Chapter 1415: Calamity
I looked up and saw October Rain staring down on me.
While pushing myself onto my feet, I said, "I will pay you back for saving my life one day!"
October Rain giggled. "You can marry me!"
"Sorry. Nobody got time for that!"
I rejoined the battle after we finished trading jokes. At the same time, Moon Dew and a couple of priests healed back the 700k+ HP I had lost from Thunder’s attack.
....
Thunder looked like a proud champion surrounded by both living and dead foes. He hit He Yi with a triple-hit skill and sent both her and her dragon flying across the air. Thankfully, my beautiful boss narrowly avoided being one-shot by activating her new Cave Ice Protection property right before the skill struck, but she still lost over 1.8 million HP in total. Without her Shield of Cave Ice, she might have died already.
Swhoosh!
Hot lightning ripped through the air and left behind a visible arc. High Fighting Spirits, Li Chengfeng and a couple of Dragonlight Cavalrymen were all in the path of this hot lightning. Li Chengfeng reacted the fastest of all of them and was able to raise the Crimson Refinement Sword into a parry. Its effectiveness against a boss this powerful was questionable, but it should prevent him from getting one-shot at least. High Fighting Spirits was slightly slower, so he could only swing at the hot lightning with as much strength as he could muster.
Crackle.. crackle..
Li Chengfeng lost 40% of his HP, and High Fighting Spirits, 64%. Both of them were knocked unceremoniously to the ground. However, it was a much better fate compared to the other 7 Dragonlight Cavalrymen who were one-shot. Moreover, Thunder’s Attack seemed to have increased after his HP dropped below a certain threshold, so even our Dragonlight Cavalrymen weren’t tanky enough to survive more than a hit anymore.
I dashed past Thunder and executed Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash combo, hoping to freeze the boss with the latter. It didn’t. I gritted my teeth and cast Cold of the Nine Provinces next!
Swhoosh!
This time, a bit of ice crept up Thunder’s feet and froze them solid. It was only 2.7 seconds, but a freeze was a freeze. I should’ve known that the skills of the Twelve Divine Armaments would be far more effective than a normal skill..
However, the Frozen status condition didn’t mean perfect immobility. If the target had low resistance, then they would be completely encased in ice and unable to move a muscle. If they were stronger, well, Thunder could still summon lightning to his fingertips, twist his upper body to face me, and let out a menacing cackle. "Prepare to die, boy. I know you’re very important to the Wind Singer, and killing you may awaken her to the truth that she shouldn’t have become our enemy from the very beginning. We will definitely kill her, so just wait in hell for her to join you!"
It’s Thunder Abyss!
I knew I wouldn’t be able to dodge this. Thunder was casting Thunder Abyss on me, meaning that I would be at the center of the spell. It would take literal teleportation for me to dodge this.
Thud thud thud!
I summoned Battle Astral Wind while backpedaling from Thunder. I hadn’t used the skill until now because I was saving it for this spell. After backing up to a spot where there were no Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players around me, I activated Heavenly River Transformation and waited for the inevitable.
Boom!
Thunder Abyss struck and scorched every nerve in my body and paralyzed me for a short moment. Battle Astral Wind was instantly destroyed by the skill, but I only lost 700k HP thanks to it. I reckoned that Thunder Abyss would’ve dealt over 2 million damage to me without it. My Magic Resist meant little before a Purgatory Sovereign after all. Anyway, I was able to float on the air thanks to Heavenly River Transformation, and I made a beeline toward Thunder before he could react. Bloody ripples appeared beneath my boots as I literally ran across the air.
Swhoosh!
I slapped Pardon across Thunder’s face while dashing past him. Exploiting my powerful turn rate to the max, I turned around as soon as I arrived behind his back and stabbed him with a powerful Universe Break!
890,287!
Against a ridiculously tanky boss, Pardon + Universe Break was one of the most damaging combos I could use!
Thunder chased after me furiously while I backed away from him. I simply shot him a smile and a Coiling Dragon Revolution to delete another 470k+ HP from his health bar. Suddenly, Thunder vanished from view. It was that instant teleportation again!
My perception was much stronger while Heavenly River Transformation was active, and technically speaking, everything within my Domain was under my control. That was why I was able to sense the approaching danger behind me immediately. Without hesitation, I turned around to face Thunder, raised the Cyan Dragon Shield and activated Ghost Spirit Step Art. Every attack the skill managed to nullify was a win for me!
Swhoosh!historical
The Blade of Thunder crackled with what seemed like a fatal amount of energy before swinging at me three, no, four times in a row! This was going to be bad!
"Fuc—CLANG CLANG CLANG.."
If my left arm felt like it was being shredded to pieces earlier, now it felt like it was being ground to fine paste. I wasn’t even sure how my shield had survived the impacts. Four ridiculous damage numbers rose above my head as my feet dug a pair of deep ravines across the ground—
1,102,834!
1,072,362!
1,027,377!
2,103,284!
....
Not only did Ghost Spirit Step Art failed to nullify any hit, the last hit was a critical hit. Thankfully, my Guardian Dragon Armor absorbed 10% of my damage received as HP—so that was around 500k HP or so—and Murong Mingyue restored another 380k HP to me with a long-range, critical Instant Heal. As a result, I just barely survived the insane combo.
