Pu pu pu…
Three huge pincers cut into the ground as the giant beast slowly hauled itself out of the lightning pit. As it stared at me with its merciless gray eye, I—wait, there’s two, three, four, five… What the heck? Why does it have so many eyes!?
Whoosh!
The giant beast leaped into the air and pulled out all four of its forepincers at the same time. Then, it attempted to flatten me like a pancake with its body. It was intimidating for sure, but it wasn’t fast enough to catch me.
Energy rippled strongly across the air as I flew out of harm’s way. While backing away, I observed the massive boss and noticed that it was covered in a thick shell like a crab, but had so many legs that it reminded me of a spider. Worse, there were eyes all over its body. Roughly speaking, the boss had at least a hundred eyes. It was a super crab king with literally no blind spots whatsoever!
It took a couple of attempts, but I was ultimately able to scan the boss’s stats—
Death Weaver Trella (Quasi-Divine Rank Boss)
Level: 326
Attack: 75,000~102,000
Defense: 130,000
HP: 1,100,000,000
Skills: Crush, Web of Death, Four Blade Slash, Infinite Spawn
Introduction: Trella is an ancient beast whose origin is a complete enigma. In ancient times, during the chaotic war between the gods and the devils, Trella awakened from its long slumber, tore apart the mountain ranges it resided in, and devoured the Divinity of 7 Divine Rank experts in a row. After it gained a Divinity by force and succumbed to darkness, it grew increasingly violent to the point where it fed on human flesh every day. Its name struck fear in both gods and devils, and it became a spokesperson of death itself. Legend says that no one can escape the Web of Death weaved by Trella.
……
“Heavens. Speak of the Quasi-Divine Rank boss, and it shall appear…”
Cold sweat covered my forehead, and my sword hand was shaking a little. I was afraid, but also excited. If I managed to kill it, there was a good chance it would drop even one of the Twelve. The Twelve Divine Armaments was the most desired equipment in the entire world because it was the symbol of absolute power. Ghost Armaments were broken in their own right, but they were ultimately just support equipment. If your pursuit was absolute power, then you must chase after one of the Twelve!
“What do we do, Uldan?” I asked.
Uldan took a single step backward and flew about a hundred meters away from me. Then, she said, “You’re the one who wants to fight it, so I leave the main assault to you and support you from range…”
“Fine…”
Well, there was nothing else to do except to fight. I said while giving the Xuanyuan Sword a shake and charging toward a big ass spider from the flank, “Time for some spider soup, I guess…”
Uldan winced visibly. “Count me out of it.”
Swhoosh!
When I was right next to the boss’s body, I abruptly stopped in my tracks and stabbed it with Purple Frost Concentration. It would be painful to fight it without reducing it 130k Defense!
Crack!
The Xuanyuan Sword easily pierced the boss’s shell and elicited a painful howl from it. A purple sheen enveloped its whole body and reduced its Defense by 29.1%, leaving it with only 100k Defense or so.
“Roar roar…”
The boss turned to face me with unnatural speed and let out a furious roar. Then, it swung two of its right limbs at me and left a pair of deep gashes across my Cyan Dragon Shield. My arm turned numb as a huge chunk of HP departed my health bar. The bastard’s Attack was just too high!
712,727!
628,382!
Thank goodness the Cloak of Divine Fervor reduced my damage received by 50%, or this double attack alone might have killed me already.
My Domain power rippled as I backed a dozen or so steps away from the boss. Then, I rushed it again with my most damaging combo, Burning Blade Slash + Universe Break!
Boom boom boom…
The boss screeched as a bunch of damage numbers rose above its head. Ever since I got the Xuanyuan Sword, my Attack could only be described as powerful—
442,743!
531,872!
612,671!
672,880!
……
After regaining most of my lost HP, I took a moment to summon the Phantom Wolf King and the apparition to help me!
“Watch out!” Suddenly, Uldan called out to me from behind.
My heart sank. Something bad must be about to happen for Uldan to cry out a warning!
As I thought, the giant spider abruptly paused in its tracks. A mouth with countless sharp teeth opened from the darkest part of its body and glowed red for an instant. The next moment, a gigantic red web was spat right at me!
I wasn’t expecting this at all, so I could only fire a sword aura at the giant web in hopes of shredding it completely. However, the attack failed to do anything, and I was completely caught in the web. Countless black balls were attached to the web, and they were heavy enough to prevent me from struggling free!
Beep!
Combat Log: You have been hit by the skill “Web of Death.” For 7 seconds, you cannot move or attack, and you will lose 5% HP per second!
……
So this is how the Web of Death works. This is bad… I hurriedly activated my Cyan Dragon Scale and Battle Astral Wind. The moment a predator locked down its prey, it would immediately attempt to kill it dead. It was just basic common sense.
I took control of the Phantom Wolf King and the apparition to stall the spider as much as I could. Uldan was also shooting from range to relieve some pressure.
“Roar roar…”
The giant spider skittered toward me like a walking fortress before swinging its four giant forelimbs in rapid succession. They easily cut through my apparition and deleted it from existence! It was the skill Four Blade Slash!
1,137,772!
1,421,663!
1,825,142!
2,103,989!
