The Armored Ice Qilin Horse galloped full speed through the corridors. Bronze Armor Wolves and Bronze Beasts around the area had already been cleared, and I had no doubt that it was the work of my guild!
On the minimap, I saw a ton of blue dots surrounding a red dot. The boss of the second floor had already been aggroed. It was most likely Gui Guzi and the gang fighting the boss.
……
A couple more corners later, I started seeing flashes of Barrier Breaks, Galaxy Storms, Greater Heals and so on directly ahead of me. I also heard angry roars of a ferocious tiger.
I saw a group of players surrounding a red, brawny tiger that was covered in spots. It was about as big as the Heaven-stealing Tiger, and coincidentally or not, it was called “Heaven-devouring Tiger”. It was a Level 186 Immortal Rank boss, and it was slapping Gui Guzi"s s.h.i.+eld with its sharp claws. To my surprise, Gui Guzi was just barely holding on under the a.s.sault, and he would"ve died if Murong Mingyue and the others hadn"t been healing him with all their might.
Rus.h.i.+ng to his aid, I activated Thunderous Charge the moment I got into range!
Swhoos.h.!.+
The stun was successful. I followed up with G.o.d Binding Art, and again, the skill landed successfully. To be honest I was a bit surprised that both my skills had worked on the boss, probably because I had finally caught up in levels. It was a gratifying feeling to say the least!
Thud!
Not far away, Beiming Xue landed Bone Eroding Arrow and lowered the boss"s Defense even further. Thanks to her help, I was able to delete a hefty 200k HP with Burning Blade Slash + War Crush combo!
"Roar roar roar…"
The Heaven-devouring Tiger was losing HP rapidly due to the sheer amount of attacks it was bombarded with. In fact, it was only now I noticed that Blazing Hot Lips" players were present as well. Eyes Like Water was cutting the boss with her sword, and Stranger of Three Lifetimes was launching icicles repeatedly at the boss. It was no wonder that the boss was already at 85% health. At this rate, we could take out this Immortal Rank boss in 15 minutes or so!
Boom! He Yi swung her Blade of the Earthen Soul and used her five-hit skill, Purgatory of Ice and Magma. A visible part of the boss"s HP was chunked away, just like that.
I continued looking around for a bit before asking, "Hmm? Did anyone see Li Chengfeng or Du Thirteen? Where are they? They can"t be slacking off, can they?"
Gui Guzi replied, "No, they came."
"I don"t see them anywhere though?"
The Undying Knight pointed at the Heaven-devouring Tiger"s stomach, "They"re in there…"
"Holy s.h.i.+t, you mean the tiger ate them?" I exclaimed in shock.
"Correct," said Chaos Moon. "The Heaven-devouring Tiger has a devouring skill. If you see it opening its mouth wide like a gong and exposing its bottomless throat, that means it"s about to use it. If you don"t dodge quickly, you get pulled straight into its stomach. Li was overconfident because he thought that a Divine General would be immune to the skill, and you know what happened afterward. Dude"s probably swimming in stomach acid right now…"
"f.u.c.k…" I was speechless to say the least.
He Yi giggled. "It"s fine. Li Chengfeng and Du Thirteen will be spat out if the Heaven-devouring Tiger is killed. They will only have 5% HP though."
"Okay, let"s kill this thing before the other guilds could show up!"
"Okay!"
……
"Roar!"
A while later, the Heaven-devouring Tiger raged and opened its b.l.o.o.d.y mouth. A terrible stench snaked into our nostrils as cyclones started gathering inside the boss"s mouth.This was definitely the prelude to the devouring skill!
"Ah…"
Chaos Moon exclaimed in fear. Out of all of us, she was the one who hit the boss the hardest and attacked its weak point again and again, and it seemed that the heavens had decided that it was time she paid for her sins. The Heaven-devouring Tiger"s mouth was pointed straight at her!
I hurriedly withdrew my sword and blocked in front of Chaos Moon. Then, I summoned a cyclone of b.l.o.o.d.y energy around my right fist and punched the boss right beneath the chin! Magic Piercing Punch!
