Chapter 1435: Depravity of the Forbidden Ground
Boom!
The Xuanyuan Slash dug a deep gorge across the snow and shredded Ray of Sunshine’s body into pieces. His mount tenacity was deleted just a moment ago, so there was no chance he was ever going to survive the attack. He wasn’t the only enemy I was targeting, however. The Xuanyuan Slash had quite the long range, and it "just so happened" that a group of Iron Cutter Cavalrymen were behind Ray of Sunshine. Hundreds fell off their mounts and died at the same time!
"Man… you truly are the master at optimizing your ‘profits’, Lu Chen!" Little Piglet stared at me.
I withdrew my blade and shot him a smile. "Take your men and leave now, Little Piglet. Surely you’re aware that Dark Mercenaries is our next target after Purgatory Mad Dragon?"
The Cold Wind Swordsman nodded. "Yes, of course. Damn, you can have the boss."
I raised an eyebrow hearing his tone. "Is it just me, or are you acting like you’re missing out on something? What the heck is that thing you’re holding in your left hand then?! Oh I can make you miss out alright. Little Gui, Chengfeng, Fighting Spirits, any of you fancy the Heaven Suppressing Necklace?"
Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi immediately arrived next to me before wiping their saliva with greedy expressions. "But of course…"
Little Piglet licked his lips nervously and said, "Sorry, but, I, er, still need this necklace for something, so I can’t gift it to you just yet… See you when I see you, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"
Little Piglet equipped the Heaven Suppressing Necklace there and then before turning toward his players. "The hunt is over, brothers and sisters! We still have other business to attend to, so it’s time to leave the March of Chaos map completely! Let’s go!"
As the Iron Cutter Cavalry retreated, I walked up to Ray of Sunshine’s dead body and picked up the other 3 pieces of equipment he dropped. The poor bastard had been targeted by my Chains of Freedom and Little Piglet’s Crimson Dragon Arm before my Xuanyuan Slash ate him up. Not only did he lose 10 levels, he also lost the Heaven Suppressing Necklace and three other pieces of Ancient Immortal-grade equipment. The Master Swordsman of Blaze Wang Dongliang and Lu Chao had spent countless RMB to build was more or less dead on his feet.
I tossed all the items he dropped into Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi’s hands. Since I was the one who single-handedly killed Ray of Sunshine, it was my right to distribute the loot as I pleased.
……
It looked like a dark, impenetrable cloud was sitting above Purgatory Mad Dragon’s shield formation. No one expected the arrogant Ray of Sunshine to be taken out by the enemy despite having 100% lifesteal and hundreds of priests to keep him healed. They expected even less that his Heaven Suppressing Necklace, a priceless treasure Wang Dongliang and Lu Chao hundreds of millions to bid for, to be stolen by their nemesis’ Ghost Armament. It was an outcome they absolutely couldn’t accept.
"Fuck, shit, cock, ass, titties, boner, bitch…"
Blue veins popping across his face, Roaming Dragon abruptly looked at the sky and shouted, "You… you dare humiliate me like this!? Just you wait! Little Piglet! I will return today’s humiliation tenfold eventually! And you, Lu Chen! One day, I swear to kill every last man and woman in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and flatten your guild beneath my boot!"
Chaos Moon snorted. "You talk as if you haven’t been humiliated since chapter 6."
I raised my hand and ordered, "The Dragonlight Cavalry has already locked down the entire valley, so take out Purgatory Mad Dragon now, Ancient Sword! The boss is ours!"
……
The ground shook, and the sky reverberated with the shock waves caused by the four Crystal Dragons’ assault. After Purgatory Mad Dragon’s defense formation was crushed with unstoppable force, Li Chengfeng, He Yi, Lin Yixin, Gui Guzi and everyone else proceeded to annihilate absolutely everyone within the valley. No one had any mercy for these fuckers because those in the know was utterly revolted by Lu Chao’s behavior, and those who didn’t know generally loathed Purgatory Mad Dragon’s behavior anyway. I even spammed the Chains of Freedom off cooldown to murder those Purgatory Mad Dragon players who were stupid enough to taunt us in this situation. The Song of Freedom was a cursed weapon that was sure to bring calamity upon Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls if I used it too much, but I’m sure the heavens would pardon me this once for spamming its ability on scumbags who absolutely deserved their punishment. Purgatory Mad Dragon should be thankful that the skill had a 6-minute cooldown, or every executive-level player in the guild would have gotten Chain’d by yours truly!
