"Hold the boss!"
I yelled as I spurred my mount forward and used the G.o.d Binding Art!
Swhoos.h.!.+
Four divine weapons landed around the Heaven-shaking Tiger, but the desired effect didn"t happen because the skill failed to shackle it, resulting in a miss.
……
Lin Yixin rushed past the boss at the same time and flashed her s.h.i.+ny dagger. She struck it beneath the mandible three times in a row using a Moon Gaze + Extreme Break + basic attack combo!
Extreme Break reduced the boss"s Defense drastically for a short time. This was my chance!
I penetrated its stomach and executed Universe Break and Burning Blade Slash in rapid succession. At the same time, I noticed through Dark Pupils that the center of its forepaw was its weak point!
41988!
31982!
37267!
39918!
Four devastating attacks later, I easily pulled the aggro back onto myself before pa.s.sing the party leader to Lin Yixin. Bombsh.e.l.l boosted all stats by 80% and was a much safer stratagem than Martial G.o.d was. After all, the difference between having 80% more HP and Defense and not having it was night and day.
……
"Roar roar!"
The Heaven-shaking Tiger aimed a slap at Lin Yixin. Judging from the cyan flames surrounding its giant paw, it was the stun attack it had used earlier. Unable to dodge the attack in time, Lin Yixin had no choice but to raise her delicate arms in front of her and wait for the inevitable. Both her and her mount were knocked a couple of steps back as the “Stunned” icon appeared above her head. Her beautiful purple eyes turned silver gray, and she was frozen in place.
I gritted my teeth. This motherf.u.c.king boss had proven to be extremely powerful so far. For one, it had the ability to ignore the usual rules of aggro. The fact that it chose to attack Lin Yixin despite me owning all the aggro right now was the proof of that.
Having dealt with Lin Yixin temporarily, the Heaven-shaking Tiger turned back to face me and swiped my shoulders three times in a row. It dealt a positively dangerous amount of damage—
29878!
30192!
26651!
Lin Yixin seemed astonished after she recovered from her stun, but she quickly summoned an icy energy in her palm and cried out, "Ice Storm!"
A small area of s.p.a.ce instantly turned into a frigid purgatory. Biting wind and deadly Icicles punched b.l.o.o.d.y holes in the Heaven-shaking Tiger"s fur—
30881!
31664!
31038!
……
Ice Storm was incredibly powerful. In fact, it wouldn"t be incorrect to say that Lin Yixin"s overall strength had jumped to a whole new level after she learned this skill. Too bad its cooldown was a bit too long, or it could be measured on the same pedestal as my Ancient Seal for sure.
The ferocious animal retaliated and dealt serious damage. It wasn"t at a disadvantage at all despite being outnumbered. In less than half a minute, both our HPs had dropped below the 30% mark; a dangerously low amount of HP without a priest to heal us.
Swhoos.h.!.+
At the same time I recovered 25% of my HP with Tenacity of the Dead, I said, "Yiyi, we can"t fight this boss head-on. The Heaven-shaking Tiger is a melee attacker, so I suggest we kite it while your Kris roasts it with draconic flames! You, I, the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition will keep it busy from four separate directions. I"ll use ranged attacks like Dragon Slaying Slash and Ancient Seal to attack it."
Lin Yixin puckered her lips for a bit. "You sure you can control three characters at the same time?"
"Yeah! Don"t worry!"
"In that case, let"s use Great Earth Transformation and go all out! This is the time to use the Divine Energy Points we"ve been saving, and the sooner we end this battle, the less damage we"ll take!"
"Okay!"
Now that we had a plan, I summoned my apparition while Lin Yixin"s ice dragon was chipping away at the boss"s health from the sky and drawing its attention. After Lin Yixin and I split up and moved to opposite sides of the boss, I started hitting the boss with ranged attacks like Dragon Slaying Slash and Sword Boomerang. The Phantom Wolf King was really fast, so I used it to impede the boss"s movements as much as possible. Behind it, Lin Yixin tossed one powerful skill after another, absolutely devastating its HP.
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoos.h.!.+
I activated Great Earth Transformation, and the shadows of three cyan dragons transformed into three floating swords that protected my surroundings. Lin Yixin was a female player, so her Great Earth Transformation surrounded her in falling petals that made her look like a barbarian G.o.ddess who descended to the mortal realm to exact her vengeance.
……
Our strategy was successful. The Heaven-shaking Tiger might be a Level 191 Immortal Rank boss, but it kept losing HP as we forced it to run back and forth between the two of us. Sure, the Phantom Wolf King and the apparition were killed repeatedly in the process, but as long as Lin Yixin and I stayed alive then all was well. We were just too skillful to be suppressed by an AI.
Less than thirty minutes later, I summoned the Phantom Wolf King for the third time and made my apparition use Purple Dragon Howl the second after Lin Yixin used Extreme Break, causing the boss"s HP to drop sharply like a rock!
"The boss only has 10% HP left. Let"s keep this up!"
Lin Yixin ran in an unpredictable but calculated manner that saved her from the boss"s stun attack this time. Not going to let the opportunity slip by, she quickly closed the distance and slashed repeatedly at the boss.
……
"Roar roar!"
Suddenly, the Heaven-shaking Tiger raised its head and roared again and again. Then, countless dark red meteors began falling from the sky!
"s.h.i.+t! A super AoE attack?!"
I rushed forward and hit the boss"s mandible with a Magic Piercing Punch!
Bang!
12673!
Unfortunately, the skill had failed to interrupt the boss"s casting. An Immortal Rank boss simply had too many ranks on me!
