Chapter 165: Chapter 165: An Endless Loop
The arrival of Xerxes temporarily halted the advance of the Rain Demons.
The Level 40 Gold-tier mobs turned their featureless wooden faces toward the new localized threat, and their scythe-arms twitched with aggressive pink sap.
Dante didn’t lower his guard. He kept the [Dawn-Breaker Blade] raised.
"Xerxes," Dante said, his voice carrying easily across the clearing. "I am assuming you did not march your entire guild all the way from the southern deserts just to help me chop firewood."
The leader of the Blood Throne didn’t immediately reply. He stepped fully out of the shadows and twirled the serrated daggers in his hands.
He wasn’t alone.
A dozen elite rogues materialized from the tree line behind him and formed a loose relaxed perimeter.
"I have no interest in your little feud with Vanguard’s Legacy, Dan," Xerxes stated, his voice smooth and incredibly confident. "Silas is a fool who operates on ego. I operate on profit."
"And you think there is profit here?" Dante asked and gestured to the massive mutated trees surrounding them.
"I know there is," Xerxes smirked.
He pointed one of his daggers not at Dante, but at the dark canopy above.
"I watched the stream. I saw the Boomshade Trickster. A Level 45 Rogue Sylvan NPC that actively offers Master-Servant contracts?"
"That is not just a pet. That is a reconnaissance asset capable of bypassing standard system detection. She is priceless."
"She is a trap," Dante corrected him flatly.
"She actively baits players into environmental hazards and watches them die. She is not looking for a master. She is looking for entertainment."
"A minor behavioral quirk," Xerxes dismissed the warning with a wave of his hand. "Nothing that cannot be corrected once she is properly bound. I intend to claim her."
Dante sighed.
"She is gone. She dropped Silas out of a tree and ran deeper into the grove. If you want to chase a hallucinating rogue through a toxic forest, be my guest. But you are currently standing in the middle of a boss encounter."
Xerxes finally looked at the towering Rain Demons.
"They are merely obstacles," Xerxes said, his confidence unwavering.
He turned to his lieutenant, a heavily scarred rogue standing nearby.
"Clear them out. Use the incendiary flasks. Burn the grove down if you have to. I want a clean path to that Boomshade Trickster."
The lieutenant nodded sharply. "Yes, Guild Master."
The dozen elite rogues of the Blood Throne didn’t charge into melee range. They were professionals.
They simultaneously pulled small glowing red glass vials from their inventories and hurled them at the massive wooden demons.
The vials shattered against the thick bark.
[Item Activated: High-Yield Incendiary Flask]
The resulting explosions were massive.
The incendiary liquid was specifically designed to stick to targets and burn with localized extreme heat.
The Rain Demons shrieked, the sound like splintering wood.
The fire rapidly spread across their bodies, ignited by the highly flammable pink sap running through their veins.
"Well, that is efficient," Casanova noted from the safety of the starlight dome of Aura. "They just napalmed the entire frontline."
Dante didn’t relax. His Intuition stat was actively pinging, a steady rhythmic throb in his temples.
The fire was dealing massive continuous damage. The health bars of the demons were dropping rapidly.
But they weren’t turning to ash.
[Boss Mechanic Triggered: Prismatic Bloom]
The burning Rain Demons suddenly stopped thrashing. They planted their massive root-legs firmly into the soil.
The pink blossoms covering their branches, which hadn’t been consumed by the fire, suddenly flared with a blinding luminescent light.
The system interface flashed a warning.
[Warning: Environmental Regeneration Active.]
The fire didn’t just go out. It was violently absorbed.
The pink sap running through the veins of the demons shifted color and turned a bright molten orange.
The health bars that had been rapidly depleting instantly snapped back to full.
"What?" the lieutenant of the Blood Throne stammered and pulled out another flask. "They absorbed the fire damage!"
"They are flora," Dante deduced quickly. "They use sunlight and thermal energy to photosynthesize. You just fed them."
Xerxes scowled, his arrogant demeanor slipping slightly. "Switch to kinetic damage! Hamstring them!"
The elite rogues drew their daggers and charged.
They activated high-tier dash skills and blurred across the clearing aiming to systematically dismantle the root structures of the demons.
The demons didn’t wait for them.
The molten orange sap running through their wooden bodies accelerated their movements exponentially.
They weren’t slow lumbering trees anymore. They moved with the terrifying agility of enraged predators.
A demon swung its massive scythe-arm in a brutal horizontal arc.
A Blood Throne rogue attempted to activate [Absolute Dodge] to phase through the strike.
The wooden scythe didn’t pass through the rogue. It connected.
CRUNCH.
[-22,000! Critical Hit! OVERKILL!]
The rogue didn’t even have time to scream. The massive blunt-force and slashing damage instantly zeroed out his health bar. He exploded into blue pixels.
"They ignore evasion!" Xerxes yelled, his eyes widening.
"No," Dante said quietly and watched the slaughter.
"The thermal energy you fed them increased their accuracy stat. They are not ignoring evasion. They are mathematically overpowering it."
The clearing devolved into absolute chaos.
The twelve elite rogues, previously confident in their ability to burst down the targets, were completely overwhelmed.
The Rain Demons swung their scythes with terrifying speed and cleanly executed the squishy assassins in single strikes.
Within thirty seconds, the entire Blood Throne strike team was decimated.
Xerxes stood alone at the edge of the clearing. His red robes were singed, and his serrated daggers trembled slightly in his hands.
