The boss"s attack was so high that even Holy s.h.i.+eld couldn"t guard against it completely. He Yi had over 100k HP, and the skill had shaved over half that amount. Adding that to the damage she had taken so far, her HP dipped below the 25% mark.
The situation was critical, and I consciously controlled the apparition to block in front of He Yi. After my apparition unleashed a Universe Break+ Burning Blade Slash to its head, and I hit it from behind with War Crush, I finally managed to drag its hate back to me again.
……
Swhoos.h.!.+
A cyan pond appeared beneath our feet. It was of course Murong Mingyue"s Life Pond. Besides that, she used a bunch other AoE heals to try and keep us healthy. The problem was that this boss had an AoE skill, so single target heals couldn"t keep up with the demand. However, it was also very easy to slip up and lose someone if she used AoE heals only. The demand for constant good decision making troubled Murong Mingyue deeply.
He Yi managed to keep her panic to a minimum and steady her footing. She then raised her hand and healed herself with War G.o.d Recovery, a skill that healed 100% HP over 60 seconds. In a crisis, the skill could be the difference between life and death.
"Roar roar!"
The boss roared angrily, and its horn shone a cold light once more. Dragonblade Pierce again? WTH, just how short is its cooldown? Is it 6 seconds just like my Universe Break? This is terrible!
I urged the Armored Ice Qilin Horse to move backward as I raised my arm to block the boss"s skill. At the same time, I hit it with an Icy Cyclone Domain so that its movement speed would be greatly decreased, and moved the apparition into the Life Pond to heal itself.
Chiang chiang chiang!
I reacted the moment its horns moved toward me. I tried parrying the skill from three different angles, but unfortunately the gap between our Strength stat was just too big. The boss was able to knock away my arm three times in a row and gore my chest with its horns, but—
8932!
11293!
7261!
—thankfully, the parries weren"t completely useless, or I would"ve lost at least twice as much HP. After all, my Defense was ultimately inferior to He Yi"s.
At the same time, Beiming Xue hit the boss"s chest with a Freezing Arrow+ Mountain Stagger Arrow, causing it to let out a mighty roar. Its hate toward us was growing by the second.
After being hit by multiple slowing skills, the boss"s movement speed was reduced by 50% or more. This gave me the chance to toy with the boss a little. Controlling three units in a row, I attacked the boss while running rings around it, made the Phantom Wolf King block in front of the boss constantly to disrupt its attack rhythm, and ordered my apparition to pull out its sword the second it recovered all its HP and MP. The purple soul of a dragon surged up the blade and enveloped the boss in a devastating explosion!
The boss almost 300k HP in just 10 short seconds. The apparition"s attack power was only 75% of mine, but it was more than good enough.
"Eve, keep the boss busy while I use another Purple Dragon Howl! We don"t have much time left, and we still have more Dragonlight Armored Horses to seal!" I ordered while moving backward.
He Yi responded affirmatively, "Got it!"
After I moved a safe distance away from the boss, I relinquished my control over my apparition and focused on the Phantom Wolf King and myself only. Calmly, I switched back and forth between my view and the Phantom Wolf King"s view a dozen of times in an instant while activating G.o.d"s Rage, a property that gave me 100% critical hit chance for 60 seconds!
Purple Dragon Howl, go!
"Roar roar!"
An earthshaking roar erupted from my sword as a purple dragon soul climbed up the blade. Then, I sent it flying toward the boss and caused an entire column of 100k+ damage numbers to rise above its head!
The skill deleted over a million HP in just 10 seconds" time. It was some of the most enjoyable hits I had ever done for sure. One problem though. The boss had so much health that 1 million HP was just a small chunk of HP in its health pool. It was a sad fact of life every MMO gamer had eventually learned to accept.
I entered a weakened state for 3 seconds. It was the negative side effect for using Purple Dragon Howl!
The boss raced toward me, but He Yi caught up from behind and pierced its back with an Ice Ray, greatly lowering its movement speed.
The Phantom Wolf King also did its utmost to block the boss with its body. Together, they bought just barely enough time for me to regain my strength and continue the fight!
I counter-Charged the boss and actually managed to stun it this time. However, I failed again when I tried to follow up with a G.o.d Binding Art. The Level 180 Heaven Rank boss was so powerful that the success rate of my CC skills was probably less than 10%. It was a tragedy.
Again, I hit the boss with Burning Blade Slash + War crush combo, but this time its HP finally dropped low enough for Dark Pupils to glimpse its weak point. There was a tiny gap between the scales about 5 centimeters long just below its eyes; possibly a flaw in the process while it was absorbing the dragon"s blood. However, it was only about as big as a coin. Only the absolute best of the best players would be able to hit a coin-sized target considering how erratic the boss"s movement was.
I hurriedly marked the weak point in the shared party interface before calling out to Beiming Xue, "Aim here, Beiming! This is its weak spot!"
I didn"t forget to attack the weak point myself while I was giving instructions. Universe Break!
Squelch!
I managed to hit the pathetically tiny weak point and draw a bloodcurdling scream from the boss. The fiery cone penetrated its head almost completely, and the damage number rising above its head reflected it—76273!
Moonlight Stone"s mouth fell open involuntarily. "Wow…"
After receiving my order, Beiming Xue calmly moved to the side and jumped over a narrow ravine. While she was still in the air, she drew her bow and loosed an Evil Spirit Volley at its weak point! OMG, if all the skills she could use! Is she trying to show off or something?