Bang!
The Heaven-devouring Tiger let out a painful howl and staggered backward. I had actually managed to interrupt its devouring skill. That wasn"t the end, however. Next, the Heaven-devouring Tiger opened its mouth again and spat out a jet of deadly flames. s.h.i.+t! It"s an AoE skill!
Whoos.h.!.+
Pain washed over my whole body as both Chaos Moon and I were struck by it. The conical AoE skill hit at least a dozen or so people including Murong Mingyue. Luckily for us, she wasn"t one-shot because her Priest s.h.i.+eld was active. Chaos Moon and I didn"t have such a skill though, and we both lost a ton of HP!
28872!
58785!
My Magic Resist was way higher than Chaos Moon"s, so my damage taken wasn"t even half of Chaos Moon"s. However, the Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen behind us were even more fragile, and they all died before they could escape the flames. The continuous damage was too much for them to endure, and even with Chaos Moon"s Magic Resist, she had lost almost 60k HP in total. To make a comparison, some Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen had lost almost 100k HP in a second. The importance of Magic Resist was made clear in this one exchange.
……
I launched G.o.d Binding Art at the Heaven-devouring Tiger and successfully bound it again. The Phantom Wolf King immediately seized the opportunity to ravage the boss"s a.s.s, and the others also dished out every bit of damage they had. Countles fireb.a.l.l.s, wind blades, arrows and melee weapons bit into the boss"s flesh in the instant it was immobilized. Speaking of which, we made Lu Buyi our party leader so that he could buff all our stats by 100% using Purple Dragon. It was ridiculously powerful, and I was almost certain that we were the only party in the world who could brute-force an Immortal Rank boss right now!
Lu Buyi was standing next to Murong Mingyue. Unlike the lazy a.s.sholes who happily did nothing after they turned on their stratagems, the tactician was waving his fan and constantly firing Dragon Vein Art at the boss, dealing 4000 damage or so per hit. Not only that, when Gui Guzi"s health dropped too low, he enveloped the Undying Knight in a column of green light and healed him for 30k+ HP in one go. It was a high-level tactician skill, Blessing. The skill healed a single target for a percentage of their max HP. Although a tactician"s HPS was nowhere as great as a priest"s as a matter of course, it was still a useful skill depending on the situation.
"Thanks, Buyi!" Gui Guzi said with a laugh.
Lu Buyi smiled back. "You"re welcome. We"re all brothers, aren"t we?"
After Chaos Moon made the boss squeal with Rock Crush, she said, "I can feel your h.o.m.o energy all the way from here!"
Lu Buyi and Gui Guzi turned red at the same time. "Shut up! We"re not gay!"
Chaos Moon calmly retorted, "Only a person who has something to hide would say that!"
Both men gritted their teeth in frustration, but there was nothing they could really do to keep Chaos Moon under control. Chaos Moon was literally the best female player in the entire guild after He Yi, Murong Mingyue and Beiming Xue, and despite having the appearance of a cute, innocent girl, she was really a brash and tyrannical queen at heart. As contradictory as it sounded, all the guys in the guild both hated and adored her!
……
"Keep up this pace, everyone! The boss only has 40% health left…" He Yi declared encouragingly, "Let"s try to take it out in 5 minutes!"
It was at this moment a beautiful figure appeared at the perimeter. It was our a.s.sa.s.sin, Cute Little Naughty. The girl was staring at the pa.s.sageway behind us with a serious expression and saying, "I have bad news, boss. A party of Seven Star City players is moving here from the east, and Candle Dragon, Thunder and Silver Soul are coming from the south. I"m not sure about the other directions but… it"s safe to say that there are enemies everywhere. They"ve already taken out the Bronze Armor Wolves, and they are coming our way!"
"What should we do?" Murong Mingyue asked.
He Yi declared with determination, "Lu Chen, Chaos Moon, the two of you will continue fighting this boss. Gui Guzi, pick a couple of Dragonlight Cavalrymen and follow me to stall our enemies. Do not allow anyone to approach the Heaven-devouring Tiger for the next five minutes! This boss is ours to take!"
