Chapter 479
Chapter 479: The Last Moments of the Unfortunate Flesh Render
What could be more thrilling than killing a BOSS at the last second?
Of course, it’s when an even more powerful, unbeatable BOSS suddenly spawns right after you kill the first BOSS at the last second!
Don’t Need Hands to Show Off was naturally the first to encounter “The Desecrated King Gnawbone” and got instantly killed, but the information he transmitted in his final moments made all the little players still resting in the ruins turn their heads.
What?
The final BOSS in the dungeon is a Golden-rank undead?
Damn!
What’s the point of fighting this!
The development team must have gone crazy from too much pressure. Throwing a Golden monster in a dungeon is such a terrible move that even 10 years of brain damage couldn’t come up with!
Just say straight up that you didn’t plan to let us clear it.
“Wait! Don’t panic!”
Just as everyone was preparing to flee, Feel You Poor, who was flying through the air on a manticore carrying Brother Mao with broken legs, shouted:
“That King Gnawbone BOSS has a ‘Sun Scorching’ debuff! That status makes it continuously lose health! I just saw it. When it passes through areas covered in sunlight, this status stacks up, and once it enters the shadows, the status disappears and it starts slowly regenerating health!
We’re not supposed to fight this BOSS head-on!
Brothers, lead it in circles, find areas covered in sunlight!
Quick!
This is the real way to fight this BOSS!
Kite it, understand?
All ranged fighters get moving, kite it, melee fighters stay away! You’ll get one-shot! Go kill the adds around the area, don’t let them interfere with the kiting process! Also, the swamp serpent collapsed parts of the town’s ground leaving many poison pools, and the Goldflower people’s fire support also left craters in the ground.
Be careful when you’re kiting, don’t touch those areas.”
“Damn, another terrain battle?”
Joy Stick complained harshly, but having understood the BOSS mechanics, he felt confident.
He hovered with his wings and pulled out his shotgun from behind to load bullets. Looking at King Gnawbone who was chasing and killing fleeing players in the shadows, anger flashed in Stick’s eyes.
If this assault on Plague Town represented a game between players and developers, then this moment was the final decisive battle.
They had spent a month pushing forward and sacrificed so many people to get to this point. No one wanted to lose now, and no one would voluntarily surrender at this point.
What’s the big deal about a severely physically damaged Golden-rank undead with terrible debuffs?
Let’s just do it!
Stick quickly flapped his wings to get close, raised his shotgun and fired a shot at King Gnawbone while shouting:
“You bastard! Come at me!”
“Roar!”
King Gnawbone, whose skull was hit by the combustion gold pellets but didn’t take much damage, suddenly turned its head. It stopped chasing the little players, and those gloomy eyes stared at Joy Stick while its shriveled nostrils twitched.
Seeming to smell some kind of scent from Joy Stick that it found extremely disgusting, it roared and pounced towards him.
Stick immediately retreated and dodged, flying towards the next column of sunlight under the guidance of Feel You Poor and Little Ashina in the sky.
But its speed was extremely fast!
It caught up to Joy Stick who was flying at full speed in just a few seconds. Just as it was about to catch him, Stick turned and fired another shot trying to slow its advance, but it was useless.
At this critical moment, a spirit energy descended and enveloped Joy Stick, instantly increasing his speed by half, allowing him to narrowly escape King Gnawbone’s pounce.
Looking at the “Wild Acceleration” effect that suddenly appeared on him, Stick maintained his agile positioning and kiting while instinctively looking outward.
He saw a wind griffin carrying a familiar figure gliding through the air, that slender figure wore a hood but the blood-colored cloth over her eyes was so striking.
“My great master, look at you now, how pathetic. I’ve never seen a vampire who likes rolling in mud as much as you do, how embarrassing.
But don’t be afraid.
The blood contract’s connection doesn’t allow me to let you face the battlefield alone.”
Melia’s voice rang in Joy Stick’s mind as she said:
“Don’t be scared by King Gnawbone’s remains. I can sense that the wolfsbane vampire’s heart inside it has been completely destroyed. Right now it’s barely moving with just the last bit of midnight blessing.
You and your companions need to keep persisting until it loses its last spirit energy support and returns to rest.
Of course, the scorching sunlight can accelerate this process.”
“Got it.”
Stick felt more confident.
Of course, part of this confidence perhaps came from his masculinity not allowing him to show weakness in front of his “servant”.
Meanwhile above the clouds over Plague Town, Femis waved her Night Howl Staff to use spirit energy blast to tear open the clouds again, letting sunlight precisely fall on the ground in front of Joy Stick to guide his kiting route. Then she quickly went to heal Murphy who was sitting cross-legged on the magic carpet beside her.
The vampire lord was in quite a miserable state right now.
He looked like he had rolled through a mountain of blades and sea of fire, not only was his set of excellent armor tattered, but his handsome face had been torn open with ugly scars by King Gnawbone’s claws.
Fortunately, the vampire’s self-healing was taking effect, and Murphy also had source blood, such a self-healing divine item. As he drank a small jar of source blood, the terrible injuries on his body quickly recovered.