Lin Yixin backed away quickly while saying, "Leave that area now, Little Cheat! I"ll buy time with my ice dragon, so quickly!"
"Mn!"
Unfortunately, I was too late. One of the meteors. .h.i.t me squarely on the head, spreading pain and dizziness throughout my entire body. Holy f.u.c.k, did a meteor just stun me? Dammit, I should"ve known that stuns are the Heaven-shaking Tiger"s signature skill!
The stun lasted 7 seconds too long. There was no way in h.e.l.l I was surviving this.
The good news was that I had activated the Resurrection Art prior to the battle. Depending on how tenacious this boss was I might have to lose another 1 or 2 levels after this, but it was an acceptable cost since I could regain most, if not all of my levels after killing the boss. Lin Yixin and I were the only ones who were fighting the boss, and if I landed the last hit on it, at least 75% of the experience would fall to me. A Level 191 Immortal Rank boss should have enough experience to level me up two or even three times at my current level!
……
Thud thud thud!
Dark red rocks kept falling on top of my head painfully and dealing over 50k damage per hit. I had almost 250k HP right now, but that wasn"t enough to survive the skill as a matter of course. Immortality didn"t trigger after I died, so I revived myself and increased my attack power by 10% at the cost of 1 level!
Now that I was back, I had another chance to interrupt the boss"s skill. After making sure that Great Earth Transformation was active, I aimed at the boss"s body and hit it with Magic Piercing Punch again!
Bang!
This time I succeeded, and fragments of energy flew everywhere. The Heaven-shaking Tiger stumbled two steps backward after its greater spell was forcefully canceled by me. At the distance, I saw Lin Yixin running back toward me with only 25% HP. She was faster than me, but even she didn"t manage to avoid all of the meteors. I just took more damage because I was closer to the boss.
"Go!"
An Extreme Break later, Lin Yixin and I used Universe Break at the boss"s weak point at the same time as if we shared a telepathic link with each other. Intercourse triggered, and a purple energy crushed the boss"s armor like it was nothing and dealt an insane amount of damage!
390877!
"Holy s.h.i.+t, that"s broken…" I pushed my surprise aside and used Burning Blade Slash, still aiming at the boss"s weak point. This time, Lin Yixin used the Quadruple Slash, an exclusive skill of the Light Wanderer cla.s.s and matched my Burning Blade Slash perfectly.
Chiang chiang chiang!
Intercourse triggered three times in a row. You only needed to hear the Heaven-shaking Tiger"s wails to know how much damage it took!
The boss only had a sliver of health left, so Lin Yixin immediately withdrew her weapon and said, "Little Cheat, you can take the kill since you dropped a level just now. The eighth floor boss is mine though!"
"Okay!"
I raised my weapon and slashed away in a frenzy. Since the Heaven-shaking Tiger had less than 2%, or several hundred thousand, HP left, I didn"t bother to dodge its attacks.
Suddenly, the Cyan Netherworld Sword shone brightly. It looked like I had triggered its pa.s.sive skill, the Cyan Netherworld Divine Dragon! My luck made a grin break out on my face.
The draconic soul penetrated the Heaven-shaking Tiger"s body and elicited a scream. Finally, the huge beast reached the end of its evil life and died!
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoos.h.!.+
As I had predicted earlier, a Level 191 Immortal Rank boss possessed enough experience to level me up thrice in a row, meaning that I was now Level 162. If the two of us could kill a couple more bosses like this, then catching up to Li Chengfeng, Luo River G.o.d of the Capital, Stranger of Three Lifetimes and everyone else on the Heavenly Ranking wouldn"t be a dream anymore!
……
I picked up the Tiger Soul Essence from the ground and gave Yiyi a smile. "Can I have this quest, Yiyi?"
"Mn." She smiled and nodded at me. "But you"d better remember to bring me with you when you carry out the follow-up quests!"
"Of course!"
Next, I moved the boss aside and checked the loot it dropped. It only dropped 3 items in total: a blood-red spear, an indigo leather armor cloak, and a dark red necklace with a pendant that was shaped like a broken red sword. It was surrounded by an orange glow, so I was sure that it was an amazing piece of equipment!
……
I brought up the spear"s stats screen first—
Augustus" Spear (Heaven-grade, Outstanding★★★★)
Attack: 1290~1550
Strength: +240
Stamina: +245
Agility: +220
Tactics: +60
Pa.s.sive: Increases user"s attack power by 70%
Pa.s.sive: Increases user"s splash damage by 35%
Slots: 8
Outstanding Property: Augustus" Rage. Become enraged in the middle of a battle. 3% chance to deal 250% damage when attacking a target.
Level Requirement: 160
……
I was astonished. It was one of the most powerful offensive spears I had ever seen; almost the perfect weapon for a mounted player!
"Do you want to use this?" I gave the weapon a wave as I asked Lin Yixin.
She pouted a bit and shook her head. "It"s fine, I prefer shorter weapons… give it to Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi or Chaos Moon. They are Divine General–level players people can"t get even with an impossible amount of money, so it"s only right that you show them your appreciation from time to time."
"You can keep it for Purple Marquis if you want to."
"Purple Marquis is a swordsman to the end of his life. I"ve dueled him when he used a spear-type weapon before, and he"s about as clumsy as those immoral people who try to siphon waste oil with their tools. Long story short, he sucks b.a.l.l.s with a spear…"
"..."
I put away the spear in my bag and nodded. "If I find a good sword-type weapon or two, I"ll reserve them for you and Purple Marquis!"
"Mn. Now, let"s check out the rest of the equipment, shall we?"
"Yeah!”