Chapter 43 : Chapter 43
Chapter 43: The Storm Dragon King Breaks Down!
Ye Ze moved through Thunder Forest and Storm Gorge.
Following the gorge all the way to its highest peak, he emerged beneath a sky shrouded in dark clouds, with lightning falling from above without end.
A giant dragon dozens of meters long stood atop Storm Dragon Valley like a moving mountain.
“Humans? Hah. So you still have not perished?”
The deep, resonant voice boomed like crashing thunder.
Hearing the Storm Dragon King’s tone, Ye Ze frowned. It seemed the creature had deliberately refused to help humanity fight the Fiends.
But the next moment, he smiled.
“Whether humanity survives is still uncertain, but one thing is certain—you will not live through today.”
By then, he had already seen the other side’s information through Eye of Insight:
【Storm Dragon King】
Level: 30
Type: Epic-grade Storm Dragon clan boss
Attributes: Strength 300, Constitution 300, Agility 300, Spirit 400
Skills: Heavenfall Thunder, Storm Domain, Thunder’s Wrath, Thunderstorm Dragon Breath
————
A Level 30 Epic boss!
Of all the opponents Ye Ze had faced so far, this one could rank as the strongest.
With this level, these attributes, and those skills, any other first-clear team would have died no matter how many people they brought!
There really was a reason no one had ever cleared this dungeon.
And yet...
Just as Ye Ze had guessed, every one of the Storm Dragon King’s attack skills was lightning-element based!
At that moment, however, the Storm Dragon King still had not realized how serious that was.
His massive body rose above the Dragon Nest, his wingspan nearly a hundred meters, and he let out a heaven-shaking roar.
“It seems you have forgotten how humanity once begged me to join forces with them.”
Ye Ze did not know where this dungeon world had originally come from.
Nor did he know what the humans of this world had been like.
But from the Storm Dragon King’s proud tone alone, it was obvious that he had long grown used to looking down on humanity.
Ye Ze said coldly, “I only hope that, in a moment, you will not be the one begging me.”
The Storm Dragon King flew into a rage. With a roar, lightning surged wildly.
Panda attacked as well. Without dodging or retreating, it shot straight toward the Storm Dragon King like a cannonball.
The fierce lightning, once terrifying in power, struck Panda amid peals of thunder.
An attack that normally would have torn flesh open and left the body mangled...
now seemed to do nothing more than groom Panda’s fur.
Not a scratch!
The Storm Dragon King was briefly puzzled, though he did not think much of it.
He had not attacked with his full strength just now. It had only been a casual strike. If the enemy had blocked it with some ability, that was still understandable.
The Storm Dragon King’s power erupted. His eyes blazed like twin cores of lightning as he drew the endlessly leaping thunder in the sky into a violent surge.
“Petty tricks are worthless before true power!”
Heavenfall Thunder!
With the Storm Dragon King’s furious roar, lightning ten times stronger than before rained down on Panda in a frenzy, like ten thousand arrows piercing the heart!
And yet, at that very moment, Panda did something outrageous. It raised its middle finger at the Dragon King.
BOOM—!
After countless bolts of lightning crashed down, shockwaves sent shattered stone flying everywhere. When the smoke finally cleared...
Panda’s raised middle finger had not dropped an inch.
It was still completely unharmed!
The Storm Dragon King’s eyes abruptly contracted, as though his entire draconic worldview had shattered.
Impossible!
Even if he himself had endured Heavenfall Thunder head-on, he could not possibly have come through it without a scratch!
How could a human’s summoned beast possess this kind of power?
He would probably never understand...
that Panda had reached this level largely because of the other dragons in Storm Dragon Valley!
Without the huge amount of lightning-attribute equipment they had provided, raising its Lightning Element Mastery to one hundred percent would have been countless times harder!
In other words...
the Storm Dragon King had effectively been ruined by his own clan.
While the Storm Dragon King was still reeling in shock, Panda struck out with a palm imbued with Jiuli Edge, shattering a broad swath of dragon scales.
The Dragon King’s attributes were still extremely high.
Fortunately, Ye Ze had previously copied Legendary Renown. With the two overlapping aura buffs, Panda held a major advantage in close combat.
Once he realized his skills were doing no damage, the Dragon King immediately changed tactics.
He switched to the most direct kind of physical attack.
But if he was going to fight Panda with raw strength, that only meant he thought he was not dying fast enough!
The Storm Dragon King brought a claw crashing down. Panda, unsurprisingly, answered by surging with Taiji Inner Force...
