A brawny figure appeared in the sky. He was clad in fiery red armor and wielding an equally fiery blade. His pupils were red, and his lips were curled into a malicious grin. He pointed his weapon at me and declared, “You must step over my dead body first before you can enter the seventh floor, boy. Can you, though?”
I slowly pushed myself to a standing position and sucked in a deep breath. Then, I began examining the boss carefully. The guardian of the sixth floor of the Purgatory was a true Divine Rank boss in every way. In fact, I would even say that he was the equal of Thunder or Coldblade. He just wasn’t listed as a Purgatory Sovereign—
Fireblade Dihai (Divine Rank Boss)
Level: 332
Attack: 84,500~129,000
Defense: 145,000
HP: 1,500,000,000
Skills: Blade Beam, World Breaker, Fire God Flurry, Fire God Arrival
Property: Damage received is reduced by 20%
Property: Ignores all guarding and parrying
Property: Immune to wind-type magic
Introduction: Dihai is a hell sovereign who hid himself deep within the Purgatory. Legend says that Dihai was in the Purgatory since the Era of Gods, and that he was cultivating alone in the Banished Lands. When the Purgatory went through several tribulations, and Lin Na ultimately became the Purgatory Ruler, he was able to persuade this ancient, Divine Rank expert to guard the Redemption Realm. Dihai is an honest and just man who never abuses his strength and bullies the weak, but he is equally stubborn and old-fashioned. There is no changing his mind about his contract with Lin Na. Unless he dies, not a single uninvited soul will be allowed to set foot in the seventh floor of the Purgatory.
……
“Oh no…”
I swore on the inside. The guy was a Level 322 Divine Rank Boss, and at first glance his stats were even higher than the likes of Thunder and Coldblade. Although my equipment had gone through quite the overhaul since I entered the Purgatory, I wasn’t sure that it would be enough to go up against a Divine Rank boss that was this powerful.
I didn’t have a choice, however. For Xinran, I must succeed even when faced with the impossible!
I summoned the Phantom Wolf King. I had no idea what my little wolf could do to help in this situation, but something was still better than nothing.
Behind me, I heard Uldan whispering in a shaky voice, “It’s… it’s that monster, Dihai. How did he become the guardian of the Redemption Realm? There’s… there’s no chance we’re going to beat him…”
I said as I gripped my sword, “I won’t ask you to die with me, Uldan. You have already done more than enough for me. However, I must go to the Immortal Realm!”
Uldan bit her lips before declaring, “No. I will advance and retreat with you. We shall stick to our usual strategy!”
“Mn!”
What she meant was that I would be the tank, and she would assist me with debuffs, CCs and random status effects.
……
After refreshing my Hunter Card buff and buffing myself with Battle Astral Wind and Ghost Deity Shield, I locked onto Dihai and rushed toward him. My very first move was my greatest CC skill, the God Binding Art.
Will I succeed?!
MISS!
Of course not!
It was disappointing, but hardly unexpected. I knew that its success rate against Divine Rank bosses would be much lower than normal[1].
Dihai let out a mad laugh while swinging his blade. “Do you really think you can kill me with such tricks, boy?”
Buzz!
Deadly flames spat out from his weapon. The invisible pressure he was emanating was suffocating, and he hadn’t even brought his blade down yet. The next moment, both fire and metal smashed into my shoulder and filled my entire body with scorching pain. At first glance, it looked like I had only lost a bit over 600k HP. In reality, I knew that this World Breaker was strong enough to deal almost 1.5 million damage. The reason it hadn’t was because Battle Astral Wind had canceled most of the damage.
Thud!
I opened my palm and grabbed the boss’s weapon. Then, I activated Flying Dragon Hands and successfully disarmed him for 15 seconds. At the same time, I rotated to his back and stabbed him in the back with Purple Frost Concentration, lowering his Defense by 21.9%. Now, my attack was capable of penetrating his Defense. It would’ve taken forever to punch through his 145k Defense otherwise!
I gripped the Xuanyuan Sword with both hands and injected it with my Asura God energy. Flames erupted from my sword as Burning Blade Slash exploded on Dihai’s body three times and healed me a little—
410,928!
471,884!
542,178!
……
“You are courting death!”
Dihai roared in anger as he turned around swiftly to face me. Flames surrounded his fist as he punched me on the shoulder again before kicking me in the stomach, knocking me back at least dozens of meters. It really hurt. Even after he was disarmed, the guy still managed to delete almost 700k HP with his bare hands and feet.
Light erupted from my sword once more as I threw my sword through the boss’s chest with Coiling Dragon Revolution for 870k damage. At the same time, I opened my left palm and fired an Ancient Seal that dealt another 970k damage.
“Hehe! Interesting boy!”
Dihai laughed adly as he rushed toward me. He raised his hands into the air, conjured a blade of pure fire with his divine energy, and executed Fire God Flurry!
716,634!
791,823!
772,662!
A large majority of my HP went poof in just the blink of an eye, and this was after he had been disarmed. I didn’t dare to imagine what would’ve happened if he had a weapon in his hand.
I charged forward and attempted another God Binding Art[2]. Unfortunately, it once again resulted in a MISS. I had no choice but to face him head-on.
The moment 15 seconds had passed, Dihai’s blade returned to his hand once more. He cackled with delight and fired a blade aura at me. It was the skill Blade Beam!
I instinctively raised my shield to Guard at the same time I recalled that his attacks ignored all Guard and parry. What I was doing was just a waste of energy!
Bang!
My body shuddered again as a massive damage number popped above my head—
1,714,877!
Despair filled my heart. Just how powerful could this boss’s attacks be?