I took a moment to check out myself after my momentum was spent. The Cyan Dragon Shield was red hot from the sheer amount of lightning it had just endured, and my shoulder armor was smoking a little. Even better, I only had 822 HP left. I smiled grimly. No matter how well-equipped, powerful and skilled a player was, we could never go head-to-head against a top-tier boss in the game. Like ants, we must gather everyone’s strength to have a chance at killing a boss like Thunder.
Still, the fact that I managed to delay the boss for ten plus seconds was a worthy feat..
"Lu Chen, watch out!"
It was at this moment Lin Yixin’s panicked cry entered my ears.
I looked up and saw a huge ball of lightning right above my head!
Motherfucker! It’s Thunder Abyss again!
Despite Gui Guzi and He Yi attacking Thunder with everything they got, the sonuvabitch wouldn’t rest until I was dead! What an asshole!!
Boom!
I closed my eyes as lightning washed over me. I only had 822 HP. There was zero chance I could survive this skill.
However, when I opened my eyes once more, I realized that I was still at Crossroads Valley. What’s.. what’s going on here?
I checked the combat log and was instantly filled with glee. My necklace’s Outstanding Property, Pardon of the Gods, gave me a 30% chance to miss all magic attacks, and that was what saved me from certain death!
Swhoosh!
While this was going on, Lian Xin ran close enough to the boss to cast her strongest CC skill, Frozen Domain. It successfully bought another couple seconds for me!
I leaped out of the giant pit I was in before it could bury me. After activating Tenacity of the Dead and downing a Rank 13 health potion, I ran along the fortress walls so that the priests above me could heal me. Even Moon Dew was shouting, "Don’t let our handsome guild leader die, people! Heal!"
My HP was quickly restored past the 80% mark. Another heal from Murong Mingyue later, I was ready to rejoin the battle once more!
....
Chiang!
The Blade of Thunder clashed against Lin Yixin’s dagger before Thunder kicked her in the shoulder. She let out a painful cry as sailed across the air and rolled across a patch of grass. That simple two-hit combo had left her with less than 20% HP.
I ran like crazy before skidding to a stop in front of Lin Yixin. Then, I activated Heavenly River Transformation once more and, ignoring Thunder’s incoming thunderous four-hit combo, dropped my SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill Xuanyuan Slash right on top of his head.
Bang!
The Xuanyuan Slash had a much longer range than Thunder’s four-hit combo, so I was able to hit him first and even cancel his skill. However, despite the huge damage he just suffered, he immediately swung his sword and sent me flying across the air yet again. The knockback effect only happened when the attacker’s Strength was at least 50% higher than their target’s. In my case, I was literally sent flying across the air, so heaven knows how much higher Thunder’s Strength was compared to mine..
....
Thud thud thud thud..
A shower of arrows hit Thunder’s back and turned him into a porcupine. Enraged, he turned around and cast Thunder Abyss that killed dozens of Dragonlight Archers before they could escape. Not done yet, he fired another sword blast and killed another group of Dragonlight Archers. Less than 7 seconds later, he turned his attention on Snowy Cathaya’s Dragon Punisher Archers and absolutely murdered them with his Thunder Abyss. It was probably because the Dragon Punisher Archers hit even harder than our Dragonlight Archers.
It was an incredibly intense and desperate battle. We were trading lives just to chip away a bit of the boss's HP, and the dragon knights and I were the only ones who could really tank a couple of hits from him. Not even High Fighting Spirits dared to charge the boss after the first couple setbacks because the only ones who could survive his flurry skill were me, He Yi and Gui Guzi. Even then, it was hardly a sure thing.
....
The desperate battle continued for around 20 minutes or so. There were multiple times I was a hair away from dying. Our efforts weren’t futile, however. We were ultimately able to bring Thunder’s HP down to 50%... but that also meant that the boss was about to enter a new phase.
Buzz!
Thunder abruptly raised his sword and sneered savagely. "If your plan is to infuriate me completely, then you have succeeded, damned humans! I shall personally deliver you all to hell and enslave you properly!"
Suddenly, the earth within a hundred meters of Thunder started falling apart. At the same time, lightning began striking like crazy from the sky. It was a super AoE skill!
I hurriedly shouted on top of my lungs, "All units, use your invincibility skill now if you have one! Focus on saving yourselves with Instant Heals and health potions!"
....
While saying this, I activated my own Dark Shield—a 30-second invincibility skill of the Dark Magma Poleyns—to protect myself. Some sections of the fortress’s walls were within range of the AoE skill, so both the structure and the players on it were utterly destroyed. Even the Dragonlight Cavalrymen were panicking because the lightning strikes were completely random and unpredictable. If you were lucky, you might not eat a single lightning strike. If you were unlucky, you might eat multiple lightning strikes in a row.
Somewhere in the middle of the casting, I raised my sword and cast the Life skill of Xuanyuan Art, healing everyone within 1000 yards of me by 50% HP. My effort successfully saved many tanky Dragonlight Cavalrymen who had been about to die from the lightning storm. A few seconds later, Gui Guzi cast his Shennong Tastes Grass as well!
The storm stilled 15 seconds later, but the entire east side of the fortress had been turned into smoking rubbles. Several thousand still alive Dragonlight Cavalrymenstood on top of them with blank expressions looking like they couldn’t believe what just happened. Our mages, archers and priests were almost completely killed. The only ones who were still alive were Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Moonlight Stone and those players who happened to have an invincibility skill.
....
"Motherfucker, this Thunder truly is a walking calamity.." Warsky lamented.