Chapter 598: Golden Bell Divine Light
BOOM!
The Heavenly Thunder Leopard’s attack tore through Marcus’s Adamant Shield Wall once again, slamming into him and the beauty in his arms.
’I’m dead.’ A strange thrill ran through him. ’Well, I finally bought it. Not bad. Dying while protecting the woman in my arms was a knight’s duty, right? Honor, sacrifice, justice, courage, compassion, piety. All that good stuff. I’m dying for a worthy cause. What more could a man ask for? No regrets. That was what knights did.’
Marcus was just beginning to feel rather noble about the whole thing when he realized something was wrong.
The scenery had not changed. He was still holding Princess Celeste, still riding Blackie and moving forward at full speed, with Celeste’s warmth pressed against his chest. Marcus blinked. ’What the hell was going on?’ He hurriedly checked his status.
’Damn!’ It turned out dying wasn’t quite as easy as he had thought. Blackie had gotten angry.
The steed suddenly erupted in a haze of dark light, activating its newest skill, Nightmare Aegis. In an instant, its entire body seemed to fade into something unreal, and it carried Marcus and Celeste straight through the Heavenly Thunder Explosion.
Because Princess Celeste was riding with him, she was protected by the same effect. The lightning passed through them as though they were nothing more than phantoms, a complete miss.
If Marcus had been paying attention to the damage indicators instead of preparing himself for death, he would have seen the word Miss appear above both their heads. Blackie was incredible.
Unfortunately, the Heavenly Thunder Leopard was not the sort of opponent that would give up simply because one attack had failed.
The beast let out an enraged roar and immediately launched another Heavenly Thunder Explosion. At the same time, it accelerated, charging straight toward them with the horn on its head pointed directly at their backs.
’Where the hell was Princess Phoenix?’ Marcus glanced over his shoulder.
Princess Phoenix was already closing the distance, sending blazing sword beams toward the leopard one after another, but the beast paid no attention to her. It simply ignored the attacks and continued pursuing Marcus and Celeste as though nothing else existed.
’You relentless bastard,’ Marcus cursed under his breath as another Heavenly Thunder Explosion came screaming down from above, with the leopard itself charging in right behind it. This thing was terrifying at range, but it was just as dangerous up close.
And Blackie couldn’t use Nightmare Aegis repeatedly against a Mythic Beast. The skill had a cooldown, and Marcus had no way of forcing it to activate again immediately. He hated to admit it, but the Heavenly Thunder Leopard had completely seized the advantage.
CRACKLE!
Another Heavenly Thunder Explosion came crashing toward them. ’Still going to die.’ But then the woman in his arms moved.
Princess Celeste’s five-second paralysis had finally worn off. Her face was still flushed from being held so closely, and she looked a little flustered as she whispered, "Stone... thank you. I can move now."
The lightning was already almost upon them. There was no time for Celeste to escape from Marcus’s embrace, nor did she need to. Instead, she raised her Five-Element Staff while still in his arms and began chanting one of the Five-Element Staff’s ultimate skills, a Metal-element skill.
"Golden Bell Divine Light!"
A deep, resonant chime echoed through the air. Golden light burst from Celeste’s body, rapidly expanding until it formed a magnificent, shimmering barrier shaped like an enormous bell around the two of them.
CLANG!
The Heavenly Thunder Explosion crashed into the Golden Bell barrier. The entire barrier shook violently under the impact, but it held. The lightning still reached them, but most of its power was absorbed by the golden barrier.
-4,000
Marcus glanced at his health. Only four thousand damage. Princess Celeste, however, took slightly more than thirty thousand.
Marcus immediately swallowed one of the Blood-Root Pills he had obtained in Dragon’s Roar Town, causing his health regeneration to rise to roughly 2,500 HP per second. With Celeste’s water-element recovery spells added on top of that, the damage he was taking was barely enough to keep up with his regeneration.
The leopard could hardly reduce his health by more than five hundred per second now. He wasn’t going down that easily.
Princess Celeste was an Arch-Sorcerer for a reason, after all. And according to what she had said, the Golden Bell Divine Light could last for at least thirty seconds. For the moment, they were safe.
"Let’s go!" Marcus’s fighting spirit came roaring back. He immediately wheeled Blackie around and stopped retreating. With the Golden Bell protecting them, there was no reason to keep running. He turned his mount around and faced the charging Heavenly Thunder Leopard head-on.
