“Disgraceful traitor of the plane of death, Twilight Wanderer Uldan, and Sky City’s newly minted Asura God, how dare you invade my Ice Phoenix Palace. The road of paradise is open, and yet you just can’t help but force yourselves through the wall of hell, can you?”
The knight said while rising slowly to his feet, savage features twisting into an ugly visage. It was obvious who, or rather what he was just looking at his bloody pupils and powerful physique. He was an Asura God just like myself, and he wielded an unknown halberd that was clearly glowing with the light of a Divine Armament. It was perfect. Finally, I found a worthy opponent on the fourth floor of the Purgatory!
Behind me, Uldan said indifferently, “Is that you, Undying? This is unexpected, I thought my attack was enough to kill you. To think you would survive and even become the final king of the fourth floor…”
“But of course! I will never forget how you almost killed me!”
The boss laughed and pointed at us. “Today is the day both of you die!”
……
The entire Ice Phoenix Palace shook a little. It was as if it was afraid of its master’s fury.
There was nothing to say, so I simply unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and got ready to defeat the boss. The sooner I killed him, the faster I would be able to meet up with Xinran. Though, there was a chance this boss might know something about Xinran… I might as well speak to him first before we fought.
I scanned the boss with Dark Pupils and was shocked by what I saw. It wasn’t his incredible power that shocked—that was a given—but his name. I… I actually knew the fucking bastard!
Suren the Undying Domain of God (Basic Divine Rank Boss)
Level: 328
Attack: 77,000~112,000
Defense: 125,000
HP: 1,200,000,000
Skills: War Crush, Barrier Break, Splendid Light Slash, Towering Rage
Introduction: Suren used to be an insignificant undead mentor in the Human Realms until his traitorous disciple took his life. Overflowing with rage and resentment even after his soul had fallen into the Purgatory, Coldblade discovered his potential and took him in as a subordinate. Suren proceeded to evolve into an Asura, an Asura King and finally, an Asura God. His infinite hatred drove him to grow ever stronger and more violent than ever before. Finally, after he received an injection of divine power from Lin Na himself, Suren became a true divine expert. On the fourth floor of the Purgatory, he killed all of his competitors and became the indisputable master of the Ice Phoenix Palace. Today, he awaits any and all heroes to challenge his claim.
……
“It’s you!” I uttered as my sword trembled uncontrollably in my grip, and the memory of him killing Xinran and devouring her corpse cruelly flashed across my mind. It was a hateful memory that I would never forget for as long as I lived.
“It’s you!”
Suren recognized me as well and uttered just hatefully, the energy exploding from his halberd showing just how angry he was. He roared, “I remember you! You are the traitorous scumbag who killed his own master for a useless human girl!”
I growled, “Bullshit! That was Xinran you murdered! I’m so glad you’re still alive, because that debt isn’t something you can repay with one death!”
“Xinran? Wind Singer Xinran?”
Suren suddenly broke into a malicious grin. “I see! So that girl was Wind Singer Xinran! Hahaha, how interesting, to think that I of all people would be the one to kill her! Even better, I will get the chance to kill her a second time!”
My heart sank. “What… What happened to Xinran? Tell me now! She’s still alive, r-right?”
“Nah, she’s dead!”
Suren stepped forward and extended his arm, his armored hand slowly clenching into a fist as he said with a lustful grin, “Do you really think that Lord Lin Na would allow that reckless, presumptuous woman to continue to live? Hahaha, I can tell you now that Wind Singer Xinran had died in the spatial rift right behind me. Before she died, I even got to enjoy her womanhood! That soft breast, that tasty virginity. Heh, I’m sure you can imagine how much pain she felt when I tore into her!”
Buzz…
My mind dissolved into white hot rage, and my sword hand shook even harder. “You fucking animal!”
It was at this moment Uldan caught my wrist and said in a hushed voice, “Calm down, boy. He’s obviously just trying to provoke you. Assuming that what he says is true, we would’ve sensed the energy fragments of her crushed Divinity. Since there is nothing, she clearly hadn’t died here. If you are unable to fight properly because you are too angry, then…”
The white hot rage passed as soon as it came. Uldan was right. I couldn’t let my emotions overtake me, or both Uldan and I were going to die here. After all, Uldan couldn’t beat Suren as he was right now.
……
I watched Suren’s skills as I whispered back, “He has three main offensive skills in his skillset, so make sure you don’t anger him too much when you attack him. Otherwise, I may not be able to stop him in time to save you. Just leave the main assault to me, and help me if I am in trouble. Can you do that?”
She nodded. “Mn. Be careful!”
After that, she leaped backward until she was at least dozens of meters away from the main battlefield. Then, she notched an arrow and prepared herself for battle.
I examined Suren closely. He had high Defense, so I would have to lower his Defense first before I began my main assault. War Crush was a close-ranged melee skill that I couldn’t hope to dodge, so I would just have to grit my teeth and tank it. The question became how to avoid being one-shot, and the only method I could think of was to dodge his Barrier Break somehow. Barrier Break was literally a skill that ignored Defense, so my new Ghost Armament, Rising Cloud, would be effective against it. However, Profound Armor only lasted 15 seconds. Sooner or later I would have to tank the skill raw.
I summoned my apparition and my Phantom Wolf King. Then, I controlled my apparition to hit Suren with a Dragon Slaying Slash. First things first, let’s see if he will fall for the bait!