He had just lost his elite escort to a pack of angry trees.
"This is unacceptable," Xerxes hissed and backed away toward the dense tree line.
He didn’t want to fight Dante, and he certainly didn’t want to fight the enraged and thermally charged demons.
Dante watched him retreat. He didn’t intervene.
"Let him go," Dante ordered his squad. "He is not our problem."
The Rain Demons, having completely wiped out the threat, turned their featureless wooden faces back toward the center of the clearing.
They locked back onto Dante.
"Boss," Mei said, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the handle of her massive frying pan. "They look significantly angrier than they did five minutes ago."
"They are fully charged," Dante agreed.
He didn’t activate [Asura’s Descent].
He couldn’t risk dropping his defense to zero while surrounded by dozens of thermally charged, high-accuracy AoE attacks.
He needed to control the space.
"Lila," Dante commanded.
"Do not use [Gravity Well]. The physical pressure will not crush them. Their root structures are anchored deep into the terrain code of the server. You will just waste your mana."
"Then what do I do?" Lila panicked and gripped her Dark Demon staff.
"Use [Astral Bridge]," Dante said rapidly. "Create overlapping invisible platforms in the air directly above them. Build a staircase."
Lila didn’t understand the strategy, but she trusted his combat logic.
She raised her staff and bypassed the chant requirements of standard mages.
[Skill Executed: Astral Bridge]
Dozens of invisible and highly pressurized gravitational platforms slammed into existence. They formed a chaotic and staggered staircase leading high into the air above the clearing.
"Mei, Casanova," Dante ordered. "Get on the stairs. Get out of melee range."
Mei didn’t argue.
She grabbed Casanova by the collar of his torn silk shirt and effortlessly hauled him up the invisible platforms and treated the gravity magic like physical steps.
Dante didn’t follow them up. He stayed on the ground.
He needed to break their thermal charge.
The Rain Demons charged.
They moved with terrifying speed, their massive scythe-arms raised, aiming to completely shred the gold-armored Outworlder standing in the center of the clearing.
Dante drew a deep breath.
[Skill Executed: Aether-Blade Storm]
Because of [Chrono-Shift], the Zenith-tier defensive skill triggered instantly.
One hundred glowing silver broadswords materialized in the air around him and formed a massive swirling metallic halo.
The demons hit the perimeter of the storm.
The phantom swords actively sought out the incoming strikes and intercepted the massive wooden scythes mid-air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions were deafening.
Every single time a silver sword intercepted an attack, it detonated to deal 1,000% True Damage directly to the attacker.
The True Damage bypassed the high base defense of the demons, shredded their bark, and splintered their arms.
[-35,000!]
[-35,000!]
[-35,000!]
The demons shrieked, their health bars taking massive hits, but they didn’t die instantly. Their Level 40 Gold-tier health pools were incredibly dense.
Dante didn’t rely entirely on the automated defense. He used the explosions as cover.
He triggered [Phantom Dash].
He vanished and materialized directly behind the largest most heavily mutated demon in the pack.
The sonic boom stunned the boss for a fraction of a second.
Dante swung the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. He didn’t aim for the thick trunk or the massive arms.
He aimed low and slashed horizontally across the thick braided root structure anchoring the demon to the ground.
The Gold-tier blade, amplified by its +50% bonus damage against corrupted entities, sheared cleanly through the roots.
The demon lost its footing and crashed heavily to the ground.
Dante didn’t pause.
He chained [Phantom Dash], teleported rapidly between the stunned exploding demons, systematically severed their root structures, crippled their mobility, and rendered their massive scythe attacks useless.
He was a blur of gold armor and sonic booms and entirely untouchable within the chaotic storm of exploding silver swords.
Within thirty seconds, the entire pack of dozens of Level 40 Gold-tier demons had been completely dismantled.
They lay in shattered burning heaps on the ground, their health bars zeroed out.
[Target Eliminated: Rain Demon x36]
[Experience Gained. Level Up!]
Dante watched his level tick up. The sheer volume of localized experience from the endgame zone was staggering.
The [Aether-Blade Storm] dissolved into silver light, and the localized explosions finally ceased.
The clearing was completely silent.
Dante sheathed his sword and breathed heavily.
The sheer physical exertion of chaining that many Zenith-tier teleports was draining, but the infinite stamina regeneration of [Breath of the Colossus] rapidly cleared the digital fatigue.
He looked up at the invisible gravity stairs. Mei and Casanova were sitting near the top and looked down at him in awe.
"You guys can come down now," Dante called out.
Mei hopped down the invisible platforms and landed lightly next to him. Casanova followed and looked significantly less graceful.
"That was incredibly impressive, Boss," Casanova admitted and brushed dust off his hat. "You did not even need us."
"I needed Lila to control the airspace," Dante corrected him. "If they had focused her while I was teleporting, we would have lost our support."
He turned his attention back to the dense tree line where the Boomshade Trickster and Xerxes had disappeared.
His Intuition stat pinged sharply. It wasn’t the heavy aggressive thrum of a monster spawn. It was the precise surgical intent of a highly specialized entity.
"Nyx," Dante said and kept his eyes on the trees. "Do you still have the tracking marker on the Boomshade Trickster?"
"I do," Nyx replied through the party comms, her voice tight. "But she is not running away anymore. She stopped moving."
"Where is she?" Dante asked.
"She is directly ahead of you, Dante," Nyx warned. "Deep inside the grove. And she is not alone."
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