"Got it!"
Our beautiful guild leader and her party left, but several hundred Dragonlight Cavalrymen joined us at just the right time. They were the ones who were stuck trying to cross the trap at the first floor. Many of them didn"t have the skill to traverse the traps the way I showed them, so in the end they gave up and waited for some priests to join them. They slipped past about half of the traps the proper way, then ran through the rest as quickly as possible while the priests healed them. The good news was that they weren"t the only ones who were making their way over. Dragonlight Cavalrymen were moving to this location from every direction, and I heard that there was a party of 100+ Dragonlight Cavalrymen fighting their way toward us from the southeast corner right now. It was a boon for sure.
……
Rustle rustle...
Suddenly, I saw a black figure slowly approaching a boss. He didn"t know that I could see him with the help of Dark Pupils. It was a high-level Hegemon Palace a.s.sa.s.sin!
"Is he trying to KS the boss? Or is he trying to steal the Tiger Soul Essence?" Whatever the guy"s plan might be, he was clearly in over his head. Did he really think he could hide himself successfully before all of us?
I was going to kill him, but the Heaven-devouring Tiger attacked first. It opened its mouth and acted to devour the a.s.sa.s.sin!
"Gulp!"
The a.s.sa.s.sin didn"t expect this at all, so he was swallowed by the Heaven-devouring Tiger in one gulp!
"That"s another one gone…"
Chaos Moon said in a panicked tone, "This boss had already eaten an entire squad of Mad Dragon players when we showed up, and afterward it ate a ton of our players. Just how many more is it going to eat until it"s satisfied…"
Suddenly, the Heaven-devouring Tiger let out a painful howl before lifting its tail up high. A second later, something black exited its b.u.t.thole and landed in a plop… are you kidding me? It"s p.o.o.ping because it ate too many players?
We all looked at the black thing it p.o.o.ped, and we were stunned to find that it was Night Sorrow of Mad Dragon. The guy was a member of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls until he betrayed us and left.
Night Sorrow"s HP was sitting at measly 5%. As we were told earlier, whatever the reason might be, everyone who left the tiger"s stomach would have 5% HP.
"Take him out!" I ordered.
Xu Yang sent him back to Sky City in one hit. I bet the f.u.c.ker had no idea what happened until the moment he died. Mad Dragon was one of our many sworn enemies, and these f.u.c.kers and Hegemon Palace had tried to invade Dark Moon City while we were fending off Burning City on Black Sea. There was no way in h.e.l.l we were going to let him live.
As the battle dragged on, the Heaven-devouring Tiger continued to devour any frontliner it could get its jaws on. Chaos Moon and I might be skilled enough to avoid its skill, but not everyone could claim the same thing.
Finally, after devouring an unknown amount of people later, the Heaven-devouring Tiger growled and p.o.o.ped out another person.
Swhoos.h.!.+
Three draconic symbols turned into three cyan blades and surrounded the person before he even hit the ground. It was none other than the transformed Li Chengfeng!
Deeply embarra.s.sed, the dragon warrior channeled all his rage into his blade and hit the boss with Dragonbone Flurry and Dragonblade Revolution combo!
At the same time, Murong Mingyue, Moon Dew and the rest of our priests healed Li Chengfeng and pulled him away from the 5% mark. Li clearly wasn"t expecting himself to be eaten by the boss, and he definitely wasn"t ready to meet our gazes after he was p.o.o.ped out by the boss. The guy was probably so embarra.s.sed he could die right now, or he wouldn"t have used a super AoE skill like Dragonblade Revolution like this!
Boom boom boom!
Finally, the Heaven-devouring Tiger let out a death scream and dropped limply to the ground.
Pop…
The boss didn"t drop any equipment, but it did "drop" a ton of people. They were all Dragonlight Cavalrymen including Du Thirteen, and they were all sitting at 5% HP. These poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!