Chapter 167: Chapter 167: A New Companion, The Shadow’s Edge
The glade was completely surrounded.
Dozens of Level 40 Gold-tier Rain Demons stepped out of the dense tree line.
They didn’t move with the slow creaking lethargy of normal plant mobs.
They were actively buzzing with an intense localized hostility, and their wooden scythe-arms dripped with highly concentrated toxic pink sap.
"They look incredibly angry," Casanova observed and stepped firmly behind the massive form of Mei. "Did she insult their mothers?"
"They are a hive mind," Nyx stated and quickly analyzed the incoming threat data on her datapad.
"When Violet triggered the pollen trap near the entrance, she essentially rang the dinner bell for the entire grove. They are all converging on our localized coordinates."
"Mei! Hold the front!" Dante ordered and stepped to the center of the formation.
"Lila, do not use [Gravity Well]. There are too many of them. Use [Astral Bridge] to build vertical platforms! Keep the squishies off the ground!"
"On it!" Lila yelled. She slammed her Dark Demon staff into the dirt.
Invisible pressurized gravitational platforms materialized instantly in the air above them.
Nyx, Sera, and Casanova scrambled up the invisible stairs and moved completely out of standard melee range.
Violet, the newly acquired Boomshade Trickster, gracefully backflipped onto the highest platform and took a position right beside Nyx.
Mei didn’t retreat. The Brawler triggered [Colossal Manifestation].
The [God-Slaying Skillet] violently expanded and turned into a massive thirty-foot-wide indestructible shield of black iron.
Mei planted her boots and held the gargantuan pan horizontally in front of the group. She completely blocked the primary approach vector.
The first wave of demons charged.
Three massive wooden scythes slammed into the skillet simultaneously.
CLANG!
The [Perfect Block] passive absorbed the entire kinetic impact.
Mei didn’t budge an inch, but the sheer overlapping force of the strikes sent a shockwave echoing across the glade.
"I cannot cover the flanks!" Mei grunted.
She strained against the heavy handle as more demons piled against the pan and tried to push through her defense.
"I have got the flanks," Dante said calmly.
He didn’t activate [Asura’s Descent]. He couldn’t risk dropping his defense to zero while surrounded by high-tier AoE poison mechanics.
Instead, he drew the [Dawn-Breaker Blade] and triggered his defensive Zenith skill.
[Skill Executed: Aether-Blade Storm]
One hundred glowing silver broadswords materialized instantly in the air around him to form a massive swirling metallic halo.
Because of [Chrono-Shift], the skill cost zero mana and had no cooldown.
The demons attempting to bypass the pan of Mei and flank the party ran directly into the storm.
The phantom swords actively sought out the incoming strikes.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The localized explosions were deafening.
Every single time a silver sword intercepted a wooden scythe, it detonated to deal 1,000% True Damage.
The True Damage bypassed the high base defense of the demons. It shredded their bark and splintered their arms.
The demons shrieked, their health bars taking massive hits, but they didn’t die instantly. 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 trying to push past Mei.
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.
"Dante! They are adapting!" Sera warned from the aerial platforms.
The Rain Demons realized melee combat was a mathematical failure. They stopped charging.
They planted their remaining root structures firmly into the dirt and raised their wooden arms.
[Boss Mechanic Triggered: Toxic Volley]
The massive pink blossoms covering their branches violently detached and hardened into razor-sharp poisoned shrapnel.
They fired a synchronized overwhelming barrage of toxic petals directly at the aerial platforms.
"Incoming!" Casanova yelled and ducked his head.
"I have got it," Lila said calmly.
She didn’t try to cast a shield. She tapped her staff.
[Skill Executed: Singularity]
A tiny pitch-black sphere of concentrated gravity materialized directly in the path of the incoming volley.
The intense gravitational pull didn’t just affect physical bodies. It warped the trajectory of the projectiles.
The thousands of toxic petals were violently sucked into the tiny black hole. It completely nullified the attack before it could reach the party.
"Incredible," Violet whispered. She sat on the edge of the platform next to Nyx, her solid black eyes wide with genuine awe. "You mortals are very loud."
Nyx didn’t look at her new pet. She was staring at her datapad to analyze the real-time combat logs.
"Violet," Nyx said and adjusted her dark glasses. "You are a Rogue Sylvan. Do you possess localized debuff capabilities?"
Violet grinned, a sharp malicious expression. "I can make them very confused, Master."
"I do not need them confused. I need them weak," Nyx instructed.
"Dante is burning through them, but their base evasion stats are causing some of his strikes to glance. Drop their evasion."
Violet didn’t hesitate.
The Boomshade Trickster vanished from the platform and activated a high-tier stealth skill that completely bypassed the visual spectrum.
Down in the glade, Dante was actively slicing through a cluster of immobilized demons.
Suddenly, a shimmering wave of dark purple mist washed over the remaining rooted demons.
The system interface updated instantly.
[Debuff Applied: Sylvan Lethargy]
[Target Evasion Stats reduced by 80%.]
Dante felt the shift immediately.
His strikes, which had occasionally met a slight annoying resistance from the high-tier agility of the demons, now connected flawlessly.
The localized evasion parameters were completely gutted.