Deflect a Thousand Pounds with Four Ounces!
Seizing the force behind that dragon-claw strike and turning it back in a violent counterattack, Panda smashed the Storm Dragon King so hard that he screamed, and his right forelimb snapped on the spot.
Although the Dragon King’s attributes were high, Panda’s offensive bonuses were even greater, and the effect of that one blow was immediate.
Sticking to the old rule of finishing off a wounded enemy while he was down, Ye Ze ordered the mantis to use Void Slash and sever the Dragon King’s left forelimb and half of one wing as well!
At this point, the mantis had a 60% damage multiplier bonus, 60% defense penetration, and critical-hit enhancement on top of that...
Void Slash went on cooldown afterward, but in exchange, the Dragon King was left gravely wounded, nearly crippled!
“ROAR—!”
In almost an instant, both of his forelimbs were broken, his wing was crippled, and the balance of victory tilted decisively.
The Storm Dragon King roared in agony, “How did it come to this?!”
At that moment, much of his confidence in fighting head-on had already vanished.
But he still refused to accept it. Ignoring the attacks of Panda and the mantis, he desperately tried to run—or even crawl—back into the Dragon Nest.
“Not even counterattacking? He only wants to get back to the Dragon Nest?”
Ye Ze did not even need to know what was inside it. He immediately ordered Panda, “Activate Primordial Phantom and stop him! Under no circumstances can you let him get back!”
As if!
They were already fighting to the death. Whatever the Storm Dragon King wanted to do, there was no way Ye Ze would let him have his way.
Even if the Storm Dragon King only wanted to go back to his nest to use the latrine, Ye Ze still would not allow it!
When he saw Panda take on the form of a gigantic Iron-Eater Beast ten meters tall and block his path, the Storm Dragon King let out a hoarse scream. “No—!”
Ye Ze activated Eye of Insight and looked into the Dragon Nest, curious about what was inside...
Had he not looked, he would never have known. The moment he did, he discovered the Storm Dragon clan’s greatest secret:
【Abyss Blood Pool】
Effect: Can heal injuries and refine fiend blood. Long-term use grants a small amount of Abyssal power.
— Created by the Fiend General: Bloodsea Fiend.
————
“So that is why the Storm Dragon clan refused to join forces with humanity no matter what.”
“You had already surrendered outright?”
Ye Ze could not help sighing.
Its function was simple: it actively invited the descent of Abyssal power!
It was the equivalent of willingly going to the Abyss and becoming its hound...
Special Elites like the Cursed Knight in the Contaminated Land had only been passively corrupted by the power of the Abyss.
But something like this—an enemy that had voluntarily surrendered to the Abyss—was Ye Ze’s first time seeing it.
“Insignificant human! What do you understand!”
To his surprise, the Storm Dragon King roared back, then continued in a voice tinged with unmistakable fear, “The power of the Abyss is undefeatable.”
“The march of the Abyss cannot be halted!!”
Hearing that final, chilling tone, Ye Ze remained utterly unmoved and answered calmly,
“Whether it can be defeated or not, I will have to try first.”
“As for you, worthless dragon, stop wasting oxygen.”
With that, Panda, cloaked in Primordial Phantom, brought a foot down and crushed the Dragon King to the brink of death.
“No!” the Storm Dragon King struggled to say.
“You cannot kill me! If you kill me, the Abyss Blood Pool will sense my death!”
“The Fiend General will immediately dispatch troops to exterminate you!”
“You are doomed to die!”
Oh? Immediate deployment?
Ye Ze brightened at once.
He had thought that even after clearing out Dragon Valley, he would still have to wait a long time for the Fiend Army. He had not expected he could trigger their attack ahead of time.
Ye Ze nodded. “Then there is no way I can let you live now!”
The Storm Dragon King was dumbfounded.
Hearing that, Panda was just about to stomp down again when Ye Ze hurriedly stopped it.
For a moment, the Storm Dragon King thought he had been spared.
But to his horror, Ye Ze had only called the mantis over instead and given the finishing blow to it...
A flash of blade-light cut through the air, and a massive chunk of experience that thrilled Ye Ze flowed in:
【Final boss of Storm Dragon Valley, Storm Dragon King, killed. Experience gained: 9000!】
【Ding! Your level has risen to: 11!】
【Because you have not yet completed your Advancement Quest, you cannot gain the additional growth attributes.】
【Hunter — Crimson-Eyed Mantis has slain a powerful enemy and can evolve one body part once!】
【Talent — You have gained one ‘Infinite Golden Traits’ draw chance!】