Bang!
Suren flew into a rage when the energy blade hit him squarely in the head. Without hesitation, he charged it with his halberd while roaring, “Let us settle the debts between us once and for all, boy!”
Right before Suren was about to hit my apparition with Charge, I was able to intercept him with my own Thunderous Charge!
Thud!
I was lucky that the skill stunned him, and a well-timed Shock Arrow from Uldan stunned him even longer. I stabbed his chest with Purple Frost Concentration while uttering, “Since you’re still alive, I’ll do you a favor and kill you again! It doesn’t matter if you go to heaven or hell, you will die for the sin of killing Xinran!”
Suren only lost 24.9% Defense, meaning that his resistances were much better than even the giant spider we fought earlier. I followed up with Burning Blade Slash that ripped through his back and deleted a chunk of HP—
472,883!
521,772!
612,781!
After the skill finished, Suren immediately retaliated by stabbing his glowing red spear through my Cyan Dragon Shield and into my chest armor. I immediately felt a terrible pain and lost a chunk of HP—
787,663!
Unbelievable! This was just a basic attack, and he nearly did 800k damage to me!
After I turned my wrist and knocked his halberd aside, I gathered a Magic Piercing Punch and hit him right beneath the armpit. At the same time, Suren stomped the ground and used War Crush!
829,874!
912,366!
903,647!
His Attack was just too much. It was understandable though. He was a Basic God, so my Divine Deterrence was useless against him. Unlike those poor Sovereign Rank bosses, he was fighting at 100% of his fighting strength!
Swhoosh!
It was at this moment an all-too-familiar fiery cone appeared from his blade. It was of course the fighters’ signature skill, Barrier Break! Unlike the usual fighter though, the sonuvabitch created three more flaming cones before launching them at me one after another!
I checked my HP. I was sitting at less than half of my HP, so there was no way in hell I could survive three Barrier Breaks. Moreover, Suren attacked so much that I didn’t even have the time to execute a skill. This was going to be a pure skill test!
I brought my sword low and parried the first Barrier Break. Then, I took a step backward and successfully dodged the second Barrier Break. However, the third Barrier Break landed squarely on my shoulder, and the pain felt like a rabid animal had taken a bite from my shoulder—
1,528,772!
Goddammit! This is too much[1]!
There was a lull in Suren’s movement after such a devastating combo, so I gritted my teeth and went all out. After I knocked his halberd aside, I kicked off the ground and slammed into his body with Mad God Lunge! Suren was at least twice as big as I was, but he was still knocked backward by the skill and stunned temporarily. While I was downing a health potion, I slashed his neck repeatedly while praying for my sword to trigger its septuple damage effect!
The prayer was a resounding success. It triggered twice in a row and healed me back to full HP.
“You dare!”
The moment Suren woke up, he immediately twirled his halberd and executed War Crush yet again. Right after that, he brought down his halberd in Splendid Light Slash.
My body shook, and my HP fell below the 50% mark yet again. Seriously? Suren was at best a terrible undead swordsman trainer when I first became his disciple. How the hell did he become such a powerful boss? What on earth did Coldblade and Lin Na feed him?
Not waiting for the boss to execute his next combo, I activated Rising Cloud’s active skill, Profound Armor and increased my Defense by 300%[2]!
A terrific energy spread across my entire body right before Suren unleashed his triple Barrier Break. His timing couldn’t be any more perfect[3]. This time, I’m going to tank all the hits!
Pu pu pu…
The triple strike hurt me far less than it would’ve had otherwise. Right now, it wasn’t even as strong as a normal basic attack—
90,277!
79,203!
89,273!
Suren nearly flew into another rage when he saw that neither hit dealt more than 100k damage to me. While I still had 300% Defense, I launched an all-out assault against my former trainer and deleted as much HP as I could. I neither had a priest to heal me nor a bard to buff me, but it didn’t matter. With this flesh and blood of mine, I was going to take out this Divine Rank boss one way or another! It was my responsibility and my promise to Xinran!
……
Once 15 seconds had passed, I immediately disarmed Suren with the Flying Dragon Arm and rendered his attacks impotent once more. Suren clearly wasn’t used to this style of fighting, so for a long time he wasn’t able to regain his momentum at all, not to mention that Uldan was supporting from range all this time. At this rate, I could kill him even without her support.
I was waiting, however. I was waiting for the moment his HP reached a certain threshold.
I wasn’t disappointed. When Suren dropped to 10% HP, he abruptly shuddered and shone bright red. It was his final skill, Towering Rage[4]!
The skill increased all of his stats by 40% and allowed him to deal extra 150% damage to light-attribute enemies! It was deadly!
1. E/N: ??? Where the hell is Rising Cloud? Is your brain sleeping? Already forgot your big counter? ☜
2. E/N: ???????? But he didn’t even use his Barrier Break yet, why the hell would you waste it like that? And no, the boss using it in the next paragraph doesn’t justify this. What if Suren used other skills? As Lu Chen said, the skill only lasts 15 seconds. The least you can do is make sure first use is on Barrier Break, not “not waiting for him to use another skill, I popped it anyway and prayed Barrier Break will come” ☜
3. E/N: What a gamer, relying on AI’s timing because his timing was boundlessly dumb for no apparent reason ☜
4. E/N: So… did you at least try to interrupt his buff animation with Mad God Lunge? ☜
