Chapter 1357: Countering

After I came to own the Guardian Dragon Armor, the Cyan Dragon Shield, the Fire God Helmet and many more Sacred Armaments or better defensive equipment, my HP and defensive stats were tough enough to go toe-to-toe against an Ancient Immortal Rank boss. Moreover, Ancient Immortal Rank bosses ultimately weren’t Divine Rank bosses. As long as we could figure out their patterns, it was still very possible to end them without losing a single life. That was exactly what we did during the first twenty minutes we had fought against Bloodthirsty Emissary Zishui.

There were three Icy Cyclone Domains surrounding the battlefield. Every 7 seconds or so, Beiming Xue would fire Skypiercer to further narrow the space Zishui could run to while I made the runs. If Zishui tried to enter stealth during this time, I could immediately break it with a skill or two. Zishui would enter stealth once every 15 seconds and flush away any threat we accumulated before attacking a random target. Usually, one well-timed and well-placed Coiling Dragon Revolution was enough to draw him back to me, but that didn’t make the fight much easier.

For 20 minutes, we fought cautiously and conscientiously. Eventually, Zishui’s HP dropped to 50%.

……

Swhoosh!

When the boss disappeared again, I backed a few steps and punched the ground, "Rise of the Guardian Dragon! Show yourself!"

"Roar roar roar…"

The columns of draconic energy roared and struck the invisible Zishui, breaking his stealth and staggering him for a bit. Activating Swift Dash, he rushed me like a lightning bolt and struck me in my chest armor before I could even raise the Chill of the Nine Provinces to parry it. My Guardian Dragon Armor let out a screeching wail as its surface split open with an ugly scar. After all the battering and punishment it had endured throughout the grind, its durability had finally fallen below 10%. That wasn’t even the worst of it, however. The skill Zishui used was—

Beep!

Combat Log: You have been hit by Bloodthirsty Emissary Zishui’s "Kingly Cripple”. All your stats have been reduced by 90% for 120 seconds!

……

"Oh no!"

My brain turned completely white as Zishui followed up with a basic attack that dealt over 7 million damage, killing me instantly. I resurrected myself with Resurrection Art and increased my Attack by 10%. However, what did it matter when all my stats were still reduced by 90%?

Lin Yixin yelled before I could make a decision, "Lu Chen, turn off Resurrection Art! We’re going to wipe here!"

"What?!" I exclaimed in shock.

"Listen to me and turn off Resurrection Art now!" she repeated a bit angrily.

My brain caught up to her logic an instant later. Out of everyone in our 7-man party, I was the only one tanky enough to survive Zishui’s attacks. However, Zishui had pretty much crippled me with his Kingly Cripple, and not even death could cut its duration prematurely. Without a main tank, there was only one way this boss fight could end. That was why Lin Yixin would rather we wiped of our own accord and restart with a tank than force the issue without it.

As predicted, Zishui proceeded to murder Lin Yixin, He Yi and everyone else with Bloodbreak, Blade Vortex and more assassin skills. I too ate Remote Assassination and dropped dead a second time!

……

Swhoosh!

One by one, the seven of us appeared in the nearest graveyard. At least there was no boring waiting or frantic corpse-running since we chose to wipe ourselves.

"So… that was one hell of a fight," Beiming Xue started.

I nodded in agreement. "Kingly Cripple is just too OP."

Lin Yixin said, "Our strategy is fine until Zishui falls to 50% HP. After that, he will hit the highest-aggro player at the time with Kingly Cripple. The skill has a cooldown and duration of 120 seconds, meaning that someone has to be crippled for the entire second half of the boss fight. This person cannot be Lu Chen, so I’ll do it."

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

He Yi nodded. "Yes. The gate is opening in 7 minutes, so let’s make our way over already. If we’re fast enough, the boss shouldn’t have regenerated to full health. I am not looking forward to fight Zishui all over again."

"Me too. Let’s go!"

……

The 7 of us—our souls to be exact—floated toward the castle gate in a hurry. On the way, we saw a couple Dark Mercenaries players’ souls, although neither Amber Pupil nor Now and Forever were among them. These players were probably just grinding fiend-rank mobs on the first and second floors, but they still died because, well, the mobs in Bloodthirsty Castle were just that ridiculous.

Crack crack crack...

The chains creaked ominously as the castle gate opened once more. In soul form, everyone’s movement speed was increased by 100%, so we were able to travel a lot faster than normal. Even so, Zishui had regenerated to 87% HP by the time we finally made it back to the fourth floor.

Swhoosh!

The second I revived, I immediately downed a health potion and sat on the floor, waiting for my HP to regenerate back to full. After the rest of the girls came back to life, they too went through the motions of restoring their HP and MP, as well as reapplying all the necessary buffs. When we were finally ready, I said, "Let’s go!"

We fought the boss exactly the same way we did earlier for 15 minutes. This time though, I pulled back right before the boss's HP fell to 50%. While Lin Yixin snatched the aggro with an Ice Flame Slash, Zishui declared with an expression of hatred and anger, "You are courting death, girl!"

The second he landed a Kingly Cripple on Lin Yixin, I immediately bashed him to the side with the Cyan Dragon Shield and retook the aggro with Burning Blade Slash. I wasn’t going to allow him to kill Lin Yixin for obvious reasons. After Lin Yixin had put about 100 meters between herself and Zishui, she said smilingly, "I’m going to take a break for now. The boss will use Kingly Cripple again in 2 minutes, and this time it’ll be Sister Eve’s turn to tank it. We’ll keep taking turns so that Little Cheat can fight Zishui at his full strength until the end."

He Yi nodded. "I know!"