However, compared to the enhancement that drinking source blood for the first time would bring to vampires, this quick self-healing now didn’t seem so miraculous.
“You were just a bit away from completing the feat of challenging the Golden rank.”
Femis looked at Murphy sitting cross-legged recovering and teased in a low voice:
“I should congratulate you, but I still have to ask, how does it feel to escape death?”
“Not bad, it reminded me of several months ago when I was still weak, got to experience some ‘remembering the hardships to appreciate the sweetness’.”
Murphy played along with a response, making the young lady laugh delightfully, but then the vampire lord patted the pile of “spoils” beside him and said:
“But I didn’t come for nothing. Here! For everyone who was there, take this claw and have Tris make you a protective dagger.”
He took one of the four gnoll claws and threw it to the young lady, then stuffed the remaining three back into his own bag.
Femis looked at the undead claw emanating snake venom in her hand, coming from Golden undead bones clearly made it an extremely rare crafting material on this continent.
Murphy didn’t just get a few claws that were cut off when weakened by sunlight from King Gnawbone, but also Gnawbone’s fangs and one of King Gnawbone’s eyeballs.
These were all “consolation prizes” that the vampire lord got from his failed “Golden challenge”.
“Sigh, at my current level trying to face Golden rank head-on is still far from enough. I’ll leave this glorious and dangerous challenge until after I break through to Silver.”
Murphy stood up and covered his miserable appearance with a new blood-colored cloak. He looked down and said to Femis:
“Tris is on her way, but there’s nothing left here that needs Tris to handle. While the swamp serpent is trapped here, I want to take a trip to the swamp forbidden zone with Tris. I’ll leave this to you, can you handle it?”
“Of course!”
The young lady flapped her wings hovering in the air, casually throwing out spirit energy blasts to tear open the clouds again letting sunlight shine into the town below, providing another advantageous terrain for the players who were kiting like pros.
She drawled:
“You’ve already weakened the dangerous King Gnawbone to this state. If I can’t handle what’s left, then I’m too weak to be the leader of the Midnight faction.
Don’t underestimate the strength of development team members, Lord Murphy.”
“Fine, you new employee sure are confident.”
Murphy pursed his lips and waved goodbye to Femis before spreading his wings and quickly gliding down outside the battlefield.
Colonel Frayzer, who was commanding artillery fire from the hill positions outside town, soon saw crimson light descending from the sky. The Governor of Transia hovered before them beating his huge blood wings and said:
“Cease fire! Brave soldiers, your mission in this battle is complete.
I must congratulate you. When facing legendary creatures, you not only showed extraordinary courage but also won the respect of the Transians.”
“But that giant serpent isn’t dead yet.”
Behind Frayzer, Major Ron who was no longer hiding his terrible bald hairstyle argued:
“That’s our Pioneer Army’s prey! We are determined to send the legendary serpent’s head as a gift to Misty City. I firmly believe this trophy will add glory to King Louis’ birthday banquet this year.”
“News of your victory over the Gnoll King and the serpent will make King Louis very happy when it reaches the Goldflower Palace.”
Murphy waved his hand and said:
“While slaying the serpent could make you legendary, keeping it alive may be more useful for the coming Black Plague. It’s already lying defeated in town with no strength to resist. We will trap it until all its mysteries are revealed, then let all warriors who participated in the battle decide its fate.
I promise your King Louis will receive a trophy that will make him ecstatic and able to show off to guests at his birthday banquet, but I need you to stop the artillery now!
This is not a request.”
Major Ron was clearly dissatisfied, but Frayzer realized things might not be so simple.
Looking back at the positions behind him, the colonel had to reluctantly admit that after the intense bombardment earlier, not only were the artillerymen very tired, but their field guns had also reached their limit. The gun barrels were full of dangerous combustion gold residue, if they continued firing without cleaning, the guns could easily explode.
So under Murphy’s gaze, after discussing with Ron and Dunn for a few seconds, Colonel Frayzer took the opportunity to issue the order to cease operations.
Murphy nodded with satisfaction and turned to rush towards the depths of the swamp. Watching those red wings disappear from his view, Major Ron rudely spat to the side and cursed:
“These vampires’ thought process is really incomprehensible. I can’t imagine what they want to do with that giant serpent? Don’t tell me they want to tame such a legendary creature?
These guys are way too arrogant.”
“Maybe they have some ‘secret arts’?”
Major Dunn shrugged and consoled:
“Our soldiers also need rest. This result isn’t bad, our struggles today have added a serpent’s mark to our family crest, enough to be recorded in the legends passed down through generations of our family.
Hey, although we knew when we set out that as long as we could survive, our families would be proud of us, I didn’t expect that the mission to bring glory to our families would be completed so quickly.
I have to say, this land is truly magical.”
————————
“How did you get yourself in this state?”
At the outskirts of the swamp forbidden zone, Murphy soon met Tris who flew over from Crimson Citadel. Her blood wings as large as a dragon’s offspring made Murphy look like a fragile chick in comparison.
Faced with Tris’ worry, concern and reproach, Murphy didn’t explain much, just briefly told her about the events at Plague Town.