I activated the Profound Armor of Rising Cloud and increased my Defense threefold. At the same time, Dihai rushed in and hit me with a devastating four-hit World Breaker + Fire God Flurry combo. My body felt like they could fall apart at any moment; a sensation I hadn’t felt ever since I received the Scarlet Dragon Armor. Not even my new armor was sufficient to protect me from Dihai’s attacks—
937,745!
926,731!
933,664!
1,028,747!
The amount of damage I took shook me greatly. Even with three times the Defense, Dihai still managed to delete my HP like a chef would cut their vegetables. Dihai was without a doubt stronger than Coldblade and Thunder. Even with my amazing Defense, he was beating me up like it didn’t exist!
Xuanyuan Art!
After healing myself with Life and downing a health potion, Dihai fired yet another Blade Beam at me!
Thud!
It was at this moment Uldan’s arrow appeared just in time to stun Dihai. As I thought, her aid was absolutely invaluable in a nigh impossible boss fight like this. At the very least, her skill success rate was way higher than mine!
My life was in danger once more after the 15-second protection from the Profound Armor passed. Each one of Dihai’s blows felt like cannonball, and his World Breaker even critted and deleted 4 million HP in one go. To think that my prided 8 million max HP still weren’t enough to withstand his battering at all. The Xuanyuan Art was still on CD, so my only choice left was to attack as hard as I could and keep myself alive with my weapon’s 50% lifesteal.
“Die!”
Dihai raised his blade again and taunted, “Trash like you doesn’t deserve to come to the Purgatory at all! You are just a mixed-breed Asura God from the continent. Go back to your Human Realms, trash!”
My response was to bend down and slam into his stomach, knocking him back a dozen or so meters and stunning him. Mad God Lunge’s 100% success rate was so much more reliable than the God Binding Art in a situation like this. Every time I used the latter, it felt like I was buying a lottery ticket and praying for a miracle.
While he was stunned, I executed Burning Blade Slash + Universe Break combo. The hilt of the Xuanyuan Sword suddenly turned chilly to inform me that I had triggered its septuple damage effect—
442,737!
498,472!
572,734!
5,195,071!
The lucky hit instantly restored me to over 3 million HP and pulled me away from death’s door. Once the Flying Dragon Hand’s cooldown was up, I cast it once more and disarmed the boss. Once the effect wore off, I proceeded to activate the Profound Armor. Occasionally, the Phantom Wolf King would block in front of Dihai and stall him for a few precious seconds, turning what would’ve been a fatal strike into a severely damaging one.
Even so, the threat of death kept looming over me like an inescapable shadow. Dihai’s Attack was just too high.
I checked my HP as I ate another Fire God Flurry. I was in the red, and nearly all of my skills and even my health potion were still on cooldown. What could I possibly do to save my life? Moreover, it had been ten minutes since I’ve begun fighting Dihai, and he still had a whopping 83% HP in his health bar. There was just no chance I could beat him…
Despair filled my heart, but I raised my sword and unleashed the Xuanyuan Slash. If I had to die, then I would at least go down fighting!
It was at this moment a figure slammed into Dihai. It was none other than Uldan herself.
“Uldan!” I shouted, but could do nothing as Dihai, after stumbling a few steps backward, raised his blade and left a terrible wound across her arm. She was literally putting her life in danger to save me.
……
I glanced at my skill window as I ran forward. Mad God Lunge was ready again!
Bang!
The boss took a few steps backward and was stunned temporarily.
Just in case, Uldan kicked Dihai in his blade hard and drove him back even further before catching my arm. She said, “We can’t defeat him. Let’s go!”
Wind blew against my ears as Uldan pulled me away from this accursed place at top speed. In just the blink of an eye, both of us had vanished into a snowy forest. Dihai simply stood where he was and sneered, “I’ll take both of your lives later!”
……
“Cough… cough…”
After we had escaped to safety, Uldan abruptly collapsed on her knees and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. Dihai’s attack had injured her severely.
I hurriedly poured a Rank 14 health potion on her wounds, but it didn’t look like it was very effective. Filled with guilt, I said, “Sorry. It’s my fault you suffered such a grievous injury…”
However, Uldan looked up at me and smiled. “What are you talking about? If it wasn’t for you, I would still be tormented by that disgusting mage, Boley. It is thanks to you that I was able to escape those hellish days…”
I sucked in a deep breath before asking, “What do we do? I don’t stand a chance against that Dihai at all, but… I’ll never give up on finding Xinran. Maybe… maybe you should leave me, Uldan. I’ll try and stealth my way over. Maybe I can fool Dihai’s eyes and enter the seventh floor without being detected.”
“No, it’s impossible…” Uldan shook her head. “Trust me when I say that not even the best thief on the continent can fool Dihai’s eyes. I may have a way to kill him though…”
“What? What is it?” I grew excited.
Uldan pointed to the south before saying, “There is a valley called Ice Devil Valley about five kilometers to the south. A bunch of ice giants live there, and their attribute is a natural counter to Dihai’s flames. If we can employ their strength, then…”
I was stunned. “Are you sure? Will these ice giants really risk their lives to help us?”
Uldan smiled. “Did you forget my ability? I can bewitch them…”
1. E/N: Except…
God Binding Art: Summon four peerless divine weapons to bind your selected target. This target will not be able to move or attack for 15 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Please note that the God Binding Art’s effect will vanish if your target enters a state of invincibility. The skill’s effects are doubled against divine and purgatory bosses.
… its effect should be doubled against divine and purgatory bosses. Now it doesn’t work BECAUSE he’s fighting divine purgatory bosses? The whole point of this skill IS to pin EXACTLY THESE down.
☜
2. E/N: An actual gamer would use it right as the disarm ended. There’s no point to get him immobilized AND disarmed. ☜