Less than half an hour later, there were only Ancient sword Dreaming Souls players left on the battlefield. The Dragonlight Cavalrymen quickly spread out before Charging the boss in organized columns. The Forbidden Ground Devil Sovereign only had 34% HP left. It was the one good thing Purgatory Mad Dragon had done today.
"Form up! Effective[1] breast milk only, priests!"
While barking out an order, I charged the boss and reduced its Defense with Purple Frost Concentration. Purple Frost Concentration was an aggro skill, so the Forbidden Ground Devil Sovereign immediately turned toward me and swung both its axes. It was that Twinblade Crush skill that almost one-shot Inconstant in a single hit. I wonder how much damage it could do to me?
I raised the Cyan Dragon Shield in front of me, tilted my body a little and executed Burning Blade Slash. At the same time, Twinblade Crush hit me and triggered a massive damage number—
1,172,972!
Fortunately, this level of damage was well within my endurance limit. Unfortunately, the Forbidden Ground Devil Sovereign gained a new action after its HP had fallen below 30%. Rock, ice and snow suddenly took flight as it raised both its arms into the air. It roared, "Taste the might of an ancient forbidden spell, adventurers of the future!"
I hurriedly shouted, "Back off now! If you have an invincibility skill, use it now!"
As I thought, the boss was casting its ultimate skill, Depravity of the Forbidden Ground!
Boom boom boom…
Huge, sharp rocks burst out of the ground and skewered countless players for massive amounts of damage. I myself was struck by three rocks in a row—
1,528,734!
1,623,649!
1,736,731!
That was enough damage to actually kill me, but I just barely avoided death by healing for 40% HP using Tenacity of the Dead and Dragon Bloodboil.
All around me, hundreds of Dragonlight Cavalrymen were instakilled by the powerful ultimate. We knew that bosses usually used their ultimate when their health fell below a certain threshold, but we weren’t expecting it to trigger as soon as 30% HP. We must survive this ultimate somehow, or we wouldn’t be able to defeat this Sovereign Rank boss.
"Gulp!"
I downed a Rank 13 Health Potion before stabbing the Forbidden Ground Devil Sovereign’s chest with Burning Blade Slash + Universe Break combo. I was able to deal around 1.5 million damage and rejuvenate myself for 300k HP. 20% lifesteal was a lot, but I couldn’t help but compare it to the Heaven Suppressing Necklace’s 100% lifesteal and found it wanting. If I was wearing the Ghost Armament right now, I could stolen 1.5 million HP from the boss and basically solo it myself. Little Piglet must be having the time of his life right now…
I could’ve stopped Little Piglet from escaping just now, but I ultimately chose not to because I believed that he was doing the manly thing; the right thing. A Ghost Armament was important, but a belief I could respect was even more important. It wasn’t like Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was lacking in Ghost Armaments anyway.
……
Chiang chiang chiang…
The minotaur boss continued to hack away at my Cyan Dragon Shield and dropped me back to 15% HP or so. I kept my stance as steady as possible as I fired God Binding Art that failed to take effect, and Icy Cyclone Domain directly at my feet to slow it down. Then, I activated Heavenly River Transformation to maximize my firepower. I had 148 Divine Energy Points left anyway, and 14 minutes would be more than enough time to kill this boss!