"Nice assist," Dante muttered and triggered another [Phantom Dash].
With their mobility crippled and their evasion stripped, the remaining Rain Demons were essentially just massive stationary target dummies.
Dante systematically dismantled them.
He teleported from trunk to trunk and executed the immobilized bosses with clean brutal strikes.
Within five minutes, the entire pack of dozens of Level 40 Gold-tier demons had been completely eradicated.
They lay in shattered burning heaps on the ground, and their health bars zeroed out.
[Target Eliminated: Rain Demon x42]
[Experience Gained. Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
Dante watched his level tick up to 73.
The sheer volume of localized experience from an endgame multi-boss encounter was staggering.
The [Aether-Blade Storm] dissolved into silver light, and the localized explosions finally ceased.
The glade was completely silent.
Dante sheathed his sword and breathed easily.
The infinite stamina regeneration of [Breath of the Colossus] completely wiped away the digital fatigue.
He looked up at the invisible gravity stairs.
"You guys can come down now," Dante called out.
Lila released the [Astral Bridge] spell and gently lowered the platforms until the squad was safely back on the ground.
Mei shrank her colossal pan back down to its standard four-foot size and hoisted it onto her shoulder.
Violet popped out of stealth and materialized right next to Nyx. The Boomshade Trickster looked incredibly pleased with herself.
"Did you see, Master?" Violet asked and bounced slightly on her toes. "I made them slow! I am very helpful!"
"You were very helpful, Violet," Nyx nodded and patted the Boomshade Trickster awkwardly on the shoulder.
Nyx was a data analyst. She wasn’t entirely used to managing an enthusiastic reality-warping rogue NPC.
Pip fluttered down from the shoulder of Mei and completely ignored the new pet.
He began frantically vacuuming up the massive piles of dropped gold coins and high-tier crafting materials.
Dante walked over to Nyx.
"That was a good call," Dante said and referred to the debuff. "It sped up the clear significantly."
"She is an incredibly versatile asset," Nyx agreed and looked at Violet.
"Her stat sheet is entirely focused on utility and stealth. She does not have the raw apocalyptic damage of Erebus, but she can completely manipulate localized parameters of a battlefield. She is perfect for reconnaissance."
"Speaking of reconnaissance," Sera interrupted and walked over with her digital ledger glowing. "We have a problem."
Dante crossed his arms. "Silas?"
"Yes," Sera confirmed grimly. "The global forums just updated. Silas did not just walk away after he fled the Crimson Canyon. He was monitoring the pet dungeon leaderboards."
Sera spun the projection around so Dante could read the latest trending post.
[Vanguard’s Legacy Official Broadcast]
[To the server: The anomaly ’Dan’ has stolen a high-tier NPC asset from the Pet Blossom Valley. He is monopolizing the event drops. The truce is broken.]
[If anyone spots Aegis Vanguard members in the open world, ping their coordinates immediately. I am offering a one-million-credit bounty per confirmed kill.]
"He knows we got the Boomshade Trickster," Lila panicked and clutched her staff. "He is putting a million-credit bounty on us! That is twenty times higher than his last bounty!"
"He is completely unhinged," Casanova muttered and pulled his pink hat down low over his eyes. "A million credits? Even the neutral players are going to start hunting us for that kind of payout."
Dante stared at the broadcast.
Silas wasn’t just desperate anymore. He was rabid.
He had spent his entire fortune on the [Guild Creation Token] only to be humiliated.
And now he was leveraging whatever corporate credit he had left to wage a personal vendetta against the squad of Dante.
"He is trying to drown us in bodies," Dante analyzed coldly. "If he offers a million credits, every single low-level rat on the server is going to take a swing at us."
"We cannot fight the entire server, Dante," Sera warned.
"We are seven people. Even with your stats, we will eventually get overwhelmed by sheer attrition if we stay in the open world."
"Then we do not stay in the open world," Dante decided immediately.
He opened his system interface and pulled up the global event map.
The Pet Blossom Valley event timer was still active, but they had already secured the primary asset.
The other two exclusive pet dungeons were still open.
"We hit the next dungeon," Dante ordered.
"Demon Spirit Land. It is an enclosed linear instance. If Silas wants to send mercenaries after us, they will have to follow us inside."
"And inside a dungeon, they cannot rely on open-world zerg tactics. They have to play by the localized mechanics."
"Demon Spirit Land?" Garrick perked up and banged his rusty helmet. "Sounds spooky! I will definitely hold the aggro!"
"It is a high-tier undead crypt," Nyx read from her datapad. "It is going to be brutal, Dante. The system recommends a full twelve-man raid group."
"We have an indestructible pan, a gravity mage, a localized buffing engine, and me," Dante said, his red eyes completely confident. "We do not need twelve people."
He pulled the dark gray [Spatial Stone] out of his inventory.
"Link up," Dante commanded.
The squad gathered around him.
Violet grabbed onto the leather armor of Nyx and looked incredibly curious about the glowing gray rock.
Dante crushed the stone.
The swirling blue portal of unrestricted fast travel opened instantly to completely bypass the localized exit paths of the valley.
They stepped through and left the shattered remains of the Rain Demons behind.
They headed directly for the most dangerous instanced dungeon on the server.
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