Chapter 603 Hidden Boss
"You missed the wyvern."
Evan remarked as he held up his palm and was about to fire an energy blast, only for a dozen humanoid constructs of energy to appear on the dead lizardman he was standing on, and launch a volley of greed energy arrows that perforated holes in the wyvern who had barely dodged the giant sword that impaled the Lizardman and Hydra.
Seeing this, Evan shrugged and retracted his energy, watching as the Covetous Archers jumped off and continued firing arrows at various other enemies.
Left alone on the head of the dead Lizardman, Evan looked over the battlefield with a hint of awe in his expression.
[Evan.]
Artemisia's voice rang out in his head, and from her tone, he knew exactly what she wanted to say without her having to say it.
"I understand."
'Get ready, guys. It's close.'
His contracted spirits/demon received the message he sent through their connection, each one tensing up lightly from the tone of seriousness he spoke with.
"Now then…"
One thing about the Hidden Boss was that regardless of how strong it was, it always used its concealment ability that was as good as Evan's to 'disappear' and execute a sneak attack first.
In the game, regardless of how many detection buffs, skills, mods, or artifacts the player equipped; even if they were a Level 1000 player—detecting the Hidden Boss before it executes its first attack was impossible.
However, this didn't pose much of a problem to players after the game's first few months of service.
Though it took a while because of its 25% chance of appearance, players—mostly Evan who was attacked the most—figured out its attack behaviour.
The target of its initial sneak attack was always the highest-level entity on the battlefield.
In the game, this was either the player or their six support characters. Whichever one had the highest 'Level' was the one attacked first.
So applying that to reality, the highest-level person in the Buffer Zone was the monster's target.
Just that there was one simple problem.
"How the heck am I supposed to find who that is among this…?"
This was a battlefield with over a hundred thousand existences on it, finding that highest level person was nigh impossible.
The adventurers Evan had gone into the dungeon with were all between 430-440 so it could not be them.
Evan's pupils darted around rapidly in his eyes, and his appraisal skill rune was shining brightly on his soul as he appraised every single grandmaster-level source of energy he detected.
Hyper cognition was activated, so within a second, he had scanned multiple adventurer's levels and had moved on from them.
A wyvern tried attacking him from behind, but he just stretched out his left hand and fired three consecutive energy blasts to its wings and head, killing the creature.
There was a second that aimed to launch a pincer attack on him with the first, but before Evan could take action, Amy appeared and sliced it in half with a flaming sword, before descending once more and torching hundreds of lizardmen.
'Little help here, Artemisia.'
[Your 5'oclock.]
Evan turned to the direction she called out, singling out the highest energy source and scanning them to see a Level of 445.
A dinosaur-looking monster was charging right at the person in question, and Evan locked onto it before blinking, appearing right above its head and stabbing his sword into the back of its skull.
"Burn."
Prismatic flames engulfed the monster's body and it let out agonizing wails that scared the other nearby monsters, making them flee in terror.
'Is there anyone else?'
He glanced at the command centre's direction and used Farsight, appraising those there and seeing that the highest was 444.
It was only a one-level difference, but that one level was the fine line between the one to be attacked, and the one not to be attacked.
Evan kept looking around, about to place a magic power mark on the Level 445 he just saw to know his position and then left to check other parts of the battlefield when it happened.
He was in a hypercognitive state, so though it felt like a while, it only took an instant.
Evan's eyes widened in shock, cold sweat washed over his entire body, his heart started thumping rapidly and all his survival instincts kicked in.
As stated before, the highest-level person was usually the Hidden Boss' target.
But in that one second, Evan could say with 100% conviction that things were not going to turn out like they did in the game.
The alarms Danger Sense was blaring in his head were all the proof he needed to know.
He turned to the side and grabbed the arm of the Level 445, activating a skill in that same second.
However—
*SLAP!
—Evan's hand was quickly slapped away.
The S ranker could not be blamed.
It was a battlefield; if anyone randomly grabbed you in such a place, your first reaction would usually be to shake them off.
You would not know if it's an enemy or an ally, after all.
That was a good reaction for an S rank of his level.
Unfortunately, in this case, it may have been better for his reaction to not be so good.
Even if it was delayed for even half a second, then it would have been all right.
Evan had already activated his skill; Blink. So, the moment that man slapped Evan's hand off his body, the boy was warped through space.
In the first half of the second, Evan's body vanished through space.
In the second half of the second, the S ranker finally noticed something, but it was too late.
***CHOMPPP!!
A gigantic maw appeared above the man's head, chomping down on his body as the razor-sharp fangs pierced through his body's defensive energy layer.
The force behind them, coupled with the energy of a World Law that coated each individual fang enabled them to pierce through his S Rank durability stat, pierce through his flesh, and with a strong pull, ripped apart his upper half from the rest of his body.
**SQUELCH!
Crimson arcs adorned the air as the man's body was divided in two, painting the surroundings in a grotesque ballet of splattering blood.
Drops of vivid red descended like a macabre rain, staining the ground in the aftermath of this gruesome scene.
Intestines spilt out, and bone fragments and broken human ribs fell to the ground atop the pool of blood.
**PTUH!!
[Bitter.]
That deep voice rang out, carrying in it a hint of disgust as the upper body of the now deceased S ranker was spat out on the ground.
A certain person had said that the next time she saw Evan, she was going to stuff him down the throat of a Lizard.
Well, it wasn't a Lizard per se, but it was close; so it could be said that she had seen through with her word.
Evan landed on the ground a few metres away, breathing heavily as he saw the lower half of the adventurer fall into a pool of his own blood.
For a moment, silence reigned across the battlefield.
Adventurers were silent.
Knights were silent.
The newly arriving soldiers of the Beast Kingdom were silent.
The SS, SSS and Living Legend adventurers watching from outside the barrier were silent.
Even the monsters from the dungeon who were attacking indiscriminately all stopped moving.
[It seemed there was some truth to that woman's words… you're quite sharp, human.]
White.
It was White.
That was the best way to describe it.
Pristine scales, so white it seemed almost holy.
A large body that dwarfed everyone on the battlefield, razor-sharp claws that could cut through buildings like paper.
A spiked tail that pierced through the hearts of three B rankers, ending their lives before flinging their corpses on the floor like dirty rags.
Its pair of powerful wings unfurled, casting a shadow on the ground, while its ice-blue eyes observed the surroundings with a regal demeanour.
'Wars and Giant Lizards.'
If the Lizard Lord; Bhak, was the first 'Giant Lizard'.
Then this guy was the second.
The Hidden Boss of the 'Lizard Lord's Outbreak'.
High White Dragon Faldo.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l