Chapter 135: [135] : Deleting the Vanguard, Blurring the Lines (1)
The North Gate of the Iron Bastion was taking heavy fire.
The massive spiked black iron walls of the +20 Thorned Aegis were designed to reflect physical damage perfectly. But the monsters hitting the north side weren’t just throwing punches.
They were using heavy corrupted magic.
A massive horde of dark matter beasts slammed against the transparent red energy dome protecting the gate. The barrier rippled violently and flashed a dangerous sickly yellow.
Standing right at the front of the monster army was a towering and heavily armored nightmare.
It was a Level 85 Purge General.
It stood fifteen feet tall. It wore thick jagged black iron plates that pulsed with a toxic green light. Instead of hands, it had two massive glowing red plasma cannons built directly into its forearms.
The General did not screech or roar. It just methodically raised its arms and fired continuous blasts of highly concentrated deletion code at the barrier.
BOOM! BOOM!
Every time the plasma hit the shield, the entire wall shook. Fine spiderweb cracks were starting to form in the red energy.
Inside the city, Commander Richter was standing on the wall, sweating profusely.
He had deployed two hundred of his best Praetorian Guard players to hold the North Gate. They were hiding behind the stone battlements, firing their plasma rifles down at the horde.
But their weapons were doing absolutely nothing!
The blue energy slugs hit the Level 85 General and simply bounced off its thick armor.
"Focus fire on the cannon joints!" Richter yelled over the comms, his voice cracking with stress. "We have to disable its ranged attacks!"
"It is not working, Commander!" A heavy gunner shouted back. "My damage numbers aren’t even registering! Its defense stat is way too high!"
Richter gritted his teeth. He knew they were completely outmatched. A Level 85 boss was endgame content. It was designed to fight entire guilds of max leveled players.
A group of Level 50 mercenaries couldn’t even scratch the paint on its armor.
CRACK!
A massive blast from the Purge General hit the barrier directly in front of Richter. The red energy shield shattered like a glass window!
The hole was only ten feet wide, but it was enough.
"Shield is down!" A player screamed in terror.
The horde of dark matter beasts instantly surged forward, aiming straight for the breach.
Richter raised his own heavy railgun. He knew it was useless, but he wasn’t going to just stand there and die.
Before he could pull the trigger, the air right next to him violently popped.
A small perfectly round sphere of pitch black darkness appeared on the wall.
Declan stepped out of the Void Blink.
He didn’t stumble. He didn’t look out of breath. He was wearing his sleek black Predator’s Coat, his hands casually stuffed into his pockets.
He looked entirely bored.
"You guys are making a lot of noise," Declan noted smoothly.
Richter jumped back and was completely startled. "Declan! Finally! The shield is breached! That thing is Level 85! It will vaporize you!"
Declan didn’t even look at the panicked Commander. He just stepped right up to the edge of the broken barrier.
He looked down at the charging horde of monsters. He looked at the massive Purge General charging its plasma cannons for another shot.
Declan sighed.
"I really hate it when people touch my walls," Declan muttered.
He pulled his right hand out of his pocket.
He didn’t cast a massive glowing spell. He didn’t pull out the +20 Carnage Cleaver. He just tapped his system interface.
The heavy dark matter shaft of the +40 Eclipse Severance halberd dropped perfectly into his grip. The razor thin blade made of the night sky hummed with a chaotic static energy.
Declan didn’t wind up for a massive swing. He didn’t activate the Gravity Well trait.
He just casually flicked his wrist.
He swung the massive halberd horizontally through the empty air in front of him.
The Spacetime Laceration trait activated effortlessly.
There was no sound of a clashing weapon. There was no fiery explosion.
There was just the distinct and sickeningly wet sound of thick canvas tearing perfectly in half.
A jagged pitch black line appeared in the air. It wasn’t a projectile. It was a literal tear in the server’s coordinate plane.
The spatial tear ripped forward at the speed of light. It swept over the breach. It swept over the charging vanguard of dark matter beasts.
It hit the Level 85 Purge General right in the chest.
The massive heavily armored boss completely froze.
Its glowing red plasma cannons stopped charging. Its toxic green lights flickered and died.
A split second later, the top half of the General’s body slowly slid backward. It fell off its waist and crashed heavily into the mud.
It didn’t bleed. It didn’t roar in pain.
The blade had completely ignored the concept of the monster’s physical defense. It hadn’t dealt damage. It had just severed the space the monster was occupying!
The two halves of the boss instantly dissolved into a massive shower of bright blue digital pixels.
[Combat Interface]
↳ Purge General Level 85 Defeated!
↳ Multiple Enemies Defeated!
↳ Origin Points +145,000
Declan casually rested the massive halberd on his shoulder. He didn’t even look at the system prompts.
On the wall, Commander Richter was completely frozen.
The Level 70 Vanguard stared at the empty space where the boss used to be. He stared at the blue pixels floating up into the dark sky.
His tactical visor was frantically trying to calculate the math of what had just happened.
[Error. Damage output exceeds measurable parameters.]
[Target Defense ignored.]
Richter slowly turned his head to look at Declan.
He had seen the Warlord drop a space station on a boss. He had seen him crush an army.
But Richter always thought it was just really good and highly optimized gear. He thought Declan was just a rich hacker who found a good exploit.
But watching a guy casually flick his wrist and literally delete a Level 85 boss without even trying?
Richter realized he was not looking at a player anymore.
He was looking at a physical manifestation of a server wipe.
"You..." Richter stammered as his voice became entirely stripped of its military professionalism. "You didn’t even use a skill. You just erased it."
"It was in my way," Declan said simply. He looked out over the remaining horde. "Now. Let’s go clean up the rest of the trash."