Finally, he said:
“I feel like the pressure from the Golden rank isn’t as great as I imagined”
“Then why don’t we practice here? Let me personally show you how big the gap is between your current power and true Golden rank!”
Tris crossed her arms and scolded Murphy with both anger and lingering fear:
“King Gnawbone was already desecrated when revived, which meant it couldn’t even exert half its power. Moreover, from what you said, I know King Gnawbone’s soul summoned back from the netherworld didn’t exist in its bones, which means you were only fighting its shell.
Equivalent to facing a mindless death beast.
In this state, King Gnawbone had Golden rank power but its actual combat ability was suppressed to the extreme. I suspect it had already lost its legendary traits and supernatural law powers.
Even Kudel, probably even Femis could defeat it at some cost.
Murphy, I’m not trying to crush your confidence, I just want to tell you a fact.
Your persistence and escape from death today was just an accident!
You can’t repeatedly stake your survival on luck, more importantly I hope you won’t actively seek battles with Golden rank like today anymore.
You should clearly understand the limit of enemies you can currently fight, and not recklessly pursue meaningless victories. You scared me to death just now, you know?”
“I understand, I made my sweetheart worry.”
Murphy stepped forward and kissed Tris’ pouting angry face. He promised in a low voice:
“I promise this is the last time. Facts prove you’re right, improving swordsmanship alone isn’t enough to deal with those dangerous beings.
I must focus my energy on studying and using summoning arts.
But now we have another thing to do.”
He pointed at the quiet shadows in the depths of the swamp ahead and said:
“Earlier the student party explored here and found some very ‘strange’ things, strange even to me. Now that the serpent has been lured away, we may be able to take this chance to explore deeper.
Also Flesh Render, the gnoll mage who should have been stationed in Plague Town, escaped and no one knows where it went, but I have a feeling that fellow should be around here!
It retrieved King Gnawbone’s remains.
Perhaps in this process, Flesh Render also discovered some pre-era secrets.
Those secrets were so important that the cunning old thing would rather give up Plague Town and the Gnoll King’s remains to explore more within.”
“Hmm, you make sense, this is indeed a perfect time to explore.”
Tris nodded.
She took out the Nocturne Scepter to cast buff states on herself and Murphy in preparation for exploration. Because they were facing unknown things, Tris raised her vigilance to the maximum, just casting spirit energy buff states took a full 5 minutes.
Murphy looked at the nearly 20 enhancement states on his character card and clenched his fists feeling the power surging in his body.
If only he had his wife Tris cast so many states on him before challenging the Golden undead bones earlier, he definitely could have won!
Ah, a qualified raid leader should always check the buff situation before starting a BOSS fight, how did he forget about this?
Seeing Murphy’s regretful face, Tris seemed to guess what he was thinking. She snorted and raised her Nocturne Scepter to tap Murphy’s forehead before leading him quickly towards the depths of the swamp.
They soon reached the mountain body where the swamp serpent’s lair was located. Just as Tris cast a wide-range detection spirit energy, Murphy heard strange sounds coming from within the mountain.
Then under his and Tris’ peculiar gaze, the wretched gnoll mage Flesh Render limped out of the hidden passage in the mountain, leaning on a metal staff and carrying something on its back, panting heavily.
It looked like it had been beaten up by something terrifying – several teeth had been knocked out of its mouth and one eye was blind.
But judging by the strange joy radiating from its aged face, it must have found what it wanted in the Land of Creation. However, before this joy could be properly savored, Flesh Render looked up as it escaped and saw two vampires, one male and one female, blocking its way.
“What perfect timing.”
Tris raised an eyebrow and cast Paralysis to freeze Flesh Render in place. She drawled:
“This gnoll mage seems so happy, surely you must have encountered something worth celebrating. Why not take out the good things you found to show us, so we can share in your joy?”
“I have faced greatness, I have entered greatness! You… you will not cut off this future I guard!”
The paralyzed Flesh Render roared and activated some function of the metal staff in its hand. In the next second it was swallowed by a suddenly opened astral rift.
This change happened too fast for even Tris to prevent.
She could only throw a tracking spell at Flesh Render before it entered the astral realm. However, Murphy was quick enough to command Necessary Evil to make a “snatching from tiger’s mouth” move before Flesh Render disappeared.
Accompanied by Flesh Render’s scream, the fierce demon blade severed its left claw, and the severed hand along with that strange metal staff crashed at Murphy’s feet with a bang after the astral rift closed.
“It transported itself to the Dark Mountains. Although the astral interference prevents me from pinpointing its exact landing location, it definitely hasn’t gone beyond the Barren Mountain line. We can still catch up if we pursue now!”
Tris turned her head and shouted to Murphy, but the vampire lord was now crouching on the ground holding that oddly shaped metal staff.
The moment he touched this thing, a large amount of jumping text prompts filled the vampire lord’s vision, making him step back dizzily before using the staff to support himself.
He said:
“No, let it go! Send a message to the Blood Pact Knights to surround and capture that fellow, but the truly important thing is already in our hands. This, Tris! This staff is the key left to us by the Creator!
My inheritance”