The twelve arrows flew toward the boss"s head seemingly without direction. However, it really was the result of careful aiming!
Bang bang bang bang...
The boss screeched in pain as a series of explosions enveloped its body. A column of damage numbers rose from its head—
26738!
MISS!
29382!
61234!
MISS!
……
Evil Spirit Volley consisted of 12 arrows, and Beiming Xue was able to land 9 of them. Not only that, 6 of them landed squarely on the boss"s weak point. At this point, it wouldn"t be an exaggeration to compare her archery skill to laser-guided shots. There couldn"t be more than 10 players in the entire China, no, the entire world who could perform such a feat, not even if their ID was Transient Smoke and Clouds or October Rain!
I was a melee player, and I had some trouble trying to hit that tiny weak point from point blank. Meanwhile, Beiming Xue had launched her attack from 20 yards away. The further away a ranged player was from its target, the more important predicting the enemy"s movements and skill became. It must be over ten times harder for her to land her attack on that tiny weak point than it was for me, and yet she managed to do it 50% of the time over 12 shots! That was absolutely incredible!
I couldn"t help the joy blooming inside my heart. Beiming Xue"s growth had been nothing short of astounding, and she was looking more and more like the greatest archer of the entire China!
After that, Beiming Xue fell back to her original role and continued to CC the boss with Freezing Arrows and Mountain Stagger Arrows. Nearly every shot landed squarely on the boss"s weak point, freezing its upper body and slowing it drastically. He Yi and I no longer had to keep the boss"s attention like our life depended on it, and the way we alternated between offense and defense reminded me of Tai Chi for some reason. The boss was ridiculously powerful, but it was unable to unleash it completely due to our control.
After almost ten minutes of trying, we finally slipped into a rhythm that we were comfortable with. Although the battle was still pretty dangerous and tiring, it was all worth it as long as we could beat the boss.
……
Swhoosh swhoosh...
After Murong Mingyue hit He Yi with two healing spells and healed her to full, she said smilingly, "Since this boss is a Heaven Rank boss, one of us might just be able to ascend and become a Divine General~ Beauty Lin"s Divine General Skill hadn"t been revealed yet, so let"s try and make this second Divine General Skill our own!"
I smiled. "I don"t know, if this is all it takes to become a Divine General then a second Divine General would"ve appeared already. I"m very interested in the boss loot, however. A Level 180 Heaven Rank boss, man. With my Luck stat and karma, getting Heaven-grade equipment out of this should be no trouble!"
Beiming Xue giggled. "This boss is covered from head to toe in tough scales, so I"m sure it"ll drop a metal armor or two. Big bro and Eve are going to get an upgrade real soon!"
He Yi shook her head and said smilingly, "Whatever the boss drops, Lu Chen should get priority over me. After all, he can unearth the full potential of the equipment, but I can"t. I"m not so ignorant that I can"t realize that such a valuable resource will be wasted on me…"
Murong Mingyue and I immediately started encouraging He Yi. Contrary to the battle, a peaceful atmosphere enveloped our party for a moment.
……
The boss fight lasted over an hour. Thanks to our amazing firepower, we were able to bring the boss down to 10% HP or so. This was also the most dangerous moment of the boss fight, however. We all kept our eyes wide open and waited for the boss to go ham!
The King of Strange Beasts didn"t disappoint us. Raising its proud head, it let out an earthshaking roar and—
Beep!
Combat Log: Please be informed that Dragonlight King of Strange Beasts used the skill "Stampede of the Hundred Beasts"!
……
"f.u.c.k, it"s a ma.s.sive AoE skill! Retreat!" I shouted.
The earth quaked and ruptured all around us. Countless blue energy in animal shape such as lizards, wolves, tigers and more brushed past our bodies and deleted 20k+ HP immediately. It was a continuous, full map AoE skill, and there was absolutely nothing we could do to survive it!
After blocking the first wave of Stampede of the Hundred Beast with her Priest s.h.i.+eld, Murong Mingyue shouted, "We"ll revive from the graveyard outside the map and run over! But we can"t let the boss enter an idle state, or it"ll recover at least 50% of its HP by the time we reach it! Lu Chen, use your invincibility skill and keep it busy! Hold on until we come back to you!"
"Okay!"
We were ready. We couldn"t interrupt the boss"s skill, so death was the only option. That being said, it wasn"t that big of a loss. It wasn"t like we could get pregnant if we died in a game.
Swhoos.h.!.+
Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue and Moonlight Stone dropped dead at the same time I activated s.h.i.+eld of Evening. He Yi quickly followed them a few seconds later. Sigh, no amount of tankiness was enough without an invincibility skill!
s.h.i.+eld of Evening only lasted 12 seconds, so i tried to interrupt the boss"s ultimate with Magic Piercing Punch and Burning Blade Slash during this time. Unfortunately, none of them worked, and Stampede of the Hundred Beasts clearly wasn"t going to end any time soon. s.h.i.+t! I"m gonna die!
Rustle rustle...
A rustling sound later, s.h.i.+eld of Evening faded away and left a chill in my heart. I glanced at the skill I didn"t want to use if at all possible—
Resurrection Art: 30% chance to revive upon death. If the skill is active and the pa.s.sive revival didn"t trigger, forcefully revives the user without any equipment penalty. Active revival costs 1 level per revive. Attack power is increased by 10% after revival and can be stacked endlessly.