Beep!
I was about to act when I received a message from He Yi: "How"s it going there, Lu Chen?"
"We"re just about to start a boss. What"s wrong?" I replied.
A whole minute later, He Yi sent her reply: "A few hours ago, we received news from the players at Dragonbone Mountain Range that one of the Nine Sovereigns, Sophia the Snow Minstrel, is leading an army down the mountains and charging straight for the USA"s main city, Hero City. The entire Northern Alliance is in chaos right now. Sophia is ranked second among the Nine Sovereigns, and the army she"s leading is over ten million strong. There are even blood-red undead flyers air-dropping Corpse Eaters, Liches and more around Seven Star City. They have a couple hours at most before the entire city will be fighting for their dear lives. Apparently, the reason Sophia launched an invasion out of nowhere is because some US player triggered a main quest. One way or another, this is going to be one h.e.l.luva show…"
I grinned as I replied, "How terrible, we"re doing a main quest too, and our target is Ovia the b.l.o.o.d.y Finger himself. We"re probably all going to die, eh? Jokes aside, keep doing what you"re doing. If you"re done, try breaching b.l.o.o.d.y Fortress and make it to the boneyard. There"s a ton of Level 210 mobs and Rank 1 Ghost Chariots over there. It"s a dread-rank boss pet! Better not let this opportunity go to waste!"
Seemingly excited, He Yi put a smile emoji before her message: "Understood, I"ll mobilize our men right away! Heehee, this b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+eld Domain is seriously amazing. When we"re completely done with this map, our main guild"s average level, equipment and skill will have improved by leaps and bounds!"
"Mn. Keep up the good work. I"m going to start working myself."
"Okay!"
……
I turned off the communicator and prepared to fight.
Prince Cloudway was s.h.i.+vering in fury, and after shooting his troops and us a glance he said, "Warriors of Vanished G.o.d City and Sky City, we must destroy the Eye of the Purgatory before we lose another strong city! I will deal with Magus Dios while the rest of you deal with his four accomplices!"
"Yes, Your Highness!" His troops nodded in unison.
I looked. The four accomplices he mentioned were the four mages standing around Holy Magus Dios. They were all Level 215, and if I had to guess, they were probably his disciples or something. Anyway, they were only Immortal Rank minibosses, and they were way weaker than their master in terms of offensive power, defense and HP.
I climbed onto the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and ordered, "We"ll focus down the minibosses one by one while the NPCs keep them busy!"
"Yes!" The girls responded with a nod.
I chose the closest miniboss to us—a mage in purple robes—and used G.o.d Binding Art. After it resulted in a MISS, I used Thunderous Charge and tried to stun him once more!
Swhoos.h.!.+
It worked this time, and the mage was temporarily stunned. He hadn"t been able to activate his Magic s.h.i.+eld in time.
"Beiming!"
I shouted, but her Bone Eroding Arrow had already stuck the panicking mage before I even finished. At the same time, Lin Yixin dropped her sword and used Extreme Break and Ice Flame Slas.h.!.+
Bang bang!
Man did it feel good to attack a cloth-armor enemy. Every attack dealt 50k damage at least, and one cycle later, the mage had already lost almost 700k HP!
"d.a.m.n you, you lowly melee martial artists! Watch as I blast you to pieces!"
The purple mage raged and fired Exploding Flame Spell right between Lin Yixin and me, dealing a ton of damage and sending the Phantom Wolf King flying. Judging from the scorching pain eating away at my body, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s Magic Attack was most likely higher than Lian Xin"s.
86284!
102923!
Holy s.h.i.+t. Never underestimate the magical prowess of a boss.
"Come! The baptism of the G.o.d of Fire awaits you!"
The boss raised his scepter again and chanted, "Slumbering spirits of fire, awaken and devour everything! In the name of ahhHHH—"
The guy was screaming because I had thrown Magic Piercing Punch to his face and canceled his great summoning spell. It worked because my domain power had improved after I invoked Great Earth Transformation.
"Kill!"
Blades flew everywhere as Lin Yixin and I coordinated with Beiming Xue and Lian Xin to delete the boss"s HP as soon as possible. Even still, the Exploding Flame Spells, Fire Dragon Spells and more the f.u.c.ker kept shooting at us put us below 50% HP at all times, stressing Murong Mingyue a great deal. She had to throw heal after heal like a machine gun even though we were standing right in the Pool of Life she had cast.
Swhoos.h.!.+
Suddenly, the Necklace of the War G.o.d"s Broken Blade flashed and stunned the boss for 7 seconds. This was our best chance to maximize our DPS and HPS, and we did. 7 seconds later, the miniboss"s HP hit rock bottom while we were fully revitalized!
"Roar!"
The Cyan Netherworld Sword triggered its pa.s.sive, and the Cyan Netherworld Divine Dragon devoured the old mage"s last sliver of HP in one go. He let out an angry roar as he slowly slumped to the ground, "Receive me, G.o.d of h.e.l.l!"