Everything proceeded as planned. 120 seconds later, He Yi stole the aggro and tanked Zishui’s Kingly Cripple. Just like before, I retook aggro before Zishui could kill her and covered her retreat. At the same time, Lin Yixin rejoined the battle with full stats. Up until this point, we had a strategy for each and every one of Zishui’s battle patterns. By having He Yi and Lin Yixin taking turns tanking Zishui’s Kingly Cripple, I was able to focus on tanking the boss while leaving most of the damage dealing to Beiming Xue and Lian Xin. The boss had a lot of HP, but it was going down quickly thanks to our strategy.

Time passed some more, and Zishui looked more and more haggard. His entire body was covered in cut wounds, his back and his front was riddled with arrows, his left shoulder armor was black with soot, and his right shoulder armor had ice on it. It was of course the work of our party. The intensity of Zishui’s attacks seemed to grow the lower his HP dropped, but nothing he did was working against us. His ice and fire daggers were mostly blocked or dodged by my Battle Astral Wind, Cyan Dragon Shield and Ghost Spirit Step Art. I also had two super priests, Moon Dew and sis to keep me afloat the 50% mark.

It wasn’t over yet though. When the boss's HP dropped to 20%, we were met with a new challenge!

……

"You will pay for your crimes, sinners. In the name of the Bloodthirsty Emissary, I, Zishui, summon the ancient power—Bloody Massacre!"

The moment Zishui said this, our surroundings suddenly became enveloped in blood. The ground was covered in blood, and the ceiling itself was raining blood. This was already pretty disgusting, but it turned out that the blood was corrosive as well. My armor durability dwindled rapidly to 50%, and rust began to grow on my Chill of the Nine Provinces. My HP had also fallen to 15% or so.

Bloody Massacre lasted 10 seconds in total. This was bad!

Zishui wasn’t idle during this time either. He stabbed me with Blade Vortex, and I became the first person in the party to die during this second attempt.

Swhoosh!

After I appeared in the graveyard, He Yi, Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue and everyone else appeared one after another as well. There were also a couple of Dark Mercenaries and Blood Alliance players in the graveyard, but we didn’t speak to them because seriously, what was there even to talk about?

While gripping my 17%-durability Chill of the Nine Provinces, I said, "Bloody Massacre only has an effective range of 10 yards, so the next time he uses the skill, just back away and let me tank it. After I revive using Resurrection Art, we'll fight as usual and hopefully delete his last 20% HP without any trouble."

Lin Yixin nodded before saying, "I’ll give you an equipment repair potion later. Right now, your Guardian Dragon Armor looks like those shit-tier armors on the streets…"

I blushed. "Thanks, Yiyi!"

"Let’s go!"

……

Once more, we returned to the fourth floor of Bloodthirsty Castle. After I came back to life, I used the equipment repair potion Lin Yixin gave me and repaired the Guardian Dragon Armor. The armor couldn’t go below 5% durability, or it would lose at least 50% of its effectiveness. I wouldn’t be able to be the MT at that point. Not only that, I also borrowed a couple more equipment repair potions from the other girls to repair the rest of my equipment. A main tank must be prepared to starve to keep their equipment in pristine condition at all times, and frankly, I’ve been prepared since a long time ago.

After we healed back to full and restored our buffs, we went back to the boss room to challenge Zishui a third time. This time though, there were 40 new bodies in the room. Amber Pupil and Now and Forever were among them as well.

"Oh? Dark Mercenaries had fought against Zishui while we’re gone?" Lin Yixin gave Amber Pupil’s leg a kick. "He looks like he’s been dead for at least 10 minutes…"

I sighed. "Seeing as the boss is back to full health, it means that these useless bastards couldn’t even stall it long enough to halt its HP regeneration. At least they can’t come in and harass us since the gate just closed. This means we only have 60 minutes to kill the boss though. Let’s finish this in one go, okay?"

"Mn!" All the girls nodded heavily.

I kept the boss busy and thwacked it hard with my Chill of the Nine Provinces. The third attempt went much smoother since we had learned to overcome the boss's two greatest hurdles. Lin Yixin and He Yi’s teamwork also grew smoother over time as they took turns to tank Zishui’s Kingly Cripple. Eventually, after 45 minutes of grueling battle and me losing a level to tank Zishui’ Bloody Massacre, we finally reduced his HP down to 2%.

"Get ready to give Lu Chen the last hit, everyone. Also, make sure you activate your Clear As Flame and Dark Pupils to prevent any mishaps!" He Yi whispered.

I was already scanning our surroundings with Dark Pupils before she gave the warning, and I spotted two red figures about a hundred meters away from us. I said, "There are two Blood Alliance assassins skulking about a hundred meters to our north. They’ll be coming in anytime now. Yiyi, I leave them to you. They must go through my Icy Cyclone Domain if they wish to KS the boss, so you probably don’t need to worry about missing them. Just make sure you end their lives."

Lin Yixin nodded. "Got it!"

I gritted my teeth. To be honest, our plan wasn’t fool-proof. If Farewell Song was lurking somewhere, we couldn’t know because his Ghost Lake Mirror gave him 100% stealth and prevented my Dark Pupils or Beiming Xue’s Clear As Flame from seeing through him. Knowing him, he would be able to nab at least one piece of equipment from us.

I wasn’t a man who relied on the heavens to save me, so I kept a close eye on everything around me while fighting the boss. The cold wind was still blowing, and tree leaves were flying completely to its whim. As far as I could tell, there were no invisible units within 30 yards of us. If I was wrong, this person could only be a godlike assassin.

……

Crack!

I landed the last hit, and Zishui abruptly dropped to his knees. However, he grabbed my sword and begged, "You have beaten me, young warrior, but please… don’t separate me and Serena… don’t return her to that sinful home of hers…"