My apparition had over 5.5 million HP, but it still couldn’t survive the skill. Without Ghost Deity Shield and Battle Astral Wind, my apparition was as weak as tofu!
Behind me, Uldan suddenly closed her eyes and summoned a bunch of magical runes around her. While drawing her bow, she chanted, “Slumber spirits of the dark, heed my command and submit those evil souls to my will—Bewitch!”
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…
Several rays of bloody light flew away from her and into the nearby Molten Worms. Then, they abruptly turned toward the boss and sprayed it with their venomous spit. It was some sort of bewitching spell!
The big spider roared and swung its scythe-like blades at them, dealing nearly 7 million damage in one hit. It literally cut through the Molten Worms like they were vegetables, except that these vegetables squirted disgusting fluid when they died. Ugh, it was disgusting.
Uldan’s timely assist bought me a couple of precious seconds, however. By the time the boss finally reached me, there were only 1.7 seconds left on the clock. I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and did my best to receive its attacks!
Chiang chiang chiang…
The boss hit me three times in total. The first one was nullified by Battle Astral Wind, but the second and third strike hit me squarely. I rolled out of the way immediately after the Web of Death disappeared. The Web of Death’s continuous damage and the scythe strikes had deleted nearly 4 million HP from my health bar. It was absolutely brutal!
The burning pain of pressing my hands against the molten rock was nothing compared to the boss’s scythe strikes. I launched myself backward with all four limbs just in time to see it being torn to shreds by the boss’s scythes. In midair, I activated Tenacity of the Dead and Dragon Bloodboil to heal myself before downing a Rank 14 Snow Frog Agent. Finally, I rushed toward the boss’s flank once more and, thanks to my superior speed, landed Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash combo without retaliation. It was also around this moment my Phantom Wolf King finally took a death blow from the boss and died. Still, it only died after the fifth hit, it was way tankier than my apparition for sure!
……
I raised my head a little and observed the boss’s movements carefully. There was about 200 milliseconds of delay every time it raised a bladed limb or two to attack me. It was enough of a tell for me to dash out of the way and dodge as many of the boss’s attacks as possible.
Pa!
I fired a God Binding Art that resulted in a merciless miss. Undeterred, I dashed backward while executing Coiling Dragon Revolution + Ancient Seal + Myriad Swords Obliteration combo that deleted much of the boss’s HP. Unfortunately, the big spider had too much HP and HP regeneration. Even with Uldan’s assistance, this was going to be a long, long battle!
Swhoosh…
The boss lifted its body and opened its giant maw once more.
I didn’t take evasive action immediately because the boss could just adjust its aim and catch me. Instead, I waited until the instant the Web of Death exited the boss’s mouth. My breathing stopped, and my heart pounded loudly against my chest. I abruptly sped up and dashed out of the way!
Swhoosh!
However, my body shook unnaturally, and the Web of Death caught me yet again. What the hell? Did I make an error or something?!
I was shocked, but there was no time to think. Already, the boss was skittering toward me and preparing to deliver the final blow with Four Blade Slash. Is this how I’m going to die in the Purgatory?!
I hurriedly raised my shield and activated Battle Astral Wind. It was the best defense I had against the boss!
Chiang chiang chiang…
A series of eruptions rocked my body and deleted my HP like crazy. This boss’s Attack was seriously brutal!
442,873!
491,726!
531,621!
612,837!
That was almost 50% of my HP gone just like that. Not only that, the boss shamelessly raised its huge ass head and headbutted me whole! Was this how the “Crush” skill worked? Ow…
1,126,723!
My HP hit nearly rock bottom in no time, but the boss wasn’t stopping anytime soon. Both Tenacity of the Dead and Dragon Bloodboil were in cooldown, so I couldn’t heal myself either. Left with only one choice, I cast the Life skill of the Xuanyuan Art!
Swhoosh!
+3,917,462!
That was 70% HP back into my health bar. Now I can—
Before I even finished gloating, the damn spider used yet another ability. It spat me a green, poisonous fluid and inflicted me with the Poisoned status condition. Oh no…
My HP dropped to 400k or so yet again. One hit would be enough to kill me!
My heart turned as cold as ice as I attempted to rescue myself by swinging my sword. However, it was impossible to attack while Web of Death was still in effect, meaning that I couldn’t lifesteal any HP from the boss.
……
It was at this moment a beautiful figure slammed into the boss and knocked it off balance. It was Uldan coming to my rescue yet again. She truly was a kindhearted girl…
However, the boss retaliated by favoring her with another Web of Death. Uldan let out a painful groan and fell to the ground, unable to move even an inch. As expected of the guardian boss of the third floor of the Purgatory, not even a Divine Rank boss was able to avoid its web…
The moment the Web of Death on my person disappeared, I dashed past the boss like a lightning boss, turned around, and stole back around 1.5 million HP or so. Another Rank 14 Snow Frog Agent later, I just barely escaped the brink of death.
……
Something wasn’t right about this, however. I was sure I had dodged out of the way, so how did it still hit me? I was using Fusion Armor too, and I could declare with certainty that I had more than enough movement speed to dodge it.
I replayed the battle in my mind until realization struck me. It was the boss’s power of Domain! It had to be!