He knew his own attacks wouldn’t accomplish much. Against a Mythic Beast of this caliber, even his strongest attacks might only inflict around fifty thousand damage, and that was hardly enough to turn the battle around. That wasn’t what he intended to do.
He was going to use Holy Shield Charge to slow the beast down and buy enough time for Princess Phoenix to catch up. Once she arrived, the three of them could deal with it together.
Marcus tightened his grip on his shield and prepared to meet the leopard head-on.
But before he could move, Princess Celeste suddenly spoke.
"Stone, wait!" There was an urgency in her voice that made him stop.
"Something’s wrong. The Golden Bell should have reduced the damage much more than this. I think..." She hesitated, her expression turning grim. "I think this Heavenly Thunder Leopard has evolved into a Divine Beast!"
Marcus’s heart sank. ’A Divine Beast.’
Celeste’s wings suddenly flared with brilliant Holy Light as she channeled a healing spell. She didn’t waste time strengthening herself, either. Instead, she cast every defensive skill she had on Marcus. The implication was obvious.
She had told him earlier that, with her current strength, she could only reliably deal with mid-tier Mythic Beasts. Even with her Divine Artifacts, facing a Divine Beast was a completely different matter. At best, she might be able to escape from one alive. And now the Heavenly Thunder Leopard might actually be a Divine Beast. ’We’re screwed.’
Unfortunately, there was no time left to think about it. The leopard was already within ten meters.
Another Heavenly Thunder Explosion was sizzling through the air, but this time, the creature’s entire body suddenly erupted with violent lightning. The electricity gathered around its body, twisting and condensing until it formed something far more dangerous than anything it had used before.
The leopard let out a thunderous roar. "Ultimate Skill, Heavenly Thunder Drill!"
The force of its roar was so powerful that several nearby Thunder Fang Wolves instinctively cowered and retreated. At the same time, the lightning surrounding the leopard began spiraling rapidly, condensing into a massive, conical drill of lightning that screamed through the air at terrifying speed.
The Heavenly Thunder Explosion struck first.
-3,500
Marcus gritted his teeth as the lightning struck him. Princess Celeste suffered more than thirty thousand damage.
Then the Heavenly Thunder Drill arrived. It hit them with the force of a spear and a hammer combined.
BOOM!
The Golden Bell barrier trembled violently, but it managed to hold. Marcus took another six thousand damage. Celeste lost nearly fifty thousand. And that was only the first strike.
The Heavenly Thunder Drill was not a single attack. It was a four-hit combo, with each successive strike becoming faster and more powerful than the one before it.
Princess Phoenix saw the attack from a distance. The massive drill of lightning spun relentlessly as it battered the two of them.
BOOM!
Marcus and Celeste were blasted backward three meters, huge damage numbers exploding above them. They barely had time to steady themselves before the drill spun around and struck again.
BOOM!
Another seven thousand damage hit Marcus. Another fifty thousand disappeared from Celeste’s health. Another three meters of knockback. The third strike followed almost immediately. Then the fourth.
By the time the Heavenly Thunder Drill finally ended, Marcus had taken more than thirty thousand damage. His remaining health was barely over twenty thousand. His expression went blank. He was dead.
Marcus’s vision suddenly went black. His body and Blackie’s crashed toward the ground, falling from the air and landing in a heap several meters below.
His Ice-Fire Twin Dragon Hoe and Corpse Demon Armor clattered onto the ground beside his fallen body.
Because he had been killed by a creature with at least Mythic Beast-level strength, the resurrection penalty would be severe. One to five levels. And this time, there would be no miraculous resurrection. His Ring of Resurrection had already been used. Marcus was truly dead.
As a corpse, he could no longer see players or monsters. The world around him had become strangely empty, leaving him with only the scenery and the faint awareness of what was happening nearby.
Still, he could make out Princess Phoenix and Princess Celeste. The two women were fighting the Heavenly Thunder Leopard.
Celeste was in terrible shape. Her original 800,000 HP had been whittled down to less than 200,000. And with Marcus dead, she was no longer riding with him. Her Holy Light Wings spread behind her as she hovered beside his fallen body, desperately facing the terrifying beast that had just killed him.