Pop pop pop! He dropped a couple of equipment pieces, magic stones and more. There was no time to inspect the loot one by one—all I knew was that there were no Heaven-grade items among them—so I dumped them all into my bag and rushed the second miniboss immediately. At the same time, I said, "We need to work fast! There"s no way Cloudway will be able to hold off the boss for long!"
"Yes!"
We swiftly took over the second miniboss from the NPCs and deleted his HP as fast as we could. Not far away from us, Cloudway was being repeatedly knocked back by Holy Magus Dios"s spells, but he refused to give up. Imbuing his s.h.i.+eld with Holy s.h.i.+eld, he protected himself as best he could while attacking the magus"s Magic s.h.i.+eld again and again. However, the boss"s Magic s.h.i.+eld was way tougher than the minibosses", so it showed no signs of breaking anytime soon. Worse, Cloudway himself had dropped to 87% HP in this short time.
Swhoos.h.!.+
It was at this moment Murong Mingyue cast Restore on Cloudway and succeeded. The spell was percentage-based, which meant that the prince"s life expectancy just increased significantly!
"Way to go, sis!" I praised her.
Murong Mingyue puffed up her two bundles of pride and said, "Less flattering, more fighting, boy!"
……
The energies rippling across the air was incredibly intense. The Holy Magus Dios gathered a thick ball of flame at the tip of his scepter as he shouted, "Cloudway, my dear disciple! I am the one who raised you into a great magic warrior, and I will be the one to bring you to h.e.l.l with me!"
He then raised his scepter and chanted loudly, "O" great secrets of fire, heed my command and descend upon this world! In the name of Dios, I cast this spell at the price of life—Fire Current!"
Boom!
An incredible jet of flames burst away from the tip and flew straight for the prince.
Cloudway raised his sword and pressed his left palm to the flat side of the blade. He growled, "Origin s.h.i.+eld!"
The flame blast was so powerful that Cloudway was knocked to the back and out of the line of fire. His left wristguard was red hot from the heat, and I imagined that his left arm must be screaming in pain right now. However, the prince didn"t let out a cry of pain even once as he landed on top of a bush.
Meanwhile, the NPC troops he brought raised their s.h.i.+elds to block the spell, but it was greater than they could"ve imagined. One terrible explosion later, both the men and their s.h.i.+elds melted away into nothing, leaving only the skeletons behind.
Tears slid down Cloudway"s cheeks as he said sorrowfully, "Mentor, you… you really have learned an undead"s magic… you really have fallen completely…"
Dios laughed loudly in response. "That"s right! The old me would"ve been hard-pressed to unleash such power! Child, come join me and attain a higher level of power!"
"Dream on!"
Cloudway pushed himself to his feet and shouted, "I will never spill blood of the innocent to build my power! Now come! Let me show you my new martial technique!"
The prince growled as a b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l cry abruptly erupted from Cloudway"s sword. The energy of the Xiezhi beast manifested above his head—exactly identical to High Fighting Spirits" Xiezhi Howl, but far stronger in terms of power—and started spinning like a cyclone. When a complex hexagram appeared beneath Cloudway, he shouted, "Eat this—Divine Beast Slas.h.!.+"
Cloudway literally went all out with this strike. Any more than this, and he would have to sacrifice his own life force. It was all to stop his former mentor from continuing his descent into the darkness!
Boom boom boom!
The powerful attack resulted in the destruction of more than half of this part of the palace. When the terrible explosions ended, Holy Magus Dios was still standing, but his eyes were full of praise, and there was a thin trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth.
"You"ve definitely proven your talent, my beloved disciple. I am afraid I can"t allow you to live any longer…" Killing intent flashed across Dios"s eyes as he said this. He was clearly not going to hold back any longer.
……
"Faster! Cloudway needs our help!" I barked.
Lin Yixin replied, "I know, but we"re already at max speed…"
She was right, unfortunately. We were going all out already, but our opponents were Level 215 minibosses. Two magic blasts were all they needed to drop Lin Yixin and me to low health. We were lucky that our priest was Murong Mingyue and not someone lesser like say, Moon Dew, or we would"ve been party-wiped a long time ago. A 30% difference in HPS was like the difference between night and day in a boss battle.
Magic and martial skills flew everywhere as the fierce battle continued. All around us, things kept breaking down to tinier and tinier pieces not unlike our diminis.h.i.+ng supply of potions. We had been chugging them almost immediately after their cooldown was finished. Even Prince Cloudway"s HP had dropped to 40% or so. He was still alive only because Murong Mingyue kept casting Restore on him.
……
Half an hour later, the three remaining minibosses finally dropped dead and left behind some rather s.h.i.+tty loot. Not one of the items was even Heaven-grade, let alone higher. This was hardly the time to complain about bad loot though, so we simply packed our stuff and turned all our attention onto Holy Magus Dios. The prince must live for two reasons: one, we would fail a valuable quest if he died. Two, he was a great NPC, and it would be a shame to lose him here!