Behind me, Lin Yixin, He Yi and the rest of the dragon knights returned after their HP had returned to full. Some distance away, Murong Mingyue was healing me and shouting, "You must hold on, Lu Chen! We’ll wipe if you don’t…"
I rolled my eyes. If there was one thing I would like to complain about my own guild, it would be that we cared about unity too much. If possible, we always avoided employing the human wave attack against bosses because no one liked being used as cannon fodders. Therefore, it was up to me, the guild’s main tank, to bear all the burden yet again. Gui Guzi was the only other tank who could replace me, but his Attack was often lacking against Sovereign Rank bosses, which meant that there was always a chance that the aggro might slip out of his grasp. Long story short, I was born under a tough star.
……
Six minutes later, the Forbidden Ground Devil Sovereign cast his Depravity of the Forbidden Ground yet again. This time though, we were ready for it. The moment he raised his two axes, everyone ran like hell until they were at least 40 yards away from the boss. It wasn’t a huge area, so practically anyone except a noob would be able to dodge it.
Pa!
I stepped up to the boss and treated it to a Magic Piercing Punch!
Bang!
217,376!
The skill blasted a sizable chunk of HP but failed to interrupt the skill. The ultimate skill was probably immune to all forms of player interruption. Well, I would be lying if I said I was surprised. It would be stranger if an "ancient forbidden spell" could be interrupted so easily.
I protected myself with Battle Astral Wind and activated Cyan Dragon Scale. The light of the Ghost Spirit Step Art dancing around my feet, I ran circles around the boss and attacked it with everything I had. I would’ve used Cold of the Nine Provinces to freeze the boss, but as I mentioned earlier, there was a high chance it was going to be useless. In that case, I might as well go all out while the boss was "immobilized”. Myriad Swords Obliteration, Burning Blade Slash and more ripped out chunks of the boss's flesh. The might of a Divine Armament of the Twelve was unstoppable, and not even the Forbidden Ground Devil Sovereign with his 100k+ Defense was enough to stop it. When its HP fell below 10%, I noticed that the two arms around its waist had been almost completely severed.
I aimed at the bone just barely keeping one of the arms together and slashed twice. Finally, the left arm holding an axe hit the ground with a bloody thud. At the same time, I received a system notice—
Beep!
Combat Log: You have dealt crippling limb damage to Forbidden Ground Devil Sovereign, Minotaur Knight and disabled its skill, "Twinblade Crush”. Its Attack has also fallen by 20%!
……
Wonderful! I was very glad to know that my high Attack could debilitate the boss this way.
Not far away, Li Chengfeng suddenly turned his Blue Crystal Dragon away while yelling, "Lu Chen, a couple of Northern Alliance guilds are attacking our eastern defense line! I’m heading over to beat up those grandsons right now! Remember to roll for me when you kill the boss…"
I rolled my eyes again. "Yes, yes. Come back soon!"
I looked up and noted that the boss only had 7% HP left. It would only take us 3 minutes at most to kill it. Right now, I was single-handedly keeping the boss at bay while everyone else went all out. Out of all of us, Lian Xin was the damage dealer with the highest DPS because the Soul Shocker Bell doubled her magic damage. Her DPS was about 40% higher than mine, and most of her skills were AoE skills. Top-tier mages were cheat-like existences, I swear!
Some distance away, I heard He Yi saying, "Leave the last hit to Lu Chen. Of course, those with high Luck can give it a go too!"
I had a whopping 124 Luck. Even if someone had high Luck, they had no reason to compete with me because the loot I dropped would still be way better than what they could drop. This also meant that 50% of the boss's experience was mine!
A few minutes later, the minotaur boss finally let out a death groan and dropped to his knees. While holding onto a broken axe, he roared angrily, "My racial pride will never be extinguished! Just you wait, the beastmen will return to this continent and take revenge for all of us!"
……
Pop pop pop…
I smiled as I watched the equipment pop. I didn’t know if the beastman’s revenge would ever reach us, but the minotaur boss's loot most certainly did!
1. E/N: I don’t know what author or Truth were smoking, but there’s no uneffective heals. It’s not damage, you can’t have enough Defense for priests’ heals to not work. It’s some bullshit author used to make Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew roll for the previous priest item… ☜
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