Chapter 605: One-Shotting the Divine Beast
The system notification appeared immediately:
Ding!
[Stonehaven, you have been killed by the monster Heavenly Thunder Leopard. The Ring of Resurrection has activated. You have been resurrected with full stats and are invincible for the next three seconds.]
Golden light surrounded Marcus as his HP returned to full. A moment ago, he had been reduced to zero HP. Now he was back on his feet, still holding Princess Celeste in his arms. Of course he had been the one riding alongside the princess, holding her close.
When the Heavenly Thunder Leopard had paralyzed Princess Phoenix and fled toward the valley exit, even the Divine Beast Phoenix had been unable to catch it once it used its teleportation ability. Marcus had been thrilled when he saw the situation.
Finally. This was his chance. He had to move.
But Princess Celeste had beaten him to it. She used Thousand-Mile Instant to appear in the leopard’s path and block its escape. Unfortunately, the difference between her strength and that of a Divine Beast was simply too great.
Marcus watched as the leopard unleashed its ultimate skill, Heavenly Thunder Drill. The attack slammed into Celeste and sent her flying backward, but the leopard did not stop there. It pursued her and continued its assault with even greater force.
Marcus’s expression changed, and he did not hesitate.
The leopard was already far ahead, and even Princess Phoenix, if she had not been paralyzed and had not been riding the phoenix, might not have been able to catch it.
Marcus, however, had another option. His Wanderlust teleportation array had already been prepared at the entrance of the valley.
"Wanderlust!"
He switched out his Twin-Winged Ice Owl Bow in the middle of his movement and activated the skill. A flash of light passed over him, and he appeared directly at the teleportation array, right in front of the leopard as it charged toward the exit.
The timing could not have been better, as less than fifty meters away, Princess Celeste was taking the final blow from Heavenly Thunder Drill.
’Perfect.’ "Heaven’s gift." Marcus did not waste another second.
"Nightmare Teleport!"
He urged Blackie forward and activated his newest Level 50 skill. Black light flashed, and the next moment he appeared beside Princess Celeste.
"Celeste, dual-ride!"
He reached out and pulled the distressed princess toward him, catching her securely in his arms.
"Stone!"
Celeste barely had time to react before she found herself pressed against his chest again. She could feel his warmth and the steady strength of his body around her.
She was still worried about the situation, but the moment Marcus arrived, some of that fear disappeared. She had no idea why, but being with him made her feel safe.
The Heavenly Thunder Leopard was already charging toward them. It intended to crush Celeste along with Marcus before continuing its escape.
Marcus acted first. "The Ascendant’s Domain!" He unleashed his skill with complete confidence.
One-tenth of the leopard’s HP vanished. When the leopard entered within thirty meters, the passive ability of his Mythic Artifact, Face of Nameless Fear, activated immediately.
Nameless Fear: all of the leopard’s attributes dropped by fifteen percent, and another fifteen percent of its HP disappeared.
In a single exchange, under Princess Celeste’s stunned gaze, Marcus had stripped away a total of 480,000 HP, leaving the Heavenly Thunder Leopard with less than thirty thousand HP.
"Stone!" Celeste could not hide her shock. Behind them, Princess Phoenix had finally recovered from the paralysis and was rushing over with the Divine Beast Phoenix. She stared at the damage numbers floating above the leopard’s head, equally stunned.
The knight Stonehaven was this strong? Neither princess had expected it.
Even Celeste, who had already witnessed Marcus fighting before, had never imagined that he possessed this level of power. She looked up at the man holding her, and the shock in her eyes slowly turned into excitement. ’Stone is much stronger than I thought.’
"Roar of Fear!"
Marcus immediately followed with the active ability of Face of Nameless Fear.
Unfortunately, the difference in levels was too great, and his opponent was a Divine Beast, so the skill failed to take effect.
MISS. The leopard neither panicked nor became disoriented; instead, it crashed straight into them.
"Heavenly Thunder Piercing Strike!"
The attack struck Marcus and Celeste at the same time. Instant kill. That was all it took.
Marcus died on the spot, and the impact sent Celeste tumbling away. With only thirty thousand HP remaining, the Heavenly Thunder Leopard did not stop to finish them. It turned and fled toward the valley entrance as fast as it could.
"Stone, the leopard is getting away!"
Celeste grabbed Marcus’s arm as the golden light of his resurrection appeared around him. Her face was filled with anxiety as she looked up at him.
She had already placed her trust in him; she could not explain why, but she believed he could stop the leopard.
Marcus looked down at her. She was still in his arms, her eyes fixed on him with complete trust. For a moment, he found himself distracted by how beautiful she was. No wonder Celeste was considered one of the legendary beauties of the Dreamland Continent.
He had the sudden urge to lower his head and kiss her. Then he saw the leopard.
It was already thirty meters away and accelerating toward the exit, and in another second it would be gone.
’No chance. I am not letting it escape after all that.’
Marcus spurred Blackie forward, chasing after the leopard with Celeste still in his arms. At the same time, he raised the weapon he had switched to when he activated Wanderlust.
"Rain of Thousand Needles!" Celeste gasped. The weapon in Marcus’s hand was the legendary Divine Artifact she had only ever seen in old blueprints.
’Thousand Needles. So it really exists.’
Marcus pressed the release. ’You killed me yesterday. Now I am getting my payback with my own hands.’
"BOOM!" A heavy explosion rang through the valley. The Rain of Thousand Needles released a dense mass of Shadow Needles, hundreds of them erupting from the weapon at once and covering a ten-meter-wide area directly in front of the fleeing leopard.
"CRASH!" The next impact was even louder, and Celeste and Phoenix could barely believe what they were seeing. An enormous number of Shadow Needles struck the Heavenly Thunder Leopard at the same time, so many attacks landing together that they sounded like a single massive blow.
-1,200,000. A damage number exceeding one million appeared above the Divine Beast’s head.
The Heavenly Thunder Leopard, which had survived for countless years and had escaped death more times than anyone could count, let out one final roar before collapsing to the ground. Dead. A Level 53 knight had just killed a Divine Beast in one attack.
Marcus stared at the Divine Artifact in his hand. That was insane. The Rain of Thousand Needles had allowed a Level 50 player to wipe out the last thirty thousand HP of a Divine Beast in a single shot.
"Stone, that was amazing!" Celeste looked up at him, completely won over. Her eyes were filled with admiration as she watched him.
Marcus could not help smiling. ’She is definitely impressed.’
If Princess Phoenix had not been coming over from behind, he might have pulled Celeste closer and kissed her right there.
"Impressive, right?" He could not resist showing off a little.
Marcus waited for the system notifications to appear. He had personally dealt the killing blow to a Divine Beast. Surely the experience and rewards would be worth it.
He walked over to the leopard’s corpse. Nothing happened. Marcus waited, and still nothing happened.
’What?’ Then the answer hit him. He had been kicked from the party.
According to the system’s rules, the experience and loot from a monster went to the player or party that landed the first attack. Since Marcus had attacked the leopard after leaving the party, his final blow counted as kill-stealing.
He received nothing: no experience, no loot.
And because his high Luck had triggered a Great Burst, the Heavenly Thunder Leopard had dropped an enormous number of items, scattered all over the ground around its corpse.
’Ugh... My experience. My items.’
Celeste had already flown down from his arms and was happily gathering the loot from the Great Burst. Princess Phoenix knelt beside the leopard’s corpse, repeatedly using Gathering to extract valuable materials from the Divine Beast’s body.
Marcus could only stand there and watch. He had used a charge of his Thousand Needles and killed a Divine Beast with his own hands, yet he had not received a single reward. What a massive loss.