"t find anything strange but still kept her guard up. A spear that shone like lightning appeared in her hands.
Seeing this, Link gulped reflexively.
He obviously recognized this spear. It was the Spear of Victory, a Legendary weapon only for Warriors. Of all the Legendary weapons that had appeared in the game, it was ranked fourth, above his Dragon King"s Fury sword.
After killing Katyusha, she would drop broken pieces of the sword. After collecting 20 pieces and completing some missions, he could find a dwarf blacksmith to make a low-level Legendary Glory Spear. After a dozen more missions, the last mission would be to trick the G.o.d of Destruction. Then he could quench the Glory Spear and create the Victory Spear.
The spear"s basic damage was already really high. It only had one effect but was perversely powerful and could be actively triggered. It was called the Thorn of Fate. Once triggered, the player"s next attack against a creature would increase 50 times or ten times against a player. It was unavoidable too.
Even more terrifying, the effect could be both long and short-range. When close enough, it could pierce an enemy directly. When further away, it could be thrown. Either way, it would hit its mark and was unstoppable.
In the game, Warriors were a very tragic career. They could only fight and charge brutishly. The other careers could play circles around them if they had even the slightest technical skill. A Magician especially could send a Warrior to thousands of feet up in the air and have them freefall.
But once a Warrior had the Spear of Victory, they would become an undefeatable hero. They could defeat anyone in seconds, and everyone would try to avoid them.
Of course, players who won the Spear of Victory in the game could be counted on one hand.
This was real life though. There was no difference between creatures and players. As soon as Link saw the Spear of Victory, he got rid of the idea to clash directly with Katyusha.
Fully guarded against Katyusha, Link crept towards the Dragonhawk. When he was around 2000 feet away, he stopped. He was now under the beast and in Katyusha"s blind spot. He could attack from here without worrying about Katyusha"s immediate reaction.
Taking a deep breath, Link took out the Dragon King"s Fury sword.
Despair Ball
A spatial sphere containing a black vortex appeared immediately. Link stabbed forward. Another Despair Ball appeared at the furthest place possible, and he activated another one. This way, the sword"s tip instantly crossed 2300 feet, arriving under the Dragonhawk"s belly.
The Dragonhawk was a G.o.d"s pet and was protected by divine power. Link"s Despair Ball couldn"t penetrate it, but this was enough.
The Dragon King"s Fury sword pushed against the scales on the Dragonhawk"s belly and stabbed forward. He activated Boundless Sharpness, and the scales were pierced. The sword buried in 12 inches deep, entering the Dragonhawk"s body.
"Void Destructor!"
The Red Dragon Queen had given him this spell. It worked well with Dragon Power. Its strength went without saying, and it was fast too. A dark purple fireball instantly appeared at the sword tip and then exploded.
Boom! Fire spewed out from the Dragonhawk"s belly. Flames spread deep inside it and burst out from other places. Seeing this, Link knew that it was game over for the Dragonhawk.
He didn"t stop for a second. Immediately activating the Dimensional Jump, he jumped, jumped, and jumped for up to three miles before starting to fly.
Link had put much thought into the direction he flew in. Rather than going towards the airs.h.i.+p, he flew elsewhere, just in case.
He heard the Dragonhawk"s wail and the Agatha Naga"s surprised and angry roars. He turned and saw the Dragonhawk"s flaming body plummet. The Agatha Nagas on its back also fell.
Link saw Katyusha too. She stood on the Dragonhawk"s back and stared at Link. Her furious voice traveled over. "Link, don"t run!"
Then he saw the Naga priestess cast a mysterious spell on Katyusha. A pair of red wings, seemingly solid, sprouted behind her back. She flapped her wings and charged towards Link. She was only a bit slower than him.
Link was speechless. He wasn"t scared of getting caught, but now that he had someone on his tail, he wouldn"t be able to get to the Orida Fortress on time.
But then he thought, Divine spells have time limits. I just need to drag things out.