Chapter 1396: Conflict of Heroes
The Ink Qilin let out a shrill howl before charging down a straight slope. When Ray of Sunshine was about 40 yards away from the boss, he abruptly fired a human-shaped shadow that penetrated the boss's body like nothing.
279809!
Skullblood’s attention was immediately drawn toward Ray of Sunshine. It swiped at the warrior’s Crimson Fire Shield and deleted over 1.15 million HP instantly. Even with full buffs and an HP card, Ray of Sunshine only had slightly over 3 million HP. Normally, there was no chance he would be able to withstand this level of damage.
Swhoosh!
Ray of Sunshine Charged to the boss's lower neck and executed a Crimson Flame Slash + Dragon Flame Flurry combo at the wound I had created with Universe Break later. If nothing else, Ray of Sunshine was smart enough to maximize his DPS. Skullblood let out another painful roar as three damage numbers rose above its head—
412373!
+412373!
376256!
+376256!
352993!
+352993!
……
He both dealt a terrible blow to the boss and healed back all the damage he had taken a moment earlier. Ray of Sunshine, or more accurately the Heaven Suppressing Necklace’s power caused everyone to salivate unconsciously.
A hint of greed flashed across God of War’s eyes. "100% lifesteal, huh? This Ghost Armament shouldn’t belong to the China server. We would’ve swept away Eerie Wind Mountain already if we had this necklace…"
Breeze and Rain nodded in agreement. "Agreed."
Flowing Cloud didn’t say anything, but even her eyes were gleaming with something indecipherable as she watched Ray of Sunshine.
The Indians at least knew to hide their reaction well, but Copper Spear of Swallow Ear Canton—he had returned to the Ancient Chaotic Secret Realm after I murdered his ass recently—straight up stared at Ray of Sunshine with unbridled greed. "God damn, the Heaven Suppressing Necklace is so good. In fact, why don’t we just leave that Chinese to tank the boss alone? He’ll be saving all of us so much pain."
Red Maple sneered. "You are wrong, Copper Spear. The 100% lifesteal is useful only if you can dish out a certain amount of damage to the target, and look, the Defense debuff Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand inflicted earlier is almost gone. You wanna bet that this Ray of Sunshine won’t be able to tank nearly as well once the boss has regained its Defense? Even if he could, who’s to say the boss isn’t hiding another instakill or stun skill?"
"Really?"
As if on cue, Purple Frost Concentration lost its effect and allowed the boss to regain all of its Defense. When Ray of Sunshine swung his weapon once more, he abruptly realized that his DPS had dropped to 40% of what it was before. It was an instant disaster.
"Roar roar…"
Skullblood waved its claws impatiently and dropped a cross attack right on top of Ray of Sunshine. Not only that, it opened its bloody maw and used Earth Devouring once more. Ray of Sunshine was in danger!
"Fuck!"
Ray of Sunshine once again proved his intelligence by activating Dragon Flame Recovery and his invincibility shield without hesitation. He was the only one who managed to escape while all the players around him were sucked into Skullblood’s bloody maw. When the skill reached its end though, Skullblood ejected a stream of rock, soil and bodies straight at Ray of Sunshine and sent him flying across the air. Unable to get close enough to the boss to lifesteal, his HP dropped to just 10% or so. He would have to let his priests heal him before he could get back into the fight.
……
"Now!"
Suddenly, Copper Spear made a break for Ray of Sunshine. Dozens of assassins also activated Swift Dash and raced toward him. It was clear as day that they were planning to kill Ray of Sunshine and drop the Heaven Suppressing Necklace!
Buzz!
A shrill cry cut through the air, followed by 7 sword auras that struck the assassins and killed all of them. The attacker dropping in front of Copper Spear and blocking his path was none other than Li Chengfeng. He said with a smirk while draconic energy brimmed from the Crimson Refinement Sword, "You didn’t really think you were going to successfully kill a Chinese player right before Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, did you?"
Copper Spear looked furious, but he turned away and left without a word.
I let out a cold snort. "He’s not one to fall for cheap provocations, I see…"
Dominating Heaven Blade snorted disdainfully as well. "He’s a shameless bastard. Of course his face is thick enough to tank most taunts. By the way, is there a story between Legendary Brave and Ray of Sunshine or what? I wasn’t expecting you to go save him."
Li Chengfeng replied incredulously while withdrawing his sword, "The hell are you talking about? I just don’t want the Heaven Suppressing Necklace to fall into Swallow Ear Canton’s hands."
Dominating Heaven Blade: "..."
Me: "Come on, we still have a boss to kill!"
"Yeah!"
……
We continued to cooperate tirelessly to wear down Skullblood the Earth Devourer, but that Earth Devouring and Rockslide skills were just way too OP. There were many blood-spitting moments where even I felt like saying “fuck it” and throwing in the towel. Still, 90 grueling minutes later, the boss's HP finally dropped to 4% or so—the most critical moment of any boss fight. Everyone wanted to score the last hit, although it was difficult to say who had the biggest chance to succeed.
There were dead bodies everywhere in and outside the fortress. Even if I were to make a conservative estimate, I reckoned that Skullblood had killed at least ten million players up until this point. Moreover, everyone here was an elite of their server, or they wouldn’t dare to venture into the Ancient Chaotic Secret Realm in the first place. Currently, the elite players of all servers sat around Level 220 on average, and the boss was Level 310. The 90-level gap was the main reason we were sustaining such terrible losses. If, say, we were all Level 310, then the losses wouldn’t be nearly as bad.
