Chapter 59 -59-Ambush
"This Stone Dragon really is a beast among beasts."
After reading the description, even John could not help mocking it inwardly.
It was clearly a dragon, yet it had developed lust for humans.
The Dragon God sparing its life and merely imprisoning it in this palace was already an act of immense mercy.
"And now, I can finally put an end to its prison sentence."
John placed his hand against the palace gate and pushed lightly.
The gate swung open instantly.
He felt a brief moment of disorientation.
The next second, his figure appeared inside the palace.
Roar!!!
The moment he entered, a tremendous dragon’s roar thundered through the hall.
John lifted his head slightly.
Inside the palace, a vast expanse of black clouds had actually formed overhead.
Within those clouds, a ferocious dragon head covered in thick layers of stone and earth emerged faintly into view.
Its crimson dragon eyes locked onto John at once.
Then it let out another roar that shook the air.
In an instant, lightning flashed within the black clouds.
Wind and stones surged across the ground as if the end of the world had arrived.
The Stone Dragon’s hundred-meter-long body slowly extended out from the black clouds,
winding downward like a mountain range.
The moment it appeared, it occupied half the palace by itself.
Its oppressive presence was overwhelming.
John calmly cast a Detection Spell to inspect its information.
[Stone Dragon] (Worldfall Ruins Boss)
[Level]: 50
[Rank]: Platinum-grade
[HP]: 200,000/200,000
[Attack]: 8,000
[Defense]: 5,000
[Skills]: Stone Scale Shield, Storm Vortex, Thunderstorm Domain, Wrath of the Earth...
[Description]: The final boss of Dragonkin Isle, one of the ancient dragons. It excels at controlling wind, rain, and lightning elements. At the same time, it possesses extremely powerful defenses, and its body is enormous, making it exceptionally difficult to deal with.
...
John finished reading through all of the Stone Dragon’s information.
His brows furrowed slightly.
Setting everything else aside, this Stone Dragon’s entrance animation was indeed extravagant.
With that kind of presence, anyone who did not know better might think some supreme god had arrived.
But after reviewing its actual stats and information,
John realized it was nothing more than flashy theatrics.
He had already grown somewhat tired from grinding monsters outside.
So why not treat this Stone Dragon like a stage performance
and slowly enjoy the visual effects of its skills?
"In that case, let me see just how many flashy tricks you’ve got, Stone Dragon."
John smiled faintly and directly put away his dagger.
He actually intended to fight it using only his own built-in attack power.
Seeing this human behave so arrogantly, the Stone Dragon was naturally enraged.
It opened its jaws with a roar, and terrifying purple lightning shot forth.
And not just a single bolt—
it came down like a vast web of lightning, blanketing everything in its path.
John’s expression did not change. He took the lightning head-on.
A rapid series of crackling explosions instantly erupted from his body.
Half the palace was swallowed by smoke and dust.
When the smoke finally cleared, John’s figure shot out like a phantom.
"The visual effect is decent. The damage is too low."
That was John’s verdict.
At the same time, he threw a punch.
Boom!
[-10886!]
That plain and seemingly unremarkable punch landed on the Stone Dragon’s body.
It instantly made the dragon cry out in pain.
After all, John possessed Absolute True Damage. Even the most ordinary punch could ignore the enemy’s defense entirely.
The Stone Dragon had no choice but to flap its wings again,
creating a huge storm of terrifying wind blades that slashed toward John.
The wind blades were so fast that sonic booms exploded through the air.
John did not react—or rather, he could not be bothered to.
He simply let the wind blades crash into him.
Before they even reached John,
those blades had already sliced many of the towering pillars within the palace into several pieces.
That alone showed how terrifying their power was.
And yet, after that attack,
John still walked out completely unharmed.
He threw another punch at the Stone Dragon.
[-10781!]
Although this style of fighting could only shave off less than one-fiftieth of the Stone Dragon’s HP at a time,
John actually found this kind of blow-for-blow combat rather enjoyable.
Previously, everything had been instant kills.
He had not even been able to experience the most basic sensation of fighting monsters anymore.
Only by slowly grinding down a boss’s HP like this could he enjoy that original, primal pleasure again.
...
However, in the eyes of Odeso’s group, who were hiding in the shadows of the palace,
John’s way of fighting gave them the impression that his strength was only so-so.
Odeso let out a sneer.
"I thought this guy would be able to one-shot the boss the same way he one-shotted those dragonkin.
But isn’t he still bogged down in a drawn-out battle?
So there’s no need for everyone to be afraid of him. He has his limits too."
Hearing those words, and seeing John indeed locked in fierce combat, the last trace of worry in the others’ hearts disappeared.
So this John was not actually as terrifying as the rumors made him out to be.
He had probably managed to kill so many players on the ground only by relying on some kind of external item.
Otherwise, if he truly had the ability to fight ten thousand enemies alone,
he would not be struggling this much against a mere Worldfall Ruins boss.
"Heh, once the chance comes, we’ll all attack together and definitely kill John right here!"
"Odeso really knows what he’s doing. Right now the boss and John are tearing into each other like dogs in a fight.
We can just stay hidden here and reap the fisherman’s profit."
...
As time passed,
the battle between John and the Stone Dragon entered its most intense stage.
The Stone Dragon had nearly exhausted all of its moves.
Yet John still did not retreat a single step, continuing to hammer punch after punch into its head.
Each punch that landed shattered大片 stone scales.
Under his relentless barrage, the Stone Dragon’s HP steadily fell.
In the end, John forcibly smashed its HP bar all the way down to 5%.
The moment its HP dropped to the 5% threshold,
the Stone Dragon’s eyes abruptly turned crimson.
Its roars became crazed and violent.
It had clearly entered an enraged state.
Whoooosh! Whoooosh! Whoooosh!
Sand and stones flew through the air as violent winds rose.
The Stone Dragon beat its dome-like wings, stirring up a terrifying gale.
In an instant, the very floor of the palace was ripped up piece by piece.
[Storm Vortex]!
This skill seemed to be the Stone Dragon’s ultimate trump card.
A horrifying tempest raged outward.
Even John’s body began to sway slightly under its force.
Because John had no resistance to knockback,
and because this spell carried an exceptionally strong knockback effect,
he simply could not endure it. His body began to be pushed little by little toward the outside of the palace.
...
Seeing this, Odeso—who had been hiding for a long time—immediately revealed himself and roared,
"Everyone with wind-element magic, hit that John with everything you’ve got!
We’re going to use this gust and blast him out!
Send him flying straight off the cliff to his death!"
Behind the Boss Hall was a sheer cliff.
Once a player was blown out, they would almost certainly fall to their death!
In the blink of an eye,
more than a dozen players behind him simultaneously unleashed wind skills that carried knockback effects.
Those attacks merged with the Stone Dragon’s Storm Vortex,
creating an even more terrifying knockback force.
John could not resist it at all, and his body was rapidly blown back out of the palace.
His gaze fell upon Odeso and the others, and he could not help looking slightly stunned.
"These guys... are trying to steal the boss’s last hit from me?"
A strange expression appeared on John’s face.
Even as his body was being blown outside the palace, he still found the whole thing rather amusing.
Where in the world had these people gotten the courage to think they could steal a last hit from John?