Chiang chiang chiang…
I blocked a triple strike from the boss and retaliated with Burning Blade Slash + Myriad Swords Obliteration combo. At the same time, I tried to estimate the boss's remaining HP. The game didn’t have an in-game DPS calculator, so I could only estimate the boss's HP based on our average DPS and Skullblood’s HP regeneration speed. If I wasn’t mistaken, the boss had a total of 1.5 billion HP or so, 4% of that would be 60 million HP, and 1% of that would be 15 million HP. With my DPS, I should be able to do around 2 million damage to the boss, meaning that the best timing to go all out would be around 0.15% HP or so. To say that this would be difficult would be an understatement though. For starters, it wasn’t easy to visualize what 0.15% looked like on an HP bar. Two, practically everyone would be switching up their strategies and DPS tactics to prevent people like me from securing the last hit. Finally, it wasn’t like the boss would be doing nothing throughout these shenanigans. Argh, what a pain in the ass this is!
"Boss Broken Halberd!"
Gui Guzi suddenly called out to me from the sky, "I think they’re about to make their move! Breeze and Rain has slipped a group of players behind Beauty Lin’s party, and Natural Flow has moved about 5000 Dragon Punisher Archers into their effective range. I wonder what they’re planning…"
I rolled my eyes. "Do you even need to ask? They’re obviously plotting to kill us."
Beep!
It was at this moment Lin Yixin sent me a message: "Little Cheat, Purple Marquis and I have agreed that we will turn around and take our all nearby Cyan Earth City players in 60 seconds. What are you going to do?"
I answered, "In that case, we’ll be clearing out all hostiles in our area within 60 seconds as well!"
"Got it!"
……
I looked up and ordered in the guild channel, "Beiming, tell all Dragonlight Archers to lock onto Natural Flow’s Dragon Punisher Archers and be ready to kill in 60 seconds. Gui Guzi and Du Thirteen, the two of you will charge God of War and Breeze and Rain’s party with 5000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen and interrupt their rhythm. Li Chengfeng and Eve, work together with me to deal the last hit to the boss. Lian Xin, get up the walls with the Holy Mages now. The true battle is upon us!"
"Yessir!"
The gang’s response was strong and full of excitement. Although Skullblood the Earth Devourer was just the eighth strongest boss of the Nine Purgatory Sovereigns, it was still one of the nine major bosses in the game. The chances of it dropping one of the Twelve was pretty huge. Even if the last hitter wasn’t lucky, it should still drop a Ghost Armament, an Ancient Immortal-grade equipment or even a basic Divine Armament at least. Otherwise… Eternal Moon Corporation’s employees might want to consider hiding in a bomb shelter when this boss fight was over…
……
The Dragonlight Cavalry withdrew out of the boss's attack zone and got ready for the inevitable war. It wasn’t just us. Blazing Hot Lips and God’s Domain were a step shy from baring their teeth against each other, and Warsky Alliance against Hero Alliance. Unfortunately, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was the only one who was facing pressure from two guilds at once. Not only that, one of them was the strongest guild in Cyan Earth City, and the other, the second strongest guild in Elephant City.
However, our opponent acted earlier than we expected. Flowing Cloud suddenly raised her arm and ordered, "Suppressive fire!"
The Dragon Punisher Archers immediately sent their Shock Arrows, Skypiercers and more flying toward our Dragonlight Cavalry. I hurriedly leaped onto my dragon’s back, took to the air and shouted, "Counter attack now!"
Beiming immediately gave the order for the Dragonlight Archers to Far Shot their skills. Gui Guzi and his 5000 Dragonlight Cavalry also began galloping toward Cyan Beast’s main force. In fact, he came face to face with God of War and Breeze and Rain’s forces. However, Gui Guzi was a natural hooligan who feared nothing and no one. He brought his Ghostblade Halberd to bear and clashed blade with both generals at once. It was his fearless courage that won him his reputation!
The scene dissolved into complete chaos the moment the infighting began. Even Skullblood froze as if it couldn’t believe that the "united" force of humanity doing battle against it a second ago would suddenly bare their fangs against each other. Well, this was humanity. It was something monsters like it would never be able to understand…
……
All the main guilds were busy bashing each other’s faces in. Only Purgatory Mad Dragon, Dark Mercenaries, Asuka Periods and more second-tier guilds were still fighting against the boss. Ten minutes later, the boss's HP had dropped to 1%, although it was impossible to guess if it was 1.0% or 1.9%.
In the air, He Yi cried out to me, "Lu Chen, the boss is almost done. Get ready!"
"Yeah!"
I grabbed the lantern vine, pulled myself up my dragon, and charged straight toward the boss. I saw Breeze and Rain, God of War, Red Maple, Tear Stain, Vienna’s Sorrow and every other super-tier expert doing the same thing. Hot damn, this is so chaotic!
"Don’t hesitate! Charge!"
In one direction, I saw Warsky, Ray of Sunshine, Little Piglet, Lin Bing Dou Zhe and more charging toward the boss. In the other, I saw Stranger of Three Lifetimes and more top-tier experts doing the same thing as well.
Suddenly, I caught sight of something strange. One woman was Charging horizontally and parallel to the boss for some reason!
Swhoosh!
My heart grew colder. I had a bad feeling about this!
My bad premonition was correct. The woman was Tear Stain, and she had Charged behind the group where Warsky, Little Piglet and more were. Then, she executed her SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill—Yemaek Slash!
Boom!
Warsky, Ray of Sunshine, Little Piglet and more suddenly froze in their tracks. The skill prevented its prey from moving for 3 seconds!
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